Assignement introduction Leadership Style and SMEs Sustainability.pdf

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study

Introduction

Despite the large body of research in the literature regarding the phenomenon of

leadership style and its implications for organizational performance in large firms

(Boehma, Dwertmanna, Bruch, & Shamir, 2015; Boies, Fiset, & Gill, 2015; Deichmann

& Stam, 2015) leadership style in small and medium-sized firms remains an under-

researched area of inquiry (Franco & Matos, 2015). The reason for this neglect is because

of the faulty conception that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are merely miniature

versions of large firms (Carson, 1990; Darcy, Hill, McCabe, & McGovern, 2014).

Following a resource-based view, Darcy et al. (2014) found that internal human resource

capabilities of SMEs are characteristically different from what is obtainable in large

firms. A critical element of organizational human resource capability is leadership, and

evidence from the literature suggests that the strategic behavior of SME owner-managers

is a defining characteristic of the leadership process within the SME firms (Darcy et al.,

2014).

SMEs are the engine of economic development (World Bank, 2015) and the main

drivers for job growth (Ayyagari, Demirguc-Kunt, & Maksimovic, 2014; OECD, 2017).

According to the World Bank, SMEs account for over 60% of employment generation

and 40% of national income in emerging economies (World Bank, 2015). Given the

positive relationship between leadership style and organizational performance

(Almatrooshi, Singh, & Farouk, 2016; Grobler & Du Plessis, 2016), it becomes pertinent

to fully understand leadership style in small and medium-sized firms.

This chapter contains the background to the study, the problem statement, purpose

of study, research questions, conceptual framework, nature of study, definitions,

assumptions, scope and delimitations, limitations, significance of the study, implications

for social change, and a summary and transition.

Background of the Study

SMEs (including micro enterprises) constitute the highest number of business

enterprises in Nigeria but their slow pace of growth and lack of sustainability limit the

overall contribution of these firms to Nigeria's GDP (Gbandi & Amissah 2014; Ikharehon

& Briggs, 2016). SMEs in Nigeria hardly grow to large enterprises and are often

characterized by poor performance (Agba, Ogaboh, & Ebong, 2015), with most of them

closing down their operations within the first 5 years of existence (Ajike, Nnorom,

Kwarbai, & Egwuonwu, 2015). The Small and Medium Enterprises Development

Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN; 2013) in a collaborative study with the National Bureau

of Statistics found that SMEs in Nigeria fall short of their potential to promote economic

growth especially in job creation and poverty alleviation. One of the reasons identified by

SMEDAN (2013) for these shortcomings is that the nature of leadership within these

SMEs did not support organizational performance and growth (SMEDAN, 2013) as most

of the SME owner-managers do not understand the impact that leadership style could

have on organizational performance and growth.

Several studies point to the existence of different factors that impact the

performance of SMEs around the world. Some of these factors include managerial skills

(Arasti, Zandi, & Bahman, 2014), the competence of employees (Anggadwita &

Mustafid, 2014), leader's attitude and leadership style (Arham, 2014; Ozer & Tinaztepe,

2014). SMEs characteristically have a small number of employees; the leadership style of

an SME's owner-manager can easily permeate and influence the culture of the entire

organization and have direct implications for the SME's performance (Lofving, Safsten,

& Winroth, 2016). The argument by Lofying et al., (2016) was consistent with the

findings by Ozer and Tinaztepe (2014), that leadership styles influence different

organizational phenomena in SMEs such as enterprise performance, enterprise growth,

and sustainability. Thus, any evaluation of enterprise performance among SMEs within a

particular local environment will require an in-depth understanding of the leadership

styles adopted by SMEs in that local environment (Sakiru, D'Silva, Othman, DaudSilong,

& Busayo, 2013).

Leadership style has been described as the manner that a leader uses to influence

followers to achieve set objectives (Burns, 1978; Nanjundeswaraswamya & Swamy,

2015). In a recent study, Franco and Matos (2015) conceptualized leadership as the

process of getting others to understand what needs to be done and how to get it done

more effectively. This conceptualization by Franco and Matos (2015) supported the

argument of some researchers that effective leadership is required to deliver positive

organizational outcomes (Dinh et al., 2014). Porter (1996) described effective leaders as

those that drive their firms to take the right decisions in response to changes in the

business environment and ensuring that organizational objectives and identity are

sustained. Thus, it is important to understand how SME owner-managers apply different

leadership styles to achieve improved organizational performance and the growth of their

enterprises.

Evidence in the literature suggests that leadership styles have both cultural (Aritz

& Walker, 2014; Manaf & Latif, 2014; Srivastava, 2016) and organizational (Dias,

Muniz, Borges, & Guimaraes, 2017) perspectives. Some researchers have found that the

nature of leadership styles may differ from one country to another (Anggadwita &

Mustafid, 2014; Arham, 2014; Koe, Omar, & Sa'ari, 2015), and that specific leadership

styles have varying levels of influence on SME performance across different countries

(Dunne et al., 2016; Oladele & Aleke, 2106). For example, Long, Yong, and Chuen

(2016) found that transformational leadership style had more impact on organizational

commitment and performance of SMEs in Malaysia than transactional leadership style;

Mesu, Sanders, and van Riemsdijk (2015) found that a combination of transformational

and directive leadership styles positively influenced organizational commitment within

Dutch SMEs in the service sector but not in the manufacturing sector. These findings by

Long et al., (2016) and Mesu et al., (2015) showed that there is need to understand the

implications of leadership styles on the performance of SMEs from cultural and

organizational perspectives.

Two recent studies indicated that the coercive style of leadership adopted by SME

leaders in Nigeria often undermines employee engagement and job satisfaction,

contributes to high employee absenteeism, and results in the poor management of human

and financial capital (Longe, 2014; Uchenwangbe, 2013). These two studies do not

provide in-depth understanding of leadership styles within Nigerian SMES. Longe (2014)

used a quantitative research approach and focused on a large cement manufacturing

company. The study by Longe (2014) was not exploratory in nature as it did not address

the nature of leadership styles in Nigerian SMEs. The study by Uchenwangbe (2013)

focused on leadership in Nigerian SMES, but the methodology was quantitative and

therefore not exploratory in nature. There is the need for an in-depth understanding of

leadership styles among SMES in Nigeria by adopting a qualitative multiple-case study

methodology.

Problem Statement

SMEs (including micro enterprises) represent most of the business enterprises in

Nigeria, but their slow pace of growth limit their overall contribution to Nigeria's GDP

(Gbandi & Amissah 2014; Ikharehon & Briggs, 2016). The evidence from the literature

suggests specific problems in SMEs' business growth (Uchehara, 2017) and performance

(Franco & Matos, 2015) may be the result of a poor leadership style for these types of

enterprises (Anggadwita & Mustafid, 2014; Franco & Matos, 2015; Ozer & Tinaztepe,

2014). Little has been done to examine the relationship between leadership styles and

management within the local context of SMEs.

The general problem is that it remains unknown what role leadership style plays

in the long-term sustainability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria

(Nanjundeswaraswamya & Swamy, 2015; Oladele & Akeke, 2016; Uchehara, 2017). The

specific problem is that SME owner-managers in Nigeria need to gain an in-depth

understanding of their leadership style to objectively evaluate its implication on long-

term performance and growth of their enterprise (Koshal, 2017; Oladele & Akeke, 2016).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to gain an in-depth

understanding of specific knowledge gaps among SME owners and managers in Nigeria

regarding leadership style and its implications on their enterprises’ long-term

sustainability (Koshal, 2017; Uchehara, 2017). To address this gap in the leadership

literature and the research problem, I collected qualitative data from multiple sources,

including semistructured interviews, historical, seminal, and current peer-reviewed

scholarly papers and observational field notes. I conducted data triangulation to establish

the trustworthiness of the findings on the phenomena under study (Guion, Diehl, &

McDonald, 2011; Patton, 2015). This study has added the Nigerian experience to the

theoretical conceptualizations of leadership styles in SMEs.

Research Questions

The central research question of the study was as follows: What are the specific

knowledge gaps among SME owners and managers in Nigeria regarding leadership style

and its implications on their enterprises’ long-term sustainability?

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for this study was grounded in Bass’s (1990) concept

of leadership style and Franco and Mato’s (2015) concept of leadership in SMEs. The

traditional and emerging leadership theories (Dinh et al., 2014) are characterized by a

diversity of opinions on what constitutes the appropriate leader attributes and leadership

styles that can deal with the challenges of the modern-day dynamic and highly

competitive business environment (Dinh et al., 2014). Despite the diversity in the

theoretical understanding of leadership, there seems to be a convergence of opinion by

scholars and practitioners on the positive impact that leadership can play in enterprise

performance and growth (Almatrooshi et al., 2016; Oladele & Akeke, 2016).

Leadership style has been described as the manner that a leader uses to influence

followers to achieve set objectives (Burns, 1978; Nanjundeswaraswamya & Swamy,

2015), and it is the most critical factor that drives organizational performance and growth

(Almatrooshi et al., 2016; Grobler & Du Plessis, 2016). Some scholars have argued that

leadership style could also reflect a leader's indifference to any form of relational

engagement with followers (Antonakis, Avolio, & Sivasubramaniam, 2003; Avolio &

Bass, 2004). Much research in the literature on leadership styles has focused on large

organizations, leaving the SME context substantially under-researched (Franco & Matos,

2015).

In a recent study, Franco and Matos (2015) explored the nature of leadership

styles in SMEs using the mixed method approach. The researchers focused on three

leadership styles: transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and passive-

avoidant (laissez-faire) leadership. The first leadership style explored by Franco and

Matos (2015) was the transformational leadership. This leadership style is founded on the

premise that organizational performance can be improved when leaders inspire their

subordinates to a stronger commitment to the organization rather than pursuing narrow

personal interests (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985; 1990). Transformational leaders engage with

followers and inspire them to focus on higher-level human needs for personal

achievements and self-actualization (Burns, 1978). It is a win-win situation for the

employees and the organization. The organization benefits from high employees'

productivity while the achievements of the employees will translate to better rewards and

higher career positions for them.

With the multiplicity of leadership styles in the literature, it is reasonable to say

that there are no best leadership styles. In practice, leaders may align more with a

leadership style and less to others (Franco & Matos, 2015). This is especially true in

SMEs, where leadership styles depend to a large extent on the operating environment of

the SMEs (Franco & Matos, 2015). SMEs are increasingly faced with the ever-changing

competitive global business environment (World Bank, 2016a). Thus, the role of

leadership in ensuring SME frim performance and growth (Oladele & Akeke, 2016) has

become very critical (Franco & Matos, 2015). SME owner-managers lack the necessary

understanding of how leadership styles can be used to improve firm performance and

organizational sustainability (Agwu & Emeti, 2014,) especially under very volatile and

competitive business environment (Kotter, 1990; World Bank 2016a). Given the globally

acclaimed importance of SMEs for driving economic growth and poverty alleviation

(World Bank, 2016a), and the strong association between leadership styles and SME

performance (Franco & Matos, 2015), it became imperative for a proper understanding of

the implications of leadership styles for the performance and growth of the SME firms

from a geographical context (Franco & Matos, 2015).

Nature of Study

The methodology that I selected for this research was the qualitative multiple-

case study. In qualitative inquiry, researchers use the lived experiences of individuals to

gain an in-depth understanding of complex human phenomena (Baskarada, 2014;

Maxwell, 2013; Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). The choice of an appropriate qualitative

methodology for any inquiry will depend on the phenomenon that will be explored or

examined in the study and the nature of the research questions (Maxwell, 2013, Patton,

2015). For a contemporary phenomenon like leadership styles, Yin (2017) argued that a

case study design is the most appropriate methodology for exploring or examining such

phenomenon. Case study design attracts a lot of variations in literature. Hyett, Kenny,

and Dickson-Swift (2014) argued that the variation in case study design in literature is

because case studies are often uniquely designed to suit the peculiarities of the case and

the research questions.

I used a multiple-case study design to achieve the purpose of this study which was

to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences SME owner-managers in Nigeria

regarding their leadership style and its implication on long-term performance and growth

of their enterprise. The contextual nature of the case study method provides the

researcher the opportunity to deal with multiple cases in a single study. According to Yin

(2017), the flexibility in multiple case study design was appropriate for this study because

it allows the researcher to align the research design with the peculiarities of each case that

is used in the study. As this study was exploratory and intended for theory building, a

multiple case study design was the most rigorous strategy for building or extending

theory on an organizational phenomenon in doctoral level research as recommended by

Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007).

Understanding the unit of analysis is one of the fundamental choices that underpin

case study research. Unit of analysis can be individuals, groups, and organizations among

others (Yin, 2017). The unit of analysis for this study was the organizational level, and

the cases are the SMEs I selected using the purposeful sampling technique as

recommended by Maxwell (2013) and Patton (2015). The main goal for using the

purposeful sampling technique was to ensure that the selected samples will provide rich

information that will answer the research question on the specific knowledge gaps that

exist among SME owner-managers in Nigeria regarding leadership style and its

implications on their enterprises' performance and growth. The use of multiple case study

strategy as recommended by Baxter and Jack (2008) allowed for data analyses within and

across cases, while ensuring representativeness and heterogeneity in the study population

as recommended by Maxwell (2013). In multiple case study research, Yin (2017)

advocated the use of cross-case synthesis as the most appropriate data analysis technique.

Cross-case synthesis is more efficient than content analysis for a study where we must

also compare and contrast cases, not just analyze individual cases (Yin, 2017).

Definitions

Enterprise Growth: A sequence of “phases or stages of development through

which the business may pass during an enterprise lifecycle” (Gao & Banerji 2015, p.180)

to achieve its long-term objectives. Enterprise growth is not limited to only the

quantitative financial indicators such as turnover and profit growth, but also include

qualitative factors such as innovation and management capacity (Gao & Banerji 2015)

Enterprise Performance: The ability of an enterprise to effectively implement

strategies to achieve institutional objectives (Almatrooshi et al., 2016) and it depends

largely on the “level of skill its leaders possess when it comes to implementing

strategies” (Almatrooshi et al., 2016, p.844)

Leadership: The process of getting others to understand what needs to be done

and how to get it done more effectively (Franco & Matos, 2015)

Leadership style: The manner that a leader uses to influence followers to achieve

set objectives (Bass, 1985; 1990)

Owner-manager: A person who establishes and manages an enterprise for the

principal purpose of furthering his/her business goals. The enterprise is the primary

source of income and consumes the majority of the owner-manager’s time and resources.

She/he exercises significant control over the day-to-day operations of his/her firm and

shapes the firm's culture (Escrivão Filho, Albuquerque, Nagano, Junior, & de Oliveira,

2017)

Small and medium enterprises: Firms that are “formally registered, privately

owned and managed, with a small number of paid employees and their annual

turnover/revenues are limited or not that high” (Agba et al., 2015, p.89). The

classification of small and medium enterprises based on the number of employees differ

from one country to another. In Nigeria, they are classified as firms employing 10-199

persons.

Sustainability: The process of "maintaining well-being over a long, perhaps even

an indefinite period" (Kuhlman & Farrington, 2010, p. 3441).

Assumptions

The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to gain an in-depth

understanding of specific knowledge gaps among SME owner-managers in Nigeria

regarding leadership style and its implications on their enterprises' long-term

sustainability. I collected from the owner-managers of the selected SMEs through

semistructured interviews. Thus, this study was based on the following three

assumptions. First, I assumed that the owner-managers of the selected SMEs are each

capable of self-expression and can provide in-depth explanations to the interview

questions. Second, I assumed that the interview questions reflect the research questions

such that the answers received will provide in-depth explanations to the research

problem. Third, I assumed that the responses furnished by the SME owner-managers are

not biased but reflect their real experiences in leading their organizations.

Scope and Delimitations

This study involved an exploration of leadership styles in Nigerian SMEs with the

purpose of understanding the knowledge gaps among SME owner-managers in Nigeria

regarding leadership styles and its implications for the performance of their enterprises.

This study was not intended to assess the impacts of any specific leadership styles on the

performance of SMEs in Nigeria; rather, the study was used to expose the leadership

experiences of SME owner-managers with regards to their enterprise performance. An in-

depth understanding of the leadership experiences of these SME owner-managers may

provide opportunities for further research on the impact of leadership styles on the

performance of Nigerian SMEs.

Even though the theoretical foundation for this study was rooted in

transformational, transactional, and laissez-fair leadership styles because they have been

found to be the predominant leadership styles among SMEs (Kacem & El Harbi, 2014),

the three theories were not specifically assessed in this study. As advocated by Patton

(2015), the theoretical foundation for the study was meant to enhance its transferability

by helping readers to establish a connection between the outcome of this study and other

similar studies in the literature.

The population for this study was limited to six SMEs that I selected through a

purposeful sampling technique. Within the six selected SMEs, I collected data from the

owner-managers to understand their lived experiences with the phenomenon of leadership

style within their organizations. I did not obtain interview data from the employees of the

selected SMEs since such data will not provide insights into what the owner-managers

know or do not know regarding leadership styles and enterprise performance.

Limitations

This study had three limitations. First, only six SMEs are involved in the study.

Thus, the findings may not be generalizable to the larger Nigerian SME population.

Second, the background of the SME owner-managers to be interviewed in the study may

not be representative of the Nigerian SME population especially in the areas of age,

gender, educational attainment, and entrepreneurial orientation. The third limitation of

the study was that the interviewees may, for various reasons, have been restrictive in

volunteering answers to the interview questions. To mitigate this limitation, I collected

information from multiple sources including but not limited to field notes, document

reviews, observations, and my reflections.

Significance of the Study

This study is important because it addressed an under-researched area on the

implications of leadership style on SME performance and growth in a developing

economy such as that of Nigeria. Researchers have stressed the need for a better

understanding of the nature of leadership styles in SMEs (Koshal, 2017; Oladele &

Akeke, 2016; Uchehara, 2017). This research was needed to gain a deeper understanding

of specific knowledge gaps among SME owner-managers in Nigeria regarding leadership

style and its implications on their enterprises’ performance and growth. Leadership style

has a significant influence on the performance of SMEs (Anggadwita & Mustafid, 2014;

Arasti, Zandi, & Bahmani, 2014; Arham, 2014). The impact of leadership styles on SMEs

varies across countries and organizations (Franco & Matos, 2015; Ozer &Tinaztepe,

2014). Some researchers have established a relationship between leadership style and the

performance of SMEs in Nigeria (Oladele & Akeke, 2016; Ejere & Abasilim, 2013). The

studies by Oladele and Akeke (2016) and Ejere and Abasilim (2013) were based on a

quantitative deductive methodology that did not offer data on specific leadership styles

on the performance of Nigerian SMEs and an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon

(Ejere &Abasilim, 2013; Oladele & Akeke, 2016). This study is significant in that it will

lead to a better understanding of the phenomena under study and provide information-

rich data and recommendations for future studies (Patton, 2015) on the relationship

between leadership styles and the performance and growth of Nigerian SMEs.

Significance to Practice.

This study is significant to practice because it will provide explanations on the

implications of leadership styles adopted by SME owner-managers in Nigeria for

enterprise performance and growth. Oladele and Akeke (2016) suggested that a

relationship exist between leadership styles and SME performance. Though there is

evidence in the literature suggesting a relationship between leadership style and the

performance of SMEs in Nigeria (Arham, 2014; Ozer & Tinaztepe, 2014), the nature of

this relationship is not fully understood. This study will provide management

practitioners and scholars a deeper understanding of the knowledge gaps among SME

owner-managers in Nigeria on how leadership styles can be used to improve enterprise

performance.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria

(SMEDAN) will benefit from this study being the Nigerian Government Agency

responsible for formulating and implementing policies on the operation of SMEs. The

Agency has already identified that leadership in Nigerian SMEs did not support

organizational performance and sustainability (SMEDAN, 2013). This study will provide

SMEDAN with a better understanding of the knowledge gaps on leadership styles among

Nigerian SME owner-managers with a view to addressing these gaps within the context

of the Nigerian SME Policy Framework. I will benefit from this study because of my

interest in management consulting career that will focus primarily on supporting Nigerian

SME owner-managers to improve their leadership capabilities.

Significance to Theory

This study is significant to theory because it will offer in-depth qualitative data

on the experiences of Nigerian SME owner-managers regarding the phenomenon of

leadership style. The data from this study will provide opportunities for advancing the

existing theoretical conceptualizations on the relationship between leadership styles and

performance of SMEs; an area that has remained under-researched in the management

literature (Franco & Matos, 2015). Though some specific leadership styles have been

found to be predominant among SMEs in certain countries (Aritz & Walker, 2014), in

Nigeria, no studies have explored the understanding of the phenomenon of leadership

style among SME owner-managers. This study has brought the Nigerian experiences to

the conceptualizations of leadership in SMEs within the management literature.

Significance for Positive Social Change

This study has implications for Nigeria’s economic development as SMEs can

provide opportunities for job creation and the reduction of income disparities (Ilegbinosa

& Jumbo, 2015) while playing a significant role in poverty alleviation (Banito, Daantos,

Mateo, & Rosete, 2017). SMEs in Nigeria lack the necessarily leadership capabilities and

experience to ensure sustained organizational performance and growth (SMEDAN,

2013). Since SMEs account for the highest number of business enterprises in Nigeria,

their failure has negative impact on the incomes of the families that depend on them for

economic survival. Such families will not be able to provide for themselves the basic

needs of life such as food, shelter, healthcare, and education for their children. This study

will ensure a better understanding of leadership in Nigerian SMEs and provide

recommendation that will strengthen leadership capabilities of SME owner-managers to

improve the performance of their enterprises. Such enhanced performance of SMEs in

Nigeria will produce positive social change through employment generation and poverty

alleviation within the country.

Summary and Transition

Chapter 1 presented an introduction to the study that explored the leadership

styles in SMEs which has remained an under-researched area in the management

literature (Franco & Matos, 2015). From a Nigerian context, the few applied studies that

examined leadership in SMEs utilized quantitative approach (Oladele & Akeke, 2016;

Ejere & Abasilim, 2013). These studies are mainly deductive and involved statistical

testing of specific leadership styles on the performance of Nigerian SMEs without

offering an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of leadership style (Ejere

&Abasilim, 2013; Oladele & Akeke, 2016). There is the need for a deeper understanding

of what SME owner-managers in Nigeria know regarding leadership styles and its

implications for their enterprises' performance and growth (Oladele & Akeke, 2016).

Chapter 2 examined the existing literature on leadership styles and leadership in

SMEs, and provided a conceptual framework that anchored the study. Chapter 3

described the research approach and the rationale for method selection and design.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

The specific problem is that SME owner-managers in Nigeria need to gain an in-

depth understanding of their leadership style for them to objectively evaluate its

implication on long-term performance and growth of their enterprise (Koshal, 2017;

Oladele & Akeke, 2016).The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to

explore the experiences of SME owner-managers in Nigeria to gain an in-depth

understanding of their leadership style and its implication on long-term performance and

growth of their enterprise. Today's organizations are witnessing increased competitive

and complex global economic environment, and consequently, the challenges faced by

organizational leaders regarding enterprise performance and sustainability have increased

as well (Aritz & Walker, 2014). Leadership has implications for organizational outcomes

in both large, medium, and small firms (Almatrooshi et al., 2016; Franco & Matos, 2015).

Understanding the implications of leadership for the performance and sustainability of

SMEs has become increasingly important (Franco & Matos, 2015) because of the

fundamental roles that SMEs play in the economic development of countries (Lee & Xin,

2015) especially in the areas of employment creation, poverty alleviation, and

entrepreneurial development (Delalic & Oruc, 2014).

Little has been done to examine the relationship between leadership styles and

organizational performance in local SMEs. The few studies conducted to specifically

investigate leadership style in local SMEs include Franco & Matos's (2015) in Portugal;

Matzler, Schwarz, Deutinger, and Harms (2008) in Austria; Craciun, Nastase, Stamule,

and Vizitiu (2015) in Romania; Mihai (2015) in the Netherlands, Lindgren (2012) in

Denmark and are specifically targeting developed economies. Within a developing

country such as Nigeria, the few studies on leadership style in SMEs are applied studies,

confined to specific private sectors and do not offer new knowledge in the topic (Longe,

2014; Waziri, Ali, & Alliagha, 2015). Thus, the range of SMEs owner-managers'

knowledge on the contribution of leadership styles to SME performance and growth in a

developing economy such as Nigeria remains an under-researched area in the literature

(Ofili, 2014). It remains unclear if SME owner-managers in Nigeria know or understand

the implications of leadership styles for their enterprises' performance and growth.

This chapter contains four sections. In the first section, I discussed the strategy

adopted for the literature search. In the second section, I discussed the conceptual

framework for the study. In the third section, I discussed the literature on the SME firm

and its socio-economic implications. Finally, I discussed the literature on the Nigerian

SMEs.

Literature Review Strategy

My strategy for literature review in this study was to search for peer-reviewed

journal articles within the broad and specific areas of the study as reflected in the key

research concepts and methodology. The search was restricted to articles published in

2013 and beyond. The research concepts that I used for the key word search on the

databases were as follows: leadership styles, leadership in SMEs, organizational

performance, and sustainability of SMEs. Seminal articles that I identified in the

reviewed articles were searched and retrieved for review. I conducted literature search for

peer-reviewed journal articles using the Walden University online library and Google

scholar. The search for peer-reviewed journals was conducted on three business and

management databases: Academic Source Complete, Emerald Insight, and SAGE

Journals. I also used three Multidisciplinary Databases: Thoreau Multi-Database,

ProQuest Central and Academic Search Complete.

I conducted a search on key management and leadership journals to ensure that

no important articles are left out. This specific journal search covered the ten top

Academic Journals that published leadership articles in the past 25 years (Dinh et al.,

2014). These include The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology,

Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of

Management, Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes, Personnel

Psychology, American Psychologist, Academy of Management Review, and

Organizational Science. I searched these 10 journals from 2013 to 2017 for articles

relevant to my study.

The methodology was qualitative multiple case study. Most of the literature on

qualitative research methodology is found in books and edited book chapters (Gentles,

Charles, Ploeg, & McKibbon., 2015). In using the case study methodology, Gentles et al.

(2015) argued that the most popular authorities are: Merriam (2009) Stake (1995, 2005,

2006), and Yin (2017). In addition to these books, I also searched some key methodology

journals for articles published from 2013 to 2017. These included Qualitative Research,

Qualitative Report, Qualitative Inquiry, Qualitative Health Research, and Qualitative

Social Work. Finally, I used the Google Scholar to run a general check on the broad areas

of my topic (using the following key search terms: leadership styles and organizational

performance, leadership in SMEs, SME performance and growth, and SME

sustainability) to see if there are critical articles that have been published in other peer-

reviewed Journals outside the ones that I have selected.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for this study was grounded in Bass’s (1997) concept

of leadership style and Franco and Mato’s (2015) concept of leadership in SMEs. The

traditional and emerging leadership theories (Dinh et al., 2014) are characterized by a

diversity of opinions on what constitutes the appropriate leader attributes and leadership

styles that can deal with the challenges of the modern-day dynamic and highly

competitive business environment (Dinh et al., 2014). Notwithstanding this diversity in

the theoretical understanding of leadership, there seems to be a convergence of opinion

by scholars and practitioners on the positive impact that leadership can play in enterprise

performance and growth (Almatrooshi et al., 2016; Oladele & Akeke, 2016).

Leadership has attracted several definitions among scholars and practitioners. The

central theme that is common to most of the leadership definitions is the attempt to

explain or create a relationship between antecedents and outcomes of leadership

processes as it affects the leader, follower, and the organization (Dinh et al., 2014). Bass

(1999) argued that the various definitions of leadership are influenced by the purpose for

which the definitions were made. Kotter (1990) described leadership as the ability to cope

with change in a competitive and volatile business world. Some definitions of leadership

in the literature are predicated on the leader behavior and leadership environment (Bass

and Stogdill, 1990). Leadership environment has both organizational and cultural

contexts. Aritz and Walker (2014) brought a cultural perspective to the definition of

leadership and argued that there are cultural differences in the values that different people

attach to the essence of leadership. The implication of this finding for leadership research

is that different leadership styles could have varying levels of impact on the

organizational participation of employees from different cultural environments.

Leadership styles are often associated or used interchangeably with the underlying

leadership theories. For example, it is common for researchers to use transformational

leadership theory and transformational leadership style interchangeable or transactional

leadership theory versus transactional leadership styles. Several leadership theories exist

in the management literature. Dinh et al. (2014) presented a typology of leadership

theories and examined their use within the top ten management journals and concluded

that the neo-charismatic theories (transformational/charismatic/transactional) were the

most widely used theories in management and leadership research. The full range

leadership model (FRLM; Avolio & Bass, 1991) includes two of the neocharismatic

theories: transactional leadership and transformational leadership. The third

neocharismatic theory is the charismatic leadership that is seen to be very closely related

to transformational leadership principles (Boehma et al., 2015).

Leadership style has been described as the manner that a leader uses to influence

followers to achieve set objectives (Burns, 1978; Nanjundeswaraswamya & Swamy,

2015), and it is seen as the most critical factor that drives organizational performance and

sustainability (Almatrooshi et al., 2016; Grobler & Du Plessis, 2016). Some scholars

have argued that leadership style could also reflect a leader's indifference to any form of

relational engagement with followers (Antonakis et al., 2003; Avolio & Bass, 2004).

From an organizational perspective, employees remain the critical agents for delivering

organizational goals. Derecskei (2016) argued that leadership style is one of the most

influential factors that impact employee creativity which is an enabler for organizational

performance and sustainability. This view is supported by Grobler and Du Plessis (2016)

who argued that the elements of leadership styles that enhance organizational

sustainability are those that focus on providing direction, ensuring employee well-being,

encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship among employees, and backed by

appropriate recognition and reward schemes. The majority of the research in the literature

on leadership styles has focused on large organizations, leaving the SME context

substantially under-researched (Franco & Matos, 2015).

In a recent study, Franco and Matos (2015) explored the nature of leadership

styles in SMEs using the mixed method approach. The study focused on three leadership

styles: transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and passive-avoidant

(laissez-faire) leadership. The first leadership style explored by Franco and Matos (2015)

is the transformational leadership. This leadership style is founded on the premise that

organizational performance can be improved when leaders inspire their subordinates to a

stronger commitment to the organization rather than pursuing narrow personal interests

(Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978). Transformational leaders engage with followers and inspire

them to focus on higher-level human needs for personal achievements and self-

actualization (Burns, 1978). It is a win-win situation for the employees and the

organization. The organization benefits from high employees' productivity while the

achievements of the employees will translate to better rewards and higher career positions

for them.

Transformational leadership theory explains how leaders drive followers beyond

personal interests using four tools: idealized influence, inspirational motivation,

intellectual stimulation, and individualized considerations (Bass, 1999). Idealized

influence reflects the charisma of the leader and how this charisma is used to influence a

high-performance work attitude on followers (Bass, 1999). Inspirational motivation

connotes the degree to which a leader can articulate a vision and use the vision to inspire

followers to strive for higher performance (Bass, 1999). Intellectual stimulation reflects

the ability of a leader to bring out the cognitive and creative potentials of followers (Bass,

1999). Individualized considerations reflect the degree to which a leader can mentor

followers, addressing their needs from personalized perspectives with the objective of

enhancing their performance (Bass, 1999).

The second leadership style that was explored in SMEs by Franco and Matos

(2015) was transactional leadership. This leadership style focuses on improving

organizational productivity by getting followers to accomplish assigned tasks and to

achieve established goals (Burns, 1978). It is an exchange relationship between the leader

and the follower where each party tries to achieve self-interests. In return, transactional

leaders provide tangible rewards and assurances to followers on the achievement of self-

interests thereby reducing work-related anxiety (Bass, 1985). Burns (1978) established

transactional leadership as a distinct leadership paradigm. Bass (1985) established the

fact that there is a positive relationship between transactional leadership paradigm and the

leader's effectiveness.

The third leadership style explored in SMEs by Franco and Matos (2015) was the

passive-avoidant (laissez-faire) leadership. Unlike transformational and transactional

leadership that focuses on follower engagement, the passive-avoidant leader lacks a sense

of commitment and responsibility with followers (Bass, 1999; Burns, 1978). A passive-

avoidant leader does not demonstrate any specific form of leadership style (Antonakis et

al., 2003; Avolio & Bass, 2004), and does not engender positive relationships with

followers. Avolio and Bass (1991) identified two elements of passive-avoidant

leadership: the ‘laissez-fair' leadership style in which the leader exhibits an attitude of

indifference toward employees and their tasks (Avolio & Bass, 1991), and the

‘management by exception' in which the leader applies punitive corrective measures in

response to employees' deviations (Avolio & Bass, 1991).

With the multiplicity of leadership styles in the literature, it is reasonable to say

that there are no best leadership styles (Longe, 2014). In SMEs, leadership styles depend

to a large extent on the operating environment of the SMEs (Franco & Matos, 2015).

SMEs are increasingly faced with the ever-changing competitive global business

environment (World Bank, 2016a). Thus, the role of leadership in ensuring SME frim

sustainability has become very critical (Franco & Matos, 2015). SME owner-managers

lack the necessary understanding of how leadership styles can be used to improve firm

performance and organizational sustainability (Agwu & Emeti, 2014,) especially under

very volatile and competitive business environment (Kotter, 1990; World Bank 2016a).

SME firms are characteristically small-sized. Thus, the influence of leaders on

their followers is more pronounced in these firms (Lofving et al., 2016). There are

different leadership styles adopted by SME owner-managers, and each style produces

different results across different SME firms (Franco & Matos, 2015). Given the globally

acclaimed importance of SMEs for driving economic growth and poverty alleviation

(World Bank, 2016a), and the strong association between leadership styles and SME

performance (Franco & Matos, 2015), it becomes imperative for a proper understanding

of the implications of leadership styles for the sustainability of the SME firms from a

geographical context (Franco & Matos, 2015).

Among all the factors associated with the poor performance of Nigerian SMEs,

leadership style is seen as the most critical factor that impacts the long-term sustainability

of these firms (Abdullahi & Sulaiman, 2015; Agwu & Emeti, 2014; Uchehara, 2017).

With the high mortality rate of SMEs in Nigeria (Ajike et al., 2015), it is doubtful if SME

owner-managers in Nigeria understand the implication of leadership styles for the

performance and sustainability of their organizations as evidenced by previous research

(Abdullahi & Sulaiman, 2015; Franco & Matos, 2015; Uchenwamgbe, 2013). Abdullahi

and Sulaiman (2015) argued that the success of the Nigerian SMEs in today's volatile

business environment is dependent on entrepreneurial skills and the effectiveness of

leadership styles adopted by the SME owner-managers. This argument is supported by

Ajike et al. (2015) that found a strong association between human capital and the

performance of SMEs in Nigeria. Given that leadership styles in SMEs is still an under-

researched area (Franco & Matos, 2015) especially from a Nigerian context (Anigbogu,

Okoli, & Nwakoby, 2015; Longe, 2014; Sakiru et al., 2013), it becomes imperative to

conduct a study that will explore the specific knowledge gaps that exist among SME

owner-managers in Nigeria regarding leadership style and its implications on their

enterprises' long-term sustainability

Literature Review

The objective of this literature review was to understand the existing knowledge

in the literature that is relevant to this study. The key sections covered in this literature

review include leadership styles, leadership theories, leadership in SMEs, leadership in

Nigerian SMEs, and the operating environment of SMEs in Nigerian. Each section is

discussed in details to ensure that the outcomes of this study can be related to the existing

knowledge in the literature regarding the implications of leadership styles on the

performance of SMEs.

Leadership Style

Leadership style has been described as the manner that a leader uses to influence

followers to achieve set objectives (Burns, 1978; Nanjundeswaraswamya & Swamy,

2015), and it is seen as the most critical factor that drives organizational performance and

sustainability (Almatrooshi et al., 2016; Grobler & Du Plessis, 2016). Some researchers

have disagreed with the organizational relevance of leadership style, insisting that the

essence of leadership and its adaptability are the more critical factors in the leadership

process (Silva, 2014). There are also criticisms regarding the overwhelming influence of

a researcher's ideological beliefs (Alvesson & Karreman, 2016), which has led to a

multiplicity of opinions on the relevance of leadership styles for organizational outcomes.

We have a situation where ideas are increasingly subduing intellectualism and

cognitivism in the field of leadership research (Alvesson & Karreman, 2016).

Irrespective of the criticisms regarding the relevance of leadership style in

enhancing organizational performance, there is substantial evidence in the literature that

some positive organizational outcomes are attributable to the style of leadership (Chege,

Wachira, & Mwenda, 2015; Nanjundeswaraswamya & Swamy, 2015; Ozer & Tinaztepe,

2014). These findings indicate that the phenomenon of leadership style will continue to

attract the attention of researchers in the leadership field. Leadership styles help us to

understand the relationship that exists between leaders and followers in an organizational

context, though, some scholars have argued that leadership style could also reflect a

leader's indifference to any form of relational engagement with followers (Antonakis et

al., 2003; Avolio & Bass, 2004).

Organizational performance is a phenomenon that has been widely discussed in

the literature. Researchers have identified several factors that influence organizational

performance and growth. Notable among these factors are the issues of firm size

(Hirvonen, Laukkanen, & Salo, 2016), and leadership style (Dinh et al., 2014; Wu, 2014).

Notwithstanding the lack of consensus in the literature on what constitutes effective

leadership (Dabke, 2016), researchers in the field of leadership share a common

sentiment that leaders influence the fortunes of their organizations (Dinh et al., 2014),

and that context and culture have influence on leader behavior and leadership

effectiveness (Grobler & Du Plessis, 2016). Researchers have found that some specific

leadership attributes have varying levels of influence on organizational performance.

Some of these attributes include emotional intelligence (Dapke, 2016), personality

(Chollet, Geraudel, & Mothe, 2014), social capital (Chollet et al., 2014), and leadership

style (Mekraz & Gundala, 2016). Despite the multiplicity of studies and opinions in the

literature regarding the relationship between leadership styles and organizational

performance, there are still research opportunities for a better understanding of both

phenomena (Malmira, Esfahanib, & Emamic, 2013) especially from the SME context

(Franco & Matos, 2015).

Sustainability is a relatively new terminology in the field of management, and it

attracts different definitions in the management literature. Kuhlman and Farrington

(2010) described sustainability as a process of maintaining well-being over a long period;

for business enterprises, this means a sustained performance over time. From an

organizational perspective, employees remain the critical agents for delivering

organizational goals. Derecskei (2016) argued that leadership style is one of the most

influential factors that impact employee creativity which is an enabler for organizational

performance and sustainability. This view is supported by Grobler and Du Plessis (2016)

who argued that the elements of leadership styles that enhance organizational

sustainability are those that focus on providing direction, ensuring employee well-being,

encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship among employees, and backed by

appropriate recognition and reward schemes. There are also demographic and gender

contexts to leadership styles. In a survey of companies in Macedonia, Bojadjiev,

Kostovski, and Buldioska (2015) found that age of leaders and their gender influenced

their leadership styles. The authors found that while top-level managers in Macedonia

exhibited the attributes of autocratic leadership, middle-level managers are more aligned

with laissez-faire leadership style.

Studies have shown that leadership styles have a significant influence on

organizational performance and sustainability (Wu, 2014) and that different leadership

styles may produce varying results in different cultural settings (Aritz & Walker, 2014;

Srivastava, 2016). SMEs characteristically have a small number of employees, as such,

the leadership style of an SME's owner-manager can easily permeate and influence the

culture of the entire organization. Such levels of leadership influence have implications

for the SME's performance (Lofving et al., 2016) and long-term sustainability

(Szczepanska-Woszczyna & Kurowska-Pysz, 2016). SMEs typically have deficiencies in

managerial capabilities (Arasti et al., 2014) and may lack the capacity to employ and

retain competent personnel.

There are several leadership styles that have been established in the literature, and

each leadership style has varying levels of impact on organizational activities, corporate

performance, and sustainability. In an international study involving data from 43

countries around the world, Van Hemmen, Alvarez, Peris-Ortiz, and Urbano (2015)

found that leadership style was a significant determinant of innovative entrepreneurship

which enhanced enterprise performance and growth (Oladele & Akeke, 2016). Derecskei

(2016) argued that leadership style is the most influencing factor that impacts employee

creativity, while Mekraz and Gundala (2016) found that transformational and

transactional leadership styles had varying levels of positive influence on specific

performance measures such as employee turnover rate, customer service efficiency, and

profit margin percentage. In a quasi-experimental study, Arthur and Hardy (2014) found

that transformational leadership interventions produced positive organizational outcomes

which were attributable to an increase in desirable organizational behaviors among

leaders and followers.

SMEs are very important for economic growth (Lee & Xin, 2015) because they

play significant roles in employment generation, equitable distribution of income, and

poverty alleviation, especially in the rural communities (Delalic & Oruc, 2014). While

SMEs contribute significantly to the GDP of developed economies (OECD, 2017), the

developing economies such as Nigeria have not tapped the full potentials of SMEs as

engines for economic growth (Banito et al., 2017; Khatun, 2015). SMEs provide the

opportunity for the deployment of domestic savings right from the grassroots level and

provide employment opportunities and economic empowerment to rural communities.

SMEs further provide opportunities for resource utilization at the rural levels by

harnessing rural raw materials, encouraging skills acquisition, and stemming the tide of

rural-urban migration.

The reasons for the poor performance of SMEs in developing countries are largely

attributable to institutional and infrastructural gaps (Delalic & Oruc, 2014), and internal

organizational deficiencies (Etuk, Etuk, G., & Baghebo, 2014; Olowu & Aliyu, 2015).

From a Nigerian context, researchers have adduced some reasons to explain the poor

performance, lack of growth and non-sustainability of SMEs in Nigeria. Some of these

problems arise from ineffective government policies (Ocheni, 2015), inefficient public

institutions, and lack of critical infrastructure (Etuk et al., 2014; Obokoh & Goldman,

2016). There are other problems that are attributable to organizational shortcomings of

the Nigerian SME firm, especially in the areas of inadequate leadership skills.

Leadership Models

The leadership model used to discuss the conceptual framework for this study is

the Full Range Leadership Model (FRLM) (Avolio & Bass, 1991). The FRLM comprises

of transformational leadership theory, transactional leadership theory, and the laissez-

faire leadership theory. The three elements of FRLM are seen to encapsulate most of the

contemporary leadership behaviors (Bass, 1999) and the use of FRLM as a managerial

development tool have been found to improve leadership effectiveness among medium

level managers (Chaimongkonrojna & Steane, 2015).

Leadership styles are often associated or used interchangeably with the underlying

leadership theories. For example, it is common for researchers to use transformational

leadership theory and transformational leadership style interchangeable or transactional

leadership theory versus transactional leadership styles. Several leadership theories exist

in the management literature. Dinh et al. (2014) presented a typology of leadership

theories and examined their use within the top ten management journals and concluded

that the neo-charismatic theories (transformational, charismatic, and transactional) were

the most widely used theories in management and leadership research. The FRLM

includes two of the neo-charismatic theories; transactional leadership and

transformational leadership. The third neo-charismatic theory; the charismatic leadership

is seen to be very closely related to transformational leadership principles (Boehma et al.,

2015).

There is evidence in the literature that the three leadership styles in FRLM have a

positive influence on the performance and growth of SMEs (Asiimwe, Kavoo-Linge, &

Sikalieh, 2016; Linge, Shikalieh, & Asiimwe, 2016). Transactional leadership is

associated with contingent reward mechanism, transformational leadership is associated

with inspirational motivation, while laissez-faire leadership is associated with a lack of

leadership (Bass & Avolio, 1994). Evidence in the literature suggests that transactional

and transformational leaderships have universal applicability and acceptance (Bass, 1997)

as every leader exhibits some form of transactional and transformational leadership

behavior (Bass, 1999).

The FRLM includes a hierarchical categorization of the three constituent

leadership styles with the transformational leadership seen as most effective (Mekraz &

Gundala, 2016; Ozer & Tinaztepe, 2014) followed by transactional leadership, and lastly

the laissez-faire leadership. This categorization has been contested by several authors

(Dias et al., 2017) on the ground that different leadership styles may be more appropriate

in specific cultural environments (Aritz & Walker, 2014) and different organizational

contexts (Dias et al., 2017). For example, Iscan, Ersari, and Naktiyok (2014) argued that

transformational leadership is more effective than transactional leadership in producing

positive organizational outcomes in small firms, while Masa'deh, Obeidat, and Tarhini

(2016) found that within the same organizational and cultural setting, transactional

leadership positively impacted employee knowledge sharing behavior whereas

transformational leadership did not yield the same result.

Apart from the leadership styles in FRLM, there are other leadership styles that

are closely related to the transactional and transformational leadership styles. Bass (1999)

argued that directive, participative, and leader-member exchange (LMX) paradigms are

very closely related to the transactional and transformational leadership styles. Some

leaders can exhibit the attributes of transactional and transformational, as well as the

attributes of directive, autocratic, participative, and LMX leadership styles (Bass, 1999).

Another highly discussed leadership paradigm in literature is the charismatic leadership

(Dinh et al., 2014). This leadership paradigm focuses on how leaders obtain loyal

followership and improved organizational citizenship behavior through the charisma of

the leader. Studies have shown that charismatic leadership may not have a direct

influence on firm performance except if mediated by transformational leadership

principles (Boehma et al., 2015). Also, Dunne et al. (2016) found that inspirational

leadership influenced organizational innovativeness in small firms. The findings from

Boehma et al. (2015) and Dunne et al. (2016) are consistent with Bass (1985) that

conceptualized charisma and inspirational motivation as part of the four elements of

transformational leadership.

Transformational leadership theory. Transformational leadership theory is

founded on the premise that organizational performance can be improved when leaders

inspire their subordinates to a stronger commitment to the organization rather than

pursuing narrow personal interests (Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978). The transformational

leadership theory incorporates various known leadership behaviors. For example,

transformation leaders may exhibit the characteristics of participative, democratic or

autocratic leadership styles (Bass, 1995). These three leadership styles are often

categorized as behavioral theories (Dinh et al., 2014) because they deal with the ways

that individuals act in managerial activities (Mihai, Schiopoiu, & Mihai, M., 2017).

Transformational leaders engage with followers and inspire them to focus on higher-level

human needs for personal achievements and self-actualization (Burns, 1978).

Transformational leaders influence their followers to perform above expectations

regarding their contributions to organizational results (Bass, 1995). It is a win-win

situation for the employees and the organization. The organization benefits from high

employees' productivity while the achievements of the employees will translate to better

rewards and higher career positions for them.

Transformational leadership theory explains how leaders drive followers beyond

personal interests using four tools: idealized influence, inspirational motivation,

intellectual stimulation, and individualized considerations (Bass, 1985). Idealized

influence reflects the charisma of the leader and how this charisma is used to influence a

high-performance work attitude on followers (Bass, 1999). Inspirational motivation

connotes the degree to which a leader can articulate a vision and use the vision to inspire

followers to strive for higher performance (Bass, 1999). Intellectual stimulation reflects

the ability of a leader to bring out the cognitive and creative potentials of followers (Bass,

1999). Individualized considerations reflect the degree to which a leader can mentor

followers, addressing their needs from personalized perspectives with the objective of

enhancing their performance (Bass, 1999).

Notwithstanding the interrelationship between the four dimensions of

transformational leadership, each dimension may have varying levels of impact on

organizational performance (Boies et al., 2015). Among the four dimensions of

transformational leadership, intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation are seen

to have a greater impact on team performance (Boies et al., 2015), especially when

mediated by proper communication within the team (Boies et al., 2015). Some

researchers have found a strong positive relationship between transformational leadership

and some measures that are often associated with positive organizational outcomes

including organizational learning (Imran, Ilyas, Aslam, & Ur-Rahman, 2016),

innovativeness (Kacem & El Harbi, 2014), team work (Lehmann-Willenbrock,

Meinecke, Rowold, & Kauffeld, 2015), and organizational growth (Katou, 2015). This

finding further reinforces the strong impact of intellectual stimulation and inspirational

motivation in the achievement of leadership results through the transformational

leadership theory.

While the fundamental principles of transformational leadership are focused on

improving employee outcomes through idealized influence, inspirational motivation,

intellectual stimulation, and individualized considerations, questions have been raised

about the ethical and moral implications of how leaders achieve their transformational

agenda with their followers under the transformational leadership principles (Bass &

Steidlmeier, 1999). Latham (2014) argued that researchers have ignored the issue of

abuse of power by transformational leaders who may focus only on organizational

outcomes to the detriment of the social well-being of followers and other people that

could be impacted by the leadership environment. Organizational outcomes that result

from unethical or immoral transformative leadership behaviors may have serious

consequences for the leader, the followers, and the organization as a whole. Bass and

Steidlmeier (1999) argued that "authentic" transformational and transactional leadership

must be grounded in ethical and moral foundations as ethical attributes of leaders

enhance good corporate governance (Othman & Rahman, 2014). This argument is

consistent with the position of Burns (1978) that transformational leaders should also

transform themselves in the process of transforming their followers.

There is an overwhelming acceptance among scholars regarding the relationship

between transformational leadership and positive organizational outcomes, yet, some

researchers have argued that transformational leadership theory is excessively mystified

and questioned the veracity of its effects and outcomes (Knippenberg & Sitkin, 2013).

There is no consensus in the literature on the specific leadership behaviors that can be

classified as transformational (Spector, 2014), and there is the tendency for researchers to

attribute extraordinary organizational outcomes to transformational leadership principles

(Spector, 2014) probably because of its wide acceptance as a theoretical construct in

contemporary leadership research. For example, there is a paradigm shift in the

understanding of an individual's charisma within the context of transformational

leadership theory. Beyer (1999) argued that charisma is an emergent social structure that

is much broader than the phenomenon of leadership and that the discussion of charisma

from the context of leadership largely ignores the situations in which leadership occurs

(Beyer, 1999).

Geier (2016) argued that transformational leadership within the context of full

range leadership model is adaptive and not some static behavioral phenomena. Some

managers are more transformational in extreme situations than they are in normal

situations (Geier, 2016). There is also the argument that the conceptualizations of

transformational leadership in the literature have mostly focused on individual-level

behaviors with little attention paid to group-level behaviors. While some researchers have

mostly associated individual attitudes and personal disposition of leaders to their

transformational behavior (Jina, Seo, & Shapiro, 2015), there is the need to distinguish

the conceptualization of transformational leadership between individual and group levels.

For example, Li, Mitchel, and Boyle (2016) argued that while group level

transformational leadership improved group innovativeness in organizations, it had a

negative impact on individual-level innovativeness within the group.

One area that researchers have criticized the conceptualization of

transformational leadership is the issue of leader's self-esteem. Andersen (2015) argued

that the theoretical conceptualization of an individual's transformational behaviors is

more aligned with political and social orientations in leader-follower relationships, and,

therefore has limited applications from a managerial and organizational context. In a

related development, Matzler, Bauer, and Mooradian (2014) argued that self-esteem of

leaders has been neglected in the emerging research and discussions on transformational

leadership. The argument by Matzler et al, (2014) is supported by the traits approach to

leadership theory which suggests that leadership behaviors emerge from individual

personality traits (Landis, Hill, & Harvey, 2014)

Andersen (2015) argued that there is insufficient empirical evidence to support

the effectiveness of transformational leadership from organizational contexts. The

argument by Anderson (2015) is collaborated by Alvesson and Karreman (2015), who

argued that the ideological beliefs espoused by scholars in the field of transformational

leadership research far outweigh the intellectual and cognitive content that they bring into

their research. These two lines of argument (Alvesson & Karreman, 2015; Anderson,

2015) are further supported by McCleskey (2014) who emphasized the need to fit

leadership capabilities with organizational situations.

Despite the several criticisms of transformational leadership theory in the

literature, it remains one of the most widely used theories in leadership research. It has

been seen to be effective in yielding positive organizational outcomes (Arthur & Hardy,

2014) especially in SMEs (Franco & Matos, 2015). Transformational leadership is

therefore considered an appropriate theoretical construct to anchor a study involving the

examination of leadership styles in SMEs.

Transactional Leadership Theory. Transactional leadership theory focuses on

improving organizational productivity by getting followers to accomplish assigned tasks

and to achieve established goals (Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978). It is an exchange relationship

between the leader and the follower where each party tries to achieve self-interests (Bass,

1985). In return, transactional leaders provide tangible rewards and assurances to

followers on the achievement of self-interests thereby reducing work-related anxiety.

Burns (1978) established transactional leadership as a distinct leadership paradigm. Bass

(1985) established the fact that there is a positive relationship between transactional

leadership paradigm and the leader's effectiveness.

There are three dimensions of transactional leadership namely: contingent reward,

in which employees are rewarded for meeting or surpassing set targets (Bass & Avolio,

1995); management by exception actively, where leaders are actively involved in helping

and monitoring followers for increased performance (Bass & Avolio, 1995); and

management by exception passively, where leaders support followers only when problem

arises (Bass & Avolio, 1995).

Some scholars have criticized the transactional leadership theory because it does

not bring into perspective the situational and contextual dimensions of organizational

leadership (Beyer, 1999; Yukl, 1999; Yukl & Mahsud, 2010). These authors argued that

the fundamental principles of transactional leadership are universal in its

conceptualization, neglecting the obvious varying circumstances of different

organizational settings and leader-follower relational environment. Regardless of this

criticism, transactional leadership theory will be used as one of the theoretical constructs

in this study. The organizational contexts limitations of transactional leadership theory as

noted by Beyer (1999) and Yukl (1999) will be addressed in the current study based on

the multiple-case study design.

Laissez-faire Leadership Style. Unlike transformational and transactional

leadership that focuses on follower engagement (Bass, 1999; Burns, 1978) the passive-

avoidant leader lacks a sense of commitment and responsibility with followers. A

passive-avoidant leader does not demonstrate any specific form of leadership style

(Antonakis et al., 2003; Avolio & Bass, 2004), and does not engender positive

relationships with followers. Avolio and Bass (1999) identified two elements of passive-

avoidant leadership: the ‘laissez-fair' leadership style in which the leader exhibits an

attitude of indifference toward employees and their tasks (Avolio & Bass, 1999), and the

‘management by exception' in which the leader applies punitive corrective measures in

response to employees' deviations (Avolio & Bass, 1999). Though some researchers view

the laissez-fair leadership style as ineffective, evidence in the literature suggests that

laissez-fair leadership allows freedom and empowerment among followers (Linge et al.,

2016) and this engenders creativity among SME employees with resultant positive impact

on performance and growth of SMEs (Linge et al., 2016).

Comparing Transformational and Transactional Leadership Styles. In their

conceptualization of the FRLM, Bass and Avolio (1994) affirmed that transformational

and transactional leadership were the most effective leadership styles when used

collectively. Both leadership styles complement each other but cannot substitute each

other. But some researchers argue that both leadership styles have different impacts on

specific organizational performance factors. For example, Moriano, Molero, Topa, and

Mangin (2014) found that transformational leadership positively influenced employees'

entrepreneurial behavior whereas transactional leadership had a negative influence on

employee entrepreneurial behavior. Also, some researchers argue that transformational

leadership is only effective in an environment with strong organizational commitment,

thus raising the question whether the positive outcomes of transformational leadership is

attributable to the transformational behavior of the leader or the organizational

commitment of the employees. The multiple-case study design in the current research is

an opportunity to understand how both leadership theories are applied from multiple

organizational contexts.

Leadership in SMEs

SMEs are characteristically small-sized with a limited number of employees, such

that the behavior and leadership style of an SME’s owner-manager can easily permeate

and influence the culture of the entire firm (Jansson, Nilsson, Modig, & Vall, 2015;

Lofving et al., 2016; Quan, 2015). Evidence in the literature suggests that the attitudes

and behaviors of leaders within an organizational setting influence their leadership

orientation (Jin et al., 2015) and leadership outcomes. For example, Shehu and Mahmood

(2014) found that SME owner-managers that influence their organizations with

innovative and supportive cultures tend to achieve higher levels of organizational

performance. SMEs typically operate with limited resources, such that leadership quality

and style becomes a key variable for stimulating organizational commitment (Pyngavil,

2015; Quan, 2015) and achieving positive organizational outcomes in this type of firm

(Garavan Watson, Carbery, & O’Brien, 2016). This argument is supported by Tsai,

Wang, and Yuan (2015) who argued that the positive outcomes associated with

transformational leadership in SMEs are mediated by organizational commitment and

employee competence.

The quality of leadership in SMEs is seen to be low compared to larger

organizations (Quan, 2015), therefore, improving leadership skills in SMEs will depend

to a large extent on the disposition of the SME owner-manager to learning, and the

resources available to the firm to engage in leadership development practices (Garavan et

al., 2016; Mendes & Lourenco, 2014). Majority of the research in the literature on

leadership styles have focused on large organizations, leaving the SME context

substantially under-researched (Franco & Matos, 2015). The few studies in the literature

on leadership in SMEs suggest the existence of different dimensions of leadership across

different cultures, thereby making the ability of SME owner-managers to understand their

local socio-economic environments (Sejjaaka, Mindra, & Nsereko, 2015) an important

factor for SMEs performance and sustainability.

Among the vast number of leadership styles in the literature, researchers have

found that transactional and transformational leadership are the dominant leadership

styles in SMEs (Kacem & El Harbi, 2014; Long et al., 2016; Mesu et al., 2015). These

two leadership styles have positive impact on several performance enablers in SMEs

including entrepreneurial orientation (Muchiri & McMurray, 2015), organizational

commitment (Long et al., 2016; Mittal 2016), employee innovativeness and productivity

(Gross, 2016; Kacem & El Harbi, 2014), quality of work life (Nanjundeswaraswamya &

Swamy, 2015), team performance (Lehmann-Willenbrock et al., 2015), and

organizational growth (Katou, 2015). This further justifies the need to anchor the

theoretical framework for this study on the transformational and transactional leadership

styles.

There is a cultural dimension to the leadership styles in SMEs. The leadership

styles that have been found to be dominant among SMEs in specific cultures are as

follows: India, autocratic leadership (Pyngavil, 2015); Turkey, transformational and

transactional leadership (Ozer & Tinaztepe, 2014); Netherlands, democratic leadership

(Mihai et al., 2017); Romania, democratic leadership (Mihai et al., 2017); Malaysia,

transformational leadership (Tajasom, Hung, Nikbin, & Hyun, 2015); Saudi Arabia,

transactional leadership (Albloshi & Nawar, 2015). These findings justify the need for an

exploratory qualitative study to gain an in-depth understanding of the relationship

between leadership styles and firm sustainability from more organizational and cultural

contexts (Pyngavil, 2015). In this current study, the organizational context is the SME

firm, and the cultural or geographical context is Nigeria.

Though Bass (1999) argued that every leader displays both transactional and

transformational attributes with each leader aligning more to either transformational

leadership style or the transactional leadership style, evidence in the literature from recent

articles suggest that transformational leadership have stronger influence on SME

performance than transactional leadership (Mekraz & Gundala, 2016; Mgeni & Nayak,

2016). Transformational leadership is an enabler for a creative environment in SMEs

(Mittal & Dhar, 2015) because it promotes knowledge sharing (Rawung, Wuryaningrat,

& Elvinita, 2015) and engenders trust between SME owner-managers and their

employees (Mittal, 2016). Transformational leadership increases the levels of

organizational commitment within the SME firm, thereby reducing employee turnover

intentions (Mittal, 2016). Transformational leadership is also seen as a predictor of

entrepreneurial orientation and frim performance in SMEs (Muchiri & McMurray, 2015).

In a study that reviewed the effectiveness of leadership styles on Turkish SMEs, Iscan et

al. (2014) found that transformational leadership had a strong influence on the

performance and innovativeness of SMEs in Turkey.

In a recent study, Franco and Matos (2015) explored the nature of leadership

styles in SMEs using the mixed method approach. The study involved three SMEs from

three different sectors in the Portuguese economy. The study was conceptualized based

on the three leadership styles in the FRLM: transformational leadership, transactional

leadership, and passive-avoidant leadership (laissez-faire). The results of the study

indicate that SME owner-managers do not faithfully follow any pure leadership style.

The authors found that in one firm, transformational leadership was dominant; in the

second firm, transactional leadership was dominant; while in the third firm, there was a

near equal exhibition of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors.

Therefore, the appropriateness of leadership styles in SMEs depends to a large extent on

the dynamics of the operating environment and specific organizational contexts (Franco

& Matos, 2105) of the SMEs. This conclusion is consistent with the findings by Mesu et

al. (2015) that explored the sectoral dimensions of leadership styles in SMEs in the

Netherlands and found that a combination of transformational and directive leadership

styles positively influenced organizational commitment within Dutch SMEs in the service

sector but not in the manufacturing sector.

With the multiplicity of leadership styles in the literature, it is reasonable to say

that there are no best leadership styles. In practice, leaders may align more with a

particular leadership style and less to others (Franco & Matos, 2015), especially in SMEs

where leadership styles depend to a large extent on the operating environment and

geographical locations of the SMEs (Franco & Matos, 2015). From a geographical

context, some researchers see the consciousness of SME leaders about their environment

(Sejjaaka et al., 2015) and their perseverance to survive within such environment

(Sejjaaka et al., 2015) at all odds as critical factors for the sustainability of the firm.

SMEs are increasingly faced with the ever-changing competitive global business

environment (World Bank, 2016a). Thus, the role of leadership in ensuring SME

sustainability has become very critical (Franco & Matos, 2015). SME owner-managers

lack the necessary understanding of how leadership styles can be used to improve firm

performance and organizational sustainability (Agwu & Emeti, 2014,) especially under

very volatile and competitive business environment (Kotter, 1990; World Bank 2016a).

The Nature of the Small and Medium Enterprises

The concept of the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is explained with

different criteria depending on the local context, country, and economic development of

the region in which it is located. In some instances, SMEs' definitions vary according to

the industry classification. These definitions are mostly associated with the number of

employees, net assets, and revenues of the SMEs. The most widely adopted SME

classification criterion in the literature is the number of employees. In the developed

economies, the threshold for SMEs is 250-500 employees (Aga, Francis, & Rodrigue-

Meza, 2015), while in the developing economies, the threshold is 100 employees or less

(Aga et al., 2015). The World Bank defines SMEs as enterprises with a maximum of 300

employees, annual turnover of 15 million Dollars and net assets of 15 million Dollars.

According to OECD, SMEs are firms employing up to 249 persons broken down into

micro enterprises (employing one to nine persons), small enterprises (employing 10 to 49

persons) and medium enterprises (50-249 persons).

The European Commission (2003) defined SMEs as organizations employing less

than 250 persons with annual revenues of 50 million Euros or less, and net assets not

exceeding 43 million Euros. In the United States, SMEs are defined according to industry

classification by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) developed

by statistical agencies in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In some countries, there

is still ambiguities and multiplicity of policies in the conceptualization of SMEs (Khatun,

2015). Some of the policies suffer from lack of effective implementation especially in

developing economies (Khatun, 2015).

In Nigeria, the first national policy on micro, small and medium enterprises

(MSMEs) was developed by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of

Nigeria (SMEDAN) and approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in 2007. The

policy was revised in 2015 to reflect the unfolding economic and social circumstances

affecting MSMEs in Nigeria. The policy defined small enterprises as organizations

employing 10-49 persons with an asset base of 10-99 million Naira (excluding land and

building). Medium enterprises are classified in the policy as organizations employing 50-

199 persons with net assets in the range of 50-1000 million Naira (excluding land and

buildings). Organizations employing less than ten persons are classified in the policy as

micro-enterprises. In Nigeria, the number of persons employed takes precedence over

asset base in the classification of SMEs.

Evidence from the study of various workplace processes of small firms suggests

that they are not merely miniature versions of large firms (Carson, 1990; Darcy et al.,

2014). Following a resourced-based view, Darcy et al. (2014) found that internal human

capital capabilities of SMEs are characteristically different from what is obtainable in

large firms, and a critical element of organizational human resource capability is

leadership. Some of the distinguishing characteristics of SMEs from large firms include

strategy formulation and implementation (Darcy et al., 2014), and the role of the owner-

manager (Darcy et al., 2014).

Significance of SMEs

The significance of SMEs in economic development varies across countries.

SMEs in the developed economies contribute more to employment generation than what

is obtainable in the less-developed or emerging economies (OECD, 2017; World Bank,

2015). Most SMEs in the emerging economies operate in the informal sector, with a

limited number of them operating in the formal sector (World Bank, 2015). The SMEs in

the informal sector find it difficult if not impossible to benefit from various government

interventions including the critical issue of finance. In a cross-sectional study involving

data from 104 countries, Ayyagari et al. (2014) found that SMEs within the threshold of

250 employees or more contributed more to employment generation in the developed

economies compared to SMEs within the threshold of 100 employees or less. The lower

employee-threshold SMEs are more predominant in the developing economies (Ayyagari

et al., 2014), which explains the observed lower contributions to employment growth and

GDP by SMEs in these countries (World Bank, 2015).

SMEs in the developing economies typically employ low income to lower-middle

income earners, while the higher employee-threshold SMEs are more prevalent in the

developed economies with significant upper middle-income to high-income earners

(Ayyagari et al., 2014). A recent European Commission report indicated that 25 million

SMEs in Europe generated over 3.9 trillion Euros in value added and employed 90

million people accounting for two-thirds of employment in Europe in 2015 (Muller,

Devani, Julius, Gagliardi, & Marzocchi, 2016). While there is a lot of research in the

literature on SMEs in the developed economies, there remains a paucity of research

regarding the SMEs in the developing economies (Aga et al., 2015)

Performance and Sustainability of SMEs

Though the operating environment of SMEs is traditionally assumed to be local,

the modern-day advances in information and communication technologies have exposed

SMEs to the same global forces of competition that are faced by large firms. SMEs are

not shielded from the competitive pressures faced by large firms (Darcy et al., 2014,

Yusuf & Dansu, 2013). Therefore, today's SMEs must be able to adapt to local and global

competitive pressures as a strategy for organizational sustainability. SMEs have to grow

to make a meaningful contribution to economic development. There is a connection

between the profitability of SMEs and their ability to grow (Yazdanfar & Ohman, 2015)

and contribute to economic development. Lee and Xin (2015) found that expansion in the

size of SMEs contributes more to economic development more than absolute increase in

their numbers. Mendes and Lourenco (2014) argued that the educational attainment and

priorities of SMEs' managers influence the disposition of these firms to improvement

programs that can enhance their enterprise performance and growth (Oladele & Akeke,

2016). Therefore, it is important to understand how an organizational process such as

leadership impact the performance and growth (Oladele & Akeke, 2016) of SMEs.

Regardless of the low level of leadership in small firms, Jansson et al. (2015)

argued that most SMEs have strong market orientation which can be explained by the

close connection between SMEs and their customers. A close connection with customers

gives SMEs some advantage in markets where they compete with large firms. Lonial and

Carter (2015) argued that strong marketing, entrepreneurial, and learning orientations are

critical factors that influence the performance and sustainability of SMEs, and

entrepreneurial orientation has been associated with specific leadership styles (Koe et al.,

2015). Evidence from the literature suggests that the relationship between market

orientation and performance of SMEs is mediated by organizational culture (Shehu &

Mahmood, 2014). Therefore, it becomes very important for SME leaders to fully

understand how their managerial behaviors and sustainability practices (Suriyankietkaew

& Avery, 2014) impact their stakeholders or influence the culture of their organizations,

and the impact of these behaviors and practices on organizational performance and

sustainability.

Researchers have identified several factors that influence the performance and

sustainability of SMEs. Some of these factors include location and sector

(Woldeyohanes, 2014), access to finance (Govori, 2013; World Bank 2015); managerial

skills and experience (Fatoki, 2014); and leadership styles (Iscan et al., 2014; Franco &

Matos, 2015). There is also the argument for researchers to look beyond quantitative

factors in the evaluation of performance and sustainability of SMEs. Gao and Banerji

(2015) argued that qualitative factors like growth in employee skills and customer

satisfaction are important factors that can sustain the SME firm. Equally, the character of

the SME owner-managers is an influencing factor on the performance and sustainability

of their organizations. For SMEs, existing studies show that several attributes of

managers like personality and social capital (Chollet et al., 2014), leadership qualities

(Craciun et al., 2015) and leadership styles (Franco & Matos, 2015; Iscan et al., 2014)

influence the performance of the SME firm. Also, the experience and competence of

SME owner-managers (Brien & Hamburg, 2014), their leadership orientation (Chanut-

Guieu & Guieu, 2014), and the ability to adapt to economic challenges (Brien &

Hamburg, 2014) are important success factors that drive organizational performance and

sustainability among the SME firms.

Most of the existing research in the literature on organizational sustainability has

focused on large firms leaving the phenomenon of organizational sustainability in SMEs

relative under-researched. The reasons for this neglect have been attributed to the notion

by some researchers that SMEs are scaled-down versions of large firms (Darcy et al.,

2014). This argument has been challenged in the literature as there are underlying

characteristics of SMEs that justify the need for them to be examined as distinct

organizations when compared to large firms (Carson, 1985; 1990; Yusuf & Dansu, 2013).

SMEs typically have different organizational orientations compared to large firms (Lonial

& Carter, 2015), and this makes it imperative for more research on various organizational

phenomena that impact the performance and sustainability of SMEs including the critical

issue of leadership style (He, Standen, & Coetzer, 2017).

There is the need for a better understanding of leadership styles as organizational

phenomena in SMEs. Szczepanska-Woszczyna and Kurowska-Pysz (2016) argued that

leadership is the most influential factor impacting the sustainability of SMEs because

SME owner-managers play a key role in strategically shaping the culture of their

organizations to align with sustainable economic, social, and environmental practices.

Sustainability factors associated with pollution and environment, economic growth,

social well-being, and performance management are very relevant to the SME firm (Tan,

Yeoa, Nga, Tjandraa, & Songa, 2015). SME firms are closer to their cultural environment

compared to large firms, and cultural adaptability has been found to mediate the

effectiveness of transformational leadership in SMEs (Manaf & Latif, 2014). Thus, SMEs

can be more responsive than larger firms in meeting the needs of customers within their

immediate operating environment. This is an important competitive advantage that can

enhance the performance and growth of the SME firms.

The Nigerian Context

According to the World Bank (2016b) population report, Nigeria ranks number 7

in the world with 2016 population estimate of approximately 186 million people. The

fertility rate in Nigeria is among the highest in the developing world, with an annual

population growth rate averaging 2.7% (World Bank, 2016b). Nigeria's GDP is the

largest in Africa with 2016 GDP estimate of approximately 405 billion Dollars (World

Bank, 2017b). Nigeria’s economy is highly dependent on oil and gas exports (World

Bank, 2017a). The collapse of oil prices in the international market from 2015, coupled

with serious sabotage of oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta region led to a substantial

decrease in Nigerian government revenues (World Bank, 2017a).

The Nigerian economy went into full recession in 2016 (World Bank, 2017a) with

a GDP contraction of 1.5% in 2016 (World Bank, 2017a), and a sharp depreciation of the

Naira by over 50% against the United States Dollars in the official market and as much as

250% at the parallel market. Inflation rate as at December 2016 was 18.6% (World Bank,

2017a). With improving international oil prices in 2017, reduction in the sabotage of

Nigerian oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta region, and with improved economic

policies of the Nigerian government, the Nigerian economy showed signs of recovery in

2017 with a minimal positive GDP growth of 1% projected for 2017 (World Bank,

2017a).

Unemployment and inflation rates were estimated at 5% and 9.6% respectively

for the year 2016 (World Bank, 2017b). The unemployment rate was measured as a

percentage of the total labor force (World Bank, 2017b). The Nigerian socio-economic

environment is characterized by high levels of poverty and income inequality. There is a

serious gap between the economic growth indices and the rate of decline in poverty. It is

estimated that for every 1% growth in GDP, the poverty rate declined by only 0.6%

(World Bank, 2016b). Part of the problem is that there are limited economic activities and

opportunities in the rural communities leading to very high levels of rural-urban

migration.

The Nigerian SME Environment

SMEs (including micro enterprises) are the vastest business enterprises in

Nigeria but their slow pace of growth and lack of sustainability limit the overall

contribution of these firms to Nigeria's GDP (Ikharehon & Briggs, 2016). In Nigeria, the

conceptualization of SMEs is based on the number of employees and net assets

(excluding land and buildings) of the firm, with the number of employees having

precedence over net assets. The Nigerian national policy on MSMEs (SMEDAN, 2015)

defined small enterprises as organizations employing 10-49 persons with an asset base of

10-99 million Naira (excluding land and building). Medium enterprises are classified in

the policy as organizations employing 50 to 199 persons with net assets in the range of

50-1000 million Naira (excluding land and buildings). Organizations employing less than

ten persons are classified in the policy as micro-enterprises.

According to the 2013 National MSME collaborative survey (SMEDAN, 2013),

the estimated number of micro enterprises was 36.99 million with minimum total

employment of 57.84 million; small and medium enterprises stood at 68,168 and 4,670

respectively, with combined employment figures of 1,903,820 persons. The SMEs in

Nigeria mostly operate in the formal sectors of the economy while the micro enterprises

operate in the informal sector (SMEDAN, 2013). Available statistics show that 53,000

out of the about 73,000 SMEs in Nigeria are sole proprietorships, about 10,000 limited

liability companies, and about 5,000 partnerships (SMEDAN, 2013). SMEs cut across

various sectors of the Nigerian economy, and their contributions to the Nigerian GDP

vary by sector. For example, Nigerian GDP estimates for 2013 show that in the

administrative and support services sector, SMEs contributed 80.96% to Nigeria GDP;

50.46% in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector; 41.66% in the accommodation

and food services sector; 41.25% in the manufacturing sector; and 39.17 in the

educational sector (SMEDAN 2013).

SMEs can play important roles in employment generation, income

redistribution, poverty alleviation, and an overall increase in the level of economic

activities; especially in the rural communities. Nigeria has a high rate of unemployment,

and this could partly explain the high rate of crime and sectarian violence among

Nigerian youths. Well managed SMEs can provide opportunities for employment

generation in Nigeria (Etuk et al., 2014). Unfortunately, SMEs in Nigeria operate under

very harsh economic and infrastructural environment (Motilewa, Ogbari, & Aka, 2015.

This explains the very low survival rate for SMEs in Nigeria, with most of them going

into extinction within the first 5 years of existence (Ajike et al., 2015). This problem is

further compounded because the owner-managers of most SMEs in Nigeria have limited

knowledge on the factors that might contribute to business sustainability (Uchehara,

2017) including the critical factor of leadership style (Nanjundeswaraswamya & Swamy,

2015; Oladele & Akeke, 2016). This makes it imperative for a proper understanding of

the possible knowledge gaps regarding leadership and human resource development

within the Nigerian SME context.

Challenges of SMEs in Nigeria

SMEs in Nigeria operate under difficult and challenging economic environment

(Motilewa et al., 2015; Nassar & Faloye, 2015; Ocheni, 2015), and therefore, find it

difficult to perform and grow. The economic difficulties faced by SMEs in Nigeria is due

to the lack of appropriate infrastructure and sustainable government policies (Ikharehon

& Briggs, 2016) that have propelled the success of SMEs in the developed economies.

Successive Nigerian governments have failed to put the necessary infrastructure and

policies in place to engender entrepreneurial activities that can promote economic

development (Ofili, 2014).

A recent World Bank report (World Bank, 2016a) ranked Nigeria as 169th out of

189 countries on the ease of doing business index. This low ranking is indicative of the

difficulties faced by organizations doing business in Nigeria including SMEs. The

Nigerian unfriendly economic environment hinders creativity and innovativeness (Nassar

& Faloye, 2015) within the Nigerian SME firms and this easily translates to stagnation

and closure of these firms.

The Infrastructure Problem. The Nigerian business environment is

characterized by lack of enabling infrastructure that can support the development and

growth of small businesses. Electricity generation and distribution infrastructure are

marred by low capacity and operational inefficiencies. Small business owners are forced

to generate their electricity. The road infrastructure is in very bad condition leading to

severe financial loses in the movement of goods across the country. Telecommunication

service providers are very unreliable, and users often pay for services that were not

rendered. All these infrastructural challenges increase the cost of products and services of

SMEs in Nigeria making it impossible for them to grow and survive.

Unstable Macro-Economic Environment. The Nigerian economic environment

is characterized by unstable fiscal and monetary regulatory policies. Inadequate and

unstable government policies have negative consequences for economic activities and the

performance of SMEs. For example, Arasti et al. (2014) found that inappropriate and

unstable government policies were responsible for high failure rates of SMEs in Iran. The

situation in Nigerian is not different. There are the problems of inadequacy or lack of

continuity of government policies in Nigeria. The resulting unstable economic

environment does not support the growth and long-term survival of SMEs (Ocheni, 2015;

Ofili, 2014). It becomes important to understand the role that leadership style can play to

improve the survival chances of SMEs under an unstable economic environment such as

Nigeria.

The Funding Related Problems. Traditionally, SMEs all over the world are

initially funded from owners' savings, though in the advanced Western economies,

opportunities exist for SMEs to obtain initial funding from Venture Capital institutions

and other financial institutions that provide start-up capital for new enterprises. In the less

developed economies such as Nigeria, there are no established financial institutions that

provide start-up capital for SMEs (Agba et al., 2015). Owners or promoters of these SME

firms in Nigeria rely on own capital which is often jeopardized by lack of personal

savings due to high poverty rates and high cost of living. Evidence in the literature

suggests that the provision of adequate funding for SMEs in Nigeria will have a

significant positive impact on their performance and sustainability (Ilegbinosa & Jumbo,

2015).

SMEs in Nigeria are often unable to borrow money from the Commercial Banks

due to lack of collaterals to secure such loans (Ilegbinosa & Jumbo, 2015); either because

they do not own assets of sufficient value or due to the high cost of documenting and

perfecting title documents in Nigeria. Commercial banks in Nigeria see SMEs as high-

risk ventures (Imoughele & Ismaila, 2014); such that even when a few of the SMEs

provide the necessary collaterals, the funds come at very high cost with severe

consequences on their financial condition (Imoughele & Ismaila, 2014), which in turn

impact performance and growth of the SME firms.

The Human Capital Problem. Employees are critical organizational resources

irrespective of firm size. The ability to source, develop and retain capable employees is

one of the challenges facing organizations. The inability to deal with this challenge could

have serious consequences for organizational performance and sustainability. There are

the issues of skills gap, and poor employee-job fit among SMEs in Nigeria. SMEs in

Nigeria do not understand the competencies that are required by their employees to

effectively fulfill their roles (SMEDAN, 2013). This position is further supported by the

finding from Ugheoke, Isa, and Noor (2014) that ensuring individual-firm fit improved

the performance of SMEs in Nigeria.

It is common knowledge that large organizations poach experienced personnel

from smaller firms making it impossible for them to retain sufficiently experienced

people that can help the organization to drive innovation and growth. In Nigeria, the

problem is further compounded because the SMEs lack the financial capacity to pay good

salaries that will attract or retain competent and experienced personnel. This results in

poor organizational commitment and high employee turn-over rate among the SMEs in

Nigeria.

The Profitability Problem. SMEs in Nigeria are prone to low profitability

primarily because of the high cost of doing business in Nigeria (World Bank, 2016a). The

efficiency of sales and marketing activities have an impact on the sales volume and

profitability of any business enterprise. Researchers in Nigeria have found that a

significant relationship exists between the marketing problems faced by SMEs and their

low sales volumes (Ebitu, Ufot, & Olom, 2015). Some of these marketing problems

include poor marketing skills and the lack of financing to support upscale marketing

activities that will enable their products to compete with those made by larger firms

(Ebitu et al., 2015). The marketing problems faced by SMEs have also been reported in

other developing economies around the world. Khatun (2015) argued that SMEs in the

rural areas in Bangladesh lack access to information that will enable them to properly

price their products and this has negative consequences for achieving profitability and

growth.

Performance of SMEs in Nigeria

Since SMEs in Nigeria operate under difficult economic environment, it becomes

imperative for SME owner-managers in Nigeria to devise survival strategies that will

ensure the sustainability of their enterprise (Ifekwem & Ademola, 2016). Researchers

have adduced several reasons to explain the poor performance, lack of growth and non-

sustainability of SMEs in Nigeria. While some of these problems arise from ineffective

government policies (Ocheni, 2015), inefficient public institutions, and lack of critical

infrastructure (Etuk et al., 2014; Obokoh & Goldman, 2016;), others are attributable to

organizational shortcomings of the Nigerian SME firm which include lack of managerial

skills and poor human capital development (Ogunyomi & Bruning, 2016; Olowu &

Aliyu, 2015; Roman et al., 2016), poor risk management (Yusuf & Dansu, 2013), and the

existence of knowledge gaps on the implications of leadership styles for organizational

sustainability (Etuk et al., 2014).

SME owner-managers in Nigeria have very negative attitudes toward risk

management (Yusuf & Dansu, 2013) and this increases the vulnerability of SMEs in

high-risk economic environments such as Nigeria. Local business risks in Nigeria include

financial risks, operational risks, environmental risks, competitive risks, and security

risks. In most cases, the Nigerian SMEs cannot take appropriate insurance policies that

can cover these risks. Furthermore, the Nigerian SME firms lack access to modern

information communication technologies (ICT) which can support creativity and

innovativeness (Rufai, 2014), and at the same time, help to address some of the local

business risks. This development is different from what is obtainable in the developed

economies where creativity and innovativeness supported with modern ICT infrastructure

have been proven to be the major driver for SME performance and growth (Lee & Xin,

2015). Since some researchers have attributed innovativeness in SMEs to specific

leadership styles (Mittal & Dhar, 2015), it, therefore, becomes imperative to fully

understand the role that leadership style can play in transforming the Nigerian SMEs into

creative, innovative, and sustainable organizations.

Summary

Chapter 2 examined the existing resources regarding the key concepts in this

study which are leadership styles, leadership in SMEs, the relationship between

leadership styles and SME performance, and SME sustainability. The studies that were

reviewed examined leadership styles from different contexts including firm size,

multiculturalism, organizational performance, and sustainability. Evidence from the

literature suggests that specific leadership styles have varying levels of influence on SME

performance (Dunne et al., 2016; Oladele, 2106), and this influence has both

organizational and cultural contexts. The conceptualization of the study was anchored on

the FRLM (Avolio & Bass, 1991). The key elements of the FRLM are transformational

leadership theory, transactional leadership theory, and the laissez-faire leadership theory.

From a Nigerian context, there remains paucity of studies regarding the

relationship between leadership styles in SMEs and its impact on organizational

performance and sustainability. Among all the factors associated with the poor

performance of Nigerian SMEs, leadership style is seen as the most critical factor that

impacts the long-term sustainability of these firms (Abdullahi & Sulaiman, 2015; Agwu

& Emeti, 2014; Uchehara, 2017). With the high mortality rate of SMEs in Nigeria (Ajike

et al., 2015), it is doubtful if SME owner-managers in Nigeria understand the

implications of leadership styles for the performance and sustainability (Abdullahi &

Sulaiman, 2015; Agwu & Emeti, 2014; Franco & Matos, 2015) of their organizations. In

Chapter 3, I presented the research method for this study.

Chapter 3: Research Method

Introduction

The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore the experiences

of SME owner-managers in Nigeria to gain an in-depth understanding of their leadership

style and its implications for long-term performance and growth of their enterprise. The

outcome of this study has added the Nigerian contexts of leadership styles in SMEs into

the leadership literature. Majority of the research in the literature on leadership styles

have focused on large organizations, leaving the SME context substantially under-

researched (Franco & Matos, 2015). SMEs are characteristically small-sized and operate

with limited resources. As such, leadership quality and style become a key variable for

stimulating organizational commitment (Pyngavil, 2015; Quan, 2015) and achieving

positive organizational outcomes in this type of firm (Garavan et al., 2016).

In this chapter, I discussed the research approach and the methodology for

conducting the study. I explained the role of the researcher in detail to deal with issues of

researcher's bias and how it was controlled in the study. In the design rationale, I

provided the reasons for adopting the case-study method over other qualitative methods. I

discussed the strategies for participants' selection and the procedures for recruiting

participants. I described the data collection instruments, methods, and the data analysis

procedures and ensured that these procedures were aligned with steps that were taken to

address the issues of internal and external validity, dependability, and confirmability.

Finally, I discussed and justified the ethical procedures that was followed to ensure

confidentiality and protection of the study participants.

Research Design and Rationale

The phenomenon that I explored in this study is leadership styles in SMEs from

the context of a developing economy such as Nigeria. The gap in the literature is that it

remains unknown the specific knowledge gaps that exist among SME owner-managers in

Nigeria regarding leadership style and its implications on their enterprises' performance

and long-term sustainability. Leadership style has been described as the manner that a

leader uses to influence followers to achieve set objectives (Burns, 1978;

Nanjundeswaraswamya & Swamy, 2015), and it is the most critical factor that drives

organizational performance and sustainability in SMEs (Franco & Matos, 2015; Oladele

& Akeke, 2016). Evidence in the literature suggests that leadership styles have both

cultural (Aritz & Walker, 2014) and organizational (Dias et al., 2017) contexts. In this

study, the organizational context was the SME firm, and the cultural context was

Nigeria.

There is a relationship between the philosophical worldview of a researcher and

the research approach that is adopted for a study (Patton, 2015). Constructivist worldview

advocates rely on the views of individuals that have experienced the situations under

investigation (Baskarada, 2014; Kim, 2014; Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). This worldview is

consistent with the qualitative research approach that focuses on understanding the

meaning that individuals ascribe to their experiences on different types of social and

human problems (Maxwell, 2013; Merriam & Tisdell, 2015).

The quantitative approach was not suitable for this study because it focuses on the

relationships between variables. Patton (2015) and Cronin (2014) argued that the

quantitative approach cannot be used to discover some hidden aspects of a human

phenomenon such as leadership style. Patton (2015) argued that appropriate research

questions must be raised to address the purpose of a qualitative study. The research

questions to a large extent determine the nature of method design that the researcher will

undertake. To address the purpose of the study, I raised one main research question:

What are the specific knowledge gaps among SME owners and managers in

Nigeria regarding leadership style and its implications on their enterprises’ long-term

sustainability?

The choice of an appropriate qualitative methodology for any inquiry will depend

on the nature of the phenomenon that will be explored, and the research questions raised

by the researcher. In choosing a specific qualitative method for a study, there is the need

for a proper understanding of the research questions and a full consideration of the

strengths and limitations of each qualitative method in dealing with the research

questions (Patton, 2015). The researcher must justify the rationale for choosing a

particular methodology over others (Boddy, 2016). Some of the methods commonly used

by qualitative researchers include narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory,

ethnography, and case study. This study involved exploring how people understand and

apply the phenomenon of leadership style within specific organizational contexts. Ridder

(2017) argued that case study design is the most appropriate methodology for exploring

or examining such phenomenon within specific contexts.

Unlike other qualitative approaches such as phenomenology and grounded theory

that have more coherent design strategies in literature, case study design attracts a lot of

variations in the literature (Yazan, 2015), such that each design is aligned to the specific

circumstances of the case under investigation. Hyett et al. (2014) argued that the variation

in case study design are often attributed to the peculiarities of the case and the research

questions. This allows the researcher the opportunity to construct theories both from

within-case analysis and across-case analysis.

Case study design can involve single or multiple cases. Baskadara (2014) argued

that multiple-case study design is preferred to a single-case study unless there are special

justifications that suggest that single-case study will be more appropriate for the study. In

this study, there was no rationale for the existence of critical case, an extreme case, a

representative, or typical case that would have justified the use of single-case study

design for the study. Eisenhardt & Graebner (2007) argued that multiple-case study is the

most rigorous strategy for building or extending theory on an organizational phenomenon

in doctoral level research. Also, some researchers have argued that the multiple-case

study strategy allows data analyses within and across cases (Baxter & Jack, 2008; Cronin,

2014), thus providing a better understanding of the study phenomenon. I selected the

multiple case study as the most appropriate type of case study for this research because it

allowed an in-depth understanding of leadership in SMEs from multiple contexts. To

deal with the cost and schedule challenges inherent in multiple-case studies, Yin (2017)

recommended the use of "replication" in the design of the study similar to the use of

multiple experiments in experimental designs. The introduction of contextual

perspectives in the replication of multiple-case studies allows the anticipation of

contrasting outcomes in what Yin (2017) referred to as "theoretical replication." This type

of replication provides the basis for cross-case comparisons within the multiple-case

study design.

Role of the Researcher

In qualitative inquiry, the researcher is the main instrument for conducting the

study (Maxwell, 2013). The researcher has the primary responsibility for collecting all

the data to be used in the study through interviews, observations, document reviews, and

researcher's reflections. The researcher is an active participant (Kim, 2014) in the

process, acting in collaboration with the selected study participants in the construction of

meanings (Kim, 2014). As the main instrument for this research, I took all necessary

steps to ensure that richly informative and unbiased data were collected and analyzed in

the study.

The interpretative nature of qualitative studies requires that the researcher makes

explicit their experiences, biases, personal background (Greene, 2014), such that these

considerations add value rather than undermine the researcher's interpretations and

propositions. Though it is helpful for the researcher to bring relevant personal

experiences into the research process, care must be taken to ensure that these experiences

do not bring bias or constitute ethical flaws in the research. Maxwell (2013)

recommended the use of "researcher identity memo" (p. 34) to fully describe the

researcher's beliefs and experiences that might influence the research process. I ensured

that no personal biases were brought into the interviews, observations, and documentary

reviews such that my personal opinions were not included in the collected data.

The relationships that exist between the researcher and the participants before the

research, during the research, and after the research are critical elements of the research

design. Maxwell (2013) recommended that the researcher must reflect on these

relationships and take decisions in the design such that these relationships do not affect

the outcomes of the research. It is also important that any prior personal or professional

relationships between the researcher and any of the participants are well explained before

the commencement of data collection. During the participants’ selection stage, when I

noticed any prior personal or professional relationships with any of the purposefully

selected participants, I took all necessary steps to avoid conflict of interests that may have

undermined the objectives of the study. I ensured a purposeful and equitable selection of

participants such that no potential participants were unfairly included or excluded.

In conducting research that requires interaction with human beings, the researcher

must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the objectives of the study do not take

precedence over the ethical and moral protection of the rights of the participants (Haines,

2017). The researcher must ensure that the selected research methodology is ethically and

morally acceptable, and protective of the participants throughout the process of gaining

access to them, data collection and interpretation, and up the point of using or publishing

the outcomes of the study. I ensured that this study was be conducted in full compliance

with the Walden University research protocols and the Institutional Review Board (IRB)

regulations. I ensured the anonymity of the research process, maintaining the

confidentiality of informants, obtained the informed consent of participants, and properly

assessed and mitigated the potential influences of researcher-participant interactions

(Sanjari, Bahramnezhad, Fomani, Shoghi, & Cheraghi, 2014).

Methodology

The choice of methodology for a qualitative study must address the purpose of the

study and the research questions (Stake, 2013). For this study, I ensured a methodological

rigor by adhering to recommendations from the methodological literature. The

methodology for this study was the multiple-case study design. Stake (2013) established

that, though multiple-case study design may not be suitable for all research purposes, it is

an appropriate methodology for studies advancing the generation of theory. In using the

multiple-case study design, the researcher must first establish the unit of analysis which

can be a person, event, organization, or other unit of analysis (Noor, 2008). If the unit of

analysis is an organization, the researcher must also establish the number of participants

within each unit (Noor, 2008) that will provide data for the study.

For this multiple-case study, I adopted Yin’s (2017) concept of replication logic

that allows each case to be treated as a unit of analysis (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007).

The unit of analysis for this multiple-case study was the SME firm. Six SME firms that

met the selection criteria were used in the study, and each SME firm was treated as a

single case. To meet the selection criteria for the study, the SME must be owner-managed

and employing 10–199 persons (SMEDAN, 2013). For multiple-case study, Yin (2017)

recommended the use of six to10 cases, while Patton (2014) argued that five to10

participants are sufficient for a qualitative study because larger samples will not allow for

an in-depth investigation of the phenomenon of interest.

Purposeful sampling is used in qualitative research because it generates

information of greatest utility to the study instead of relying on chance which is what

random sampling connotes (Maxwell 2013). Because of the limited number of cases and

participants in this study, it was appropriate to use the purposeful sampling technique as

recommended by Palinkas et al. (2015). I selected the six SMEs for the study

purposefully across three SME-dominant sectors (education, whole/retail trading, and

manufacturing) in the Nigerian economy; with each case selection following the

maximum variation (heterogeneity) and the snowballing sampling strategies as

recommended by Patton (2015). According to Merriam and Tsidell (2015), the

snowballing sampling strategy involved asking participants that met the selection criteria

to provide references for other participants that will meet the selection criteria.

To address the research problem and research questions, I collected qualitative

data from multiple sources including interviews of SME owner-managers, which will be

triangulated with researcher's field notes, observations, review of internal documents of

SMEs, and my reflections. The triangulation of data in qualitative research was supported

by Baillie (2015). I used the cross-case synthesis data analysis technique for the analysis

of data and adopted the triangulation of data sources to improve the trustworthiness and

robustness of data and the findings therefrom as recommended by Guion et al. (2011) and

Patton (2014). The use of multiple-case study design allowed for comparing and

contrasting data within and between cases. The data collection process followed the

participants’ selection logic for the study.

Participant Selection Logic

Understanding the unit of analysis is one of the fundamental choices that underpin

case study research (Baskadara, 2014). Unit of analysis can be individuals, groups, and

organizations among others (Cronin, 2014). In qualitative case study research, a case is

the unit of analysis. In this study, a case represented an SME that has met the sample

selection criteria. My research involved the exploration of leadership styles within

Nigerian SMEs using a multiple-case study strategy.

In multiple-case study research, there is the need to choose the number of cases,

as well as to select participants within each case (Maxwell, 2013). In deciding the number

of cases and choice of participants, there is the need to first understand the relationship

between the sampling numbers and the other sampling elements like settings, events, and

processes (Maxwell, 2013). There is no consensus in the literature on the number of cases

in multiple-case study design. Merriam (2009) argued that there is no set number of

participants for multiple-case study design, while Yin (2017) recommended six-10 cases.

The number of cases in my multiple-case study was six SMEs. The use of six cases in the

study provided me with the opportunity to cover some of the sectoral variabilities among

SMEs in Nigeria.

In selecting the cases for my study, I used the purposeful sampling technique as

recommended by Maxwell (2013) and Patton (2015). In qualitative research, sample

selection does not have to be representative of any given population because of its theory-

building nature (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). Random sampling is not appropriate for

this study because it can only achieve representativeness and typicality if large samples

are involved (Maxwell, 2103). With a limited number of cases or participants, it becomes

more appropriate to use the purposeful sampling technique to generate information of

greatest utility to the study rather than relying on chance which is what random sampling

connotes (Maxwell 2013). The purposeful sampling technique involves the deliberate

selection of cases, events, settings, groups, persons, and activities that are most relevant

to answering the research questions and meeting the overall objectives of the study

(Maxwell, 2013; Patton, 2015). Though there is still ambiguity and lack of clarity in the

use of purposeful sampling in qualitative research (Gentles et al., 2015), it remains the

most widely used method of sampling in qualitative research especially for case study

methodology (Patton, 2015)

In selecting the cases for my study, I was guided by the following principles. The

first goal was to ensure that the selected samples meet the Nigerian SMEs classification

criteria (SMEDAN, 2015), which are organizations employing from 10-199 persons. The

second goal was to ensure that the selected SMEs will provide rich information that will

answer the research questions on leadership within SMEs (Maxwell, 2013) and provide

representativeness and heterogeneity for contextual cross-analysis of data (Gentles et al.,

2015). Franco and Matos (2015) used sectorial variation to introduce opportunities for

cross-case analysis in a multiple case study that explored leadership styles in three

Portuguese SMEs. The third goal was to ensure that each case can provide information

that can be related to the theories that have been used to anchor the study (Maxwell,

2013). The fourth goal was to ensure that I can have sufficient access to each case to

achieve a productive research relationship with the owner-managers of the selected firms

(Maxwell, 2013).

Instrumentation

The main instrument for data collection in this study was semistructured

interviews. McIntosh and Morse (2015) recommended the use of a semistructured

interview over structured interviews because it ensures a focused and consistent stream of

questions with reasonable objectivity across cases while allowing sufficient flexibility to

the researcher for full exploration and contextual interaction with each of the

interviewees. The development of the semistructured interview protocol was guided by

the following considerations: a) revelations regarding leadership styles from existing

studies in the leadership and b) ensuring that every interview question is aligned with the

problem statement, purpose of the study, and research questions.

The semistructured interview protocol contains two sections. The first section

contains participants’ information. The second section consists of seven pre-determined

questions that was asked to the interviewees across all the selected cases (See Appendix

A). Answers to these questions addressed the main research question in the study. The

interview questions were created in simple language such that ambiguity and

misrepresentation of questions by participants are not anticipated. Responses from the

interviewees was audio recorded during the interview.

To comply with the requirements for approval by the Institutional Review Board

(IRB), I will carried out a validation of the main data collection instrument (interview

questions guide) by sending the proposed interview questions to one subject experts from

the Walden Faculty excluding members of my Dissertation Committee. The feedback

from the subject experts was used to refine the interview questions to ensure that the

questions were easy to understand, relevant to the study, and valid (Stake, 1995).

The response to the first interview question, "Describe the nature of relationships

between you and your employees?" was used to examine the SME owner-managers'

behavioral and relational traits and provide insights into the research question.

Researchers have long associated certain personality traits and behavioral competencies

to the effectiveness of leadership (Grobler & Du Plessis, 2016). In the process of

providing organizational leadership, personality traits manifest in the form of different

behaviors which underpin the relationships that exist between a leader and the followers.

This argument is supported by the traits approach to leadership theory which suggests

that leadership behaviors emerge from individual personality traits (Landis et al., 2014).

Some researchers have argued that leader personality should be given more attention in

the examination of the concept of leadership styles (Deichmann & Stam, 2015).

The response to the second interview question, "Describe your leadership

experiences in your organization?" was used to examine the leadership characteristics of

the SME owner-managers and provide insights to the research question. Context and

culture have been found to influence leader behavior and leadership effectiveness

(Grobler & Du Plessis, 2016). Researchers have found that specific leadership attributes

have varying levels of influence on organizational performance factors like emotional

intelligence (Dabke, 2016), personality (Chollet et al., 2014), and social capital (Chollet

et al., 2014).

The response to the third interview question, "Describe how you get your

employees to resolve problems and achieve organizational goals?" was used to examine

the leadership orientation of the SME owner-managers and provide insights into the

research question. Leadership style has been described as the manner that a leader uses to

influence followers to achieve set objectives (Burns, 1978; Nanjundeswaraswamya &

Swamy, 2015), and it is seen as the most critical factor that drives organizational

performance and sustainability (Almatrooshi et al., 2016; Grobler & Du Plessis, 2016).

Some researchers have disagreed with the organizational relevance of leadership style by

arguing that the essence of leadership and its adaptability are the more critical factors in

the leadership process (Silva, 2014). Regardless of this criticism, there is overwhelming

evidence in the literature that some positive organizational outcomes are attributable to

the style of leadership (Chege et al., 2015; Ozer & Tinaztepe, 2014).

The response to the fourth interview question, "Describe how you help your

employees develop themselves to achieve organizational goals?" was used to examine the

manner in which SME owner-managers use specific leadership styles in their

organizations and provide insights into the research question. Researchers have found

that different leadership styles have varying levels of influence on different

organizational circumstances (Long et al., 2014), and are critical in stimulating employee

work-related attitudes (Longe, 2014). Leadership style is one of the most influential

factors that impact employee creativity (Derecskei, 2016), which is an enabler for

organizational performance and sustainability. The elements of leadership style that

enhance organizational sustainability are those that focus on employee well-being and

providing an enabling environment for innovation and entrepreneurship among

employees (Grobler & Du Plessis, 2016).

The response to the fifth, sixth and seventh interview questions provided insights

into the research question regarding specific leadership styles. The response to the fifth

interview question, "Describe your experiences setting targets for your employees?" was

used to examine the SME owner-managers' transformational or transactional leadership

behavior. The response to the sixth interview question, "Describe how you reward your

employees when they achieve or surpass set targets?" was used to examine the SME

owner-managers' transformational or transactional leadership behavior. The response to

the seventh interview question, "Describe how you feel when your employees fail to do

what you expect of them?" was be used to examine the SME owner-managers' laissez-

faire leadership behavior. Bass (1997) argued that transactional and transformational

leadership have universal applicability and acceptance and that every leader exhibits

some form of transactional and transformational leadership behavior.

To ensure completeness and integrity of the interview data, a digital audio

recorder was used to record all interviews with the SME owner-managers. During each

interview session, the researcher made handwritten field notes regarding the

interviewee’s attitudes, emotions, and body language that could provide more insight into

the interviewee’s responses to the interview questions. At the end of each interview, the

researcher transcribed the audio recordings and sent the transcript to the interviewee to

solicit feedback regarding any discrepancies in the transcribed content of the interview

sessions. All participants were distinctly identified using a numerical classification

system to maintain confidentiality of the participants (Patton, 2015). The audio recording

of each interview, the transcripts, and the researcher’s handwritten field notes were

securely stored for easy retrieval during data analysis and interpretations.

Procedures for Recruitment and Participation

The location for this study was Port Harcourt, in the South-South of Nigeria.

SMEs that participated in the study were selected from the manufacturing, education, and

wholesale/retail trade sectors of the Nigerian economy. These three sectors account for

more than 75% of SMEs in Nigeria (SMEDAN, 2013). Two SMEs was selected from

each of the three sectors based on purposeful sampling technique that will allow for either

literal or theoretical replication. For literal replication, the cases are selected such that

they will predict similar outcomes while in theoretical replication, the cases are selected

such that they produce contrasting outcomes based on explainable reasons such as

sectorial variability (Franco & Matos, 2015).

In Nigeria, there are no comprehensive and reliable databases on SMEs. This did

not pose a problem for the study because, in multiple-case design, the most critical thing

is to select cases that are fully accessible to the researcher and provide data that will

comprehensively address the research questions (Noor, 2008). The selection of cases was

driven by insights into the phenomenon and not by representativeness of any population

(Patton, 2015). As such, potential participants (cases) were selected using a combination

of two purposeful sampling techniques; the maximum variation (heterogeneity) and the

snowballing sampling techniques (Patton, 2015).

The maximum variation technique allows for diversity (Patton, 2015) which will

provide an opportunity for synthesis within and across cases. The snowballing technique

allows the creation of participants through "people who know people" (Patton, 2015,

p.270) that will be appropriate to provide rich information on the study phenomenon

(Maxwell, 2013). In using the snowball technique, researchers can rely on "personal

networks and word-of-mouth referrals" (Ponelis, 2015, p.540) to get access to informants

that will be suitable for the study.

Potential participating SMEs were invited in writing (Appendix B) after being

purposefully selected using the maximum variation and snowballing sampling

techniques. For the SMEs that provided positive responses, the researcher made further

personal contacts with the SME owner-managers to ensure that the researcher will have

full access to the interviewees and obtain their commitment to a productive research

relationship that will produce rich information regarding the research questions

(Maxwell, 2013). The six selected SMEs for the study each signed the informed consent

form (Appendix C) before the interviews were conducted.

SMEs that did not meet the selection criteria after the personal interaction

between the researcher and the SME owner-manager were dropped, and reasons for

dropping them were documented. Those that rejected the offer to participate upon receipt

of invitation letter were excluded, and the reasons given by them for non-participation

were documented. This process was repeated until two cases that best fit into the

theoretical replication design for the study were selected from each of the three identified

SME sectors to be covered in the study. All the successful and unsuccessful selection

attempts were reported.

The interviews were scheduled with the SME owner-managers within their

premises, preferably in the SME owner- manager's office to allow for physical sighting

and review of documents where necessary and when agreeable by the interviewee. The

date and time for the interviews were fixed at the convenience of the interviewees. The

interviewees were informed in advance that the interview will be tape-recorded and later

transcribed. Each interviewee received a draft of the transcribed interview for re-

confirmation or clarification of their recorded statements. If the need arises, an interview

may be structured as a prolonged case study interview to suit the convenience of the

interviewee. In prolonged case study interviews, the interview can take place in more

than one sitting (Yin, 2017) and could last for up to two hours or more.

Each SME owner-manager was interviewed individually and privately to allow

for relaxed discussion and good audio recording. There was no group interviews. Each

SME owner-manager was asked the same set of the eight listed interview questions

(Appendix A). The researcher used personal discretion to determine which follow-up

questions were appropriate for each interviewee based on their responses to each main

interview question. Every participating SME was referenced by coded names to protect

their confidentiality. The names of the SME owner-managers that were interviewed were

not mentioned.

Data Collection

Upon the receipt of approval from the Walden University IRB committee to

conduct the study, I commenced the process of contacting potential participants (SMEs).

In case study research, data can be collected from multiple sources including but not

limited to interviews, documents, archival data, and the researcher personal observations

and reflections (Vissak, 2010). Face to face interview remains one of the most important

sources of data in case study research (Yin, 2017). When the study participants are well

informed about the phenomenon of study, they can provide the researcher with additional

sources of information (Vissak, 2010) that can reveal relevant information about the

phenomenon. Multiple sources of data are highly recommended in a case study research

(Baskadara, 2014). The sources of data for this study were semistructured interviews,

researcher's field notes, observations, document reviews, and researcher's reflections

(Yin, 2017).

In making contacts to set up interview appointments, I ensured that the

interviewees understood that participation was voluntary (Rubin & Rubin, 2012) and that

each interviewee has signed the informed consent form. The purpose of the research and

the basis of selection of the participants was communicated to each interviewee (Rubin &

Rubin, 2012) before the actual interview process. Interviewing strangers can be

particularly difficult (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). To deal with this problem, the researcher

kept a close communication with the participants from the initial time of obtaining the

participants' consent and commitment until the proper interview was conducted.

Managing emotions, stress, and fatigue are a challenge the researcher has to

contend with (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). The researcher will showed respect to the

interviewees and demonstrated enough empathy when any interviewee became emotional

in answering some questions. The researcher discontinued any particular question if it

became obvious that the interviewee was uncomfortable with such question. The targeted

duration of each interview was one to two hours. If for any reason, the interviewee seeks

to postpone the interview before or during the interview, the researcher will oblige the

request and seek another convenient time for the interviewee for completion of the

interview. The tape recorder will be paused and backed up by the researcher.

At the start of the interview, the interviewee received a briefing from the

researcher regarding the purpose of the study, the expected duration of the interview

which is 1-2hrs, and the plans for data analysis, utilization, and reporting. The researcher

was very open to take any questions from the interviewee and provided all necessary

clarifications before the commencement of the interview. The interview questions were

arranged in a sequence to provide a logical examination of the main research question.

The researcher asked each interviewee the same questions in the same sequence to ensure

that the same structure is adopted for each interview and to produce the theoretical

replication (Baskadara, 2014) that is intended in the method design

Though the interview process was rooted in the interview protocol, it remained

flexible to allow for probing questions and at the same time accommodate the

interviewees' convenience. A digital audio recorder was used to record the interview

proceedings, and the interviewees were made aware of when the recording starts and

ends. The researcher took field notes of any observations and reflections that gave more

insights into the interviewee's responses. Field notes included researcher's observations,

reactions and reflective comments from the interviewee, and researcher's initial

interpretations (Merriam, 2009).

Whenever the interviewee referred to documents, the researcher took note and

requested to have a look at such documents at the end of the interview subject to the

convenience of the interviewee. The researcher ensured that note taking, and references

to documents are carried out in a manner that did not disrupt the flow of the conversation

with the interviewee. The note-taking is part of the initial analysis of data as it is

collected (Merriam, 2009). The researcher did not request the interviewees to divulge any

confidential company or personal information. At the completion of the study, and upon

approval by Walden University, relevant sections of the research will be made available

to the participants.

To end the interviews, the researcher followed a standardized debriefing

procedure for all the participants. The procedure started by telling the participants that

there are no more questions for them. Next, the participants were asked if they have any

questions regarding the interview or their participation. The researcher asked the

participants to convey their feelings regarding the interview process and any concerns

that they may have. Finally, the researcher thanked them for participating and requested

their cooperation for follow-up clarifications if the need arises.

The researcher created a log using an excel sheet to track critical information and

correspondences with the study participants. The excel sheet contains participants'

information such as contact addresses, email, and phone numbers. The log was used to

track appointment dates and any related changes. The log was stored in the researcher's

laptop computer and backed-up in OneDrive along with other research documents.

Data Analysis

Maxwell (2013) identified three groups of data analysis strategies in qualitative

research. These include the use of memos, categorizing strategies such as coding and

thematic analysis, and connecting strategies such as narrative analysis. There is no best

way for the analysis of qualitative data (Maxwell, 2013). The researcher has to choose an

analysis option that fits the available data to answer the research questions. Participants

will be re-approached if additional clarifications are required at the data analysis stage.

In the categorization strategies, researchers use coding to categorize words and

phrases that have a similar meaning in relation to the research questions. Maxwell (2013)

argued that the essence of coding in qualitative data analysis is not to count items but to

"fracture" data by rearranging texts to facilitate the comparison of items within the same

category. Codes are used to capture words and phrases that have the same meaning, and

the categories are used to connect them (Maxwell. 2013).

The researcher adopted the descriptive coding method (Saldana, 2016) as the

basic analytical technique for this study. The descriptive coding method is used to

symbolically assign meanings to segments of data providing an inventory of words or

phrases for indexing and categorization of data (Saldana, 2016). The descriptive coding

method is highly recommended for novice qualitative researchers (Saldana, 2016) who

are still learning how to code qualitative data.

There is a lot of criticism and controversy among scholars on the validity and

reliability of the process of sorting, coding, and categorization of data in qualitative

research (Choudhary, Akhtar, & Zaheer, 2013). The argument is that there is a high

element of human judgment involved in qualitative data analysis and this human

influence could render the outcomes of qualitative research unauthentic and questionable.

This line of argument often ignores the fact that qualitative data analysis offers

researchers the opportunity for an in-depth contextual understanding of the phenomenon

under investigation (Finfgeld-Connett, 2014) as opposed to the more structured statistical

analysis in quantitative research.

In using the case study methodology in a qualitative study, the researcher must

immerse oneself fully in the data to ensure proper understanding of each case (Cronin,

2014) from all possible contexts of the phenomenon under investigation. Unlike in the

statistical analysis that follows the collection of quantitative data, there are no fixed

procedures for the analysis of qualitative case study data (Baxter & Jack, 2008). This

makes the analysis of qualitative case study data very challenging especially for the

novice researcher (Baxter & Jack, 2008). The analysis of qualitative data follows the

same flexibility with the data collection process, such that how evidence has been

presented, and the choices made between alternative interpretation possibilities depends

on a researcher's style of rigorous empirical evaluation (Baillie, 2015).

For multiple case studies, there is the need for consistency in the processes used

for data collection, recording, and analysis across all cases to provide an enabling

platform for appropriate cross-case synthesis of data. Yin (2017) advocated the use of

cross-case synthesis as the most appropriate data analysis technique in multiple case

study research. Cross-case synthesis is more efficient than content analysis for a Ph.D.

study where we must also compare and contrast cases, not just analyze individual cases

(Yin, 2017). Though some researchers argue that content analysis present a flexible

approach to analyzing contextualized qualitative data (Finfgeld-Connett, 2014), this will

depend on the type of qualitative design and the nature of data involved (Maxwell, 2013).

The cross-case synthesis technique involves treating each case as a separate study

and aggregating findings across a series of individual cases. In this way, the cross-case

synthesis does not differ materially from other research syntheses that aggregate and

compares findings across a series of individual studies. Designs that use both within-case

and cross-case synthesis have been found to provide a better platform for the generation

of theoretical propositions and constructs than those that use only the within-case analysis

(Barratt, Choi, & Li, 2011).

Yin (2017) recommended four strategies for the analysis of case study data. The

first strategy involves reliance on the theoretical propositions that underpin the case

study. This strategy is not appropriate for this study because the research questions seek

to understand emerging concepts rather than deductions from theoretical propositions.

The second strategy involves analysis of the data from "ground up," thus allowing key

concepts to emerge by close examination of data. This strategy is the most appropriate for

the analysis of multiple-case study data that will emanate from this study, as it will allow

for an alignment between the emerging concepts and the research questions. This strategy

is also consistent with the descriptive coding method (Saldana, 2016) which is the

analytical technique that will be sued in the study.

The third strategy involves the use of a descriptive framework, while the fourth

strategy involves the definition of possible rival interpretations. These strategies are not

appropriate for the analysis of data in this study because they do not support the

emergence of concepts from close examination of data. There is the need to ensure that

the emerging concepts from the analysis of data can be used to generate answers or

explanations to the research questions.

Data analysis in this study involved two stages. The first stage involved the

within-case analysis of each of the selected cases. The second stage involved a cross-case

analysis of data to seek for similarities and differences across the categories and themes

(Yin, 2017). For individual within-case analysis, data collected from transcribed

interviews and field notes were arranged in segments (Finfgeld-Connett, 2014), indexed

with line numbers, and arranged according to the interview questions for easy

identification of codes (Finfgeld-Connett, 2014). The identified codes were recorded in

matrix form using Microsoft Word table that have columns to capture the data segments,

the assigned codes, and the researcher's notes that will among other things capture

emerging patterns (Saldana, 2016). Codes that share common meanings were classified

into categories and themes (Saldana, 2016) as the researcher deemed necessary.

For the cross-case synthesis, a Microsoft Word table was used to aggregate the

themes from each case across common patterns and categories for easy comparisons. The

researcher closely examined emerging similarities and differences across the cases. The

similarities were subjected to "pattern matching" (Yin, 2017) and used to create literal

replications (Yin, 2017) that were aligned with existing literature. The emerging

differences across the cases was used for theoretical replications (Eisenhardt & Graebner,

2007) that provided opportunities for future research.

The use of manual coding techniques for the analysis of qualitative data is seen as

very laborious and time-consuming (Basit, 2003). The alternative use of Computer

Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDAS) programs will require several weeks for a

novice qualitative researcher to understand and use effectively. Basit (2003) examined

the use of manual and CAQDAS coding techniques in qualitative data analysis and

concluded that "the choice will be dependent on the size of the project, the funds and time

available, and the inclination and expertise of the researcher" (p. 143).

Being a novice qualitative researcher, the author adopted both manual and

CAQDAS techniques for data analysis in this study. As only six interviews were

conducted, excessive and unmanageable data is not anticipated. A combination of

Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel programs were used to organize and document the

manual coding process. The CAQDAS program that was used to support the data analysis

was NVivo. The program will be used to store, organize, and manage data to support the

researcher's analytical reflections (Saldana, 2016). The CAQDAS program does not

generate codes; it remains the responsibility of the researcher to identify codes and

aggregate the codes into categories and themes for analytical reflections (Saldana, 2016).

The researcher manually carried out first and second cycle coding (Saldana, 2016)

to ensure that the identified codes are streamlined before the process of aggregation into

categories and themes commenced. The CAQDAS was only used to search the main

body of data for keywords and phrases that were used to generate the manual codes to

ensure that no important segments of data are ignored in the analytical reflections and

compilation of emerging themes and concepts.

Issues of Trustworthiness

The qualitative method of inquiry has faced several criticisms in the literature for

its lack of rigor and trustworthiness (Cope, 2014). Irrespective of these criticisms,

qualitative researchers have continued to defend the critical role of the qualitative

approach to a scientific inquiry for understanding different human phenomena in their

natural settings (Maria, 2015). It was Lincoln and Guba (1985) that proposed a pragmatic

shift from the "rationalistic" to "naturalistic" method of inquiry that allows research

outcomes to unfold naturally without manipulations thus increasing trustworthiness and

reliability, especially in the qualitative research process.

Though the qualitative approach to inquiry offers a lot of flexibility to

researchers, strategies to ensure rigor must be put in place (Houghton et al., 2013) to

enhance the trustworthiness of its findings. The need to embed strategies that will ensure

rigor into the qualitative research design is even more compelling (Baxter & Jack, 2008)

for a novice researcher. There is the need for a detailed and transparent description of all

the strategies adopted in the process of recruiting participants, interactions with

participants, data collection, data recording, and data analysis (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

For example, in the case study research, the researcher must present comprehensive

methodological description of the case selection strategies that were adopted to ensure

that readers fully understand why specific cases were selected over others (Hyett et al.,

2014).

Trustworthiness has to do with the quality that can be ascribed to qualitative

research (Patton, 2015). There are two sets of criteria in the literature for assessing the

trustworthiness of qualitative research. The first set of criteria established by Lincoln and

Guba (1985) addresses the issue of credibility, dependability, confirmability, and

transferability. The second set of quality criteria include internal validity, external

validity, reliability, and construct validity (Yin, 2017). Patton (2015) drew parallels

between credibility and internal validity; transferability and external validity;

dependability and reliability; confirmability and construct validity (objectivity). These set

of criteria which enjoy wide application among qualitative researchers (Houghton et al.,

2013) formed the basis for ensuring rigor and trustworthiness in this qualitative multiple

case-study design.

Credibility and internal validity provide assurances that there is a fit between the

participants' responses and their experiences with the phenomenon under investigation

(Patton, 2015; Baillie, 2015). To ensure credibility and internal validity in this study, I

used multiple sources of data, and also ensured that purposeful sampling is used to select

participants that provided rich and in-depth information about the study phenomenon.

Transferability and external validity provides assurances that readers can establish

a relationship between the study and other similar studies in the literature (Patton, 2015;

Baillie, 2015). To address the issue of transferability and external validity, I provided

detailed and transparent description of all the strategies adopted in the process of

recruiting participants, interactions with participants, data collection, data recording, and

data analysis (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

Dependability and reliability provide assurances that the researcher has followed a

systematic and well-documented approach that can be replicated by other researchers to

achieve the same conclusions (Patton; 2015; Baillie, 2015). To address the issues of

dependability and reliability, I ensured that the study methodology was well defined and

documented; the criteria for selection of study participants were clear and documented,

all interviews were properly recorded, transcribed, and stored; the techniques for data

analysis and interpretations were well documented, and all researcher’s reflections that

informed the researcher's conceptualizations and conclusions were well documented. The

researcher ensured that data was collected based on a systematic in-depth field work that

yielded credible information regarding the phenomenon under investigation (Patton,

2015).

Confirmability and construct validity (objectivity) provide assurances that the

data, interpretations, conceptualizations, and conclusions emanate from information

provided by participants and not from the researcher's opinions or imaginations (Patton,

2015; Baillie, 2015). To ensure the confirmability and construct validity of the study, I

carried out reflexivity of oneself as the researcher to eliminate any issues of personal bias

that will influence the quality of data and its interpretations. During the semistructured

interview, the researcher did not lead the interviewees to conclusions through researcher's

preconceptions; rather, the researcher allowed a natural flow of information from the

interviewees. In all cases, I sought disproving evidence to reduce bias (Baskadara, 2014).

Ethical Procedures

There are ethical considerations to deal with whenever a research involves

interactions with human subjects (Sanjari et al., 2014). In this study, I made contacts with

selected SME owner-managers, first to obtain their consent for their organizations to

participate in the study, and secondly, to interview them during the process of data

gathering. I ensured complete compliance with the Walden University IRB guidelines,

and did not commence interaction with participants until the IRB approval was obtained

for the study to commence.

Participation in this study was voluntary, and I made this known in clear terms to

potential participants at the point of recruitment. All participants were required to sign the

consent form (Appendix C) before participation in the study. The purpose of the study,

the level of involvement of participants, and the possible uses of the research outcomes

were made known to the participants. I was very transparent in dealing with the potential

participants to avoid any forms of deceit, coercion, and miss-representations.

Protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the study participants is a critical

ethical issue (Sanjari et al., 2014). I ensured that the privacy and confidentiality of SME

owner-managers and their enterprises are strictly maintained. This was achieved by using

codes to represent each of the participating SMEs. Only demographic data like age,

educational attainment, sex, nature of business, and size of the organization were

requested from the participants. Personal information like names, place of birth, ethnicity,

religion, and family background were not be requested from the informants. Data were

stored in passworded files and access to all data storage devices are restricted by using

passwords where applicable in addition to physical security of devices.

Summary

In chapter 3, I described the research approach and the appropriate methodology

that was adopted for the study. I provided justifications for the choice of qualitative

approach over quantitative approach for the conduct of this research. The study involved

the investigation of a human phenomenon in an environment where the phenomenon has

not been sufficiently researched, and this explains my choice of qualitative approach for

conducting the study.

I provided a detailed description of the multiple-case study methodology in this

chapter that was used in the study and provided the rationale for the choice of case study

design over other qualitative methodologies like narrative research, ethnography,

phenomenology, and grounded theory. I provided justification for adopting a multiple-

case study strategy over a single-case study strategy in line with the study purpose, the

research questions, and the contextual nature of the study. I described the linkage

between the semistructured interview questions and the research questions.

I described the participants' selection logic, instrumentation, the procedures for

the recruitment of participants, and the techniques for data collection and data analysis. I

described the steps to ensure the trustworthiness of the study, providing specific

strategies and steps to deal with the issues of credibility, dependability, confirmability,

and transferability. As the study involved interactions with human elements, I provided

steps on how to deal with ethical challenges that are inherent in the study. Chapter 4

covered results while Chapter 5 covered discussions, conclusions, and recommendations.

Chapter 4: Results

Introduction

The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to gain an in-depth

understanding of specific knowledge gaps among SME owners and managers in Nigeria

regarding leadership style and its implications on their enterprises’ long-term

sustainability. SME owners and managers lack the knowledge on how leadership styles

can help improve organizational sustainability (Koshal, 2017; Uchehara, 2017). There is

limited research in the literature on the nature of leadership styles in Nigerian SMEs, and

it remains unknown the role that leadership style plays in the long-term sustainability of

these SMEs. In this research study, I explored the leadership experiences of SME owner-

managers in Nigeria to understanding their knowledge gaps regarding leadership styles

and its implications for SME long-term sustainability. Because of a limited understanding

of the nature of leadership styles in Nigerian SMEs, it is not clear how the use of specific

leadership styles have contributed to the poor performance of SMEs in Nigeria (Oladele

& Akeke, 2016).

The one main research question that guided this study was: What are the specific

knowledge gaps among SME owners and managers in Nigeria regarding leadership style

and its implications on their enterprises’ long-term sustainability? The emphasis of the

study was on owner-managed SMEs. A multiple-case study approach was adopted for the

study. The unit of analysis for this study was the SME firm. Each selected SME was

treated as a case, while the main source of data within each SME was a semistructured

interview with the SME owner-manager. I collected interview data from six purposefully

selected SME owner-managers and data analysis was carried out in two stages. The first

stage was a within-case content analysis of data, and the second stage involved thematic

cross-case analysis of data.

In this chapter, I explained the research setting and described the research

participants including their demographic information. Next, I described the procedures

for data collection and data analysis. Further, I provided a summary of the codes

identified from raw data based on the within-case analysis of responses from each

participant for the interview questions and described the themes that emerged from the

categorization of the codes. Finally, I provided a justification for the trustworthiness of

the study.

Research Setting

This qualitative multiple-case study involved the collection of data from owner-

managers of six purposefully selected SMEs through semistructured interviews. I gave all

the participants the privilege to choose their preferred location for the interview. Five

participants chose to be interviewed within their organizational environment, while one

participant chose to be interviewed at home. For the five participants that chose to be

interviewed at their organizations, the interviews were held in their offices. For the

participant that chose to be interviewed at home, the interview was held in a private study

at his home. Each participant chose a convenient date and time for the interview.

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Before the commencement of each interview, I reminded the interviewees that

participation in the study was voluntary. We first went through the letter of invitation to

participate in the study and the informed consent form which were sent to them earlier. I

also reminded them that our conversation would be audio recorded and that the

transcripts would be sent to them subsequently to ensure that the experiences that they

described during the interviews have been properly represented in the transcripts.

Following a reconfirmation of their intention to participate in the study, each participant

signed the informed consent form. I signed the form in their presence and gave them a

copy for their records. Four of the interviews lasted between 52 and 56 minutes, while

two interviews lasted between 20 to 30 minutes.

After each interview, I played some sections of the recording in the presence of

the participant to ensure that the quality of the recording was good. I then transferred the

audio recording to my password-protected laptop computer in the presence of each

participant and immediately backed-up the audio data on OneDrive. When I returned to

my location, I played back the audio recording and transcribed the audio data into

Microsoft Word files. I created a separate folder for each participant, and both the audio

recording and the transcripts were saved in the same folder for each participant.

Participants’ Description and Demographics

I selected six participants based on the eligibility criteria that was set out in the

design for the study. The eligibility criteria included: (a) each organization (a case) must

be an SME employing 10-199 persons, (b) ability to provide rich information that will

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give insights to the research question, (c) sufficient access to the SME owner-manager to

ensure productive research relationship, and (d) must be from the manufacturing,

education, and wholesale/retail trade sectors of the Nigerian economy (two participants

from each sector). These three sectors account for more than 75% of SMEs in Nigeria

(SMEDAN, 2013). All participants are located in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.

Participant 1

Participant number 1 (P1) was the owner-manager of an SME enterprise

providing educational services at the nursery and primary schools level. The enterprise

commenced business in the year 2007 and employed more than 40 persons, thus, falling

in the category of ‘small enterprise’ within the Nigerian SME classification criteria. P1

started functioning as owner-manager of this enterprise in the year 2012. Before

assuming this position, P1 previously worked in various engineering positions for a

multinational oil and gas company in Nigeria.

Participant 2

Participant number 2 (P2) was the owner-manager of an SME enterprise involved

in the wholesale and retail of industrial chemicals. The enterprise commenced business

in the year 1996 and P2 started functioning in the capacity of owner-manager in the same

year. The enterprise employed over 60 persons, thus, falling in the category of ‘medium

enterprise’ within the Nigerian SME classification criteria. Before assuming the position

as owner-manager of this enterprise, P2 functioned in various engineering positions for a

medium-sized company involved in the manufacture and sales of industrial chemicals.

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Participant 3

Participant number 3 (P3) was the owner-manager of an SME enterprise involved

in the manufacturing and distribution of concrete blocks and paving stones. The

enterprise also manufacturers sandals for school children and provides some minor

support services to the industrial sector. The enterprise commenced business in the year

2001 and P3 started functioning in the capacity of owner-manager in the same year. The

enterprise employed over 35 persons, thus, falling in the category of ‘small enterprise’

within the Nigerian SME classification criteria. Before assuming the position of owner-

manager of this enterprise, P3 worked briefly for two organizations providing technical

services to the Nigerian Industrial Sector.

Participant 4

Participant number 4 (P4) was the owner-manager of an SME enterprise involved

in the manufacturing and distribution of pre-formed plastic bottles for water and beverage

companies. The company also produces bottled water in its brand name. The enterprise

commenced business in the year 2014 and P4 started functioning in the capacity of

owner-manager in the same year. The enterprise employed over 20 persons, thus, falling

in the category of ‘small enterprise’ within the Nigerian SME classification criteria.

Before assuming the position of owner-manager of this enterprise in 2014, P4 worked in

a family business that was engaged in providing small logistics services to the Nigerian

oil and gas sector.

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Participant 5

Participant number 5 (P5) was the owner-manager of an SME enterprise

providing educational services at the nursery and primary school levels. The enterprise

commenced business in the year 1993 and P5 assumed the position of owner-manager in

the same year. The enterprise employed over 80 persons, thus, falling in the category of

‘medium enterprise’ within the Nigerian SME classification criteria. Before assuming

this position, P5 previously worked as a teacher for other schools in Port Harcourt.

Participant 6

Participant number 6 (P6) was the owner-manager of an SME enterprise involved

in the retail trading of household electronics and white products. The enterprise

commenced business in the year 2013 and P6 started functioning in the capacity of

owner-manager in the same year. The enterprise employed over 50 persons, thus, falling

in the category of ‘medium enterprise’ within the Nigerian SME classification criteria.

Before assuming position as the owner-manager of this enterprise, P6 functioned as

support manager in a small family business for over ten years. Table 1 shows a summary

of the participants’ demographics.

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Table 1

Participants’ Demographics and Characteristics

Business Sector

Year

Commenced

Business

Number of

Employees Gender Years in

Position Education

Level

Education

2007 40 Male 6 Years Bachelor’s

degree

P2 Trading 1996 60 Male 22 Years Bachelor’s

degree

P3 Manufacturing 2001 35 Male 17 Years Bachelor’s

degree

Manufacturing

Education

Trading

2014

1993

2013

Male

Female

Male

4 Years

25 Years

5 Years

Bachelor’s

degree

Bachelor’s

degree

Bachelor’s

degree

Data Collection Procedures

I conducted the collection of data for this study in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in

the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Data collection commenced on June 18, 2018,

following IRB approval from Walden University (IRB approval #: 06-12-18-0561590).

Data collection was concluded on October 5, 2018, being the date that the last interview

transcripts (P6) were discussed and agreed with the participant. I collected data from four

sources, namely: (a) review of participants’ websites, (b) semistructured interviews, (c)

document reviews including the literature, and (d) researcher observations and

reflections.

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Expert Review of Interview Protocol

I sent the interview protocol consisting of seven main interview questions to a

three-member expert panel for review and inputs. The panel consisted of my committee

chair, my second committee member, and a leadership expert/author from the Walden

Faculty. The panel returned their recommendations which required the breakdown of one

of the interview questions because it addressed two different competencies. Thus, the

interview question “Describe how you get your employees to resolve problems and

achieve organizational goals” was broken down into two questions, namely: a) describe

how you get your employees to resolve problems, and b) describe how you get your

employees to achieve organizational goals. These amendments were reflected in the data

collection procedures approved by the Walden University IRB.

Selection of Participants

In Nigeria, there are no comprehensive and reliable databases on SMEs. Repeated

visits to the offices of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of

Nigeria (SMEDAN) in Port Harcourt did not yield any positive results. This situation did

not pose a restriction for the study because it was anticipated in the research design. The

research design provided for the use of any available open-access databases as well as the

snowballing technique to identify and recruit participants for the study. An open-access

database, https://www.businesslist.com.ng was initially used to search for eligible study

participants in Port Harcourt. One participant was successfully selected using this

database, while the other five participants were selected using the snowballing technique.

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Patton (2015) recommended the identification of eligible participants using the

snowballing technique through "people who know people" (p.270).

As recommended by Patton (2015), the purposeful selection of participants for

this study using the snowballing strategy was driven by insights into the study

phenomenon and accessibility of key informants, and not by representativeness of any

population. Three SME sectors were represented in the study namely education,

manufacturing, and trading. I selected two participants from each of the three sectors to

allow for diversity and synthesis across cases. The six participants that I selected all met

the eligibility requirements for the study which include SME characterization, sectoral

diversity, an understanding of the study phenomenon, and a strong commitment by the

participant to free access and volunteering of information.

The first step in my participant recruitment process was the review of the database

https://www.businesslist.com.ng, from where I shortlisted 50 organizations involved in

the three business sectors of education, manufacturing, and trading. Following a review

of the organizations’ websites, the number of shortlisted organizations was reduced to 37.

In reviewing the potential participants’ websites, I sought for critical information

regarding the participants like the nature of business, number of employees, date of

commencement of business, contact telephone numbers, office location, and any other

information on the website that I found useful for the study. I used information retrieved

from the websites for a preliminary assessment of the eligibility of each organization to

participate in the study.

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The second step in my participant recruitment process involved making initial

contacts with the shortlisted organizations to identify those that are owner-managed. I

called the 37 shortlisted organizations using the telephone contacts that I found on their

websites and sought to speak with the chief executive officer, or in some cases any

member of the management team. During the conversation, 22 of the organizations

declined to divulge any information regarding their management status, while 15

organizations agreed for me to visit their offices for further discussions based on pre-

scheduled appointments. I visited these 15 organizations (three organizations every day)

between July 2 and July 7, 2018. From my discussions with the CEOs, four were eligible

to participate in the study. One gave me a commitment to participate in the study and

provided references to other potential participants. Three declined to participate in the

study but provided me with further references. For the 11 organizations that did not meet

the criteria, I politely explained to the CEOs why they did not meet the criteria for the

study, and some of them gave me references to other potential participants. At this stage,

I needed a commitment from an additional five participants to complete the six cases for

my study.

The third step in my participant recruitment process was the use of the

snowballing strategy. I used the references that I gathered from the first and second steps

to compile a list of additional potential participants. For some of them, I already had

relevant contact details from my experience in stage two. For those I didn’t have their

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contacts, I obtained relevant information regarding them from their websites. I built a list

of 28 potential participants using the snowballing strategy. I reviewed the website of all

of them and ranked them in the order of better eligibility according to the three business

sectors selected for the study. I started making appointments in order of eligibility for

each sector until I obtained the commitments to fill the remaining five slots. This process

occurred between July 10 and July 21, 2018.

Document Delivery to Participants

From July 2017, I started sending the letters of ‘invitation to participate’ to the

SME owner-managers that I found eligible for the study, and who had indicated strong

commitment to participate. I sent out letters and informed consent forms to five of the six

participants using my Walden University email. One participant requested for hard

copies of the invitation documents, and I delivered same to the participant in person. I

made follow-up calls/visits to them for a reconfirmation of their intention to participate in

the study and to schedule a date for the interview. I received positive responses from the

six of them to participate in the study, and I subsequently scheduled interview dates with

each of them. I obtained interview dates as follows: P1, August 1; P2, August 7; P3,

August 9; P4, August 16 (later rescheduled to September 3); P5, August 22 (later

rescheduled to September 5); and P6, August 30 (later rescheduled to October 2). I

maintained regular communication with the selected participants from the time of

obtaining their initial commitment to participate in the study until the day that the

interview was conducted.

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Interviews

I interviewed a total of six SME owner-managers between August 1 and October

2 at venues selected by the participants. Five interviews were conducted at the

participants’ offices, while one interview was conducted at the participant’s home. Before

the commencement of each interview, I briefed each participant regarding the purpose of

the study and the plans for data utilization and reporting. This briefing was conducted in

line with Appendix C (Informed Consent Form). After that, each participant and the

researcher signed the Informed Consent Forms. Each interview was audio recorded with

a Sunny Audio Recorder model ICD-UX560F and subsequently transcribed into

Microsoft Word files.

The semistructured interview protocol contained eight main interview questions. I

asked each interviewee the same set of eight main questions. I asked follow-up questions

to the interviewees to provide more detailed information on the study phenomenon. I

ensured that the interview process followed a ‘discussion’ pattern and not a situation

where the researcher questioned the interviewees. This approach made the interviewees

more relaxed such that they provided very useful information that will help to answer the

research question.

The interview with P1 lasted for 30 minutes, and this resulted in 10 pages of

transcribed raw data. The interview with P2 lasted for 56 minutes resulting in 16 pages

of transcribed raw data. The interview with P3 lasted for 52 minutes resulting in 10 pages

of transcribed raw data. The interview with P4 lasted for 55 minutes resulting in 20 pages

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of transcribed raw data. The interview with P5 lasted for 20 minutes resulting in nine

pages of transcribed raw data. The interview with P6 lasted for 52 minutes resulting in 14

pages of transcribed raw data.

Reflective Field Notes

Once I received a commitment from a potential participant, I immediately

reflected on all my observations and interactions with the participant from my initial

contact up to the time that I obtained his or her commitment to participate in the study.

My reflections regarding each participant were recorded in my field notes. During my

various visits to each participant office; before, during, and after the interviews, I made

observations on the participants’ environment and took notice of visible interactions

between the interviewee and the employees. I reflected on these my observations and

recorded my reflections in the field notes. During the interviews and audio transcription

of data, I observed and reflected on the interviewee’s body language, tone, motions, and

word emphasis. My reflections were recorded in the field notes.

Member Checking

After I completed the transcription of the audio recorded interview for each

participant, I sent the transcripts to the interviewee for review and comments. I sent the

transcripts by email to five participants and delivered a hard copy to the office one of the

participants (P5) as requested during the interview. Two of the participants opted for a

face-to-face discussion of the transcripts, while four of the participants opted to discuss

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the transcripts over the telephone. For all cases, I updated the transcripts following the

comments obtained from them.

Data Analysis

I adopted the descriptive coding strategy as recommended by Saldana (2016) for

the analysis of raw data collected in this study. The descriptive coding strategy was used

to assign meanings to segments of raw data, thus providing words and phrases that were

used for categorization and thematic analysis. The raw data (transcripts) collected from

the interview of the participants contained the lived leadership experiences of six SME

owner-managers in Nigeria. These narrated leadership experiences followed from eight

semistructured interview questions that I asked to each of the six participants. I designed

the eight questions such that answers from the participants will provide detailed

information for an in-depth contextual understanding (Finfgeld-Connett, 2014) of the

leadership styles in Nigerian SMEs.

According to Yin (2017), for a multiple-case study, it is important to use a

consistent procedure for the collection and analysis of data across all cases to provide a

common platform for cross-case comparisons and thematic analysis. In this study, I

followed the same procedure for the collection of data for all the six participants. I

adopted a consistent process for manual coding, categorization, and identification of

emergent themes across the six cases. The analysis of data was done in two stages:

within-case content analysis (Yin, 2017) of data collected from each participant, followed

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by a cross-case synthesis of data and comparison of emergent themes (Yin, 2017) across

the six cases.

Within-Case Analysis of Data: Identification of Codes and Categories

The analysis of data for this study was driven by the responses obtained from each

of the eight interview questions. I tailored the interview questions to provide answers to

the main research question. As recommended by Saldana (2016), I subjected data from

this study to descriptive coding to symbolically assign meanings to the segments of data

that I found relevant to the research question. Data segmentation and assignment of codes

were organized according to each interview question. This approach allowed for a

contextual understanding of codes and themes emanating from each interview question.

In some instances that a participant’s response was found to be out of context for a

specific question but are relevant to other questions, I reported such responses in the

relevant questions during the coding process.

I adopted the descriptive coding method (Saldana, 2016) for the study. I used the

‘ground up’ data analysis strategy (Yin, 2017) to identify codes from raw data. Phrases

or sentences that I found to be relevant to answering the research question were extracted

from the transcribed interview data for each participant. I evaluated the extracted

segments of data and assigned codes to them. I recorded the codes according to each

interview question. I grouped codes that share common meanings and patterns into

categories.

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Interview question 1. "Describe the nature of relationships between you and your

employees?" The responses obtained from this question provided information regarding

how the SME owner-managers relate or interact with their employees. Examples of

additional probing questions against interview question 1 include: (a) How do you make

your employees feel good to be around you, and (b) Explain how your employees feel

associating with you. These additional probing questions provided more evidence on how

the behavioral and personality traits (Chollet et al., 2014) of the participants informed the

relationships with their employees. Some of the codes that were used to describe these

relationships include family, mutual, cordial, personal, situational, contingent, structured,

co-owner, caring, openness, and common identity. Table 2 shows examples of extracts

from responses of participants to interview question 1 with the codes and categories

assigned to them.

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Table 2

Examples of Data Extracts and Codes from Interview Question 1

Data

Extracts

Codes

Categories

P1 “We have a familiar rapport. I have a rapport, a

good rapport with all my staff”

Familiar

Good Rapport

Mutual Relationship

P2 “My relationship with my employees is that of

a family. I do not really like to see my workers

typically as my workers, I see them as friends

and colleagues and we relate freely"

Family

Friends/Colleagues

Relate freely

Collective identity

Mutual relationship

“Well the relationship is cordial but it's a sort of

situational. When you're not doing what you're

supposed to do; the relationship gets rusty”

Situational

Gets rusty Contingent

Relationship

P4 “We have a very cordial relationship. For me I

look at employees as part of the owners of the

business because without them you can’t really

make a headway. I get involved with their

welfare

”

Cordial

Co-owner

Welfare

Mutual Relationship

Collective identity

Employee welfare

“From the very beginning, the goal has been

kind of family set up. Family in the sense that

you have good welfare packages”

Family

Welfare packages

Collective identity

Mutual Relationship

Employee welfare

“My relationship with them is one that is

cordial. I see them like a family and as a team” Family

Cordial

Team

Collective identity

Mutual Relationship

Interview Question 2. "Describe your leadership experiences in your

organization?" Responses from this question provided insights into the leadership

behavior of participants and their experiences in managing their employees toward

achieving organizational objectives. Some of the additional probing questions that

followed interview question 2 include: (a) How do you convey to your employees what

you expect them to do, (b) How do you help your employees to appreciate the relevance

of their work in the organization. Table 3 shows examples of extracts from responses of

participants to interview question 2 with the codes and categories assigned to them.

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Table 3

Examples of Data Extracts and Codes from Interview Question 2

Data Extracts Codes Categories

“Once you are dealing with human beings you have

to be very careful. I have heard some very bitter

experiences. I listen to gossips.”

careful with employees

bitter experiences

listen to gossips

Employee

untrustworthiness

P2 “They have a boss who is grounded in what he is

telling them. Infact, there is no staff here who will

claim to be more experienced than me in what I am

doing .I know it better than you because I have

passed through it. I just try to understand the

challenges staff will normally have. Their problems

are taken into consideration "

A boss

More experienced

Boss knows-better

Employee problems

Employee challenges

Restrictive leader

influence

Employee welfare

P3 “Most times Nigerian workers try to dupe you, they

try to be dishonest, they try to be greedy. When my

workers deviate from my directives and take their

own initiatives, I am happy if such deviation goes

well, but when it goes bad, I am usually very mad

with that person and uncontrollable”

Workers dupe

Dishonest workers

Greedy workers

My directives

Mad when employee

deviations goes bad

Employee

untrustworthiness

Restrictive leader

influence

P4 “Leadership is tasking because you have to lead by

example. I need to be involved in the process of

production. I know all the customers one-on-one. I

need to make sure I meet my target. You need to

show care. The discipline is stern. If you misbehave,

you go. You must check your people while they are

working”

Tasking

Exemplary leadership

Involved in process

Know customers

Meet target

Show care

Stern discipline

Checking people

Restrictive leader

influence

Employee

untrustworthiness

“I shouldn’t have made them too comfortable.

Negativity came into play because there was an open-

ended disposition all around. they had opportunity to

make extra money from parents all around because

they knew they are doing it for themselves

”

Too comfortable

Negativity

Employee deviations

Doing for themselves

Employee welfare

Employee

untrustworthiness

P6 “When you start a business, most times you see the

business just go down because of a whole lot of

things associated with staff. Most times, it is 60%

percent problems that are coming from the staff .I

monitor on a daily basis what happens in the business

in terms of the finances, sales, profits, overheads.”

Employee deviations

Monitoring employees

Employee

untrustworthiness

Restrictive leader

influence

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Interview Question 3. "Describe how you get your employees to resolve

problems?" The responses obtained from this question and the follow-up probing

questions provided insights on how SME owner-managers involve their employees in

resolving organizational problems. Transformational leaders stimulate the creative and

cognitive abilities of their followers (Burns, 1978, Bass, 1985) to enable them to

innovatively resolve problems in a manner that advances organizational objectives. Table

4 shows examples of extracts from responses of participants to interview question 3 with

the codes and categories assigned to them.

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Table 4

Examples of Data Extracts and Codes from Interview Question 3

Data Extracts

Codes Categories

“General problems in the

organization rarely occur. But you

cannot say. Sometimes you have

their private problems. I told you we

listen to gossips”

Personal problems

Listen to gossips

Structured problem-solving

“Problems are resolved first of all

along the line of reporting. If you

have an issue, you report it to your

immediate supervisor. If it’s beyond

your supervisor, he escalates it to the

next person

Resolving problems

Reporting lines

Supervisor

He escalates

Structured problem-solving

“When you have a problem and I am

within reach, I like to contribute to

the problem. My rule is that you

must have your own solution no

matter how foolish. I will now tell

you that your decision is foolish and

stupid

”

Have a problem

My rule

Own-solution

Foolish decision

Stupid decision

Structured problem-solving

Leader unsupportive behavior

“Sometimes we have teething

problems. We have issues where

something might go bad and they

start trying how they can fix it. But

my own way of doing it is once it is

bad, can we change it”

Teething problems

Things go bad

Trying to fix it

I say change it

Leader unsupportive behavior

Structured problem-solving

“We all noticed that this place was

going downhill. We called a meeting

and told everybody this is what is

happening and everybody resorted to

prayers, but that’s not where it is”

Going downhill

Called a meeting

Resort to prayers

Structured problem-solving

Spiritual problem-solving

“She tries to handle some issues at

her level, but there might be some

issues that will get to my level and I

am the one to handle or advise

especially things that have to bother

on finance”

Levels of issues

Employee restrictions

Structured problem-solving

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Interview Question 4. "Describe how you get your employees to achieve

organizational goals?" The responses obtained from this question and the follow-up

probing questions described how SME owner-managers involve their employees in

achieving organizational goals. Transformational leaders inspire their employees to

believe in the organization’s visions while transactional leaders drive their employees to

achieve assigned tasks against tangible rewards (Bass, 1990). Table 5 shows examples of

extracts from responses of participants to interview question 4 with the codes and

categories assigned to them.

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Table 5

Examples of Data Extracts and Codes from Interview Question 4

Data Extracts

Codes

Categories

“School has curriculum. At the

beginning of every session, we sit

down; I sit down with the

administrator and the head teacher

and we review the curriculum

”

Follow curriculum

Periodic review of

curriculum

Focus on transactions

Structured approach

“Every team lead sits with his team

and analyses the challenge that they

have. Every team has a goal. I must

sit with team leads to know what

their challenges are

Team leads

Team challenges

Team goals

Focus on transactions

Structured approach

“I want my employees to follow

instructions to execute assignments

because if they don’t follow

instructions and make a mistake, it is

a problem.

”

Follow instructions

Execute assignments

Focus on transactions

Structured Approach

“You need to get them involved.

They should see that their welfare is

key to you. I share where I want to

go to. I share where I want to be.

Like when the bankers came in, I got

them involved”

Involve employees

Welfare is key

Focus on transactions

Employee welfare

“By the welfare package I talked

about. I thought it will make staff

happy, and make them comfortable

every way you can, that they will be

devoted to duty and carry out their

functions effectively

”

Welfare package

Make staff happy

Comfortable

Devotion to duty

Function effectively

Employee welfare

Focus on transactions

“Achieving goals in this part of the

world, most times people are

motivated with money. We have a

salary structure. But I also go out of

my way to set targets among them

”

Motivation with

money

Salary structure

Set targets

Focus on transactions

Structured approach

Interview Question 5. "Describe how you help your employees develop

themselves to achieve organizational goals?" The responses obtained from this question

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provided insights on how SME owner-managers inspire their employees to contribute to

the achievement of organizational goals. Transformational leaders use vision to inspire

their employees to strive for improved organizational performance (Bass, 1990). Table 6

shows examples of extracts from responses of participants to interview question 5 with

the codes and categories assigned to them.

Table 6

Examples of Data Extracts and Codes from Interview Question 5

Data Extracts

Codes

Categories

“In fact every session we have what we call

workshop and seminars. We invite people from

outside to teach them on modern techniques of

impacting knowledge to their pupils

”

Workshops

Seminars

Task-specific

training

“What do we do here is that every year there is a

scheme of training as it affects your job" Job-related

training

Task-specific

training

“I send my staff on training.” training

Task-specific

training

“Here it is constant training”

Training Task-specific

training

“We have annual workshop every year about this

time before resuming another academic year. So

they learn new skills”

Workshops

Learning

new skills

Task-specific

training

“The people we represent come to do training. We

also do our own internal training”

Training Task-specific

training

Interview Question 6. "Describe your experiences setting targets for your

employees?" The responses obtained from this question provided insights into the

transactional leadership behaviors of the SME owner-managers. Further probing

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questions were used to extract more detailed information from the interviewees.

Examples of these probing questions include: (a) Describe your feelings when targets are

met or not met, and (b) what drives you to introduce changes to how your employees

work. Transactional leaders get their followers to achieve assigned targets in exchange

for tangible rewards (Bass, 1990). Transactional leaders may actively help/monitor their

employees to achieve organizational goals or allow them operational freedom and

provide support to them only when a problem arises (1997). Table 7 shows examples of

extracts from responses of participants to interview question 6 with the codes and

categories assigned to them.

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Table 7

Examples of Data Extracts and Codes from Interview Question 6

Data Extracts

Codes

Categories

“Setting targets in our establishment is to make sure

that the fourteen weeks you have in each session you

cover all the curriculum. At the end of the year we do

a general kind of party where we do some award”

Cover

curriculum for

each session.

General reward

Nonspecific

targets

Nonspecific

rewards

“Every unit has their targets. The targets have to be

reasonable, it has to be justifiable " Unit targets.

Reasonable and

justifiable

targets.

Nonspecific

targets

“I noticed that generally workers like targets that is

accompanied with something, a reward, material

reward, not just thank you. Every year we do best

drivers award based on pre-set parameters”

Best

performance

awards.

Material reward.

Nonspecific

targets

“It is setting your priorities right by making sure you

are giving them the enabling environment to work. No

fixed targets are here”

Setting

priorities.

Creating

enabling

environment.

fixed targets

Nonspecific

targets

“The targets that we use as a measure is the entrance

examination into secondary schools of their choice.

And the children have been passing those exams”

External

benchmarks. Nonspecific

targets

“At the end of the month, for each staff we print out

all the sales that the staff has made and we compare it

with the other staffs. There is a minimum target that a

staff should make. If you go below that, it means that

you are not performing

”

Comparative

targets.

Use of minimum

targets.

Nonspecific

targets

Interview Question 7. "Describe how you reward your employees when they

achieve or surpass set targets?" The responses obtained from this question provided

further insights into the transactional leadership behaviors of the SME owner-managers.

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Further probing questions were used to extract more detailed information from the

interviewees. Examples of these probing questions include: (a) Describe your feelings

when targets are met or not met, and (b) what drives you to introduce changes to how

your employees work. Transactional leaders actively support their employees to achieve

or surpass set objectives (Bass, 1990). Transactional leaders deliver tangible rewards to

employees when targets are met or surpassed and punish employees when targets are not

met (Avolio & Bass, 1991). Table 8 shows examples of extracts from responses of

participants to interview question 7 and the codes assigned to them.

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Table 8

Examples of Data Extracts and Codes from Interview Question 7

Data Extracts

Codes

Categories

“We have a standard practice. If a teacher

has stayed with us and has met his target,

we remunerate him or we reward him by

giving him a 5% increment in his package

but that is across board. We have not had

experience of

targets not been met

”

Standard practice

Fixed percentage

reward for targets.

Across-board

reward.

1) Focus on

transactions

2) Nonspecific

rewards

P2 “Apart from financial encouragement, you

can also move the person up like

promotion. We are lucky here that targets

are met because the targets are reasonable.

We move the staff to the role he can play

better "

Financial

encouragement.

Discretionary

promotion.

Reasonable

targets.

Switch staff roles.

1) Nonspecific

rewards

2) Focus on

transactions

“When targets are met, I am the best man

to deal with because I can reward you

excessively. When targets are not met, I

react instantaneously. My madness comes

instantaneously”

Focus on meeting

targets.

Negative reaction

to employee

deviations.

Uncontrolled

emotions.

Nonspecific

rewards

2) Focus on

transactions

3) Punitive

measures

P4 “when they achieve targets, they are all

happy because they know they have extra

pepper; that’s what they say, and it cuts

across board”

Across-board

rewards for

achieving targets.

1) Nonspecific

rewards

2) Focus on

transactions

“The reward we used in those days was the

Christmas bonuses and we give all of them

13th month pay. Those who did not

perform well don’t earn that.”

Team-based

rewards.

Period rewards.

No performance,

no reward.

1) Nonspecific

reward

2) Punitive

measures

“For each month we set a target and the

manager will communicate to everybody

that this what the reward is. It is normally a

monetary reward. If you go below them,

these are the consequences too.

Monthly target.

Monetary reward.

Consequences for

going below

target.

Nonspecific

rewards

2) Focus on

transactions

3) Punitive

measures

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Interview Question 8. "Describe how you feel when your employees fail to do

what you expect of them?" The responses obtained from this question provided insights

into the Laissez-faire leadership behaviors of the SME owner-managers. Laissez-faire

leaders show indifference toward their employees and their tasks but apply punitive

measures against employee deviations (Avolio & Bass, 1991). Table 9 shows extracts

from responses of participants to interview question 8 and the codes assigned to them.

Table 9

Examples of Data Extracts and Codes from Interview Question 8

Extracts

Codes

Categories

“I feel very very upset. You have to call the person, sit

him or her down, discuss to find out what the problems

are and try to make amends.”

Feeling upset

Call the person to

discuss

Identify problems

and make amend.

Focus on transactions

Supportive measures to

perform

P2 “I feel terribly bad because I know that I have provided

everything that will make them to do well. Most times,

when they do tell you their challenges and you address

those issues, you see a sudden turnaround”

Feeling terrible

Provided

everything

to do well

Address issues

Sudden turn

around

Focus on transactions.

Supportive measures to

perform.

P3 “I am a mad man when my employees don’t do what I

expect of them. Do what you are supposed to do. Once

you don’t, you will go”

Frustrations

Non-performance

You will go

Focus on transactions.

Punitive measures.

P4 “It is really heart-broken. I could speak to you now and

say you have done something wrong, and we are able to

talk, and am able to correct you and you now have

another chance

”

Frustrations

Speak to you

Correct you

Another chance

Focus on transactions.

Supportive measures to

perform.

“I normally feel depressed. So you just caution the person

and say if you don’t do things in this area you will have

to find your way out”

Frustration

Caution the person

Focus on transactions.

Supportive measures to

perform.

Punitive measures

P6 “Most times I feel bad about when employees fail to do

what I expect of them. If turns out to be that this staff is

incompetent, for sure we will try to develop the staff”

I feel bad

Staff

incompetence

Develop the staff

Focus on transactions.

Supportive measures to

perform.

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Cross-Case Synthesis and Thematic Analysis of Data

The use of cross-case analysis in multiple- case studies involves treating each case

as a separate study and aggregating findings across individual cases (Yin, 2017). In this

study, I did the categorization of data based on the interview questions to allow for an

understanding of similarities and differences across all cases. I reported the categories

identified for each participant against each interview question. I aggregated the categories

according to the interview questions and identified the emerging themes from these

categories. I assigned frequencies to each category based on the number of occurrences

across the six cases.

For example, in interview question 1, the category ‘mutual relationship appeared

in five of the six cases and was assigned a frequency of 5/6, ‘collective identity occurred

in four cases with a frequency of 4/6, while the category ‘contingent relationship’

occurred in one case with a frequency of 1/6. I took the frequency of occurrence of each

category into consideration in defining the emerging themes. The frequencies show the

prevalence of categories across the six cases used in the study. I identified a total of 10

themes across the eight interview questions. Some categories and themes appeared in

more than one interview question. Categories with high frequencies showed a prevalence

of the emergent theme across the six cases used in the study. Some categories with lower

frequencies of occurrence were also evaluated from the context of discrepant cases or

treated as exceptional occurrences. Table 10 below shows the categories, their

frequencies, and the emergent teams.

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Table 10

Categories, Frequencies, and Themes

Categories

Frequency Emergent Themes

Interview

Question 1 1) Mutual Relationship

2) Collective identity

3) Contingent

relationship

4) Employee welfare

5/6

4/6

1/6

1) Fostering employee sense of

belonging and collective

identity.

2) Focus on employee welfare

as a performance motivator

Interview

Question 2 1) Employee

untrustworthiness

2) Restrictive leader

influence

3) employee welfare

5/6

4/6

2/6

1) Lack of trust between

owner-managers and

employees

2) Over -bearing influence of

leaders and employee

innovative behaviour

3) Employee welfare as in Q1

Interview

Question 3 1) Structured problem-

solving

2) Spiritual problem-

solving

3) Leader unsupportive

behaviour

5/6

1/6

2/6

1) Lack of employees’

intellectual stimulation and

independent thinking

2) Criticism of failure and its

impact on employee morale

Interview

Question 4 1) Focus on transactions

2) Structured approach

3) Employee welfare

6/6

5/6

2/6

1) Emphasis on specific

transactions over long-term

organizational goals

2) Employee welfare as in Q1

Interview

Question 5 Task-specific training 6/6 1) Limited owner-manager

visionary influence on

employees

Interview

Question 6 Nonspecific targets 6/6 1) Setting open-ended targets

for employees

Interview

Question 7 1) Nonspecific rewards

2) Focus on transactions

3) Punitive measures

6/6

5/6

2/6

1) Lack of clear and explicit

reward systems.

2) Emphasis on specific

transactions over

organizational goals

Interview

Question 8 1) Focus on transactions

2) Supportive measures

3) Punitive measures

6/6

5/6

3/6

1) Emphasis on specific

transactions over

organizational goals

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Evidence of Trustworthiness

Strategies for rigor in qualitative research must be put in place by the researcher

to ensure the trustworthiness of the study and its outcomes (Houghton et al., 2013). To

enhance the trustworthiness of this multiple-case study, my data analysis followed a

ground-up strategy (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), which ensured that findings unfolded

naturally and reflected the true lived leadership experiences of the participants (Yin,

2017). I have taken the following steps to ensure that the rigor and trustworthiness of the

processes used for conducting this study: 1) I provided detailed description of the

strategies and procedures for recruiting study participants, 2) I provided detailed

description of my interactions with the participants during and after data collection, and

3) I provided a detailed description of how the interviews were audio recorded,

transcribed, and member-checked.

Trustworthiness reflects the quality that can be ascribed to qualitative research

(Patton, 2015). In this multiple-case study, I have used the following four criteria to

address the issue of rigor and trustworthiness: Credibility, transferability, dependability,

and confirmability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). These four criteria draw parallels (Patton,

2015) with the four criteria established by Yin (2017) namely: Internal validity

(credibility), external validity (transferability), reliability (dependability), and construct

validity (confirmability).

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Credibility

The credibility criteria provide assurances that the responses given by the

participants during the interviews reflected their lived experiences regarding the study

phenomenon (Patton, 2015; Baillie, 2015). I ensured the credibility of this study by

taking the following steps: 1) by using purposeful sampling technique, I ensured that the

selected participants were capable and amiable to volunteering credible information

regarding the phenomenon of leadership in SMEs; 2) the interviews were held in the

participants’ natural environments making them more relaxed to volunteer in-depth

information regarding the study phenomenon; 3) I used data from multiple sources

(Baskadara, 2014) including the interview responses, document reviews, field notes, and

my observations/reflections (Vissak, 2010); 4) I carried out member checking (Houghton

et al., 2013) by face-to-face or phone review of the interview transcripts with each

participant to ensure that their experiences are correctly reflected in the interview data;

and 5) my prolonged engagement with the participants before, during, and after the

interviews (Houghton et al., 2013) provided further reflective notes for triangulation of

data.

Transferability

To ensure the transferability of a qualitative study, the researcher must provide

assurances that the procedures adopted for the study and its findings can be applied in

other settings (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Houghton et al., 2013). To address the issue of

transferability in this study, I provided a detailed and transparent description of all the

130

strategies adopted in the process of recruiting participants, interactions with participants,

data collection, data recording, and data analysis (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). I provided

detailed description of each participant such that the contexts under which data for this

study was obtained will be helpful to readers in understanding or possibly applying the

outcomes of this study in other settings. My personal experiences as an SME owner-

manager ensured robust scrutiny of data to provide reliable answers to the research

question.

Dependability

Dependability of a study refers to the assurances that other researchers will accept

the methodology used for the study and its outcomes. It also means that the replication of

the study by other researchers is feasible and can yield similar conclusions (Patton; 2015;

Baillie, 2015). I ensured the dependability of this study by taking the following steps: 1)

the conceptual framework for this study was rooted on a strong and widely accepted

theoretical foundation (The Full Range Leadership Model) for leadership research. This

ensured that there is an alignment between the outcomes of the study and other existing

knowledge in the literature regarding the phenomenon of leadership in SMEs. 2) I

adopted the multiple-case study design for the study, thus, allowing for the understanding

of the study phenomenon from multiple contexts. 3) I followed a rigorous purposeful

sampling technique for the selection of participants to ensure that data obtained were in-

depth, rich, and reliable. 4) I ensured detailed documentation of all the procedures for

participants’ selection, contacting of participants, interview recording, interview

131

transcription, and data analysis. 5) I ensured that all the records used or obtained during

this study were properly and securely preserved.

Confirmability

Confirmability refers to the steps taken in the study by the researcher to ensure

that the interview data reflect the actual experiences of the respondents and not biased by

the researcher’s opinions, experiences, imaginations, or preferences (Patton, 2015;

Baillie, 2015). I ensured that I did not lead the participants to conclusions during the

interview. The interview questions were open-ended allowing the participants to describe

their experiences without any limitations or boundaries. Because I own and manage an

SME, I carried out reflexivity of myself to ensure that my personal experiences and

viewpoints did not influence the probing questions that I asked each participant. Where a

participant omitted specific areas that were relevant to the research question, I drew their

attention to elucidate on those areas without making any assertions or inferences relating

to the study phenomenon.

Study Results

This qualitative multiple-case study was designed to provide a rigorous way of

understanding the nature of leadership styles in the Nigerian SMEs. The main research

question for this study was “What are the specific knowledge gaps among SME owners

and managers in Nigeria regarding leadership style and its implications on their

enterprises’ long-term sustainability.” The conceptual framework for this study was

based on the full range leadership model (FRLM) with a focus on three leadership

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behaviors: transformational, transactional, and laisse-faire (Avolio & Bass, 1991). By

conducting detailed interviews with six SME owner-managers, I obtained in-depth

descriptions of their leadership experiences in managing their various organizations.

In analyzing the data from this study, I looked out for how the emerging

categories and themes aligned with the leadership theories used in the conceptual

framework, and how the themes provided answers to the research question. Being a

theory-building study, I also sought for similarities in categories and themes that were

used for pattern-matching (Yin, 2017), and differences across the cases that can be sued

for theoretical replications (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007) in future research. I used a

laborious and time-consuming manual coding technique (Basit, 2003) to ensure that

every segment of data was considered in determining the emerging categories and themes

that I found to be relevant to the research question.

By using the manual descriptive coding in this study, I was fully immersed in the

data (Cronin, 2014) such that there was an effective and a contextual understanding of

data (Finfgeld-Connett, 2014). As a novice researcher, the descriptive manual coding

method (Saldana, 2016) was more effective for me than the Computer Assisted

Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDAS) programs for the analysis of data from this study.

The data analysis took into consideration all data obtained from the study including

transcribed interviews, review of documents (including websites), literature review, field

notes, and researcher’s observations/reflections. I used the field notes and observations to

reflect on participants responses during the within-case and cross-case data analysis.

133

A total of 10 themes emerged from the thematic analysis of data. These themes

include: 1) Fostering employees sense of belonging and collective identity, 2) Focus on

employee welfare as performance motivator, 3) Lack of thrust between SME owner-

managers and their employees, 4) Over-bearing influence of leaders and employee

innovative behavior, 5) Lack of employees’ intellectual stimulation and independent

thinking, 6) Criticism of failure and its impact on employee morale, 7) Emphasis on

specific transactions over long-term organizational goals, 8) Limited owner-manager

visionary influence on employees, 9) setting open-ended targets for employees, and 10)

lack of clear and explicit reward systems.

Theme 1 emanated from interview question 1; theme 2 from questions 1, 2, and 4;

themes 3 and 4 emanated from question 2; themes 5 and 6 from question 3; theme 7 from

questions 4, 7, and 8; theme 8 from question 5; theme 9 from question 6; and theme 10

from question 7. In the rest of this section, I described the emerging themes and provided

examples of specific participants’ quotes that support these themes.

Theme 1: Fostering employees sense of belonging and collective identity

This theme shows that the SME owner-managers have close relationships with

their employees while fostering a sense of collective identity within their organizations. It

portrays a positive transformational behavior with a leaning toward the ‘idealized

influence’ element of the transformational leadership model. Idealized influence is one of

the four elements of transformational leadership (Bass, 1999) that explains how

transformational leaders make others feel good and proud to associate with them. From

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table 10, it can be seen that five out of the six participants described the relationship with

their employees as mutual, while four participants emphasized the existence of a

collective identity within their organizations. The views of five of the participants

regarding the relationship with their employees are exemplified by Participant 2; he

stated in response to interview question 1:

My relationship with my employees is that of a family. Am sure when you

worked into this premises you would have noticed that there is one commonality

today. Everybody is wearing a particular identity in terms of shirt. Everybody in

this company today is wearing the GGI shirt including myself. So what does that

tell us; what it tells us is that I relate with my staff at that level of equality.

Participant 4 further emphasized the issue of mutual relationship and common identity

when he responded to interview question 1. He stated:

We have a very cordial relationship. For me, I look at employees as part of the

owners of the business because without them you can’t really make a headway.

So I try to run a one-on-one relationship with everybody here. For me, the key

word here is just mutual respect.

One discrepant case was noted concerning interview question 1. Participant 3 explained

that the relationship with his employees was contingent on the behavior and performance

of the employees. He stated:

Well, the relationship is cordial, but it's a sort of situational. When you're not

doing what you're supposed to do; the relationship gets rusty. But when you do

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what you are supposed to do; its good, is a cordial relationship but that’s it. So

the relationship you can’t say is consistently cordial. So it depends on your task,

your attitude, your commitment that makes my relationship to be cordial with

you once those things are dysfunctional the relationship doesn't get cordial.

To a large extent, my interactions with the SME owner-managers revealed that they have

firm believe that a close relationship with their employees will increase their

organizational affective commitment as well as enhance their job performance.

Theme 2: Focus on employees’ welfare as performance motivator

This theme explains a strong emphasis by SME owner-managers on employee

welfare as a performance motivator. Though research shows that employees’ welfare

facilities influence their workplace performance (Moruri, Evans, & Jennifer, 2018), but

inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation have been proven to be the most

effective elements of transformational leadership (Boies et al., 2015). This theme will be

evaluated from the context of individualized considerations; an element of

transformational leadership that focuses on the follower’s needs for growth and

achievement (Bass, 1995). A strong emphasis on employee welfare was noted in the

responses to interview question 1 by P4 and P5; responses to question 2 by P2 and P5;

and the responses to question 4 by P4 and P5. The strong emphasis on employee welfare

was exemplified by Participant 5 in her response to interview question 1. She stated:

From the very beginning, the goal has been kind of family set up- family in the

sense that you have good welfare packages. We wanted an organization where

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you have the interest of the staff at heart all the time. You cared about their

welfare and their family.

In response to question 2, P2 also emphasized the importance of employee welfare as a

motivational factor. He stated:

I just try to understand the challenges staff will normally have, accommodation is

one, especially in Rivers state here. But frankly, I had to spend over 100 million

Naira to build staff quarters. I have 1-bedroom staff quarters, I have 2-bedroom, I

have 3-bedroom, and they pay basically like nothing.

The individualized consideration element of transformational leadership implies

that the leader is transformed not to simply focus on the socio-economic needs of

followers, but rather to focus on individual’s differences in needs that will potentially

develop them to higher levels of performance and organizational commitment (Bass,

1999).

Theme 3: Lack of Trust Between SME Owner-Managers and Their Employees

This theme explains the lack of trust between SME owner-managers and their

employees. The ‘idealized influence’ element of transformational leadership is dependent

on how a leader uses charisma to influence high-performance behaviors among followers

(Bass, 199). It will be difficult for a leader to use charisma to positively influence

followers when there is lack of trust between the leader and the followers. Zhu, Newman,

Miaoc, and Hooke (2013) found that affective trust enhances positive organizational

outcomes from transformational leadership. The issue of trust between owner-managers

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and their employees manifested in five of the six cases. The statements by Participant 3

exemplifies the fact that SME owner-managers do not trust their employees. He stated:

Most times Nigerian workers try to dupe you, they try to be dishonest, they try to

be greedy. Now you say: what do you do, set a standard that this is this, if you do

this, if you don't do this, this is what it should be.

This statement shows that the SME owner-managers do not trust their employees.

Participant 1 also reinforced this statement. He stated: “Once you are dealing with human

beings you have to be very careful. I have heard some very bitter experiences with

employees" The issue of trust under this theme reflects only one side of the leader-

follower exchange relationship. Data from this study reflects only the experiences of the

owner-managers and not that of the employees. So data from this study does not show if

SME employees trust their managers. This deficiency is not a problem because the

research question focuses on understanding the leadership behaviors of the owner-

managers and not the followership behaviors of the employees. Notwithstanding the close

relationships with employees as portrayed by the SME owner-managers, this theme is

indicative of limited transformational behavior among the SME owner-managers.

Theme 4: Overbearing influence of leaders and employees’ innovative behavior

Theme 4 explains how the overbearing influence of SME owner-managers could

hinder creativity and innovative behaviors among their employees. Grobler and Du

Plessis (2016) found that the elements of leadership style that promote organizational

sustainability must in addition to employee well-being, encourage innovation and

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entrepreneurship among employees. In his response to interview question 2, P2 exposed

how SME owner-managers impose their experiences and opinions on their employees.

He stated:

At times when it gets tough I put on my coveralls, and I go to work. There is no

staff here who will claim to be more experienced than me in what I am doing. I

know it better than you because I have passed through it. I have more experience,

and I ask you why did you do this, you could have done it this way, and he says I

am sorry, next time I will do it that way.

The behavior portrayed by P2 is reflective of what Howell and Avolio (1992) described

as transformational ‘idols’ whereby leaders see themselves as having unconventional

wisdom and capabilities that other people cannot attend.

The overbearing influence of SME owner-managers was manifested in different

ways in this study. The element of close monitoring of employees by SME owner-

managers can also impact employees’ innovative behavior. This form of overbearing

attitude was exemplified by P6 in his response to interview question 2. He stated that “I

monitor on a daily basis what happens in the business in terms of the finances, sales,

profits, overheads.” Also, in response to interview question 2, P4 stated that “Leadership

is tasking because you have to lead by example. I need to be involved in the process of

production. I know all the customers one-on-one.” When leaders claim to know

everything, it leaves little room for them to see any value in the creative or innovative

potentials of their followers.

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Theme 5: Lack of employees’ intellectual stimulation and independent thinking

The SME owner-managers interviewed in this study do not encourage employees

to approach organizational problems with innovative behavior, rather they encourage a

structured approach to deal with organizational issues. This theme was identified from

the responses of five of the six participants to interview question 3. These participants

described in different ways how they encourage their employees to follow a structured

approach for solving organizational problems. P2 exemplified this structured problem-

solving attitude. He stated: “Problems are resolved first of all along the line of reporting.

If you have an issue, you report it to your immediate supervisor. If it’s beyond your

supervisor, he escalates it to the next person”. This structured behavior is characteristic of

transactional leadership. The transactional leader relies on organizational structures,

procedures, and guidelines to drive the exchange of agreements with followers for

specific results against predetermined rewards (Bass, 1997).

P5 explained how her employees resorted to prayers in response to a major

organizational problem. She stated: “We all noticed that this place was going downhill.

We called a meeting and told everybody this is what is happening and everybody resorted

to prayers.” P5 did not inspire her employees to think of creative ways of dealing with the

problems of the organization. She resorted to punitive measures like demotions and

outright termination of employment. She stated:

People were already used to that way of doing things. They couldn’t help

themselves because it has gone too deep the way they did their job. So we needed

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some outsider to come and get into the system and sort it out, and that’s what they

did. They just flushed out all those staffs.

Theme 6: Criticism of failure and its impact on employee morale

This theme explains the non-supportive attitude of SME owner-managers to their

employees when they attempt personal initiatives toward addressing organizational

issues. An important element of transformational leadership style is that leaders

collaborate with employees to effect changes in the organization (Bass, 1990). A

responsive and supportive leadership behavior has been associated with a strong positive

influence on organizational growth (Katou, 2015). The unsupportive attitude of owner-

managers toward employee deviations manifested in two cases; P3 and P4. For example,

in response to interview question 3, P3 stated:

My rule is that you must have your own solution no matter how foolish. Then I

will now tell you that your decision is foolish and stupid, why did you say that

this is this, why did you not think about it this way or that way.

P4 also exemplified lack of support to employee’s technical initiative toward resolving

problems. In response to interview question 3, P4 stated:

Sometimes we have teething problems. We have issues where something might

go bad, and they start trying how they can fix it. But my own way of doing it is

once it is bad, can we change it or do something. But they might say can we just

adjust.

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This attitude of not supporting employees’ initiatives for resolving problems can affect

their morale and dampen their disposition to creative thinking. Shehu and Mahmood

(2014) found that SME owner-managers that influence their organizations with

innovative and supportive cultures tend to achieve higher levels of organizational

performance.

Theme 7: Emphasis on specific transactions over long-term organizational goals

This theme describes how SME owner-managers focus more on specific

transactions rather than long-term goals in their engagement with employees.

Transactional leaders drive their followers to achieve specific tasks (Burns, 1978), while

transformational leaders emphasize the organizational vision (Bass, 1985) and long-term

goals. In response to interview question 4, all six participants exhibited transaction-based

behaviors in their engagement with employees.

For P1, achieving goals means complying with the school curriculum. This

restricts the employees from looking for other ways to achieve performance and

competitive advantage for their institution. P1 stated: “School has a curriculum. At the

beginning of every session, we sit down; I sit down with the administrator and the head

teacher, and we review the curriculum.” P2 focuses more on team goals instead of

organizational goals and vision. He stated: “Every team lead sits with his team and

analyses the challenge that they have. Every team has a goal. I must sit with team leads to

know what their challenges are” It means that employees are not made to think about

long-term organizational goals and vision. P6 emphasized the issue of money as a

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motivation for achieving targets. He stated: “Achieving goals in this part of the world,

most times people are motivated with money. We have a salary structure. But I also go

out of my way to set targets among them.” Again, organizational long-term goals and

vision were not emphasized. The attitude of the SME owner-managers as reflected in this

theme depicts a leaning to transactional leadership behavior.

Theme 8: Limited owner-manager visionary influence on employees

This theme describes the focus by owner-managers on task-specific training and

less of intellectual stimulation. There is no emphasis on inspiring the employees to

believe in the vision and long-term goals of the organization. This theme is similar to

theme 7 concerning exhibiting transactional leadership behavior. The difference is that

while theme 7 reflects an attitude toward transactions, theme 8 reflects an attitude toward

training and development of the employees. In response to interview question 5, all six

participants described how they organize seminars and workshops on task-specific

training for their employees, or how they send them for third-party organized job-related

training. This attitude depicts transactional leadership behavior. Transformational leaders

use vision rather than tasks to inspire their followers to achieve high organizational

performance (Bass, 1999). The views of the six participants are exemplified by P1 who

stated: “In fact every session we have what we call workshop and seminars. We invite

people from outside to teach them on modern techniques of impacting knowledge to their

pupils.” Similarly, P2 stated: “What we do here is that every year there is a scheme of

training as it affects your job.” The emphasis here is on job-related training rather than

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the vision and goals of the organization. P5 stated: “We have annual workshop every year

about this time before resuming another academic year. So they learn new skills”, while

P6 said: “The people we represent come to do training. We also do our own internal

training.” Again, these statements are all related to job-specific training.

Theme 9: Setting open-ended targets for employees.

One of the three dimensions of transactional leadership is contingent reward

whereby leaders set targets for employees and reward them for achieving or surpassing

those targets (Burns, 1978). In response to interview question 6, all the six participants

reported setting one form of target or the other for their employees, but these targets are

open-ended and have no specific correlation with the performance and long-term

sustainability of their organizations. In response to question 5, P1 described targets as the

completion of the school’s curriculum within the specified period for an academic term.

This is an open-ended target that has no specific correlations with job performance and

organizational growth. He stated: “Setting targets in our establishment is to make sure

that the fourteen weeks you have in each session you cover all the curriculum that is

required to be covered within that fourteen weeks for each term.” The covering of school

curriculum may not be an appropriate standalone yardstick for measuring employee job

performance.

In some cases, the SME owner-managers had no specific targets. For example, P4

responded thus: “It is setting your priorities right by making sure you are giving them the

enabling environment to work. No fixed targets are here.” For P6, targets are assessed

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relative to the performance of other employees and not based on specific performance

expectations. He stated:

At the end of the month, for each staff, we print out all the sales that the staff has

made and we compare it with the other staffs. There is a minimum target that a

staff should make. If you go below that, it means that you are not performing

Though the setting of targets for employees as reflected in this theme depicts a leaning

toward transactional leadership behavior, Bass (1997) argued that the conceptualization

of contingent reward in transactional leadership requires a clear and structured exchange

relationship that arise from negotiations, supportive resources, and mutually beneficial

agreements (Bass, 1997) between the leader and followers. Thus, it can be said that

regarding target setting, the SME owner-managers are aligned to transactional leadership

behavior but do not fully follow the principles of contingent reward as conceptualized in

the transactional leadership theory.

Theme 10: Lack of clear and explicit reward systems

This theme explains the nature of employee reward systems that exist in Nigerian

SMEs. In response to interview question 7, all the six participants described employee

reward as an important factor that engenders employee organizational commitment.

Contingent reward is one of the elements of transactional leadership (Bass & Avolio,

1995). The conceptualization of contingent reward in the transactional leadership theory

is predicated on the existence of structures and procedures that guide employees to

achieve pre-determined tasks against predetermined rewards (Bass & Avolio, 1995). The

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followers know exactly what they will get from the leader if they achieve specific tasks.

Both the setting of tasks and the contingent rewards in transactional leadership are not

arbitrary but clearly understood by all parties within the context of leader-follower

exchange relationship (Bass, 1985).

P1 explained that the reward system in his organization is structured and broad-

based. In his response to interview question 7, he stated:

We have a standard practice. If a teacher has stayed with us and has met his target,

we remunerate him, or we reward him by giving him a 5% increment in his

package, but that is across board. We have not had an experience of targets not

been met.

P4 also described the broad-based reward system in his organization. He stated: “When

they achieve targets, they are all happy because they know they have extra pepper; that’s

what they say, and it cuts across board.” The experiences described by P5 regarding the

reward system in her organization is similar to the responses obtained from P1 and P4. P5

stated: “The reward we used in those days was the Christmas bonuses and we give all of

them 13

-month pay. Those who did not perform well don’t earn that.” The 13

-month

pay represents an additional one-month salary that is paid across-board in December.

Similarities and Differences Across Cases

The cross-case synthesis of data in multiple-case study research can reveal

similarities and differences within the emerging patterns and themes across the cases. The

emerging similarities are subjected to pattern matching and used for literal replications

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(Yin, 2017), while the emerging differences across the cases can create theoretical

foundations to support future research (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). Theme 1:

‘Fostering employee sense of belonging and collective identity’ was dominant across five

of the six cases. The SME owner-managers fostered a very close relationship with their

employees. P3 was the only discrepant case as the relationship with employees was

described as situational and contingent on the employees’ tasks and attitudes. P3 stated:

“So the relationship you can’t say is consistently cordial. So it depends on your task, your

attitude, your commitment.”

Theme 2: ‘Focus on employees’ welfare as performance motivator’ emerged from

three of the six cases (P2, P4, and P5). Welfare was described by these three participants

as the provision employee needs such as accommodation, health care, Christmas bonuses,

-month salary, and providing support for employees in private social issues like the

burial of loved ones and other personal needs. For the other three participants (P1, P3,

and P6), employee welfare was described by fixed salary structures and additional

rewards for meeting targets. This behavior is consistent with the contingent reward

element on transactional leadership.

Theme 3: ‘Lack of thrust between SME owner-managers and their employees’

emanated from five of the six participants. The five SME owner-managers do not trust

the technical competence their employees and their moral standing. P2 was the only

discrepant case for this theme. P2 demonstrated some level of trust between himself and

his employees. For example, he stated: “I am always very much on the move. I can do

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that because I have a stable management here because there's a lot of commitment on the

part of the workforce.” He further emphasized that: “Today we are strong in so many

areas because our representatives are delivering.”

Theme 4: ‘Over-bearing influence of leaders and employees’ innovative behavior’

emanated from four of the participants. These SME owner-managers impose their

experience on the employees thus hindering the capacity of the employees for

independent thinking. Two discrepant cases were noted. P1 relied on the experiences of

his key personnel to run his school, while P5 believed that the employees knew what they

were doing. In answer to interview question 1, P1 stated: “The head teacher and the

administrator do the day-to-day running of the school”, while in answer to interview

question 2, P5 stated: “Negativity came into play because there was an open-ended

disposition all around” The two discrepant cases under theme 4 are both from the

education sector.

Theme 5: ‘Lack of employees’ intellectual stimulation and independent thinking’

emanated from five of the participants because of their structured approach in dealing

with organizational problems which could hinder creative thinking among the employees.

P5 did not describe any structured approach for dealing with organizational problems.

She noted that her employees resorted to prayers when she informed them at a general

meeting that the school was going down. Theme 6: ‘Criticism of failure and its impact on

employee morale’ emanated from the same interview question 3 as theme 5. Two of the

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participants (P3 and P4) were critical of employee deviations. For example, P3 stated: “I

will now tell you that your decision is foolish and stupid.”

Theme 7: ‘Emphasis on specific transactions over long-term organizational goals’

emanated from all the six participants. The SME owner managers exhibited transactional

behavior by focusing on specific transactions and ignoring the need to inspire their

employees to believe in the long-term goals of the organization. The only discrepant

finding came from P4 who stated; “I share my vision with them.” There was no further

emphasis to show how P4 inspired or developed his employees to transcend beyond self-

interest and focus on the vision and goals of the organization.

Theme 8: ‘Limited owner-manager visionary influence on employees’ emanated

from all six cases. Interview question 5 was used to examine how SME owner-managers

develop their employees to achieve organizational goals. Responses across the six cases

focused on task-related training. There was no emphasis on developing the employees to

think along the lines of futuristic state of the organization and its long-term sustainability.

This demonstrates an absence of the ‘individualized influence’ element of

transformational leadership and leaning toward the ‘contingent reward element of

transactional leadership. For example, P2 stated: “What do we do here is that every year

there is a scheme of training as it affects your job.” Similarly, P4 stated: “Here it’s

constant training. Like I told you we are in a process of sending Junior first of all to

China. He needs to go and see the new machine we are trying to order for”; and P5

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stated: “We have annual workshop every year about this time before resuming another

academic year. So they learn new skills.”

Theme 9: ‘Setting open-ended targets for employees’ emanated from all six cases.

Though the six participants demonstrated that they set targets for their employees, but

there is no evidence of correlations between the targets and the long-term goals of the

organization. Employees may be pursuing set targets without a clear understanding of

how these targets tie into the long-term goals of their organization. For example, P5

stated: “The targets that we use as a measure is the entrance examination into secondary

schools of their choice”. This target is open-ended because other external factors can

impact the performance of pupils in external exams.

Similarly, P6 stated: “So it means that at the end of the month, for each staff we

print out all the sales that the staff has made and we compare it with the other staffs.”

Target setting as conceptualized in transactional leadership is structured, negotiated, and

specific to individuals (Bass, 1985). It is not based on a comparison of the performances

of different individuals.

Theme 10: ‘Lack of clear and explicit reward systems’ emanated from all six

participants. Themes 9 and 10 are similar because the two themes reflect a transactional

behavior among the SME owner-mangers regarding the setting of targets and the

accompanying reward systems. Themes 9 and 10 emanated from the same category:

‘focus on transactions.’ It demonstrates the fact that the SME owner-managers focus

more on getting their employees to achieve specific tasks rather than inspiring them to

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believe in the long-term organizational goals. This raises the question of whether SMEs

in Nigerian have long-term performance objectives with clear organizational vision and

goals. Figure 1 shows the frequencies of emergent themes across the six cases used in the

study.

Figure 1. Cross-Case Analysis (Theme Frequency of Occurrence by Case)

Summary

In this chapter, I have presented the research setting, participants’ demographics,

and the procedures for participants’ selection and data collection. The data collected was

analyzed in two stages. The first stage involved the within-case analysis of data using the

descriptive coding method to identify codes and categories from relevant segments that

provide answers to the research question: What are the specific knowledge gaps among

Criticism of failure and its impact on employee

morale

Focus on employee welfare as performance

motivator

Over-bearing influence of leaders and employee

innovative behavior

Lack of employees’ intellectual stimulation and

independent thinking

Fostering employee sense of belonging and

collective identity

Lack of clear and explicit reward systems

Setting open-ended targets for employees

Limited owner-manager visionary influence on

employees

Emphasis on specific transactions over long-term

organizational goals

Lack of thrust between SME owner-managers and

their employees

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SME owners and managers in Nigeria regarding leadership style and its implications on

their enterprises’ long-term sustainability? I presented the codes and categories identified

from the six cases in tables according to the eight interview questions.

The second stage of data analysis involved a cross-case thematic analysis which

led to the emergence of 10 themes from the 14 categories that I identified in the first

stage analysis across the eight interview questions. I found these ten themes to be

relevant to the research question. I described the ten emergent themes in details in this

chapter and I presented examples of participants’ statements that supported these themes.

I evaluated the similarities and differences in the themes across the six cases, and I

presented the frequencies of the ten themes across the six cases.

I presented evidence of trustworthiness for this study and its outcomes. I ensured

credibility by recruiting capable participants that volunteered credible information

regarding the study phenomenon. I ensured transferability by presenting detailed and

transparent procedures for the recruitment of participants, data collection, and data

analysis. The study was rooted in a generally accepted theoretical foundation for

leadership studies thus ensuring dependability for the study. The results of this study

reflect the experiences of the study participants and not my personal opinions and biases,

thus ensuring the confirmability of the study.

In chapter 5, I presented interpretation of my findings and discussed how these

findings relate to existing knowledge in the literature regarding leadership styles in

SMEs. I also discussed the implication of the study findings for positive social change,

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theory, methodology, and advanced recommendations and opportunities for future

research.

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Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations

The purpose of this multiple-case study was to gain an in-depth understanding of

specific knowledge gaps among SME owners and managers in Nigeria regarding

leadership style and its implications on their enterprises’ long-term sustainability. The

nature of the study was qualitative. The research question which was: What are the

specific knowledge gaps among SME owners and managers in Nigeria regarding

leadership style and its implications on their enterprises’ long-term sustainability? The

conceptual framework for this study is grounded in Bass’s (1990) concept of leadership

style and Franco & Mato’s (2015) concept of leadership in SMEs. The full range

leadership model (FRLM) (Avolio & Bass, 1991) was used as a theoretical foundation for

the study. The FRLM comprises three leadership theories: transformational leadership

theory, transactional leadership theory, and the laissez-faire leadership theory.

The thematic analysis of data from the six cases used in the study produced 10

themes that explained the leadership behaviors of SME owner-managers. These themes

included: (a) fostering employees sense of belonging and collective identity, (b) focus on

employee welfare as performance motivator, (c) lack of thrust between SME owner-

managers and their employees, (d) over-bearing influence of leaders and employee

innovative behavior, (e) lack of employees’ intellectual stimulation and independent

thinking, (f) criticism of failure and its impact on employee morale, (g) emphasis on

specific transactions over long-term organizational goals, (h) limited owner-manager

visionary influence on employees, (i) setting open-ended targets for employees, and (j)

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lack of clear and explicit reward systems. These 10 themes formed the basis for

interpreting the findings from this study. In the rest of this chapter, I presented my

interpretation of findings from the study; implications of the study for theory, practice,

and positive social change; limitations of the study; and the recommendations.

Interpretation of Findings

Most of the findings from this study confirmed or extended the existing

knowledge in the literature regarding leadership style and leadership in SMEs. Bass

(1999) asserted that the FRLM encapsulates most of the conventional leadership styles

and that every leader exhibits some form of transformational and transactional leadership

styles, with each leader aligning more to either transformational or transactional

leadership styles. This assertion was reaffirmed in this study. Likewise, Franco and

Matos (2015) found that SME owner-managers in Portugal did not faithfully follow any

specific leadership style. The SME owner-managers in Portugal were found to exhibit

some levels of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors with some

aligning more to either transformational or transactional leadership style. My findings

from this current study on leadership in Nigerian SMEs show that SME owner-managers

do not follow any specific leadership style. They exhibited some elements of

transformational and transactional leadership styles, with most of them aligning more to

the transactional leadership behaviors.

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Fostering employees’ sense of belonging and collective identity

This theme provided evidence that the SME owner-managers fostered a close

relationship with their employees. This finding is consistent with previous research by

Franco and Matos (2015) that indicated that SME owner-managers feel that closeness

with employees increases their organizational commitment as well as enhancing their job

performance. The SME owner-managers interviewed in this study portrayed a strong

family-like relationship with their employees in exchange for loyalty. The existence of a

high sense of collective identity and mutual relationship between leaders and followers in

Nigerian SMEs suggest a leaning toward the individualized consideration dimension of

transformational leadership behavior.

Bass (1999) argued that transformational leadership is more likely to thrive in

places with high level of group orientation, and that collective identity mediates a

leader’s individualized consideration because of a perceived moral obligation to attend to

employees’ personal needs. The moral spectrum of transformational leadership canvased

by Bass and Steidlmeier (1999) to some extent described the transformational behaviour

of Nigerian SME owner-managers. Five out of the six participants enjoyed a good and

cordial relationship with their employees while at the same time taking care of their

social and financial well-being. That affective organizational commitment is seen as a

positive outcome of transformational leadership (Long et al. 2016), but research shows

that the dimensions of transformational leadership that engenders SME performance and

growth is intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation (Boies et al., 2015) of

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followers which are obviously lacking among the SME owner-managers that I

interviewed in this study.

Focus on employee welfare as performance motivator

This theme showed that the interviewed SME owner-managers cared a lot about

the general welfare of their employees. There was much emphasis on employee social

needs, like providing affordable accommodation, healthcare, and participating in social

functions like employee’s birthday celebrations, burial of loved ones, marriages, and

other sociocultural factors that put emotional and financial burden on employees. From a

transformational leadership theoretical lens, the emphasis on employee welfare partially

reflects the principles of ‘idealized influence’ in the transformational leadership model

(Bass 1985). Though idealized influence is conceptualized under transformational leader

to focus on individual needs, the context of needs is not limited to welfare.

Individualized consideration as conceptualized in transformational leadership is

developmental, focusing on the follower’s needs for achievement and growth (Bass,

1995). Individualized consideration as exhibited by SME owner-managers interviewed in

this study focused on meeting the employees’ socio-economic needs. Thus, the

employees become dependent on their organization for socio-economic sustenance rather

than the organization depending on the employees for growth and sustainability.

The finding from this theme is consistent with the research findings by Aritz and

Walker (2014) that cultural differences impact the values that different people attach to

the essence of leadership. Equally, Bass (1997) argued that leadership is affected by the

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cultures that it occurs. The socioeconomic climate in Nigeria is very harsh (Motilewa et

al., 2015), such that employees in Nigeria attach great importance to personal survival

and family sustenance. Unfortunately, SME owner-managers in Nigeria have limited

knowledge on the factors that might contribute to business sustainability (Uchehara,

2017) including the critical factor of leadership style (Nanjundeswaraswamya & Swamy,

2015; Oladele & Akeke, 2016). This explains why they put more emphasis on employee

welfare over higher-order developmental needs of the employees. To become

transformational leaders as recommended by Bass (1985), there is the need for a

pragmatic shift in the Nigerian SMEs from the short-term focus on employee welfare to

long-term developmental processes that will benefit the individuals, the organization and

the society.

Lack of thrust between SME owner-managers and their employees

Trust is a very important factor in the exchange relationship between leaders and

followers. Research showed that trust mediates the idealized influence element of

transformational leadership (Zhua et al., 2013). The absence of trust between the SME

owner-managers interviewed in this study and their employees provided evidence that

they do not exhibit transformational leadership behavior from this context. Mittal (2016)

found that transformational leaders in SMEs create trust between them and their

employees; thus, providing the psychological empowerment that enhanced organizational

commitment.

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Though the SME owner-managers interviewed in this study maintained a close

relationship with their employees and cared about their welfare, these are short-term

measures that tend to address the immediate socio-economic circumstances of the

employees. My interpretation from this theme is that the SME owner-managers do not

operationalize the transformational leadership principles, rather, they obtain the loyalty of

their employees by ensuring a good relationship with them and attending to their

immediate welfare and social needs. This approach will not create the innovative

environment (Kacem & El Harbi, 2014) that is required for the growth and long-term

sustainability (Katou, 2015) of the SME firms. Thus, these SME owner-managers lack

the necessary understanding of how transformational leadership styles can be used to

improve enterprise performance and organizational sustainability.

Over-bearing influence of leaders and employee innovative behavior

This theme indicates a leaning toward the transactional leadership behavior by the

interviewed SME owner-managers. Transactional leaders use predetermined structures

and procedures to promote compliance among their followers for the achievement of

assigned tasks (Bass, 1985). The element of transactional leadership exhibited under this

theme by the SME owner-managers interviewed in this study is ‘management by

exception actively.’ The SME owner-managers exercised strong influence over the way

employees attended to their jobs. This influence sometimes could become over-bearing

such that the innovative potentials of the employees remain latent and the organization

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will only rely on the experience and capability of the owner-manager for growth and

sustainability.

Bass (1997) argued that in a knowledge-dominated era, leadership must go

beyond the contingent reward/punishment mechanisms in transactional relationships

(Bass, 1997). When SME owner-managers impose their knowledge and experience on

their employees, knowledge creation and knowledge sharing become restrictive among

the employees. The organization is thus limited by the knowledge and the experience of

the owner-manager and may not survive in a competitive, dynamic, and challenging

economic environment. This finding is consistent with the argument by Howell and

Avolio (1992) that over-bearing leaders may become ‘idols’ by seeing themselves as

possessing unconventional wisdom that their employees cannot attain.

The interviewed SME owner-managers lack the understanding of how to take

advantage of specific leadership styles to influence the innovative behavior of their

employees (Derecskei, 2016). Idealized influence as conceptualized in transformational

leadership theory describes how a leader’s charisma is used to influence high-

performance work attitude among followers. In essence, followers are influenced to

innovate and to bring in their own perspectives for driving the growth and sustainability

of the organization. Nigerian SME owner-managers need to ensure that their employees

understand that they have a role to play in the growth and long-term survival of their

organization and should not be limited by the knowledge and experiences of the owner-

manager.

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Lack of employees’ intellectual stimulation and independent thinking

This theme shows a leaning toward transactional leadership behavior by Nigerian

SME owner-managers because they focused on a structured approach for dealing with

organizational issues and influenced their employees in that direction. The theme

emanated from the category ‘structured problem-solving’ which means that the SME

owner-managers influenced their employees to follow structured processes and

procedures for addressing organizational problems. In essence, the employees are simply

extending the knowledge and experience of the owner-managers without bringing their

own initiatives into context in dealing with organizational issues.

The interpretation of this theme further confirmed the existence of limited

transformational leadership behavior among the SME owner-managers because

transformational leadership thrives better in a dynamic environment where work

emphasis goes beyond the effectiveness of employees under routine performance.

Research showed that intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation are the most

effective elements of the transformational leadership model that impact team and

organizational performance (Boies et al. (2015). The SME owner-managers need to

become more transformational by influencing their employees to learn and explore new

ways of improving and sustaining the performance of their organization. Bass (1999)

argued that when leader-member exchange starts as a transactional relationship, there is a

need for it to become transformational for more effectiveness.

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Criticism of failure and its impact on employee morale

Although this theme arose from only two of the six participants, it is an important

finding because it further reinforced the transactional leadership leaning of the SME

owner-managers. Typical of the transactional leadership model, the SME owner-

managers described how they reprimanded their employees when they took initiatives

that went wrong or even prevented them from taking personal initiatives to deal with

problems or challenges that they encounter in the course of performing their duties. In

contrast, transformational leaders are not punitive but support their employees in the

areas where personal development is required to enhance their performance and growth

(Bass, 1995).

Shehu and Mahmood (2014) found that SME owner-managers that influenced

their organizations with innovative and supportive cultures tend to achieve higher levels

of organizational performance. Responsive and supportive leadership behavior has been

associated with strong positive influence on organizational growth (Katou, 2015).

Research showed that transactional leadership may have a negative influence on

employee entrepreneurial behavior (Moriano et al., 2014); thus, it is important for

Nigerian SME owner-managers to fully understand the principles of transformational

leadership which have been found to promote innovation and positive entrepreneurial

behavior among employees in small firms ((Muchiri & McMurray, 2015). In cases where

transactional leadership have been found to be effective, it is substantially mediated by

transformational behavior (Bass, 1999).

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Emphasis on specific transactions over long-term organizational goals

The SME owner-managers interviewed in this study did not set long-term goals

for their enterprises. They focused more on short-term transactional objectives without

any clear plans for growth and long-term sustainability of their enterprises. As such, SME

employees struggled to achieve immediate tasks without an understanding of any

correlations between their tasks and the long-term sustainability of their organizations.

This finding demonstrated a leaning toward transactional leadership behavior by the SME

owner-managers. Researchers have found that transactional leadership is not very

effective for the performance and long-term sustainability of SMEs (Mekraz & Gundala,

2016; Mgeni & Nayak, 2016).

The findings from this study have not produced any evidence of significant

transformational leadership behavior among the interviewed SME owner-managers.

Research show that where transactional leadership have been found to be effective, it is

substantially mediated by transformational behavior (Bass, 1999). Existing evidence in

the literature suggest that transformational leadership is the most effective leadership

style for the performance and sustainability SMEs (Mekraz & Gundala, 2016; Ozer &

Tinaztepe, 2016; Iscan et al., 2014). Also, since there is evidence that transactional

leadership has a negative impact on the entrepreneurial behavior of SME employees

(Moriano et al., 2014), thus the dominance of transactional leadership behavior in the

Nigerian SMEs could partly explain the poor performance and slow pace of growth in

these firms.

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Limited owner-manager visionary influence on employees

Inspirational motivation as conceptualized in the transformational leadership

theory describes how leaders articulate a vision and inspire followers to believe in this

vision (Bass, 1985). Research show that inspirational leadership influence organizational

innovativeness in small firms (Dunne et al., 2016). This theme provides evidence that the

SME owner-managers lack the knowledge of how visionary leadership can positively

impact the growth and long-term sustainability of their enterprises. This theme further

demonstrated the fact that the SME owner-managers interviewed in this study exhibited

limited transformational behavior in the management of their organizations.

The finding from this theme is consistent with the finding by Boies et al. (2015)

that intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation are the most effective

dimensions of transformational leadership that impact team performance. Thus, the

absence of inspirational motivation in the leadership behavior of the interviewed SME

owner-managers could to some extent explain the poor performance and lack of

sustainability of SMEs in Nigeria. This theme arose from the question on how the SME

owner-managers develop their employees to achieve organizational goals. Responses

obtained from the SME owner-managers indicated that they have a preference for

transaction-related training rather than long-term developmental objectives that are

aligned with their organizational vision and long-term goals.

Inspirational motivation is used to imbue the vision of any organization on its

employees (Bass, 1985). The absence of inspirational motivation as a managerial tool

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could mean that employees may not be familiar with the vision of their organizations

even when such a vision exists. In a study involving 100 retail pharmacies in Australia,

Jing, Avery, and Bergsteiner (2014) found that the communication of organizational

vision to employees had a significant positive impact on organizational outcomes such as

financial performance, staff productivity, and staff retention in small service firms. Thus,

the poor communication of organizational vision to employees in Nigerian SMEs could

have a negative impact on the performance and long-term sustainability of these firms.

Research show that small firms that are characterized by visionary leadership

outperformed those that are characterized by transactional leadership (Jing, 2018).

Setting open-ended targets for employees and lack of explicit reward systems

The finding from themes nine (setting open-ended targets for employees) and ten

(lack of clear and explicit reward systems) are similar because both themes can be

associated with the contingent reward mechanism in transactional leadership. Though

findings from other themes identified in this study show that the SME owner-managers

lean more toward the transactional leadership behavior, these two themes revealed that

the SME owner-managers do not follow the contingent reward leadership mechanism as

conceptualized in the transactional leadership theory. Transactional leadership ensures

that tasks are accomplished by followers, and in exchange, their personal interests are

fulfilled (Bass, 1985; 1990). Transactional leaders set clear standards and procedures for

accomplishing tasks and monitor followers to ensure full compliance of these standards

and procedures (Bass, 1990).

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The targets and the rewards set by the SME owner-managers interviewed in this

study were nonspecific. The targets and the accompanying rewards were not mutually

negotiated between the owner-managers and their employees. For example, some of the

targets set by the SME owner-managers for their employees are impacted by external

factors, and as such, it is difficult to measure and reward employees’ performance based

on this type of targets. From a theoretical perspective, it can be said that the SME owner-

managers interviewed in this study do not exhibit full transactional leadership behavior.

This outcome is consistent with the finding by Franco and Matos (2015) that SME

leaders in Portugal do not faithfully follow any specific leadership styles.

Limitations of the Study

While there is no consensus in the literature on the number of cases that is

sufficient for qualitative multiple-case study research (Merriam, 2009), for this study, I

have relied on Yin (2017) that recommended six to 10 cases as sufficient sample size for

qualitative multiple-case study design. In this study, I have used six cases (SMEs), and

collected interview data from six SME owner-managers. Thus, the findings from this

study were limited to the experiences of the six participants and may not be generalizable

to the larger SME population in Nigeria.

The participants in this study were selected using the purposeful sampling

technique. One of the criteria for the selection is the ability of the potential participants to

provide rich information that can provide answers to the research question. Thus,

communication and self-expression were critically important for the participants’

166

selection. As such, the six participants selected for the study all had a minimum

educational attainment of a college degree. Given that the level of literacy among SME

owner-managers in Nigeria is not known, a significant number of the SME owner-

managers may possess much lower levels of educational attainment compared to the six

participants in this study. Thus, the findings from this study may not represent the

experiences of the Nigerian SME owner-managers with lower levels of educational

attainment. This limitation becomes more pertinent because of the finding by Mendes and

Lourenco (2014) that educational attainment of SME managers has an influence over

their disposition to organizational improvement programs.

The six participants for this study were chosen from one geographical location-

Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Nigeria is a multicultural society, and

evidence in the literature suggest that leadership in SMEs have geographical and cultural

implications (Aritz & Walker, 2014). Thus, findings from this study may not be

generalizable across the multi-ethnic regions of Nigeria which is a limitation on the

dependability of the study (Patton; 2015; Baillie, 2015).

Though several steps were taking to enhance the credibility of the study, there is

still the possibility that the responses given by the participants during the interviews do

not accurately reflect their lived experiences regarding the study phenomenon (Patton,

2015; Baillie, 2015). Participants may have been restrictive in volunteering information

during the semistructured interviews. I took several steps to address the limitation of

credibility for the study. Interviews were held in the participants’ convenient environment

167

to make them more relaxed to volunteer reliable information. Equally, interview data

were member-checked, and additional data were collected from other sources (including

a historical review of literature) and triangulated to enhance the credibility of the study

Recommendations

My research has provided insights into the nature of leadership styles in the

Nigerian SMEs. Findings from this research have shown that Nigerian SME owner-

managers do not faithfully follow any specific leadership styles. This research has also

cast doubts on the knowledgeability of the Nigerian SME owner-managers regarding the

phenomenon of leadership style and its implications for enterprise growth and long-term

sustainability of their enterprises. This study was exploratory, and the findings provided

opportunities for both qualitative replication and quantitative validation in future

research.

Methodological Recommendation 1: Qualitative Replication

The data for my research was collected from the city of Port Harcourt, Rivers

State of Nigeria. There is the need to replicate this exploratory multiple-case study in

other cities or geographical locations in Nigeria. Since research have shown that

leadership behaviors have cultural implications (Aritz & Walker, 2014), and given that

Nigeria is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society, additional exploratory multiple-case

studies with participants selected from other geographical locations will greatly enhance

the existing knowledge on the nature of leadership styles in Nigerian SMEs.

168

Methodological Recommendation 2: Quantitative Validation

The theoretical foundation used in this my study was based on the full range

leadership model (FRLM) (Avolio & Bass, 1991) which comprises of the

transformational (four dimensions), transactional (three dimensions), and laissez-faire

leadership styles (two dimensions). All the dimensions of the three leadership models in

the FRLM have been validated in the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ)

(Avolio & Bass, 2004) for use as measures in quantitative research. Findings from my

study indicated that the interviewed SME owner-managers lean more toward

transactional leadership style. They also exhibited limited transformational leadership

behavior. While this finding is consistent with Bass (1999) that every leader exhibits

some form of transactional and transformational leadership behavior, there is the need to

use a large population of SME owner-managers to examine the extent of their leaning

toward each of the dimensions of transactional and transformational leadership.

Recommendations for Future research

Some of the themes that emanated from my study provided opportunities for

future research that will allow for a more contextual examination of the nature of

leadership styles in Nigerian SMEs, and how a full or partial application of specific

leadership styles can improve the performance and sustainability of these firms.

Impact of organizational collective identity on SME performance. The theme

‘fostering employees’ sense of belonging and collective identity’ showed that the SME

owner-managers interviewed in this study have close relationship with their employees.

169

The impact of this close relationship between SME owner-managers and their employees

on the performance and growth of their organizations needs to be investigated. It is also

important to understand from the employees’ context how the nature of the relationship

that they have with the management of their organizations impact their motivation and

organizational commitment. Franco and Matos (2015) found that SME owner-managers

in Portugal associated their closeness with employees to enhanced organizational

commitment and job performance. Since my study has revealed a close relationship

between Nigerian SME owner-managers and their employees, it is equally important to

evaluate how this relationship impact employee organizational commitment and job

performance in the Nigerian SMEs.

Between employee welfare schemes and work performance. The theme ‘focus

on employee welfare as performance motivator’ is suggestive of a leaning by the SME

owner-managers toward the ‘individualized consideration’ dimension of transformational

leadership. Individualized consideration as conceptualized in the transformational

leadership model focuses on the followers’ developmental needs for higher performance

and achievement (Bass, 1985). The welfare system practiced by the SME owner-

managers interviewed in this study is focused on meeting employees’ basic socio-

economic needs. More research is required to fully understand if these welfare packages

have a significant influence on the performance and organizational commitment of the

SME employees.

170

Engendering trust in the Nigerian SMEs. The theme ‘Lack of thrust between

SME owner-managers and their employees’ indicated that some of the SME owner-

managers interviewed in this study do not trust their employees. Mittal (2016) found that

trust provides an enabling environment for transformational leadership to thrive. Thus,

more exploratory studies are required to understand why the Nigerian SME owner-

managers do not trust their employees and the various contexts that can improve trust

within the exchange-relationship.

Implications

In my study, I have explored the nature of leadership styles in the Nigerian SMEs.

Before my study, there was no exploratory research in the literature on the nature of

leadership styles in the Nigerian SMEs. Specifically, my study was intended to answer

the research question: What are the specific knowledge gaps among SME owners and

managers in Nigeria regarding leadership style and its implications on their enterprises’

long-term sustainability? The outcomes from my study have revealed that the interviewed

SME owner-managers do not faithfully follow any leadership style. They were found to

exhibit some elements of transactional and transformational leadership behaviors leaning

more toward transactional leadership. These my findings have implications for positive

social change; as well as theoretical, methodological, managerial, and institutional

implications.

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Positive Social Change

There is high level of youth unemployment in Nigerian and SMEs have been

identified as the major engine for employment generation in Nigeria (Ilegbinosa &

Jumbo, 2015). Given the evidence in the literature that leadership styles influence the

performance of SMEs (Anggadwita & Mustafid, 2014; Arasti, Zandi, & Bahmani, 2014;

Arham, 2014), an understanding of the nature of leadership styles in the Nigerian SMEs

is important to ensure the growth and long-term sustainability of these firms (Oladele &

Akeke, 2016). Findings from my research show that Nigerian SME owner-managers do

not faithfully follow any specific leadership styles. Thus, these SMEs may not be

benefiting from the proven positive influence of leadership styles on SME performance

and growth. Findings from my study have implications for positive social change at

individual, organizational, and societal levels

Individual level implications. Findings from my study revealed that the

interviewed SME owner-managers focused more on an individual’s personal socio-

economic needs rather than their developmental needs as conceptualized in the

transformational leadership model. Bass (1995) argued that the concept of individualized

consideration in transformational leadership is not limited to satisfying followers’ needs

but require the development of the followers’ potential to achieve increasing levels of

performance. The findings from this study provide the opportunity for SME owner-

managers to focus more on employees’ developmental needs rather than immediate

172

socio-economic needs, thus enhancing their innovative and entrepreneurial behavior in

their jobs.

Organizational-level implications. The findings from my study have exposed

the knowledge gaps of the Nigerian SME owner-managers regarding leadership styles

and its implications for enterprise performance and growth. Research show that specific

leadership styles have been associated with increased organizational performance and

growth in SMEs (Mekraz & Gundala, 2016; Mgeni & Nayak, 2016; Iscan et al., 2014).

The outcomes of this research provided opportunities for the Nigerian SME owner-

managers to seek a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of leadership styles and

transform themselves (Bass, 1990) by aligning more with the leadership styles that are

more appropriate for higher organizational performance and growth.

Societal-level implications. An improved performance of SMEs in Nigeria will

translate to an increase in job opportunities for the unemployed youths. The outcomes of

my study can provide opportunities for improving the performance of SMEs through

better understanding and application of the phenomenon of leadership style. SMEs are

the type of businesses that can easily operate from rural communities. Thus, their growth

and sustainability will support poverty alleviation (Banito et al., 2017) and reduce income

disparities (Ilegbinosa & Jumbo, 2015) between rural and urbanized communities.

Theoretical Implications

The multiple-case study design was adopted for my study with the aim of

advancing theory (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007) regarding the leadership styles in

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SMEs. Findings from my study supported some of the existing theoretical postulations

regarding leadership styles and leadership in SMEs. From my study, I found that

Nigerian SMEs do not faithfully follow any specific leadership styles which is consistent

with the finding by Franco and Matos (2015).

My study also revealed that Nigerian SME owner-managers exhibited some

elements of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors but leaning more

toward transactional leadership. This is consistent with the postulation by Bass (1997)

that transformational and transactional leadership have universal applicability, and that

every leader exhibits some elements of transformational and transactional leadership

(Bass, 1999), sometimes leaning more to one more than the other. I also found that the

interviewed SME owner-managers in my study focused more on the short-term socio-

economic need of their employees which is consistent with the existing knowledge that

leadership is influenced by the culture in which leadership occurs (Bass, 1997; Aritz &

Walker, 2014)

Existing research suggested that transformational leadership is more effective

than transactional leadership for the performance and long-term sustainability of SMEs

(Egere & Abasilim, 2013; Asiimwe et al., 2016; Moriano et al., 2014). Findings from my

study show that the interviewed SME owner-managers align more to transactional

leadership behavior than transformational leaders. This finding could explain the lack of

performance and growth in Nigerian SMEs, and further supports the existing theoretical

174

propositions in the literature that transformational leadership is more effective in SMEs

than transactional leadership (Asiimwe et al., 2016; Moriano et al., 2014).

Methodological Implications

In most of the existing studies in the literature regarding leadership style in

Nigerian SMEs, researchers have adopted the quantitative research approach (Agwu &

Emeti, 2014; Oladele & Akeke, 2016). These studies are mainly deductive and involved

testing the impact of specific leadership styles on the performance of Nigerian SMEs

(Ejere &Abasilim, 2013; Oladele & Akeke, 2016). The findings from my research

suggested that the Nigerian SME owner-managers do not faithfully follow any specific

leadership style. These my findings call for a change of methodical emphasis in the

research regarding leadership style and performance of Nigerian SMEs. There is the need

to place more methodological emphasis on exploratory qualitative approach for a deeper

understanding of leadership styles in SMEs across the different geographical locations in

Nigeria.

Managerial Implications

My study has provided evidence that SME owner-managers in Nigeria have

limited knowledge regarding specific leadership styles and their implications for

enterprise performance, growth, and sustainability. Researchers have found that

specifically, transformational leadership style is more effective than transactional

leadership for the performance and long-term sustainability of SMEs. My research

showed that the interviewed SME owner-managers lean more toward transactional

175

leadership behavior. The implication of my findings is that SME managers and

management practitioners in Nigeria should emphasize the adoption of the

transformational model as a more effective leadership style for Nigerian SMEs. Bass

(1997) argued that when a leader-member exchange starts as a transactional relationship,

there is the need for it to become transformational for more effectiveness.

Institutional Implications

SMEs are recognized all over the world as engine rooms for economic

development, employment generation, and poverty alleviation (OECD, 2017; World

Bank, 2015). Some countries have different policy frameworks for the regulation of

SMEs though research showed that the implementation of these policies has been

ineffective especially in developing countries (Khatun, 2015). In Nigeria, the body

responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies for SMEs is the Small and

Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). The findings from my

study have policy implications for SMEDAN. My study has exposed the fact that SME

owner-managers have limited understanding of leadership styles and its implications for

organizational performance and sustainability. There is a need for SMEDAN to

incorporate leadership development and training for SME managers in its policy and

operational framework. Bass (1999) posited that significant progress has been reported in

the elevation of leaders from transactional leadership to specific elements of the

transformational behavior depending on individual needs of the leaders.

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Conclusion

There is limited research in the literature regarding the nature of leadership in

SMEs (Franco & Matos, 2015). Most of the research on leadership style in the literature

have focused more on large organizations (Franco & Matos, 2015) probably because of

the wrong notion that SMEs are miniature forms of large organizations (Carson. 1990).

Recent research showed that SMEs are characteristically distinct from large firms

especially in the areas of human resource capabilities (Darcy et al., 2014). SMEs have a

lower quality of leadership compared to larger firms (Quan, 2015), thus making it

compelling for more research that will provide a deeper understanding of the nature of

leadership in SMEs because of their critical role in economic development (World Bank,

2015).

From a Nigerian context, the few studies on leadership style in SMEs have

focused on a deductive examination of the relationships between specific leadership

styles and organizational performance of SMEs (Agwu & Emeti, 2014; Ejere &Abasilim,

2013; Oladele & Akeke, 2016). Findings from my study suggested that Nigerian SME

managers lack specific knowledge of the different leadership styles and their implications

for the growth and sustainability of business enterprises- thus justifying the need for more

exploratory studies that can provide an in-depth understanding of the leadership styles in

Nigerian SMEs.

In this study, I adopted a qualitative multiple-case study research approach which

resulted in the interview of six purposefully selected SME owner-managers located in

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Port Harcourt. The six participants were very cooperative in sharing their experiences

regarding the study phenomenon with me. The themes identified in this study and the

interpretations that arose from the themes represent the experiences of the SME owner-

managers that participated in the study and not my personal opinions or biases. Being

exploratory in nature, my research has opened up opportunities for future qualitative and

quantitative studies on the implication of leadership styles for the performance of

Nigerian SMEs. Findings from my study have implications for positive social change

especially in the areas of job creation and poverty alleviation through enhanced

leadership performance in SMEs. The outcomes from my study have also provided

collaborative evidence regarding the existing theoretical conceptualizations in the

literature on leadership styles in SMEs (Aritz & Walker, 2014; Bass, 1997; Franco &

Matos, 2015).

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