A research on top managers’ leadership styles’ effect on applying strategic plans in public universities

According to the Law of Public Fiscal Management and Control, item 5018, all public sector organizations and municipalities have to prepare a strategic plan. However, in all plans and projects, success depends on the attitudes of the leader. This critical success factor constitutes greater importance in public universities. Although the strategic plan designed in the most effective frame; the role of the leader cannot and should not be ignored. In this sense, the leadership style of the leader/manager has an important effect.The purpose of this study is to measure the perception of both academic and administrative personnel, about the strategic planning in their institution and their perception about the role of the leader in the process of strategic planning. In the frame of the research, academic and administrative personnel of state universities in the city of Bursa, Turkey, are taken as population. A survey that consists of demographical questions and two scales, measuring Leadership Styles Perception and Strategic Planning Perception, are applied. The surveys are analyzed by using SPSS 20.0 package program. According to the results, Transformational Leadership Style has an increasing effect on Strategic Productivity. There is also a statistically significant effect of Autocratic and Transformational Leadership Styles on Strategic Effectiveness. On the other hand, there is not a statistically significant relationship between Democratic Leadership and Strategic Effectiveness. While Autocratic Style causes a decrease in Strategic Effectiveness, Transformational Leadership Style has an increasing effect on Strategic Effectiveness. In addition to this, there is a statistically significant effect of Autocratic and Transformational Leadership Styles on Strategic Effectiveness.