THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN DETERMINING ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE FEDERAL ROAD SAFETY COMMISSION-ZONE 2, EDO STATE SECTOR.

THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN DETERMINING  ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS: AN EXAMINATION  OF THE FEDERAL ROAD SAFETY COMMISSION-ZONE  2, EDO STATE SECTOR. 
CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION


Nigerian Society has contended with perennial problem of organizational ineffectiveness arising from leadership incompetence. It is often said that most government agencies do not succeed. As noted by Babaginda, (1986) the public organizations have constituted an unnecessarily high burden on government recourses as a result of improper management.


For example, the Nigerian Prisons Service, the Customs and Immigration and other government agencies have always been criticized for not justifying the large sums of money used in establishing them by government. In every organization, whether formal or informal, open or closed, the major objectives are high productivity, optimum performance and organizational effectiveness. To achieve high productivity, all variables- factors of production (for example, personnel, finance, etc) must be effectively and efficiently harnessed. This is where leadership come I which is one of the functions of management. The importance of leadership in any organization cannot be overemphasized. The
ineffectiveness and inefficiency of most organizations is primarily due to lack of foresight or non-commitment of leaders in all spheres of socio-economic life Billons of naira have been wasted in setting up these organizations only to find it bankrupt, let alone achieving its goals forwhich they were initially set up.


Hence, most private and public organizations in the country annually embark on training programmes for their leaders and employees. In order to boost the quality of employees for optimum productivity in an organization.

This is because optimum productivity of a job depends largely on the training and development attained by employees thus, leaders need to devote time to nurture the leadership potentials, motivation, morale and commitment to objective and the decision-making, communication, and problem-solving skills of the led (followers). Scholars are of the belief that, the leadership styles adopted have profound effect on the efficient operation, motivation, efficiency and effectiveness of the led, Hnneyeater and Heckman (1967) Tannerbaum and Schmidt (1958); Katz and Kahn (1951). It is expected that when there are competent leaders in any there is imported performance leading to the realization organization of both employee and organizational goals.

The reverse is the case when there are incompetent leaders, which lead to non-realization of both employees and organizational goals.