Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Employee work ethic and workplace productivity are vital for organizational success. Past research has shown leadership style to be influential on both, with the manager-employee relationship impacting employee’s attitude and output in the workplace. This study investigated the relationship between employee work ethic and workplace productivity, while also examining the impact of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles on agriculture equipment dealership employees. The leadership style of service managers, as measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (5x-Short), was compared to the workplace productivity and work ethic scores of the service technicians they manage. Service technician workplace productivity data was obtained directly from their employer, while work ethic scores were obtained utilizing the Multi-dimensional Work Ethic Profile (MWEP). Service managers were classified as “high” or “low” in transactional, transformational, and laissez-faire leadership to establish two independent groups of the independent variable. Utilizing the “high” and “low” groups for each leadership style, three independent-samples t tests were ran against each of the dependent variables of employee workplace productivity and work ethic. A Pearson r correlation was also ran to determine if a relationship exists between employee work ethic and workplace productivity. The results of the statistical analysis found no significance and failed to reject the null hypotheses. Conclusions, implications, and practical significance of the study results are discussed along with study limitations and calls for future research.

Year manuscript completed

2021

Year degree awarded

2021

Author's Keywords

leadership style, MLQ, MWEP, productivity, work ethic

Dissertation Committee Chair

Randal Wilson

Committee Member

Brian Parr

Committee Member

Peggy Pittman-Munke

Document Type

Dissertation

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