Leadership style of NGO leaders and their perception on distributed leadership

Abstract

In the last decades, leadership has transformed due to changing demands from society. This has led to a rise in distributed leadership within organizations and a change in perspective on what good leadership is. The aim of this research was to discover whether the leadership style of NGO leaders predicts their perception on distributed leadership. Hypothesis is that there is a positive association between transformational leadership and the perception on distributed leadership and a negative association between transactional leadership and perception on distributed leadership. A quantitative questionnaire was used to measure the constructs. Age, gender, level of education, leadership experience and received training on leadership were included as control variables. The analysis showed a significant positive association between transformational leadership and the perception on distributed leadership. Little proof was found for the relation between transactional leadership and the perception on distributed leadership. The reliability of the scales used in this research was questionable; therefore the results should be interpreted with caution. For future research on this topic it is essential that the concept of distributed leadership is operationalized with validated scales. With this the connection between leadership style and perception on distributed leadership can be studied further. More knowledge on the characteristics of leaders and its effect on perception of distributed leadership would contribute to the understanding of this topic.