Purpose This paper aims to highlight the importance of organizational culture on the leader’s style and the effect of the chosen leadership style on the team’s performance. It surveys a strata of leaders from the Middle East in the current turbulent environment. Design/methodology/approach A research paper based on a quantitative data collection in the service sector from a large number of stratified sampled firms and respondents. Findings The cross-sectional data from 40 service companies reveal some interesting results highlighting the interrelationships between these three variables. The findings suggest that managers need to build on this concept finding in providing further training and development of employees’ skills in addition to an organizational culture of acceptance, adaptation and diversity. Research limitations/implications Electing to use a specific set of criteria in sampling might have resulted in eliminating a meaningful different direction in the results. Moreover, the size of the survey tool limited the number of variables to test with the study. Practical implications A number of implications are worthy of mention. First, devising reward programmes that are fairly attractive to both genders independently of each other should be a managerial priority, along with the creation and development of strong organizational cultures. Social implications Finally, a coupled performance and organizational culture of efficiency at the workplace, if not paralleled with a proper leadership style that fosters positive results, will only result in partial improvements in the big organizational picture, resulting in the persistence of the old prejudice and discrimination along the gender and age lines. Originality/value The study examines a suggested model in a new environment that is known to be deeply rooted in old-fashioned paternalistic managerial behaviour, and where change, if occurring, is extremely slow to introduce.