Bulgarian managers – specifics in leadershipIya Petkova-Gourbalova

This study explores the leadership specifics of managers in a transition country. Based on leadership theory and the specificity of the business services sector in Bulgaria, we explore three hypotheses, plus a further question, as to whether there is a difference in leadership style in three specific business sectors (IT, finance and consultancy). Both quantitative and qualitative analysis were applied to empirical data collected from 35 business organisations (and from 468 respondents) in Bul- garia in order to analyse the research questions. The statistical analysis supports some aspects of our concept approach: the data verify that Bulgarian managers use both transactional and transformational leadership styles. Consistent with the culture-specific view of leadership, the socio-cultural context proves an influence on the leadership style of managers in Bulgaria. The empirical data and our analyses also show that gender is a factor variable that, to a certain extent, determines leadership style although further analysis is needed to verify the precise correlation.