ANGELES UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION

Angeles City
College of Business and Accountancy

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A Thesis entitled
“The Assessment of the Supervisors’ Leadership Style and its Effect on
Employees’ Performance in a Tire Manufacturing Company in Clark
Freeport Zone”
Presented to
The Faculty of College of Business and Accountancy
Angeles University Foundation
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In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree in
Human Resource Management
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Group Leader: Maninang, Esrale Rayelene M.

Members: David, Christian Kenneth A.
Feliciano, Chloe Anne G.
Montemayor, Justin R.
Valencia, Ian Laurence C.

July ___, 2018

 CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
Introduction

"If you believe lack of authority prevents you from leading effectively, it is time to

rethink your understanding of leadership." — Mike Bonem and Roger Patterson

Leading From the Second Chair

According to Blumen (2014), the history of human leadership already existed in the

primitive nomadic groups in search for food, shelter and safety against other tribes and

natural dangers. The concept of “leaders” just like today manifests the understanding

of who acted first and guided the rest of the group. During historical times, there were

already leaders who acted for their followers. It was just simply a leader who

commands and followers who obeyed. There weren’t any classifications yet. A leader

was someone who protects his/her subordinates, assure their safety, and leads his/her

community to success. Just like today, in an organization set up, a leader ensures the

business’ productivity and guarantees that his/her management style will bring up the

business’ success.

Ahmed (2016) mentioned that during the time when society was just starting,

divinity and royalty were the source of power. Moreover, with power, comes the ability

to lead or to rule. A concrete example would be King Arthur and his sword Excalibur.

During those times, people ruled because they were born from a high-ranking family

or from the strongest armies. According to him, it was easy to see then, why, the notion

of a leader and follower are simply to command and to obey because of their fear.
 Harvey et al. (2006) in his study revealed that as time passes by, families turned

into tribes that eventually led into nations where the form of leadership became more

and more complex it evolved as well. Division of labor, form of recording using clay

tablets, or even the code of Hammurabi are one of the proof that the past leaders

managed to adapt to the changing course of leadership. This shows that through time,

things will change and ways will change as well. Humans managed to develop their

skills on managing their community effectively and efficiently. The ancient leaders

demonstrated that one does not simple become a leader, a thorough process and careful

planning must be observed to become a skillful organizer that would bring forth

victory.

Cherry (2018) stated that Leadership Style refers to leader's characteristic

behaviors when directing, motivating, guiding, and managing groups of people. Murray

Johannsen once quoted that a leadership style is “A set of behaviors that one

consciously chooses to use that best fits the situation. When the situation changes, so

does the style.” This quotation was supported by Kendra Cherry’s study on Leadership

Styles and Frameworks You Should Know; she mentioned that Kurt Lewin was the one

that conceptualized the Three Major Leadership Styles in 1939, which are (1)

Autocratic Leadership (Authoritarian), Autocratic leaders make all the decisions

and does not acquire any inputs from their followers, (2) Democratic Leadership

(Participative), Democratic leaders allow inputs from the other members, provide

guidance and encourage their followers to participate in the decision-making, and (3)

Laissez-Faire Leadership (Delegative), these leaders are exactly the opposite of

Autocratic leaders that give no guidance and leave the decision-making to the group

members.

These leadership styles have different effects on the employees’ effectiveness and

company’s productivity. However, the goal of a true leader is to influence their

stakeholders in order to gain maximum benefit from the organization’s resources,

including its followers, which are the most vital in one's company. Leaders shape

organizational strategies including their execution and effectiveness that has a

significant relationship with employee performance.

According to Perrin (2016), Performance is defined as the ability of an employee

to accomplish his or mission based on the expectations of an organization. A

management's leadership style is a factor that drives the capabilities of an employee

and brings out their potentials. Every employee makes an individual contribution to the

performance of the organizational unit and the entire organization itself.

In 1890, Frederick Taylor developed the Scientific Management Theory that

focused on careful specification and measurement of all organizational tasks. Tasks

were standardized as much as possible. Workers were rewarded and punished.

Bureaucratic Management Theory elaborated the concept of Scientific Management

Theory, Max Weber focused on dividing organizations into hierarchies, establishing

strong lines of authority and control. He suggested organizations develop

comprehensive and detailed standard operating procedures for all routinized tasks.
Today, Human Relations Movement was developed that prioritizes individuals and

their unique capabilities in the organization. A major belief included that the

organization would prosper if its workers prospered as well. A leader takes

responsibility for the actions of his/her employees. The Contingency Theory states that

managers make a decision; they must take into account all aspects of the current

situation and act on those aspects that are key to the situation at hand.

Hawthorne Effect was a theory by Elton Mayo and his colleagues from the Harvard

Business School where they studied workers at the Hawthorne plant of the Western

Electric Company in Chicago. The result of their study was worker’s attitudes,

perceptions, feelings, and beliefs played a big part in their productivity. He concluded

that people’s work performance is dependent on both social issues and job content. His

study proved that an employee’s performance can be affected by the management’s

leadership style.

The tire manufacturing industry we chose is Yokohama and it is located at IE5,

Clark Freeport Zone, Philippines. It was incorporated in December 20, 2000 for the

purpose of acquiring, importing, exporting and selling wholesale tires and rubber goods

for automobiles, trucks and aircrafts. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of

The Yokohama Rubber Company based in Japan. The company chose Filipinos to be

in the combat zone of workmanship and Yokohama believes in their skills and as they

say, combining Japanese high technology with Filipino craftsmanship is an excellent

distinction.
Statement of the Problem

Leadership affects many aspects in the workplace that such approach should be

taken critically with the use of a certain style in leading people under their watch. Employee

performance which is professed as: performing definite duties and being proficient in

meeting deadlines and delivering team input. Both leadership and performance should be

consistent and aligned with each other to observe efficiency in performing challenges in

the workplace. The idea here is to assess the leadership style of supervisors and its effect

on employee performance.

This paper seeks to answer the following questions:

1. How may the profile of the respondents be described in terms of:

a. Age

b. Gender

c. Length of service

d. Position

e. Department

2. How may the different leadership styles be assessed in terms of:

a. Democratic

b. Autocratic

c. Laissez faire

3. Is there a significant relationship between the supervisors’ leadership style to

employees’ performance?
Significance of the Study

The study was conducted to provide information that can be used for the following

purposes.

A. Yokohama Tire Philippines Inc.

The study will enable the company to align their leadership style with employees’

performance that would boost their effectivity and efficiency resulting to company

productivity.

B. Supervisors

The study serves as a guide for the supervisors to know the appropriate leadership

style, behavior, or way to deal, manage, or encourage their employees.

C. Employees

The study will benefit the employees in terms of their performance due to the

positive influence of their supervisor’s appropriate leadership style.

D. Future Researchers

The study benefits all future researchers who are interested in expanding topics

related to leadership style and its effect to employees’ performance since there are

already inputs that they could use to expound and that would make their study more

reliable by using it in their review of related literature.

Definition of Terms

The following keywords were defined conceptually and operationally in order to give the

researcher a clear understanding of the following:

1) Division of Labor - the assignment of different parts of a manufacturing process or task

to different people in order to improve efficiency.

(https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=division+of+labor&oq=division+of+labor&aqs=c

hrome..69i57j0j69i59j0l3.3152j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)

2) Leadership Style - the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans,

and motivating people. As seen by the employees, it includes the total pattern of explicit

and implicit actions performed by their leader. (Newstrom and Davis, 1993)

3) Autocratic Leadership Style - when a leader dictates policies and procedures, decides

what goals are to be achieved, and directs and controls all activities without any

meaningful participation by the subordinates.

(http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/authoritarian-leadership.html)

4) Democratic Leadership Style - also known as participative leadership or

shared leadership is a type of leadership style in which members of the group take a more

participative role in the decision-making process. (Cherry, 2018)

5) Laissez-Faire Leadership Style - also known as delegative leadership, is a type

of leadership style in which leaders are hands-off and allow group members to make the

decisions. (Cherry, 2018)

6) Employee Performance – an employee’s action or process of carrying out or

accomplishing an action, task, or function.

(http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/employee-performance.html)
Scope and Limitation

The general purpose of this study is to assess the Leadership styles performed by the

Supervisors in the perception of the employees they are handling and measuring the extent of their

capabilities to influence or stimulate Employee Performance which includes: implementation of

defined duties, meeting of deadlines and achieving departmental goals. The study only focused on

assessing how Autocratic leadership, Democratic leadership and Laissez faire leadership styles of

Supervisors in Yokohama, a Tire Manufacturing Company in Clark Freeport Zone. Based on the

study the researchers are only limited to assessing the leadership styles of the Supervisory level

and not beyond other levels of management in the organization. Secondly, the study is conducted

on a single company operating in the Tire Manufacturing industry, to identify whether the findings

in this study could be applied to other industries, further research must be done. Another limitation

would be the employees' personalities and preferences on supervisor's leadership. Personality and

personal preferences would influence people's view on leadership styles and their associations with

their supervisors. Employee performance levels are influenced by the Leadership of their superiors,

but there are many more factors to be considered that could stimulate their performance in their

work.