Abstract
There is a plethora of leadership literature which place emphasis on the importance of leadership in the performance of employees and organizations. Strategic leadership is of particular interest since this has been a focus in organizations. Strategic leadership is defined by Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson (2004) as the ability to foresee, envisage, maintain flexibility, and empower others to create strategic change as necessary as part of organizational process. Since the literature on strategic leadership is still in development, parallels are drawn between strategic leadership and transformational leadership styles. This paper aims to understand the relationship between employees’ perceptions of strategic leadership (transformational leadership) of their leaders and employee performance within a South African parastatal. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was used to collect data on leadership styles. The psychometric properties of validity and reliability were assessed using Factor Analysis and Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. The findings reflect that there is a positive linear and significant relationship between strategic leadership and employee performance. Based on the results of the study, recommendations are provided, which when implemented have the potential to enhance employee performance.