Importance of Leadership in Organizational Management

Discuss about the Investigation into Enhance Leadership Effectiveness.

Leadership is the most important factor in the management of any organization. It facilitates in maximizing organizational efficiency and achieving overall organizational goals. Effective leadership style leads to an opportunity for the business organization towards achieving excellence both in terms of employee efficiencies as well as overall organizational efficiency (Dabke, 2016). Moreover, effective leaders can lead to high level of employee motivation, dedication, inspiration and management with the business organizations. Such leaders set clear organizational vision and direct the employees towards achieving that vision for leading organizational success. However, effectiveness of leadership is always affected with different kinds of social factors, staff behavior, circumstantial factor, decision making and differing viewpoints of different stakeholders (Paustian-Underdahl et al., 2014). This research proposal will be concerned with the investigation of leadership effectiveness in Nature Landscapes. The research proposal will frame effective research objectives and research questions for gathering authentic information about the research topic. Apart from that, the research proposal will also select appropriate research methodologies for gathering most accurate research information.

Differing organizational environment can have differing affects on the effectiveness level of leadership within an organization. The legacy of past leadership, the behaviors and values of the employees and other management staffs can highly impact on the leadership effectiveness. Moreover, support from the supervisors, well liked by the co-workers and collaborative relationship with the colleagues can lead to high level of effectiveness in leadership (Ramchunder & Martins, 2014). Apart from the, the traits and behaviors of the leaders build their relationship with their subordinates. In this way, such leaders can better encourage their subordinates towards leading high level of work performance.

This research proposal will be highlighting on the context of investigating the effectiveness level of leadership in Nature Landscapes. Moreover, the final research will evaluate different factors affecting the leadership effectiveness in Nature Landscapes. This research study will particularly add value in enhancing the leadership effectiveness in an organization. Moreover, the assessment of the factors associated with leadership effectiveness would broaden the area of leadership study. In this way, this research study will help in saving the time, money and managerial efforts of avoiding calamitous negative impacts on reputation and employee engagement levels.

Nature Landscape is a popular landscaping company having a capable team of landscape architects, horticulturists, project managers, engineers and craftsmen. The organization has 30 years of industry experience in the field of delivering high quality and highly reliable landscaping service to the clients. The gardens designed by the employees usually have living piece of arts, resplendent of living colors and lush foliage, rejuvenating and inspiration to weary (Nature Landscapes, 2018). Moreover, the organization actualizes the creative innovation in all landscape design, implementations and creations. The role of the leaders in this organization is to foster creative and unique ideas among the employees for designing stunning landscape.

With increasing numbers of competitors in the market of landscape designing, Nature Landscape is facing fierce competition from the rival organizations. In such situation, the organization needs to create more innovative and creative design of landscape for standing unique in market and bearing the fierce market competition. However, the contemporary leaders of the organization are being failed to encourage the employees much towards leading high level of creativity in landscape designing (Edelman & van Knippenberg, 2017). Furthermore, indifferent and non-cooperative behavior of the staffs are also hindering the effectiveness of leadership this organization. Most importantly, the inability of the leaders towards delegating some authority on the employees hampers the ultimate enthusiasm level and creativity level of the employees (Fan et al., 2014). In this way, ineffective leadership is hampering the overall employee performance, their engagement level and their creative abilities of the employees in Nature Landscape leading to lack of competitive edge in the market.

Factors Affecting Leadership Effectiveness

The research is aimed at conducting a detailed investigation of the impact of improving leadership effectiveness at Nature Landscapes in Singapore.

• To critically review the implication of leadership on the social and circumstantial factors
• To assess the impact of leadership on staff and organizational behaviors with reference to joint effort in Nature Landscape
• To examine the issues in leaders’ characteristics hampering the effectiveness of leadership in Nature Landscape
• To suggest the strategies on improving the leadership effectiveness in Nature Landscape

• What are the implications of leadership on the social and circumstantial factors?
• How leadership impacts on staff and organizational behaviors with reference to joint effort in Nature Landscape?
• What are the issues in leaders’ characteristics that are hampering the effectiveness of leadership in Nature Landscape?
• How Nature Landscape can improve its leadership effectiveness?

Leadership is the act of leading the group of people in an organization. The practical skills of leadership encompass the ability of an individual towards leading or guiding other individuals, teams and entire organizations. According to Frackenpohl et al. (2016), leadership is the ability of the individuals towards setting and achieving challenging goals, talking swift decisive actions, outperforming competition and inspiring others to do the same. Moreover, leaders always help themselves and others for doing the right things. On the other hand, Wasylkiw et al. (2015) opined that effective leaders can set inspiring organizational vision map out proper direction for achieving the set organizational vision effectively. Such leaders must have the management skills for guiding the people towards right destination for achieving the actual organizational goals.

Effectiveness of leadership is extremely essential for balancing and coordinating the conflicting interest of all organizational stakeholders and members. In this way, the leaders can direct all the organizational members towards the common organizational goals for achieving them successfully. Furthermore, Bergner et al. (2016) opined that efficient leaders always exhibit integrity, honesty, ethics and trustworthiness in their communication with other organizational stakeholders. In this way, such leaders can better encourage the employees to put their effort in right direct for meeting the exact right organizational goals

Effectiveness of leadership is extremely essential for improving the productivity level of the employees within an organization. According to Ruiz et al. (2016), effective leaders perfectly communicate the core organizational goals and objectives to the employees. In this way, the employees can get right direction of putting of their effort towards achieving the core organizational goals and objectives. On the other hand, Torres et al. (2015) opined that effective leaders effectively coordinate the employees’ needs with the organizational needs. Hence, the employees become highly interested on putting their best effort towards achieving high level of organizational success with an intension of fulfilling their own individual goals. While considering the example of Prince’s Landscape, it can be seen that the leaders always coordinate the organizational goals with the individual goals of the employees. Hence, the employees of this organization are always inclined to give their best effort in achieving the organizational success that is perfectly aligned with their individual goals.

Effectiveness of leadership is not limited within the traditional and strict methods. Moreover, Hopkins and Scott (2016) opined that effective leaders always think out of the traditional rules and regulations for dealing with the changing business environment. Such leaders can immediately understand the importance of changing method in business for dealing with the changing challenges in business. Hence, they can immediately adapt themselves and inspire others towards adapting them with the new organizational changes. On the other hand, Choudhary et al. (2015) opined that efficient leaders can immediately initiate fast actions through having critical plan of leading organizational change. In this way, the leaders can effectively align the skills, talents and interest of the employees with the critical plan of fostering successful organizational change as the remedies of dealing with changing business environment.  

Context of the Research Proposal – Nature Landscapes

Creativity is the most important quality of the contemporary leaders for fostering innovative business and leading high level of competitive edge in business. According to Lam et al. (2015), creative leaders have the ability to re-think the business model for coming up with the innovative business ideas to drastically change the business. Moreover, they have the ability of creating and realizing innovative solutions mainly in the circumstances of changing situation or structurally complex situation. On the other hand, McGowan and Stokes (2015) opined that effective leaders always try to incorporate unique ideas and innovative thinking for providing uniquely customized products and services to the customers. In this way, such leadership can ultimately lead to high level of competitive advantage for beating the competitive pressures of the rivals. However, while considering the evidence of Nature Landscapes, the leaders of the organizations are being incapable of encouraging the employees towards creating unique and innovative landscape design. In this way, the organization is gradually lagging behind the rival companies having lack competitive advantage in the markets.

Effective leaders have strong sense about the importance of diversity in the business process. Moreover, Ko (2015) opined that most of the contemporary leaders are highly willing to hire diverse employees in the business process for leading high level business success. Such leaders want to extract diverse business ideas from the diverse employees set for reaching the most attractive business ideas having high level of business success. Furthermore, Vakilbashi et al. (2017) stated that the effective leaders also get multiple solutions to the critical business problem. In this way, the leaders can choose the best alternative option for overcoming critical business issues. Hence, effectiveness of leadership is also used to solve critical organizational issues. While considering the example of Greenearth Landscape Designer and Planner, it can be seen that the leaders of the organization employ diverse employees for identifying the designing needs and preferences of the diverse employees. Hence, the organization is always capable of providing uniquely designed landscape to the clients leading to high level of competitive gain over the rivals.

Leadership effectiveness is extremely important for encouraging and enabling collaboration among the employees for enhancing the overall productivity level of the employees. Moreover, Hallinger and Truong (2014) opined that effective leaders encourage the teamwork within the organization for achieving the business goals and objectives in collaboration with each others. Such increased employee collaboration increases the willingness of the employees to work hard for leading organizational success. On the other hand, Lanaj and Hollenbeck (2015) opined that effective leaders are always willing to come up with innovative and unique business ideas for leading high level of competitive advantages in their organizations. In this way, effective leadership is actually focused ion improved charisma in business operation.

Effective leadership always reflects on the ability of the leaders towards motivating for more efficient work. According to Kamali et al. (2015), effective leaders are always capable of assigning right job to the right employees based on their expertise, skills and talents. In this way, the employees become motivated to work harder for the jobs that are within their specialization. On the other hand, Ardestani et al. (2016) opined that effective leaders always appraise the hard work of the employees and their contribution in organizational success. Hence, such hardworking employees become more engaged in their job roles for maintaining the consistency in their hardworking.

Challenges Faced by the Organization

Strong and effective leaders mostly believe in delegation of authority to the employees for making the employees more responsible and engaged in their job role. Aabdeen et al. (2016) pointed out that effective leaders delegate some form of authority to the employees, where the employees make their own decision for completing their own jobs. In this way, the employees become highly engaged and responsible for their own job role. On the other hand, Osman-Gani et al. (2017) opined that delegation of authority to the employees make them feel valued at the workplaces. Hence, the employees become highly engaged in meeting the overall organizational goals and objectives. While undertaking the evidence from Chen Wa Landscape Pte. Ltd., it can be seen that the leaders of the organization freely delegate some form of authority to the employees for their own job roles (Madanchian et al., 2017). Hence, the employees become highly engaged with their own job roles for fulfilling them in a responsible way.

Effective leaders take the responsibility of creating a coordinating working environment within the organization. Carpenter et al. (2014) stated that effective leaders always coordinate with the employees prior to take any organizational decision. It makes the employees perfectly ready beforehand involving in job roles. On the other hand, McCleskey (2014) opined that efficient leaders always allow the employees in organizational decision making process. Hence, the employees feel high involved and engaged in achieving overall organizational goals and objectives. However, the leaders of Nature Landscape are not usually willing to allow the employees in organizational decision making process. Hence, the employees of this organization seem to have less engagement in overall organizational process.

Effective leaders fulfill the coordination through reconciling the personal interest of the employees with the overall organizational goals. As per Le Fevre and Robinson (2015), effective leaders make synchronization between the individual goals and overall organizational goals for the employees. Such synchronization highly enhances the engagement level of the employees with the overall organizational goals and objectives. On the other hand, Colbert et al. (2014) opined that employees can see it extremely beneficial to meet organizational goals, when it indirectly meets their own individual goals.

Effective communication helps the working team to work in right project with proper attitude. Hence, the leaders should have proper communication skills for maintaining integrity among the team members and keep them encouraged to work properly. Effective communication skills help the leaders towards communication core information to the employees properly. It gives the employees right directions to work on for fulfilling the overall goals and objectives of the organization.

Contemporary business environment is changing at rapid phase. Hence, the organizational leaders must be flexible enough to cope up with the rapid changes in the organizations. Moreover, Wang et al. (2014) opined effective leaders are always efficient in coming up with unique and innovative business ideas for dealing with the organizational changes. It will keep the businesses updated with the changing business scenario. In this way, the effective leaders are always flexible to make them adaptable in the changing business scenario.

What is Leadership?

The prime motto of an effective leader is to make well collaboration among the employees for keeping them engaged with the work for meeting organizational goals. Santos et al. (2015) pointed out that creating legitimate rapport with the employees reduces the personal issues and resentments of the employees. Hence, effective leaders are always empathetic to the employees for making collaboration among them. Empathetic treatment from the leaders prevents the negative feelings within the employees. The employees are more likely to work and share their vision regarding the work, when the leaders remain empathetic to them.

One of the most importance characteristics of effective leadership is honesty. The effectiveness of leadership always comes through honesty, which helps the leaders for being credible with their work. According to Hassan et al. (2018), effective leaders are more likely to address the obstacles rather than avoiding them. In this way, honesty of the leaders always leads to better assessment of business growth. On the other hand, Lituchy et al. (2017) opined that honesty trait among the leaders helps them to be ethical in treating the employees. Hence, such leaders are well capable of making the employees loyal enough towards their job role.

Effective leaders must always be confident upon trying new and innovative things for business growth. Emuwa and Fields (2017) pointed out that the leaders must always have strong vision and willingness for seeing the actual growth potentiality among the innovative business ideas. In this way, adequate level of confidence among the leaders becomes the inspiration among the employees towards working hard for implementing innovative business plan.

In case of external environment, every organization has their own particular work environment having own particular values. Such values become the legacy of the past leaders, where these values of the organization decide upon the way of treating customers, investors, community and staffs. Hence, the leaders become forced to perform their leadership with such values. On the other hand, Rowold et al. (2014) opined that leaders are always dependent on the organizational resources like technology, staffs, physical resources and finances for achieving the organizational goals. Hence, the effectiveness of leaders is always dependent on effectiveness of the organizational resources and their efficiencies. The responsibility of the employees highly impact of the effectiveness of the leaders in an organization. Moreover, the employees affect the leaders through their work ethics and personal values. The employees having ethical and personal values are more likely to be loyal to the instructions of the leaders leading to leadership effectiveness. Furthermore, Parr et al. (2016) stated that advanced technology has the ability of affecting the effectiveness of the leaders. Moreover, the more the leaders will get the support of advanced technology, the more the leaders will be able to explore any new business ideas and concepts. Hence, the support of technology from the organization has huge impact on the effectiveness of leadership.

In case internal environment, the internal traits and behaviors of the leaders highly impact the effectiveness of the leaders in an organization. Moreover, MacKie (2014) opined that ability of the leaders to set strategic vision for the organization helps the leaders to set proper plan for meeting the actual goals and objectives of their organization. Moreover, such ability also facilitates the leaders towards inspiring others with strategic vision of achieving organizational goals and objectives. On the other hand, Banks et al. (2016) pointed out that wise decision making capability within the leaders lead them towards taking prompt and strategic decision for the growth of business. The ability of the leaders to be adaptable with the changes in business requirement keeps them updated and upgraded with all equipment for leading high level of business growth. In this way, the effectiveness of leadership is highly dependent on the ability of the leaders toward being adaptable in changing business scenario. Apart from that, Stelmokien? and Endriulaitien? (2015) stated that confidence of the leaders to take innovative business decision leads to competitive business environment for their organization. Hence, confidence also has huge contribution in leading the effectiveness of the leadership.

Importance of Effective Leadership

Leaders always have to work with the members of groups in any organization. Hence, the characteristics of group members highly influence the effectiveness of leadership. Sharma (2014) pointed out that reliability of group members highly enhances the effectiveness of the leaders. Moreover, the reliable members of the workgroup are already motivated work consistently for completing their jobs within stipulated deadlines. Hence, the leaders have to put less effort in managing such employees and encourage them to achieve organizational goals effectively. On the other hand, Day et al. (2014) stated that good communication skills of the group members have wide contribution in the enhanced leadership skills.  Moreover, the group members having good communication skills are more likely to share their work views and work issues that they face in performing their job roles. In this way, the leaders can better suggest them immediate solution for resolving the work issues. In this way, the leaders become successful in achieving the work goals through communicating with the group members openly.

Attitude of the group members also contribute in shaping the attitude of the leaders. Moreover, Ham et al. (2015) mentioned that the group members having positive attitude are more likely to show positive energy and enthusiasm for their job role. Hence, it becomes easy for the leaders to motivate such employees and direct them towards achieving the core organizational goals and objectives. In this way, the positive attitudes of the employees are directly connected with the effectiveness of the leaders. Furthermore, Parr et al. (2016) stated that the honestly level of the group members has high level of impact on the effectiveness of leadership. Moreover, the honest members of the workgroup remain loyal to their work for meeting the actual work goal. Such group members are encouraged by themselves towards performing their job roles, which ultimately make the leadership job easy and effective.

Transformational leaders always inspire others towards achieving remarkable and unexpected result. According to Colbert et al. (2014), transformational leaders promote consistent vision, mission and set of values for the employees for achieving challenging jobs. In this leadership style, the leaders optimistically and enthusiastically foster team spirit and commitment for meeting organizational goals in effective ways. On the other hand, Kamali et al. (2015) stated that transformational leaders always allow the employees in organizational decision making process. Moreover, in such leadership style, the ideas and opinions of the leaders are taken into consideration for making any business decision.

Transactional leadership style is mostly concerned with directing and motivating the followers through appealing to their self-interest. Torres et al. (2015) opined that transactional leaders motivate the employees to work though the system of reward and punishment. Moreover, in such leadership style, hardworking employees are rewarded with attractive rewards for having motivation, but the less working employees are punished with punishment for forcing them to work hard. On the other hand, Dabke (2016) opined that transactional leaders allow the employees in organizational decision making process, but they always keep control on the employees. Such leaders are not much willing to accept changes in business. In case of Nature Landscape, the leaders of the organization follow transactional leadership, where the employees are not much free to provide their innovative design in designing the landscapes leading lack of competitive advantage for the organization.

Improving Productivity through Effective Leadership

Charismatic leadership style is always dependent on the persuasiveness and charm of the leaders. Charismatic leadership style is almost similar to the transformational leadership style. However, unlike the transformational leadership style, charismatic leaders often try to maintain their status quo. Furthermore, Bergner et al. (2016) stated that charismatic leaders are inclined to hold positive perception regarding any creativity in the business. Such leaders are also deterministic enough about the future of the business growth. Hence, they can take right business decision based on the business scenario and better lead the employees towards right direction.

Democratic leadership style is also called shared leadership and in such leadership style, group members take increased participation in the organizational decision making process. Lam et al. (2015) pointed out that democratic leadership style tends to focus more on group equality and free flow of ideas from the employees and proper guidance to the employees. Hence, the employees feel more engaged and involved in business process with charismatic leadership style.

Contingency leadership style is highly dependent on matching of leadership style with right situation. Ramchunder and Martins (2014) stated that contingency leaders select the leadership style based on leader member relationship, task structure and positional power. In such style, the leaders having good personal relation are matched with the poorly organized task environment. While considering the evidence from Hawaii Landscape Pte Ltd, the leaders of the organization follow contingency leadership style for managing the employees and overall business. Moreover, such leaders always take decisions based on the actual business scenario and changing market condition.

Fielder’s Contingency Model is highly focused on effectiveness of leadership through well functioning relationship between leadership and organizational effectiveness. According to Torres et al. (2015), contingency model of leadership suggests to adopt leadership style based on the situations. Moreover, the determination of leadership style is based on three types of leadership situation like leader member relation, task structure and position power. In case of leader member relation, the contingency leaders choose their leadership style based on their relation with their subordinates. McGowan and Stokes (2015) stated that the contingency leaders often undertake leadership style based on the structure of task. The leaders can also choose their preferred leadership style based on their position power and authority over their subordinates.

Leader Member Exchange Theory focuses on relationship based approach, where two way relationships are established between the leaders and the followers. Osman-Gani et al. (2017) pointed out that the relationship in leader member exchange relationship is based on trust and respect and the emotional relationship often goes beyond the employment scope. The relationship between the leaders and employees goes through three stages like role-taking, role-making and routinization. The in-group members of the organizations are more likely to work in collaboration with the leaders. Hence, such theory is extremely helpful in encouraging the employees and motivating them towards achieving the organizational goals and objectives. However, Madanchian et al. (2017) argued that leader member exchange theory is criticized on the ground of justice and fairness in performance evaluation.

Contemporary business organizations need to create high performing workforce for leading business innovation. Hence, the leaders of the organizations must be able to inspire organizational members towards going beyond the general business requirement. Hassan et al. (2018) mentioned that transformational leaders identify the required changes in business, create vision for guiding the changes through inspiration and executing the changes effectively. This theory suggests the leaders to delegate the authority to the employees for completing their own job roles. On the other hand, Lituchy et al. (2017) opined that transformational leaders allow the employees in organizational decision making process and highly value their inputs in making any business decision. While considering the evidence of Tropic Planners and Landscape, it can be seen that the leaders always follow transformational leadership theory for leading innovative landscape design through allowing the innovative design suggested by the employees.

Transactional leadership theory is based on the supervision, group performance and organization of job roles. The basic assumption of this leadership style is that the employees are more likely to perform better, when the chain of command from the leaders is clear and definite. Wang et al. (2014) opined that transactional leaders manage the performance of the employees through the system of reward and punishment. Moreover, apart from rewarding the hardworking employees, these leaders also punish the less working employees for forcing them to work more. On the other hand, Santos et al. (2015) opined that unlike transformational leaders, transactional leaders hold some authority and control over the employees, while delegating job authority to them. Moreover, these leaders tend to set expectation and standard for maximizing the productivity of organization through increased productivity of the employees.

Path Goal theory is based on the specification of leadership style, which is a best fit for the employees and their working environment. Banks et al. (2016) mentioned that the leaders following Path Goal theory choose the leadership style based on the expectation of the employees and overall organizations. Moreover, the leadership style of actually followed by a particular given outcome. Moreover, the attractiveness of the outcome encourages the employees towards working more for leading organizational success. The leaders are more likely to be supportive to the employees for resolving any work issues.

From the conceptual framework drown above, it can be seen that leadership effectiveness is primarily dependent on leaders’ characteristics and traits, leaders’ behaviors and styles, external and internal environment and group member characteristics. Moreover, characteristics and traits of the leaders shape their relationship with others. In this way, the leaders with confident and positive attitude are more likely to motivate employees in achieving the organizational goals and objectives. Furthermore, internal and external environment of the leaders have high level of contribution on the effectiveness of the leaders. Moreover, the technology, staffs and other organizational resources often impact on the leadership style in an organization. Group member characteristics have wide influence on the effectiveness of the leadership. Moreover, the employees having adequate communication and enthusiasm are motivated by themselves to work in loyal manner for meeting organizational goals. Hence, it ultimately enhances the effectiveness of leadership in an organization. The behavior and rapport of the leaders also have influence on the effectiveness of the leaders.

Several issues are likely to rise, while drawing suitable outcome from the literature review. This literature review has also faced several issues towards coming to a suitable outcome. It was quite difficult to apply several theories and models in the literature review for time and budget constraints. Apart from that, the literature review has also faced lack of critical penetration in exploring facts and theories associated with the literature review. It was not possible to gather much empirical evidence relevant to research topic for time and budget constraints.

While considering the viewpoint of Lewis (2015), it can be said that the research philosophy helps in designing the development, nature and scope of the research. This research tool helps developing the beliefs and assumptions concerning the research topic. Based on the assumptions, the best suitable strategy for constructing the research design will be set up. Choy (2014) pointed out that there are mainly three types of research philosophies, which are Positivism, Interpretivism and Realism research philosophy. The positivism research philosophy is concerned with collecting factual information through the method of observation. This type of data is completely dependent on the data that can be quantified. Interpretivism philosophy is associated with collecting data that is socially constructed. This tool helps in collecting real information concerning the research topic. Furthermore, while considering the realism research philosophy, it can be said that this tool is the mixture of both observed data and socially constructed data.

Considering the research topic, it can be said that such data will be collected that can be measured in terms of number and value. Therefore, such quantifiable data can be collected by only using the positivism research philosophy. Moreover, such data will be extremely trustworthy as well as fact oriented. Such data can also be considered as authentic and outcome will be extremely reliable.

Dumay and Cai (2015) pointed out that the research approach tool is concerned with collecting the most relevant and accurate information concerning the research topic. Such data can contain factual information or observed information. The most widely used research approaches are inductive and deductive approach. While considering the inductive research approach, it can be said that this tool is completely associated with developing new theory at the end of research. This tool will end up developing new concept in support of the research problem. Based on the research outcome, inductive tool will help in creating new theory so that in future its application will result in better and enhanced outcome in support of the research problem. It can be said that inductive research approach is the bottom-up approach where data is primarily detected, later hypothesis is constructed and at the end theory is created.

McCusker and Gunaydin (2015) highlighted the viewpoint that deductive research approach is concerned with deducing some recommendations based on the research outcome. Through this approach, initially the available literature in discussed and based on the gap of the literature possible set of hypotheses is set up. Later, based on the hypothesis research data collection and analysis is conducted. Finally, when the research outcome is available, possible recommendations are provided in support of the research problem. It can be said that deductive research approach is the top-down approach where literature is primarily analyzed, later hypothesis is constructed and at the end recommendations are provided.

Considering the research topic, it can be said that the flow of the research will be based on the top-down approach. This is because initially the available literature has been discussed and relevant theories and models were analyzed. On the basis of literature gap, research questions were set up so that data collection procedure is well constructed. Therefore, it can be said that deductive research approach is the most suitable for this research and finally, some set of recommendations will be provided in support of the research problem.

While considering the viewpoint of Fletcher (2017), it can be said that the most commonly used research designs are descriptive, correlational, semi-experimental, experimental and reviews. Descriptive research design is associated with the methods such as survey, naturalistic observation and case study. The case study method is associated with analyzing the information from literature and secondary sources. Such literatures are mainly collected from published articles by various scholars. Survey method of data collection is associated with collecting information and responses from selected respondents. This type of data is collected through primary data collection method where direct responses from the participants are collected. The correlational research design is comprised of observational study and case-control study. Such research design develops the interrelationship between 2 or more quantitative variables in view of the identical set of participants. Furthermore, Isaacs (2014) highlighted that Semi-experimental research design does not consider the random alignment element to control and treatment and experimental research design is concerned with controlling the research variables that will definitely alter or influence the research outcome. Therefore, in each of the step, research instruments are validated in order to measure research outcome.

While considering the research topic, it can be said that data will be collected from the primary sources as the respondents will be from within the concerned company. As a result, the best suitable research design will be survey. This method will comprise of collected data directly from the selected respondents and later the data will be analyzed to deliver final research outcome. Therefore, out of all the types of research designs, descriptive research design will be the most suitable for this research.

Guest et al. (2017) pointed out that data collection method is the most important tool for conducting a research. This is because with the help of this tool whether primary or secondary data will be necessary for the research is analyzed. Considering the primary data collection method, it can be said that direct responses from the respondents are collected. Primary data can be quantitative, qualitative or both. Factual data that can be quantified indicates quantitative data and such data that cannot be measured numerically directly is considered as qualitative data. Secondary data is associated with collecting data from available empirical articles from various scholars and researchers. Commonly collected secondary data is from journals, books, empirical evidences, blogs, articles, reviews and authentic websites.

In this research, data will be collected from primary sources and therefore both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected so that later those can be measured. Primary data will be collected from the respondents who will be selected from within the organization. Based on the sampling method right number of respondents will be selected. Moreover, data will be collected through survey method where the respondents will be asked to participate. The entire data collection procedure will be done through online method used Google Form. Invitations will be sent to each of the respondents to participant in the research. However, no one will be forced. On the other hand, in order to collect qualitative data, interview with managers will be set up. The online questionnaire will follow the 5-Point Likert Scale format and it will be close ended, whereas the interview will be processed open ended where managers will be free to declare their responses.

While considering the viewpoint of Sessler and Imrey (2015), it can be said that population size is the broader group of respondents who intends to generalize the research outcome. Population size is the scope of respondent who can be considered as the respondents for research. However, for a research sample size is always less than population size because not all the people who are invited to participate in the research turn up to respond finally. King and Mackey (2016) pointed out that sample size is considered as the subset of population size. These people actually turn up for the research whose response help in analyzing the research outcome. Probability sampling method indicates such a population in which every member of the population gets fair chance to get selected. Non-probability sample size indicates so certainty whether all the respondents will be given equal chance.

Probability sampling method will be selected for this research because all the individuals will be given fair and equal chance to be selected. Moreover, since in online survey 20% of the population size is found to be responding, therefore for this research the population size will be 250.

250 (population size) * 20% = 50

From the above, it can be said that sample size will be 50, who are the middle level employees of the organization for conducting survey. On the other hand, for interview purpose, 8 high level managers will be selected.

Fletcher (2017) pointed out that descriptive and inferential are the two most widely used statistical data analysis methods. Descriptive statistics is comprised of data recording from group members so that statistical summary is possible in the form of group properties. Moreover, through using descriptive statistics, the uncertainty factor is quite low because it mostly deals with people and items. This method mostly deals with mean, median, mode and stand deviation calculation. Inferential statistics on the other hand, involves drawing sample and population generalization. This method involves chi-square test for assessing the actual information from the collected data.

Considering the research, it can be said that inferential statistics will be the most suitable. This is because the collected data will be analyzed using SPSS software. Data analysis will also involve calculation using MS Excel where correlation and regression will be done. Chi-square test assesses the difference between actual observed data and theoretical data associated with research topic. Hence, this data analysis method can provide most suitable research result.

Every academic research can be associated with some research limitations that can hamper the overall quality of the research output. Likewise, this research can also face several types of research limitations, which can have direct impact on the ultimate research result. Most importantly, this research can face the limitation of time constraints. Moreover, this research may not gather adequate sample size to gather adequate information regarding the research topic. In this way, this research study may face the issue of inadequate reliable data for reaching at authentic research result. Furthermore, lack of well conducted previous research study can hampered the collection of critical information in the literature review section. In this way, the research may have lack of detailed information about research topic. Apart from that, the research study has also faced the issue of budget limitation. Moreover, it may not be possible to collect authentic and accurate research information due to lack of access to more authentic secondary source of information. It can ultimately hamper the overall quality of research output.

Successful completion of research study is completely dependent on ethical compliance during data collection process. Hence, this research study must be adhered with proper ethical compliances for completing the research study successfully. Moreover, it will be ensured that the participants in the data collection process would not be forced by any way to participate in the research study. The participant can also quit their name from the process even after enlisting their name in the data collection process. The willingness to participate in the process will completely be dependent on the participants. It should be ensured that the participants are not influenced by any way to take participation in the process (Isaacs, 2014). Apart from that, it would also be ensured that no unethical activity will be performed during collection of data from the participants. The participants would be allowed to provide the information from their own opinions. Moreover, the participants will not be influenced by any means to answer the questions in the survey process.

Most importantly, it would also be ensured that the data collected from the participants would be protected from unethical access. The collected data should be used for only personal purpose and not for any commercial purpose. The data collected from the participants can be extremely sensitive for the participants as well as the concerned organization. Hence, the data should always be protected through maintaining the data protection act. The viewpoints of the senior level managers should also be shared with the survey respondents like middle level managers of the organization for getting authentic information

While summarizing the research proposal, it has been found that the aim of the research study is to investigate the leadership effectiveness of Nature Landscape. Moreover, objective of the study is to explore social and circumstantial factors associated with leadership. The study is also aimed at assessing the impact of leadership on the staffs and organizational behaviors and their joint effort in Nature Landscape. The objective of the study is also linked with providing suitable recommendations to the organizations for improving their leadership effectiveness. The key argument of the literature review has revealed that leadership effectiveness is not only dependent on the traits of the leaders, but also it is dependent on the external and internal environment and behaviors of the staffs and other organizational resources. Moreover, from the literature review, it is clear that the group member characteristics and leadership style have huge impact on the effectiveness of the leadership.

In order to understand the leadership effectiveness of Nature Landscape, it is extremely important to assess their external and internal environment, leadership style, group member characteristic. Hence, the conclusion of literature review has directed the researcher to conduct primary research for collecting direct and first hand data from the leaders of the organization.

Table 1: Key Themes in Literature Review

(Source: Created by Author)

References

Aabdeen, Z., Khan, M. N., Khan, H. G., Farooq, H. Q., Salman, M., & Rizwan, M. (2016). The Impact of Ethical Leadership, Leadership Effectiveness, Work Related Stress and Turnover Intention on the Organizational Commitment. International Journal of Economics and Business Administration, 2(2), 7-14.

Ardestani, A. S., Asiabar, A. S., Azar, F. E., & Abtahi, S. A. (2016). The relationship between hospital managers’ leadership style and effectiveness with passing managerial training courses. Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 30, 465.

Banks, G. C., McCauley, K. D., Gardner, W. L., & Guler, C. E. (2016). A meta-analytic review of authentic and transformational leadership: A test for redundancy. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(4), 634-652.

Bergner, S., Davda, A., Culpin, V., & Rybnicek, R. (2016). Who Overrates, Who Underrates? Personality and Its Link to Self–Other Agreement of Leadership Effectiveness. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 23(3), 335-354.

Carpenter, B. W., Diem, S., & Young, M. D. (2014). The influence of values and policy vocabularies on understandings of leadership effectiveness. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 27(9), 1110-1133.

Choudhary, N., Kumar, R., & Philip, P. (2015). Leadership effectiveness, organizational citizenship behavior and task performance: the role of job characteristics at the work place. International Journal of Applied Business and Ecomomic Research, 13(5), 3433-3448.

Choy, L. T. (2014). The strengths and weaknesses of research methodology: Comparison and complimentary between qualitative and quantitative approaches. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(4), 99-104.

Colbert, A. E., Barrick, M. R., & Bradley, B. H. (2014). Personality and leadership composition in top management teams: Implications for organizational effectiveness. Personnel Psychology, 67(2), 351-387.

Dabke, D. (2016). Impact of leader’s emotional intelligence and transformational behavior on perceived leadership effectiveness: A multiple source view. Business Perspectives and Research, 4(1), 27-40.

Day, D. V., Fleenor, J. W., Atwater, L. E., Sturm, R. E., & McKee, R. A. (2014). Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25 years of research and theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 63-82.

Dumay, J., & Cai, L. (2015). Using content analysis as a research methodology for investigating intellectual capital disclosure: a critique. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 16(1), 121-155.

Edelman, P. J., & van Knippenberg, D. (2017). Training leader emotion regulation and leadership effectiveness. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(6), 747-757.

Emuwa, A., & Fields, D. (2017). Authentic leadership as a contemporary leadership model applied in Nigeria. African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, 8(3), 296-313.

Fan, K. T., Chen, Y. H., Wang, C. W., & Chen, M. (2014). E-leadership effectiveness in virtual teams: Motivating language perspective. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 114(3), 421-437.

Fletcher, A. J. (2017). Applying critical realism in qualitative research: methodology meets method. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(2), 181-194.

Frackenpohl, G., Hillenbrand, A., & Kube, S. (2016). Leadership effectiveness and institutional frames. Experimental Economics, 19(4), 842-863.

Guest, G., Namey, E., Taylor, J., Eley, N., & McKenna, K. (2017). Comparing focus groups and individual interviews: findings from a randomized study. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(6), 693-708.

Hallinger, P., & Truong, D. T. (2014). Exploring the contours of context and leadership effectiveness in Vietnam. Leading and Managing, 20(2), 43.

Ham, S. H., Duyar, I., & Gumus, S. (2015). Agreement of self-other perceptions matters: Analyzing the effectiveness of principal leadership through multi-source assessment. Australian Journal of Education, 59(3), 225-246.

Hassan, S., Prussia, G., Mahsud, R., & Yukl, G. (2018). How leader networking, external monitoring, and representing are relevant for effective leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 39(4), 454-467.

Hopkins, W. E., & Scott, S. G. (2016). Values-based leadership effectiveness in culturally diverse workplaces. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 23(2), 363-385.

Isaacs, A. N. (2014). An overview of qualitative research methodology for public health researchers. International Journal of Medicine and Public Health, 4(4).

Kamali, A., Jayashree, P., & Lindsay, V. (2015). Leadership Development Programs: Investigating the impact of contextual and cultural factors on LDP effectiveness in United Arab Emirates. International journal of management and applied research, 2(4), 172-186.

King, K. A., & Mackey, A. (2016). Research methodology in second language studies: Trends, concerns, and new directions. The Modern Language Journal, 100(S1), 209-227.

Ko, H. C. (2015). Cross-cultural leadership effectiveness: Perspectives from non-western leaders. Management and Organizational Studies, 2(4), 1.

Lam, C. K., Huang, X., & Chan, S. C. (2015). The threshold effect of participative leadership and the role of leader information sharing. Academy of Management Journal, 58(3), 836-855.

Lanaj, K., & Hollenbeck, J. R. (2015). Leadership over-emergence in self-managing teams: The role of gender and countervailing biases. Academy of Management Journal, 58(5), 1476-1494.

Le Fevre, D. M., & Robinson, V. M. (2015). The interpersonal challenges of instructional leadership: Principals’ effectiveness in conversations about performance issues. Educational Administration Quarterly, 51(1), 58-95.

Lewis, S. (2015). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), 473-475.

Lituchy, T. R., Metwally, E. K., & Henderson, C. A. (2017). Views on Effective Leadership from Insiders and Outsiders. AIB Insights, 17(1), 19.

MacKie, D. (2014). The effectiveness of strength-based executive coaching in enhancing full range leadership development: A controlled study. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 66(2), 118.

Madanchian, M., Hussein, N., Noordin, F., & Taherdoost, H. (2017). Leadership Effectiveness Measurement and Its Effect on Organization Outcomes. Procedia Engineering, 181, 1043-1048.

McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117.

McCusker, K., & Gunaydin, S. (2015). Research using qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods and choice based on the research. Perfusion, 30(7), 537-542.

McGowan, E., & Stokes, E. (2015). Physiotherapy managers’ perceptions of their leadership effectiveness: a multi-frame analysis. Physiotherapy, 101, e979-e980.

Nature Landscapes. (2018). Retrieved from https://naturelandscapes.com/

Osman-Gani, A. M., Anwar, M. A., & Hamid, Z. A. (2017). Impacts Of Emotional Intelligence And Spiritual Intelligence On Leadership Effectiveness Mediated By Personal Values: A Conceptual Framework. Journal of Islamic Management Studies, 1(1), 43-53.

Parr, A. D., Lanza, S. T., & Bernthal, P. (2016). Personality profiles of effective leadership performance in assessment centers. Human performance, 29(2), 143-157.

Paustian-Underdahl, S. C., Walker, L. S., & Woehr, D. J. (2014). Gender and perceptions of leadership effectiveness: A meta-analysis of contextual moderators. Journal of applied psychology, 99(6), 1129.

Ramchunder, Y., & Martins, N. (2014). The role of self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and leadership style as attributes of leadership effectiveness. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 40(1), 01-11.

Rowold, J., Borgmann, L., & Bormann, K. (2014). Which leadership constructs are important for predicting job satisfaction, affective commitment, and perceived job performance in profit versus nonprofit organizations?. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 25(2), 147-164.

Ruiz, C. E., Hamlin, R. G., & Carioni, A. (2016). Behavioural determinants of perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness in Argentina. Human Resource Development International, 19(4), 267-288.

Santos, J. P., Caetano, A., & Tavares, S. M. (2015). Is training leaders in functional leadership a useful tool for improving the performance of leadership functions and team effectiveness?. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(3), 470-484.

Sessler, D. I., & Imrey, P. B. (2015). Clinical research methodology 2: observational clinical research. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 121(4), 1043-1051.

Sharma, S. (2014). Theory & Relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Leadership Styles and Leadership Effectiveness. International Journal of Education and Science Research Review, 1(5), 104-107.

Stelmokien?, A., & Endriulaitien?, A. (2015). Leader’s performance appraisal: is the variety of leadership theories necessary?. Management of Organizations: Systematic Research, (68), 109-122.

Torres, L. E., Ruiz, C. E., Hamlin, B., & Velez-Calle, A. (2015). Perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness in Colombia. European Journal of Training and Development, 39(3), 203-219.

Vakilbashi, A., Alhumaikani, A. T., Zamil, N. A. M., & Mokhber, M. (2017). The Impact of Integrity on Leadership Effectiveness. Advanced Science Letters, 23(9), 9334-9336.

Wang, D., Waldman, D. A., & Zhang, Z. (2014). A meta-analysis of shared leadership and team effectiveness. Journal of applied psychology, 99(2), 181.

Wasylkiw, L., Holton, J., Azar, R., & Cook, W. (2015). The impact of mindfulness on leadership effectiveness in a health care setting: a pilot study. Journal of health organization and management, 29(7), 893-911.