Study of role and effects transcendental leadership on organizational performance with attention to competitive advantage

Transcendental leadership is a new paradigm in management and leadership that is the best way to deal with today dynamic, changing and turbulent environments. Transcendent leaders make the ethical foundation of organizations and have strategic leads. These leaders look at the organizations as a whole that lead others, themselves and the organization. A Transcendental leader is a strategic leader that acts in leadership of self, leadership of others and leadership of organization and combine them. Transcendent leaders have properties that can have deep impact on staff and organization. This paper aims to recognize the effect of transcendent leadership on organizational performance with the mediating role of competitive advantage in food industry SMEs. We surveyed 195 SMEs in food industry that are active in Tehran. The results, driven from Lisrel 8 and SPSS 20, show that transcendent leadership has a positive effect on both competitive advantage and organizational performance and competitive advantage has a positive impact on organizational performance.