An investigation of the influence of the leadership's style on strategic change

Capabilities of organizations regarding assessment of internal and external opportunities and threats, and transforming themselves accordingly, is one of the ways to provide their survivals in a competitive environment. The nature of organizational answers and effectiveness depends on how they are interpreted by the upper management. The role of the management in defining the events and developments that affects the current and future strategies provides an important link between the organization?s internal and external environment. For this reasons, this thesis work attempts to connect managers? leadership style, demographical characteristics and the strategic change of the organizations that they work. In this research conducted by controlling organization size, age and ownership, it has been found that in organizations with higher probability of implementing strategic change, male and well educated managers that adopts transactional leadership style is more successful than others. Results show that demographic variables and leadership styles that reflect the cognitive perspectives of managers are effective in the realization of strategic change.