The Role of Leadership in Shaping Organizational Culture

It has been proven in many theoretical and research studies like Donaldson & Gini, 1996, Ciulla, 1998; Rost,1995 etc. that leaders should, and do, influence organizational ethics (Trevino & Brown, 2004). In an effort to understand how people reason through ethical dilemma and how they decide right action Kohlberg (1969) have established that people reason at three broad levels - preconventional, conventional and principled. Other research on moral development have established the fact that a vast majority of people reason at conventional level and they look outside of themselves to their environment, to rules and laws, at their supervisors and the company leaders for guidance to determine the ethically right thing to do (Trevino & Brown, 2004). Leaders influence these broad category of people, who are in conventional level of reasoning, by social learning perspective through modelling process and by social exchange perspective through which the employee at lower hierarchy are more likely to be influenced and reciprocate with a positive behavior when they are involved by their leaders in a relationship of trust and

To understand the organizational culture of a company, one needs to start by looking at the history. Lakeshore Learning Materials was born from a divorced mother of three named Ethelyn Kaplan, who took a dream and a chance by moving her family to California in 1954 to open a toy store. When she started noticing that teachers were interested in her material, Ethelyn realized that she needed to expand her business into educational materials. 60 years later, Lakeshore Learning Materials has grown into a company with over 2000 employees, 60 retail stores throughout the United States and growing. Lakeshore Learning Materials is currently headed by Ethelyn’s grandsons, Bo and Josh Kaplan. Under the supervision of Bo and Josh, Lakeshore continues to be a leader in the Educational Materials, yet still able to keep the family culture that their grandmother started. Highest quality customer service and hard work are the core values that shape Lakeshore’s Organizational Strategy. These high expectations aren’t hard for employees at Lakeshore because the company is so loved by everyone that works there, that they give nothing less than the best.

The organization culture as a leadership concept has been identified as one of the many components that leaders can use to grow a dynamic organization. Leadership in organizations starts the culture formation process by imposing their assumptions and expectations on their followers. Once culture is established and accepted, they become a strong leadership tool to communicate the leader 's beliefs and values to organizational members, and especially new comers. When leaders promote ethical culture, they become successful in maintaining organizational growth, the good services demanded by the society, the ability to address problems before they become disasters and consequently are competitive against rivals. The leader 's success will depend to a large extent, on his knowledge and understanding of the organizational culture. The leader who understands his organizational culture and takes it seriously is capable of predicting the outcome of his decisions in preventing any anticipated consequences. What then is organizational culture? The concept of organizational culture has been defined from many perspectives in the literature. There is no one single definition for organizational culture. The topic of organizational culture has been studied from many perspectives and disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, organizational behavior, and organizational leadership to name a few. Deal defines organizational culture as values,

She and Kareem became friends and helped each other if they were struggling with performance issues (WCM 620 Final Project Case Study, 2017). Kathy knew about Kareem 's religious requirements and was aware of his

A strong culture is important to today’s organizations in a fast pace environment affected by a diverse internal workforce (Baker, 2002 p. 4). Schein (as cited in Baker, 2002) defined organizational culture as an arrangement of shared beliefs that the group learned through problem solving, and adapting to internal and external environments (p.4). Culture is not only a means of bettering internal coordination, but is important in facilitating environmental adaptation (Baker, 2002 p. 4).

The topic that we choose is “The relationship between Leadership and Ethics”. The term ethics has been defined as inquiry into the nature and grounds of morality or a branch of philosophy of human conduct and determine right and wrong (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010). In the other words, it includes study of general nature of moral, specific moral choices, moral philosophy, and rules or standards of governing the conduct of the member of a profession (Ferrell et al., 2010).

Leaders that demonstrate a commitment to behaving in an ethical manner are viewed as trustworthy and subordinates gravitate toward them. Ethical leaders have a foundational belief in honesty and trustworthiness and disseminating these principles throughout the organization. This paper will present ethical leadership models as tools for merging diverse cultures into the existing organizational culture. An overview of which leadership models, styles, and traits are most commonly accepted as ethical across the greatest array of social cultures will be discussed. The paper will culminate with a selection of a particular leadership model as a tool for shaping organizational culture and the rationale for selecting that model.

Nikravan (2010) provides further illustrations about how leaders inspire moral in an organization. Noting that a

In this paper I will discuss the effects and responsibilities leaders have on an organizational culture. I believe leaders have an enormous effect on the well-being of an organizational culture. Leaders must take an active role within their organization's culture. Whether positive or negative, in an organization, things tend to follow suit "down hill." A leader has the power and influence to maintain, create, or repair an organizational culture. However, this can prove to be a delicate and challenging task.

House et al. (2007) discovers that leadership and Organisational culture are closely linked together as leaders influence the culture of their organisations. Researches talk about a range of leadership definitions but it is not easy to define. (E.g. Western, 2008; Yukl, 2010). However, Cohen (2009) critically analyses definitions from Dracker (1996), Eisenhower (1969), Northouse (2004) and finally summarised the definition of leadership constitutes five elements. First of all, ask question to set direction, which means effective leaders need to listen to followers’ voice respectfully and then share the common goals and ideas with them. In addition, leaders need to seek insights and allocate resources optimally; act ethically; allow their

If you are interested in ethical organizations that call attention to the work, conscience, character, morality, humanity, sacrifice, and principle, then Byron’s “The Power of Principles” is an ultimate guide to assist you with your moral compass. This rare combined perspective, insight from academia and research, experienced CEO from the business world, and theological understandings of the priesthood will guide you in ethical leading into todays market economy. Schein’s “Organizational Culture and Leadership” is a natural blend to The Power of Principles by taking a deeper look at culture and leadership as the two sides of the same coin. Together, these texts will warrant success in your ethical leadership journey.

The maintenance of ethical behavior when in a leadership situation becomes difficult when leaders are operating in a weak or non-existent value system. Brown (2005) exposes various reasons which make leaders behave unethically. According to him, leaders are expected to lead by example since all subordinates have to follow what the leaders prospect. However, there are instances where these leaders behave in an unethical manner because of various reasons. As the author argues, it is clear for leaders with strong, virtuous values to act ethically because their values define their character. Conversely, if the leaders are operating in a weak or non-existent value system, they tend to act unethically. Therefore, the author asserts the organization to be leading in destabilizing factors that make leaders to behave dishonorably. If the organization does not actively promote the universally accepted values such as wisdom, self-control, justice, and kindness, most leaders who are also weak in values follow suit and embrace unethical behavior. These are the kind of leaders likely not to enhance honesty, fairness, equality, and dignity for personal gains.

Success in our leading corporations are scrutinized, and closely evaluated as to the form of leadership style and the impact of its mission and/or vision statement. Many leadership models focus on the needs of the organization, such as production, competition, technology and management. The organizations mission statement broadly defines its vision and establishes the structure for values and principles to guide employees. In addition, the objectives in the mission statement are the means to achieve the organization’s goal, (Basu, nd.). In this essay, I will compare the company’s’ mission statements of TDIndustries and IKEA, examining and exploring the statements impact on the culture of each organization. Whereby, assessing the leadership principles expressed in each of the mission statements focusing on the organization’s reputation, treatment of employees and the its alignment to the objectives stated. Thereupon, identifying the principals of servant leadership’s alignment in TDIndustries assertion to being a servant leadership company.

Culture represents the informal set of attitudes, beliefs, goals, norms understandings, and values that provide both a sense of identity and purpose to an organization. Research into the influences of management on corporate culture include insights from a variety of fields to include business, economics, politics, psychology, and sociology. This review examines the literature on organization design and leadership as influencers of innovation and change. Specifically, the paper investigates the link among mechanistic and organic structures, leadership, relationship styles, and change management. Transformational leadership style is associated with organic structures; transactional leadership style is associated with mechanistic structures; idea generation is significantly related to Transformational leadership; implementation is significantly related to transactional leadership; and, the relationship style (between the management and the organization, the employees and the organization, the management and the employees, and amongst the employees) dictates the impacts the transformational and transactional leadership on idea generation and implementation respectively.

“There is a need for greater attention to be paid to understanding the mechanisms and processes through which leadership influences organizational culture and employee commitment, in order to develop a more complete understanding of the inner workings of leadership” (Bass, as cited by Aolio et al 2004 p.952) . Ellemers, Gilder, and Haslam (2004) agree that “additional understanding of work motivation can be gained by incorporating insights into social identity processes” (p. 459). Since motivational processes may be processed in group contexts, similarly as they are [do] in individual goals or outcomes, it is advantageous to understand how people are energized to engage in behaviors that are significant primarily at a collective level