An empirical investigation of the relationship between organizational culture and leadership styles

This paper investigates the relationship between organizational culture and the style of leadership in an organization. Organizational culture is often an important factor influencing the competitive strength of a firm. Leadership is also a critical component in the success an organization. It is important to understand how these two powerful determinants of organizational performance, culture and leadership, affect each other. Research determining that specific types of organizational culture favor particular styles of leadership is important as it aids organizational leaders to identify which styles of leadership are more likely to be successful in their culture. Furthermore, organizations wishing to change leadership styles may have to first modify their culture to support different leadership styles. This study uses the Competing Values Framework to define the organizational culture as clan, adhocracy, hierarchy, or market. Leadership style is defined as transformational, transactional, or laissez faire. Organization culture is measured using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument and the leadership style is determined by the MLQ 5X survey. Pearson's correlation and regression is used to determine the relationship between the variables. The results of this study indicate there is a significant relationship between specific types of organizational cultures and leadership styles. Transactional and transformational leadership styles are found in clan and adhocracy cultures. Transformational leadership has a negative relationship with the rule-based hierarchy culture as is laissez-faire leadership is negatively related to friendly clan cultures.