Running Header: LITERATURE REVIEW 1

A Literature Review of Culture and its Effect in Leadership

Tonia Swager

Siena Heights University

June 27, 2020

A Literature Review of Culture and its Effect in Leadership

While researching the subject of culture in the workplace we find that the topic can cross

many differing ideals. Culture in its most general form, means the customs, arts, social

institutions and achievements of a nation, people or social group. When people of differing

cultural upbringings achieve leadership positions within their workplace it can lead to opposing

viewpoints, and challenges in the workplace.

Another viewpoint of culture in leadership is the cultural style in which management

leads in. Further defined this would be the attributes within the leadership style. Leading in a

culture of a growth mind-set, encouragement, support, compassion or motivation can create a

positive work-place and set the team up for success.

Traditional Leadership lends a different view-point all together. Johnson (2020), tells us

that the “top-down approach in business describes a traditional organizational style that

emphasizes the imperatives and vision of upper management.” This hierarchy passes the vision

of upper management to leaders without team input. It is a unilateral business approach that

companies are forgoing for a cultural approach.

The purpose of this Literature review is to determine to what degree our culture or

differing cultures, influence business culture. The research will also discuss to what degree

tradition plays in modern leadership. Research methods will include a variety of books and peer

reviewed articles to support findings.

Culture as a Management System

Korman (2019) offers insight on building a management system that frames a culture of

values and beliefs that translate into actions. A management team that can be flexible and know
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 3

who’s needs and interest take precedence in any given situation. Korman (2019) speaks of high-

purpose cultures and their impact on employee retention, profit margins and overall employee

satisfaction. It further discusses the management style of Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, named

one of the top 5 worst CEO’s in 2013. And his predecessor, Satya Nadella. Nadella focused on

building a new corporate culture, and in doing so raised not only employee morale, but stock

prices by $116 a share.

Measuring Culture in Leadership

Caprar, Devinney, Kirkman and Caligiuri (2015) speak about the conceptualizations of

culture and the questionable practice of using country as a proxy of culture. Discussions on best

practices to measure the effects of cultural differences are also included in the reading. The

authors also discuss “cultural distance”. This being the distance between the country of origin

and the employee. The theory being that the farther the employee is from the country of origin,

the higher the chance of acclimation into the new cultural surroundings.

Leadership Affected by Cultural Factors

Wharton (1999) discusses the creation and globalization of GLOBE, The Global

Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness Research Program, launched by Robert J.

House in 1993. House and his colleagues studied different cultures throughout the world and

how they defined leadership. They noted the definitions and perceptions of leadership from

culture to culture, finding that to be an effective leader you must understand the smallest of

differences of leadership as expressed in different cultures.

Outline
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 4

This paper will focus on qualitative analysis performed on the topic of differing cultures

influence on leadership from studies published over the last ten years with a specific focus on the

following research questions:

 To what degree does internal corporate leadership culture influence business culture?

 To what degree does the personal culture of an employee affect overall corporate

culture?

 To what degree does our combined culturescape affect our leadership outcomes?

Literature Review

Culturescape

Lakhiani (2016) makes claim that the environment that we live in defines our rules, how

we eat, how we love, and who marry. He claims that it sets the benchmark for our self-worth and

governs’ our lives with a series of “shoulds”. This book looks at the environmental aspects of

what makes us who we are, which in turn determines the type of leader we will become. Our

author also speaks of breaking free of the culturescape in which we were raised and opening our

mind to the culture around us and defining our own rules.

Sociocultural Theory and Culture

Cherry (2019) states, “Sociocultural theory focuses not only how adults and peers

influence individual learning, but also on how cultural beliefs and attitudes affect how learning

takes place. (Cherry, 2019 par. 4).” Several psychologists examined this cognitive behavior

development. Most prominently being Piaget and Vygotsky. Marwaha (2017), states that

Piaget’s viewpoint was that a child’s development of intellectual abilities is largely based on

stages of development (Marwaha, 2017). Piaget’s theory is that these stages are largely universal

and based more on the cognitive age of the subject, rather than the environment the subject was
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 5

raised (Cherry, 2019 par.7).

Piaget’s theory in common day practice as the developmental milestones in which we

gauge our own children’s growth upon. Modern day school curriculum is largely based on this

theory as well. In Preschool the focus is dexterity and memory recall, Kindergarten the

developmental milestone is memory recall and muscle memory, learning to read and count.

These learning milestones change with each grade level, and age of the child. (Denise

Cummings-Clay, 2019)

Vygotsky, a seminal psychologist, believed that the people around us, i.e. parents,

caregivers, peers and the culture in which we were raised, had a hand in our personal culture

formation. His theory differs from Piaget’s in that according to Vygotsky, children learn social

cues of their culture through their interactions with these people. This learning of social

interaction, and how we behave in our environment, precedes even our earliest development.

(Cherry, 2019)

These findings lead us to believe that our personal culturescape, or the culture in which

we were raised, defines who we will become as adults and ultimately our leadership styles. Who

we are as adults, how we communicate, how we approach problem solving and team-work are

engrained in us through our daily interactions through our surrounding culture. McLeod states,

“Individual development cannot be understood without reference to the social and cultural

context within which it is embedded. Higher mental processes in the individual have their origin

in social processes. (McLeod, 2018 pg. 1)”

Cultural Variability

Cultural variability, in its most essential form, is the differing cultures in which we were

raised, or cultural theories in which we lead with. Specific differences in perceptions give us the
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 6

variables in which we can measure variability (S., 2019). “Foschi and Hales (1979, p. 246)

succinctly outline the issues involved in treating cultural differences as a theoretical variable: “a

culture X and a culture Y serve to operationally define a characteristic a, which the two cultures

exhibit to different degrees (Gudykunst & Nishida, 1986).” Nishida and Gudykunst (1986) study

focuses on two types of culture, Individualistic and Collectivistic.

The pair (Gudykunst & Nishida, 1986) argues that Individualistic culture focuses on the

dynamic that you are to look out for yourself and your own family. Maximizing individual

outcomes is the priority of the Individualistic theory. There is no “greater good” in this cultural

upbringing.

A Collectivistic culture, which focuses on the group, focuses on groups working together

for greater good purposes. People in a Collectivistic culture belong to groups which work

together to provide outcomes for the collective. They do this in exchange for other groups work,

and protection from the outside word by the collective group (Becker, 2012)

“Collectivistic cultures emphasize

1. goals, needs and views of the in-group over those of the individual

2. the social norms of the in-group, rather than individual pleasure

3. shared in-group beliefs, rather than unique individual beliefs

4. a value on cooperation with in-group members, rather than maximizing individual

outcomes. (Nishida and Gudykunst, 1986)”

Meyer (2014), states that in analyzing these findings we can determine that individuals

who were raised in a Collectivistic culture are more inclined to be team focused in the work

place. We could assume that those of a Collectivistic culture would have the aptitude to put the

group’s beliefs and needs above their own and value the cooperation of their team-mates.
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 7

Much like the cultures in which our families raise us, corporations also hold cultures

within their firm (Staff writer,-0001). “Corporate culture refers to the shared values, attitudes,

standards, and beliefs that characterize members of an organization and define its nature.

Corporate culture is rooted in an organization's goals, strategies, structure, and approaches to

labor, customers, investors, and the greater community. (Staff Writer, -0001, pg. 1)”

Culture as a Management System

Grensing-Pophal (2018), states that the same that our personal culture differs from

individual to individual, corporate culture can change from corporation to corporation. Grensing-

Pophal (2018), states that there are four major types of corporate cultures.

1. Clan culture. Clan culture is that of a family setting. People work together in a

friendly, collaborative manner to meet corporate expectations. Core values of

tradition and loyalty are found in this group.

2. Adhocracy culture. Adhocracy culture leaders create an innovative environment

where employees are willing to take chances and leaders are seen as inspirational

innovators willing to take risks.

3. Market Culture. Market culture creates an environment of profit. The goal of this

culture is to grasp as much of the market share, and profits as possible. This culture is

highly competitive, even among employees.

4. Hierarchy Culture. Hierarchy culture is a Top-Down Leadership style that values its

leaders, rules and regulations. This culture is a more traditional style that values

process and procedure.

Because of these differences we can see the variables that might cause conflict when

working together in a team setting. Our personal values and culture must integrate with the
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 8

corporate culture to create a seamless unit. If an employee found himself to be of an

individualistic personal culture, working in an a corporation that valued the clan corporate

culture, many issues may arise. It would be important for the corporation to evaluate incoming

employees personal culture to keep company culture in-tact. (Shrm, 2020, pg. 1)

Sorenson (2001), tells us that the performance benefits of a strong corporate culture are

derived from three consequences of having widely shared and strongly held norms and values:

1. enhanced coordination and control within the firm,

2. improved goal alignment between the firm and its members,

3. increased employee motivation.

To Support this argument, quantitative analyses find that firms with strong cultures outperform

firms with weak cultures (Kotter and Heskett, 1992; Sorenson, 2001)

Employee Driven Work Culture

In exploring the inner workings of the corporation at large we find that the employee and

their own personal culture drives the work culture. As mentioned before, the alignment of the

employees personal culture and the work culture is key to the success of the team. Employees

bring in their own ideas and innovation to the workforce. Because the individual specific skills

are shared with the workforce team, this creates a learning culture within the corporation.

(Groysberg, Lee, Price, & Cheng, 2020)

Hoyrup states “the importance of employee driven innovation in society and workplaces

today is firmly rooted at the societal level, the organizational level and the individual level as

well. (Hoyrup, 2012, pg. 1).” From this we can gather that our individual cultures also intertwine

with our corporate cultures. (Hyorup, 2012)

Brandi and Hasse (2012), state that innovation is a qualitative combination of existing
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 9

resources, experience and knowledge that generates improvement in processes and products. It

can be deducted then, that innovation as an employee driven work culture, is measurable within

company performance based on the defined personal and corporate work cultures.

Profit Driven Market Culture

The profit driven market culture is a more traditional standpoint of leadership. It is the

top down hierarchy that values clearly defined roles and relationships between workers. The

company puts little value in the employee driven work culture and can seem unwelcoming to a

new employee. This traditional work culture does have its place in companies with established

policies that have proven effectiveness. Hospital and governmental work cultures might fall into

this category. (Shrm, 2020)

“The primary belief in market cultures is that clear goals and contingent rewards

motivate employees to aggressively perform and meet stakeholders’ expectations.

Therefore, market organizations value communication, competence, and achievement.

Behaviors associated with these values include planning, task focus, centralized decision

making, and articulation of clear goals. These means are hypothesized to result in a

company beating its competitors, achieving its goals, improving product quality, and

enhancing its market share and profitability. (Hartnell, Ou, & Kinicki, 2011)”

Measuring Culture in Leadership

Anderson & Smit (2019) states that in discussing the measurement of culture in

Leadership it is important to note that all companies measure the impact of corporate culture in

their own unique way. “To find an organization’s unique metrics, you need to pay close attention

to what’s happening around you. (Anderson & Smit, 2019, paragraph 1) Anderson & Smit

(2019), also states that in measuring it is not always a unique score, but the convergence of all
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 10

the unique scores together. Some of these unique scores may be change management metrics,

while others are tied to the behaviors and business results that are to be achieved.

Anderson & Smit (2019), list four customizable ways in which to measure culture.

“Program/rollout KPIs: These help assess the level of participation in culture and

behavior-change efforts, starting at kickoff. These metrics should be easy to identify and

tally. Their purpose is simply to demonstrate momentum.

Anecdotes: Personal observations of people doing something outside the norm, big or

small, should be recorded and shared across the organization. Storytelling is a strong tool.

The more powerful stories an organization has to share about one of the critical

behaviors, the more people talk about them and retell them to their coworkers. Make a

note of and collect stories, perhaps on an intranet site or through periodic emails.

Behavioral KPIs: These are periodic pulse surveys that track how behaviors spread over

time. Behavioral KPIs are useful because they represent a metric that comes directly from

employees. The entire organization should be encouraged to participate so companies can

gain a broad understanding of the culture landscape.

Business KPIs: These are relevant business KPIs that may be affected as a direct or

indirect result of the spread of behaviors. (Anderson & Smit, 2019, pg.1)”

Measuring the impact of culture can be complex. Taylor (2017), notes that like a business

strategy, no two cultural leadership models will be the same. This can make measurement of

successful cultural models difficult as the measure of each different model will require different

measurement methods. She further notes that culture metrics are the only real way to know that

your leadership culture is effective. By using clear definitions and distinctions you can find the

best measurement method for your leadership culture. (Taylor, 2017)

“When an organization has a strong culture, three things happen: Employees know how

top management wants them to respond to any situation, employees believe that the

expected response is the proper one, and employees know that they will be rewarded for

demonstrating the organization's values. (Shrm, 2020, paragraph 1)”

According to SHRM (2020), Human Resource managers are the engineers of corporate

leadership culture. Human Resources is responsible for fostering high-performance leadership

culture and should ensure that culture management is the primary focus of competitive efforts.

Human resources employees can set the example for corporate culture by:

 “Being a role model for the organization's beliefs.

 Reinforcing organizational values.

 Ensuring that organizational ethics are defined, understood and practiced.

 Enabling two-way communications and feedback channels.

 Defining roles, responsibilities and accountabilities.

 Providing continuous learning and training.

 Sustaining reward and recognition systems.

 Encouraging empowerment and teams.

 Promoting a customer-supplier work environment.

 Recognizing and solving individual and organizational problems and issues. (Shrm,

2020).”

Harris & Ogbonna (1998) states that cultural changes in the leadership model can be

accepted with a varying range of acceptance. “Analysis of case study data employee responses

to change efforts differed widely depending on the willingness to change and the strength to the
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 12

existing subcultures to which they belonged (Harris & Ogbonna, 1998).” The study by Harris &

Ogbonna (1998) used three research methods to complete their analysis.

1. “Semi-structured interviews with employees at different levels of the

organizational hierarchy, with the interview sample including both full-time

and part-time employees, each interview lasting between one and two hours

2. The observation of employees within the context of their work. This included

a wide range of situations but largely centered on 'front-line' operatives whose

contact with customers is crucial to service objectives. Observation was

considered necessary to gain a detailed insight into the organizational culture

of each example; and

3. The analysis of internal and external company and industry documentary

information, including a range of documents but principally focusing on

document information flows, company archives and reports as well as

industry and trade press (Harris & Ogbonna, 1998).”

Data obtained during the study was analyzed in a variety of ways. Interviews were

recorded and then supplemented with interview notes and observations. The data was then

transcribed for analysis. Analysis found that employee response to cultural change differed,

broadly based on the willingness to accept change and the strength of their own personal culture.

(Harris & Ogbonna, 1998)

Leadership affected by cultural Factors

Miron, Erez, & Naveh (2004), state that people with certain cultural values or attributes

are drawn to corporations that match their own characteristics. The authors call this the Person-
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 13

Environment Fit Theory. They state that this theory comes from the assumption that (a) human

behavior is a function of that person’s culture and that (b) the employee and that culture needs to

be compatible. “Numerous studies have demonstrated that high congruence between persons and

situations results in high satisfaction, commitment, and psychological well-being (Chatman,

1991; Taris & Feij, 2001; Holton, Lee, & Tidd, 2002), as well as in low turnover and low stress

(Miron, Erez, & Naveh, 2004).”

Miron, Erez, & Naveh (2004), go on to state that the Person-Environment Fit Theory

would imply that creative people do not produce exceeding levels of innovation when the

corporate culture does not fit. Their research would suggest that creative employees prefer

leadership to provide the details and then implement their ideas.

Leadership is affected by personal culture in many ways. A person’s personal bias,

formed by their culture, can impact everything from social interactions to corporate

correspondence. Furthermore, social cues and body language can differ from one culture to the

next. A leader who is not culturally aware of these differences could cause undo chaos in the

organization. (Jhangiani, Tarry, & Stangor, 2014)

Leadership Traditions

“The study of leadership rivals in the age the emergence of civilization, which shaped it’s

leaders as much as it was shaped by them (Vecchio, 2007).” Vecchio (2007), states that the study

of history itself has been the study of its leaders.” Over the centuries, the effort to formulate

principles of leadership spread from the study of history and the philosophy associated with it, to

the developing social sciences (Bass, 2007, pg. 3).”

Bass (2007), likens parenthood as the condition that cuts across cultural lines, with ready-

made patterns of leadership. Noting that patterns of behavior in parenthood, could differ between
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 14

cultures. As children we learn our place in the leadership hierarchy. This traditional top-down

management, i.e., parent-child, became the traditional hierarchy of organizations as we know it

today. Our author also notes the importance of our cultural upbringing and its influence on our

moral belief system.

Conclusion

Over the centuries leadership traditions have evolved into a corporate culture based

leadership model. Today, instead of the traditional top-down business models, corporations are

choosing to implement theories of Transformational Leadership, Servant Leadership, Authentic

Leadership or Follower based leadership models. Each corporation must make the model it

chooses its own by adding in their own company value system. Over time, leadership has

evolved from singular figures to evolutionary principles. (Hunt, Thaddeus & Fedynich, 2019)
A LITERATURE REVIEW OF CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT IN LEADERSHIP 15

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