An accounting firm leadership style and culture

Abstract

Organisational success has been considered dependent on leadership style and organisational culture, especially with the increase in firms collapsing throughout the current recession. Literature has found that the success of organisations, including sustained profits, performance indicators and high financial returns are retained by superior leadership. This research evaluates the impact leadership styles have on cultures within organisations. This research uses two well used surveys to find the link between an organisations leadership style and culture. Results indicate that the local accounting firm has a dominant leadership style of Democratic and a dominant culture of Hierarchy followed closely by Market. Further work is needed to identify if these styles persist in other accounting firms.