Leadership effectiveness in implementing change and driving innovation: A study among public sector employees

Leadership effectiveness is considered as one of the major impediments in implementing change and innovation in organizations. Leadership effectiveness when assessed in terms of skill set possessed include ability to coach, ability to reward, ability to communicate, ability to motivate, ability to involve and support others, ability to promote team work and collaboration. The present study has been conducted among PSU employees, asking them to assess the leadership effectiveness of their middle level managers. This assumes greater significance, since effectively managing change in Public sector enterprises has been a challenge and middle level managers are mostly involved in the change implementation. The study found that of the various leadership skills possessed by managers, only ability to communicate showed significant relationship with change effectiveness. The study also revealed no association between demographic variables variables taken for study i.e., age, gender, salary, years of experience, position/rank of employees and their perception towards leadership skills exhibited by managers. It is suggested that organizations do make changes in their HR systems, mainly Performance appraisal and training & development systems, by incorporating leadership behaviours exhibited by managers into these.