THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG LEADERSHIP STYLE, ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION: THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AT THE MIDDLE MANAGEMENT LEVEL
Open Access
- Author:
- Kim, Jin Yong
- Graduate Program:
- Workforce Education and Development
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- April 21, 2011
- Committee Members:
- Judith Ann Kolb, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Judith Ann Kolb, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
William J Rothwell, Committee Member
Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member
Wei Chen, Committee Member - Keywords:
- LEADERSHIP
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
LEARNING ORGANIZATION - Abstract:
- Present day organizations are faced with a turbulent environment. In order to obtain and sustain a competitive advantage in an increasingly complex and unpredictable work environment, business organizations must enhance their learning capabilities and need to be transformed into learning organizations that can transmit new knowledge and create new products. It is useful to study the aspects of organizational culture that support the learning organization and the leadership style of middle management that shapes the learning organization since middle managers play a key role in making the transition to a learning organization, encouraging employees to embrace continuous learning in business settings. Thus, an awareness of the impact of organizational culture and the leadership style of middle management in the learning organization is a prerequisite for improving organizational performance. The major objective of this research is to explore the relationship among leadership style, organizational culture, and learning organization factors. More specifically, this research examines the moderating effects of organizational culture on the relationships between leadership style of middle management and the learning organization in the Korean business settings. All the constructs are measured by multi-item scales and all the measures are perception-based, self-reporting survey types of instruments. For the purpose of this study, the middle managers and subordinates’ perceptions regarding the seven dimensions of the learning organization in their organization were taken as the dependent variables and the leadership style (transformational and transactional leadership) of the middle managers were taken as independent variables. Four types of organizational culture (clan, adhocracy, hierarchy and market culture) served as moderator variables. This study adopted Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Multiple Regression Analysis for data analysis using SPSS 18.0 and LISREL 8.8. The results of this study are as follows: (a) transformational leadership and adhocracy culture had positive significant effects on the development of the learning organization; (b) organizational culture (hierarchy culture) had a moderating effect between transformational leadership and the learning organization; (c) the effects of leadership style and organizational culture on the development of the learning organization did not differ between middle managers and subordinates; (d) leadership components (idealized influence attributes, idealized influence behavior and individual consideration) in transformational leadership had significant effects on the learning organization; and (e) leadership style, organizational culture and learning organization were different among the industry types. Further, several issues on leadership competency, organizational culture and learning organization were reported through short-answer responses. A conclusive summary is provided along with contributive discussion. Implications, limitations and future research are discussed, and final conclusions are offered.