Abstract

Background: The workplace has grown increasingly complex during recent years, posing new challenges for competitors on the market. To ensure that organizations thrive, companies are focusing and spending more time and energy on building and sustaining a healthy organizational culture. Yet, it remains equally important for employees to be autonomous and to practice self-leadership. This study delves deeper into the relationship between organizational culture and self-leadership, exploring how organizations can bolster the self-leadership development of employees through organizational culture. 

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to extant research regarding organizational culture and self-leadership development. The study seeks to explore how organizational culture can facilitate self-leadership development among employees.

Method: For this study, a qualitative research design was employed. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews involving ten participants belonging to different organizations and industries. An inductive research approach guided the analysis, which involved thematic analysis of the collected empirical data.

Conclusion: Organizational cultures were found to play a role in the emergence and development of self-leadership among employees. Supportive leadership that promoted freedom were related to increased loyalty and adoption of responsibility among subordinates. Aligning the goals of individuals and organizations was difficult but could potentially lead to exponential payoff, with more competent, self-driven workers and an organization that respected their autonomy and character.