Influence Of Supportive Leadership Style On Employee Job Satisfaction In Commercial Banks In Kenya

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of supportive leadership style on employee job satisfaction in commercial banks in Kenya. Methodology: The study adopted positivism research philosophy to guide the study and limited itself to descriptive correlational research design to analyze and provide responses to the research questions. The research design was preferred because it allows description and comparison of characteristics of populations based on data collected from samples through questionnaires. The target population of the study was 15,030 employees in all the 43 commercial banks licensed to operate in Kenya as of June 2018. Using stratified sampling technique, the study drew a sample size of 386 employees reporting to middle level managers. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, which included factor analysis, correlational analysis, chi-square, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and regression analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 and Windows' Microsoft excel programs. Results: The study examined the influence of supportive leadership style on employee job satisfaction in commercial banks in Kenya. From the findings of correlation analysis, it was established that supportive leadership style had a positive and significant relationship with employee job satisfaction, r(370) = 0.816, p < .05. The Chi-square test results showed that there existed a strong association between supportive leadership style and job satisfaction, X2(16, N=370) =49.086, p<.05. The results from multiple linear regression analysis showed that supportive leadership style positively and significantly predicted employee job satisfaction among middle level managers at commercial banks in Kenya, R2 = .603, F(1, 366) = 278.269, p < .05; β = .716, p < .05. As a result, the study rejected the null hypothesis that supportive leadership style has no significant influence on employee job satisfaction. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study makes a contribution to literature on the influence of supportive leadership style from Kenyan commercial bank perspective and adds an impetus to employees, management and policymakers to address issues that are impeding employee job satisfaction.