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Abstract
The contribution of the insurance industry in Zimbabwe to the gross domestic product is too low 3%. This is too low and hence the need to establish factors that can influence improved performance of the industry. The recent global financial crisis precipitated by sub-prime home loans in the USA raises further questions on the role of official regulation and self-regulation in the financial sector. Globally, there is a re-assessment of risks in the financial sector and the appropriate tools to mitigate them, and in the Zimbabwean insurance industry the question have been raised if leadership practice is an appropriate tool to improve performance. While the global financial crisis was a product of market failure, the Zimbabwe economic crisis was the product of specific events and decisions that in turn resulted in market failure. One key distinguishing feature is that while most countries currently battling with the global crisis had sound macroeconomic management policies in place, Zimbabwe is suffering from the after effects of macroeconomic mismanagement. Therefore, prescriptions that are being pursued globally might not necessarily constitute the correct medicine required for sustainable recovery in Zimbabwe. Nonetheless, existing global risk-aversion has serious implications for the country because its recovery will be reliant on foreign direct investment inflows, portfolio investment inflows and investments in equities, as well as diaspora remittances, all of which the global crisis has adversely affected. The purpose of this paper is to review leadership practice theory which affect the organisational performance with the aim of developing a new appropriate leadership practice theoretical framework suitable to the Zimbabwean environment. Denison (1990) indicates that leadership practices in the form of organisational culture have a significant impact on the performance of the organisation. This paper would like to give literature review of the organization culture and corporate performance as researched in other countries, USA, Japan, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, European and Asian Countries.