National Culture, Leadership Styles and Job Satisfaction: An Empirical Study in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Studies have shown repeatedly that national cultural systems, as well as individual cultures, greatly affect the corporate cultural system in many ways. For example, national culture influences managerial decision-making, leadership styles, and human resource management practices. This study examines the mediating role of the national culture (power distance, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation) on the relationship between leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-fair leadership style) and job satisfaction among academic staff in public universities in the UAE. A quantitative approach was used in this study, and a structured questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was distributed to 326 respondents from the academic staff in the UAE public universities. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) were used to test the hypotheses of the study. The results revealed that national culture mediates the relationship between, transformational leadership style, transactional leadership style, laissez-fair leadership style, and job satisfaction. National culture appears to mediate the relationship between leadership style and job satisfaction among academic staff in UAE public universities, according to the findings. The findings also revealed how transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and laissez-faire leadership affect job satisfaction among academic staff in UAE public universities.

1. Introduction

Satisfaction plays a very important role to the academic staff, as such, the education system and structure influence their job satisfaction and motivation. Job satisfaction or employee satisfaction is a measure of workers’ contentedness with their job, whether they like the job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such as nature of work or supervision. For instance, Szromek and Wolniak (2020) highlighted that job satisfaction and problems among academic staff in higher education are strictly connected with the scientific opportunities of academic and administrative work. Besides that, owning their scientific work such as laboratory and research centers for their contribution also could highly contribute to job satisfaction among them (Szromek & Wolniak, 2020). Besides, job satisfaction became one of the most serious issues that not only involved public and private oriented organizations but also higher education institutions as job satisfaction is one the main factors and the key that lead and guide organizations to achieve and maintain the high level of organizational performance (Suliman & Al-Hosani, 2014). Hijazi et al. (2016) examined the relationships between leadership styles and job satisfaction among private university employees in the UAE. A random sampling technique was employed to collect data of 241 faculty members and staff from seven private universities in the UAE. The result of the Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between transformational style and employee Job Satisfaction. However, the relationship between transactional leadership style and job satisfaction was observed to be negative and significant. This study provided valid evidence for the adapted instruments based on the context of UAE universities, empirical evidence on the importance of leadership styles in enhancing job satisfaction among employees in higher education organizations. It is expected to be very helpful to faculty, academic leaders, and supervisors as it might offer them new insights to facilitate better understanding and smooth functioning at the academic workplace. Another similar study was conducted by Jawabri et al. (2017) on job satisfaction of academic staff in the UAE private universities. The study pointed out that recognition and rewards harmed the job satisfaction of academic staff in the UAE private higher education institutions (Jawabri et al., 2017). Even though there is a study that investigates the relationships between leadership styles and job satisfaction among the UAE, but it was focusing on private universities and the study only focused on the direct relationship.

Abdulla et al. (2011) pointed that job satisfaction across countries provides evidence to suggest that job satisfaction is strongly influenced by national cultural values and norms. Furthermore, Martin (2014) argued that cultural diversity in organizations has grown as a trend over the way of time with the increase of globalization in the world. Hence, one positive influence is that employees belonging to different cultures usually have different habits of thinking and can therefore analyze a matter at hand from a variety of perspectives. Individuals from different cultures have fairly dissimilar levels of job satisfaction. In addition, the influence of national culture on individual behavior is well established and the differences between eastern and western cultures are rather significant (Nazarian et al., 2017). Thus, there is a clear gap in the literature regarding studies on the mediating role of national culture in the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction among public universities’ academic staff in the UAE. With that, this research aimed to further explore the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction with the mediating role of national culture in the UAE public universities with the research question of what are the mediating effects of national culture on the relationship between leadership style and job satisfaction.

2. Literature Review

In the last decade, the development of global markets has created numerous cross-cultural teams and the ensuing dialogue has formed the basis for transacting global business (Al-Hummadi, 2013). Literature has contended that leadership behavior is culturally determined and hence varies markedly from culture to culture. National culture plays an important role in determining the effectiveness of leadership style. National boundaries make considerable differences in leadership style (Al-Hummadi, 2013). Meanwhile, Al-Hummadi (2013) indicated that there is a significant relationship between leadership behaviors and job satisfaction, performance, and commitment among employees in the UAE public organizations. He used national culture as the mediating variable that moderates the relationship between job satisfaction and leadership behavior (Al-Hummadi, 2013).

2.1. The Mediating Role of National Culture on the Relationship between Leadership Styles and Job Satisfaction

In some cultures, leaders are respected when they take strong decisive action, whereas in other cultures consultative and participative decision-making approaches are more valued. According to Diaj and Omira (2015), in a culture where authoritarian leadership is valued it would be pointless acting in a way more characteristic of a participative or democratic leader. But in a culture that endorses a more nurturing and humanistic leadership style, being sensitive and considerate as a leader could be functional. Table 1 shows a four-dimensional framework proposed by Hofstede (1980) in which national cultures vary and eventually affect the selection of leadership style in one way or another.

Table 1: Four Dimensions on which National Cultures Vary

Source: Hofstede (1980).

Campbell et al. (1993) noted that leadership style itself and eventual task outcome had a strong impact on perceptions of the appropriateness of leadership style, whereas gender and organizational setting had no substantive impact. The type of industry sector (private or public) and an organization’s size play important roles in the determination of the effectiveness of management style. Studies of leadership styles have revealed that there are not only differences in the styles preferred by followers in different cultures, but the specific behaviors which reflect these styles may vary from culture to culture.

The influence of culture in the multinational companies working globally can be investigated at different levels of analysis. Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1998) differentiated between three levels of culture. At the highest in the culture is the national or regional society. How attitudes are expressed within a specific organization is described as a corporate or organizational culture. At a narrower level, there is a professional culture where people with certain functions will tend to share certain professional and ethical orientations. National culture could be considered the culture which differentiates one society from another. The social perspective considers culture from a social point of view. The culture here is a feature of social life. The historical perspective refers to the values, which are inherited in the population of a particular nation. The individual perspective takes a view of culture in which the values and norms of individuals are highlighted. Hofstede (1980) defined culture as the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group from another.

Bhuian and Islam (1996) examined the extent to which expatriate employees in Saudi Arabia are satisfied with the security of their jobs and the relationship between satisfaction with job security and continuance commitment. They found that expatriate employees in Saudi Arabia do not strongly express that they are satisfied with their job security. Furthermore, expatriate employees’ satisfaction with job security is significantly correlated with continuance commitment. A recent case study by Randeree and Chaudhry (2012) concludes that job satisfaction affects the productivity of employees in a culturally diversified environment.

The influence of national culture on individual behavior is well established and the differences between western and eastern cultures are rather significant (Nazarian et al., 2017). Here, the differences in national cultures are reflected in how organizations are structured and managed. For example, South Korean and Chinese firms tend to be owned by founders and families. They are likely to be paternalistic, promote values of high-power distance and collectivism, and have bureaucratic control and centralized decision-making with little worker empowerment. Promotion is often associated with family ties and networks. By contrast, Western firms tend to be owned by public shareholders and run by a professional manager. They are flatter in structure, less bureaucratic, promote individualism, decentralized decision making, and more empowering to their workers.

Qing et al. (2019) found that there is a positive relationship between ethical leadership and employee attitudes and found out that psychological empowerment has a mediating effect on the relationship between ethical leadership and affective commitment. Likewise, Gul et al. (2018) used a dimension of national culture (power distance) moderating variable on the relationship between person-environment fit and job satisfaction leading to job performance. The results showed that job satisfaction partially mediates the relationships between person-environment fit and job performance in Kabul, while in Islamabad job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between person-environment fit and job performance. Eskildsen et al. (2010) stated that national culture does influence the result of job satisfaction studies. Naveed (2020) also mentioned that there is a significant effect on leadership styles, culture, and decision-making on job satisfaction. Many studies examined the direct relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction from various contexts. However, there is a lack of studies on the mediating role of national culture on the relationship between transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles and job satisfaction in the context of the UAE. Therefore, it is hypothesized that: National culture mediates the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction of academic staff at the UAE public universities.

3. Methodology

Quantitative research is generally linked with the positivist paradigm. It usually involves collecting and converting data into numerical form so that statistical calculations can be made, and conclusions are drawn. Quantitative research is a means for testing objective theories by examining the relationship among variables. These variables, in turn, can be measured, typically on instruments, so that numbered data can be analyzed using statistical procedures. Therefore, the objectives of the research study affect the methods used to collect information. As previously discussed, a decision was made to adopt the positivistic methodology to satisfy the objective of the study. Choosing the data collection method depends on many factors such as sample size, resources available to the researcher, and the complexity of the questionnaires.

3.1. Questionnaire Design

The questionnaire utilized in this study was prepared according to the Likert scale and was termed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). Meanwhile, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) was employed to measure job satisfaction. MLQ was adopted to evaluate the behavior of leaders that best-matched respondents’ satisfaction. Here, MLQ might be used to measure the behaviors of the most preferred leader within the organization. Indeed, MLQ is being revised repeatedly to measure the extent leaders demonstrate behaviors related to transformational and transactional leadership (Nguyen et al., 2019).

In this study, the questionnaire was modified to include questions that were associated with the context of the study. Thus, the survey questionnaire has four sections. Section A: Demographic Information, Section B: Job Satisfaction (Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire-MSQ Items), Section C: Leadership Style (Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire-MLQ), and Section D: National Culture. Meanwhile, a five-point Likert scale was used to measure the job satisfaction items (1 = very dissatisfied, 2 = dissatisfied, 3 = neither, 4 = satisfied, and 5 = very satisfied). Similarly, for the leadership part a Likert scale was classified based on not at all (1), once in while (2), sometimes (3), fairly often (4), and frequently if not always (5). The national culture part of the statements was classified from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The survey instrument was developed based on the literature review and most past studies employed the five- or seven-point Likert scale measurement. For this research, the structured questionnaire utilized a five-point Likert scale.

3.2. Population and Sample

In this research, public universities’ academic staffs in UAE are the population, and the number of the population according to the UAE ministry of education is 3, 245. Table 2 shows the number of academic staff in UAE public universities according to the UAE Ministry of Education (Ministry of Education, 2018). Primary data is originated from the researcher; specifically, the researcher has used a self-administered questionnaire on leadership styles and job satisfaction in UAE public universities. The data was collected from UAE University (UAEU), Higher College of Technology (HCT), Khalifa University (KU), and Zayed University (ZU).

Table 2: Number of Academic Staff in UAE Public Universities

Source: Ministry of Education, 2018.

For this research, the sample selection was based on the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample selection table which explained that a sample size must be impartial and large enough to satisfy the requirements of the research. Similarly, Kline (2011) highlighted that a sample size above two hundred is huge; while, a sample between one hundred and two hundred is considered medium and below 100 is considered small. Hair et al. (2011) believed that a large sample is required to perform multivariate statistical analysis because a number of the statistical analysis integrated into structural equation modeling (SEM) programs gives unreliable outcomes when small sample sizes are used. Alternatively, the range required for a sample depends on numerous factors including the ratio of the constructs to the selected sample size. Thus, the research increases the sample size to 400 questionnaires. Here, a sample size of 400 comprising academic staff teaching various subjects in the UAE public universities was used in this study. The respondents represented all the selected public universities, which involved staff from various positions.

3.3. Data Analysis

This study uses the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to evaluate preliminary data, and Smart-PLS to check the model that is hypothesized. In addition to EFA (exploratory factor analysis), smart-PLS software was used as a tool to prepare data for analysis and to evaluate multivariate assumptions (normality, linearity). Smart-PLS was used to evaluate the data to assess the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability, and validity of the measurement, and to analyze the model’s hypothesis by testing the structural model as suggested by Hair et al. (2016) and Rovai et al. (2005). Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is a collection of statistical techniques that allow a set of relationships between one or more independent variables, either continuous or discrete, and one or more dependent variables, either continuous or discrete, to be examined.

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Demographic Analysis

The result shows that most of the academic staff were within the age range of 36 to 40 years followed by those within the age bracket of 30 to 35 years, then those within the age bracket of 41 to 45 years as indicated by 25.2, 19.9, and 19.6 percent respectively. The respondents were mostly males as they account for more than 70 percent of the respondents and they mostly have Ph.D. degrees as indicated by more than 65 percent response. Most of the academic staff are within the rank of assistant Professors and Associated Professors as indicated by the cumulative response of 50 percent. 19.6 percent of the respondents are Professors while 29.4 percent are Instructors. The majority of the respondents have cumulatively more than 7 years of working experience with about 15 percent having more than 20 years of working experience. About 80 percent of the respondents are Emirati nationals with only about 20 percent foreigners. The respondents were selected from four universities most of whom are from UAE University (UAEU), then Higher College of Technology (HCT) as indicated by 33.7 and 26.4 percent respectively. The rest are from Khalifa University and Zayed University (ZU) and they individually account for about 19 percent of the respondents respectively.

4.2. Mediating Effect of National Culture on the Relationship Between Leadership Style and Job Satisfaction

Overall, the result shows that national culture significantly mediates the relationship between leadership styles (transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and laissez-faire leadership) and job satisfaction among public university academic staff in the UAE. Accordingly, the research hypothesis is accepted. This study confirms that national culture mediates the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction. Thus, this finding is consistent with that of Jabbar et al. (2020) who found that there was a significant effect of leadership styles, organizational culture, and decision-making on job satisfaction. Therefore, there is a positive significance mediating effect of organizational culture and decision making on the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction of the university lecturers. Also, Saleem (2015) reported similar findings to this present study. He found that transformational leadership has a positive impact on job satisfaction and transactional leadership has a negative impact on job satisfaction.

Figure 1 on the other hand shows the path coefficients’ t-statistics showing the level of significance of each path in the structural model. The measurement models of the research are first treated as single order constructs to assess the overall mediating effect of the national culture on the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction.

The specific indirect effect of national culture between leadership styles and job satisfaction is presented in Table 3. The result shows that there is a significant indirect effect of national culture between the laissez-faire style of leadership and job satisfaction as indicated by the coefficient of 0.053, t-value of 2.471, and p-value 0.014. This shows that national culture significantly mediates the relationship between laissez-faire leadership style and job satisfaction.

Figure 1: Structural Model T-statistics

Table 3: Mediating Effect of National Culture

Similarly, the transactional leadership style path leading to job satisfaction through national culture is significant. This is indicated by a coefficient of 0.043, a t-value of 3.107, and a p-value of 0.002 significant at 0.01 significance level. Therefore, national culture significantly mediates the relationship between transactional leadership styles and job satisfaction. Also, the specific indirect path leading transformational leadership to job satisfaction through national culture is significant (β = 0.227, t-value = 5.342, and p-value = 0.000). This shows that national culture significantly mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction.

The findings show that national culture significantly mediates the relationship between leadership styles (transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and laissez-faire leadership) and job satisfaction among public university academic staff in the UAE. Accordingly, the research hypothesis H₄ is accepted. After establishing the overall mediating effect of national culture on the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction, the mediation effect of national culture dimensions is also evaluated as presented in the following subsections.

Therefore, perceived organizational politics partially mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and transactional leadership styles and job satisfaction. Kececi (2017) likewise, used dimensions of national culture (individualism and collectivism) as the moderating variable between styles and organizational citizenship behavior. Thus, Kececi (2017) concluded that the relationship between leadership style and organizational citizenship behavior is moderated by individualism in different ways according to the city. Culture is very important and influential in organizations. A strong, positive, clearly defined and well-communicated culture attracts talent that fits. It drives engagement and retention. Culture impacts how employees interact with their work and your organization. It impacts happiness and satisfaction. Thus, this implies that it could completely affect the concepts and value perceptions of people, and as a result, the leadership styles are expected by the employees (Kececi, 2017).

Muafi and Azim (2019) examined the mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between servant leadership and organizational culture on employee performance. They found that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between servant leadership and employee performance. Also, job satisfaction mediates the relationship between organizational culture and employee performance. Alkhateri et al. (2018) investigated the role of Perceived Supervisor Support (PSS), Job Satisfaction (JS), and Affective Organizational Behavior (AOC) on Employee Turnover Intention (ETI) among teachers in the Ras-Al-Khaimah educational sector, UAE. A sample of 494 employees in the UAE educational sector was selected randomly. In this representative sample, a survey was carried out to find out the extent of PSS, JS, and AOC influence on ETI. All the study’s hypotheses were supported. PSS significantly predicted JS, JS significantly predicted AOC, and AOC significantly predicted employee turnover intention. As well as JS and AOC significantly predicted employee turnover intention. The proposed model explained 40.6% of the variance in employee turnover intention. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications were discussed.

Al-Ali et al. (2019) studied on mediating effect of job happiness on the relationship between job satisfaction and employee performance and turnover intentions in the oil and gas industry in the United Arab Emirates. The results showed that job happiness plays a mediating role between job satisfaction and employee performance and turnover intention, and Ababneh (2020) also supported these findings. Besides, Trivellas et al. (2015) used general competencies as the mediating variable between knowledge sharing culture and job satisfaction, and therefore, they reported that that general competencies exert a mediating effect on the relationship between knowledge sharing culture and job satisfaction.

However, the findings of the current study do not support some previous studies that have used different indicators as to the mediating variable between leadership style and job satisfaction and others have used jab satisfaction itself as the mediating variable. For instance, Qing et al. (2019) showed that there is a positive relationship between ethical leadership and employee attitudes and further revealed that psychological empowerment fully mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and affective commitment while partially mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and job satisfaction. This differs from the findings presented here in this study. Likewise, Diaj and Omira (2015) examined the effect of organizational culture and leadership styles on the performance of Saudi Arabia’s public organizations, through the mediating factors of organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The result showed that there is no mediation of job satisfaction found in the relationship between leadership styles and organizational performance and the relationship between organizational culture and organizational performance. Also, the results of Paracha et al. (2018) were not in line with the current study findings. Their results showed that transactional and transformational both are significantly and positively associated with employee performance, however, transactional leadership was more significant than transformational leadership. Another important discovery is made as there is no mediating role of job satisfaction between transactional leadership. However, job satisfaction mediates with transformation leadership and employee performance.

Alternatively, the study has created five (5) sub- hypothesis which consists of the national culture dimensions as the mediating effect on the relationship between the leadership styles and job satisfaction. The mediation effect of national culture dimensions is also evaluated as presented in the following subsections.

4.2.1. Mediating Effect of Power Distance on the Relationship Between Leadership Styles and Job Satisfaction

Hypothesis H4a is on the mediating effect of the power distance dimension of national culture on the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction. The result shows that all the specific indirect paths are not significant (t-value < 1.96, p-values > 0.05). Thus, the distance power dimension of national culture does not significantly mediate the relationship between leadership styles (i.e. transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership style) and job satisfaction among public university academic staff in UAE. Accordingly, hypothesis H4a is rejected. Therefore, this finding is consistent with that of Reid (2018) who investigated the cultural background and leadership styles in the virtual work environment. The results of the study showed a negative correlation between the transformational and transactional leadership styles for power distance. However, this outcome is contrary to that of Gul et al. (2018) who found that power distance moderates the relationship between person-environment fit and job satisfaction. Contrary to expectation, power distance does not moderate the hypothesized relationship. Besides, the study also shows that job satisfaction partially mediates the relationships between person-environment fit and job performance in Kabul, while in Islamabad job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between person-environment fit and job performance. They also found that the prevailing leadership behaviors are because of several factors like; the management cultural beliefs, labor laws, local employees, decision-making process, monitoring and supervision process, and influence from the host culture.

Similarly, the outcomes of the present study do not support the previous work of Goolaup and Ismayilov (2011) who examined the influence of power distance on leadership behaviors and styles. The study is based on a comparison of a French and a Japanese company. They find out that companies belonging to the high power distance culture have adopted distinct leadership styles and the French company has adopted a directive leadership style owing to the increasing influence which it receives from the home culture whilst the Japanese company has adopted a participative leadership style (Goolaup & Ismayilov, 2011).

Power distance is a value that differentiates individuals, groups, organizations, and nations based on the degree to which inequalities are accepted either as unavoidable or as functional. Thus, understanding power distance is particularly vital in the organizational study as power is essential to all associations, is natural in classified organizations, and influences several organizational processes and overall performance (Goolaup & Ismayilov, 2011).

4.2.2. Mediating Effect of Collectivism on the Relationship Between Leadership Styles and Job Satisfaction

The result shows that collectivism significantly mediates the relationship between laissez-faire and transformational leadership styles and job satisfaction (t-value > 1.96, p-value < 0.05). However, collectivism does not significantly mediate the relationship between transactional leadership style and job satisfaction (t-value < 1.96, p-value > 0.05). Thus, hypothesis H4b is partially accepted. These results reflect those of Thomas and Rahschulte (2015) stated that development organizations and multinational organizations both struggle to find forms of leadership that are effective in mobilizing the workforce in highly diverse cultural contexts. In this article, the effects of empowering leadership on psychological empowerment and self-leadership are measured in two cultural contexts—Rwanda and the United States, representing both high and low power distance and individualism/ collectivism—to explore how empowering leadership behaviors affect the empowerment of subordinates. Results showed that empowering leadership is an effective form of leadership that produces employee empowerment in diverse cultural contexts. It also provides new insights into appropriate forms of leadership for international development organizations when working in different countries. Kececi (2017) demonstrated the influence of leadership style on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), as employees show individualistic or collectivistic characteristics. Findings This research revealed that the OCB level in Denizli is significantly higher than the level of OCB level İn İstanbul as expected. There is also a relationship between some of the leadership styles and OCB. Although both individualism and collectivism have a positive and meaningful correlation with OCB, the correlation between collectivism and OCB is stronger in relation to individualism and OCB.

4.2.3. Mediating Effect of Uncertainty on the Relationship Between Leadership Styles and Job Satisfaction

Hypothesis H4c is on the mediating effect of the uncertainty avoidance dimension of national culture on the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction. The result shows that all the specific indirect paths are not significant (t-value < 1.96, p-values > 0.05). Thus, the uncertainty avoidance dimension of national culture does not significantly mediate the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction among public universities’ academic staff in the UAE. Accordingly, hypothesis H₄c is rejected. This finding is contrary to that of Jeong and Moon (2017) who examined whether the uncertainty mediates the relationship between rehabilitation motivation and social support. The findings showed that Family support and uncertainty, respectively, were influential on rehabilitation motivation. Uncertainty showed a partial mediating effect on the relationship between family support and rehabilitation motivation, however, the effect was not significant.

4.2.4. Mediating Effect of Masculinity on the Relationship Between Leadership Styles and Job Satisfaction

The result showed that masculinity significantly mediates the relationship between transformational leadership style and job satisfaction (t-value > 1.96, p-value < 0.05). However, masculinity does not significantly mediate the relationship between transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles and job satisfaction (t-value < 1.96, p-value > 0.05). Thus, hypothesis H4d is partially accepted. These results reflect those of Leach-López and Jack (2014) who found the personality of the manager is a mediator of the relationship between job satisfaction and one cultural variable, Masculinity/Femininity. These results should help multinational companies better understand and leverage some of the factors that significantly influence the job satisfaction of managers working in different countries. The findings presented here indicate that multinational firms can design management control systems at the individual level versus having a management control system for each country in which they operate.

4.2.5. Mediating Effect of Long-Term Orientation on the Relationship Between Leadership Styles and Job Satisfaction

The dimension of national culture in this section is a long-term orientation. Therefore, hypothesis H₄d was created to examine the mediating effect of long-term orientation on the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction. The result shows that long-term orientation significantly mediates the relationship between laissez-faire leadership style and job satisfaction (t-value > 1.96, p-value < 0.05). However, long-term orientation does not significantly mediate the relationship between transactional and transformational leadership styles and job satisfaction (t-value < 1.96, p-value > 0.05). Thus, hypothesis H₄e is partially accepted. These study findings supporting the outcome of Zhe (2015) who concluded comparing with other dimensions, the long-term orientation (LTO) was to some extent more confusing and not convincing to many other cross-culture researchers. The LTO was reported as the most difficult dimension to apply. However, studies show that LTO has a similar issue with uncertainty avoidance (UA). This is because UA is quite similar to LTO when considering the interpretation of values in Chinese culture, there is evidence that Chinese culture does not always accept uncertainties. Moreover, the similarity between LTO and UA might be due to the correlation of values in them.

5. Conclusion

The major theoretical implication of the current study was the introduction of the mediating variable. National culture was used as the mediating variable in the relationship between leadership style and job satisfaction. Very few studies have examined the mediating role of the national culture (power distance, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation) on the relationship between leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-fair leadership style) and job satisfaction. The findings have shown that national culture mediates the relationship between leadership style and job satisfaction among academic staff in UAE public universities. Indeed, the findings further provided some insights into how transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and laissez-faire leadership influence job satisfaction among academic staff in UAE public universities.