Correlates of perceived leadership style in a
culturally mixed environment
This study is concerned with
the determination of the most
common and effective leader-
ship style in a non-Western
culturally mixed environment,
and with the exploration of
the correlates of leadership
style in such a context.
Results indicate that consulta-
tive style was the most com-
mon and effective leadership
style in such an environment.
Furthermore, findings indicate
that leaders’ personal attrib-
utes such as national culture,
experience, education and
age; subordinates’ personal
attributes such as gender,
national culture, age and
tenure in present organization
and organizational factors
such as the organization’s
ownership have a significant
relationship with leadership
style. Additionally, leaders’
personal attributes such as
gender, marital status and
tenure in present organiza-
tion, and subordinates’ per-
sonal attributes such as
education, experience and
marital status, in addition to
organizational factors such as
the organization’s activity and
age have no relationship with
leadership style.
Leadership & Organization
Development Journal
19,5 [1998] 275–284
© MCB University Press
[ISSN 0143-7739]
Darwish A. Yousef
College of Business & Economics, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain,
United Arab Emirates
Leadership, like most other concepts in social
sciences, has no single or unique definition. It
has been defined differently by different
authors. For example, Lussier (1990) defines
leadership as “the process of influencing
employees to work toward the achievement of
objectives”, while Robbins (1993) believes it
is: “the ability to influence a group toward
the achievement of goals”.
Similarly, Tannenbaum et al. (1961) define
leadership as:
interpersonal influence, exercised in a situ-
ation, and directed, through the communi-
cation process, toward the attainment of a
specified goal or goals.
However, these definitions have a common
theme of directing a group toward a goal. For
the purpose of the present study, Robbins’
definition of leadership is adopted.
It is generally argued that leadership repre-
sents an important factor in the determina-
tion of the success or failure of organizations.
For example, Bennis and Nanus (1985) argue
that:
A business short on capital can borrow
money, and one with a poor location can
move. But a business short on leadership
has little chance for survival.
In particular, the success of IBM has been
largely attributed to leadership (Wall Street
Journal, 1988, p. 1).
Smith et al. (1984) find effective leadership
to be associated with improved organiza-
tional performance. Kets de Vries (1996) is of
the opinion that effective leadership is con-
sidered a determining factor in creating high
performance organizations. Because of its
significance, leadership as a topic has
received considerable attention particularly
in the Western world, beginning early this
century and continuing until the present
(Meindle and Ehrlich, 1987; Stogdill, 1974).
Leadership style represents an important
aspect of leadership. Its significance stems
from the contribution it makes to the organi-
zation’s success. For example, Gebert and
Steinkamp (1991) argue that there is a close
relationship between the economic success of
an organization and leadership style used.
Furthermore, McDonough and Barczak (1991)
noted that leadership style influences the
speed of product development.
Leadership style also has a significant
impact on organizational commitment (Alley
and Gould, 1975; Glisson and Durick, 1988;
Kraut, 1970; Newman, 1974; Porter et al., 1976;
Savery, 1994; Wilson, 1995; Zeffane, 1994), on
job satisfaction ( Cheng and Yang, 1977;
Fleishman and Harris, 1962; Page and Wise-
man, 1993; Savery, 1994; Skinner, 1969), and on
performance (Dawson et al., 1972; Swanson
and Johnson, 1975). In this light, we can con-
clude that leadership style has a consistent
influence on the organizations’ productivity
and profitability.
Leadership style has been classified in
different ways in the literature. Table I sum-
marizes major classifications of leadership
style in previous studies. However, we adopt
Likert’s classification of leadership style
because it is widely used in the literature and
it fits the purpose of this study.
The present study therefore aims to:
• determine the prevailing leadership style
in a non-Western culturally mixed environ-
ment;
• explore the correlates of perceived leader-
ship style; and
• determine the most effective leadership
style in a non-Western culturally mixed
environment.
It should be noted that the term “non-Western
culturally mixed environment” is used in this
study to mean the environment that does not
belong to the Western bloc and that also con-
sists of nationals as well as expatriates of dif-
ferent national cultures. The present study
will provide academics and scholars with
important insights into the factors related to
leadership style in a non-Western culturally
mixed environment. Additionally, this study
may provide other researchers with the oppor-
tunity to test the validity of its findings in
other contexts under different circumstances.
Finally, it draws leaders’ attention to the fact
that they should adopt leadership style, which
accommodates subordinates’ personal attrib-
utes as well as organizational factors in order
to achieve organizational goals and objectives
effectively. Figure 1 exhibits the conceptual
framework of the study.
[ 275 ]
[ 276 ]
Darwish A. Yousef

leadership style in a

Development Journal
19/5 [1998] 275–284
Correlates of perceived

Leadership & Organization

culturally mixed environment

Table I
Leadership style in previous studies
Lewin et al. Likert Vroom and Yetton Bass and Muna Ali
(1939) (1967) (1973) Valenzi (1974) (1980) (1993)
Autocratic Exploitative authoritative (System 1) A1 System 1 System 1 System 1
Leader makes This system utilizes an autocratic, top-down approach to leadership. Manager makes decision Direction Own decision Own decision
the decision and Employee evaluation is based on punishment and occasionally on
closely supervises rewards. Downward communication is predominant and there is
little lateral interaction or teamwork. Both control and decision
making reside at the top level of the organization
Democratic Benevolent authoritative (System 2) A11 System 2 System 2 System 2
Leader allows This system is similar to System 1 but management tends to be Manager makes decision Negotiation Consultation Pseudo-
participation in more paternalistic. Employees are given a little more freedom than obtaining necessary with subordinates consultative
decisions and does in System 1. Management defines the limited boundaries for information from
not closely supervise interaction, communication and decision making subordinate
Laissez-faire Consultative (System 3) C1 System 3 System 3 System 3
Leader takes a leave-the- Employees have more interaction, communication and decision Manager shares problem Consultation Joint decision Consultative
employees-alone approach making than in System 2. Although employees are consulted with subordinates; makes with subordinates
and closely supervises about problems and decisions, management makes the final own decision
decisions
Participative (System 4) Group C11 System 4 System 4 System 4
This system makes extensive use of employer participation, involvement Manager shares problem Participation Delegation of Participative
and groups. The groups are highly involved in setting goals, making with group; makes own decision to
decisions, improving methods and appraising results. Communication decision subordinates
occurs both laterally and vertically. The linking-pin concept is used
G1 System 5 System 5
Manager and subordinate together Delegation of decision Pseudo-
arrive at mutually agreeable decision to subordinates participative
G11 System 6
Manager and group discuss, Delegation of
evaluate and make a group decision decision to
subordinates
Darwish A. Yousef The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Factors determining leadership style
Correlates of perceived The next section provides a brief literature Several factors have been pointed out by pre-
leadership style in a culturally review. We then outline the various hypothe- vious studies as key determinants for the
mixed environment ses under testing as well as the empirical appropriate leadership style. For instance,
Leadership & Organization methodology used. Next we present and ana- Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) have long
Development Journal lyze the empirical results. A final section
19/5 [1998] 275–284
maintained that three forces affect the choice
concludes the paper outlining limitations of of the appropriate leadership style. These are
the study and directions for future research. forces in the leader himself, those in the sub-
ordinates and those in the situation. Yukl
(1981, 1994) lists the following factors as deter-
Literature review minants of leadership style: level in the
Leadership style in non-Western settings authority hierarchy, function of the organiza-
A number of previous studies have examined tional unit, size of the organizational unit,
leadership style in a non-Western setting. For task characteristics and technology, lateral
example, Ali et al. (1995) investigated the interdependence, crisis situation, stages in
decision-making styles of UAE national man- the organization life cycle and, finally, subor-
agers and Arab and foreign expatriates. The dinates’ competence and performance. On the
results suggest that the consultative style was other hand, Herbert (1981) argues that leader-
predominant. Similarly, Ali (1993) examined ship style is a function of the need for partici-
the decision styles of Arab Gulf executives. pation, the result of commitment, and close-
The results also point to a strong preference ness of supervision required. Maheshwari
for the consultative style. Furthermore, Ali (1980) argues that the style of decision making
(1989b); Al-Jafary and Hollingsworth (1983) in an organization is the result of a complex
and Muna (1980) examined the decision-mak- interaction of several factors, including the
ing styles of Arab executives. They report context and characteristics of the organiza-
that Arab executives are highly committed to tion, the nature of the decisions and the
the consultative style. attributes and preferences of the decision
Dahhan (1988) studied the decision styles of makers.
Jordanian top managers. She found that Jor- Blanchard and Wakin (1991) point out that
danian top managers follow an authoritative the degree of difficulty of the task plays a
management style, a finding that is also significant role in determining the right
reported by Badawy (1980) for Mideastern leadership style. Whyte (1988) argues that the
managers. However, Kaur (1993) reports that choice of leadership style depends on the
the autocratic style prevails among Indian nature of the task, the power available to the
managers. leader, the experience of the subordinates, the
culture of the organization, the preferred
style of the leader, the style preferred by sub-
Figure 1
ordinates and time available for task comple-
The conceptual framework
tion.
Importantly, Robbins (1993) suggests that
Leaders’ Personal national culture plays an important role in
Attributes determining the effectiveness of leadership
* Age * Gender
* Marital status * Experience style. Similarly, Adler (1991), Badawy (1980)
* Culture * Tenure Leadership Satisfaction
and Bass et al. (1979) have all argued that
* Education Style With national boundaries make considerable dif-
Immediate ferences in leadership style. Bass (1990) also
* Exploitative/ Superior concludes that culture does influence leader-
Benevolent
Subordinates’ Personal ship. According to Ali (1989b), leadership
Authoritative * High
Attributes * Low decision style differs significantly by country.
* Age * Gender * Consultative/ Al-Faleh (1987) points out that Arab culture
* Marital status * Experience Participative
* Culture * Tenure has certain distinctive characteristics that
* Education dominate managerial thinking and behavior.
Evans et al. (1989) have argued that leader-
ship style is a function of the level of industri-
Organizational alization, but cultural characteristics play a
Characteristics significant role in tempering its effects. Like-
* Activity wise, Morris and Pavett (1992) examine the
* Age differences in management style between a
* Ownership
Mexican maquiladora operation and its US
parent plant. They note significant differ-
ences in management styles between the two
[ 277 ]
Darwish A. Yousef
Correlates of perceived
leadership style in a culturally
mixed environment
Leadership & Organization
Development Journal
19/5 [1998] 275–284
[ 278 ]
nations. Such differences were attributed to
differences in national cultures.
Similarly, Aram and Piraino (1978), Burger
and Bass (1979), Kras (1989) and Wright (1981)
contend that management styles vary from
culture to culture.
Campbell et al. (1993) note that leadership
style itself and eventual task outcome had a
strong impact on perceptions of appropriate-
ness of leadership style, whereas gender and
organizational setting had no substantive
impact. Buckham (1990) argues that the type
of industry sector (private or public) and an
organization’s size play important roles in
the determination of the effectiveness of
management style.
Leadership style effectiveness
There is wide disagreement among scholars
with regard to effective leadership style. For
instance, Brozik (1994) argues that no one
type of management style is best in all situa-
tions and that the leader, the subordinates
and the environment or the task determine
the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of each
style.
Kur (1995) believes that effectiveness in
leading is directly related to the leader’s way
of thinking about himself, subordinates,
organization and environment. Likert and
Likert (1976) argue that the participative style
is more productive in any culture.
Al-Jafary and Hollingworth (1983) also find
a significant correlation between the facets of
the management system (e.g. support, team
building, goal emphasis, help with work,
involvement) and that of the measures of
organizations’ effectiveness. However, the
review of literature reveals disagreement
among researchers with regard to what
makes leaders choose certain leadership
style. Obviously, there is a paucity of empiri-
cal research studying the correlates of lead-
ers’ and subordinates’ personal attributes
and organizational factors simultaneously
with leadership style particularly in a non-
Western culturally mixed setting. Kumar and
Yauger (1995) stress that “research on the
impact of cultural diversity on ... leadership
... is still lacking”. Furthermore, Dorfman
(1996) states that only a few studies out of
hundreds have been concerned with the
impact of cultural influences on leadership.
Therefore, it is worthwhile investigating the
correlates of perceived leadership style in a
non-Western culturally mixed setting in par-
ticular.
Hypotheses
The current study attempts to test the follow-
ing hypotheses:
H1. Leaders’ personal attributes such as
age, education, gender, national cul-
ture, experience, tenure in present
organization and marital status have a
significant correlation with leadership
style.
H2. Subordinates’ personal attributes such
as age, gender, education, experience,
national culture, tenure in present
organization and marital status have a
significant correlation with leadership
style.
H3. Organizational factors such as an
organization’s activity, age and owner-
ship have a significant correlation
with leadership style.
H4. There is a positive significant associa-
tion between leadership style and
satisfaction with immediate superior
as an indicator of leadership style
effective ness.
Method
Sample
Subjects for the present study were 235 individ-
uals working in 14 different organizations in
the United Arab Emirates. It should be pointed
out that the UAE has been chosen for this study
because:
• it provides an excellent example of a cultur-
ally mixed environment. For instance,
according to the 1995 census, 75 percent of the
UAE population are expatriates, of whom 12
percent are Arabs, 61 percent are Asians and
2 percent are of other nationalities;
• because of lack of such studies in the UAE;
and
• the UAE has become a focal point of interna-
tional business activity.
Of the subjects, 58 percent were between the
age of 20 and 35; 78 percent were male; 47 per-
cent were UAE nationals, 36 percent Arab
expatriates and 17 percent Asian expatriates.
About 81 percent had between six months to
ten years experience in their present occupa-
tion, and 66 percent have been working with
the present organization for about six months
to ten years. About 63 percent had college or
graduate education. About 57 percent worked
in administrative jobs, and 52 percent worked
in public organizations. Seventy-six percent
worked in organizations which have been in
operation for about five to 25 years. About 82
percent were subordinates. Table II displays
the main characteristics of the sample.
Darwish A. Yousef Table II questionnaires distributed, 235 (65 percent)
Correlates of perceived The main characteristics of the sample (n = provided usable responses.
leadership style in a culturally 235)
mixed environment
Leadership & Organization Characteristic Frequency % Measures
Development Journal
Organization ownership
19/5 [1998] 275–284 Leadership style
Private sector 59 25.1
Public sector 121 51.5 Likert's (1967) leadership questionnaire is
Joint sector 55 23.4 used to measure leadership style and to pro-
Organization activities vide scores for measuring leadership style.
Service 207 88.1 This questionnaire consists of 22 items. Three
Manufacturing 8 3.4 items deal with leadership process; two items
Both 20 8.5 cover motivation process. Five items deal
Organization age with communication process; two items cover
25 years or less 179 76.2 interaction influence process. Five items deal
Over 25 years 56 23.8 with decision-making process; two items deal
Age with goal setting or ordering. Finally, three
Below 30 years 92 39.1 items cover control process. Respondents
30-45 years 120 51.1 were asked to respond to the 22 statements in
Over 45 years 23 9.8 a seven-point format, where 1 indicated sys-
Gender tem 1 and 7 indicated system 4. Scores on the
Male 184 78.3 22 items were averaged to yield a summary
Female 51 21.7 score reflecting leadership style. An average
National culture score of 0-1.74 represents system 1; an average
UAE 111 47.2 score of 1.75-3.49 represents system 2; while an
Arab 85 36.2 average score between 3.5 and 5.24 represents
Asian 34 14.5 system 3; and finally, an average score
Western 5 2.1 between 5.25 and 7 represents system 4.
Marital status The original Likert’s leadership question-
Married 184 78.3 naire used a 20-point format, five points for
Single 51 21.7 each system. The above modification was
Experience introduced to the format of the original ques-
Ten years or less 190 80.9 tionnaire to suit the purpose of this study.
Over ten years 45 19.1 Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s
Tenure in organization alpha) for this study was 0.92.
Ten years or less 156 66.4
Over ten years 79 33.6 Satisfaction with supervisor
Job type Subordinates’ satisfaction with their immedi-
Administrative 133 56.6 ate superiors was measured using a version
Technical 39 16.6 of Smith et al.’s (1969) job description index
Both 63 26.9 (JDI). Respondents were asked to respond to
Education 18 statements. For each statement, respon-
General education 69 29.4 dent can tick “yes”, “no” or “cannot decide”.
Graduate 149 63.4 This was used as an indicator of leadership
Postgraduate 17 7.2 style effectiveness. The internal consistency
Position reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) for this study
Leader 43 18.3
was 0.81.
Subordinate 192 81.7
Personal attributes
Measures of personal attributes included age,
Data collection
marital status, national culture, education,
We collected the data through drop-off and
gender, tenure in present organization and
pick-up methods, using a questionnaire con-
experience.
sisting of three parts. Part 1 measures the
perceived leadership style and part 2 mea- Organization characteristics
sures subordinates’ satisfaction with their Measures of organizational characteristics
immediate superiors. Finally, part 3 includes included the organization’s activity, age and
personal and organizational variables. Of 360 ownership.
[ 279 ]
Darwish A. Yousef
Correlates of perceived
leadership style in a culturally
mixed environment
Leadership & Organization
Development Journal
19/5 [1998] 275–284
[ 280 ]
Table III
Analysis
Results of stepwise regression
Three statistical techniques were used in this
Dependent Independent
study. The first one was descriptive statistical
analysis, which includes frequencies and
variable variables R2 B
percentages to present the main characteris- Leadership Leaders’ personal 0.39
tics of the sample. style attributes such as:
The second and the third techniques were Gender n.s
stepwise regression with binary variables and National culture 0.810*
chi-square (x2) to test the hypotheses of the Marital status n.s.
study. It should be made clear that because the Experience 1.820*
majority of the variables included in this Education 0.411*
study (e.g. gender, education, national culture, Age 0.382*
marital status…etc.) are qualitative in nature, Tenure in present
chi-square technique is believed to be the most organization n.s.
appropriate technique given these types of Notes: n.s. = not significant; * = p < 0.01
variables and therefore, it has been employed.
Nonetheless, a stepwise regression has been
The previous results partially support H1,
employed for the leaders variables because of
which proposed a significant relationship
the presence of several cells with less than five
between leaders’ personal attributes such as
observations, which made it difficult to
age, education, gender, national culture, expe-
employ the chi-square technique.
rience, tenure in present organization and
marital status, and leadership style.
Table IV provides the chi-square statistics
Results and discussion
of the relationship between subordinates’
Results indicate that 63 percent of subordi- personal attributes and leadership style.
nates and 84 percent of leaders perceived a Results indicate that there are significant
consultative type of leadership style. This relationships between leadership style and
might lead to the conclusion that the most subordinates’ gender (p < 0.003), national
common leadership style is consultative. This culture (p < 0.001), age (p < 0.05) and tenure in
result is consistent with previous findings present organizations (p < 0.09). Results fur-
(Ali, 1989b; 1993; Ali et al., 1995; Al-Jafary and ther show that 63 percent of subordinates who
Hollingsworth, 1983; Muna, 1980). Since the perceive consultative leadership style were
majority of the sample (about 83 percent) are over 30 years old. Arab expatriates formed 47
Arabs and more likely Muslims, therefore, as percent and 42 percent were UAE nationals,
suggested by Ali (1993), this preference may while 83 percent were male and 66 percent
reflect the influence of Islamic and tribalistic had up to ten years’ experience in their
values and beliefs, as both Islamic and tribal present organization. With regard to the
laws reinforce consultation in conducting all
relationship of national culture with leader-
aspects of life. The preference for consultative
ship style, the present study is in line with
style may indicate that the decision-making
previous findings that assign a significant
process takes time and delays change, and
relationship (Adler, 1991; Aram and Piraino,
this in turn needs to be taken into considera-
1978; Badawy, 1980; Burger and Bass, 1979;
tion when doing business in such an environ-
ment. Table III displays results of stepwise
regression of the relationship between lead- Table IV
ers’ personal attributes and leadership style. Subordinates’ personal attributes and
Results reveal that there are significant leadership style
relationships of leaders’ age, national culture,
education and experience with leadership No. Variable Chi-square
style. This is consistent with previous find- 1 Gender 8.6857*
ings (Ali, 1989a; Blyton, 1984; Maheshwari, 2 Culture 13.3337*
1980; Tayeb, 1988; Yukl, 1981).
3 Marital status 2.5803
However, when breaking down the overall
leadership style into its various dimensions, 4 Experience 0.0164
it was found that leaders’ experience has a 5 Education 0.5342
significant correlation with leadership 6 Age 3.7718**
process (p < 0.06), education has a significant
7 Tenure in present
correlation with interaction influence
organization 2.8140***
process (p < 0.02), and age has a significant
Notes: * = p < 0.01; ** = p < 0.05; *** = p < 0.10
correlation with control process (p < 0.04).
Darwish A. Yousef
Correlates of perceived
leadership style in a culturally
mixed environment
Leadership & Organization
Development Journal
19/5 [1998] 275–284
Kras, 1989; Robbins, 1993; Wright, 1981). We
find, however, no significant relationship
between leadership style and subordinates’
education, marital status, and experience.
Contrary to the findings of the present study,
Campbell et al. (1993) found that gender has
no substantive relationship with leadership
style. Also contrary to the findings of the
present study, Whyte (1988) found that subor-
dinates’ experience has significant relation-
ship with leadership style. The previous find-
ings partially support H2 which proposed
that subordinates’ personal attributes such as
age, gender, education, experience, national
culture, tenure in present organization and
marital status have a significant relationship
with leadership style.
Table V displays the chi-square statistics of
the relationship between leadership style and
organizational characteristics, such as orga-
nization’s activity, age and ownership.
Results indicate that there are no signifi-
cant relationships between leadership style
and organization’s activity and age, whereas
there is a significant relationship between
leadership style and organization’s owner-
ship (p < 0.0001), consistent with some previ-
ous findings as those reported by Buckham
(1990), and also consistent with Bourantas
and Papalexandris’ (1993) findings, who found
differences in leadership style between public
and private organizations in Greece.
The previous findings partially support H3,
which proposed a significant relationship
between organizational factors such as an
organization’s activity, age and ownership,
and leadership style.
We also find that there is a positive signifi-
cant relationship between leadership style
and satisfaction with immediate superior, as
an indicator of leadership style effectiveness,
(p < 0.00001). This result is in line with previ-
ous findings (Bass, 1981; Heller and Wilpert,
1981; Likert, 1977; Skaret and Bruning, 1986).
Results also indicate that 62 percent of sub-
ordinates who perceive consultative leader-
ship style were also highly satisfied with their
immediate superiors. Further examination of
the characteristics of those who were highly
satisfied with their immediate superiors
Table V
Organizational characteristics and leadership
style
No. Variable Chi-square
1 Age 1.0654
2 Activity 0.6810
3 Ownership 18.1801*
Note: * = p < 0.01
revealed that 61 percent were over 30 years
old, and 76 percent were male. UAE nationals
comprised 46 percent and 80 percent were
married. Eighty percent had up to ten years’
experience in their present jobs. Sixty-seven
percent had been working with the present
organization for up to ten years. Fifty-three
percent worked in administrative jobs and 66
percent received college or graduate educa-
tion. The previous results strongly support
H4, which stated that there is positive signifi-
cant relationship between leadership style
and satisfaction with immediate superior as
an indicator of leadership style effectiveness.
Using satisfaction with immediate superior
as an indicator of leadership style effective-
ness, we may conclude that the most effective
leadership style in a culturally mixed setting
is consultative.
Conclusion
This study has been devoted to determining
the most common and appropriate leadership
style in a non-Western culturally mixed envi-
ronment. Furthermore, it explores the rela-
tionship of certain leaders’ and subordinates’
personal attributes as well as certain organi-
zational factors with leadership style.
The empirical results suggest that the most
common and effective leadership style in a
non-Western culturally mixed environment
is consultative leadership style. Moreover,
leaders’ personal attributes such as age, edu-
cation, experience and national culture; sub-
ordinates’ personal attributes such as gender,
national culture, age and tenure in present
organization; and organizational factors such
as organization’s ownership (private or pub-
lic) have a significant relationship with lead-
ership style, whereas leaders’ personal attrib-
utes such as gender, tenure in present organi-
zation and marital status, and subordinates’
personal attributes such as education, mari-
tal status and experience, as well as organiza-
tional factors such as an organization’s activ-
ity and age have no significant relationship
with leadership style.
The contribution of this study is twofold:
first, it increases our understanding and
ability to predict types of leadership styles
which might prevail and which also might
be more effective in culturally mixed non-
Western settings similar to the one investi-
gated in this study. This in turn would
enhance our understanding of management
thinking and practices across nations. In
practice, this would be of benefit to multi-
cultural corporations thinking of doing
business in such settings in that they need to
adopt the appropriate leadership style so that
[ 281 ]
Darwish A. Yousef
Correlates of perceived
leadership style in a culturally
mixed environment
Leadership & Organization
Development Journal
19/5 [1998] 275–284
[ 282 ]
productivity and profitability could be
improved. For instance, the consultative style
is the most common leadership style in a
multicultural non-Western setting, this may
indicate that the decision-making process
takes time and delays change, and therefore,
this fact should be taken into account so that
organizational goals and objectives could be
achieved more effectively.
The second contribution of this study is
that it highlights the individual as well as the
organizational characteristics, which are
related to leadership style also in culturally
mixed non-Western settings. The findings in
this direction support the concerned leader-
ship theories,which suggest that a number of
individual as well as organizational variables
are related to leadership style. Once again,
this would be of benefit to those doing busi-
ness in such settings in that they should be
aware of these characteristics, so that more
effective leadership style could be employed,
and therefore, high organizational perfor-
mance could probably be achieved.
Like other studies, the present one has its
own limitations. First, our sample size (n =
235) is relatively small. This might reduce the
generalizability of its findings. Second, the
sample size of each cultural group is also
relatively small. This made it difficult to
carry out further analysis on each group
independently. Third, we focus on one mea-
sure of leadership style effectiveness. This in
turn might not give a reliable and accurate
indication of leadership style effectiveness.
Finally, this study only relates to one Middle
Eastern culture and to generalize to all non-
Western cultures is stretching the result too
far.
Several lines of future research suggest
themselves. First, this study concentrates
solely on national culture. It is of interest to
examine the relationship of both organiza-
tional and national culture with leadership
style since there is paucity of research in this
area. Second, we only use one measure of
leadership style effectiveness. The inclusion
of other measurements of leadership style
effectiveness such as organizational perfor-
mance may provide more accurate and reli-
able outcomes. Third, a study on a longitudi-
nal basis is of interest, since such a study may
show whether leadership style changes over
time. Finally, replication of this study in
other cultures would be of interest, since this
would make it possible to generalize the find-
ings of this study to other cultures.
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