Linking leadership behaviours to service performance: do managersmake a difference

Discusses the importance of leadership behaviours in understanding service quality and organizational performance. After an overview of the relevant issues, presents some research results based on a study of 65 managers in an airline services organization. Overall, direct report ratings of their managers’ leadership behaviours were significantly related to indicators of service quality (including customer satisfaction and damages) and business unit performance (based on profitability and turnover) to varying degrees depending on the content of the practices.