Cultura organizacional e características da liderança em empresas de Uberlândia e região

Abstract

Cultural variation refers primordially to the habits and behaviors of a group or society to others. However, it is relatively recent the study of how these differences happen in the work s world. The great question that remains is related to the way by which the behavior of the organizations varies culturally, and how the leaders behave in relation to each organizational culture. This study about Organizational Culture and characteristics of Charismatic Leadership in Companies of Uberlândia city (Triângulo Mineiro - Brazil) aimed at: a)identifying the characteristics and behaviors shown by the leaders according to the perception of the led workers; b)identifying the dimensions of the organizational culture; c) determining the variations of the characteristics of the organizational culture and of the leadership in relation to the investigated companies; d) determining the relation between organizational culture and the characteristics of their leaders. Based on the Hofstede studies about organizational culture and on Robert House studies on charismatic leadership and GLOBE Project about this two variables, 274 working college students of a nocturnal course, 158 female and 80% aged 35 years old or less answered an inventory of personal data and about the companies they worked for, as well as scales for measuring charismatic leadership with 124 items divided into 16 sub-scales, and organizational culture with 115, divided into 8 sub-scales. According to the results, companies that had the characteristic of high distance hierarchical culture ( power distribution, difference between the ones who have the power and those who don t)and higth individualism, had few charismatic leadership characteristics. In these companies, leaders tended to show favoritism and predilection by some, not to communicate their vision and treat others in an unfair way, not to consider the subordinate s opinions and provide few feedback. Companies that revealed great gender differences also showed leaders who do not communicate , do not trust , who are not role models and who do not treat the workers on a fair way. Leaders with the characteristics of avoiding ambiguous situations, supporting and influencing the workers, using a planning, training and encouraging decisive behavior on the relations, were more trustworthy by their subordinates, no matter their reasons to follow these leaders. There are evidences that this study offers contributions to the knowledge of the Organizational and Leadership Culture, and that this relation should be spread to the companies in general so that their leaders use these results to the growth of their organizations and workers.