The effects of leadership style on employees performance in case of Kaffa Zone higher public educational institutions

This study was conducted in two public higher educational institutions (Bonga TVET College and Bonga College of teacher education) in Kaffa Zone. The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of leadership style on employee performance. The research categorized under Descriptive and explanatory research design and mixed (quantitative and qualitative research methodology) was appropriately used in the study because; mainly primary data was used and collected through questionnaire and interview from the academic and administrative staff of both colleges. To do so, the researcher selected 197 employees from the total employees of 406 as a sample based on simple random sampling technique using lottery method. However, actually, the data was collected only from 180 employees. After the data was collected, it was analyzed in qualitative and quantitative method of data analysis through the use of SPSS version 20 and the statistical analysis was made such as descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and reliability and validity tests. The findings of the study resulted, the democratic leadership style was not highly practiced in the both college, authoritative leadership was practiced and also the laissez-faire leadership did not exist. The researcher concluded that: there was high confusion in the practice of leadership since most leaders were autocrat yet employees were practicing democratic leadership. The researcher recommends that: empowerment was needed through developing teams and measure of power and authority to teams and should reduce the dominance of authoritative leader ship by giving training that provides professionalism and transparency. Key words: employee performance, leadership style