The effects of paternalistic leadership on organizational identification: the mediating role of trust in leader

Abstract

Leadership as a topic holds an important place in literature in the area of organization and management. Despite the research on managerial approaches and practices based on the cultural characteristics of western societies is abundant, the research reflecting cultural characteristics of eastern societies in the same field is scarce. On the other hand, recent research has frequently demonstrated that the leadership model based on paternalism phenomenon which reflects the dominant cultural characteristics of eastern societies is highly effective in those societies (Pellegrini et al., 2010). As substantial amount of studies show paternalistic leadership phenomenon is also a positive cultural value in our country. It is important to investigate the effects of this phenomenon on different affective and cognitive mechanisms that lead to positive employee behaviours. Regarding this, the purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of trust in the leader on the effect of paternalistic leadership on organizational identification. The data is collected from 148 employees who work in three different industries in Izmir. The path analysis findings indicated that trust in leader mediates the relationship of benevolent leadership and identification. These findings compatible with hypothetical model. Keywords: Paternalism, paternalistic leadership, trust in leader, organizational identification, SEM. JEL Classification: M10, D23, M50