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Whether strategic leadership retains real value for firm performance has long been contested, and the debate has often outrun the evidence in sectors far from the manufacturing and service settings where the construct was first tested. This study revisits Upper Echelons Theory and asks whether strategic leadership matters for the performance of poultry firms in an emerging economy. It examined the nineteen registered poultry firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya, a value chain marked by declining output, rising import competition and volatile input costs. Anchored on Upper Echelons Theory, and complemented by Strategic Leadership Theory and the Resource-Based View, the study measured strategic leadership as an integrated four-dimension construct comprising setting strategic direction, building core competencies, building organizational culture and networking, and examined the association between each dimension and firm performance. All nineteen firms were taken as a census, and a proportionate stratified random sample of 209 managers was drawn from their top echelon and business unit ranks; 200 returned usable questionnaires, a response rate of 95.69%, with Cronbach's alpha clearing the 0.7 threshold on every scale (0.761 to 0.902). The firms reported a high level of strategic leadership practice (M=3.99; SD=1.088) and a slightly lower level of performance (M=3.83; SD=0.779). Multiple linear regression showed that the four dimensions jointly explained 72.5% of the variance in managers' reported firm performance (Adjusted R²=.725; F significant at p < .001). Each dimension contributed a positive and significant effect: networking (B=.282), setting strategic direction (B=.246), building core competencies (B=.243) and building organizational culture (B=.204), all at p≤0.05. The results indicate that, far from being overwhelmed by a turbulent agribusiness environment, strategic leadership practices are strongly and consistently associated with performance in it. The study extends an upper-echelons perspective to emerging-economy agribusiness, demonstrates the value of measuring strategic leadership as a consolidated four-dimension whole, and advises boards and managers of poultry firms to treat clear strategic direction, competence renewal, adaptive culture and value chain networks as investments that shape revenue rather than as overhead.

This study investigates the influence of strategic leadership components on the performance of financial multinational companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) in Kenya. Specifically, it examines the effects of strategic controls, organizational capabilities, visionary leadership, and organizational change management on performance outcomes, measured through profitability and branch expansion. Employing a descriptive research design, the study targeted 14 listed commercial banks and 250 middle-level managers across marketing, relationship, and finance departments. A sample of 154 respondents was selected using stratified random sampling and the Taro Yamane formula. Data were collected via structured questionnaires incorporating five-point Likert scales and administered both electronically and through the drop-and-pick method. Analysis was conducted using SPSS, applying both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings reveal that all four strategic leadership components significantly impact organizational performance, with organizational change management exerting the strongest influence. The study concludes that strategic leadership is pivotal for sustaining competitiveness and growth in Kenya’s financial sector. It recommends enhancing strategic reviews, fostering innovation and business intelligence, articulating clear organizational visions, and promoting adaptability, effective communication, and employee engagement to drive performance improvements.

The issue of leadership styles, perceptions of employees, and culture within the organization of RMA was investigated. The study employed qualitative research with an interview of 15 participants at different levels of leadership. The results indicated the prevalence of transformational and servant leaders who increased engagement levels, trust, and feelings of ownership but made employees more responsible with fewer creative and morale levels at the transactions and autocratic levels. Quantitatively, the results showed an increase in employee engagement levels from 2022 (82%) to 2023 (85%), an increase in the perception of trust of employees with leadership levels (70% to 73.3%), and an increase in the perception of development of employees’ careers (65% to 70%). Finally, the study recommends that the development of employees’ leadership should take place in an organized manner with an official program of development of employees’ careers and that the standard of the leaders should remain consistent. Additionally, the study recommends that decision-making should take place with the participation of employees. Future research should involve bigger samples of the study.

African institutions are under pressure to innovate, adapt, and maintain global competitiveness in rapidly changing circumstances. Innovation management, leadership changes, capacity building, and governance frameworks are increasingly seen as key to institutional performance and sustainability. These methods are becoming more important, but research on their nature, execution, and efficacy is scarce. In this scoping study, we map and synthesise the literature on management strategic initiatives to improve African institutional performance between 2015 and 2025. The six steps are establishing the research question, locating suitable studies, selecting a study, charting the data, gathering, summarising, and reporting the results, and consulting stakeholders. A comprehensive search technique will be used throughout Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed/MEDLINE, ProQuest, AJOL, and grey literature sites including Google Scholar, World Bank, and African Development Bank repositories. Peer-reviewed and grey material published in English between 2015 and 2025 on managerial approaches to improve African institutional performance is eligible. Two reviewers will independently screen titles, abstracts, and entire texts, with differences handled by discussion or a third reviewer. A standardised charting form will guide data extraction, and narrative synthesis with tables and figures will present findings. Since this study reviews current literature, ethical approval is not needed. Institutional leaders, policymakers, academics, and practitioners will benefit from findings. Publishing in a peer-reviewed journal, academic conferences, stakeholder workshops, and policy briefings will optimise impact.

The majority of state-owned power companies (SoEs) have experienced organizational cancer for nearly three decades without showing any signs of ceasing operations. Academicians generally agree that organizational politics are to blame for the ongoing energy-generating dilemma that has plagued rising nations. Worldwide, economies rely heavily on electricity as an energy source, to the point where they would not function or even survive without it. In order to reduce unfavorable political behavior, this study examines organizational politics at the Zimbabwe Supply Authority, a SoE in charge of energy production. A sample of 1400 individuals who were chosen at random from a population of 2210 staff members participated in the study using a quantitative research approach to collect data. By the deadline, 358 completed questionnaires had been returned; however, 11 of them were rejected because they had been wrongly filled out, with a response rate of 24.78%. The data were analyzed using the statistical tool SPSS 21.0 for Windows. To ensure that the samples were adequate for factor analysis, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett's Test of sphericity were applied to the data before exploratory factor analysis could be conducted on them (Field, 2007:619). The results of the study showed that bad political behavior and ineffective managerial leadership techniques had a detrimental impact on the power generation crisis. According to the report, managers should receive training on modern managerial leadership behavior, managerial methods for behavior modification, and improved communication.

Leaders are vital for organizations and have a significant impact on the success or failure of a business. Although there have been studies investigating the question “what makes a good leader”, few studies have explicitly focused on the retail sector. The study's primary objective is to identify the qualities and characteristics a good leader should possess, in the context of the retail industry in RSA.  A total of 107 respondents were interviewed and the results showed that “charisma” and “inspiration” are the most important characteristics, while “a character for integrity and honesty” and “knowledgeable and experienced” are the most important qualities of a good leader.

The paper reports empirical findings drawn from a study undertaken to understand the dimensions of strategic leadership deployed among flower farms and the benefits that the flower farms have derived from deployment of strategic leadership. The context was selected due to its significance in contributing to the national economy and the level of turbulence experienced by the farms that requires a leadership style entrenching strategic thinking. 43 flower farms were sampled and primary data obtained using a structured questionnaire from CEOs, Deputy CEOs and heads of functional areas. Two dimensions of strategic leadership have been deployed to a low extent while two have been implemented to a moderate extent. The deployed dimensions of strategic leadership have significantly contributed to the flower farms performance by enhancing their capacity to attain growth at the rate of 15-20%. The study concluded that strategic leadership is relevant for deployment by the flower farms and raised implications for its deployment among organizations facing complex and turbulent environments. The paper called on future research to consider expanding the scope of the context of the investigation and conceptualization of the dimensions of strategic leadership based on other relevant theoretical frameworks anchoring strategic leadership.

Leadership effectiveness is critical for organisational success. An assessment of the factors which promote leadership effectiveness is therefore warranted. The study sought to investigate the attributes of effective leaders within the retail industry and reveal how they influence the perceptions of subordinates of the level of leadership in the sector. A self-administered questionnaire was hand-delivered to a sample of managers employed by retailing firms in the greater Tshwane area. The researchers analysed survey data from 104 respondents, using exploratory factor analysis to tease out the factors representing the attributes of effective leaders relative to the level of leadership. The findings suggest that subordinates believed the level of leadership among retail managers to be average. The results of the multiple-factor analysis revealed four categories of attributes, namely skilful, inspiring, compassionate and persistent. The correlation analysis between the level of leadership and attributes of leadership/management team revealed the level of leadership to be significantly and positively related to skilful, inspiring and persistent. Our discussion highlights the importance of understanding the qualities that make an effective leader. The study furthers the results of the inquiry into leadership and suggests avenues for future research on enhancing leadership effectiveness among retail managers.

Strategic leadership is crucial in today's complex, ever-changing global economy. To achieve wholesale pharmaceutical industry goals, all strategic leaders must be proficient in strategic leadership. Successful pharmaceutical wholesalers focus on strategic planning, process simplification, culture management, and human resource development. This exploratory research examined how strategic leadership can keep a Durban pharmaceutical company competitive in a changing industry. This paper examines how a pharmaceutical company in Durban, South Africa, used strategic leadership to gain a competitive advantage. This research included ten strategic pharmaceutical leaders. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with strategic leaders. The thematic analysis showed how strategic leadership skills and responsibilities keep a company competitive. The results showed that Alpha Pharma's competitive advantage in Durban was impacted by strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, diversity management, and collective leadership. This study confirms that strategic leadership involves establishing a course of action, dealing with business complexities, advocating for a new organisational structure, shaping the company's culture, and developing its human resources. Research about strategic leadership helps pharmaceutical companies build internal capabilities and adapt to a changing market.

This study aimed to test the effect of leadership strategy on the organisational resilience of banks listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The study was anchored on Full-Range Leadership Theory (FRLT) complementarily with meta-leadership as relevant theoretical lenses. The study sampled 277 respondents holding senior managerial positions such as Chief Risk Officers, Managing Directors, Directors of Strategy, Internal Auditors, Heads of Marketing, Heads of Operations and Branch Managers. Data was collected using a self-administered Likert-type online questionnaire. Structural equations modelling was employed for statistical analysis. Partial Least Squares was performed with SmartPLS 3. Results showed that the relationship between leadership strategy and organisational resilience was statistically significant at t-value of 31.665 (p<0.05), with leadership strategy explaining 68.5% of the variance in the organisational resilience of listed banks in Kenya (R2=0.685). The study concluded that leadership strategy significantly predicted bank resilience. The study has affirmed leadership strategy as a novel theoretical concept for explaining organisational resilience to systemic disruptive shocks. Multiple future research directions are proposed. This study advanced leadership strategy as a distinct paradigm in leadership thinking by examining its predictive power on organisational resilience by using systemic disruptive shocks as testing grounds within the context of Kenya’s banking sector.

The objective of this study was to quantitatively assess the mediating effect of resource orchestration on the relationship between leadership strategy and organisational resilience of banks listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange with an objective to contribute to knowledge production in the Global South using Kenya as the vantage point. The study applied a correlation research design, and data was gathered from a stratified random sample of 184 senior managers drawn across the 12 listed banks, wherein Likert-scale questionnaires were administered to the research participants online. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling was deployed for data analysis using SmartPLS software. Results showed that the mediated path explained 79.1% of the variance in organisational resilience (R2=0.791). The results were validated with a Sobel test that found a significant partial mediation in the model with Z=6.380 (p<0.05). The study inferred a strong and statistically significant mediation power of resource orchestration in the leadership strategy-organisational resilience nexus. Resource Orchestration Pecking Order was proposed as an outcome of the empirical analysis, and future research directions were suggested.

The study responded to calls to extend the current understanding of servant leadership into new contexts. The selected context for investigation was the nonprofit sector in Kenya. Three objectives guided the study that sought to establish the servant leadership dimensions adopted, the impact achieved in the target communities and the effect of the dimensions on the level of impact achieved. 365 senior managers were sampled from 73 nonprofit organizations and data was collected on both dimensions of servant leadership and perceived impact in the communities served by the organizations. The study reports that ten attributes of servant leadership are relevant to the sector and are practiced to a moderate extent and this extent of adoption has accomplished a moderate level of impact in the communities served. Four tenets of servant leadership, holistic approach to work, service to others, sense of community and uprightness have a significant effect on the level of impact achieved in the communities. While a holistic approach and service to others have a negative effect, a sense of community and uprightness have a positive effect. The findings raise implications for the servant leadership theory and point to the need to complement its dimensions with the postulates of the situational leadership theory for a more appropriate application in work situations. The findings contribute toward addressing conceptual, theoretical, and empirical gaps found in the extant literature on servant leadership.

This paper aimed to deepen the sense-making of organisational transformation in the banking sector through operationalisation of leadership strategy as the set of policy actions and strategic pursuits. The qualitative data were collected from cumulative 96 annual corporate disclosures of the 12 banks listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange as of the year 2020 covering 2007 to 2020 and corresponding to specific systemic disruptive events. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Two research questions were answered. First, what leadership strategy set do bank executives deploy to achieve organisational transformation? Second, what mechanism explains how leadership strategy translate into organisational transformation? The study found that activation of leadership strategy as an input factor provided a mural for its advancement as a policy tool that can be evaluated in organisational transformation as a manifest output. The study identified a gap in the extant literature that organisational resilience paid limited attention to policy choices and actions deployed to orchestrate organisational transformation as a distinct feature.

Kosovar society needs a leadership that has and brings new ideas in all spheres, starting from the family to the central level of the state. An important factor in the development of political parties and their activities is undoubtedly the development of a successful leadership, in order to achieve the objectives that contribute to improving the well-being of the population and the economic development of the country. The main purpose of this paper is to study the effectiveness of leadership in banking organizations in Kosovo and the study of leadership in organizations of political parties in Kosovo. Decision-making analysis, leader characteristics, development of communication with subordinates, way of clarifying the objectives of the organization, etc. will be discussed in this paper. During 2018, the loan portfolio of banks operating in Kosovo was about 2.76 billion euros. Sassipre / econometric analysis was also used in this research. Leaders of political parties in terms of decision-making turn out to be more focused on the program of political parties with about 52.1%. The linear correlation of the determination correlation is positive.471. , etc.

The argument that the minimization of the dysfunctional consequences of organizational politics is no longer dependent on self-equilibrating mechanism remains valid. This inquiry is therefore framed with a view to establishing suitable strategies for managing political actors. There is a nexus between the diagnosis typology of political actors and the qualitative classes of political actors and their management strategies. In the management of mixed blessing, supportive, non-supportive and marginal political actors; collaborative, involvement, defensive and information strategies respectively were found suitable. This research is based on existing theoretical knowledge on organizational politics and stakeholders management. Data was collected from the literature by means of critical analysis and dialectic reflection on the emerging themes. The study will enhance capability in contexts where the scientific management of political actors is yet to be exemplified.

Both management and leadership concepts and theoretical foundations that are established on this subject, as well as the subject of trust and its dimensions were put excessive emphasis on literature of management and organization and several different studies were conducted on these concepts. However, at this point, the important question comes the mind how will the relationship between style of leadership and the concept of trust will show difference with different styles of leadership. This focus of this study is to discover the answer to this question. The area of this study is consisting of AK Parti (Justice and Government Party) and CHP  (Republican People’s Party) municipalities chosen from the convenience sampling method in the district municipalities of Istanbul. Within this context, interviews with twelve different municipalities were held, and 150 people in the executive position within municipalities as chief or higher status has been reached. Ten district municipalities in this questionnaire study consist of six entities linked to AK Parti and four to CHP. This research is limited to these municipalities. As a result of the questionnaire data analysis that have been applied for the executives on management positions; findings were acquired and explanations and evaluations regarding these findings were being made.