Current emphasis in culture research focuses on how leaders might change the culture to improve organizational performance. However, how culture affects organizational performance under active leadership relations research has resulted in conceptual ambiguities, as well as contradictory empirical findings. We argue that organizational culture moderates the effectiveness of leadership on organizational performance. We used an ethical approach to generalize paternalistic leadership in moderating Turkish organizational culture. The results indicate that paternalistic leadership functions are divided into two dimensions: family relationships and non-work life involvement, and the overall effects of paternalistic leadership on non-financial performance are unconnected to organizational culture, namely cultural tightness-looseness (CTL).