Let’s Get everyone involved! The effects of transformational leadership and organizational culture on organizational excellence

Abstract

Purpose:

This paper posited a dynamic relationship between transformational leadership, organizational culture, and organizational excellence in order to develop a better understanding of the causal linkages between these three areas.

Design/methodology/approach:

The research methodology includes a multi-item scale questionnaire survey which included 448 respondents from United Arab Emirates (UAE) with an average response rate of 61.1%. The hypotheses were tested by applying structural equation modeling (SEM) and path analyses. Analyses used the Mplus software package.

Findings:

The key finding in this study suggests that creating the involvement culture provides the all-inclusive participation and holistic engagement from employees which consequently leads to organizational excellence.

Research limitations/implications:

The study is more focused on a particular type of leadership and can extend to other types of leadership as well as the other regions. The study extends the findings of previous studies that suggested authoritative was essential initially but that this would change with the emerging culture.

Practical implications Managers should foster an involvement culture and adopt a transformational leadership style in order to reap the benefits of quality management approaches.

Originality/Value:

Differently, from existing research on leadership in QM context, we adopt transformational leadership in connection with organizational culture and organizational excellence. The originality of the study lies in its quantitative approach to test an already demonstrated phenomena about the relationship between transformational leadership, organisational culture and business excellence. This study significantly contributes to the literature on QM by discovering that organizations with transformational leadership styles and involvement or adaptability cultures can perform well and achieve organizational excellence.

Key words:

Leadership, organizational excellence, culture, people, HRM