The Growth Driven by Multifaceted Leadership Styles

Abstract

State Owned Business Enterprises (SOBEs) have become a discussion topic in the development agenda of any developing country due to generating of substantial losses. In such a context, how an entity, Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd (AASL), incorporated in 1982 under the Companies Act and empowered by the Civil Aviation Act is year by year continuously increasing its’ revenue and profitability hitting almost Rs.10Bn profits for the year 2017. Therefore, it is worthwhile to unearth as what made AASL into such significant case in Sri Lanka while having diverse administrative, statutory, structural governmental backgrounds in which typical state company operates. According to the research findings and theoretical underpinnings, continuous performance of an organisation is defined in multiple perspectives and it is literary connected with leadership execution and sustainability. For this study purpose continuous performance is defined in terms of financial point of view. Further continuous performance is clearly identified as an outcome of predominantly execution of leadership styles. Based on the outcome, continuous performance, while having many driving factors, leadership execution factor was highlighted. AASL, being a state company incorporated to serve narrow market segment in early 1980s, subsequently, spanning from 2009 to 2018 depicted exponential growth with continuous improvements in both financial and operational outcomes. The case study has demonstrated how continuous performance of AASL achieved since 2009. Execution of triple leadership styles throughout the period has mainly contributed to achieve the same. All other loss making state entities must re-visit the ways and means of transforming into profitable businesses. Such transformation will bring immense valuable positive social externalities to a developing economy like Sri Lanka.