With the growing competition of globalization, strategic decision makers have been faced with the competing interests of external and internal stakeholders such as greater diversity in corporate governance, undertaking more investments in corporate social responsibility and maximizing financial performance. As a result, strategic decision makers today must not only increase their financial performance, but also satisfy the increasing expectations of customers, suppliers and society as a whole. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of the leadership characteristics on the social performance among Kenyan MFIs. It focused on the CEO duality, gender of the CEO, CEO qualifications and experience. This study adopted positivist approach, deductive approach and explanatory research design. Population of the study consisted of all the MFIs registered by the AMFI as at 31st March 2012. Data was analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Qualitative data was analysed to yield descriptive, the Independent samples test and the logistic regression. The major findings of the study are: that a significant positive CEO non duality, CEO experience and overall leadership characteristics. The relationship of an MFIs social performance and the gender of the CEO and their education qualification was found to be insignificant. Overall, the results show that MFIs in Kenya can improve their Social performance by improving on their leadership characteristics.
Keywords: CEO duality, Leadership characteristics, Mission Drift, Social Performance Management
