Abstract
Training and development of staff has been one of the key focuses of every human resources department of any formal work organisation. This is as a result of the realisation that training is an important determinant of people’s behaviour as well as their general delivery ability at work. In realisation of this, intellectuals and researchers in industrial relations generally have put vested interest in the phenomena of training and work delivery ability. However, despite the enormous volume of literatures available in this regard, very few among them have specifically examined the importance of leadership training as a possible determinant of work delivery. Thus, this study is an attempt to cover this gap. In order to achieve this objective, survey design was used as the research design for the study. A questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents, while simple random sampling technique was used to select the study sample. Frequency distribution and percentage were used as descriptive tools, while chi-square was used as an inferential statistical tool in the study. The study found out that leadership training has a significant relationship with the identified work delivery elements measured in the study. The study concluded that leadership training has a significant effect on delivery ability of team leaders and thus recommended that leadership training should be given utmost priority in work organisations so that work delivery prospects of the employees could be realised.
Introduction
One of the major challenges facing many work organisations in the world today is the problem of optimum delivery of the work force. According to Michael (2010), since the turn of the 21st century, work organisations in many areas around the world are beginning to have the problem of ensuring effective work delivery of their employees. As a result, philosophers, thinkers as well as academia in the field of management and organisational efficiency have developed concern on the analysis of this important element in all work organisations.
In the thinking of some scholars such as Kast and Rosenzweig (1985) and Lane, Snow and Labrow (2000), the best method through which proper work delivery attitude could be developed in people is through improvement in the technological know-how, Information Communication Technology and the technological expertise of the people. Also, the scientific management theorists are of the opinion that the better way to improve on the delivery prospect of workers is through the application and adaptation of scientific culture in the day-to-day activities of the workers (Etzioni 1964; Taylor 1947). Still, some other thinkers such as Sathe (1985), Hofstede (1991) and Schneider and Barsoux (2003) conceived that workers’ delivery prospects could be enhanced through the development of appropriate organisational culture, and some others are of the opinion that incentives and motivational packages are the most important factors that determine the delivery prospects of workers in an organisation (Olatunji et al. 2016; Sansone & Harackiewicz 2000).
Furthermore, some literatures have argued on the importance of training education, training and retraining in determining the work delivery prospects in the organisation. According to Meyer and Allen (1991), to ensure the effective delivery ability of employees, effective training programmes to develop are sacrosanct for the employees to perform well on the job and to influence their motivation and commitment. Similarly, Youndt et al. (1996) noted that firms pursuing a qualitative delivery ability of their workforce must find it necessary to invest in ‘human-capital-enhancing’ activities such as training, in order to enhance the performance improvements in productivity and customer satisfaction.
According to Robert (2006), effective training programmes would help employees to get acquainted with the desired new technological advancement, also gaining full command of the competencies and skills required to perform at a particular job and avoiding on-the-job errors and mistakes. In the view of Elena (2000) and Champathes (2006), the more employees are properly trained on the job, the more they are satisfied with their job, hence increasing the firm productivity and profitability. In the words of Robert, one of the major reasons why many work organisations are dying today is a result of their inability to adapt to technological changes and this is majorly as a result of lack of training and retraining of their work force. He noted further that the spiral effects of poor training of employees have not only restructured these companies negatively, but also made many organisations more conscious about negative effects of poor equipment of employees intellectually. To this end, employees are twice as likely to go to the extra mile for the organisation and almost four times as likely to recommend their company if they are properly trained by their management (Robert 2006).
In the view of Armstrong (2009) a trained employee is a valuable asset that delivers immense value to the organisation in maintaining and strengthening its business and revenue growth. Therefore, a significant relationship was found between the employees’ training and their resultant delivery ability. It was found that those employees who have taken trainings were more capable of performing different tasks and vice versa. Thus, training has direct relationship with the employees’ performance as well as the overall organisational efficiency. What could be inferred from the foregoing is that literatures have focused actively on the importance and relevance of training in the delivery ability of the workers in the organisation.
In respect of the above and from the researchers’ work experience, literatures on training have largely ignored examining in specific terms the importance of leadership training on delivery ability of workers in the organisation. Whereas researches have shown both from theoretical and empirical levels that leadership factor is an important issue in any work organisation. Research has vehemently shown that organisations are replicas of their leadership structure (Afshan et al. 2012). Research has shown that the leaders are the direct representatives of the management in the organisation (Manu 2004). It has been unequivocally discovered that leadership is a strong indicator for organisational productivity and effectiveness (Nelson, Vincent and Michael 2012). In other words, there is the need for research interest in the field of industrial relations to be driven towards this end. This is necessary in order to cover the gap, to add to existing literatures in the area and to improve in the general delivery ability of the leaders and the workforce in general. Therefore, drawing from the above, the focus of this article is to examine the impact of leadership training on their delivery prospects.
Conceptual issues
In a study of this nature, it is important to give conceptual clarification of important terms in order to achieve a better understanding of issues under discussion.
What is leadership?
Leadership is a special type of influential activity. It may be seen in effect in all kinds of social situations, and it is especially apparent where the situation demands that people work together towards common goals. Without mincing words, studies have shown that leadership is the lifeblood of any organisation and its importance cannot be underestimated. Although many authors have studied this phenomenon, there has not been a generally acceptable definition of the concept (Bennis 2007; Hackman & Wageman 2007; Vroom & Jago 2007). For instance, Aneckvanich (2010) views it as an act of giving direction; this means that leadership is that kind of direction that a person can give to a group of people under him in such a way that they will influence the behaviour of another individual or group. It is based on this assertion that some have conceived of it as authoritative use of power and influence. Following this line of reasoning, Ngodo (2008) perceives leadership to be a reciprocal process of social influence, in which leaders and subordinates influence each other in order to achieve organisational goals. For some other researchers, leadership is a trust. This is the view of Mintzberg (2010) who described leadership as the key of trust that comes from the respect of others.
According to Raelin (2011), leadership is directly connected to the practices to which people are dedicated. The most substantial trait of leaders is their influential personality which has positive relationships with the follower’s job satisfaction and the performance (Lian et al. 2011). Jamaludin (2011) conducted research on leadership and leadership styles and suggested that effective leaders are those who use their powers for betterment of the followers and organisation as well. Thus, leaders are one of the major key drivers in enhancing the production and innovations (Lievens, Geit & Coetsier 1997).
In organisations, leadership is a managerial activity the purpose of which is to direct the employees in one immediate chain of command towards the accomplishment of work goals (Nelson, Vincent & Michael 2012). Leadership represents a combination of behaviours exhibited by one who occupies an elected, appointed or designated position of influence in a social system. Leadership behaviour is therefore officially sanctioned either formally or informally and the leader is looked to for guidance and direction by those who recognise in them power. The term leadership therefore can be defined as the exercise of influence in a social situation in which the followers’ (influenced) attribute leadership qualities to the leader (influencer).
Technically, leaders are leaders because other people view them as such. It must be noted that not all leaders are effective managers and not all managers are effective leaders. In other words, leadership has been described as a process of persuasion where the leader (or team of leaders) acts as an example for a group in order to motivate and induce the group to pursue the objectives of the leader and the organisation. In this regard, it is important to realise the culture of their working environment. They are integral parts of the system in which they arise yet dependent upon two-way communication with constituents and the forces that create the circumstances in which they emerge. Inferring from the above, it could be deduced that leadership is an important factor in any work organisation.
Training as a concept
The nature of the human animal is that he has both biological and social ability to learn and relearn. In the general sense, education has been identified as one of the basic social institutions and one of the major functions of this institution is the training of people to become viable members of the society. More specifically, training centres were established for different aspects of life in order to make people adaptable and relevant for different aspects of the society. Generally, thus, training has been seen as highly synonymous with learning. Cole (2002) views training as a learning activity which is directed towards the acquisition of specific knowledge and skills for the purpose of achieving efficiency in an occupation or task.
The focus of training, however, is on the job or task to be performed. For example, the need to have efficiency and safety in the operation of particular machines or tasks. De Cenzo and Robbins (1996) explain that ‘training is basically a learning experience, which seeks a relatively permanent change in an individual’s skills, knowledge, attitudes or social behavior’. This insinuates that there is the need to improve an employee’s skills and knowledge so that they become efficient to work on both present and future jobs and tasks.
Learning, training and development of employees are terms that are often used interchangeably. Noe et al. (2008) define development as the acquisition of knowledge, skills and behaviours that improve an employee’s ability to meet changes in job requirements and in client and customer demands. Training, on the other hand, is defined by the same author as a planned effort to facilitate the learning of job-related knowledge, skills and behaviour of employees.
Armstrong (2009) defines development in a similar way; according to him, development is concerned with ensuring that a person’s ability and potential are grown and realised through the provision of training experiences or through self-directed (self-managed) learning. It is a process that enables people to progress from a present state of understanding and capability to a future state in which higher level skills, knowledge and competencies are required. On the other hand, Armstrong distinguishes between learning and training. Learning, according to him, is the means by which a person acquires and develops new knowledge, skills, capabilities, behaviours and attitudes. It is a continuous process. Training is a process that involves the application of formal processes to impart knowledge and help people to acquire the skills necessary for them to perform their jobs satisfactorily. Training is perceived as a formal act in time that facilitates learning.
Generally, training as an organisational need is placed under human resources management. Armstrong (2009) defines human resource management as a strategic, integrated and coherent approach to the employment, development and well-being of the people working in an organisation. Milkovich and Boudreau (1997) see it as a series of integrated decisions that form the employment relationship; their quality directly contributes to the ability of the organisation and the employees to achieve their objectives. Jackson and Schuler (2000) believe that successful leaders see human resources as assets that need to be managed conscientiously and in tune with the organisation’s needs.
Leadership training and delivery prospect: A review of literature
Conceptually, the word ‘delivery’ could connote different meanings depending on the context in which it has been used. Technically, it means the ability to take something to a specific point where it is needed or required. The word is used in marketing to determine the ability of the marketer to take a particular good or a service to the point where it is needed. In organisation, delivery is used to connote the ability of the individual or collective set of people in the organisation to be able to carry out a specific task to a point of conclusion; in organisational management, the term is generally synonymous with productivity and, generally, the major task of all and sundry in the organisation is to ensure optimum delivery of services to the organisation in order that the organisation would achieve its mission and vision.
In order to achieve optimum delivery of tasks in the organisation, a purposeful and directed leadership must be provided. Throughout human history, the developments and changes have been made by individuals and groups associated with the presence of a person as a leader. These actions have been undertaken under their guidance. Throughout the history, leadership has been one of the pillars of human societies. When leadership is considered as a function, it is an important component of management and its existence in the group is considered important for achieving the organisational goals (Bennett & Anderson 2003).
According to Shirzad, Kebriya and Zanganeh (2011), the ability of an organisation to accomplish its goals depends significantly on the quality of leadership sampled by the organisation. It is as a result of this that training of leadership has been identified as an important component that would determine the delivery ability of leaders in the organisation. A McKinsey Global Survey (2009) highlights the six important leadership skills that are deemed crucial for an organisation’s future success. These areas include challenging assumptions, encouraging risk taking, inspiring employees, clearly defining expectations, rewarding achievements and participative decision-making. Therefore, organisations may position their businesses for future success through focusing on these key areas.
Maxwell (2002) says that a 21st century leader is one who empowers others to be leaders. Managers and supervisors must know the techniques, challenges and benefits of facilitative leadership. According to him, ‘the old world was composed of bosses who told you what to do and think and made all the decisions’. In the new world, no manager can know everything or make every decision. Thus, for a manager to be successful in today’s world of work, the manager has to work in partnership and in collaboration with everyone to tap everyone’s ideas and intelligence. Managers today are supposed to be coaches, counsellors and team builders. Their job is to discover individuals with latent and manifest talents and skills, and help them work together towards common goals. Leadership is influential processes that distinguish leaders by their actions and also encourage a group of people to move towards a common or shared goal (Raelin 2011).
A leader is an individual, while leadership is the function that the individual performs (Arinze 2011). Besides, an individual within an organisation who has authority is often referred to as a leader, regardless of how they act in their job (Bennis 2007). But just because someone is supposed to be a formal leader in an organisation, it does not guarantee that such individuals display appropriate leadership skills; there are instances where people become leaders by circumstances (Dike 2008). At times such individuals are supposed to be taken through leadership training programmes in order to equip them with necessary leadership skills. This is necessary because the leader is more or less the pillar on which the structure of the organisation rests (Lian et al. 2011).
In fact, an informal or emergent leader can exhibit leadership even though they do not hold formal leadership positions (Bennis 2007). Therefore, leadership effectiveness is important in the attainment of organisational goals and objectives. Leaders must ensure that the work needed to deliver the vision is properly managed – either by themselves, or by a dedicated manager or team of managers to whom the leader delegates this responsibility and they need to ensure that their vision is delivered successfully (Hackman & Wageman 2007). To do this, team members need performance goals that are linked to the team’s overall vision. Leaders also need to ensure that they manage change effectively. This helps to ensure that the changes needed to deliver the vision are implemented smoothly and thoroughly, with the support and backing of the people affected (Jamaludin 2011).
A leader will then ensure that team members have the necessary skills and abilities to do their jobs and achieve the vision (Lian et al. 2011). They do this by giving and receiving feedback regularly, and by training and coaching people to improve individual and team performance. Leadership also includes looking for leadership potential in others (Aneckvanich 2010). By developing leadership skills within your team, you create an environment where you can continue success in the long term. And that is a true measure of great leadership. Leaders must create an environment where all team members can positively contribute to identify process improvement opportunities or highlight corrective activities to ensure that maximum team performance is achieved (Duckett & Macfarlane 2003).
Leadership style in an organisation is one of the factors that play significant roles in enhancing or retarding the interest and commitment of the individuals in the organisation (Obiwuru et al. 2011). Leadership is a critical management skill, involving the ability to encourage a group of people towards a common goal. Leadership focuses on the development of followers and their needs. Managers exercising transformational leadership style focus on the development of the value system of employees, their motivational level and moralities with the development of their skills (Ismail et al. 2009).
It basically helps followers achieve their goals as they work in the organisational setting; it encourages followers to be expressive and adaptive to new and improved practices and changes in the environment (Ghafoor et al. 2011). According to Michael (2010), leadership has a direct cause and effect relationship upon organisations and their success. Leaders determine values, culture, change tolerance and employee motivation. They shape institutional strategies including their execution and effectiveness. Leaders can appear at any level of an institution and are not exclusive to management. Successful leaders do, however, have one thing in common. They influence those around them in order to reap maximum benefit from the organisation’s resources, including its most vital and expensive.
Appropriate behavioural patterns of the leader in each organisation creates a strong morale in the staff and increases their performance rate from their profession (Bennett & Anderson 2003). The increment in organisation productivity and employee performance cannot be ascertained without effective application of employees’ ability and their motivation by the organisation leaders to strengthen the creativity and innovation in the staff. Certainly, leadership styles are very effective in right driving of the employees for organisational purposes. Using appropriate styles of leadership will lead to increased organisational effectiveness, efficiency and quality delivery. In fact, if the leaders have the skills and techniques to effectively manage the relationship with employees, motivation and job satisfaction levels of the employees are also higher and, given that the engine of an organisation is its employees, this can effectively help to improve the performance of the total organisation.
By and large, the literature review exercise in this study shows that the dual concepts of training, leadership and delivery ability are important elements of any work organisation. As a result, a series of research has been conducted to show the conceptual meaning of the concepts as well as the effects of employee’s training on the productive ability of the employees as well as its effects on organisational efficiency. In other words, a critical examination of the state of literature in this field would reveal that there is dearth of literatures in the empirical analysis of the specific effects of leadership training on delivery ability of leaders in the work organisation.
Methodology
This study is a survey research. Bichi (2004) believed that survey research is a means of collecting information from a representative sample to describe situations as they exist. This study investigated if leadership training experience of team leaders in Communication Network Support Service Limited (CNSSL) has significant effect on their ability to manage the team to deliver the task expected of them. The choice of this specific work organisation is as a result of the managerial style of the organisation which is anchored on leadership structure and more so because the researchers observed that the work organisation does consider specific training of the leaders very seriously.
In this study, survey approach was used as the research design. This is because of the nature of the research as it tends to observe the relationship between two operational variables. Leadership training experience stands as the independent variable and three delivery proxies which stand as dependent variables were considered for empirical testing in the research. Data used in the study were obtained through a primary source as a questionnaire was adopted as the instrument of data collection for the study. Questionnaire was adopted for the study because all the prospective respondents were literate and also because a questionnaire is very relevant for the achievement of the study objectives. The questionnaire was structured into three sections. The first section was used to retrieve socio-demographic attributes of the respondents; the second section was used to elicit information on the existing leadership training experience of the team leaders, while the third section was used to retrieve information regarding the delivery prospects of the respondents.
The population of the study consists of 75 employees who held one leadership position or an other in the organisation especially the team leaders in the MTN call centre otherwise referred to as CNSSL in Oke-Odo area of Ilorin, Kwara state. These are predominantly employees who are employed to monitor and manage the activities of subordinates in the organisation. Because of the minimal numbers of the targeted respondents in this study, all the identified team leaders represent the sample for this study.
However, of the 75 questionnaires distributed, only 69 persons returned the questionnaire and just 65 of the returned questionnaires were found to be valid for analysis in this research work. For the purpose of analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics were employed; frequency distribution and percentage were used for descriptive analysis of data collected, while chi-square was used as the inferential statistical tool for the study. Chi-square test was used to ascertain if a significant relationship exists between the independent and dependent variables of the study.
Presentation and analysis of data
This subsection of this article presents and analyses the data retrieved for the study.
Table 1 is used to give descriptive analysis of respondents’ conceptions of training (independent variable of the study) in the organisation. Also, Table 2 is used to exhibit work delivery prospects of team leaders (dependent variable of the study) in the work organisation. Data presented in the two tables are oriented not only towards the objective description of the respondents’ conceptions on training and their work delivery prospects, but also towards achieving the major objective of the study. This is so because, the overall objective of the study is to examine the effect of leadership training on the delivery prospect of team leaders in a work organisation. And in order to achieve this, it becomes very important to have a background knowledge of the operational variables of the study and this is carried out by giving a descriptive analysis of the dependent and independent variables before examining the possible effect of one over the other.
| TABLE 1: Descriptive analysis of the training packages available for team leaders in the organisation. |
| TABLE 2: Descriptive analysis of work delivery prospect of the team leaders. |
In Table 1, the distribution of respondents is based on the availability of formal training for team leaders: six (9.3%) of the respondents conceived that there are training programmes available for team leaders in the organisation, while an overwhelming majority of the respondents (59, 90.7%) said that there are no formal training packages for team leaders in the organisation. On the description of the available training packages, 7 (10.7%) of the respondents described the available training package as okay, while the remaining 58 (89.3%) said the available training package is not okay.
On the questions measuring respondents’ view on how often training programme were conducted, 12 (19.2%) of the respondents said training is often conducted, while 53 (79.8%) of them said training is not often conducted in the organisation. On the question that sought the respondents’ opinion on the general system of training in the organisation, 5 (7.07%) said the system is okay, while 60 (92.3%) said it is not okay. Lastly, on training, the question that inquires about the organisation policy on leadership training, 8 (12.3%) described it as okay, while 57 respondents (87.7%) said it is not okay.
Table 2 is used to make descriptive analysis of some organisational factors that could be used to measure delivery ability of the team leaders. In the table, description of target meeting habit of the teams shows that 48 (73.8%) of the teams meet set call targets always, while 17 (26.2%) said that the team responded otherwise. On the level of task fulfilment, 79 (60.7%) have high-task fulfilment propensity, while 21 (32.0%) of the team leaders said their team has low propensity task fulfilment of organisational tasks. Lastly, the aggregate, description of teams’ performance shows that 51 (78.4%) said the general performance outlook of their team is okay, while 14 (21.6%) said that the general performance outlook of the team is not okay. The next subsection presents tests of hypotheses raised in the study.
Test of hypotheses
H01: There is no significant relationship between team leaders’ conception of the availability of training programmes and the target meeting prospect of the team.
Table 3 is used to present a summary of the results of the chi-square analysis.
| TABLE 3: Relationship between leaders’ conception of the availability of training programmes and the target meeting prospect of the team. |
An examination of the chi-square analysis conducted in Table 3 revealed that the observed (calculated  ) value of 5.115 is greater than the tabulated (critical  ) value of 3.11 at 0.05 levels of significance and degree of freedom of 1. Deducing from this, the null hypothesis which stated that there is no significant relationship between leaders’ conception of the availability of training programmes and the target meeting prospect of the team, is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted. This finding is in line with the findings of several scholars such as Michael (2010).
H02: There is no significant relationship between leaders’ conception of the availability of training programmes and the team’s level of task fulfilment.
Table 4 is used to present a summary of the results of the chi-square analysis.
| TABLE 4: Leaders’ conception of the availability of training programme and the team’s level of task fulfilment. |
An observation of the chi-square analysis conducted in Table 4 showed that the observed (calculated ) value of 9.035 is greater than the tabulated (critical ) value of 3.11 at 0.05 levels of significance and degree of freedom of 1. It could thus be deduced that the null hypothesis which stated that there is no significant relationship between leaders’ conception of the availability of training programmes and the team’s level of task fulfilment is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted.
H03: There is no significant relationship between leaders’ conception of the availability of training programmes and aggregate team performance.
Table 5 is used to present a summary of the results of the chi-square analysis.
| TABLE 5: Conception of the work environment and supporting organisational goals. |
An examination of the chi-square analysis conducted in Table 5 revealed that the observed (calculated ) value of 16.123 is greater than the tabulated (critical ) value of 3.11 at 0.05 levels of significance and degree of freedom of 1. Deducing from this, the null hypothesis which stated that there is no significant relationship between leaders’ conception of the availability of training programmes and aggregate team performance is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted.
Discussion of findings
The three null hypotheses tested in this study were rejected, implying that there is leadership training that has significant relationship with work delivery prospect of team leaders in the selected organisation. The first hypothesis which shows that there is significant relationship between team leaders’ conception of the availability of training programmes and the target meeting prospect of the team is consistent with the observations of many scholars of human resources management such as Amuno (1998), Jackson and Schuler (2000) and Afshan et al. (2012); the works of these scholars revealed a similar observation that training has significant positive impact on work performance and overall delivery prospect of an employee. Similarly, the second hypothesis, which is used to ascertain if a significant relationship exists between team leader’s conception of training programmes and the team level of task fulfilment, revealed that training has a significant direct relationship with the level of task fulfilment in the chosen work organisation. That is, that the higher the level of training, the higher the possibility of task fulfilment of the employees. This finding tallies with the findings of scholars such as Amuno (1998), Koss and Lewis (1993), Kootz (2005) and Afshan et al. (2012). The last hypothesis which seeks to know if a significant relationship exists between leaders’ conception of training and aggregate team performance is in line with the findings of Champathes (2006), Lian et al. (2011), Afshan et al. (2012) and Olatunji et al. (2016). All of the authors also confirmed in their studies that training of employees would invariably lead to increased performance among employees. It is pertinent to note that all of these studies have examined training in its general sense, while our present effort is specifically targeted at the employees who are conceived as leaders among other employees. Although the scope of our present effort is narrow compared to the earlier existing studies, the findings emanating from this study in many ways are consistent with the findings of some earlier related studies.
Conclusion and recommendations
This study is set out with the main objective of ascertaining if leadership training has significant influence on work delivery ability of leaders in a work organisation. To achieve this objective empirically, survey approach was adopted as the research design, simple random sampling technique was adopted, data were retrieved with the use of a questionnaire and both descriptive and inferential statistical tools were utilised for data analysis in the study. Specifically, the results emanating from the chi-square test show that leadership training is indeed a strong predictor for delivery prospect of respective work teams in an organisation and, by extension, the entire productivity prospect of an organisation. This could be seen not only from the review of existing literatures on the subject but also from the empirical findings of this present study. For instance, the null hypothesis which stated that there is no significant relationship between leaders’ conception of the availability of training programmes and the target meeting prospect of the team was rejected ( = 5.115; d.f. = 1; n = 65; (0.05) = 3.111). Ditto for other null hypotheses raised in the study ( = 9.035; d.f. = 1; n = 130; (0.05) = 3.111; = 16.123; d.f. = 1; n = 65; (0.05) = 3.111; Ho rejected). What could be deduced from the findings is that leadership training is an important organisational key that could be used to enhance the delivery ability of the individuals and teams in the organisation.
Therefore, based on this finding, the study recommends that the management crew of the study organisation should take the issue of leadership training as sacrosanct in order to improve delivery ability of work teams and the productivity level of its employees. Based on the study finding, this study could specifically recommend for the management to put vested interest in the training and retraining of its workforce especially those who occupy the positions of leadership in the organisation. The leadership training should be laced with appropriate training elements that would improve on the leadership quality of the trainee; this should be done systematically and scientifically in order that the objectives of the exercise could be achieved.
Although this study has contributed to knowledge gap in literatures on the reality of training, development and productivity of team leaders in a work organisation, this research is conducted in just one telecommunication outfit; there is the need to conduct similar research in other telecommunication outlets such as Etisalat, Globacom and so on. Also, there might be the need to further research on this area by extending the research to larger work organisations such as multinationals as well as other larger indigenous organisations. A related study could also be conducted to make a comparative examination of private and public organisations in terms of the leadership training culture of distinct work organisations and whether the differences in the ownership structure could lead to a significant difference in the delivery ability of the leaders.
Acknowledgements
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
Authors’ contributions
A.G.O. is the original author and conceiver of the idea and the topic. A.O. works in CNSSL as team leader; as such he contributed to the process of interacting with the subjects in terms of distributing the questionnaire and its retrieval. A.A.I. assisted in sorting for relevant materials on the subject. I.M. did the data editing and coding as well as its analysis and interpretations and A.S.E. assisted in general editing and structuring of the manuscript and onward submission for review.
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