Variations in employee duty orientation: impact of personality, leadership styles and corporate culture

Abstract

This study aims to assess the extent and variations of employee duty orientation in a transition economy context, i.e., in Kazakhstan. Adopting ideas from the attitudinal theory, normative theory and exchange theory perspectives, the study further investigates relationships between personality traits and duty orientation as well as moderating role of leadership styles and corporate culture on personality-duty orientation relationship. Data were collected from employees of 284 organizations in three main big cities of Kazakhstan. The findings revealed higher level of employee duty orientation as well as variations in employees’ duty orientation between local and multinational corporations. It also identified the influence of individual personality traits, leadership styles and organizational culture on employees’ level of duty orientation. Among different personality traits, conscientiousness appeared to have the highest significant positive influence, and emotionality has highest significant negative influence on duty orientation. Among different leadership styles, autocratic leadership seems to have the most significant influence on duty orientation. Among types of organizational culture, adhocracy culture appears to have most significant positive influence on duty orientation. While individual-level factors are mostly blamed for employees’ duty orientation, the findings show influence of contextual factors such as leadership styles and corporate culture on employee duty orientation. It depicts a holistic view of employee duty orientation and opens new avenues to consider duty orientation from multi-level perspectives. Based on empirical evidence, the study provides recommendations for managers to nurture employee duty orientation for improved organizational performance.