STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACTS OF LEADERSHIP STYLES ON EMPLOYEES MOTIVATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: A CASE OF BELIZE’S NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Organizations cannot thrive without effective leadership. The national university in Belize have been impacted over the years due to employee morale and employee turnover issues which could be attributed to its leadership. The literature depicts that leadership has been understudied in the region of the world where Belize is situated. Therefore, the relationship between transformational, transactional and laissez faire leadership styles and employees’ motivation and organizational performance was studied. Data was collected via online questionnaires, from 111 non managerial employees, who were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis was done using SPSS Amos software program version 26. Results show that leadership styles accounts for over 50% of employees’ motivation and organizational performance. Hypotheses testing via the SEM revealed that transformational leadership style and laissez-faire leadership had a positive correlation with motivation and organizational performance, while transactional leadership had a negative correlation. None of the relationships were found to be significant. The study concludes that the UB should pay attention to its leaders’ leadership styles and suggests that its leaders employ the transformational leadership style in order to boost highest motivation and organizational performance.