TITLE:
Full Range of Leadership Styles on Competency Acquisition under the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Apprenticeship Training in Zimbabwe
AUTHORS:
Tonderai Mathende
KEYWORDS:
Full Range of Leadership Styles, Apprenticeship Training, Competency, COVID-19 Pandemic
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.11 No.1,
March
22,
2022
ABSTRACT: Apprenticeship being a practical-oriented
training is one of the affected areas for
the On-the-Job-Training in the COVID-19 pandemic era. Since apprenticeship
training is time and competency-based,
the lockdowns, stay at home and social distancing rules as pronounced by the
Government due to COVID-19, temporarily suspended the
continuation of the proficiency skills syllabi at colleges and competency acquisition in various
companies. However, delay in the skills acquisition is unjust especially
now as the industry faces collapse due to lack of appropriate skills and the
skillfulness of personnel. Since competency acquisition is realized in terms of
performance outcomes of trainees in industry, leadership plays a significant
role in guiding, supporting, motivating and ensuring
trainees acquire prerequisite competencies in such unprecedented situations. This paper presents the role of the Full Range Leadership style in competency acquisition for trainees doing apprenticeship training
programs under the COVID-19 pandemic era in Zimbabwe. This is quantitative research which comprises a sample of 239 trainees which was
established using an online survey that enabled rapid and effective
distribution of an online questionnaire during the COVID-19 crisis. Then, data
were analyzed using various statistical
techniques. The results show distinctions among leadership styles in
predicting competency acquisition by
trainees and transformational leadership were found to be statistically significant
to trainees’ competency acquisition under the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper recommends the adoption of transformational leadership and intensifying transformational leadership training to capacitate staff members at the
training institutions in Zimbabwe now and in the post-pandemic
era.