Abstract:
Behaviour o f the leader affects the performance o f any organization either directly or
indirectly. Employee morale itself has a direct impact on the job satisfaction o f employees
and customers o f the organization as well as the performance o f the organization. But
employee morale is affected by a number o f factors. Among them behaviour o f the leader
is prominent. This inter-influencing nature o f these two variables: behaviour o f the leader
and the employee morale creates contradictory arguments on the nature and the degree o f
relationship between employee morale and leader’s behaviour as well as how these
variables affect organizational performance. However, leaders in each division o f any
organization have a major role in improving employee morale and ensuring the success o f
the organization. Therefore, effective managers modify their behavior to meet both these
challenges. This study aims to examine inter-influencing nature and relationship between
the leaders ’ behaviour and employee morale and the most general style o f leadership
practiced by the private sector banking organizations in Sri Lanka. A sample study o f
managers and employees o f private sector banking organizations in Sri Lanka was
conducted to examine the relationship between leaders ’ behaviour and employee morale.
One o f the major conclusions o f the study is that leadership style could not be identified as
a separate independent behaviour within a continuum o f task-concerned and people concerned behavior. Instead o f practicing a single behaviour, every leader in the sample
simultaneously practice both behaviours, and this behaviour seems to have recorded high
employee morale. The findings revealed that a satisfactory level o f employee morale can
be achieved through balancing a higher degree o f concern for achieving tasks while
practicing the same level or slightly higher level o f concern for employees.
