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The purpose of this paper is to find out what are the effective school principal leadership (ESPL) factors or indicators that Chinese teachers consider or expect. It explains how and why ESPL factors are important for effective school improvement (ESI). It tries to expand the domain knowledge of ESPL.

The questionnaires consisted of eight factors and 40 indicators. The rating instrument was a five point Likert Scale (from 1 to 5). In total, 100 school teachers in Liaoning Province of mainland China were participated and surveyed. Factor analysis, t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the collected data.

This study provides empirical insights about what ESPL factors that Chinese teachers considered. According to the results of t-test and one-way ANOVA, there were no significant differences between and among the respondents’ gender, areas and years of teaching experiences in rating the ESPL factors. The findings argue that the 16 extracted ESPL indicators have not only revealed the expectations of Chinese teachers toward their school principals, but also have drawn a three-dimensional-image of what a good and effective school principal should be. From the Chinese teachers’ eyes, a good school principal should not only possess good managerial skills in the aspects of time and routine work (such as self management, time management, influence, decision making and commitment) but also should possess good emotional intelligence, human skills, more attentiveness and consideration toward the needs of their followers (such as comfort, communication skills and empathy, etc.).

This study provides implications for all school stakeholders, particularly for school principals, school leaders and educational managers both in and outside of schools. A good school principal should possess good ESPL characters/factors. If not, at least he/she should be aware of the ESPL characters/factors and actively adopt or adapt them. Thus the ESPL factors or indicators extracted from this study can be served as a mirror and a useful knowledge.

This study belongs to very few of this kind of researches carried out in mainland China. Its findings have made some contributions to the ESPL research in mainland China, to the research of school leadership and ESI.

The purpose of this paper is to address the question of what motivates leaders to engage in effective leadership behaviours by integrating transformational leadership theory and self-determination theory. The authors propose that the type of enacted leadership behaviour is related to level of self-determined motivation.

This study presents validity evidence for an 18-item scale of motivation for transformational leadership based on Gagné and Deci’s (2005) six levels of internalization. A total of 310 employees (mean age=39, 64.5 per cent female, 46 per cent formal leaders) completed the scale, other measures of leadership, and job satisfaction.

Results supported the theorized six-factor structure of the scale and provided evidence for incremental validity in the prediction of job satisfaction and transformational leadership above and beyond another measure of motivation to lead.

The lack of amotivation and the presence of autonomously controlled extrinsic motivation are predictive of effective leadership behaviour, a key finding with implications for leadership selection. The study was limited by the use of self-report data. Future studies should examine additional predictors and outcomes of the construct (e.g. subordinate attitudes or performance and leader personality), and whether it is stable over time.

Leaders’ motivation for role effectiveness is an unexplored area of research. This study suggests that type of motivation can be important for effective leadership and provides a validated scale for use in future leadership research and selection.

Globally, the business organisations are experiencing a transformation due to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The need for an effective 4IR leadership has placed new demands on organisations to develop and select leaders to effectively lead the organisations in the 4IR era. Hence, it becomes important to understand the attributes for an effective 4IR leadership. This study examines the relationships between leadership styles, leadership traits, leadership intelligence and effective 4IR leadership to empirically validate the effective 4IR leadership framework that was conceptualised. The hypothesised relationships from the framework were tested using a survey of 416 senior construction executives across the nine provinces of South Africa.

To achieve the study objectives, an online survey was sent to construction firms across the nine provinces of South Africa. “Construction”, for the purpose of this study comprised building and civil engineering firms listed on the construction industry development board (cidb) register of contractors in South Africa. The target group was the upper echelon executives, i.e. Chairman, CEOs, managing directors and chief operating officers, and the survey was directed to contact e-mail of the study samples. The professional service providers (architects, consultants and surveyors) were not part of the survey sample. The database of the organisational leaders was obtained from the cidb. The online survey was created on the 23rd of August 2019 and closed on the 23rd of April 2020, thereby making the duration of the survey eight months. The total number of respondents at the time of closure of the survey was four hundred and sixteen (416). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for the analysis of the results.

This study validates the effective 4IR leadership framework as proposed by Alade and Windapo (2019) by empirically examining relationships between leadership styles, leadership traits, leadership intelligence and effective 4IR leadership. The findings from this study have shown that effective 4IR leadership is positively associated with leadership styles, leadership traits and leadership intelligence. Hence, an effective 4IR leader must spread the knowledge and understanding of the 4IR opportunities and threats in the organisations. The leader must ensure that the executives in the construction organisation become change conversant and ensure that the employees acquire 4IR skills. Multiple leadership intelligence is essential to effective 4IR leadership. These multiple intelligence are the ability to adapt knowledge and skills to different situations, ability to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously, a high level of understanding, ability to process and analyse information and ability to utilise knowledge from many disciplinary boundaries.

This study is focused on construction business organisations in South Africa. As such, similar studies on 4IR leadership effectiveness can be carried out in other countries and across other organisations. Future studies should also consider using a case study approach specifically focused on organisations with high implementations of 4IR technologies. Interacting with the leaders of such organisations and their employees will give a broader perspective in understanding the reasons of their effectiveness.

The leadership of construction organisations must partner with the academia, industry players and team members in their efforts to implement 4IR in their organisations. Also, the existence of a positive association between leadership traits and effective 4IR leadership implies that to ensure a 4IR-driven work process in construction organisations, the leadership must embrace disruption and quickly respond to change. Further, it can be concluded from the findings of this study that appropriate leadership styles are required for effective 4IR leadership. The appropriate leadership style for effective 4IR leadership requires the leadership of construction organisations to delegate some of the 4IR function. The 4IR function must be performed based on the challenges that are associated with 4IR. The positive correlation between leadership intelligence and leadership styles makes it possible to conclude that the competencies of leadership of construction organisations in a 4IR-driven change depend on the level of leadership intelligence of the executives of construction organisations. It is evident that 4IR will change the business environment; hence, leadership intelligence is required to adapt construction organisations to the change dynamics. This study has provided information on what 4IR leadership entails in construction organisations. The study has contributed a framework for ensuring effective and smooth flow 4IR implementation in construction organisations through a purposeful leadership that combines leadership styles, leadership traits and leadership intelligence.

This research will be useful to government agencies and board members of construction organisations, in appointing leaders to see the construction industry and organisations perform better in the 4IR era. Young individuals who are also aspiring to take on leadership role in the industry will benefit from this study.

This study is a new and original research that seeks to investigate the need for an effective 4IR leadership in construction business organisations. Construction as an industry is usually criticised for her slow response to change. Since leadership is required to drive the change agenda, this study examines the relationships between leadership styles, leadership traits, leadership intelligence and effective 4IR leadership to empirically validate the effective 4IR leadership framework that was conceptualised.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible effects of corporate environmental activities on sustainable competitive advantage through the mediation of leadership factors and effective implementation strategies.

The work is essentially non-empirical review of the literature with the development of a conceptual model which can be tested in a later study.

The study proposes that corporate environmental activities can give firms competitive advantage. The studies also propose that stakeholders can act as pressure thereby moderating the relationship between corporate environmental activities and sustainable competitive advantage. Leadership factors and effective implementation affect competitive advantage.

This study has a few limitations that must be considered and could provide guidance for future study; as this study does not address customers point of view, future study could help in the investigation in order to get a holistic view. Moreover, the study is based on the literature, and the conceptual model has not been tested.

The study proposes that good leadership and effectiveness in strategy implementation can make corporate environmental activities lead to sustainable competitive advantage. The findings of the study provide managers of firms with a possible tool in creating sustainable competitive advantage.

Despite the rapid growth in research on environmental issues in corporate world, limited studies have been conducted on how leadership factors and effectiveness of strategy implementation can influence how corporate environmental activities affect competitiveness of firms. This study makes an original contribution by proposing strategies for sustainable competitive advantage through the instrumentality of corporate environmental decisions.

Effective leadership is a key factor in successful international joint ventures, especially in Vietnam. Compatibility and complementarity of the leadership styles are the foundation for such partnerships. Based on a research study of international managers and their Vietnamese counterparts, an appropriate profile of compatible and complementary leadership characteristics and effective skills and behaviors for successful joint ventures in Vietnam is suggested. A multi‐cultural approach with focus on the mutual understanding of the cultures involved, adapting the styles of the partners and relationship building is necessary for successful joint ventures. Building shared values in the joint venture is critical to performance, to creating an appropriate organizational culture, and to accomplishing effective organizational change.

To deepen the understanding and to encourage further research on leadership best practices for sustaining quality improvement in UK higher education institutions (HEIs).

The literature on leadership provides the theoretical context for the survey of quality managers from 42 UK HEIs. A mix of questionnaires, interviews, and hypothesis testing, was used to explore the critical factors for effective leadership and to obtain descriptive accounts of leadership best practices, which led to the development of a conceptual framework for effective leadership for academic quality.

Identifies and categorizes leadership practices into “weak”, “good”, “best”, and “excellent” on the basis of efficiency and effectiveness of each practice in sustaining academic quality improvement. It provides a conceptual framework for improving “weak” leadership practices.

The exact nature of the association between “effective leadership” and sustainable “levels of academic quality improvement” has not been explained. This requires further research. International generalization of the findings would require the sample size of 42 UK HEIs to be extended to include institutions from other countries with similar education systems – such as the USA and Australia.

Academic quality planners will become more aware of the need to improve the tasks and activities constituting leadership processes. The emphasis on a structured approach to self‐assessment of leadership performance has the potential to reverse the ranking of leadership second to processes in UK HEIs.

It provides explicit definitions of “weak”, “good”, “best” and “excellent” leadership practices, which UK HEIs adopting the excellence model developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) may find useful in the assessment and improvement of leadership performance towards academic excellence.

Literature has shown that many companies fail lean implementation or is not able to sustain lean for a long time. Researchers have found that lean failures are associated with leadership, which is a key factor. However, it is not easy and a long time is needed to change the leadership, behaviour and traits. This study aims to introduce the Blue Ocean Leadership concept to address this issue.

A literature review is carried for articles related to critical success factors for Lean and Lean Six Sigma with a focus on leadership factors.

The Blue Ocean Leadership concept focuses on leaders’ acts and activities which can be changed with less effort and time. Seven categories of lean activities for leaders are identified.

Leadership is one of the many factors for the success of lean implementation. This conceptual study focuses only on leadership and it needs further field study for validation.

Blue Ocean Leadership provides lean practitioners and academicians with a new perspective for successful lean implementation.

To the best knowledge of the researcher, there is no similar study in this area. Thus, the finding can form the basis for further research for the benefit of lean communities, especially the small- or medium-sized enterprises with less cost and time.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the specific practices senior leaders need to engage in to best support their organization’s leadership development initiatives. All organizations invest billions of dollars around the world in leadership development, but there is surprisingly little attention given to the important role that senior leaders play in supporting these efforts. This paper draws upon focus group research with those responsible for designing and implementing leadership development initiatives to identify the strategic role senior leaders play in formal leadership development efforts.

To explore this issue, we conducted structured focus groups with over 250 executives, HR leaders and talent managers from over 30 different global organizations. Participants were responsible for leadership development in their respective organizations, averaged 44 years of age, 18 years of work experience, and were 54 per cent men and 46 per cent women. These focus groups were being used to solicit the input of those responsible for leadership development to identify the specific things senior leaders need to do to best support these leadership development efforts. The participants were asked to answer the following question, “Based on your experience, what specific things do senior leaders in your organization need to do to best support your efforts at developing high performance and strong leadership talent?”

Focus groups identified a series of key senior leader behaviors that are necessary to support an organization’s leadership development efforts. These findings, included the importance of senior leadership commitment to the process, the identification of specific leadership behaviors necessary to support these initiatives, the requirement of clearly understanding the organizations leadership development process, providing appropriate financial, staffing and technology resources to support these efforts, creating a climate of continuous learning and role modeling appropriate behaviors, among other findings.

While the focus groups in this research and the subsequent qualitative and quantitative analysis of the findings were rigorous, the participants were not a randomly selected group and were by definition a convenience sample. At the same time, the implications of this research are significant on this important subject and provide a solid baseline for both practitioners and researchers alike to help explore, identify and build on best practices for senior leaders to support organizational leadership development initiatives.

Leadership is the key to success in any organization. To maintain that success, leadership development and continuous learning is imperative. This paper provides ten specific practices based on the focus group research that can help senior leaders create a more supportive environment for effective leadership development initiatives. The methodology used to identify these factors can be duplicated in other organizations to help them build an appropriate model for senior leader support for leadership development in their enterprise.

The social implications for improving any organizations’ leadership is significant. It is known that effective leaders foster innovation, improve teamwork, create a more positive workplace, drive continuous improvement in quality, reduce turnover and improve the financial performance of most enterprises. With this backdrop, organizations can and must do everything in their power to accelerate leadership development and to engage in activities that do so. This paper will help pinpoint leaders and leadership development researchers and experts in that direction.

This manuscript offers a unique perspective on the role of senior leaders from the perspective of those who design leadership development programming in their organizations. And given both the readership and focus of this journal, this is an important perspective which takes into account the operational demands of leadership development in the strategic role senior leaders play in supporting these efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of cultural leadership factors (charismatic/value-based, team oriented, participative, humane, autonomous and self-protective) on the rates of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship.

The study integrates insights from institutional and cultural leadership theories to provide a fresh perspective to advance comparative entrepreneurship research. To test the hypotheses, the authors conduct a multiple regression analysis with observations from 34 countries, using data (from the year 2013) from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for the dependent variable and from Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness to create leadership factors as independent variables.

The results show that all the types of leadership considered in the study have a relevant effect on entrepreneurial activity. However, charismatic leadership has a greater effect on entrepreneurial activity, particularly on opportunity entrepreneurship. The research also shows that autonomous leadership has a negative impact on entrepreneurial activity, although, when it is moderated by the humane dimension, this relationship changes.

Since the alternative dimensions facilitate or inhibit the generation of new firm creation, it is critical for researchers, teachers and leaders to learn about and to foster such leadership types.

This research covers a gap in the cross-cultural evidence presented in the literature and suggests the integration of the concepts leadership and entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the differing views of the students studying in private universities in Pakistan about quality and the gap that exists between their expectations and actual experiences from the services provided.

The research has been conducted in seven private universities of Pakistan using quantitative survey for data collection and data analysis. SPSS has been used to apply exploratory factors technique to identify satisfying and dissatisfying factors in customers of higher education through six service quality indicators (teaching, management, leadership, campus life, academic services and infrastructure).

The multivariate effects of satisfaction across universities were measured through MANOVA. Discriminant analysis has been the most critical tool used for analysis, as not only could it distinguish between satisfied and dissatisfied students across seven universities, but predicted the strength of the word of mouth and intentions to stay in the university.

A model has been proposed to understand dynamics of student satisfaction and loyalty in private universities of Pakistan. The model suggests that two leading factors, which influence students’ perception of service quality are either related to leadership and effective planning or to management, the actual process of service delivery.