ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The turbulent and rapidly changing world, including South Africa, has created a societycraving for speed and action. Future leaders, therefore, face incredible pressures todeliver immediate results, to do more with less and to manage an ever-increasingpersonal workload. The pace and urgency of daily demands can make it difficult to bemore than the step ahead into the future. But in a world of changing conditions andpriorities, leaders and individual contributors alike must be able to look beyond the‘now’ and take a more strategic leadership approach to their work and responsibilities.Global mega-trends are leading to increasing levels of complexity, dynamism anduncertainty in the corporate environment. In an uncertain economy, organisationsneed effective strategies that will enable them to thrive. Traditional leadershipapproaches have been rendered insufficient by the rapid changes in the knowledgeeconomy. Businesses need to practise systemic innovation in this fast-changing,knowledge-driven global business landscape in order to remain competitive.Despite heightened awareness and interest by both scholars and practitioners in thefield of strategic leadership, the subject will always be an emerging field of inquiry.Furthermore, limited research has thus far been conducted on the impact of strategicleadership on the operational strategy and performance of business organisations inSouth Africa. A review of strategic leadership literature revealed a research gap thatculminated in the following research question: “What is the impact of strategicleadership on the operational strategy and performance of business organisations inSouth Africa”?To address the research question stated above, a literature review on the impact ofstrategic leadership on the operational strategy and performance was conducted, andan empirical study was executed. The literature review emphasised the threeinterrelated strategic leadership constructs of action, coherence and discipline thatexplored the relationship between strategic leadership and the organisation’soperational strategy and performance. In this study, operational strategy includesstrategic orientation as well as the operational excellence of the organisation. The factors which influence strategic orientation were identified as the organisation’s abilityto create and formulate their strategy as well as the discipline of all people in theorganisation to execute the strategy. Operational excellence, was influenced byproduct differentiation, cost management and integration.The literature review also emphasised the influence of adaptive leadership, autonomy,communication, knowledge, processes and systems, and values on self reportedorganisational performance which was directly related to strategic leadership.To address the research problem, empirical cross-sectional telephone surveys wereconducted. The sample selected for the study was the top 200 listed organisations for2008, as published in the Financial Mail. The key respondent was the chief executiveofficer (CEO), or a member of the executive team. The sample consisted of 200organisations of which 118 valid responses were received with a response rate of 59percent. Measurement instruments were adapted, developed and revised wherenecessary to ensure the reliability and validity of the data. The collected data wereanalysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.The findings of the study indicated that strategic leadership is directly and indirectlypositively associated with operational strategy and organisational performance. It ispositively associated with strategy orientation as well as operational excellence ofbusiness organisations in South Africa. Furthermore, strategic leadership can also berelated to return on assets (ROA) and earnings per share (EPS). Self reportedperformance is also associated with higher organisational performance.Strategic leadership is unrelated to the size of the organisation, but is more likely tooccur in a turbulent business environment. Product differentiation and costmanagement were also directly linked to strategic leadership.The most important contribution of this study is based on the testing of successfulstrategic leadership practices in business organisations in the South African context.Competition in the 21st century’s global economy will be complex, challenging and filledwith competitive opportunities and threats. This study asserted that effective strategicleadership practices could help business organisations in South Africa to enhance their performance while competing in turbulent and unpredictable environments.Measurement instruments have also been developed, which may be used byexecutives, consultants and other researchers to measure these phenomena in future.