A study on the relationship between culture and leadership style preference among Malay-Brunei, Bajau and Kadazan-Dusun community in Sabah

This study is conducted to identify the relationship between culture and leadership style preference among Sabahans namely Malay-Brunei, Bajau and Kadazan-Dusun. The dependent variable in this study is preferred leadership style introduced by House (1971) which consists of directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented. There are two independent variables in this study which are demographics (gender, age, level of education and working experience) and Hofstede's cultural dimension (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism and masculinity/ femininity). The demography was also tested as moderator in this study. This study involves three major ethnic groups in Sabah namely Malay-Brunei, Bajau and Kadazan-Dusun. The sample of this research was selected based on purposive convenient sampling. Questionnaire was administered for data collection whereas a sample of two hundred nineteen employees from both public and private sector participated in this study. The results showed that three major ethnic groups in Sabah appear to be not significantly different in the Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Furthermore, there is no significant difference between demographic variable and leadership preference among employees. However, it is found that gender and level of education moderate the relationship between culture and leadership style preferences. The evidence was also found on the relationship between culture and leadership style preference. Therefore, it provide implication that leader should understand the culture in order for them to be accepted by the followers