An Exploration of Situational Leadership Support and Impact on Ghanaian SME Hotels

The Ghanaian hotel industry which is categorised under the tertiary sector and dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accounts for over half of tourist accommodation and contributes more to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Ghana than the other industries. Ghanaian SME hotels are however acknowledged to lack professional and multidisciplinary competent staff, who are characterised with high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance and affected by collectivist societal factors. Scholarly debate on the mechanisms through which leadership supports SME employee’s competence development, for effective service delivery in the hotel industry is therefore inconclusive. The aim of this research is to explore situational leadership support and impact on employee’s competence development and identify contextual factors, that need to be considered alongside employee readiness levels when deciding on a situational leadership theory (SLT) leadership style to support employee’s competence development in the various quadrants of situational leadership model. Ghanaian SME hotel managers who often double as owner-leaders tend to exhibit the use of less structured leadership styles to support their employees competence development. Interventions within Ghanaian SME hotels are therefore likely to be affected by their behaviour, culture, beliefs, and form of business ownership due to their proximity to employees. Limited research has showcased the different situational leadership styles used by Ghanaian SME hotel leaders to support the competence development of their employees who are characterized as being first-time employees, senior high school (SHS) or vocational school leavers with no or limited competence and are also ii placed in an industry characterised by high levels of emotional exhaustion, occupational stress, long working hours, and mood swings. This research is underpinned by an interpretivist philosophy using a case study strategy to create new, deeper understanding and interpretations of social worlds and contexts using semi-structured interviews and hotel records from ten Ghanaian SME hotels to provide in-depth information to achieve the research aim and objectives. The data analysis process was implemented alongside data collection. The researcher adopted the use of thematic analysis supported by CAQDAT (NVivo) to analyse data and adopted the Gioia approach to presenting the results. Findings revealed on-the-job training, use of the scrum system, face-to-face discussions, aligning staff passion to job roles, allowing staff initiative-taking, task assignment and social and financial support as the leadership practices Ghanaian SME hotel managers apply to support their employees competence development, which are align with the four situational leadership styles. On-the-job training, which aligns with the directing and coaching styles within situational leadership model is used as a major managerial employee competence development practice by Ghanaian SME hotel managers. This is due to Ghanaian SME hotels liability of smallness, their rarely receipt of job applications from qualified staff, the lack of professionally trained key employees like receptionists, specific to the hotel industry, its associated cost-effectiveness and being focused on employee’s training needs. The research builds on current understanding of situational leadership support on employee’s competence development, and develops a novel model recognising culture, family ties and religious factors as key contextual factors in the leadership process that need to be considered alongside employee readiness level at the various development levels. It also aligned Ghanaian SME hotel managers iii leadership practices with situational leadership directive and supportive leader behaviours, to provide guidance on how managers or leaders can support the development of their employee’s competence for effective service delivery to achieve organisational objectives

An Assessment of the Banking Regulatory and Market Framework in Ghana in the Wake of DKM Diamond Micro-finance Limited Financial Saga

The DKM Diamond Micro-Finance Limited (DKM) financial saga caused rapid loss of unprecedented amounts of money. One effect of this development is the fact that farmers in most of the places of its operations have stopped farming whiles many customers are under pressure to find a secure way through life. This portends a rather disastrous consequence on the country's already-battered agricultural sector. Many blame it on the banking and financial regulatory framework of Ghana. They argued that a sound financial system is indispensable for a healthy and developing economy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats inherent in the Banking and financial regulatory framework of the Ghana Banking Act. Primary data was sourced from fifty (50) bankers using a multi-stage and convenience sampling techniques. Data was analyzed with the use of tables and percentages. Even though the banking sector is currently doing well economically, but based on the data gathered, we found that supervision of the activities of the various Micro Finance Companies is not timely enough to avert some of these challenges as witnessed in the recent DKM crisis. Our literature also found that formulation of regulation and supervision of the sector is lagging behind most countries.  It is recommended that supervision of the activities of the various Micro Finance Companies should be strengthened whiles banks and other financial institutions in Ghana must formulate their domestic regulations in line with International regulations to encourage trading among other countries in the global community. Key words: Financial Institutions, DKM Diamond Micro Finance Limited, Financial Crisis, Regulation

Repositioning the Disabled Entrepreneur Towards Socio-Economic Development: The Case of Sagnarigu District in the Northern Region of Ghana

This research is an exploratory one which intends to delve into how disabled entrepreneurs can be better placed to contribute their quota to the socio-economic development of the Ghanaian economy using the newly created Sagnarigu District as a case research. Snowball sampling strategy was used to select 45 disabled entrepreneurs using questionnaires and interviews as research instruments to collect data. Data analysis were done manually and results presented in tables.We found that majority of the disabled entrepreneurs are in their youthful ages. Majority of them do not have the requisite educational qualification even though they contribute meaningfully to employment generation. The research further showed that stigmatization has been a major setback in translating the skills and experiences of the disabled entrepreneur into viable businesses. Also Sole proprietorships is the main form of business ownership operated by disabled entrepreneurs in the District resulting in low asset and their inability to provide collateral to obtain loans for business expansion and improvement.The researchers recommended that government, non-governmental organizations and civil society groups should advocate for the welfare, rights of the disabled, build their capacities to ignite and bring out their untapped skills, experiences and provide avenues for the easy access to information and funding opportunities.International Development organizations and donor agencies like the USAID, UKAID, DFID, World Vision, KOICA, JICA, SNV etc should model or develop projects or programmes specially targeting the disabled to make them socially inclusive and bring out their untapped skills, experiences and innovative ideas for economic development Keywords: Disabled, Entrepreneurship, repositioning, socio-economic development, challenges, Sagnarigu Distric