Abstract

This article examined the leadership styles of education administrators and the work performance of the academic workforce in public universities. Specifically, the article sought to explore how education administrators’ leadership styles like autocratic, democratic, and transformational influenced the work performance of the academic workforce. Three hypotheses underlay this article. An ex post facto research design was adopted, while the lecturers in the public universities in Cross River State, Nigeria, constitute the population. A sample of 450 lecturers was randomly selected through a simple random sampling technique from the two public universities in Cross River State. Data was retrieved using a questionnaire titled: “Higher Education Administrators’ Leadership Styles and Academic Workforce Work Performance Questionnaire (HEALSAWWPQ).” The reliability coefficient of the instruments was established using Cronbach alpha, and the sub-scales ranged from.78 to.89. The data gathered was analyzed using inferential statistics of simple linear regression analysis. The results of the data analysis indicate that transformative, democratic, and authoritarian leadership styles have a relatively significant influence on work performance of the academic workforce. It was concluded that higher education administrators’ leadership styles (such as autocratic, democratic, and transformational) are important determinants of academic workforce work performance in public universities. This article contributes to the understanding of the important role of higher education administrators’ leadership styles in achieving higher academic workforce work performance in public universities and other higher education environments.