Abstract:

As a result of economic and social growth in the Arab Gulf, there has been a growing tendency towards enhancing the status of the English language as a means of connecting these countries to the rest of the world. Therefore, educational institutions are recruiting more staff from English speaking countries as well as other Arab countries in universities in the area. Staff members in these institutions, and more specifically in ELT departments, tend to constitute a heterogeneous group with respect to their educational leadership and management backgrounds with native speakers of English mostly taking the role of leaders in these departments recently. The diverse Eastern and Western leadership behaviors that manifest themselves in these institutions when trying to promote English as the means of communication may impact the interaction between level supervisors in ELT department and associates who work above or under them either negatively or positively. An analysis of leadership behaviors could be considered as a first step towards a fuller understanding of communication styles and a means of overcoming possible hindrances that may interfere with intercultural communication.
This study uses Bass and Avolio’s Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to analyze the leadership styles of level supervisors at a University in Qatar starting with transformational or visionary leadership, moving on to the transactional leadership and ending with laissez-faire or no leadership style. Quantitative and qualitative data were used to investigate the impact of these styles on the subordinates’ performance, satisfaction and effectiveness.

Keywords:

Leadership Styles, Transformational Leadership, MLQ (Multifacttor Leadership Questionnaire).