The study is focused on the challenges of rigid bureaucratic leadership management of labour relations and employees’ expectations in public interagency collaboration during a period of uncertainty. The objective of the study is to examine how rigid bureaucratic leadership influence labour relations and unmet employees’ expectations within the interagency collaboration in Delta State, Nigeria. The study deployed a quantitative research design using survey data collected from 234 valid respondents. A descriptive statistics and ordinary least squares regression techniques were for the analysis. The finding revealed that a high level of uncertainty was consistently reported among the respondents, while rigid bureaucratic leadership and employees’ expectations were moderate, and labour relations remain weak. The study concluded that labour relations and employees’ expectations are influenced by complex interactions of multiple factors in interagency collaboration. The study recommended adoption of adaptive leadership practices that are flexible, inclusive, participatory, and fair to adjust to uncertainty.
Keywords: bureaucratic leadership, employee expectations, industrial labour relations, institutional uncertainty, inter-agency collaboration
