The Impact of Soft Leadership in Enhancing Employee Readiness for Change: The Mediating Role of Job-Related Characteristics
(An analytical study of the opinions of a sample of employees in some of the universities and private colleges in the holy city of Karbala)
Thesis submitted to the Council of the College of Administration and Economics / University of Karbala
It is ppart of the requirements for obtaining a PhD in Business Science.
by
Zaytoun Naama Dhahad
Supervised
Prof. Dr. Prof. Dr.
Meethaq Hatif Al-Fatlwi Faisal Alwan Altai
Abstract
The current study aims to shed light on the mediating role of job-related characteristics between soft leadership and the employee’s readiness for change. The researcher relied on a number of solid research methods, which are represented by two axes: The first: the applied method to test the measures of the study variables. The historical method of foreign and Arab studies was adopted for the researchers. To explain and establish the concepts of the studied variables, as the presentation showed the existence of a knowledge gap revealed by the literature, which was represented by the immaturity of knowledge related to the nature of the influence between the variables of the study. Second Based on the reality of the problem, which was expressed in a number of questions, the aim of which was to clarify the theoretical implications of the variables of the study, the most important of which was (Do job-related characteristics transfer the influence of soft leadership to the employee’s readiness for change, partially or completely), and accordingly a number of hypotheses were developed for the current study. It consisted of four main and sub-hypotheses to verify the nature of the correlation, influence and mediation relationships between the study variables. To verify the hypotheses, the study tool was designed, represented by a questionnaire (based on international standards) as a main tool for collecting the necessary data. The study population was represented exclusively by administrative professors and employees in five universities and private colleges in Holy Karbala, which consisted of (281) questionnaires suitable for analysis, with a rate of (98%) of the questionnaires retrieved. The results were analyzed using a number of statistical tools available within statistical programs, and the results were tested. Normal distribution, correlation coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha), structural equation modeling, and simple( Pearson) correlation coefficient). Among the most important conclusions that were reached, it was found that leadership uses diversity in soft skills. The results of the analysis also showed that there is a direct effect between the soft leadership variable and the adopted variable, the employee’s readiness for change in the presence of the variable (mediator) job-related characteristics, which is a significant effect, which indicates the ability of the variable. Job-related characteristics partially mediate the transfer of the effect of the soft leadership variable (the independent variable) to the employee’s readiness for change (the dependent variable). :
Keywords: soft leadership, job-related characteristics, employee readiness for change. Universities
