Leadership Paradoxes: Effects of Leadership Styles on Family Small Enterprises Continuity in Ituri Province

This paper addresses the contradiction between theoretical expectations and observed leadership styles in Ituri, creating a contextual leadership paradox in leadership studies. Given this paradox, little empirical research has examined how leadership styles relate to the continuity of family businesses in this region. This paper aimed to analyze the leadership paradoxes in Ituri Province, focusing on the relationship between leadership styles and continuity in family-owned small businesses. The study adopted a quantitative research approach within a positivist philosophy and a cross-sectional survey design. Data were collected from a sample of 346 founders and successors, where the founders of the businesses had either deceased or retired. When both successors and founders could not be reached, a key family or non- family manager was used. Data were analyzed using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression Analysis with SPSS V 25 software. The findings showed that the autocratic leadership style was significantly related to the continuity of family small enterprises, indicated by β = .305; p = .001. The democratic leadership style was not significantly related to continuity, with β =.128; p = .591. Laissez-faire style also did not show a significant relationship, with β = .172; p = . 458. Conversely, transformational leadership had a positive and significant relation with continuity, with β =. 226; p =. 005. The study highlighted a contextual leadership paradox in an unstable environment, where two leadership styles- namely, autocratic and transformational- enhance family small enterprise continuity, while democratic and laissez-faire styles do not. These findings emphasize the context- dependent effectiveness of leadership styles and contribute to family business and leadership theory by challenging universal assumptions. Further research is needed to deepen the understanding of the leadership paradoxes observed in this study in Ituri Province, possibly through qualitative or mixed methods approaches suited for contextual analysis.