Deans in Kenyan Universities: Their leadership styles and impacts on staff commitment

Leadership is an important factor in organizational success. This study analyses the leadership styles of deans in Kenyan universities and reveals that Kenyan deans lead their faculties by deploying three main leadership styles: the people managers style, the performance-driven goal-setters style and the empathetic pushers style. The study also addresses the effects of these leadership styles on faculty staff commitment and demonstrates that the people managers style leads to the best outcome on staff commitment while the performance-driven goal setters style has the least outcome on staff commitment. These outcomes are further explained based on some contemporary developments in Kenya's higher education.