In today's globalization era, leaders of international firms and multinational corporations play an important role as ambassadors of their respective firms and cultures. Given the criticality of their roles, the leaders should be culturally sensitive and channel cultural differences to corporate advantage.

According to the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (a research program founded in 1993), a leader influences, motivates, and enables others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members. Effective leadership steers an organization to success, as well as sustains and consolidates success.

Since leaders influence organizational decisions, policies, and procedures, it is natural for organizational culture to be determined by leadership styles. In fact, organizational culture and leadership share a reciprocal relationship, where a specific culture fosters a particular leadership to suit its needs and the latter modifying the culture in turn. Organizational culture itself includes leadership styles and factors like organizational goals, values, work ethics, interpersonal relationships, and even quotidian procedures. A centralized culture could engender highly charismatic leadership, just as a democratic leader can foster a participatory decisional system.