Advancing Leadership Theory: Organizational Climate and the Implementation of Cultural Competence

Abstract

Leadership style and specific organizational climates have emerged as critical mechanisms to implement targeted practices in organizations. Drawing from leadership and organizational climate theories, we propose that climate for implementation of cultural competence reflects how transformational leadership may enhance the organizational implementation of culturally responsive practices in health care organizations. Using multilevel data from 427 employees embedded in 112 treatment programs collected in 2013 from addiction health services, confirmatory factor analysis showed adequate fit statistics for our measure of climate for implementation of cultural competence and the three outcomes – knowledge (Cronbach’s alpha = .88), service (Cronbach’s alpha = .86) and personnel (Cronbach’s alpha = .86) practices. Results from multilevel path analyses indicate a positive relationship between employee perceptions of transformational leadership and climate for implementation of cultural competence (standardized indirect effect = .057, bootstrap p < .001). We also found a positive and indirect effect between transformational leadership and each of the culturally competent practices – knowledge (standardized indirect effect = .006, bootstrap p < .004), services (standardized indirect effect = .019, bootstrap p < .001), and personnel (standardized indirect effect = .014, bootstrap p < .005). Findings contribute to leadership theory and offer evidence related to the implementation of cultural competence in health care organizations.