eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Business and Management Sciences 2333-4533 2018-01-17 6 1 12 15 10.12691/jbms-6-1-3 JBMS2018613 article Théophile Muyisa Katuka theo.muyisa@ucbc.org/tmuyisakatuka@gmail.com 1 Management and Economics department, Christian Bilingual University of Congo This paper discusses the role of holistic leadership on business performance of SMEs in Kenya. The traditional dichotomy leadership-management has led to non-holistic management in many business organisations. This realisation led this study to propose the concept of 'holistic leadership' which encompasses both the traditional views of leadership and management. To be able to appraise the role of holistic leadership in the performance of a company the study focused on two major sub-components: human resources management, which is the pure leadership aspect of the holistic leadership theory; and financial management and planning, which is its pure management aspect. http://pubs.sciepub.com/jbms/6/1/3/jbms-6-1-3.pdf leadership management holistic leadership SMEs Kenya