Effects of Leadership Styles on Employee Performance : Integrating the Mediating Role of Culture, Gender and Moderating Role of Communication

Purpose: Leadership, being the most researched topic of all social sciences concepts is equally of great importance for the organizations as well as employees. Most of the researches conducted till now have focused Western Culture and Gender, whereas the East including China, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Japan and others are still in vague, whereas they contribute a major share in world‟s economy. Therefore, thorough literature review has been conducted to come across a new model based on integrated approach, exhibiting the relationship between Leadership Styles and Employee Performance through the mediating role of Culture and Gender while Communication playing the moderating role. Design/Methodology: The paper is based on theoretical underpinning. Viewpoint of Leadership, its styles focusing Transactional and Transformational Styles and impact on employee performance have been argued through in depth literature review and the relationships between different variables have been established accordingly. Findings: Effects of Leadership Styles on employee performance were found to have dissimilarity due to the mediating variables of culture and gender whereas communication was found to be one of the major ingredients of effective leadership style. Practical Implications/Limitations: Rational Relationships among variables have been deliberated through research findings of various authors to craft practicality of theoretical research while making it handy for practitioners and trainers. However, the presented model is to be tested through empirical research across the continents and various cultures. Originality/Value: Thorough and comprehensive literature review of the said relationships is the value creating and differentiating factor of this article. However, a potential contribution of this study could be the study of three variables; culture, gender and communication (mediating and moderating) instead of single variable study where most of the studies put in only one variable