Investigating the Relationship between Leadership Styles and the Rate of Strategic Thinking among the Managers of Kerman Governmental Organizations

Nowadays, discussions on the strategic thinking and manager's leadership styles, especially at the organizational level, have gained a special position in the studies of management. For this reason, the present research aims to investigate the relationship between leadership styles and the rate of strategic thinking among the managers of Kerman governmental organizations. The research method is descriptive-correlational. Field survey and library studies have been used for data collection. The statistical population consists of 133 managers of governmental organizations in Kerman, and the required data was obtained from the researcher-made questionnaires completed by the subjects. Data analysis was carried out through the use of T test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient. The results indicate that there is a significant negative relationship between inefficient leadership style and the manager's strategic thinking. There is no significant relationship between duty-oriented leadership and manager's strategic thinking. There is no significant relationship between moderate leadership and manager's strategic thinking. However, it was found that there is a positive relationship between club leadership and manager's strategic thinking. Also, there is a significant positive relation between team leadership style and strategic thinking. Therefore, managers mostly use team leadership style, and the managers who employ this style possess, on average, the greatest rate of strategic thinking.