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The paper assesses the relationship between leader behaviours and subordinates’ work performance in the context of tax administration. Data were collected in Malawi using two validated questionnaires administered online for subordinates and team leaders at a field office of a tax administration. Frequency distributions were used to identify dominant primary leader behaviours and the Spearman’s rank-order correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship between leader behaviours and subordinates’ work performance. Participative path-goal leadership behaviour is the most common primary leadership behaviour that team leaders in tax administration employ. Secondly, supportive and achievement oriented leader behaviours have a significant relationship with subordinates’ work performance in tax administration. The study concluded that achievement oriented path-goal leadership behaviour could be effective for public organisations involved in law enforcement. It is recommended that leaders should conduct a self-assessment of their leadership; adopt the relations-oriented leadership behaviours and incorporate coaching during performance evaluation exercise; and that organisations should equip leaders with leadership and management skills through training.The study is limited by the small sample-size, therefore, future studies could repeat the assessment with a larger sample and determine the mathematical equations for predicting the effect of each leadership behaviour on subordinates’ work performance.