The Influence of Leadership Style on Employee Performance

Abstract

Employee performance plays a crucial role as a key indicator of an organization's success in reaching its productivity targets. One managerial factor that significantly determines the optimization of this performance is the leadership style applied within the company. This study aims to analyze and map the influence of various leadership styles on employee performance based on empirical findings from previous literature in Indonesia. The method used in this study is a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The data collection process was carried out by searching scientific articles in the Google Scholar database published between 2021 and 2025, filtering 9 selected articles based on topic relevance, publication year novelty, and methodology quality through strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. The literature review results generally show that democratic, participative, and transformational leadership styles all have a positive contribution and a significant influence on improving employee work performance. Transformational leadership has been proven effective in boosting intrinsic motivation and worker loyalty through an inspiring approach. On the other hand, a less adaptive leadership approach risks lowering work enthusiasm and hindering work output achievement. This study concludes that the effectiveness of leadership does not lie in absolute authority, but rather in the leader's ability to choose the right approach strategy that matches the team's characteristics and work environment dynamics to promote sustainable productivity.