Leadership Styles and Performance of Public Sector Organizations: The Case of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In Saudi Arabia, public organizations have been associated with poor management andperformance. Little is understood about the reasons for such poor performance. Skilledand trained leaders are required to sustain the performance of these organizations.This paper focuses on the effect of leadership styles on the performance of Saudi Arabiapublic organizations. Cross-sectional data of 400 employees working in 16 ministriesunder the Saudi Arabia Government were obtained. The validity and reliability ofthe measurement and structural model were tested. Partial Least Squares StructuralEquation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test the study hypotheses. The result ofPLS-SEM analysis indicated a significant effect of leadership style on the organizationalperformance at the 0.01 level of significance. Leadership styles play a critical role inimproving organizational performance in Saudi Arabian public organizations. Futureresearch is recommended to explore further the predictors affecting the performanceof public organizations in Saudi Arabia.