Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to look into the theories regarding leadership, organizational culture, and organizational socialization and the theory that some aspects of socialization (e.g. employee enthusiasm for, or lack of, cooperation) can influence an organization's culture.

Design/methodology/approach - Via questionnaire, 166 employees from a variety of organizations evaluated their leaders and companies on all variables. Correlation and regression analyses were employed. Findings - Correlations revealed leader behaviors to be more control-oriented in bureaucratic culture; and more flexible-oriented in innovative culture; but, contrary to expectations, more control-oriented in supportive culture. Regressions confirmed these results and revealed that both leadership and socialization explained significant variance in all cultures. The leadership behaviors were also differentially associated with the socialization content domains, supporting most but refuting some aspects of organization theory.

Research limitations/implications - The unexpected finding of highly control-oriented leader behaviors in supportive culture suggests the need for more research in this area. Practical implications - A need for more flexible leader behaviors in certain organizational cultures was found. Leadership behaviors needing development in regard to socialization were likewise revealed. Also found, were aspects of socialization content that need more management attention in all three types of organizational cultures examined.

Originality/value - This is the first empirical analysis of the interrelationships among the organizational socialization content areas, leadership behavior, and organizational culture.