Transformational Leadership and Its Predictive Effects on Leadership Effectiveness
Amir Sadeghi, Zaidatol Akmaliah Lope Pihie

Abstract
Academic departments play an important role in the success of institutions of higher education and success of departments directly depends on effectiveness of their head. This study is an attempt to determine heads of academic departments’ leadership styles and its relationship with leadership effectiveness at Malaysian Research Universities (RUs). Using Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5x (MLQ), the study employed 298 lecturers of three Malaysian RUs. Results indicated that lecturers perceived the heads of departments exhibited combination of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles. The result of regression analysis demonstrated that contingent reward, idealized influence (attribute), inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, laissez-faire, intellectual stimulation, and management-by-exception active are significant predictors of leadership effectiveness. These factors accounted for 82% of the variance in leadership effectiveness. In addition, the results suggest that contingent reward has important effects on leadership effectiveness. The implications of the research findings are discussed.

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