Bases of power, leadership styles, and demographic profiles of undergraduate business students in Ghana

This study sought to determine the differences in the bases of power, leadership styles, and demographic characteristics among undergraduate business students enrolled at a public university in Ghana. Sixty-three students took part in the study. Students were chosen using simple random sampling. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect data. Means, standard deviations, t-test, ANOVA, χ², and Pearson's r were used to analyze the results. The results showed that men had expert and legitimate power and exhibited transactional leadership style. Women had coercive and referent power and exhibited transformational leadership style. Students, irrespective of age or programme area, had legitimate power. However, students below 40 years exhibited transactional leadership style while students who were 40 or more years exhibited transformational leadership style. Management students exhibited transformational leadership skill; marketing and executive office administration students exhibited transactional leadership skills. The t test showed no significant differences in students’ bases of power and gender. Similarly, the NOVA was not significant for the differences in the bases of reward, coercive, expert, and referent power and students’ age. The chi- square test was also not significant for the differences in students’ bases of reward, legitimate, and referent power and programme area. The Pearson's r was significant at the 1% level and showed moderate to high levels of inter-correlations among the dimensions of bases of power (and intuitively leadership style). Overall, the results showed that students had more expert power and weaker referent power. In addition, students exhibited transactional leadership styles.