Directive Leadership Style and Performance of Manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) in Nairobi County, Kenya

This study sought to examine the influence of directive leadership style on organizational performance of manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nairobi County, Kenya.  Positivism research philosophy and descriptive correlational research design were adopted.  The target population consisted of managers/owners from 425 SMEs listed members of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers in Nairobi Region. Stratified random sampling technique was then used to draw a sample size of 369 managers/owners from the total population. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires.  Binary Logistic Regression (Cox and Snell R squared) revealed that 13.7 % of the probability of organizational performance was explained by directive leadership style. The parameter estimates results indicated that directive leadership style positively and significantly predicted organizational performance, β= 3.435, p = .000, p < 0.05. Based on these results the null hypothesis that “directive leadership style does not influence organizational performance in manufacturing SMEs in Nairobi” was rejected. The study concluded that directive leadership style significantly influenced organizational performance in manufacturing SMEs in Nairobi County. The findings provide new insights for owners/managers of manufacturing SMEs on use of directive leadership style to influence performance in their organizations. However, given the differences in capacity and demographics in various counties, the study recommends a similar study to be conducted with focus on Kenya at large using a longitudinal approach and other data analysis methods to provide new understanding of the SME sector as a whole.