Superior performance requires a fundamental paradigm shift in managerial approach and leadership style to address the impact of rapidly evolving technology accompanied by increasing competition and market globalization. Six Sigma is one of the quality and productivity improvement initiatives employed by many successful enterprises to address these new challenges. Six Sigma requires management attention and clear leadership to provide a highly focused management-sponsored project approach to the rapid improvement and cost control of selected processes. This study sought to examine the leadership styles among Six Sigma professionals and their impact on performance. A total of 146 Six Sigma professionals working in Thailand were surveyed using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). The findings reveal that there are significant differences among the transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles. Among these 3 styles, Six Sigma professionals tend to exhibit the transformational leadership style most of the time. Furthermore, both transformational and transactional leadership styles are found to have a positive impact on follower performance, perception of leader effectiveness and job satisfaction. However, there is a negative relationship between laissez-faire leadership and the performance variables.
[...] In studying three developing economies, China, India and Kenya, Walumbwa (2002) indicated the effects of cultural orientation as a moderator in the relationship between leadership style and outcome variables. Pounder (2001) examined the relationship between transformational-transactional leadership style and university organizational effectiveness. The study indicates possible modifications to the original conceptualization of transformational leadership. Leadership styles may be link to three follower outcomes such as students' willingness to exert extra effort to meet course objectives, perceptions of instructor effectiveness, and satisfaction with instructor (Walumbwa et al, 2004). [...]
[...] LF has a negative to low impact on all outcome variables Conclusion and Implications This study has important implications for research in leadership styles of Six Sigma professionals. First of all, there is strong evidence in this study to show that the transformational leadership style is the most effective of all the leadership styles. This finding is supported by many prior studies on leadership. Hence, organizations should pay more attention to transformational leadership variables in Six Sigma training programs. Executives who show transactional leadership should be trained to be more transformational while the non-leadership laissez-faire style should be minimized or eliminated. [...]
[...] The ties that bind: The impact of leader-member exchange, transformational leadership and transactional leadership, and distance on predicting follower performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 680-694. Humphreys, J. H., & Einstein, W. O. (2003). Nothing new under the sun: Transformational leadership from a historical perspective. Management Decision, 85-95. Katz, D., & St. Kahn, R. L. (1978). The social psychology of organization (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. Kessler, T. G. (1993). The relationship between transformational, transactional,and laissez-faire leadership behaviors and job satisfaction in a research environment. [...]
[...] Studies have shown that laissez–faire leadership is negatively related to outcome variables (Avolio and Bass, 1998) Variables and Hypotheses This study seeks to answer the following questions: Is there a difference between transformational, transactional and laissez faire leadership styles among Six Sigma professionals?, and What is the impact of the various leadership styles (transformational, transactional and Laissez-Faire) on performance? Based on the first research question, the first hypothesis is generated as follows: H1: There is a significant difference between the transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles. [...]
[...] As Jack Welch, ex-CEO of GE, noted, "Perhaps the biggest but most unheralded benefit of Six Sigma is its capacity to develop leaders." However, despite of the importance of leadership in Six Sigma, very few studies have looked at the type of leaders that are produced by a Six Sigma training program. Hence, the primary objective of this study is to explore the type of leaders (categorized by leadership styles) that are created by Six Sigma training. Another objective is to investigate the impact of these leadership styles on the followers Leadership Theory Among the various theories of leadership and motivation that relate to effective organizational change management, perhaps the most prominent is the transformational-transactional theory of leadership. [...]
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