Situational leadership style as a predictor of success and productivity among Taiwanese business organizations

The present study was an evaluation of the impact of Taiwanese leadership s tyles on the productivity of Taiwanese business organizations. Specifically , it looked at the impact that both adaptive and nonadaptive leaders have o n 6 measures of productivity: absenteeism, turnover rate, quality of work, reject rates, profitability, and units produced. The results indicated that the greater the level of adaptability, the more productive the organizatio n is likely to be. Although not all of the computed correlations were stati stically significant, they were all in the predicted directions. In particu lar the findings for units produced and reject rates were consistently stat istically significant. The study was also an examination of the usefulness of the Leadership Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD) questio nnaire (P. Hersey & K. Blanchard, 1988), which appeared to be an accurate p redictor of adaptability and valid for use in Taiwan. The final part of thi s study was an investigation of whether successful companies were more like ly to have a greater percentage of adaptive leaders than unsuccessful compa nies. The data supported this expectation, although it is suggested that ca ution be used in the interpretation of this particular finding because it c ould have several different explanations. Overall, the evidence supported t he value of adaptive leadership styles in high-technology industries in Tai wan.