The topic of leadership and leadership devolvement has attracted considerable interest from both academics and practitioners. Further, there have been explicit and implicit claims, that both leadership and culture are linked with each other and both influence organizational performance. While modern leadership and its evolving theories has been examined independently, its applicability was taken as universally. Few studies have investigated the association between the three concepts. This thesis focuses on the new styles of modern leadership and presents evidence suggesting that leadership is very dependent on its cultural context. It further shows that most leadership theories are based on western values, and therefore questions, whether these are applicable in Chinese companies. In fact, this paper is based on the assumption that the relationship between leadership style and performance is mediated by the organizational culture that is present at hand. It concludes with several implications for theory and practice and identifies future research objectives.

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