Research Project: Leadership Roles on Organisational Performance

This research project investigates the impact of leadership roles on organizational performance, specifically within the context of South African businesses. The study addresses the critical need for effective leadership in the face of increasing market competition and economic volatility. It explores the evolution of leadership styles, the challenges faced by organizational leaders, and the ambiguity surrounding the influence of different leadership approaches. The project aims to examine the impact of various leadership styles, including transformational, transactional, autocratic, bureaucratic, and Laissez-Faire, on company performance. The research employs a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data collection through surveys and semi-structured interviews. The dissertation is structured into five chapters: introduction, literature review, research methodology, findings and analysis, and conclusion. The research questions address the impact of leadership on performance, different leadership roles, and factors affecting organizational performance, with a hypothesis to determine the significance of leadership's impact. The study seeks to provide recommendations for suitable leadership styles to improve organizational performance.

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Topic: Evaluation of leadership roles on organisational performance
1.0 Introduction
Sustainability and performance enhancement are the two key aims of any organisation
and with the advent of globalisation, there has been exponential increase in the market
competition. The role of leadership is significantly important in improving the performance of
any organisation. This study aims to examine the role of leadership in improving the
performance of modern organisations.
1.1 Background of the study
The role of leadership in improving the performance of the organisations cannot be
underestimated as past studies show that effective work environment, motivation and
communication can be developed through effective relationship between the leaders and
subordinates (Kurtessis et al. 2017). The analysis of the past studies have shown that leadership
and management of workforce is a critical problem faced by organisations in modern times.
Leadership styles are constantly evolving and organisational leaders constantly choose different
leadership styles to handle situations. However, the current era of South African business are
witnessing downward trend in terms of effective leadership within the organisation (Katou
2015).
People trying to thing in a similar way for a longer period has increased the knowledge gap
and there is a lack of leadership culture within an organisation. This makes is far more essential
for the South African to manage their workforce effective and improve their performance. There
has been significant increase in uncertainty and volatility in South African market along with
lack of growth in the economy (Shanafelt and Noseworthy 2017). There are numerous factors
complicating the role of organisational leaders such as compliance requirements, disruptive
technologies, technological advancement, political and business scandals, globalisation and
uncertainty. The analysis show that South Africa has been going through major leadership crisis
for the past few years and it implies that there is significant need for understanding the different
concept of leadership to promote effective leadership styles for improving the conditions in
modern business environment in South Africa (Steers and Lee 2017).

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The analysis of the past researches show that some consider leadership styles to have
significant positive impact on the performance of the organisation. However, there is a lack of
empirical evidence on the influence of leadership styles on the performance of the companies.
Moreover, there is a lack of understanding on how different leadership styles can be merged to
manage the organisational resources more effectively (Shanafelt and Noseworthy 2017). The
extent to which individuals are able to explore their own capabilities and resources depends on
the management and leadership techniques implemented by the supervisors. In this respect, the
study aims to examine the impact of different styles on the performance of organisations.
1.2 Research Problem
There are multiple leadership styles used by different leaders and they are mainly
transformative, transactional, autocratic, bureaucratic and Laissez- Faire. Various authors have
argued the importance of different leadership styles within the organisation. Some state that
transformational leadership styles are more effective in comparison to the transactional style of
leadership. The examples of various business leaders have shown that they have achieved
success using different leadership styles which makes the topic more contrasting when
evaluating the leadership styles of various business ((Kurtessis et al. 2017). On the contrary, as
per the contingency theory of leadership, leadership styles vary depending upon on the situation
and leaders change their leadership styles significantly. Therefore, it results an ambiguity
between the different thoughts and opinions presented by past authors and the role of different
leadership styles on the performance of the organisations cannot be determined. This makes it
more important for the study to evaluate the gap in literature which has failed to evaluate the
impact of different leadership styles and role on the performance of the organisations (Steers and
Lee 2017).
1.3 Research objectives
In light of the past studies, the following objectives have been formulated in the research:
 To examine the impact of leadership role on the performance of companies in South
Africa
 To evaluate the different leadership roles within organisations
 To highlight the factors affecting organisational performance

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 To recommend suitable leadership styles for improving performance of organisations
1.4 Research questions
 What is the impact of leadership role on the performance of companies in South Africa?
 What are the different leadership roles within organisations?
 What are the factors affecting organisational performance?
1.5 Research hypothesis
H0: There is no significant impact of leadership role on the performance of organisations
H1: There is significant impact of leadership role on the performance of organisations
1.6 Research Methodology
The research has chosen a pragmatic philosophical stance to compensate and address the
limitation of the past researches. Deductive approach has been chosen as the method for
collecting and evaluating data. A mixed method analysis has been chosen as the research design
where the study executes both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis (Quinlan
et al. 2019). It implies the study aims to examine the relationship using both survey
questionnaire and semi structured interviews. The purpose of a mixed method research design is
to address all the dimensions and aspects of the research in detail.
1.7 Dissertation Structure
This dissertation has been divided into five chapters: introduction, literature review,
research methodology, findings and analysis and conclusion. The introduction chapter provides
an outline and overview of the study, purpose and objectives. It helps in understanding the
direction and aim of the investigation.
The second chapter of the study is literature review which examines the past literature to
describe theories on leadership and organisational performance. It also provides a critical
analysis on the arguments presented by different authors to identify the paradox and gap in the
research.
The third chapter of the investigation is the research methodology which designs the
research strategy and process. It helps in developing and identifying tools and technique suitable

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for gathering information and evaluating it effectively. It also describes the population to be used
in the research and the process of choosing the target populace.
The fourth chapter is the findings and analysis section which describes the data collected
and analyses using statistical analysis and coding. The research uses both inferential and
statistical analysis for scrutinising the data collected.
The final chapter is the conclusion and recommendation used for linking the objectives
with the findings. It provides valid recommendation based on the findings and helps in
understanding the future direction of the research.

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References
Katou, A.A., 2015. Transformational leadership and organisational performance: Three serially
mediating mechanisms. Employee Relations, 37(3), pp.329-353.
Kurtessis, J.N., Eisenberger, R., Ford, M.T., Buffardi, L.C., Stewart, K.A. and Adis, C.S., 2017.
Perceived organizational support: A meta-analytic evaluation of organizational support
theory. Journal of management, 43(6), pp.1854-1884.
Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J. and Griffin, M., 2019. Business research methods. South Western
Cengage.
Shanafelt, T.D. and Noseworthy, J.H., 2017, January. Executive leadership and physician well-
being: nine organizational strategies to promote engagement and reduce burnout. In Mayo Clinic
Proceedings (Vol. 92, No. 1, pp. 129-146). Elsevier.
Steers, R.M. and Lee, T.W., 2017. Facilitating effective performance appraisals: The role of
employee commitment and organizational climate. In Performance measurement and theory (pp.
75-93). Routledge.

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