Organizations around the world are facing stiff competition economically, socially and

politically in the contemporary society. Post globalization and liberalization there is paradigm
shift in core social areas including education, communication, motivation, teamwork and
leadership. On the other hand, leaders of both public and private sectors are engulfed by several
challenges, including, managing huge workloads, educating and leading team members,
organizing and managing infrastructure facilities, balancing budgets, developing and maintaining
effective relationships, dealing with disciplinary issues, meeting accountability requirements,
maintaining and balancing the demands of a family and personal life. Hiring managers are also
increasingly realizing the fact that organizations are no longer steeped into hierarchical structures
wherein the authority solely lies with the management and stakeholders who ultimately drive the
overall progress of the company.
Organizations are therefore in high demand for effective leadership skills to ensure
sustainable development, growth and profitability in the long-term. However, as the role of the
leader becomes more complex & demanding, finding quality people is becoming more
challenging and important to organizations. Needless to say, the shortage of talented and highpotential leaders is distressing for both public and private organizations. Without doubt, the
quality of candidates is more important to companies than the quantity of candidates available. In
other words, contemporary organizations do not want to fill up their vacancies by randomly
hiring candidates but want to find quality leaders who can lead by example to others. Leaders are
fundamentally expected to take control of difficult situations aggressively and address challenges
tactfully. Both the public and private organizations therefore strive to find quality leaders, who
are willing to accept organizational change easily and also collaborate smoothly in flatter
organizations. Keeping the increasing importance of leadership in mind, an attempt has been
made to study and compare the leadership qualities, its effectiveness and leadership styles
pertaining to select public (Dena Bank) and private (Axis Bank) banking firms in the research
location, Telangana, India.