Abstract

Within global competitive markets, some developing economies (e.g. Ghana) lag behind those of developed countries (e.g. UK), resulting in a widening economic gap. For example, the World Resources Institute (2007) report indicate that the GDP for Ghana for the last quarter of the twentieth century (1975 – 2000) rose from about 4,000 million US dollars to only 7,978 million US dollars and a per capita  of just 413 US dollars. Conversely, for the same period (1975 – 2000), the GDP of the United Kingdom rose from about 200,000 million US dollars to 1,294,359 million US dollars with a per capita income rising from 15,000 to 23,000 US dollars. This situation raises the question as to what factors account for the differences in performance between developing and developed economies. How do firms and organisations in developed economies obtain higher levels of performance than firms and organisations in developing economies? Insights from extant literature indicate that factors such as leadership, national culture, organisational culture, organisational climate and organisational commitment can influence performance (Judge and Piccolo, 2004; Avolio et al., 2009; O`Reilly et al., 2010; Conger and Kanungo, 1998; Liu et al., 2010; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Meyer and Allen, 1991; James et al., 1992; Smith-Crowe et al., 2003; House et al., 2004; Hofstede 1980, 2001; Lau and Ngo, 2004; Daft 2007; James et al., 1992; Schneider, 1975). In most instances, transformational leadership is deemed to have stronger and positive influence on performance than other leadership styles (Higgs, 2003; Bass, 1985; Conger and Kanungo, 1998; Liu et al., 2010). Affective commitment also has been found to have stronger and positive influence on organisational performance than Normative Commitment and Continuance Commitment (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Meyer and Allen, 1991; Powell and Meyer, 2004). Individualistic and low power-distance cultures are also largely found to be associated with higher performance than collectivistic and high power-distance cultures (House et al., 2004; Hofstede. 1980, 2001). Supportive and adaptive organisational cultures are also found to be more influential on organisational performance than other cultural types (Daft, 2007; Lau and Ngo, 2004; Rashid, 2003). Consequently, some of the research questions that arise are: Will leadership in the United Kingdom exhibit more transformational behavioural factors than leadership in Ghana? Will the national culture, organisational culture and organisational climate in organisations in the United Kingdom generally, better stimulate commitment in employees to better impact on performance than those in Ghana? This thesis will explore how leadership variedly influences performance through the mediation of employee commitment, organisational culture, national culture and organisational climate in the two subsamples of Ghana and the United Kingdom. Appropriate survey instruments will be used to gather data on the various variables of study and analyzed. Findings will be discussed and appropriate recommendations will be made.