Transformational Leadership and Organizational Culture: Keys to Binding Employees to the Dutch Public Sector

In response to the growing ethnic and cultural diversity in Dutch society and its labor market, public organizations in the Netherlands are increasingly crafting diversity policies and conducting diversity interventions. Little is known, however, about the effectiveness of interventions that are used to improve employee engagement in the public sector. This chapter discusses the influence of diversity interventions related to the binding of employees with Dutch public organizations with an emphasis on the role of leadership and organizational culture. This chapter concludes that transformational leadership and organizational culture are the keys to the binding of employees to the public sector in today's diverse Netherlands. An inclusive organizational culture in which there is a room for diversity is decisive for the success of interventions used in public organizations. It also appears that managers of these organizations play a critical role. The effect of diversity interventions on the binding of employees with their organizations appears to be less when the manager uses a transformational leadership style. This demonstrates the importance of an inclusive organizational culture and a people-oriented transformational leadership style in the Dutch public sector.