EFFECT OF INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION AND INDIVIDUALIZED CONSIDERATION OF THE CEO ON PERFORMANCE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN KENYA

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on the performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya. Methodology: The study adopted the positivism research philosophy and descriptive correlational research design. The target population consisted of 984 senior managers reporting to the CEOs of 183 private sector companies under the umbrella of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA). A sample size of 284 was drawn using stratified random sampling, and data was collected using structured questionnaires. A response rate of 92% was realized. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics namely frequencies, means, and standard deviation. Inferential statistics were also used in the analysis which included Pearson’s correlation, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression. Results: Results of the multiple linear regression showed that the CEO’s intellectual stimulation significantly predicted performance of senior managers R 2 = .610, F (1, 260) = 405.015, p < .05, β = .781, t (260) = 20.125, p <.05. Further, multiple linear regression results indicated that the CEO’s individualized consideration significantly predicted performance of senior managers, R= .524, F (1, 260) = 285.282, p < .05, β = .724, t (260) =16.890, p<05. Testing the influence of goal orientation as a moderating variable showed that goal orientation significantly moderated the relationship between the CEO’s intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration and performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya, R 2 = .839, F (2, 5) = 265.099, p < .05, β = .111, t = 3.900, p<.05. Human Resource and Leadership Journal ISSN 2520-4661 (Online) Vol.2, Issue No.3, p 42 64, 2017 www.carijournals.org 44 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study provides a unique contribution to the theory and practice of transformational leadership in a new context in terms how trаnsformаtionаl leadership behavior associated with the dimensions of intellectual stimulation аnd individualized consideration, affect the performance of senior managers in private sector organizations. The findings are useful for private sector organizations and policy makers in explaining effective leadership behaviors that can be applied by the CEO for improving performance of senior managers. These will be useful in enhancing performance improvement strategies. Researchers and academicians will also find the study useful in defining new research dimensions by using the research results to expand related arguments in future.


Background of the Study
Leadership drives organization performance (Jestaz, 2014).Deloitte's 2015 Global Human Capital Trends report, observes that a focus on leadership is the key to building sustainable organization performance (Deloitte, 2015).Previous leadership research have focused on leadership style as the key to why leaders of some organizations successfully execute strategies that lead to excellent business results while others fail to translate strategic intent into desired outcomes (Lee & Hee, 2016).Transformational leadership style is one of the leadership styles widely researched on due to its positive link to a wide variety of organization performance outcomes (Ding, Li, Zhang, Sheng, & Wang, 2017).Transformational leadership style has four dimensions, namely idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (Bass & Avolio, 2009).This study will focus on two of these dimensions, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration.Intellectual stimulation is the capacity to challenge followers to question assumptions, take risks, think critically, and identify and solve problems proactively.Individualized consideration is the extent to which leaders identify, understand, and address followers' developmental needs.Transformational leadership influences individual performance by enhancing their motivations to achieve performance goals.The follower becomes more focused, effective, puts in extra effort and is satisfied with their job leading to performance beyond their contractual expectations (Bass, 1985).
The relationship between the CEO's leadership style directed to senior managers as a key link to performance improvement, has received research attention since the unveiling of the Upper Echelons Theory by Hambrick and Mason (1984).Although previous studies have linked transformational leadership style to both organization and employee performance or outcomes, they have not addressed the link between transformational leadership and performance at the CEO and senior management level.Neither have they addressed the upper echelons of management in the private sector, yet transformational leadership has been found to have significant effects on performance at the senior management levels (Araujo- Cabrera, Suarez-Acosta, & Aguiar-Quintana, 2016).This, therefore, provides a basis for a study to be carried out to establish how the CEO by applying the two dimensions of transformational leadership style, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, can improve performance levels of their senior managers.

Statement of the Problem
The CEO's leadership style drives overall organizational performance (Hambrick, Humphrey, & Gupta, 2015).While studies on transformational leadership have consistently noted an underlying process through which transformational leaders exhibit their influences on performance of their followers' and organizations, Chou, Lin, Chang and Chuang (2013) call for further research especially targeted at senior management levels.Although successful corporate performance is often attributed to the CEO, Densten (2016) argues that senior managers also make strategic decisions critical to corporate success or failure and thus it is important for researchers to equally focus on what is happening at senior management level.
At a global context, a study by Latham (2013) among 49 organizations that received the Baldrige Award in Canada established that 28% of the CEOs that led successful organization transformations during their tenure applied transformational leadership behaviors to align individual, group, and organization goals and achieve superior performance.Yucel, McMillan and Richard (2014) from a study of Fortune 500 companies in Turkey demonstrate the strength of the CEO's transformational leadership behaviors in encouraging higher levels of performance by adopting a transformational leadership approach with senior managers.In Africa, studies on the effect of transformational leadership behaviors on performance have shown a positive link to organization performance in Egypt's multinational organizations (Metwally, El-bishbishy, & Nawar, 2014), Nigerian commercial banks (Fasola, Adeyemi, & Olowe, 2013) and construction companies (Waziri, Ali, & Aliagha, 2015).However, there has been less focus on performance of senior managers.
Locally, transformational leadership style has shown a positive influence on organization performance in Kenyan commercial state owned enterprises (Awuor, 2015;Ngaithe, K'Aol, Lewa and Ndwiga, 2016), commercial banks (Gonnah & Ogollah, 2016) and private sector companies (Njehu, 2012;Juma & Ndisya, 2016).Despite these positive leadership and performance linkages (Mutuku, 2012;Muthike, 2014;Mbithi, K'Obonyo, & Awino, 2016), there has been a lack of focus exclusively at senior management levels.The CEO's leadership style as an influencer of the performance of senior managers in the private sector has not been conclusively addressed through research.Ngaithe et al. (2016) recommended that studies on the effect of transformational leadership style on performance of senior managers be undertaken in private owned enterprises since their cultural orientation is less bureaucratic and performance outcomes are likely to be better than those from the public sector.The motivation for this study was, therefore, to determine how transformational leadership behaviors of the CEO associated with the two dimensions of intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration affect performance of senior managers in private sector organizations.

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO on the performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.

Research Questions
1. How does intellectual stimulation of the CEO affect performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya?
2. How does individualized consideration of the CEO affect performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya?
3. What is the moderating effect of goal orientation on the relationship between the CEO's intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration and performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya?

Research Hypotheses
H 01 : Intellectual stimulation of the CEO has no significant effect on performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.
H 02 : Individualized consideration of the CEO has no significant effect on performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.
H 03 : Goal orientation does not significantly moderate the relationship between the CEO's intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration and performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.

Theoretical Literature
This study was based on trаnsformаtionаl leadership theory (Bаss 1985;Burns, 1978).Burns (1978) discussed leadership as transforming, аnd, on occasion, as trаnsformаtionаl with both the leader аnd the led being transformed, changing their performance аnd outlook.Bаss (1985) added to the initial concepts of Burns (1978) to help explain how trаnsformаtionаl leadership is measured, and its impact on follower motivation аnd performance.The theory explains that leaders exude higher degrees of extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction in followers when they apply transformational leadership behaviors related to the four dimensions of transformational leadership, namely idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation (Bass & Avolio, 2009).
The trаnsformаtionаl leader's emphasis on intellectual stimulation is consistent with providing challenging assignments, encouraging risk taking, critical thinking, creativity аnd innovation among followers (Cаrter, Аrmenаkis, Field, & Mossholder, 2013).By providing intellectual stimulation, transformational leaders help followers hone their innovative and creative skills leading to performance improvement (Samad, 2012;Braun, Peus, Weisweiler, & Frey, 2013).Individualized consideration refers to the transformational leader's emphasis on and attention to individual follower's needs for achievement, growth, and career development (Northouse, 2013).The CEO as a leader of the senior managers demonstrates individualized consideration through coaching, empowering followers and developing them to better meet their performance goals (Wang, Tsui, & Xin, 2011).This study hypothesized that if a CEO is able to demonstrate these transformational leadership dimensions of intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, it will result to improved performance of the senior managers.

Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework for the study is shown in Figure 1.

Independent Variables Dependent Variable Moderating Variable
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework

Empirical Literature
Intellectual stimulation encourages staff members to take risks to challenge the status quo and to try new ways of working.This heightens the ability to perceive things in new ways and to explore and experiment novel ideas, which is a core element of an employees' creative performance (Moos, 2015).Employees innovative abilities are also stimulated which positively influences their performance (Chen, Tang, Jin, Xie, & Li, 2014).There is a positive relationship between intellectual stimulation and business performance, however Intellectual stimulation cannot be achieved without some degree of risk taking (Utami, 2013).A leader who desires to intellectually stimulate employees may do so by emphasizing job autonomy, task variety and other discretionary workplace activities in the design of employees' jobs.These activities will help to implicitly communicate the leaders' desire and enable employees to make sense of what the leader expects in return (Ogbonnaya & Nielsen, 2016).
А leader displаys individuаlized considerаtion by showing support to the followers, encouraging аnd empowering them to take up higher responsibilities in their jobs based on their expertise аnd career interests (Yukl, 2012).Within the performance management framework of the organization, as а supervisor, the leader also identifies individual developmental needs, which become the basis of any developmental initiatives (Rаfferty & Griffin, 2006).In addressing individualized consideration needs of senior managers, the CEO need also take note of their prior experiences, knowledge аnd qualifications to establish what employee development strategies will work best for the senior managers in terms of performance improvement as well as their progression.According to Wu, Tsui, and Kinicki (2010), empowering аnd coaching result in job satisfaction, career certainty, skills improvement аnd affective commitment of individuals to the organization, which greatly contribute to organization performance.Individualized consideration has shown positive significant influence on organization performance in the banking sector in Kenya (Deighа, 2016).
Goal orientation as a moderating variable strengthens the effectiveness of the relationship between leadership behaviors and performance with a focus on three perspectives; performance-prove, performance-avoid and learning orientations (Humborstad, Nerstad & Dysvik, 2014).Individuals with a high performance-prove goal orientation are task focused with a desire to prove their ability to others.They exhibit high levels of aspiration resulting in improved performance (Nahrgang, DeRue, Hollenbeck, Spitzmuller, Jundt & Ilgen, 2013).A learning goal orientation on the part of senior managers provides them with a desire to develop the self by acquiring new skills, mastering new situations, and improving one's competence (Chadwick & Raver, 2015).A performance-avoid orientation focus more on avoiding negative outcomes and less on task accomplishment (Hendricks & Payne, 2007).
Senior managers may take any of the three goal orientation approaches to influence their performance.

METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
This section explains the research philosophy, research design, target population, sampling design, data collection and data analysis methods that were used in this study.

Research Philosophy and Design
This study adopted а positivism research philosophy and a descriptive correlational research design because the study was quantitative in nature and was aimed at testing hypothesis.

Target Population and Sampling Design
The target population of this study was 984 senior managers from 183 companies registered as members of The Kenya Private Sector Аlliаnce (KEPSА) as at October 2016 (KEPSА, 2016).A sample size of 284 was drawn using stratified random sampling.

Data Collection and Analysis
Data was collected using structured questionnaires.The study used descriptive and inferential statistical methods to analyze data.The descriptive data analysis methods included frequencies, means and standard deviation while the inferential statistics comprised Pearson's correlation, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression.

RESULTS AND FINDINGS
This section presents the results and findings of the study.

Demographic Information
Table 1 below represents summary of the demographic results.

Descriptive Statistics
The study sought to establish the effect of the CEO's intellectual stimulation on the performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya using means and standard deviations.A Likert scale of 0 to 4 was used to collect data on the perceptions of senior managers regarding the intellectual stimulation of the CEO where 0 = Not at all, 1 = Once in a while, 2 =Sometimes, 3= Fairly often, 4 = Frequently, if not Always.According to the findings, the respondents indicated that their CEO sometimes re-examined their critical assumptions to question whether they were appropriate (M =2.66, SD = 1.079); the CEO sometimes encouraged them to take calculated risks in solving problems in the organization (M=2.99,SD=1.130); and the CEO sometimes encouraged them to be innovative by questioning traditional ways of doing things (M=2.80,SD=1.162).Further, the respondents fairly often performed their duties effectively because the CEO challenges their assumptions to question whether they are appropriate (M =3.10, SD =0.935); they fairly often put extra effort because the CEO encouraged them to take calculated risks in solving company problems (M=3.08,SD=1.096); and they were fairly often contented performing their duties because the CEO inspired and motivated them to think creatively and innovatively (M =3.08, SD=1.025).Findings of the study on intellectual stimulation are indicated in Table 2.

Correlation between Intellectual Stimulation of the CEO and Performance
The study performed a correlation analysis between intellection stimulation and performance of senior managers and found that all the items of intellectual stimulation were positively and significantly correlated with the performance of senior managers, r (261) = .781,p < .05.The Pearson's correlation results in Table 3 indicate that the CEO re-examines my critical assumptions to question whether they are appropriate and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r (261) = .775,p < .05; the CEO encourages me to take calculated risks in solving problems in the organization and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r(261) = .742,p < .05; the CEO encourages me to be innovative by questioning traditional ways of doing things and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r(261) = .753,p < .05;I perform my duties effectively because the CEO challenges my assumptions to question whether they are appropriate and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r (261) = .911,p < .05;I put extra effort because the CEO encourages me to take calculated risks in solving company problems and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r (261) = .897,p < .05;and I am content performing my duties because the CEO inspires and motivates me to think creatively and innovatively and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r (261) = .919,p < .05.

Multiple Linear Regression and Hypothesis Testing for Intellectual Simulation
The study carried out multiple linear regression analysis to assess the relationship between intellectual stimulation and performance of senior managers.The regression summary in Table 4(a) established that intellectual stimulation of the CEO explained a significant proportion of variance in the performance of senior managers, R 2 =.610.This implies that 61% of the proportion in performance of senior managers can be explained by intellectual stimulation in the private sector in Kenya.The R value of 0.781 indicates that the predictor variable which is intellectual stimulation, contributes to 78.1% change in the dependent variable, performance of senior managers.Further, the F-ratio in the ANOVA in Table 4(b) shows that the Intellectual stimulation of the CEO statistically significantly predicted performance of senior managers F (1, 260) = 405.015,p < .05.The coefficients also showed that intellectual stimulation significantly predicted performance of senior managers, β=.781, t (260) = 20.125,p < .05 as shown in Table 4 (c).
From the multiple linear regression results in Table 4, intellectual stimulation significantly predicted performance of senior managers R 2 = .610,F (1, 260) = 405.015,p < .05,β = .781,t (260) = 20.125,p <.05.This implied rejection of the null hypothesis H 01 that intellectual stimulation of the CEO has no significant effect on performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.

Descriptive Statistics
The study also sought to establish the effect of the CEO's individualized consideration on the performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya using means and standard deviations.A Likert scale of 0 to 4 was used to collect data on the perceptions of senior managers regarding the individualized consideration of the CEO where 0 = Not at all, 1 = Once in a while, 2 =Sometimes, 3= Fairly often, 4 = Frequently, if not Always.According to the findings, the respondents said the CEO sometimes empowers them to develop their strengths (M=2.97,SD = 1.144); the CEO sometimes allocated time to guide and coach them (M =2.85, SD=1.249); and the CEO sometimes supported and encouraged their career development (M = 2.99, SD = 1.123).Further, the respondents sometimes performed their duties effectively because the CEO empowered them to be able to meet their performance targets (M = 2.98, SD = 1.145); they sometimes put extra effort in their work because the CEO allocated time to coach and guide them (M = 2.79, SD = 1.243); and were sometimes contented performing their duties because the CEO provided useful advise for their career development (M = 2.95, SD = 1.144).Findings are indicated in Table 5.

Correlation between Individualized Consideration of the CEO and Performance
The study performed a correlation analysis between individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers and found that all the items of individualized consideration were positively and significantly correlated with the performance of senior managers, r (261) = .724,p < .05.The Pearson correlation results in Table 6 indicate that CEO empowers me to develop my strengths and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r (261) = .861,p < .05; the CEO allocates time to guide and coach me and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r(261) = .778,p < .05; the CEO supports and encourages my career development and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r(261) = .883,p < .05;I perform my duties effectively because the CEO empowers me to be able to meet my performance targets and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r(261) = .828,p < .05;I put extra effort in my work because the CEO allocates time to coach and guide me and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r (261) = .881,p < .05;I am content performing my duties because the CEO provides useful advise for my career development and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r (261) = .928,p < .05.

Multiple Linear Regression and Hypothesis Testing for Individualized Consideration
The study carried out multiple linear regression analysis to assess the relationship between individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers.The regression summary in Table 7(a) indicates that individualized consideration explained a significant proportion of variance in the performance of senior managers, R 2 = .524.This implies that 52.4% of the proportion in performance of senior managers can be explained by individualized consideration in the private sector in Kenya.The R value of 0.724 indicates that the predictor variable which is individualized consideration, contributes to 72.4% change in the dependent variable, performance of senior managers.Further, the F-ratio in the ANOVA in

Descriptive Statistics
The study also sought to establish the effect of goal orientation on the performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya using means and standard deviations.A Likert scale of 0 to 4 was used to collect data on the perceptions of senior managers regarding their goal orientation where 0 = Not at all, 1 = Once in a while, 2 =Sometimes, 3= Fairly often, 4 = Frequently, if not Always.According to the findings, the respondents indicated that they sometimes enjoyed doing duties that present an opportunity to learn new things (M = 2.97, SD = 0.954); the respondents fairly often strove to improve on their past performance (M = 3.15, SD = 1.040); and they fairly often were happiest at work when they performed tasks which they knew as they would not make any errors (M = 3.04, SD = 0.999).Further, the respondents fairly often performed their duties effectively because they presented opportunity to learn new things (M = 3.11, SD = 0.960); they fairly often put extra effort in meeting their performance targets because they strove to improve on their past performance (M = 3.16, SD = 1.042); and they were fairly often satisfied in performing their duties when they performed tasks which they knew that they would not make any errors (M = 3.02, SD = 1.049).The findings are shown in Table 8.

Correlation between Goal Orientation and Performance of Senior Managers
The study sought to establish the correlation between goal orientation of senior managers and their performance.The results obtained indicate that goal orientation and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r (261) = .766,p< .05.Further, all the three constructs of goal orientation, namely learning, performance-prove and performance-avoid, were significantly correlated to performance as, r (261) = .712,p< .05,r (261) = .702,p< .05,r(261) =. 682, p< .05respectively, with learning being the most significantly correlated construct.These results are shown in Table 9.

Multiple Linear Regression and Hypothesis Testing for Goal Orientation
The study carried out multiple linear regression analysis to establish the moderating effect of goal orientation on the relationship between CEO's intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration and performance of senior managers.The regression summary in Table 10 (a) indicate that the predictor variables (intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration) explained 82.9% of the variation in performance of senior managers in the Kenyan private sector.The change in R 2 shows a positive change where the percentage of the variability accounted for by the predictor variables rose from 82.4% (R 2 =0.829) to 83.9% (R 2 = 0.839) when goal orientation was assessed.Further, the F-ratio in the ANOVA in that the first model was significant for the relationship as given by the regression coefficients F (1, 4) = 310.349,p < .05.The second model showing the effect of goal orientation also proved this finding since the significance value was less than the previous p-value in the prior results F (2, 5) = 265.099,p < .05.Thus, there was a significant change on the extent to which the independent variables influence performance of senior managers due to the effect of goal orientation.From findings on Table 10(c), Intellectual stimulation has a coefficient of β = .220,t =4.333, p < .05showing a positive and significant relationship, which was also the case with individualized consideration, with a coefficient of β = .360,t = 6.527, p < .05.
Testing the influence of goal orientation as well showed a significant influence to the relationship between transformational leadership and performance of senior managers as indicated by the coefficients β = .111,t = 3.900, p < .05.
The findings of the multiple linear regression in Table 10, R 2 = .839,F (2, 5) = 265.099,p < .05,β = .111,t = 3.900, p<.05, indicate that goal orientation significantly moderated the relationship between intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.The null hypothesis H 03 was therefore rejected that goal orientation does not significantly moderate the relationship between intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers.Therefore the study concluded goal orientation significantly moderates the relationship between intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.

Intellectual Stimulation
Results of the correlation coefficient showed that intellectual stimulation of the CEO was positively related to performance (r (261) = .781,p < .05).These results are consistent with those of Braun et al. (2013) who established that when senior managers are provided with several options for decision-making, it promotes innovation, thus converting the intellectual stimulation provided by transformational CEOs into advantageous performance outcomes.These results demonstrated that the CEO inspiring and motivating senior managers to think creatively and innovatively contributed positively to performance of senior managers.Feng, Huang and Zhang (2016) had similar findings in their study, which revealed that when leaders encourage proactive behavior in terms of generation and implementation of new ideas, they spur innovative performance.Regression analysis results showed that intellectual stimulation of the CEO significantly affects performance of senior managers, R 2 =.610, F(1, 260)=405.015, p<.05, β=.781, t (260) = 20.125,p <.05.This implied rejection of the null hypothesis that intellectual stimulation of the CEO does not significantly influence performance of senior managers.Previous studies have demonstrated that intellectual stimulation of the CEO contributes to influencing performance related to product and service innovations, with the CEO playing a key role in influencing innovation capabilities and behaviors of employees (Chen et al., 2014).

Individualized Consideration
Pearson's correlation coefficient established a significant relationship between individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers, r (261) = .724,p < .05.Deighа (2016) findings also established that transformational leadership behaviors linked individualized consideration positively affected employee performance in the banking sector in Kenya.Individualized consideration demonstrated through coaching leads to improvement in critical competencies among senior management resulting in better performance results (Coghlan, Shani, Roth, & Sloyan, 2014).Results of the regression analysis indicated that the CEO's individualized consideration significantly predicted performance of senior managers β = .724,t (260) = 16.890,p < .05;R 2 = 0.524, F (1, 260) = 285.282,p < .05.The null hypothesis was therefore rejected that individualized consideration does not significantly influence performance of senior managers.This finding validates that of Ogbonnaya and Nielsen (2016) who established that individualized consideration builds the skills and capacity of employees to improve their competencies and perform better since it addresses

Goal Orientation
The study examined the moderating effect of goal orientation on the relationship between intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers and established that goal orientation and performance of senior managers were strongly correlated, r (261) = .766,p < .05.Goal orientation is one of the moderating variables that strengthen the effectiveness of the relationship between leadership behaviors and performance (Humborstad, Nerstad & Dysvik, 2014).Further, correlation analysis showed that out of the three goal orientation perspectives, learning goal orientation had a higher correlation of r (261) = .712,p< .05compared to performance-prove at r (261) = .702,p< .05,and performance-avoid at r (261) = .682,p< .05.The higher level of correlation of senior managers learning goal orientation to their performance has been supported by previous studies that have shown a positive relationship between learning goal orientation and job performance (Zargar, Vandenberghe, Marchand & Ayed, 2014).From the result of the multiple linear regression, intellectual stimulation showed a significant influence with the coefficient β = .220,t = 4.333 p < .05,individualized consideration β = .360,t = 6.527, p < .05.Testing the influence of goal orientation as well showed a significant influence to the relationship between the CEO's intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, and performance of senior managers R 2 = 0.839, F (2, 5) = 265.099,p < .05;β = .111,t = 3.900, p<.05.The null hypothesis was, therefore, rejected that goal orientation does not significantly moderate the relationship between intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers.These findings are aligned with those of Hecht, Hobson and Wang (2016) who established that goal orientation has a positive effect on employee performance.

Conclusions
The study found that intellectual stimulation of the CEO had a significant effect on performance of senior managers.The CEO's intellectual stimulation explained a significant proportion of variance in the performance of senior managers, R 2 =.610, F (1, 260) = 405.015,p < .05,and was also found to significantly predict performance of senior managers β=.781, t (260) = 20.125,p <.05.This finding implied rejection of the null hypothesis that intellectual stimulation of the CEO has no significant effect on performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected that intellectual stimulation of the CEO has no significant effect on performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.Based on this result, the study concluded that when the CEO applies behaviors associated with intellectual stimulation which include re-examining the senior managers critical assumptions to question whether they are appropriate, encouraging them to take calculated risks in solving problems in the organization and encouraging them to be innovative by questioning traditional ways of doing things, the performance of senior managers improves.
The study found that individualized consideration of the CEO had a significant effect on performance of senior managers.The CEO's individualized consideration explained a significant proportion of variance in the performance of senior managers, R 2 =.524, F (1, 260) = 285.282,p < .05,and was also found to significantly predict performance of senior managers β=.724, t(260)=16.890,p<.05.This finding implied rejection of the null hypothesis that individualized consideration of the CEO has no significant effect on performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.Based on this result, the study concluded that when the CEO applies behaviors associated with individualized consideration, the performance of senior managers improves.Senior managers therefore perform better when a CEO applies transformational leadership behaviors of individualized consideration, which include the CEO empowering the senior managers to develop their strengths, allocating time to guide and coach them and supporting and encouraging their career development.
The effect of goal orientation as a moderating variable on the relationship between intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers was found to be positive.The study found a significant moderating effect of goal orientation on the relationship between the intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers, β=.111, t = 3.900, p<.05.This finding implied rejection of the null hypothesis that goal orientation does not significantly moderate the relationship between intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.This study, therefore, concluded that when working with senior managers, CEO's need to consider the positive effects of goal orientation in influencing performance.

Recommendations for Improvement
The study established that intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO had a significant effect on the performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.The CEO intellectually stimulates the senior managers through challenging their assumptions, encouraging risk taking and promoting innovation.The CEO also applies behaviors associated with individualized consideration including empowering, coaching and supporting the career development of the senior managers as strategies to improve their performance.Goal orientation significantly moderated the relationship between intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration of the CEO and performance of senior managers.The CEO therefore needs to consider the goal orientations of the senior managers because it plays a significant role in determining their performance.Specifically, strengthening the learning goal orientation of the senior managers would influence the leadership-performance relationship to a great extent since this study established that it was the most influential goal orientation aspect in moderating the relationship between the CEO's intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration and the performance of senior managers compared to performance-prove and performance-avoid goal orientations.

Suggestions for Further Studies
This study has provided knowledge on how transformational leadership behaviors of the CEO associated with the two dimensions of intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration affects performance of senior managers in private sector organizations.To develop this topic further, the researcher recommends that other studies should be conducted to compare the effect of transformational leadership dimensions and performance across different organization structure hierarchical levels, that is, senior management, middle management and support staff.This would facilitate assessment of the strength and variability of each dimension of transformational leadership behaviors across different organization hierarchical levels.Other researchers could carry out a similar research targeted on the effect of dimensions of transformational leadership style of the Board Chairperson on the performance of the CEO and the results used for comparisons.
their needs for achievement, growth and career development.Although individualized consideration has shown positive effects on performance in this study, β = .724,t (260) = 16.890,p<.05.Zhang, Li, Ullrich and van Dick (2015) provide caution on application of individualized consideration, noting that CEOs' differential treatment of top executives can cause problems within the senior managers.Thus individualized consideration must be evenly demonstrated to avoid this negative effect.

Table 6 : Correlation between Individualized Consideration and Performance for All Items
**. Correlation is significant at p < .05(2-tаiled).

Table 7
The findings of the multiple linear regression in Table7indicate that individualized consideration significantly predicted performance of senior managers R 2 = .524,F (1, 260) = 285.282,p < .05,β = .724,t (260) =16.890, p<05.This implied rejection of the null hypothesis H 02 that individualized consideration of the CEO has no significant effect on performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.Therefore, the study concluded that individualized consideration of the CEO has a significant effect on performance of senior managers in the private sector in Kenya.