Leadership behaviors and effectiveness in quality improvements at selected institutions of higher education

The primary purpose of this study was to relate specific administrative leadership behaviors to types of organizational effectiveness in higher education that may result from the implementation of quality improvement processes. A secondary purpose of the study was to develop a survey tool that would accurately assess organizational effectiveness resulting from the application of quality improvement processes on an organization in higher education. This study tested Avolio\u27s (1994) framework, which suggests that a strong relationship exists between organizational effectiveness resulting from quality improvement and transformational leadership behaviors of administrators. The prerequisite research questions for this research were: (a) what are the behaviors of leaders? and (b) is the organization effective? Demographic data was gathered to describe the size of the organization, years in quality improvement, types of training experienced, gender and type of institution. Relationships between twelve specific leadership behaviors and seven specific Baldrige categories of effectiveness were studied to discover which behaviors positively impact effective organizations. The data was also analyzed for effects of size, years in quality, training, gender and type of institution. This study revealed that the transformational leadership behaviors of idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration were strongly related to organizational effectiveness. The effective transactional behaviors were also related to effectiveness. This study linked specific leadership behaviors to types of organizational effectiveness. This study also showed that the implementation of quality improvement processes enhanced organizational effectiveness over time, and that women scored higher than men intransformational leadership behaviors