Effects Of Organizational Culture on Leadership

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 Literature Review

Introduction

Organizational culture refers to the values and beliefs that an organization has for a long

period of time with regard to their behavior and attitudes (Lubis, 2020). On the other hand, the

leadership style is the specific behavioral approach that a given leader or manager employees in

their management to motivate, inspire, direct and correct employees. Mansaray (2019) suggests

that there are several types of leadership that are; ‘authoritarian leadership, transformational

leadership, laissez-faire leadership, servant leader, transactional leadership, democratic

leadership, strategic leadership, bureaucratic leadership, to consultative and participative

leadership’. These leadership affects the organization culture because the leaders dictate the type

of culture their employees or people should have. However, on the concept of leadership style is

influenced by the organizational culture, various authors have conflicting beliefs as some

suggests that the leadership style can be impacted by the organizational culture while others

suggests that it's only the organization culture that can impact the leadership styles. On these

bases dozens of researches have been conducted by various author's and agencies to prove the

later or the former claim. On that regard there is a need to uncover if the organizational culture

has an impact on the leadership style. Some authors suggests that an organizational culture forms

a framework which dictates the type of leadership that is deemed as acceptable within the

institution. Thus, when a given leader is elected, they have to select the leadership style that is

'acceptable in these institutions" if they had a conflicting leadership style then they either have to

step down or make their leadership flexible. In most of the cases the leaders chose to change

their leadership style. Secondly the organizational cultural framework acts show of the

organizational cultures and belief. Thus, the leader's must be in line with what the organization
deems as the required code of conduct. In this case the organizational culture affects the

leadership style 100%. Other authors suggests that leaders have to be flexible because various

leadership positions in different organizations require different leadership style. Thus, it's upon

the leader to ensure that they change accordingly to serve the purpose. However other authors

suggests that some leaders are given the mandate to change the organization so in this case they

are not affected by the organizational culture style on the contrary their leadership style affects

the organizational culture.

According to Xenikou (2022) organizational culture is positively correlated with the

leadership behavior that the managers exhibit in the workplace setup. On that regard Sarhan

(2018) conducted research through a cross-sectional study which was taken on hospital

leadership and organization in Taiwan. The research aimed to show the existence of

organizational culture on the employee’s leadership styles. The data was collected through

questionnaires and the findings showed that the leadership behavior was directly linked with the

job satisfaction index that the employees recorded (Sarhan, 2018). These findings are in line with

the Edgar Schein model of organizational culture which suggests that leaders adopt various

leadership skills required by the organizational culture. For example, is a leader is laissez-faire

and they come to an institution that has a humility-based organization then the leader will have to

change their leadership approach to meet the needs of the organization. Thus, they cannot keep

on using the type of leadership they applied on the institution that required a laissez-faire type of

leadership. Thus, Edgar Schein suggests in his model for organizational culture suggests that the

leaders gain from their past experiences and they start practicing leadership styles daily and as a

result the leaders become fully transformed.

 Similarly, Groysberg (2018) suggests that organizational culture is important and it plays

a significant role on the type of an employee or leader a person becomes. the nature of the

organization culture wand requirements dictates how the leader addresses the subjects more so

when communicating ethos, also how they influence the employees to reach a certain goal. In the

long run of leading under the organization culture of a given organization the leader will change

their leadership style and approach. For example, if they are within a religious institution there is

a certain code of conduct that is required in these places as a result the leader will have to adjust

and ensure that they ac strictly along the requirements of the organizational culture. Thus, if a

leader was strict and commanding then they would have to change their leadership style to be in

line with what's expected of them in the religious set up.

Conversely Octanner (2019) suggests that the organizational culture does not have a huge

impact on the leadership style. On the contrary the leadership style is the one that is known to

impact the organizational culture. In research carried in a hospital facility, the type of leadership

style that came with a certain management determined the type of organizational culture that the

medical institution would develop. For example, if a certain leader had left a humble

organizational culture and then another leader comes with another leader comes with their type

of leadership, they will influence the organizational culture will adopt. Thus, according to

Octanner (2019), it’s the leadership that changes the organizational culture and not the

organizational culture that changes the leadership style.

However, despite these arguments the authors failed to research on how a specific

leadership style can coexist with a given organizational culture. In this case non should change

the other as they can both coexists. The importance of this form or coexistence is that the diverse

leadership culture can help overcome the disadvantages of having a given type of leadership
culture in an organization. According to Premratan (2018), every leadership styles has its pros

and cons. Thus shaving a specific leadership style in the whole organization because of the

organization culture may create a scenario where the organization suffers from the negative

aspects of the given leadership. Thus there is a need for an investigation or a research on how

given leadership styles can coexist with given leadership traits.

Organizational culture defines the leadership styles that a leader will take to achieve

specific goals of the organization in line with their organizational requirements. various

organization have various goals and missions. These goals can be attained through the designed

framework that suggests how leaders should work as required by company's ownership. Thus,

when a certain a leader is introduced, they have to ensure that their leadership style is similar to

the leadership requirements of the organization. According to PBJ (2017) leaders change their

leadership styles based on the need of the organization. If the organization calls for a

transformative leader, then leaders will suit their leadership style to meet these requirements. On

this regard PBJ (2017) suggests that all leaders should be flexible and effortless move from one

style of leadership to the other because the requirements of various departments within an

organization based on the organizational culture maybe different, “Leaders must be flexible and

effortlessly move from one leadership style to another to meet the changing requirements of

organizations” (PBJ, 2017). Additionally, Mansaray (2019) suggests that a leader maybe

working in a certain department that has a given organization culture thus they have to ensure

that their leadership is within the requirements and the demand of the given organization.

However, when they move to another style of leadership, they also have to change their

leadership style to ensure they blend in with the requirements of the organization. Similarly,
CCL (2021) suggests that the leaders should be flexible for the changing leadership within an

organization.

However, Groysberg (2018) suggests that the leaders are the one who determine the

course of the organizational culture a given institution will adopt. He suggests that,

“Leaders determine values, culture, change tolerance and employee motivation” (Groysberg,

2018). This implies that a given leader is introduced into a given organization they will

determine how things should be done and when they should be done. For example, there are the

leaders who are always strict on the deadline thus they will compel the organization to always be

meeting the set targets and communicating with other employees before the set deadline. It’s the

same case when a given leader is elected, the nation does not determine what type of a leader

they will be but they are the ones who determine what type of a culture the country will have. On

this regard the leaders therefore should not be affected by the traditional culture they find in a

given institution. They can either adopt the leadership style they find if it is in line with their

style of leadership or they can decide not change it if their leadership style does not mix with

their leadership style. However, to refute Sarhan (2018)’s claim in some cases the organizational

culture maybe the cause why a given leader was removed from office and thus a new leader is

elected. Thus, the leader may have to change the organizational culture to ensure that the

organization reaches its stated objectives. Through this the leader is not affected by the

organizational culture but they dictate what organizational culture will be. Thus, the rebuttal by

CultureIQ (2020) creates a strong claim that the leadership may not be affected by the

organizational culture. However, despite the well-constructed argument the authors did not focus

on instances where the leadership maybe changed by the organizational culture or when the or

when the culture maybe changed by the leadership style because both authors provide cases
where the leadership is at the receiving end. Therefore, there might be the need for the research

to check on the specific scenarios where both authors agree that the leadership style affects the

organizational culture or the organizational culture affects the leadership.

The organizational culture impacts the leadership style because the employees dictate the

leadership style that is applicable to them. In research by Babatunde (2019) in the Nigerian

higher levels of learning it was established that the organization culture is vital in determining

what type of leadership is effective in a given organization. The research utilized the cultural

dimensions and the Hofstede’s insight as the theoretical framework to guide the research. The

research showed that there is an interdependence of organizational culture shaping the leadership

style of the Nigerian universities. This claim is also stated by Guilherme (2020) who suggests

that the type of organizational culture suggests the type of leadership that should be utilized in

the given institutions. Babatunde (2019) suggests that culture is a social and generationally

transferable. Also, the culture consists of the religious beliefs, the customs, the behavior patterns

among others. These qualities create a framework under which the leadership of a given

institution should apply. For example, in the religious institutions such as the Church, the temple

of the mosques they often teach about principles of humility and service to people. Thus, there is

a given kind of expectations that a certain leader has to deliver to be considered as a true member

of the organization. There cannot be a case where a leader is brings the philosophy of iron fist

leadership in the religious institutions. Similarly, organizations have their own understanding of

the organizational culture. Secondly the culture in the institution forms the framework of

acceptance of what leadership style should apply. According to Sarhan (2018) leadership can

simply be understood as the framework through which a person in authority influences the

behavior of people. However, in some institutions the model for influence is predefined. As
suggested in the religious institutions the leadership framework is defined as that which shows

empathy, compassion servant leadership among other religious virtues. Thus, when a given

leader comes with their leadership techniques, their services may not apply because they may be

seen to conflict with what the organization stands for. Similarly, Guilherme (2020) suggests that

the combination of the organization culture profiles and the leadership style should be in line

because if they should portray the grounds on which the organization was set. Guilherme (2020)

further suggests that the organizational culture is based on the principles of the organization. For

instance, if a given hospital is ran by a religious institution or a military company then they have

to conform to a given behavioral conduct that shows the virtues of the organization. Thus, when

a certain leader is selected and they have a different leadership style to that which is acceptable

to that institutions they will either resign for principal basis or they will have to change their

leadership style. On this claim Guilherme (2020) conducted research on 225 leaders from

multiple institutions within the United Kingdom on the impact of the organizational requirements

and the leadership culture. Guilherme (2020) recorded that most of the leaders had to be flexible

for various leadership requirements. Primarily not all the organizations require the same type of

the leadership. Thus, the leaders had to change to the leadership style deemed as ideal for those

particular institutions. There were only a limited number of institutions where a leader was given

the discretion to select the leadership style they deemed best for the organizational requirements.

However, despite the investigation there was a gap on the research that would have

identified to what extent do the organizational culture influence the leadership style of the given

institutions. Based on the argument of Guilherme (2020) who suggest that the leaders have to be

flexible in terms of the leadership style they use on the instructions they serve and Babatunde

(2019) who suggests that the institutions have a predefined system that defines the leadership
style that should be applied to a give organization, do we assume that organizational culture

imparts the leadership style 100%? However, this cannot be the case since Babatunde (2019)

suggest that there are some institutions that do not interfere with the leadership style that a given

person applies and as a result there is the need to further research on what extent does the

organizational culture affect the leadership style of a given person?

The organizational culture defines the leadership instilled in the employees of an

organization. According to Velvarde (2020) the leadership requirements of various organization

keeps on changing based on the need. However, the organization keeps mentoring the young

people on the skills they should acquire to become leaders in the particular institution. In

particular he suggests that “The values, beliefs, norms and ideals embedded in a culture affect

leadership behavior, goals, and strategies of organizations” (Velvarde, 2020). This implies that

when a person is working in a given organization and the organization has the impact of servant

leadership and the employee had a dictatorial leadership, they will learn from the servant leader

and the overall accumulation of knowledge will transform the once dictatorial leader to a servant

leader. Additionally, as suggested by Guilherme (2020) the organizational culture acts to alter

the leadership theories that a person may have. On that regard Velvarde (2020) suggests that the

leadership style changes the “values, beliefs, norms and ideals” of a person. Its important to note

that values, beliefs, norms and ideals are the defining aspects of leadership. Thus, when these

vital components are changes in a leader it only implies that their leadership style changes

drastically.

Similarly creative Life Institute (2022) suggests that the organizational culture forms the

basis of development of leadership wisdom. Thus, when a given employee is under a particular

organization with a leadership type transactional leadership, they will learn the wisdoms of this
leadership style and in the long run they will end up practicing that type of leadership. On that

note Velvarde (2020) suggests that if an assignat manager had been under a given manager who

was practicing a given type of leadership say transactional leadership the assistant manager will

have learnt the leadership style of the manager and because of the organizational culture if they

are promoted, they will end up practicing the same leadership style. creative Life Institute (2022)

also affirms that organizational culture is one of the external variations that leaders should be

enthusiastically engaged. It gives the leader a change to have some reflection and identify how

they can foster a successful interaction with others. Additionally creative Life Institute (2022)

suggests that, “The development of this ‘leadership wisdom’ is put forward as a real need in the

current environment with its confusing and often contradictory emphasis on improving both

profits and quality of service” on that regard the current environment is vital in determining what

type of a leader a given person will be. If the current environment dictates a given type of

leadership, then the current leader should step up and provide those leadership services for the

forward movement of the company. However even though the organization defines leadership

instilled in the employees of an organization the authors did not mention to what extent the

leaders are changed and is the change permanent. For example, if a person was a transitional

leader and then they worked under a democratic leader for three years and they are nurtured to be

democratic leader, is the change permanent implying that they will remain as democratic leader

or do they gain the skills of a democratic leader but remain as transactional leaders. This the

research on the effect of the organizational culture on leadership should be conducted more so on

the aspect of permanence.

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