Abstract
Leadership is critical for the success of any organisation developing a sustainable and competitive culture. Organizational culture mediates the association between leadership styles and organizational performance. The purpose of the present study was to assess the impact of participative and directive leadership on organisational culture from an organisational development perspective. The data was collected from a sample of 246 administrative departmental employees at Fort Hare University using a self-designed biographical and occupational questionnaire. To measure participative leadership, a six-item 5-point rating scale adopted from Arnold et al. (2000) was also employed. To measure directive leadership, a seven-item bi-polar rating scale adopted from Litwin and Stringer (1968) was also employed. And to measure organisational culture, a four-item 5-point rating scale adopted from the Denison Organizational Culture Survey (Denison & Neale, 1996) was also used. Data analysis was done using various statistical techniques, including descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Technique and Multiple Regression Analysis. The results showed that participative and directive leadership have positive and significant impact on organisational culture. However, directive leadership has negative and insignificant impact on adaptability. The results also indicated that participative and directive leadership combined have no additive impact on organisational culture. However, participative leadership had a stronger effect on organisational culture than when was combined with directive leadership. The present study therefore, recommends managers to use participative leadership in their efforts to adapt their organisational cultures to achieve a sustained competitive culture. However, directive leadership may be used in certain organisational contingencies that demand it. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p1970
Highlights
An organisational culture affects the way in which members of the organisation behave and has to be considered as an important contingent variable when developing organisations
In an effort to speed up the change and development process, the present study proposes that the management of the University of Fort Hare should use more of the participative and directive leadership styles, which were found to be the components of a transformational leadership (Yammarino, 1994)
Statistical correlation and multiple regression were used in testing the research hypotheses of which the impacts of participative and directive leadership on organisational culture among the Fort Hare University’s administration department’s employees were put under test
Summary
An organisational culture affects the way in which members of the organisation behave and has to be considered as an important contingent variable when developing organisations. Believe that they are the managers of culture change (Schein, 1985; Trice & Beyer, 1993) They influence beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of organisational members (Sarros, Cooper & Santora, 2008). As such, they are able to shape and position the organization’s culture (Denison & Mishra, 1995; Schein, 1992). Organizational culture, more than other variables, show an organization’s ability to survive (Pascale, 1990) It is important in explaining organizational effectiveness (Denison, 2000). Even if there are implicit and explicit theories linking leadership and culture, there is still not enough critical research attention that has been solely directed to an understanding of the relationships between the two variables (Ogbonna & Harris, 2000)
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