Leadership Style and Leadership Effectiveness

Introduction

The authors of the article, Leadership style and leadership effectiveness, are Anthony Solomon and Renier Steyn. The two authors are affiliated to the Graduate School of Business Leadership, in the University of South Africa in South Africa. This indicates that the authors have credibility and are likely to produce a reliable paper. The article title is, “Leadership style and leadership effectiveness: does cultural intelligence moderate the relationship?” From the title, it is clear that the authors sought to highlight a possible relationship between leadership style and leadership effectiveness. The title notes that this relationship is affected by different factors among them cultural intelligence. In the article, Solomon and Steyn (2017) propose that cultural intelligence plays a critical role in moderating the relationship between leadership style and leadership effectiveness. The thesis statement informed the purpose of the article, which was to establish whether leaders cultural intelligence had an impact on the leadership style and leadership effectiveness.

Summary

Solomon and Steyn (2017) noted that leaders play a critical role in ensuring the success of an organization. The authors indicate that there lacks a proper outline of what it takes for one to be considered an effective leader. Leadership effectiveness comes to play as a relative judgment that highlights description and evaluated features. Among the leadership styles that are noted to influence leadership effectiveness include transactional, transformational, empowerment, and directive leadership styles (Solomon, & Steyn, 2017). It is indicated that leadership styles are culturally contingent just like the perceptions of their corresponding effectiveness. It is indicated that the orientation of research is that in an era that has been characterized by subordinate cultural heterogeneity that has become part of life, cultural intelligence bears the potential of assisting leaders in enhancing their effectiveness.

To assert the indicated orientation, the article sought to assess whether the leaders’ cultural intelligence can play the role of moderating the association between leadership style and leadership effectiveness. The authors sought to fill a knowledge gap in understanding the association that exists between leadership and cultural intelligence, especially the empowering and directive leadership styles and leadership effectiveness (Solomon & Steyn, 2017). The research findings revealed that leader cultural intelligence and its different aspect do not play a role in moderating relationships between empowering leadership and leadership effectiveness. However, it was noted that a leader’s cultural intelligence negatively moderates the relationship between directive leadership style and leadership effectiveness. Nonetheless, the nature of moderation was observed to have no practical significance (Solomon & Steyn, 2017). This information makes managers in the management position to understand that a leader’s cultural intelligence is never an important influence on the relationship between leadership style and leadership effectiveness. However, the effective leaders have been noted to have the applied part of their cultural intelligence to assist them in the selection of the initial ideal leadership style. This information presents an important resource for the formation of different teams as leadership is an essential element in a team.

Review and Evaluation

The authors, Solomon and Steyn can be noted to be credible, especially based on their expertise in business management. This is evident because the two authors are affiliated with the Graduate School of Business at a renowned university. The methods of research used by the researchers in this article are appropriate in acquiring reliable information. It is indicated that the research followed a quantitative methodology using a cross-sectional survey design. The data was acquired from a relatively large sample size and can, therefore, be said to be representative of a larger population. Researchers collected the data from different organizations and thereby, not skewed to conditions of a single organization. From the data presented, a reader would have interpreted it and yielded the same conclusion as the authors. The data present evidence that both empowering and directive leadership bore some relationship with leadership effectiveness with some statistical significance. It is clear from the data that a stronger relationship exists in empowering leadership relative to directive leadership. The authors succeed in building a logical argument and presents the information in a clear manner.

Conclusion

I agree with the findings and conclusion of the authors. The article indicates that for leadership to be effective, it needs to have pegged on multiple intelligence types, among them cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence refers to the capacity of an individual to adapt to new cultural settings. I concur with the authors’ conclusion that cultural intelligence did not influence the relationship between empowering leadership style with leadership effectiveness unlike the case of directive leadership style where it causes a negative relationship. One important element to note on this case is that empowering and directive leadership styles are quite distinct and thereby, most likely to be influenced differently by a single factor – in this case, the cultural intelligence of the leader. This is an article that I can most likely recommend to a friend or coworker, especially those in management.

Application

Among the challenge that is likely to be faced by the team in the future in the increased diversity of the workforce through the effects of globalization and opening up of borders. This will introduce a need to have team members adapt to the new cultural setting in the different setups. This will indicate the need of leaders to understand the impact of cultural intelligence to effective management of the teams. Gaining this understanding will be effective in overcoming ethnocentrism within the team set up.

References

Solomon, A., & Steyn, R. (2017). Leadership style and leadership effectiveness: Does cultural intelligence moderate the relationship? Acta Commercii, 17(1), 1-13.