Comparison of supply chain manager leadership styles before and after industry 4.0: The case of three firms in manufacturing sector

Industrialization process in which a great difference have been experienced with Industry 4.0, significantly affected the production processes. It is a matter of debate whether smart factories will have the same effect on the supply chain with the reduced need for people. Research on the transformation of leadership characteristics before and after the Industry 4.0 revolution were discussed. In this study, the purpose is to compare supply chain manager leadership behaviors with employees' perspective before and after Industry 4.0. Employees (n=750) of firms which operate in the manufacturing sector in İzmir that comply with Industry 4.0 were determined as the population of this research. Based on this number, the sample size of the study was calculated as 256 participant within 5 percent statistical error and 95 percent confidence level In this context, a data collection tool suitable for the purpose of the study was used, adapted from Teoman's (2015) study, to be applied to the determined sample group. After the data was collected, looking at normality assumption Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Wilcoxon test for transformational leadership sub-dimensions before and after industry 4.0, Mann Whitney U test was used to determine the significance of the differences between independent groups with SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 25.0 program, and Cohan's d test was used to determine the effect size of the significance. According to the results, significant differences were detected in all leadership styles before and after Industry 4.0. According to demographic information; significant differences were determined in terms of age, employment time in manufacturing, employment time in the firm and gender variables (p <0.05). The results regarding the effect sizes have revealed that the significant differences were found at medium and high levels.