Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review

The objective of this review paper is just to shade light on the major components of transformational leadership. Now days the working environments of organizations are characterized by continuous change, fluctuation, higher level of turbulence, increased volatility and uncertainty and global competition. In the future too, organizations keep on facing global challenges. The challenge of the present generation is more than that of the previous. This all demands new leadership style and that is transformational leadership. Based on ranges of existing literatures “Transformational leadership is a type of leadership style where by the leader identifies the needed change, creates a vision to guide the change and executes the change”. Transformational leadership describes a process of positive influence that changes and transforms individuals, organizations, and communities and is charismatic, visionary, and inspiring. Transformational leaders inspire, motivate and stimulate followers to achieve extraordinary results. Transformational leaders seek to transform or change the basic values, beliefs, and attitudes of followers so that they are willing to perform beyond the minimum levels specified by the organization. Transformational leader is the leader that possesses and makes use of four leadership characteristics and known for and changing things in a big way. First, transformational leaders tends to be idealized influence where by leaders tends to be role models for the followers and they are admired and respected by the followers because of high standards of ethics demonstrated by the leaders. Secondly transformational leaders tend to be intellectual stimulation which means they stimulate and encourage creativity and innovation. The third one is inspirational motivation and it is about inspiring and motivating the followers through providing meaning and challenge to the followers work. The fourth one is individualized consideration in which leaders pay special attention to individual differences, needs for achievement and growth and treat them accordingly with respect. The leaders are acting as coach and mentor. Transformational leaders effectively build on these characteristics and integrate principles from a variety of leadership theories. Transformational leadership style makes use of any one or more of the four core components to enhance performance and accomplishment and achieve superior results. The more the leadership approaches encompasses more components, the more is the result. Therefore, having more of or the combination of all the components helps to get exceeding outcomes.

The conducted research is of great importance for GCC countries as it focuses on the annual rates of change for the gross national expenditure, the gross domestic product (GDP), and oil prices (dollars per barrel). These three variables are linked by a long-term equilibrium relationship in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar, no for the other countries, using the appropriate technique (ARDL/Bounds Testing methodology). The error correction model (ECM) showed the availability of high speed of adjustment to modify the deviation and return to equilibrium after a certain shock in the relevant chains. In the long term, a decrease of 1 unit in the annual growth of oil barrel prices will lead to an increase in the annual growth of the national expenditure by (0.195) units in Saudi Arabia and (0.46) units in Qatar. For the rest of the GCC countries, we were able to model the relationship between the three variables through the traditional form of the ARDL model. Our results show that the flexibility of the national expenditure in the short term, according to an increase of 1 unit in the annual growth of oil barrel prices, will be negative in both Oman and Bahrain, by -0.373 and -0.198 units respectively, and positive in Kuwait (0.162) unit. In the UAE, there is no direct impact of the annual growth of barrel oil prices, but it is lagged two years. An annual increase of 1 unit in the GDP will have a positive impact on the gross national expenditure in all GCC countries, as is the case in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar and through the long-run equilibrium equation, 1.102 and 1.1225 units respectively. While, in the short term, it will be 0.762 in the UAE, 1.05 in Oman, and 1.133 units in Bahrain. In Kuwait, there is no direct effect of the GDP annual increase, but it is lagged one year. Also, we were able to calculate the multiplier, in the long term, for an increase in each of the annual GDP growth and the oil barrel prices, in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.

This study examined the effects of organizational learning on competitive advantage of selected telecommunication firms in Nigeria. The study used cross-sectional descriptive research design to determine the effect of organizational learning on competitive advantage of selected telecommunication firms in Nigeria. Both primary and secondary data were collected for this study. The population of study is the entire telecommunication firms in Nigeria, but the sample size was drawn from MTN and Globacom Nigeria, Lagos offices which resulted in 267 elements drawn scientifically using Taro Yamane formula. Data used for analysis was on 193 returned questionnaire designed on a 5-point Likert scale rating used to sample respondents opinion. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data which consist of frequency distribution, arithmetic mean, standard deviation and simple ratio. Regression model was used to test the hypotheses. The result revealed that organizational learning and knowledge sharing has a positive and statistically significant effect on competitive advantage and innovativeness respectively. The study recommends that managers/management of organization should develop internal capacity to work towards superior performance that leads to competitiveness by embracing organizational learning.