Bureaucratic Leadership and Corruption in the Cameroon Public Service The Case of the Police Service in Buea Municipality, SW Region

Changes in the organizational environment of the Cameroon public sector are increasingly complex and competitive and as the nature, volume, and severity of crimes investigation increases from time to time among street level bureaucrats, efforts to curb this corruption have been tilted towards police leadership Jones 2014 6 . This study sought to investigate the link between bureaucratic leadership and corruption in the police service in Buea Municipality. Specifically, the study examined the link between the transformational, transactional and laissez faire leadership styles on corruption in the police service in Buea Municipality. Using a descriptive survey research design, the study adopted and modified Bass and Avolios 2000 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire MLQ, Form 5X . The questionnaires were administered to 197 randomly sampled police officials alongside 5 drivers purposively selected in Buea with whom interviews were conducted. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences SPSS version 25 was used and the hypotheses tested using the Spearmans Rho Correlation Coefficient. This study found a very significant, negative and moderate relationship between transformational leadership style and corruption a significant, positive and moderate relationship between transactional leadership style and corruption and a very significant, positive and strong relationship was established between laissez faire leadership style and corruption. It was concluded that subordinate police officers greatly acknowledge the practice of the transactional leadership style in administration than the others. The laissez faire leadership style characterized by much leniency and much discretion greatly results in fraudulent acts and of criminality than the transformational and transactional leadership styles. It was recommended that police bosses should be strict and very observant institute positive competition and offer intellectual stimulation and appeal to their followers, provide relevant, moral, material and financial means as stated in the text. Loh Yai Ngwe Comfort "Bureaucratic Leadership and Corruption in the Cameroon Public Service: The Case of the Police Service in Buea Municipality, SW Region" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-5 | Issue-6 , October 2021, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd47569.pdf Paper URL : https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/other/47569/bureaucratic-leadership-and-corruption-in-the-cameroon-public-service-the-case-of-the-police-service-in-buea-municipality-sw-region/loh-yai-ngwe-comfort