Introduction

In the academic work, environment are happening significant changes. National and international university accreditation processes are ongoing in Slovakia, which brings many challenges for their management. University pedagogues must be not only excellent teachers but also researchers with high-quality publication activity and involvement in national and international projects. Old management models are insufficient in an environment of significant change, and management is forced to think and look for ways to retain quality employees and offer them opportunities to cope with their demanding roles.

Organizational culture is an important supporting element in change management. It impacts behavior and determines how employees approach decision-making and how they respond to daily challenges in performing their work. Wherever the culture of the organization is insufficient, the organization does not reach its optimal level. In the environment of higher education, organizational culture is one of the most important characteristics that distinguish one university from another in the current trend of innovation, internationalization, and growth (Köse & Korkmaz, 2019). A healthy organizational culture supports the strategic vision of higher education and its assessment is an important aspect for education stakeholders. Already conducted studies have pointed out that classic hierarchical cultures with rigid rules, strict systematic discipline, and control are not suitable for today’s academic performance. It is necessary to change them and to investigate the factors that influence them (Collins, 2015; Köse & Korkmaz, 2019; Naidoo, 2013) (Fig. 1).

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Research design of the study

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The ultimate creator and bearer of changes in organizational culture is the top representative of the organization. On the other hand, in accordance with the current participatory tendencies in the management of the quality of higher education, structural changes in the culture of the organization must originate from within it. First-level managers (heads of departments and institutes) should lead by example in forming a culture of ethics for improving and increasing quality. There are many studies that examine the factors influencing organizational culture. The relationships between leadership and organizational culture have been explored (Kargas & Varoutas, 2015; Suifan, 2020; Anning-Dorson, 2021; Palafox-Soto et al., 2021; Pratama et al., 2021). If these relationships are in harmony, they can create a flexible and adaptable organization with the potential for its sustainable development. In public administration and especially in the environment of universities, this topic is not given enough attention compared to the business environment. This creates a significant research gap, which we want to at least partially fill with the presented research. We compiled the investigated model based on theoretical research and the results of empirical studies so that the output-dependent variable is organizational culture from the point of view of line managers of Slovak universities (heads of departments and institutes), and the independent influencing variables are the leadership styles of their superiors and organizational trust. All the variables we investigated have been tested in other studies but in different contexts and different interrelationships. Therefore, we consider our concept to be original with added value for university management in a turbulent and rapidly changing environment.

Literature review and development of the hypothesis

Organizational culture (OC) impacts behavior and determines how employees and managers approach decision-making and how they respond to daily challenges in performing their work. The path of improving organizational culture leads through strengthening the connection between values, the set goals of the organization, and its standards in terms of the way values are implemented and practiced. The culture of the organization is devalued by the suppression of constructive disagreement, the existence of uncooperative and isolated functional units of the organization, the bureaucracy that results in a functional orientation instead of an orientation on processes and results, in insufficient appreciation of the will to take risks, and insufficient accountability.

In the field of the higher education environment, the concept of organizational culture was first introduced by the authors (Kuh & Whitt, 1988) in terms of norms, models, values, practices, beliefs, and assumptions that shape the behavior of individuals and groups in universities and colleges. Since that period, research on organizational culture at universities has developed, accepting the specifics of this environment and the constantly increasing new conditions of organizational effectiveness (Kleijnen et al., 2014; Collins, 2015; Köse & Korkmaz, 2019). Köse and Korkmaz (2019) indicated the examination of how the behavior of university leaders affects organizational culture as a future research direction. One of the main factors affecting organizational culture is the leadership style of superiors.

Leadership style (LS) is the way how a superior influence the performance of employees and can convince them to follow him (Ituma, 2019). Theories of leadership styles have been developing for a long time about the personality of the leader, his behavior, the maturity of his subordinates, the situation, etc. Transformational and transactional leadership styles are often investigated in the management environment of universities, but there are also studies on situational, authentic, or servant leadership (Jamali et al., 2022). Khan et al. (2020) stated that external factors force academic leaders to change leadership approaches, but academic values, academic stakeholders, and students are still at the forefront, which is different from other environments. At the same time, it is a highly knowledge-based and innovative environment in which supportive and participative leadership is primarily needed (Naqshbandi & Tabche, 2018). The basis of all leadership theories is the theory of social exchange, which is also characterized by mutual trust, loyalty, respect, and obligations that create a mutual influence between managers and their subordinates. Relationships with organizational culture are presented in studies made by Nikčević (2016) and Akanji et al. (2019). Therefore, we assume that:

H1

Leadership style (LS) is positively associated with organizational culture (OC) in universities.

Organizational trust is perceived as employees’ trust in the employer and support in achieving the organization’s goals. At the same time, it is a positive feeling of employees and their belief that leaders ultimately perform work beneficial to employees (Al-Kurdi et al., 2020; Azizzadeh, 2023; Ilyas et al., 2020; Pucetaite & Novelskaite, 2014). Organizational trust among employees is a basic prerequisite for excellent work performance in an academic environment, for sharing knowledge and achieving positive results (Al-Kurdi et al., 2020; Paliszkiewicz & Koohang, 2013). Building up organizational trust and understanding of its importance in the university environment is important because, according to many studies, academics as intellectual leaders are individualistic, often without an effort to share knowledge, and are focused on individual results more than on achieving the goals of universities (Al-Kurdi et al., 2020). Leaders play an important role in building organizational trust (Ilyas et al., 2020). A leader’s interaction with subordinates affects their perception of the organization and increases trust throughout the organization. Participative and supportive leaders have positive bonds thanks to open communication with subordinates. The leader’s behavior is the first step toward the existence of organizational trust (Bai et al., 2012; Uslu & Oklay, 2015; Syakur et al., 2020). The authors (Uslu & Oklay, 2015) demonstrated in their study the positive relationships between different leadership styles with organizational trust. Therefore, we also assume this connection in our model.

Regarding the relationship between organizational trust and organizational culture, there are studies on the existence of a positive association. Organizational trust is a supportive environment that influences the values, assumptions, and beliefs related to organizational culture. In a healthy, innovative, and supportive culture, people can easily develop new ideas and show cooperation, which also increases organizational trust (Al-Kurdi et al., 2020; Caliskan & Zhu, 2020; Syakur et al., 2020).

Based on the above, we formulate the following hypothesis:

H2

Organizational trust (OT) mediates the relationship between the leadership style (LS) of top managers of universities and organizational culture (OC) in universities.

The purpose of our research is to examine the interrelationship between the leadership style of direct superiors and organizational culture and to find out whether this connection is mediated by organizational trust in the environment of Slovak universities.

Methods

Data collection and sample

We collected data using an anonymous questionnaire survey. Heads of departments from selected public universities in Slovakia were addressed. In total, we addressed 350 managers, and with a return rate of 43%, we obtained 150 relevant responses, making up our research sample. Respondents to the questionnaire survey were full-time university teachers: 26% were assistant professors with Ph.D. degrees, 38% were associate professors, and the remaining 36% were professors. In terms of gender, 54% were women, and 46% were men. The average age of the respondents was 49.22 years (min. = 35, max. = 75, SD = 10.27), and the average working experience was 17.51 years (min. = 7 years, max. = 49 years, SD = 10.91).

Measurements

Leadership style (LS) was taken from the authors’ study (Harris & Ogbonna, 2001), which distinguish a group of participative and supportive styles, which are suitable from the academic point of view for measuring the leadership styles of direct superiors in universities. The variable contains five items (Table 1).

Table 1 Latent variable categories and descriptors
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Organizational culture (OC) was measured using six items (Table 1), taken from the authors’ study (Heeseok Lee & Byounggu Choi, 2003), and focused on collaboration, mutual trust, and learning of organization members.

Organizational trust (OT) was measured by five items (Table 1), taken from the authors’ study (Seonghee & Boryung, 2008), who measured organizational trust in the context of universities as knowledge institutions.

Because our data for all variables were collected using the same method, they are subject to bias. Therefore, we applied some recommended measures to the common bias method such as back-translation, clear instructions to respondents, reverse coding of items, and measurement of the VIF indicator.

Data analysis

PLS-SEM method (partial least squares structural equation modeling) (Hair et al., 2019) for our research model and proposed hypotheses testing to better understand the relations of individual chosen constructs used. We used the SmartPLS 3.3 software.

Results

Measurement model

By analyzing the measurement model, we examined the verification of all the common requirements of the proposed model in terms of its reliability and validity. We present the results in Table 2, which shows that the construct reliability and validity conditions are achieved. Cronbach’s alpha is satisfactory for all constructs (from 0.867 to 0.937). Composite reliability (CR) ranges from 0.770 to 0.980, which is also adequate, and the rho_A criterion, based on results from 0.771 to 0.949, is also adequate, meeting the requirement of residing between Cronbach´s alpha and CR (Hair et al., 2019). The convergent validity was also assessed using the average variance extracted (AVE). The value obtained is greater than 0.5 for all variables, and thus, the model explains an average of at least 50% of its item´s variance (Henseler et al., 2015). Part of the analysis of the measurement model is the calculation of the standardized loadings, which are greater than 0.70. This shows that the model also complies with the reliability requirement.

Table 2 Construct reliability, validity, and convergent validity.
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When examining the proposed theoretical model, satisfying the discriminant validity requirement is very important. We measured it by calculating two recommended tools (Henseler et al., 2015), namely, the Fornell–Larcker criterion, cross-loadings, and the HTMT criterion. The results are shown in Tables 3 and 4, and it is clear that the discriminant validity requirement is met. When computing the Forner–Lacker criterion, the square root of AVE for the construct exceeds the inter-construct correlation. When calculating the HTMT criterion, the mean value of the indicator correlations across constructs is lower than 0.85–0.9 depending on the similarity or difference of the constructs.

Table 3 Forner–Lacker criterion.
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Table 4 Heterotrait–Monotrait ratio.
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Structural model

The examined theoretical model has to have predictive relevance. We evaluated it on the basis of Q2 values which is above 0 by which we point out that the model has predictive relevance (Table 5).

Table 5 Construct cross-validated redundancy.
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The goodness of the model was evaluated by the R2 value for the dependent variable calculation. The findings in Table 6 show that all R2 values are over 0.1 which indicates the predictive capability model validity.

Table 6 The goodness of the model.
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When using the SEM method, it is also important to verify the model fit. We used the SRMR calculation, the value of which is shown in Table 7. It is 0.100, which corresponds to the theory that SRMR values should be less than or equal to 0.100 when the model fit is acceptable (Hair et al., 2019).

Table 7 Model fit summary.
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We verified the individual stated hypotheses by bootstrapping calculation. The obtained values are stated in Table 8.

Table 8 Direct and indirect effects results.
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Discussion and conclusion

The structural model presents the relationships between the variables, forming the theoretical model of the study. H1 evaluates whether leadership style is positively related to organizational culture. H1 has support. Our results are consistent with the results of other studies on the positive association of the two variables (Abbas et al., 2022; Akanji et al., 2019; Khan et al., 2020), although it is still discussed which variable is the causal variable of the other variable. While Akanji et al. (2019) argued that the different leadership styles used by faculty deans, department heads, and senior non-teaching staff in universities are predominantly shaped by the level of organizational culture and the context of the university, other authors (Al-Kurdi et al., 2020; Khan et al., 2020) share an opposing view. In any case, even according to our findings, there is a significant association between leadership style and organizational culture, with participative and supportive leadership styles being preferred due to the specificities of the university environment. Deans of faculties or other senior leaders should consider the views of subordinates before making decisions, help to make work on their tasks more pleasant, care for their personal well-being, treat everyone as equally, and schedule work to be done from a higher perspective and in a broader context. The mediation of organizational trust between leadership style and organizational culture was confirmed. A significant finding is that the overall effect when the organizational trust variable was entered was much higher than the direct effect of the independent and dependent variables. Even the indirect effect (coefficient beta 0.620) accounts for up to 81% of the total effect. Thus, it is a complete mediation. Although leadership style is related to building organizational culture, organizational trust plays a much more significant role, which university management should build. Our findings are partially consistent with the findings of other studies on the positive association between organizational trust and both variables (organizational culture and leadership style) (Al-Kurdi et al., 2020; Caliskan & Zhu, 2020; Syakur et al., 2020). However, they bring added value in the form of the significant role of organizational trust as a mediator of the relationship between leadership style and organizational culture. Organizational trust thus becomes a supportive environment in which leaders influence values, assumptions, and beliefs related to organizational culture.

Our study has important theoretical and practical implications. It contributes to theory development by focusing on universities and their academic leaders and addressing issues related to their leadership style and organizational culture. The results of this study also provide an understanding of the link of leadership styles in the form of supportive and participative styles with organizational culture through the important phenomenon of organizational trust. Participative styles positively influence organizational culture and effectively contribute to the fulfillment of the demanding responsibilities of university teachers. The results of our study are consistent with leadership theory, social exchange theory, and leader–member exchange theory and add new aspects to them. From a practical perspective, the results of the study can help university managers at all levels of management, who are aware of the importance of organizational culture in change management, to use this tool in a complex turbulent environment. It is not important to focus on the right leadership style, but it is necessary to build organizational trust first and foremost. Academic leaders can thus try to give staff and entire universities or faculties values and goals by appropriate participative and supportive leadership in an environment of organizational trust.

This research was supported by Slovak Academy of Sciences VEGA project No. 1/0010/23 adaptability of corporate culture—a factor supporting resilience and sustainability of enterprises in Slovakia in the post-COVID period and KEGA project No. 001EU-4/20212021 Project of the study program in the field of economics and management, reflecting the conditions of the digital age, the appeal of sustainability of economic activity and global citizenship.