CHILAKA MARY EZINNE

This study investigated the effect of leadership styles on organisational performance in the hospitality sector in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, focusing on six selected hotels: Protea Hotel, Precious Palm Royal Hotel, Uyi Grand Hotel, Western Villa Hotel, Limoh Suites, and El-Hassani Hotel. The research adopted a quantitative survey design, and data were collected from 134 employees using structured questionnaires. The analysis was conducted using SPSS version 22, applying both descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis to assess the influence of five leadership styles—transformational, transactional, laissezfaire, autocratic, and participative—on organisational performance. The results revealed that transformational leadership had a strong and statistically significant positive effect on organisational performance (β = 0.505, p < 0.001), followed by transactional leadership, which also showed a significant positive influence (β = 0.220, p = 0.021). However, laissez-faire, autocratic, and participative leadership styles demonstrated positive but statistically insignificant effects, indicating that while they may be perceived as supportive, they do not contribute meaningfully to measurable performance outcomes in the hotel industry. The study recommends targeted investment in leadership development programs that emphasise vision, motivation, and innovation. The research contributes to the leadership-performance discourse by providing context-specific empirical evidence from the Nigerian hotel industry and calls for further investigation into sectoral and behavioural mediators of leadership effectiveness.