ACCOUNTABILITY-ORIENTED LEADERSHIP PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES IN CENTRAL GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES IN KENYA
Abstract
Purpose: This study examined the influence of accountability-oriented leadership practices on organizational performance outcomes in central government ministries in Kenya.
Design/Methodology: A pragmatist philosophy with a correlational cross-sectional design integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches was adopted. Primary data were collected from 264 employees across three central government ministries using structured questionnaires, supplemented by Key Informant Interviews with fifteen senior and technical officers. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression.
Findings: Accountability-oriented leadership had a statistically significant positive effect on organizational performance (B = .301, β = .286, p < .001), recording the largest unstandardized coefficient and a strong bivariate correlation (r = .687, p < .01). Qualitative evidence identified audit recommendation closure lag as the primary constraint on the full realization of accountability-oriented leadership in the sampled ministries.
Practical Implications: Ministries should establish time-bound closure protocols for audit recommendations and embed accountability measures into routine performance review cycles rather than treating accountability as a periodic compliance exercise.
Originality: The study provides differentiated evidence on the performance contribution of accountability-oriented leadership within central government ministries, identifying the gap between accountability articulation and operational follow-through as a structural feature of the institutional context that existing studies have not examined.
Keywords: accountability-oriented leadership, organizational performance, stewardship theory, public sector, Kenya.
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