“Psychological Safety is our enemy. An urgent intensity is our operating principle.” – That was Elon Musk’s reaction to Twitter’s friendly, discomfort avoiding culture.
Is he right? Is a task-driven culture more successful than a relationship-oriented one?
What does research say?
According to a 2016 study from P. Corner et al. published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, an organization’s performance is highest when the leadership style differs from its culture.
Task-oriented leaders focus on:
- Getting tasks done to achieve goals
- Set clear role definitions
- Making expectations and performance standards explicit
- Encourage adherence to rules and regulations
Whereas relationship-oriented leaders focus on:
- Positive relationships with each team member
- Interpersonal support
- Encouraging suggestions from everyone
- Involving the team in decision-making
- Treating employees as equals
How to boost organizational performance
So which leadership style is more efficient? It depends on the company culture.
The study found that the highest performance was achieved with a task-oriented culture in combination with relational leadership.
With culture and leadership style both focusing on the same orientation, no matter if relational or task specific, the firm’s performance was lower. In these cases, culture can even serve as a substitute for leadership, since leadership behaviors are redundant with cultural values.
Conclusion
What does this mean for Elon Musk? It might have been wise to preserve Twitter’s relationship-oriented culture and enrich it with his task-oriented, performance-driven leadership style.
This aligns with our experiences at tostep: both aspects are needed to provide a clear direction (task-orientation) and to get people excited to contribute (relationship-orientation). Leaders should adapt their style to complement the established culture. We support this through leadership trainings, workshops and coachings.
Source: Corner, Patricia. (2016). “Do Similarities or Differences Between CEO Leadership and Organizational Culture Have a More Positive Effect on Firm Performance? A Test of Competing Predictions.”. Journal of Applied Psychology.