ABSTRACT
The study investigated the practice of leadership style among
expatriate and Nigerian managers comparatively from the oil sector in
Nigeria. The sample size for this work was 199 respondents randomly
selected. Questionnaires prepared in three sets were administered.
The first set administered to all the selected respondents irrespective
of their levels of education and management hierarchy. The second set
was directed to managers at middle level, while the third set was
administered to highly educated managers, so to say. There were three
research questions and three hypotheses in this research work. Z-test
and chi-square were the statistical tools used in analyzing the
research questions and the hypotheses. The result showed that there
is significant difference between the proportion of expatriate managers
who practice autocratic leadership style and the proportion of Nigerian
managers who practice autocratic leadership styles. It also showed
that middle level-expatriate managers are less autocratic than their
Nigerian counterparts.
That, there is no significant difference between
the proportion of highly educated Nigerian managers who practice
democratic leadership style. The major determinant of these
significant differences could be seen to be cultural variable. Lastly,
education seemed to be the dictator of the lack of significant difference
between the proportion of highly educated Nigerian and expatriate
managers that practice democratic leadership style. Based on the
above findings, some recommendations were made and the work has
implications for both expatriate managers and their Nigeria
counterparts and suggestion for further studies were made.
