The Impacts of Leadership Styles and Organisational Cultures on Public Innovations in the Emirates

Ahmed Mohamed Alkindi,John Chandler

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v13n7p1

Abstract

The role of national and organisational culture in innovation and the implications for strategy remains a source of professional and academic interest. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how national culture and organisational culture influence the relationship between leadership style and innovation strategy. A quantitative approach is adopted for the research methodology utilising structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the hypotheses and explore the relationships between the observed variables. The findings reveal that leadership styles have distinct relationships with innovation strategies and point to a duality in terms of transformational and transactional leadership and innovation. The relationship between national culture dimensions provides support for the notion of a balanced approach to innovation management. National culture does not appear to be an entirely restraining factor in innovation. The findings indicate that cultural dimensions at national and organisational level overall exert a small moderating effect suggesting that the relationship between leadership style and innovation strategies is not wholly bound by national and organisational culture.

Highlights

The role of national and organisational culture on innovation and the implications for strategy remains a source of professional and academic interest
This study explored the relationships between leadership styles and innovation strategies and the effect of national and organisational culture
The findings reveal that leadership styles have distinct relationships with innovation strategies, and point to a duality in terms of transformational and transactional leadership and innovation

Summary

Introduction

The role of national and organisational culture on innovation and the implications for strategy remains a source of professional and academic interest. Understanding factors that influence innovation in organisations has been the subject of numerous studies that have explored leadership style. Research into culture and innovation indicate the influence of culture at both a national and organisational level (Nazarian et al, 2014; House et al, 2004; Pizam, 1993). Evidence indicates that national culture holds greater influence on organisational culture and can exert significant influence on robust organisational strategies and organisational design (Spolaore & Wacziarg, 2012). Organisations with deliberate strategies can override biases from national culture to address dilemmas and challenges arising from context or events (Smale, 2016; Helmreich & Merrit, 1998). Within culture leadership is recognised as of paramount influence on innovation as leaders’ style can dictate the degree to which innovative behaviour is fostered among subordinates

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