The relationship between transformational leadership and competitive advantage gaining in Ethiopian Airlines

Effective and efficient leaders are those who step up their organizations to change, transformation, and maintain competitiveness in the market. Studies on management and leadership indicated transformational leadership as integral to excellent company's performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership style (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) and competitive advantage (quality advantage, flexibility advantage, time advantage, and cost advantage) in EALs. A total of 325 respondents were participated in the research, including 143 managers and 182 non- managers with a nonresponse rate of 19.75% from all employees of EALs. Two separate instruments, namely Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and Competitive Advantage Questionnaire (CAQ), were used to measure transformational leadership style and competitive advantages of EALs respectively. The findings of the study revealed that all dimensions of transformational leadership have significant and strong positive correlations with competitive advantage. The findings also revealed that transformational leadership affects positively competitive advantage. Individualized consideration and idealized influence have the strongest affection on competitive advantage respectively. Key Words: Transformational Leadership, Competitive Advantage, EALs