The impact of organization culture and environment on leadership effectiveness applied study on some governmental organizations in the state of Kuwait

• Published date: 01 May 2021
• Author: Yousef Mohammad Almutairi,Awadh Khalaf Alenezi
• Date: 01 May 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2198

ACADEMIC PAPER

The impact of organization culture and environment on

leadership effectiveness applied study on some governmental

organizations in the state of Kuwait

Yousef Mohammad Almutairi | Awadh Khalaf Alenezi

College of Business Administration, Kuwait

University, Kuwait City, Kuwait

Correspondence

Yousef Mohammad Almutairi, College of

Business Administration, Kuwait University,

Kuwait City, Kuwait.

Email: Yalmutairi@cba.edu.kw

Awadh Khalaf Alenezi, College of Business

Administration, Kuwait University, Kuwait

City, Kuwait.

Email: prof.awadh1@gmail.com

This study is aimed to investigate the impact of both the organization environment

and its culture on the effectiveness of leadership. The analytical descriptive approach

was used to collect and analyze data from a sample of 252 employees who have lead-

ing positions in some governmental organizations in Kuwait. Study found that there

was a positive impact on effectiveness of leadership and on the performance of

employee in these organizations both because of the organization's environment and

its culture. It was also found that there is no statistically significant difference

between the participants according to the personal data in the perception and evalu-

ation of the impact of the environment and culture of the effectiveness of leadership.

This study is recommended to decision makers and it shows the importance of

selecting leaders with the skills and competencies required to deal with different

environments and cultures that affect the work of the organization.

1|INTRODUCTION

The environment of most organizations has become highly volatile,

with environmental factors become unstable. Such rapid changes in

the role of modern management and the broadening of its functions

have led to an increasing need for dynamic and flexible management.

That is able to face these challenges, as well as a special kind of lead-

ership, that can do its duty consciously, efficiently, and honestly.

The rapid technological development and advances have been

accompanied by several changes in both the cultural and environmen-

tal levels of the organizations. Institutional and business strategies

have had to be modified to successfully, cope with such alterations in

the environment, and the organizational structures to deal with such

strategies, and organizational environment and its culture. All this calls

for serious leadership to cope with the culture and environment of

the organization and promote continuous success and growth in the

organization.

The subject of leadership has recently received extensive consid-

eration from both a business and academic perspective, and many

common assumptions and claims have been agreed upon. The impor-

tance of the subject of leadership lies in its dynamic effect on the

interactions of persons and organizations. The efficiency of

administrative leadership lies in preparing, managing, and developing

the human resources in a congruent organization, which reflects the

strategic interests of the organization and the requirements of devel-

opment (TSAI-HUA, 2007).

Consequently, modern organizations seek to provide coherent

administrative leadership that is able to create a supportive and coop-

erative environment in which persons can be transformed, grown, and

develop their talent. Attention is devoted to supporting the process of

change, which is a dynamic operation for a new promising and differ-

ent future for the organization. Moreover, this helps to establish com-

munities of shared interests and supportive responsibility where

respect is given to the interests and dignity of every person.

These considerations have raised the need to study the effect

of organizational environment and culture on the effectiveness of

leadership. Cultural change is very critical for administrative lead-

ership to cope with the organization and the recently status. It is

status necessary for the organization's leadership to cope with the

new changes and to encode promotion and development in the

behaviors of their employees to adapt to the new activities of the

organization. Which means that the culture of the organization

most be adjusted to one that is able to be successful and to

develop continuously.

Received: 30 May 2019 Accepted: 20 May 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2198

J Public Affairs. 2021;21:e2198. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of16

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2198

2|RESEARCH PROBLEM

The problem of the research can be summarized in the following main

question: How does the environment and culture of the organization's

affect the effectiveness of leadership? To deal with this problem, we

have to discuss some secondary questions:

1 To what extent does the effectiveness of leadership affect the per-

formance of employees?

2 What is the degree of perception and evaluation on the impact of

the environment on the effectiveness of leadership?

3 What is the degree of perception and evaluation regarding of the

impact of culture on the effectiveness of leadership.

4 Does the organization's environment and culture contribute to the

predication of statistically significant effect on leadership effective-

ness among respondents?

2.1 |The study's main hypothesis

There are statistically significant differences between the participants

at level 0.05 in each category of leadership effectiveness, environ-

ment, and culture, according to personal data: gender, education, job

title, experience, and age.

1 There are statistically significant differences between the partici-

pants according to gender.

2 There are statistically significant differences between the partici-

pants according to education.

3 There are statistically significant differences between the partici-

pants according to job title.

4 There are statistically significant differences between the partici-

pants according to experience.

5 There are statistically significant differences between the partici-

pants according to age.

3|RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND

IMPORTANCE

The research aims to investigate the nature, systems, culture, and

philosophy of leadership in the organizations under consider-

ation, to study the impact of the organization's environment and

culture on leadership effectiveness, as well as to provide recom-

mendations regarding methods for optimize the effect of organi-

zational environment and culture for the effectiveness of

leadership.

The importance of the research includes the following:

•The results of the study will help to establish solid foundations

and standards for the selection of leaders on the basis of

their ability to carry out the administrative roles required

of them.

•The research will contribute to assessing the performance of mod-

ern organization leaders according to their understanding and per-

formance of their administrative tasks.

•The research will help to develop mindful leaders, to upgrade their

level of performance, and to open a new sphere to develop them-

selves and broaden their horizons.

•The research will contribute to achieve, the development and reno-

vation of the organization that is required by those who work in

the field.

4|LIMITS

•The objective limit: the research focuses on the nature of organi-

zational environment, culture, and the relationship between the

organization and environment. The research also deals with the

culture of the organization and its characteristics, how culture

affects the organization, the display of the organization's jobs

and the techniques of composition. It also deals with the contem-

porary concept of the role of the leader and the importance of

the organization, and the concept of leadership its foundation

and nature.

•The human limit: includes the leaders of some governmental orga-

nizations in Kuwait (manager, controller, and head of department).

•The governmental organizations have been selected according to

their similarity in characteristics, services, and nature of work.

•Time limit: represented in year 2017/2018.

5|LITERATURE REVIEW

5.1 |Environment of the organization

•Organizations can exist in societies in which the economy is con-

trolled by the government or in free-market societies. In all cases,

the organization deals with the environment, which is composed of

several elements or aspects. The importance of such elements lies

in whether they function directly or indirectly on the organization,

whether through the effect of decisions or by way of the available

opportunities or how it contributes to success (Edsnape et al., )

•The elements that have a direct effect on the organization are

called the general elements, represented by the economic system,

the political system, the demographic system of society, and the

civilization elements.

•The elements that have an indirect effect on the organization are

called the task elements, or elements of environment tasks. This group

consists of the market, which encompasses the institution, the first

data (the inputs), the human resources, the physical resources, the pro-

vided services to the audience, the available technology, the economic

level of the society, the surrounding legal systems, the civilization and

cultural values of the society (Soofi, Yasai-Ardecani, & Nystrom, 2009)

•The possible environment the organization may have to deal with

varies. It can be a very ambiguous environment, with continuously

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