| Summary: | <p> Despite the multitude of existing studies of leadership and organizational outcome, there are few empirical studies of these phenomena in Africa. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between Nigerian local government administrative leadership and organizational outcome and between perceived leadership effectiveness and transformational leadership factors, based on Bass’s full range leadership theory (FRLT). Data were collected through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaires administered to a randomly selected sample of 240 department heads in 30 local governments in Osun State, Nigeria. Regression result shows a statistically significant correlation between the local public administrators’ leadership practices and organizational outcome (<i>p</i> < 0.05), but the model only accounted for 10.5% of variance in organizational outcome, suggesting other influential factors on the local government outcome other than leadership. Regression results also showed a significant relationship between local public administrators’ leadership effectiveness and transformational leadership factors (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The model accounted for 28% of the variance in leadership effectiveness, suggesting other factors affecting the public administrators’ leadership effectiveness. The implications for positive social change include the opportunity to move the Nigerian local administrators’ leadership practices towards more effective and ethical leadership as explained by the spectrum of FRLT, through training and transformational leadership development programs. In turn, transformational leadership and organizational practices may discourage corruption and help build a sustainable local government institution that is responsive and accountable to the Nigerian public.</p>
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