Role of managers’ communication skills and leadership style on organizational effectiveness: Path analysis

Background: Managers’ communication skills and leadership style have influential effect on organizational effectiveness. Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the level of communication skills and type of leadership style among managers and its association with organizational effectiveness from the viewpoints of employees working in hospitals affiliated by Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd. Methods: This analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted among a sample of 400 employees working in three training hospitals of Yazd who have been selected using a randomized clustered method in 2016. Three standard questionnaires including communication skills by Burton, leadership style, Burdens and Metzcus and organizational effectiveness were used by Parsons used to collect data. Findings: Study findings revealed a significant reverse relationship between managers’ leadership style and their communication skills (P=0.001, r=-0.682) and a direct significant relationship between organizational effectiveness and the latter (P=0.001, r=0.913). Results also confirmed a reverse association between leadership style and organizational effectiveness which was not statistically significant (P=0.669, r=-0.032). Furthermore, the direct influence of communication skills on organizational effectiveness was much more severe than indirect influence of communication skills on organizational effectiveness with a moderating role of leadership style. Conclusion: Developing effective communication and influencing interaction among managers and organizational employees are mentioned as an important strategy for successful organizations to achieve their determined goals in an appropriate manner. Keywords: Communication skill, Leadership style, Organizational effectiveness, Structural equation modeling