Impact of value-based transformational leadership in privatizing government institutions in a developing economy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the kind of leadership that could infect positive changes in the work environments of government research organizations undergoing privatization in most developing countries in order to enhance the commercialisation of their production activities. An interpretive analytic framework was used as an appropriate platform to build a qualitative design. Qualitative data was collected through taped-recorded interviews with seventeen senior staff members identified as key actors in the organization's privatization processes, and analysed using an interpretive description qualitative approach. The results showed that the organization's managers used charismatic and values-based leadership approaches during the transition period of commercialisation process and was viewed by their subordinates as leaders who were true to their own values and who also went on to help those they led to articulate what they valued. It was concluded that an amalgamation of transformational and value-based styles of leadership approach could be used by managers of government agencies in most developing countries to infect positive changes in their work environments when managing the privatization of their organizations. The study has shown that value-based transformational leadership could be used by managers of challenged government research and development organizations in most developed countries to infect positive changes in their work environments and which could help facilitate their efforts towards the privatization of their organizations' activities. Introduction The privatization of public sector enterprises in most developing countries has been a recurrent theme on the international development agenda since the early 1980s. Assistance for this purpose from international aid agencies has been cautious, placing priority first on supporting stabilization programmes and improving existing operational efficiencies. Assistance has also taken the form of technical and financial support for institutional strengthening, enhancing autonomy, and price reforms. The consequence of this was that most governments in the developing countries were compelled by institutions such as the World Bank and other international donor agencies to pull back from their roles as the redistributors of income. This development led to key aspects of the economies of most developing countries being reformed to align with the free and competitive market economy paradigm. In this regard the concept of enterprise was promoted in these developing economies and these were marked by the privatisation and deregulation of government agencies (Davis, 2000). The privatization of the government agencies was expected to give them corporate identities with which they could operate as profit-making entities, cutting their dependence on government subsidies. This was based on the argument that by operating as private enterprises, government agencies could have improvements in their production processes which could project them toward greater productivity, better growth and increased profit