The impact of transactional leadership as a strategic imperative in project execution at a mobile company in the Gaza Strip, Palestine

Abstract

The Gaza strip is a heavily militarised part of the Middle East because of decades of Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. The ordinary Palestinian born in the 1950s has never known peace in their lives, it is a heavily militarised zone and as such that is how people grow up. The people live in a culture of their own and revolts, bombs, deaths and massacres are the order of the day. This compounded with the religious structures, paternalistic environment and the environment where there is much of free will thinking and acting. On the other hand, the productivity in the few industries is a challenge and the focus is on the type of leadership and the effectiveness. This being a very paternalistic society, heavily militarised, and informed the decision to study the mode of leadership style in the Gaza Strip. Because of the complexity of the area including suspicions and restrictions, the study focused on the largest telecommunications company. Primarily because they were prepared to allow for the study, and that would also reduce the need for permission from the Israeli army to go to many other companies. Researchers on leadership estimate that there are more than a 100 leadership styles that can be identified and classified. These are a result of differences in approach, geographical location, and type of followership, culture and societal structures. Many of the leadership styles are varieties of each other, overlap of two or more styles reported elsewhere. Of much concern is the broadness leadership and the inability of researchers to come up with a universal definition. The one thing in common in all these studies is that all leadership is about leading people – followers. From the many different leadership styles and theories developed, there are two styles given more importance in literature, these are namely; transactional, and transformational leadership styles. The focus on transactional leadership style, was because postulates that this style fits well in military type operations. Considering that culture and up bringing inform leadership styles, and that the followers have their own expectations on how they should be led, the research sought to establish the acceptability of transactional leadership style. The study sought to establish both the use (by leaders) and acceptability of the style (by followers). The researcher used a descriptive research design since it is compatible with mixed research methodology, which itself could enable both depth and breadth in understanding the phenomenon. Transactional leadership is practised freely and acceptable as the ideal way of effectively managing the workforce.