Impact of Leadership Styles on Employee Engagement in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry: A Quantitative Analysis

This study investigates the impact of different leadership styles—transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire—on employee engagement within the Nigerian oil and gas industry. Recognizing the industry’s complexity and its critical role in Nigeria’s economy, this research aims to fill the existing gap in empirical studies focusing on leadership’s influence on employee engagement in this specific context. The investigation utilizes a quantitative approach, surveying 100 employees across various job positions within the industry. The findings indicate that both transformational and transactional leadership styles have significant favorable effects on employee engagement, with transformational leadership explaining 31.4% of the variance and transactional leadership explaining 28.8% of the variance in engagement levels. Conversely, laissez-faire leadership style shows a significant negative influence, accounting for 6% of the variance. These outcomes highlight the significance of proactive and involved leadership practices in fostering employee engagement. The research contributes to the broader organizational management literature by highlighting the critical role of leadership styles in enhancing workforce engagement and suggests practical recommendations for industry leaders to adopt transformational and transactional leadership behaviors to boost engagement and drive organizational success. Additionally, the study advocates for further research to explore other variables influencing employee engagement and to extend the findings to other industries and geographical contexts.