Executive leadership styles and Jewish Family Services effectiveness

Abstract

In a descriptive/exploratory study of 96 Jewish Family Service executive directors, and 125 JFS associates, 3 instruments were used to determine what predominant leadership style, transactional or transformational leadership, JFS executives exhibited in their jobs. From a universe of 140 JFS executives, a 68.5% response rate was obtained. The three instruments used were the Leadership Behavior Questionnaire (Sashkin, 1990a), which measured transformational leadership, the Competing Values Scale (Quinn, 1988) which measured organizational effectiveness and eight leadership roles, and the Romirowsky Executive Survey (1998), which measured both transactional and transformational leadership, as well as demographic variables.;The LBQ findings showed that JFS executives exhibit strong transformational leadership styles, particularly in building cultures within their organizations which foster the visions they helped to create. The Competing Values Scale showed that, as a group, JFS executives scored highest within the roles of "producers", "facilitators", and "innovators". This signifies the need for a complimentary use of both transactional and transformational leadership styles. Within nonprofit organizations, leadership is required to get everyday work done, as well as search for innovative ways to adapt to the continuing challenges facing the organization. The Romirowsky Executive Survey showed that JFS executives spend little time preoccupied with agency policies and procedures, and spend a major part of their time working with their boards. In the 3 instruments used, there was a statistical significance between the "innovator" role of JFS executives and transformational leadership style. Statistical significance was also found between transformational leadership styles and executive risk-taking, executive ability to nurture contacts external to the agency, and executive interaction with boards to facilitate change.