The study suggests a moderator-mediation model: teacher organisational commitment mediates the relationship between the interaction of participative decision-making (PDM) and paternalistic leadership (PL) and a school's cultural attributes to school effectiveness (student academic achievement, teachers' organisational citizenship behaviour, and teachers' perceived strain). The data were collected through a questionnaire returned by a two-stage clusters random sampling of 245 teachers in Israeli elementary schools characterised by different cultural attributes. Data were collected from two sources, self-reports and test grades measures to minimise measure error. The structural equation modelling and bootstrap results highlight the intervening role of a school's cultural attributes on the relationship between PL and school effectiveness, implying that the implications of PL are context dependant. The findings also showed positive implications of PDM on school effectiveness regardless of a school's cultural attributes. Implications for theory and practise are discussed.