The influence of participative leadership on worker performance in a hybrid social enterprise in Cape Town

Abstract

The study was prompted by the need to understand the influence of participative leadership styles on worker performance in a hybrid social enterprise in Cape Town against a background of their importance in solving social problems in the nation. To achieve this, the following objectives were set: to determine the additive or complementary effect of participative leadership in a hybrid social enterprise and to make recommendations on how participative leadership can improve worker performance. A positivist philosophy, a mixed methods research approach and a descriptive research design were adopted. The study’s target population is 60 team members from four different departments who work for the social enterprise in Cape Town and report to a department representative in the following departments: finance department, clinical department, production department, and administration department. Structured questionnaires were administered to the participants. A response rate of 83% was achieved. Microsoft Excel was used to analyse the collected data. The study’s findings revealed a significant positive relationship between employee behaviour and the participative leadership style. The results also showed a positive influence of the leader’s education level on his/ her work integration behaviour. However, age, gender and race did not affect the participative leadership mechanism in the social enterprise under research. The study recommended that decision-making and delegation activities in participative leadership be further perfected as they are the main sources of disharmony when the leadership style is used. Future studies should also examine decision-making strategies to ascertain how each strategy positively affects South African enterprises’ employee behaviour.