Is Empowering Shared Leadership Driving Task Performance in Kenya’s Banking Sector?

Decentralizing authority is increasingly vital for the banking sector in emerging economies. This study explored the influence of empowering shared leadership on task performance in commercial banks in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive correlational research design with stratified sampling of managers from all the 39 registered commercial banks in Kenya. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 307 respondents from a target 324 managers. Data analysis used both descriptive and inferential models processed through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program. Results revealed empowering shared leadership on task performance in commercial banks in Kenya was statistically significant, R2 = 0.228, F (1, 306) =13.251, p-value <.05. This shows 22.8% of the task performance in commercial banks in Kenya is attributed to empowering shared leadership while the remaining 77.2% can be attributed to other factors not included in the study and the error term. Additionally, regression coefficient indicated the empowering shared leadership statistically affects the task performance in commercial banks in Kenya (β = .427 t = 3.640, p < .05). The study concluded that empowering shared leadership was an important function of shared leadership for commercial banks in Kenya achieving effectiveness and efficiency in performance. Practical implications urge commercial banks in Kenya to institutionalize all the aspects of empowering shared leadership including beliefs, accomplishments, uniqueness and technology. This research bridges a critical gap in shared leadership literature offering empirical evidence and actionable strategies for sector wide transformation