Happiness at Work and Paternalistic Leadership: Is Culture a Missing Link?

Management and workforce are at the center of the change in business life due to many reasons. In particular, it is seen that technological developments have changed the way of doing business. The results of this affect the happiness of the employees at work. For example, the widespread use of technology in working and production environments can make it sufficient to employ fewer people than in previous periods. In this case, destructive competition is in question for employees, and unhappiness increases in individuals with stress and burnout problems. In these conditions, it is possible to take positive steps in terms of productivity and happiness for the workplace and employees with effective leadership. At this point, “Can paternalist leadership be appropriate from leadership approaches in the context of employee happiness at work?” When considering the question, a dilemma is encountered. Namely, in paternalistic leadership, the leader directs the employees both at work and outside of work life and can deal with various issues, including the private lives of the employees. On the other hand, “can these referrals make employees happy?” The answer to the question may vary. In this study, the concepts of paternalistic leadership and happiness at work in Turkish and Western literature will be discussed. Due to the cultural paradox, the effects of paternalistic leadership, which is considered positive in some organizational cultures and negatively in some organizational cultures, on the organization, employees and the leader in terms of happiness will be critically evaluated.