This research was undertaken to establish the behaviours of leaders who get things done. Leadership attributes can be divided into three broad categories, namely, personal traits of leaders (who leaders are), their knowledge and skills (what leaders know) and their behaviours and styles (what leaders do). This research was part of a collaborative study undertaken with two other MBA students at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Qualitative research methods were used. The research was exploratory in nature and was conducted by holding in-depth, semi-structured interviews with fifteen successful business leaders in South Africa. Fifteen behavioural themes were identified as relevant to the behaviours of leaders who get things done, i.e. engaging and being approachable, having and articulating a vision, managing emotions, inspiring and motivating, communicating, choosing the right teams, displaying energy and passion, showing you care, listening, being visible, focusing on results, empowering staff, expressing trust and confidence in one’s people, responding to situations in a flexible manner and building strong teams. In addition, the research found that these behaviours are associated with the transformational leadership style. Another finding is that personal traits and leadership behaviour are important factors influencing how leaders get things done, more so than knowledge and skills are. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Academic administrators at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are faced with multiple challenges regarding retention of students, funding, and maintaining status as an HBCU, yet little is understood about how and why leaders choose a particular career pathway. This lack of understanding creates opportunities for failure related to turnover in leadership, funding discrepancies, and lower rates of retention and persistence for students. Using Maslow's needs theory as the foundation, the purpose of this descriptive study was to better understand the career pathways of established executive level leaders atin HBCUs in order to determine attributes of success among leaders with the rank of provost and higher. Data were collected using open-ended surveys from 30 HBCU executives at the rank of provost or higher. These data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, inductive coding, and thematic analysis. Findings indicated that academic administrators tend to move between private and public institutions frequently, and over 20 percent began an academic career as a faculty member at an institution of higher education. The other key finding is that executives tend to plot a path to higher level, executive positions and this transition occurs over a period of several years and t and that those who maintain a focus on achieving executive status also participate in a variety of seminars and workshops to build peripheral skill in communication, financial management, and collaboration. The social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations to HBCUs to engage in leadership training opportunities for faculty and academic managers to encourage internal promotion of executive positions as a mechanism to preserve the unique organizational attributes of HBCUs.

The relative political stability in Uganda resulted In increased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and growth in several national/multi-national organisations. Furthermore, business leadership in Uganda has experienced change as the older generation hand over the reins to the younger generation of business leaders who are relatively more exposed to the Mrican management philosophy and leadership models which are congruent with African culture and contextual issues. This study investigated within a Ugandan context, leadership attributes that are perceived as contributors to or inhibitors of outstanding leadership. It then determine whether, when analysed by ethnicity (i.e. Bantu speaking versus non-Bantu speaking), the researcher could identify meaningful differences in the culturally endorsed leadership profiles; and link societal cultural attlibutes to preferred leadership attributes. A triangulation method was used to conduct this cross-cultural research, which combined archival data, a quantitative survey and personal interviews. The sample comprised of 163 junior, middle and senior managers from over 15 organisations within Uganda. An adapted version of Project GLOBE questionnaire was used for the quantitative survey, and results showed that out of the nine societal cultural dimensions, only Power Distance and Institutional Collectivism cultural dimensions indicate significant differences between Bantu speaking as compared to non-Bantu speaking managers. Furthermore, out of the six leadership dimensions only Humane Orientation and Charismatic / Value Based leadership dimensions, indicated significant differences between the above mentioned. However, these results contrasted some avers of the personal interviews. The study concludes that societal cultural differences do exist between the Bantu speaking and non-Bantu speaking managers and this may require some marginal differences In the leadership attributes that a leader portrays. Nevertheless, irrespective of ethnicity, the most preferred leaders' attributes in Uganda are Decisiveness, Performance Oriented and Charisma 2: Inspirational; whilst the least preferred leaders' attributes were Face-Saver, Self Centred and Malevolent. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D. Econ. (Business Leadership)

The complex nature of healthcare requires nurse leaders to be skilled in professional practice, communication, teamwork, and problem solving to improve staff satisfaction and patient outcomes. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing and Institute of Medicine promotes graduate education for nurse leaders to enhance the delivery of quality care to the nation's diverse patient populations. Guided by the diffusion of innovation theory, this project explored the differences in nursing care hours, staff turnover, nurse quality indicators, as well as leadership characteristics on units lead by masters-prepared and non-masters-prepared nurses. Forty-eight nurse leaders completed the impact of graduate education among nurse leaders (IGENL) survey addressing perceptions of their ability to change practice, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills. Staffing reports, Nurse Quality Indicators (NQI), and Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) data were collected from 34 hospital units. Data were summarized and t tests were conducted to examine the differences in NQI and HCAHPS data from units lead by nurses with and without a graduate degree. No significant differences were noted in these measures. In the IGENL survey data, the nurse leaders with a graduate degree had significantly higher scores on the leadership characteristic subscales of professional practice, communication and teamwork, and problem solving than did those without. The outcome of this project can contribute to positive social change within healthcare organizations by supporting the pursuit of graduate education for nurse leaders, which could enhance leadership attributes and subsequently improve staff satisfaction and patient outcomes.

The relative political stability in Uganda resulted In increased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and growth in several national/multi-national organisations. Furthermore, business leadership in Uganda has experienced change as the older generation hand over the reins to the younger generation of business leaders who are relatively more exposed to the Mrican management philosophy and leadership models which are congruent with African culture and contextual issues. This study investigated within a Ugandan context, leadership attributes that are perceived as contributors to or inhibitors of outstanding leadership. It then determine whether, when analysed by ethnicity (i.e. Bantu speaking versus non-Bantu speaking), the researcher could identify meaningful differences in the culturally endorsed leadership profiles; and link societal cultural attlibutes to preferred leadership attributes. A triangulation method was used to conduct this cross-cultural research, which combined archival data, a quantitative survey and personal interviews. The sample comprised of 163 junior, middle and senior managers from over 15 organisations within Uganda. An adapted version of Project GLOBE questionnaire was used for the quantitative survey, and results showed that out of the nine societal cultural dimensions, only Power Distance and Institutional Collectivism cultural dimensions indicate significant differences between Bantu speaking as compared to non-Bantu speaking managers. Furthermore, out of the six leadership dimensions only Humane Orientation and Charismatic / Value Based leadership dimensions, indicated significant differences between the above mentioned. However, these results contrasted some avers of the personal interviews. The study concludes that societal cultural differences do exist between the Bantu speaking and non-Bantu speaking managers and this may require some marginal differences In the leadership attributes that a leader portrays. Nevertheless, irrespective of ethnicity, the most preferred leaders' attributes in Uganda are Decisiveness, Performance Oriented and Charisma 2: Inspirational; whilst the least preferred leaders' attributes were Face-Saver, Self Centred and Malevolent. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D. Econ. (Business Leadership)

Academic leadership in higher education in the 21st century is very different and more multifaceted than it was just a decade ago. Thus, given the multilayered, dynamic nature of higher education leadership at individual, group and organisational levels, a more nuanced understanding of its role in driving excellent research performance remains paramount. Hence, this study explores the professional and personal nature of research leadership that enables and stimulates high quality research performance. The research explores the research career pathways of ten researchers from various disciplinary fields who had been rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa and who were recommended by their education institutions as research leaders. The ten leaders were each interviewed about their research careers. Postgraduate students (47 in total) whom they had supervised were invited to answer an email questionnaire about their personal experiences of the leaders’ mentorship and leadership. In addition, information about the leaders and mentees was obtained from various documents such as curriculums vitae, research training records, institutional annual reports and web sites. The data collected and analysed in the study showed that the research career pathways of the research leaders were highly diverse and were affected in various ways by the historicalpolitical and social context of South Africa. However, across the career pathways, the research leaders had the following features in common: 1) the presence of strong research-centeredness throughout all career phases; 2) they lead by example of personal scholarship and intellectual leadership; 3) their research is locally relevant and globally competitive; and 4) their personal dynamics influence a confident and dynamic people-centred leadership approach. The most notable differences in research leadership across the sample could be traced to disciplinary contexts which ranged from distributed leadership across large teams and entrepreneurial networks to the more prevalent one-on-one mentor-mentee relationships. Leaders who were most influential in driving research performance were highly regarded scholars with extensive academic experience, had served a variety of leadership roles, confidently embraced the complexity of academic leadership and created stimulating research environments. The research also reveals a number of challenges that still remain for research leadership in addressing the human resource transformation requirements of the South African higher education research context. These include issues of 1) individualism and competition; 2) equity and excellence; 3) race and gender; and 4) research career exit and entry paths. The South African higher education system is characterised by pockets of scientific excellence in some disciplinary fields, as illustrated by the career trajectories of leaders in this study, but much work remains to be done in order to build a fully representative research-performing professoriate for South Africa. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted