Abstract:
Cooperative leadership serves as a catalyst and there is no meaningful human endeavor that has
been achieved that is not as a result of leadership.Although the government plan to expand
cooperatives by establishing at least one primary cooperative in each village and one union per
district has further enhanced the development of cooperatives, Ethiopia is one of the African
countries where co-operatives are again in the spotlight. The main objective of this study was to
assess the ef ect of leadership styles on organizational performance of farmers’ cooperative
unions (FCUs) at Buno Beddelle Zone; Oromia Region, South-Western Ethiopia. In this study, correlational research design was viably employed. Data was collected through major data
collection instruments as Multifactor Leadership Questionnaires (MFQ) and Subjective
Organizational Performance measurement questionnaires from 126 respondents selected by
using random sampling method. Data analysis was carried out both by descriptive and
inferential techniques, and Statistical Package for social science (SPSS) software version 20
aided the analysis. In this study, leadership styles (transformational, transactional, laissez-fair, autocratic and democratic) were treated as independent variables while organizational
performance was treated as the dependent variable. The study finding indicated that four of the
leadership styles (democratic, transformational, laissez-faire and autocratic) had significant
ef ect on cooperative performance while the ef ect of transactional leadership style was found to
be insignificant. The result demonstrated the pronounced significant ef ect of democratic
leadership style over the others in cooperative unions of the study area. Further, 44.6% of the
variation in the cooperative unions’ performance was explained by these leadership styles. Finally, it was recommended those leaders in order to enhance cooperative unions’ performance, should grant the use of and exhibit more democratic and transformational leadership styles and
avoid/exhibit less of/ the autocratic and laissez-faire leadership styles while also consistent and
continuous cooperative leadership capacity building programs should be organized and utilized
by the concerned body
