What makes a good leader: the context of the retail industry in South Africa

Leaders are vital for organizations and have a significant impact on the success or failure of a business. Although there have been studies investigating the question “what makes a good leader”, few studies have explicitly focused on the retail sector. The study's primary objective is to identify the qualities and characteristics a good leader should possess, in the context of the retail industry in RSA. A total of 107 respondents were interviewed and the results showed that “charisma” and “inspiration” are the most important characteristics, while “a character for integrity and honesty” and “knowledgeable and experienced” are the most important qualities of a good leader.


Introduction
Leaders are essential for organizations. Edgeman et al. (1999) stated that "Leaders are the raw material of business excellence as well as organizational failure". Leaders' values can shape the values of a business if they repeatedly act or make decisions according to their own values (Ciulla, 2020). Based on an extensive literature review, it has been proposed that competencies of a leader affects both performances of employees and the organization (Almatrooshi et al., 2016). Leaders can contribute to elevated trust among subordinates in an organization (Koohang et al., 2017).
In a study about listed companies, it was found that the top management team of a firm will affect the growth of it (Colombelli, 2015). The stock price of a company can be affected by CEO appointment (Schoar &Zuo, 2016) or sudden death of the CEO (Quigley et al., 2017). Understanding the importance of leaders, it will be natural to ask the question "what makes a good leader?" A number of authors have conducted studies on what qualities a good leader should have, and it was found that a good leader should possess qualities such as accountability, empathy, positivity, team word and organizational skills (Youssef & Dabke, 2021) and the encouragement of a productive environment, an environment that breeds enthusiasm for work, as well as a desire to give good results (Sugiarti, 2022). Sugiarti, (2022), further posits that a good leader will have a positive impact on employees and favourly influence the organization. In this study specifically, it will be of interest to examine the characteristics or qualities that a good leader possesses based on previous qualities identified by different authors.
Although there have been efforts on searching for the qualities of a leader, as mentioned, few studies have been conducted in the context of the retail sector, especially in the Republic of South Africa (RSA). There have also been few attempts to investigate the weightings of various qualities in contributing to a good leader. Consequently, by surveying employees in the retail industry in RSA, the primary objective of this article is to explore the top qualities of a leader by means of questionnaire survey. Besides, it is aimed at investigating the weighting of the qualities to understand the relative importance of them. Meanwhile, the qualities that leaders struggle with are also revealed in current study.
The article commences with a brief theoretical overview of the characteristics and skills of a good leader, followed by the methodology and findings. Lastly, the article concludes with a discussion of the findings and conclusion.

Personal characteristics of a good leader
In order to answer the above question as to what makes a good leader, there have been studies which were devoted to investigating the qualities of a good leader. Studies showed that emotional intelligence (EI), which comprises self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social skill (Goleman, 1998), is an important aspect of a good leader. In a study in Australia, 373 employees in a defense organization were surveyed and it was found that EI of project managers would positively affect project success (Rezvani et al., 2016). In a study about EI and leadership, 365 project leaders and scholars were surveyed and it was concluded that leaders with high EI can improve collaboration satisfaction of project participants (Zhang et al., 2018). By using meta-analysis, it was even suggested that EI of leaders exhibited positive correlations with job satisfaction (Miao et al., 2016) and task performance (Miao et al., 2018) of subordinates.
Charisma has also been found to be a quality of a good leader. Results from a study about leadership in the Spanish banking industry concluded that charismatic leaders can help raise team potency if the level of task independence in the team is high (Blanc et al., 2020). Based on case studies in various media companies in Russia, it was concluded that charisma is an essential quality of entrepreneur / leaders in order to create a financially stable business (Tokbaeva, 2018). A survey in a microfinance bank also revealed that charismatic leadership exhibited positive correlations to both team performance and leadership effectiveness (Alvi et al., 2016). In the context of small firms, it has been revealed that charismatic leaders can render higher performance and lower voluntary turnover (McClean & Collins, 2019).
Humor is a quality that contribute to a good leader. A study about the hotel industry suggested that leaders with humor positively affect psychological empowerment of employees and this in turn influenced their innovative behavior and job performance (Koo et al., 2018). In a survey of 299 salespeople in Europe, it was revealed that sales managers who use affiliative humor can help reduce social loneliness and job stress of salespeople (Guenzi et al., 2019). A study of 35 high-tech enterprises in China suggested that leader humor is positively correlated with creativity of employees (Hu & Luo, 2020). Apart from the above, studies have also revealed certain personal characteristics that are qualities of a good leader. In a study in an autonomous organization, 110 senior and middle level managers were interviewed and it was found that leaders with a laissez-faire quality can help promote motivation of employees (Fiaz et al., 2017). It has also been suggested that honesty, vision, courage, fairness, kindness, competency, confidence, forward-looking, gentle, creativity, focus, assertiveness and optimism are the qualities needed for leaders in the 21 st century (Hossain, 2015). In a study about student leaders, 500 students were surveyed and it was concluded that honesty and confidence are the most important qualities of a leader (Shah & Pathak, 2015). A conceptual study about qualities of a good leader by Muteswa (2016) suggested that confidence, toughness, inspiration, honest, integrity, transparency and humility are personal characteristics associated with good leaders. By utilizing principal component analysis, accessibility and dedication, neutrality and modesty, aspiration and attentiveness, believe and aptitude, dignity and amiability, insight and confidence, vitality and concentration, originality and honesty, responsibility, decency and self-assurance, charitable, comical and maintenance culture and reliability have been identified as the 13 components of a good leader (Olanrewaju & Okorie, 2019).

Skills possessed by a good leader
Besides personal characteristics, there are also a number of skills that a good leader should possess. Communication skill is one of these qualities. It has been suggested that good command of communication skills "allows the leader to trigger both cognitive and emotional responses in employees, also leading to better mutual understanding between the leader and the team members" (Kwiatkowski, 2018). A survey on university library staff in Nigeria revealed that excellent communication skills of leaders can make subordinates more productive and also more effective in their jobs (Akparobore & Omosekejimi, 2020). By performing a literature review, it has also been found that a leader's communication skill is essential in order to handle different cultures in a global project team (Browne et al., 2016).
Various studies have revealed other skills leaders should possess. In literature reviewed, it was concluded that problem definition, goal analysis, constraint analysis, planning, forecasting, creative thinking, idea evaluation, wisdom and sensemaking are the nine essential skills that a good leader should have (Mumford et al., 2017). In addition, a survey of nearly 5000 leaders in various industries suggested that innovative leaders usually possess skills to manage risk, demonstrate curiosity, lead courageously, seize opportunities and maintain strategic business perspective (Graham-Leviss, 2016). In the non-governmental organizations sector in Ghana, 300 individuals were interviewed and it was revealed that decision-making skill and ability to apply appropriate technology are the important skills for leader success (Tuffour & Matey, 2019). Table 1 shows the important characteristics and skills of a good leader.

Leaders in the retail sector
In the context of the retail sector, store managers can influence store performance (Wilderom et al., 2015). In particular, the store manager affects sales of goods or services, total sales, gross profit and net profit of the store (Arnold et al., 2019). A study in the automobile retail industry also suggested that the behavior of leaders is positively correlated to the employees' intention to remain (Yelamanchili, 2018). While leaders are important in the retail sector, few attempts have been made to identify the various qualities or characteristics a good leader should possess in the retail sector.

Research and Methodology
The primary aim of this study was to explore the characteristics and qualities of a good leader in the retail sector in South Africa. Retail managers in selected retail stores conveniently located in the greater Tshwane area, South Africa, were approached to participate in the survey, and the data were analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences).

Questionnaire Survey
In order to obtain meaningful and unbiased results from the questionnaire survey, it was of importance to choose respondents with care. It was essential that a random sample would be obtained. Before conducting the questionnaire survey, consent of the retail shops was obtained. Respondents, who were the staff members in these shops, were chosen in a random manner to take part in the questionnaire survey. These respondents could withdraw any time if they did not feel like taking part in the questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was divided into two main parts. In the first part of the questionnaire, respondents were required to answer questions related to 1) characteristics of a good leader, 2) qualities distinguishing a good leader and 3) qualities which leaders struggle with. For these three questions, respondents were given a list of characteristics qualities and asked to choose and rank the top four characteristics of a good leader, the five qualities that distinguish a good leader from the rest as well as the five qualities that leaders in the industry struggle with. In the second part of the questionnaire survey, personal characteristics such as the age and gender of respondents were asked. Besides, respondents were also asked to state their rank / title in the shop, as well as the department they work for.

Analyzing the Responses
All three questions about characteristics of and qualities distinguishing a good leader, as well as qualities which leaders struggle with, were analyzed in a similar way. For each response, the ranked characteristics / qualities were weighted. The characteristic / quality ranked first was weighted as 4 (question 1) or 5 (questions 2 and 3), while the one ranked second would be weighted as 3 (question 1) or 4 (questions 2 and 3). In a similar manner, the one ranked least would be weighted as 1. In the next step, the aggregate of each characteristic / quality was computed. The frequency of each ranking of a particular characteristic / quality was be multiplied by the corresponding weighted value. The sum of these products was the aggregate of this characteristic / quality. Table 2 illustrates how the aggregate is calculated. Supposing that there were n respondents taking part in the questionnaire survey, the maximum possible aggregate AGmax of a characteristic is 4n (question 1) or 5n (questions 2 and 3). The normalized weight Wnormalized of the characteristic was given by: The normalized weight of each characteristic would be computed. The characteristic with the highest value of normalized weight meant that individuals considered it the most important (question 1 or 2) or the one leader struggled with the most (question 3).

Results and data analysis Demographic analysis
The demographic variables used in this study include gender, age, rank or title, job function or department, and the number of employees in the organizations. Table 3 shows that most of the participants were male (74.8%). The age group between 35 and 44 had the highest responses (38.3%). Managers constitute to 53.3% of the respondents in terms of their rank or title. Concerning the number of employees of the organizations that the respondents work for, 28.0% worked in organizations, indicated by employee numbers between 26 and 50.  Table 4 shows the answers of the respondents regarding the aspects they consider to be the top 4 characteristics of a good leader. The frequency of each rating was weighted to compute the aggregate total, for example, an aggregate of charisma was calculated by (47×4+14×3+17×2+10×1= 274) and the rest of the variables were calculated accordingly. Next, the normalized weight was calculated by dividing the aggregate by 428 (4×107). Finally, adjusted normalized weight was calculated using the percentage column instead of the frequency column. The percentage does not add up to 100% because there were some missing data and not all the respondents gave ratings on each characteristic, as respondents had to choose only four options out of eight.   Qualities distinguishing a good leader Table 5 shows the answers of the respondents regarding their views of the qualities that distinguish a good leader from the rest. Similar to the computation of adjusted normal weight of the characteristics of a good leader, the percentage does not add up to 100% because there were some missing data and not all the respondents gave ratings in each characteristic, as respondents had to choose only 5 options out of 18. Possibility % Actual possibility %    Table 6 shows the answers of the respondents regarding qualities they observed industry leaders struggle with. The adjusted normal weight percentage does not add up to 100% because there were some missing data and not all the respondents give the rating in each characteristic, as respondents have to choose only 5 options out of 16.  Figure 3 demonstrates the ranking of qualities industry leaders struggles with based on percentage. Among the 16 qualities, 'Lack of trust in employees' is the number one quality that leaders struggle with most, followed by 'Controlling', 'Too quick to recognise shortages in others', 'Unwilling to take advice' and 'Slow to take decisions. The normalized weight and adjusted normalized weight of these qualities are 60.56% and 56.60%, 37.20% and 34.76%, 27.10% and 25.33%, 20.37% and 19.04%, and 18.32% and 17.12% respectively.

Discussion
This study employed the technique of a questionnaire survey to understand the characteristics or qualities a leader should possess in the retail industry, from the angle of staff. This study revealed qualities that leaders struggle with, which were not examined in previous studies. The computation of normalized weight has also made it possible to understand the importance weighting and ranking of the characteristics and qualities concerned. In fact, not many studies have revealed the relative importance of these characteristics and qualities, except the study by Olanrewaju & Okorie (2019), which examined the percentage of variances of a good leader as explained by each component / quality of a leader. The results from the current study should have implications for researchers, academicians, retail managers, marketing professionals regarding effective design and implementation of retail management in terms of the qualities of leaders or management teams.
In this study, it has been found that charisma is the most important characteristic of a good leader. Nevertheless, it should be noted that charisma should be considered a two-sided sword. According to a previous study, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the charisma of a leader and the effectiveness of the leader. Leaders of low charisma are less effective due to the lack of strategic behavior. On the contrary, highly charismatic leaders are less effective because they lack operational behavior (Vergauwe et al., 2018). Besides, the project or team may collapse if a charismatic leader suddenly leaves the team. This is because the leader is the inherent focus of the project or team (Kibbe, 2019). In order to have a better picture concerning leader charisma in the retail sector, it will be of importance to investigate the relationship between leader charisma and leader effectiveness in the retail sector in future studies.
On the other hand, "A character for integrity and honesty" was ranked as the most important quality of a good leader in this study.
In fact, honesty has been identified as a very important quality of a good leader (e.g. Hossain, 2015;Olanrewaju & Okorie, 2019;Shah & Pathak, 2015). Meanwhile, leader integrity can be linked to the notion of ethical leadership. In a previous study, it was found that leader integrity exhibits a positive correlation with ethical leadership (Engelbrecht et al., 2017). Thus, results from the current study imply that ethics may be the most important quality of a leader from the view of employees in the retail sector. In future studies, efforts can be put on the ethical leadership in the retail sector.
Regarding the qualities that leaders struggle with the most, "Lack of trust in employees" ranks the first in this study, followed by "Controlling". Employees who do not feel that they are being trusted tend to "exert less effort" and be "less effective" (Brower et al., 2017). Trust in employees is positively correlated with the notion of empowering leadership (EL) (Han et al., 2019). EL can render higher task performance and creativity (Lee et al., 2018). On the other hand, "Controlling" could mean that the leader does not trust the employees. Controlling leadership is sometimes considered the opposite of empowering leadership. It can lead to a higher level of team emotional exhaustion and induce lower team performance (Chiang et al., 2020). It can be seen that "Lack of trust in employees" and "Controlling" are two related issues. It will be of importance for management to deal with these two issues in order to achieve higher team or employee performance.

Conclusions
The objective of the study was to investigate the key factors influencing retail management in South Africa. A quantitative research design was followed and the data were collected through a structured questionnaire from owners, managers, employees working in different retail organizations in South Africa. A total of 107 respondents have participated in this survey. The data were analyzed using SPSS (statistical package for social sciences) package version 21. The analyses included the demographic breakdown of the respondents, descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis. Descriptive analysis of the top four characteristics of a good leader according to the respondents' ratings showed that 'Charisma' received the highest ranking as the number one characteristic of a good leader followed by 'Inspiration', 'Contingent Reward' and 'Individual consideration'.
Then 18 qualities of a good leader were explored and ranked according to respondents' ratings. The top five qualities were identified as 'A character for integrity and honesty', 'Knowledgeable and experienced', 'Strong creative imagination/visionary', 'Energetic and hard-working', and 'Powerful intellect and strategic thinker'.
The investigation of the qualities industry leaders struggles with, according to the respondents' ratings, showed that 'Lack of trust in employees' is the number one quality leaders struggle with most. The other qualities were 'controlling', 'Too quick to recognise shortages in others', 'Unwilling to take advice' and 'Slow to take decisions.
In summary, this study identified the key factors influencing retail management in South Africa. The results showed that 'Charisma' and 'A character for integrity and honesty' are the number one characteristic and quality of a good leader respectively. Meanwhile, 'Lack of trust in employees' is the number one quality leaders struggle with most.