Responses to classmates should answer the specific question above and be substantive. Substantive responses are more than just “great post” or “good job;” they should be one or two paragraphs in length. Substantive responses also use course content for support. Demonstrate this support with in-text citations and references

Alyssa 

Different leadership theories can influence how organizational culture develops and is maintained. Transformational leadership fosters innovation and collaboration by inspiring followers to align personal goals with the organization's vision. Transformational leaders emphasize idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, and individualized considered, in which are elements that cultivate trust and intrinsic motivation, leading to a culture of engagement and creativity. On the other hand, transactional leadership focuses on structure, setting clear goals, and rewarding good performance, which helps build culture of accountability and efficiency. Servant leadership centers on supporting employees' well-being and development, creating a culture of care, fairness, and teamwork. For example, Southwest Airlines practices a "People first" approach, where leaders prioritize employee happiness to deliver great customer service. Likewise, Google's transformational leadership encourages empowerment, innovation, and trust, building a culture of learning and creativity.

Leaders as Motivators

Leaders can use different strategies to motivate employees and help them reach their full potential. Good motivation combines internal and external factors, in which leaders should connect the company's goals with what employees value and make their work meaningful. Being clear about expectations, giving employees some independence, and communicating often all help increase motivation. Recognition and rewards also play a big role in keeping employees engaged. When leaders use fair and open reward systems, such as bonuses or career growth opportunities, they build stronger motivation and loyalty. For example, Deloitte's "Applause" program, which lets employees recognize each other, has helped improve teamwork and create a culture of appreciation.

Revolutionizing Organizational Culture Through Leadership

A great example of leadership changing company culture is Satya Nadella at Microsoft. When he became CEO in 2014, he transformed Microsoft's strict, competitive culture into one focused on teamwork and learning. By communicating openly, making ethical choices, and encouraging growth over perfection, Nadella created a culture of empathy and innovation. He also reorganized teams around common goals, promoted diversity and inclusion, and led with humility which were moves that helped rebuild Microsoft's reputation and success. Leaders can guide cultural change by being open about their goals, admitting challenges, and welcoming feedback. Acting with honesty and fairness builds trust and helps employees feel valued. Still, leaders often face obstacles like resistance to change or lack of trust. To overcome these, they should involve employees early, stay consistent with their vales, and celebrate small wins to maintain progress. In the end, strong and authentic leadership is what drives lasting cultural transformation.

References:

Garvin, D. A. (2013). How Google sold its engineers on management. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-google-sold-its-engineers-on-management

P.P. Ghosh. (2021). Principles and Practices of Management. Laxmi Publications Pvt Ltd.

Brad Ward. (2021). The Motivated Worker : A Manager’s Guide to Improving Job Satisfaction. McFarland.

Ali, M., & Begum, S. (2024). Case study: Satya Nadella’s leadership at Microsoft [PDF]. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 26(12), 74–79. https://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/Vol26-issue12/Ser-2/I2612027479.pdf

Ekl, A., Duda, J., & DeBellis, P. (2025, March 13). High-Impact Rewards: Building a culture of always-on recognition. Deloitte Insights. https://action.deloitte.com/insight/4357/high-impact-rewards-building-a-culture-of-always-on-recognition

Greenleaf, R. K. (2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Paulist Press.

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Arthur 

The Impact of Leadership on Organizational Culture

Key Leadership Theories and Their Impact on Organizational Culture

            Leadership is a factor that influences the organizational culture, since the behaviours and values of the leaders and the decision-making processes that they make determine the environment of the whole organization. Various theories of leadership offer different models of how a leader can affect culture. An example of leadership is transformational leadership, which emphasises motivating and encouraging employees to perform better than what is expected of them by developing a common vision and innovating and collaborating within the workplace. The leadership model of transformational leaders prefers open communication, risk-taking, and lifelong learning, and will lead to the creation of a creative and adaptable culture. Transactional leadership, conversely, is focused on structure, expectations, and performance-based rewards or punishments. Such an attitude can help to build a culture of responsibility, consistency, and efficiency where employees are made aware of their roles and driven by results. Whereas transactional leadership proves to be effective in ensuring that order and consistency in the operations take place, transformational leadership is, in many cases, more effective in creating a change of culture and engagement amongst the employees. Servant leadership is based on the needs and growth of employees, and the creation of a culture based on trust, empathy, and collaboration. Servant leaders put employees in the first position by applying ethical and compassionate leadership, which results in an organizational atmosphere where members of the staff feel important, empowered, and devoted to the organization's mission (Akpa, 2021).

            A number of organizations are good examples of how these theories of leadership have been implemented to foster positive cultures. One of the main instances of transformational leadership is at Tesla under Elon Musk. The culture of creativity and high-performance that Musk has developed through his visionary focus and relentless innovativeness has made the employees adopt a culture of finding innovative solutions and thinking about the future. Conversely, Walmart has been a case study of transactional leadership based on operational efficiency, uniformity, and level of performance, which has established a culture of performance and uniformity in its entire global operations. Lastly, Southwest Airways practices servant leadership, which leadership style that focuses on the welfare of the employees, develops healthy interpersonal relationships, and trusts the workers to deliver superior customer service. This model has created a very collaborative and engaged culture, which helps in the excellent performance of the organization and client satisfaction. These instances demonstrate that the various leadership styles may influence organizational culture in different but effective ways, and as a result of this, leadership approaches should be aligned with the organization's values and objectives (Mitrović, 2021).

Leaders as Motivators

            Employee motivation is essential in order to optimize performance and create a culture of participation. There are a number of strategies that leaders can use to be able to motivate their teams. Having established objectives and a strong vision is useful in making employees aware of their mission in the organization and encouraging intrinsic motivation. Motivation could also be achieved by empowering employees by giving them autonomy, professional development opportunities, and challenging assignments, which causes them to grow personally and feel ownership. Alongside, leaders will be able to apply the principles of the expectancy theory, ensuring that employees know the relationship between effort, performance, and rewards. Leaders strengthen engagement and commitment by making the employees feel that their inputs affect organizational performance directly (Radovanovic, 2021).

            In motivating employees, recognition and reward systems are very important. Rewards that are tangible, like bonuses, promotions, and incentives based on performance, can strengthen desired behaviours and, in fact, push short-term performance. Nonetheless, intangible rewards, including social recognition, recognition, and career advancement, tend to have a longer-term effect on employee motivation by making employees feel appreciated and valued. The leaders can apply these systems well by recognizing individual preferences and ensuring fairness and transparency, along with the rewards being tied to well-defined performance outcomes. As an illustration, Google focuses on intrinsic and extrinsic rewards as part of its mix of competitive pay and benefits with recognition schemes, career growth, and a creative and innovative culture. Leaders can tap the potential in their employees and develop a culture of high performance by being acknowledged, appreciated, and encouraged by employing tangible and intangible incentives (Persada, 2023).

Revolutionizing Organizational Culture Through Leadership

            Organizational cultural transformation is a process that needs strategic leadership. An interesting case study is the leadership at Microsoft under Satya Nadella. At the time Nadella became the CEO, the company was experiencing a weak culture of internal rivalry, risk avoidance, and departmentalization. Nadella introduced a set of cultural changes that shed light on empathy, teamwork, and growth mentality. He stressed the need to undergo constant learning, promote teamwork across the functions, and lead by example, as vulnerable and open to communication. Through corresponding organizational values and behaviour, Nadella was able to transform the culture of Microsoft that was based on rigidity and competition to a culture of innovation, collaboration, and customer-centric orientation. The main interventions were open communication, redesigning performance measures that were aimed at encouraging collaboration and creativity, and incorporating ethical and inclusion practices into the process of making decisions in the leadership (Bevilacqua, 2025).

The tools that can be used by leaders to spearhead cultural change include communication, transparency, and ethical behaviour. Transparency and honesty will establish trust and enable employees to see the logic behind the modifications, and this will reduce the possibility of resistance and increase buy-in. Openness and honesty will uphold ethical principles and credibility, as they reflect integrity and fairness. Ethical leadership, in its turn, sets rules of acceptable behaviour and creates an indication of organizational priorities, making employees follow the same values. Ethical leaders who demonstrate it through their actions on an ongoing basis and emphasize open communication establish an environment in which employees feel valued, knowledgeable, and in line with organizational objectives (Yuan, 2023).

Even with these measures, the change of organizational culture is fraught with a number of challenges. One of the most widespread barriers is resistance to change, as employees can be itchy, nervous, or stuck in old patterns. Also, the discrepancy between proclaimed values and real practices may lead to the loss of trust and the impact of cultural transformation. Another issue that leaders can struggle with is the ability to maintain change in the long run, and it is particularly a problem in large or decentralized organizations. These problems can only be overcome through a combination of ways, such as strategic planning, continuous reinforcement, and involvement of employees at all levels. Cultural change may be effected by leaders by engaging the employees in the process, training and support, setting small steps to achieve, and celebrating the progress. It takes persistence, patience, and visible investment by the leadership in order to instill cultural change in the organizational fabric.

Conclusion

            Leadership plays a central role in the process of organizational culture, which impacts the behaviour of the employees, their engagement, and the overall employee performance. Other leadership theories, such as transformational, transactional, and servant leadership, have their own theories of how a positive culture can be developed and sustained, each in different situations and objectives of the organization. The encouragement of employees by using communication, empowerment, recognition, and rewards also increases performance and participation within the organization. The leaders can transform the culture by setting an example of ethical behaviour, enhancing transparency, and introducing strategic changes that resonate with the values of the organization. Although issues like resistance to change and misalignment might be encountered, good leaders can overcome this through a regular communication channel, employee participation, and sustained dedication. Through research and practical use of the theories of leadership and motivation, organizations are able to establish successful cultures that bring in innovation, teamwork, and sustainability.

References:

Akpa, V. O. (2021). Organizational culture and organizational performance: A review of literature. International journal of advances in engineering and management, 3(1), 361-372.

Bevilacqua, S. M. (2025). Enhancing top managers' leadership with artificial intelligence: insights from a systematic literature review. Review of Managerial Science, 1-37.

Mitrović, V. &. (2021). The importance of leadership for enterprise competitiveness improvement. Ekonomija. Teorija i Praksa (Online), 14(2), 89-108.

Persada, I. N. (2023). The influence of leadership, motivation, and incentives on the performance of personnel of the operations section of Polda Kepri. International Journal of Accounting, Management, Economics and Social Sciences (IJAMESC), 1(4), 403-416.

Radovanovic, V. &. (2021). Leadership in the role of motivators and creators of employee performance. Економіка АПК, (5), 64-76.

Yuan, L. C. (2023). Confucian virtue ethics and ethical leadership in modern China. Journal of Business Ethics, 182(1), 119-133.