Impact of leader-follower dynamics on organizational culture

The objective of this research is to examine how leadership style, leader-member relationship, team orientation, team cohesiveness and commonality of goals are inter-related in managing a world-class research centre in Australia. The review of the literature yielded theories and constructs that enabled this research to construct a conceptual framework to investigate the interrelationships amongst these variables. The research design employed primary data collection survey and analysis processes to determining the level of reliability, accuracy, efficiency and transparency of organization culture. The target population of the study was aimed at staff from an Australian Research Centre (ARC) who has worked for at least two years’ at the centre. Based on the findings generated by the study, the researcher recommended the most viable strategies that can be adopted in improving the work performance of research staff. Leadership styles of formal and informal team leaders are different, if a team leader’s tendency is to have more than one style, then how does the leader choose which style to use in different situations? Similarly, it is important to understand the team orientation and how members play different roles in different situations. The research questions sought to answer are: What leadership style differences exist between team leaders? How does leadership style affect leader-member relationship? How do leader-member relationships affect team orientation? How does team orientation affect the team cohesiveness? How does team orientation affect commitment to the goals of the organisation as a whole? The research provided a general understanding of how the leadership style, leader-member relationship, team orientation, team cohesiveness and commonality of goals are inter-related in managing a world-class research centre in Australia. The research concluded that team cohesiveness and orientation affects the leadership style adopted by group leaders and in order to manage a better leader-member relationship that it is important to reach a consensus of goals.