Paternalistic Leadership for Optimal Administrative Performance: An Analysis of Approaches

Administrators are encouraged to give directions and support to their subordinates, especially in a wide range of cultural contexts. This study included recognition of the effect of hierarchical structures on decision-making and delegation, stressing a call for empirical inquiries into paternalistic leadership in the State Universities of Panay Island, Philippines, to address existing research gaps. This study used a descriptive-correlational research design and a quantitative approach in discerning the effects of paternalistic leadership on administrative performance among eighty (80) purposively selected administrators from seven (7) State Universities in the Island of Panay, Philippines. The instruments used were a self-administered survey questionnaire for paternalistic leadership approaches and an adapted questionnaire for administrative performance. The analyzed data included descriptive statistics, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression; all were considered statistically significant at α = 0.05. The study results found a common occurrence across administrators in selected State University of Panay Island on benevolent and moral paternalistic leadership practices that may influence good organizational culture. Administrators in these institutions were firmly committed to ethical leadership practices and the well-being of their staff which leads to a climate that is most conducive for encouraging administrative effectiveness. It is, therefore, suggested that state university leadership should employ a paternalistic leadership approach of a benevolent and moral nature to maintain an organizational climate conducive to work whose performance in the government field would be better.