Leadership styles and organizational culture: An examination of correlates in the United States Air Force

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify the organizational culture and leadership styles in an Air Force communication squadron, and to correlate one to the other. These variables were assessed using an instrument consisting of twelve styles applicable to both cultural and leadership attributes. Each cultural style was correlated to the identical leadership style to measure the relationship between them.Findings and conclusions. This study found that all three flights were similar in terms of the organizational culture profile. The affiliative culture dominated and the same top five cultural profiles predominated in all three flights. The demographic profiles of the flight members showed little variation between flights. The three flight chiefs were dissimilar demographically, yet displayed the same top four leadership styles, which differed only in rank order. Correlation of each cultural style to each leadership style was weak enough to be attributable to chance. Eight of the twelve styles correlated negatively in each flight. However, there was some degree of fit in the statistical mean scores of the leadership and cultural styles.Methodology. The sample consisted of 169 members of a population of 234 active duty Air Force personnel assigned to the communications squadron. The leadership styles of each flight chief, through self- and peer-assessment, were identified. Enlisted flight members identified the organizational culture of each flight. Both leadership and cultural attributes were profiled against twelve styles measured by the instruments. Interflight demographic data were compared between samples using the chi-square test. Pearson's Product Moment Correlation was used to determine how closely the peer-assessed leadership styles correlated to the self-assessed styles and to correlate the leadership style profile to the organization's cultural profile.