Leadership Competences 1 Running Head: LEADERSHIP COMPETENCES DURING ECONOMIC DOWNTURNS

Leadership Competences during Economic Downturns

Leadership Competences 2 Table of Content

Leadership Competences 3 Chapter One: Introduction

Introduction This sequential explanatory, mixed-method research will investigate the impact of the core leadership competencies of leaders, if any, from small businesses organizations located in South Florida that showed economic growth during and after the downturn experienced in the U.S. economy between 2007 and 2009. The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy [SBAOA] (2005), reported that small businesses represented 99.0% of the state of Floridas employers in 2006 (426,073) and 44% of the private-sector employment. In another report presented to the President of the United States, the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy [SBAOA] (2009) described that small businesses in general were struggling to face the economic downturn due to challenges such as access to capital, the cost and availability of health insurance, the ability to attract and retain talent, global competition and the ability to find new markets and opportunities, government contracting and procurement, and taxes and regulations. This mixed method study will analyze two separate data sets. The first data set will be an analysis and interpretation of quantitative data responses collected through Bass's MLQ on fifty business owners from small businesses in South Florida district from a population of fifty (50) small business owners and CEOs registered with the South Florida District of the Small Business Administration using the Basss Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. The second data set will be an analysis and interpretation of responses to open-ended interview questions of qualitative data using open-ended interview questions.

Leadership Competences 4 Chapter 1 will include a brief discussion that introduces the topic of research, presents background information of the problem and states the problem and the purpose of the study. Along with these sections, this chapter will examine the significance of the study to leaders and the research method and design. Other sections will cover the theoretical framework, assumptions, scope, limitations and delimitations and a summary that will finalize the chapter.

Background of the Problem Despite the fact that small businesses represent 99.7% of all employer firms, employ nearly half of all private sector employees, and make up a large portion of firms in key sectors such as manufacturing, construction, restaurants, home building, and retail, as reported by the House Small Business Committee (2008), the studies, surveys and reports found in current literature offer no significant explanation and description about the type of core leadership competencies needed from leaders managing small business enterprises that could help these organizations to survive through economic downturns. History has shown that, when facing economic downturns, most organizations choose downsizing as a short-term tactic to compete within the new market conditions, especially during downturns. As result of a survey, Stiles Associates (2009) reported that 42% of firms anticipating 10%+ sales declines in the first half of 2009 planned and reduced staff. Downsizing affects large, mid, and small businesses because it usually leads to low employee confidence and morale, and managers tend to lose their focus and credibility among surviving employees which causes detrimental results in organizations performance (Travaglione & Cross, 2006). Appelbaum, Close and Klasa (1999) argued that

Leadership Competences 5 surviving employees may have difficulty in adapting to the new organizational environment set by the leadership during downturns. In this respect, another survey among leaders and managers showed that only 4% of the leaders of the organizations performed at the most capable level in regard to the leadership competencies needed to develop and implement new strategies to overcome the challenges in employee development during the post-downsizing conditions (Schettler, 2002). Different schools of thought suggest that during economic changes leaders can affect the economic results of their organizations due to their individual wisdom (or lack thereof) or attributes to finding new growth opportunities and strategies. For instance, Fraser (2007) argued that leadership can be consumed by the business challenges faced during a downturn and fail to leverage the highest strategic value using design methods to understand customers' experiences, satisfaction and connections to transform business models. These design methods may include tools and techniques to visualize product concepts, develop multiple proto-types or improve business processes. Rogoff, Lee, and Suh (2004), discussed about the attribution theory and the bias created among business owners in identifying success or failure factors. These factors tend to differ for those leaders from small business organizations whose behavior is analyzed. In another survey, Hewitt Associates (2007) showed that 85% of the global top companies had clear guidelines for leadership behavior and were able to apply leadership competencies models (79%) to overcome challenges and deliver long-term sustainability in comparison to only 37% among other companies such as small businesses. Even more, these companies showed considerably more alignment in regard to their company-wide business strategies than the other companies (84% vs. 53%). However, despite the

Leadership Competences 6 challenging economic environment during 2008 and 2009, small businesses organizations maintained their share as the major employment force in the U.S. economy (Headd and Kirchhoff, 2009). The literature provides little evidence about leadership models that can help small business executives to establish a framework or an approach to successfully manage their organizations during economic challenges. Sparks and Gentry (2008) argued that alternative mechanisms to enhance leadership capabilities were still under debate, especially for small businesses executives, and suggested that additional measurement tools to evaluate leadership competencies were needed in todays business environment. Likewise, Buchen (2005) argued that current studies in leadership should discuss the emergence of a new hybrid: the manager as a leader to understand what are the key competencies of the leaders and establish customized programs that can help to identify emerging leadership roles (p. 21). Traditional studies provide different leadership theories to identify leadership values among successful organizations. However these studies have failed to fully explain these values among leaders from small business organizations. Appelbaum et al. (1999) argued that business leaders must have certain values and be value-based to lead the emotionally damaged workforce who rather than being thankful, tend to show low morale and disruptive behaviors during economic downturns (p. 428). In dealing with issues such as low morale among the employees that the companies decide to keep, Svyantek (2003) recognized that little evidence was available to support which model could help to improve the leadership skill set of small business leaders and owners during economic downturns. Most studies publicly known have been prepared using data from top 500 fortune

Leadership Competences 7 companies to demonstrate the importance of leadership competencies and have been shared in business schools and among local small business associations.

Statement of the Problem Large organizations use internal leadership competency models usually developed after years of extensive analysis of the leaders strategic response to complex challenges. These models vary according the size of the organization, increasing their probability of survival and growth during economic downturns (Latham, 2009; Schettler, 2002). There is a dearth of leadership competency models for small business organizations (SBO) available in the academic and business literature on sustaining businesses during a downturn. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, which includes nine counties, reported an 80% increase in business bankruptcy filings in 2008, of which 70% were small businesses (U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of Florida, 2010). This sequential explanatory, mixed-method research will investigate and determine the impact, if any, of the core leadership competencies exhibited by CEO's and business owners on the economic growth of their organizations. First, this research will survey CEOs and business owners from small businesses organizations located in South Florida that actually went through economic growth during and after the downturn experienced in the U.S. economy between 2007 and 2009. The survey instrument will be the Basss Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to understand which behaviors are relevant to the underlying manifestations and the construction of specific competencies predicting success among these leaders (Boyatzis, 2007).

Leadership Competences 8 The criteria for growth will include such data as profitability ratio, increase in sales, and growth in number of employees. Following, this study will use open-ended interview questions to collect and analyze qualitative data from these CEOs and business owners. The insights provided by this research may help leaders of small businesses organizations develop alternative leadership competency models that they can adopt to address the challenges faced by their organizations during economic downturns.

Leadership and Adaptive Work Why do we even need a concept of leadership when so many phenomena in politics and organizations can be analyzed purely in terms of formal and informal authority relationships, power and influence dynamics, and the application of authoritative systems and expertise in solving collective problems (i.e., management)? Why clutter our vocabulary with another word? The answer lies in the type of situation people face, the kind of problem or challenge. Most problem situations do not call for leadership. Authoritative systems are sufficient. For example, early in my career I ran emergency rooms as a young doctor, and every day we saved lives by doing our jobs well. My job coordinating the team's emergency response did not require leadership on my part; it required the expert know-how for which I had been sufficiently trained by my elders. Some situations, however, outstrip any expertise. Not amenable to authoritative know-how, these are the situations that call for leadership. Again, authority relationships consist of social contracts in which power is entrusted for services. Formal authority consists of the powers formally conferred through

Leadership Competences 9 institutional procedures to provide specific services, and informal authority consists of the power informally conferred by citizens, constituents, customers, or stakeholders to provide services that are often left implicit. This basic structure of authority relationships serves as the backbone of organized societies and goes back in evolutionary history even before people. We see these structures of authority in animal societies in which dominant individuals serve the basic functions of (a) direction each day for food, (b) protection each day from predators and other dangers, and (c) the maintenance of order every day by orienting members to their places and roles, by resolving conflicts when they break out, and by reinforcing social norms whenever transgressions occur. These structures of social organization based upon authority relationships work elegantly and efficiently for most problems human beings face, like those I faced routinely in the hospital emergency room. Doctors diagnose the problem and prescribe treatment and the patient takes his or her medicine and gets well. Indeed, if we lived in a world that remained stable, with only very slow changes in our environment, our structures and application of authority and deference might be completely sufficient. As has been the case for millions of years among our human and primate ancestors, they would keep us thriving for many generations. For example, take a gorilla society. For hundreds of generations, gorilla societies have thrived within a fairly stable ecosystem. Every day the members of each band would look to their silverback gorilla to provide direction for food, protection from leopards and other predators, and maintain social order. They looked to their silverhaired elder because he had the experience and expertise to serve the needs of the group. And for generations, he, his ancestors, and the silverbacks who took over for him when he

Leadership Competences 10 grew too old knew what to do to provide the essential services of direction, protection, and order. The group looked to him to know the way. But what happened when his group met up with a new kind of danger? What happens when the ecosystem changes and, for example, rather than meet up with a leopard for which clustering as a defense works very well, the group meets up with a man carrying a machine gun? When the situation places adaptive pressures on the community, the default response is to do the tried and true: Look to authorities to know what to do. But authorities do not always know what to do. So then what? Most species, societies, and businesses go extinct. And this takes us to the heart of leadership. How can individuals or groups of individuals take action to mobilize adaptive work in their communities so that they can thrive in a changing and challenging world? We anchor a conception of leadership in that question because the unit of analysis we have found most useful for the real-world practice of leadership is adaptive work, or actions that generate progress in meeting adaptive challenges so an organization or society can thrive. Organizational and political activity become leadership only when people take action mobilizing others to tackle tough, collective problems; get work done; and generate adaptive solutions (Heifetz, 1994; Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009; Heifetz & Linsky, 2002; Heifetz & Sinder, 1988; Williams, 2005). In contrast, management can be understood as the activity of coordinating complex systems in the efficient production of solutions to routine or technical problems.

Leadership Competences 11 The concept of thriving is a metaphor drawn from the concept of adaptation in evolutionary biology in which a successful adaptation accomplishes three tasks (Kirschner & Gerhart, 2005; Mayr, 1988): It preserves essential DNAthe accumulated wisdom of generations It rearranges, re-regulates, or discards the DNA that no longer serves the current need It innovates to develop capacity that enables the organism to thrive in new ways and in challenging environments A successful adaptation enables a living system to take the best from its history into the future. It is conservative and progressive. Anchoring a conception of leadership in the work of progressresolving contradictions within our cultural DNA to clarify the values in thriving or between our cultural DNA and the demands of our environment to realize those valuesenables us to view authority and various forms of power as a set of tools, resources, and constraints, rather than as ends. They do not define leadership, though they are often central to its practice. By distinguishing leadership from authority, and thereby uncoupling them, we can then analyze what we commonly observe: that people leadthat is, mobilize progress on challenges demanding new adaptations for the social system to thriveboth with and without authority at the same time. Moreover, the various forms of power, from coercive to inspirational, remain useful in various contexts in the practice of leadership. What matters in determining whether leadership is being practiced are the kinds of situations one

Leadership Competences 12 confrontstechnical, adaptive, or a combination of the twoand how one assesses and takes action to serve the needs of the situation at hand. The practical benefits of these distinctions are profound. Here are three. First, distinguishing leadership from authority enables us to engage in the critically important work in our age of distrust of recovering our capacity for authorityto renew our ability to form relationships of power and trust. 3 The reduction of trust in authorities, in both public and private sectors, is not only a crucial problem to be solved but also one that can be better understood by analyzing the constrained and sometimes corrupted behavior of authorities and sometimes the corrupting expectations placed on their shoulders by citizens and stakeholders. Authorities have too often violated the trust they are given. It does not take many experiences of personal, familial, political, or ethnic violations of trust by authorities to make people wary. Analyzing the dysfunctions of our current, implicit social contracts can be done more readily when we can analyze the relationship between those who authorize (e.g., citizens, customers, and stakeholders) and those who gain authority (e.g., public officials and business executives) and then account for and repair trust. Second, these distinctions enable us to analyze not only the resources but also the constraints of formal and informal authority on the practice of leadership itself and to examine why so many people with authority do not exercise leadership. We can begin to answer questions such as the following: Why do authorities routinely squander their power and popularity and fail to meet the tough challenges? Why do they often trade off the longterm for the short-term or sometimes make the opposite mistake of going for too much too soon? What role do citizens, stakeholders, and customers play in the failures of their authorities to lead? What strategies of leadership can we provide to help people lead from

Leadership Competences 13 their positions of authority, in spite of the expectations of their various publics and constituents for easy answers? How would people leading from positions of authority reshape the expectations of constituents away from expecting quick-fix technical solutions from on high, to staying in a longer-term game of experimentation, loss, discovery, and distributed responsibility for owning the problem and doing the change work needed more widely in the system?

Purpose of the Study The purpose of this sequential explanatory, mixed-method research will be to investigate and determine the impact, if any, of the core leadership competencies (independent variable) exhibited by CEO's and business owners on the economic growth (dependent variable) of their organizations. First, this study will explore quantitative data collected by administering the Basss Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to small businesses organizations located in South Florida that actually went through economic growth during and after the downturn experienced in the U.S. economy between 2007 and 2009. The specific population will be fifty (50) CEOs and business owners from small business organizations registered with the South Florida District of the Small Business Administration which meet the above-mentioned criteria for growth. In the second phase of this study, the researcher will seek a more in-depth perspective to refine and explain the initial quantitative data by exploring the point of views of ten (10) randomly selected CEOs

Leadership Competences 14 and business owners using open-ended interview questions within the specific population (Creswell, 2005). The researcher will integrate the study findings through a single discussion section to determine the impact, if any, of the common core leadership competencies of these leaders in small businesses growth during and after the downturn experienced in the U.S. economy between 2007 and 2009. This study might contribute to the knowledge base of leaders of small businesses, who may be able to apply these insights in their business strategy, resulting in a potential reduction the number of small businesses closings in the South Florida area, and provide empirical evidence of the core leadership competencies that can assist current and new leaders of small-size enterprises in managing their organizations through economic downturns.

Significance of the Problem Significance of the study The findings of this study will assist researchers to gain better understanding of the impact of the leadership competences from leaders of small business organizations. Sparks and Gentry (2008) recognized the importance of the leadership competencies and studied top executives and the leadership competencies needed to succeed across several industries, especially during economic downturn. This research will attempt to provide additional research and in-depth examination of the leadership competencies used by successful small business organizations in the South Florida District of the Small Business Administration. Additionally, the conclusions of this study may assist new small business owners to evaluate their individual skill set to survive after turbulent economic periods in the current

Leadership Competences 15 business environment. Finally, this mixed-method research may also help to develop evaluation tools and instructional programs for current and future executives of small business enterprises, owners and advocates.

Significance of the study to leadership To reinforce the importance of this study, it is relevant to establish the difference between leadership and management. Fieldeldey-Van Dijk and Freedman (2007) discussed that leadership sets the vision and the direction of a group and engage them in accomplishing goals and objectives while management was all about controlling, directing and implementing that vision. This study will provide an exploration into the leadership competencies related to small business success in the South Florida area and will contribute to the body of knowledge in regard to small business leadership and the potential effects of transformational leadership in small business organizations. This study might also contribute with thoughts for scholarly analysis on future researches about small business leaders, leadership development and behaviors in small business organizations and may fill a gap in the literature in regard to the differences between the core leadership competences needed for top companies leaders and small business owners and leaders. Finally, the study of core leadership competencies from successful small business leaders and owners might contribute to better understand how small businesses organizations can ensure longterm sustainability during an economic recession.

Nature of the Study

Leadership Competences 16 The research methodology for this study will be a sequential explanatory mixedmethod. This study will survey and interview leaders of small business organizations about the core leadership competencies they perceive have contributed to give a successful direction to their organizations. The study will explore leadership competencies as predictor of business success and as support for maintaining companys sustainability during economic downturns.

Overview of the research method This study will use a sequential explanatory mixed methods research design. Creswell (2005) indicated that this procedure collects quantitative data to explore and obtain a general picture of the a phenomenon in the first place and second, collects qualitative data to refine, explain or elaborate potential relationships and determine aspects of the quantitative results that may require further in-depth exploration (p. 516). The sequential approach of this method will assist to identify potential leadership competencies from the small business leaders in the first set of data as broad assessment, and seek to interpret, clarify, describe or validate the quantitative results with the qualitative data in the second phase (Johnson, Onwuegbuzie & Turner, 2007).

Overview of the design appropriateness Brannen (2005) stated that mixed methods research could contribute to bring the attention away from theoretical work related to specific fields of study. According to Creswell (2005), the combination of qualitative and quantitative data used in mixed methods research designs might provide a better understanding of the phenomena rather

Leadership Competences 17 than using only one type of data. A case study method was considered to accomplish the goals of this study. However, based on Cooper and Schindler (2003) case study designs provide a contextual analysis of few events and conditions. This design method would provide limited insights and information about the small business organizations. Creswell (2005) argued that a phenomenological research applied for studies where variables were unknown and the literature provided little information about the topic. In this type of study, he researcher can learn more through the exploration of the data collected from the participants. The researcher can explore the phenomenon and justify the need for the study using the direction provided in the literature review (p. 46). Similarly, Neuman (2003) stated that qualitative studies help authors to organize and analyze the transcripts and field notes taken during the interviews. A quantitative design could help to measure and determine variables and relationships about the specific financial data to determine growth figures. Creswell (2005) explained that quantitative data involved the study of numeric data. In this study, the design method will first explore core leadership competencies of the small business leaders during the administration of the MLQ questionnaire. By adding the qualitative method to the research design, the resulting mixed-method will provide an enhanced and broader comprehension of the phenomenon in comparison with phenomenological research design or the quantitative methods alone (Cooper & Schindler, 2003; Creswell, 2005). Using the quantitative results collected and analyzed in the first phase to elaborate on and connect the results will provide a general understanding of the research problem (Ivankova, Creswell & Stick, 2008).

Leadership Competences 18 Research Questions and Hypothesis To address the purpose of this sequential explanatory, mixed-method study will investigate and determine the impact, if any, of the core leadership competencies (independent variables) exhibited by CEO's and business owners on the economic growth (dependent variable) of their organizations. The first phase of this research will survey fifty (50) CEOs and business owners of small business organizations in the South Florida District of the Small Business Administration that showed the above-mentioned growth criteria between 2007 and 2009 using as a survey instrument, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) developed by Bass and Avolio (2004) to assess and measure leadership behaviors exhibited by these leaders. The second phase will use open-ended interview questions in face-to-face, mail, telephone interviews and web surveys to collect the data from ten (10) randomly selected CEOs and business owners from small business organizations.

Hypotheses This study will analyze the answers to the following hypothesis to determine the impact, if any, of the leadership core competencies in the economic growth of the abovementioned small businesses: H10: There is no significant leadership core competencies exhibited by these leaders in the economic growth of their businesses. H1a: There is significant impact of the leadership core competencies exhibited by these leaders in the economic growth of their businesses.

Leadership Competences 19 H20: There is no relationship between the number of leadership core competencies exhibited by these leaders and the economic growth of their business. H2a: There is a relationship between the number of leadership core competencies exhibited by these leaders and the economic growth of their business. H30. There is no relationship between a particular leadership core competency exhibited by these leaders and the economic growth of their business. H3a. There is a relationship between a particular leadership core competency exhibited by these leaders and the economic growth of their business.

Research Questions This study, the following research questions will guide the research: RQ1. What leadership competencies do CEOs and Small Business owners perceive as contributing to the success or survival of their organizations during economic downturns? RQ2. How economic downturns do transform CEOs and Small Business owners core leadership competencies? RQ3. What leadership competencies have contributed to improve your organizations market share, customer satisfaction, job satisfaction and financial profitability during and after the economic downturn?

Theoretical Framework Past researches have analyzed the specific actions that leaders from top companies initiated to create successful organizational strategies, changes in processes, the application

Leadership Competences 20 of certain economic principles, the implementation of initiatives to improve goal alignment, workforce utilization, retention of high performers and employee development among other topics. These studies were able to determine leadership competency models employed by leaders from top organizations in order to face economic challenges. Sparks and Gentry (2008) argued that companies priorities may change with new trends in globalization, technological advances and employment issues face and when companies revise their internal priorities, leadership competencies also evolve. Companies results in the absence of certain leadership skills and the learning process experienced by executive leaders during the leaders exposure to opportunities and challenges faced by their organizations have been largely studied. According to Hoagland (2008),organizational results are a function of leadership skill development and its perpetual application (p. 2). On another hand, Matzler, Kepler, Schwarz, Deutinger, and Harms (2008) found a positive relationship between transformational leadership and the performance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) using a sample of 300 SMEs from Austria that had strong results in innovation. Bass (2007) described widely the job of the leaders of the organizations. Top management and CEOs set policies, provide direction to the organization, determine goals and strategies, coordinate effective staffs efforts, deal with adaptability to reduce uncertainty, and increase stability. In summary, the profitability of a firm depends on the CEOs actions (p.39). The MLQ has been profusely used to determine clusters (factors) for leadership behaviors and develop a measurement instrument to identify those factors Bass and Avolio (2004). Strategic wisdom and decision-making among small business leaders indicates a clear contribution to the small business success and environment and has gained

Leadership Competences 21 insufficient attention compared with the vast literature on the topic in large firms. Liberman-Yaconi, Hooper, and Hutchings (2010) , suggested that models originated from studies with large firms provide inadequate and misguided practices among small firms. Rogoff, Lee, and Suh (2004), discussed about the attribution theory and the various contributing influences, bias and situational factors that could cause the different business outcomes. Many theories have been discussed to comprehend the challenges faced by leaders such as behavioral models, rational economic and strategy by design; these models looked to understand thriving thinking systems required to produce strategies and analysis that may contribute to the organizations success and viability during the economic downturns (Bass, 2007; Emiliani, 2003; Spinelli, 2006) .

Definition of Terms Economic downturn: According to Adams (2009) the common definition of a recession, and the one most frequently cited in the media, is a period of two consecutive quarterly declines in real GDP. Job satisfaction: Roelen, Koopmans and Groothoff (2008) defined job satisfaction as a global concept that varies with the aspects of the job and that includes the positive emotional reactions and attitudes individuals have towards their job (p. 434). Leadership: Northouse (2007) described the concept of leadership the process of influencing and achieving goals while creating movement in an organization. Small Business sustainability: Ability to survive or to remain in business based on the financial analysis of the small enterprise in terms of sales, market share, and profitability.

Leadership Competences 22

Assumptions For the purpose of the study it will be assumed that the questionnaire will be conducted face-to-face to maintain accuracy in the collected data. This study assumes that the majority of participants would answer honestly the questionnaire and the research questions. It will be assumed that the financial data reported by the selected companies in their P&L and balance sheet statements was prepared using current Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and reflect the most current and actual status of the organization. According to Miller (2009), the number of small businesses will grow during economic downturns because the downsizing market increases and new entrepreneurs and well-trained executives see new opportunities as business owners. Caron (2008) cited that many of the todays big companies started during a recession such as Microsoft in 1975, CNN in 1980, GE (1876) founded in the middle of a six-year recession that started in 1873 and Hewlett-Packard during the great depression among other companies. However, Lee (2009) argued that small business leaders are afraid of pursuing business opportunities and struggle to take the business to the next level or have difficulties in managing larger operations.

Scope, Limitations and Delimitations This study will investigate and determine the impact, if any, of the core leadership competencies (independent variables) exhibited by CEO's and business owners on the economic growth (dependent variable) of their organizations. By using a combination of a structured questionnaire and semi-structured interviews this study will attempt to obtain

Leadership Competences 23 detail and clarification from the participants (Harris & Brown, 2010). The specific population will be fifty (50) CEOs and business owners from small business organizations registered with the South Florida District of the Small Business Administration. The validity of the information provided will be determine by the straightforwardness of the responses provided by these CEOs and small business owners who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. Yoon and Horne (2004) argued that data from a population will be rarely obtained in full and suggested a careful sampling selection by using radon sampling in survey research and understand the limitations of methods such as telephone, mail, face-to-face interviews and electronic surveys. The potential threats to the validity of the study also justify the appropriateness of the sequential explanatory mixed method. According to Creswell and Tashakkori (2007), the use of both quantitative and qualitative results may be integrated to provide meaningful inferences to connect compare or contrast the findings, which might contribute to better understand how small businesses organizations can ensure long-term sustainability during an economic recession. This study will be delimited to the ethical decisions of the participants and the quality of the CEOs and business owners included in the survey population. Only individuals with college education will be included as participants of the study.

Summary This study will support the relevance of the impact of the core leadership competencies of leaders of small businesses organizations located in South Florida that showed economic growth during and after the downturn experienced in the U.S. economy

Leadership Competences 24 between 2007 and 2009. Kaiser, Hogan, and Craig (2008), argued that organizational effectiveness depends on leaders especially when the dynamics of external forces may overpower leaders strategic intentions and actions. The selected research design will provide a framework that will combine the benefits of the quantitative and qualitative methods to improve the trustworthiness of the information to be analyzed and have the possibility of recognizing new themes and insights from integrating and overlapping the collected data (Cooper & Schindler, 2003; Creswell, 2005; Jang, McDougall, Pollon, Herbert, & Russell, 2008). The results of this study may contribute to reduce the number of small business failures in the South Florida area. Chapter 2 will provide a review of the literature, discussing widely central aspects and theories relating to general concepts of leadership and core leadership competencies identified by scholars, schools of thought and individual researchers. The literature review will integrate a comprehensive review of potential areas of controversy; clarify the need for the current study and debate on the outcome of the leadership styles and leaders behaviors on firms during an economic downturn, especially small businesses.

Leadership Competences 25 References

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