Development of an Afrocentric Effective Leadership (AEL) Instrument for Zimbabwean SMEs

Abstract

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are fundamental to a country’s economy. However, the challenge is that there is a high failure rate among SMEs which can be attributed to lack of effective leadership. This paper seeks to present and validate an Afrocentric Effective Leadership (AEL) instrument to measure effective leadership in Zimbabwean SMEs. A survey was conducted with quantitative data collected from 241 respondents from Bulawayo’s Central Business Area (CBA) chosen through proportional stratified sampling. The AEL instrument was validated using exploratory factor analysis. A total of ten factors resulted, namely, leadership style, effectiveness of the situational leadership theory, leader characteristics, follower characteristics, culture, ubuntu, traditional leadership, history of the country, stage of economic development of the country and effective leadership. The  perception of the existence of effective leadership in African SMEs so that early interventions are implemented to avoid high failure rates.