| Leaders are involved in the process of influencing people to achieve corporate goals that sustain high-performance over time. Previous research addressing this phenomenon has traditionally adopted a single approach (i.e., traits, skills, or behaviors). This thesis fills this gap in the literature by adopting an integrative perspective of the leadership theory. To address the question of "how are some leaders more effective than others," an exploratory mixed method approach was used, comprised of a qualitative study to provide the researcher with meaningful insights on the topic, and a quantitative study to confirm the main findings of the exploratory stage.;Qualitative findings reveal that leadership effectiveness is a multidimensional construct comprised of four dimensions: (1) traits, (2) skills, (3) behaviors, and (4) processes. Additionally, the model tested during the quantitative phase identifies key predictors, and explains a significant variance of organizational effectiveness. These findings suggest that leaders that are learning goal-oriented, good interpersonal communicators, self-confident, and exhibit certain behaviors are more likely to be highly effective and to have a greater impact on organizational effectiveness. Overall, the results give a substantive support for an integrative model of leadership effectiveness, contribute to the theoretical debate on how leadership effectiveness can sustain organizational performance, and help managers understand the effective leadership process inside organizations. |
