Perceptions of Leadership and Culture in Private and Public Organisations: A Sectoral Comparison Over Five Years and 12 Independent Studies

Abstract

Leadership is regarded as essential in life, in society and in organisations. It is for this reason that this article studies leadership, in particular employees’ perceptions of leadership, with regard to social exchange and institutional (behavioural) isomorphism theories, acknowledging the contextual differences between the private and the public sectors. The purpose of the article is to compare the perceptions of employees from organisations in the private and the public sector based on 12 independent cross-sectional studies (conducted over five years). Eight leadership styles were examined, namely, authentic, empowering, ethical, servant, transformational, transactional, and ubuntu or Afrocentric leadership, and leader–member exchange. One of the studies included a measurement of organisational culture, to be brought in relation with leadership. The results of this study indicate that the employees in the private sector have a significantly better perception of leadership compared to those in the public sector (except for transactional leadership). It was further found that the two sectors differ significantly with regard to the perceived cultures, and that the cultural types are related to the perception of leadership. Recommendations are not only made in general, but also with regard to improving the perception of leadership (which has an impact on employee behaviour, attitudes and organisational performance) in the public sector, based on the findings of this study.