Ethical Leadership and Performance of Parastatals in Kenya: A Case Study of Kenya Airports Authority

Abstract

The study examined the effect of ethical leadership on the performance of Kenya Airports Authority. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the effect of integrity, transparency, accountability and authentic leadership on the performance of Kenya Airports Authority. The study was anchored on four theories, namely, agency theory, stewardship theory, institutional theory and behavioral theory on leadership. The study adopted the descriptive research design and the targeted population was 1900 employees in Kenya Airports Authority. The unit of analysis were senior level management, middle level management and the support staff. The qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis while quantitative data using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found that integrity, transparency, accountability and authentic leadership explain 78.3% of the variations in the performance of Kenya Airports Authority. The regression results indicated that integrity is positively and significantly related to performance (β=.217, p=0.000). Further, the results showed that transparency is positively and significantly related to performance (β=.356, p=0.000). Moreover, accountability was found to be positively and significantly related to performance (β=.146, p=0.001). In addition, authentic leadership was found to be positively and significantly related to performance (β=.335, p=0.000). The study recommended that the Kenya Airports Authority need to enhance openness and fairness in the hiring of candidates/employees. The leaders in the organization should set a good example and be honest with others should act as per their words and accept their mistakes instead of hiding them or blaming their team. The management should disclose information in a relevant and timely manner without bias and there should be no withholding of pertinent information in the organization. There should be the credibility of reporting of the financial reports in the organization and the financial managers be held responsible for any irregularities in the financial statements. The leadership in the organization needs to be much transparent with other employees. The study further recommended that the organization develop avenues for the employees to build their capacity development. Keywords: Ethical leadership, integrity, transparency, accountability, authentic leadership, performance, Kenya Airports Authority