ABSTRACT
Our research backs such authors as Rahman and Bullock (2005) and Soltani, van der Meer, and Williams (2005), who argue that the socalled soft aspects of management have a greater impact on whether an improvement activity realizes its objectives. Our specifi c contribution lies in adding detail to how this can or cannot be achieved. Leadership is valued in performance improvement as it is seen as the answer to the problem of lack of management commitment, which has for a long time been highlighted as the reason why most forms of organization activity fail, especially performance improvement.
