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Managerial Implications of the GLOBE Project: A study of 62 societies

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DOI: 10.1177/1038411108099289

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 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1) 41

Managerial implications of the GLOBE project: A study

of 62 societies

Mansour Javidan
Thunderbird School of Global Management, Glendale, Arizona, USA

Ali Dastmalchian
University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

This paper provides an overview of the GLOBE project, a comprehensive study of

leadership and culture in 62 societies and discusses the practical implications of
the study for managers and leaders. The GLOBE study identifies nine cultural
and six leadership dimensions and was designed to examine a number of
theoretical propositions and research questions. This paper, while emphasizing
aspects of the study from the Asia Pacific region, highlights six major managerial
implications of the GLOBE project ranging from more static information on the
cultural attributes and leadership dimensions of specific countries or groups of
countries (clusters) to more dynamic implications such as relationships between
culture and leadership, and relationships between culture and societal
phenomena. The paper concludes by emphasizing the significance of the GLOBE
study’s practical implications for global managers (including HR practitioners) in
today’s global business world.

A day in the life of a global manager

Jane Smith is the Australian-born Global New Product Development

General Manager of a French cosmetics company in charge of the Asia
Pacific region. Working from her regional office in Singapore, this is what
her typical day looks like. At 7:30 am she has a video conference meeting
with country managers for updates on their activities. There are some

Correspondence to: Professor Ali Dastmalchian, Dean, Faculty of Business, University of

Victoria, PO Box 1700, Victoria, BC, V8W 2Y2, Canada; e-mail: dastmal@uvic.ca

Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources. Published by SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi,
Singapore and Washington DC; www.sagepublications.com) on behalf of the Australian Human Resources
Institute. Copyright © 2009 Australian Human Resources Institute. Volume 47(1): 41–58. [1038-4111]
DOI: 10.1177/1038411108099289.
42 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)

significant staffing issues locally and in some of the regions which she
needs to understand. This is particularly so for southern China, Vietnam
and South Korea where the sales targets have not been met for a while. At
9 am she has to meet with representatives from the local government in
Singapore regarding the extension of the business permits. As a foreign-
owned company operating in Singapore, the company has had some
challenges regarding the nature of the business permit to comply with the
new legal requirements in Singapore.
Her next activity for the day is to attend a meeting of the regional sales
executives where she is expected to make a presentation on the future plans
of the company. She is then to meet and greet briefly with the
representatives from some of the most important clients in the region to
emphasize the new round of negotiations that will start next week with
regards to the regional contracts. She is nervous about this and is wondering
which aspects to emphasize with each key regional customer representative.
A growing percentage of the longstanding customers have changed their
buying habits and moved to competition lately.
Shortly after noon she is having lunch with the VP of the British bank
that provides funding for the expansion of their operations in China. The
key purpose is to clear a misunderstanding regarding credit issues of the
parent company in France. Immediately after lunch she has to rush to their
main office building, where most of the local staff are located, to engage in
a conversation with the six senior managers making their annual request
for resource and infrastructure funding for facilities, benefits and
equipment for 250 employees under their supervision. Their 250 people are
spread among four countries in the Asia Pacific region. At 3 pm she is
meeting with two top suppliers that produce most of the boxing and
packaging materials for their products – one from Hong Kong and the
other from Malaysia. Maintaining good and steady relationships with these
partners is crucial to the stability of supply of their products in the region.
Her next meeting at 5 pm is a phone meeting with her boss in France to
discuss the quarterly productivity reports for her region. One of her issues
is that the accounting system used in the French headquarters is not
compatible with the one they are using in some of the countries in the
region, and she has not been able to make any headway on this matter. The
next item on her agenda is a 30-minute performance review meeting with
her personal assistant, who is from Japan and has worked most her life in
North America. Jane’s personal assistant has had some difficulties adjusting
to life in Singapore. At 7 pm Jane is having dinner with the lawyer from
the firm that is helping them with a lawsuit that was recently filed against
them charging them with the breach of their contract in Bangkok.
 Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 43

Figure 1 What do global managers do?

Lead
• Motivate global
workforce
• Manage global
careers
Negotiate
Create M&A
• Buyers
• Manage other
• Sellers
global partners
• Creditors

Global
manager Build global
organization
Monitor
and resources
• Environments
• Maintenance
• Competitors
• Manage global
performance

Balance Manage
• Manage local relations
and HQ • International JV,
• Transfer global partners,
knowledge and alliances

The story while disguised portrays the real life of a global manager. Global
managers are required to deal with a variety of issues, challenges and stakeholders
who represent diverse cultural and political and institutional systems. Figure 1
shows the web of roles that a global manager such as Jane Smith performs.

Leadership and the necessity of global outlook

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the practical implica-

tions and lessons from a large 62-nation study of culture and leadership –
known as project GLOBE – and how GLOBE project’s findings can help
global managers such as Jane Smith. In the world that is becoming increasingly
global, thus creating the necessity for different cultures to be much greater
44 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)

contact than ever before, the need for better understanding of other cultures
and ways of doing business is clearly driving business education and challenges
leadership and human resource development in business and industry. In this
article, we first provide an overview of the need for a better global outlook for
leaders and managers followed by an introduction to project GLOBE and its
purposes and processes. In the second major section of the paper, we outline
some of the key practical implications for managers, leaders and organizations.

The need for a global outlook for leaders

We live in a world that is increasingly interconnected. The world’s export of

goods and services in the last decade has doubled and by the end of this decade
trade between nations is expected to exceed total transactions within nations
(Javidan and House 2001). Foreign sales of multinational corporations have
exceeded $7 trillion and are growing 20–30% faster than their sales of exports
(House et al. 1999). Despite this, 85 percent of the American Fortune 500
companies have reported a shortfall of global managers with the necessary
skills (Gregerson, Morrison, and Black 1998). There are many more signifi-
cant indicators that such a huge transformation towards a more connected and
global world is happening.

The GLOBE program

To understand the cultures of other countries and to be open-minded in their

dealings with people from other cultures, leaders need to be able to have the
ability and perspective to make comparisons between their own cultures and
those of others. The GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organisational
Behaviour Effectiveness) project is a multi-phase, multi-method project
examining the interrelationships between societal culture, organizational
culture, leadership, and societal achievements. After an extensive review of
existing knowledge, the GLOBE project conceptualized and developed
measures of nine dimensions of culture and six dimensions of leadership. These
dimensions of culture and leadership that help distinguish one country from
another and help better understand the meaning of leadership in these different
cultures have significant managerial implications.
The GLOBE project has been referred to as the most ambitious project in
global leadership (Morrison 2000). The worldwide team of about 170 social
scientists and management scholars from 62 societies representing all major
regions of the world were engaged in this long-term programmatic series of
cross-cultural leadership studies (see the appendix for the list of countries). The
data represent overviews of over 17 000 managers from these 62 countries. The
participating managers were from telecommunications, food and banking
industries. The meta-goal of GLOBE is to develop empirically based theories
to describe, understand, and predict the impact of specific cultural variables on
 Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 45

leadership effectiveness and organizational processes, and economic and human

achievements in societies. As one outcome, we assessed the 62 cultures in terms
of scores on the nine cultural dimensions. We then studied the effects of these
cultural dimensions on leadership and organizational practices in each culture.

Cultural dimensions
Project GLOBE defines culture as ‘shared motives, values, beliefs, identities,
and interpretations or meanings of significant events that result from common
experiences of members of collectives and are transmitted across age genera-
tions’ (Javidan and House 2001, 293) . Culture is measured through common-
ality of values and practices. Values are expressed, for example, in response to
questionnaire items in the form of judgments of ‘what should be’. Practices
are measured by indicators assessing ‘what is’, or ‘what are’, common behav-
iours, institutional practices, and prescriptions. Figure 2 shows an example of
the way in which items measuring the ‘as is’ and ‘should be’” aspects of culture
were framed and measured.
The following is the description of the nine GLOBE dimensions of
societal culture. More detailed information is available on GLOBE’s public
website at www.thunderbird.edu/wwwfiles/ms/globe/ (also see House et al.
2004; Javidan et al. 2006).
1 Performance orientation refers to the extent to which an organization or
society encourages and rewards group members for performance improve-
ment and excellence. In countries where they scored high on this cultural
practice, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand, organizations
are likely to emphasize training and development. In countries where the
score on this dimension is low, such as Russia, Argentina and Greece,
family connections and background are more emphasized.
2 Assertiveness orientation is the degree to which individuals in organizations or
societies are assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in social relationships.

Figure 2 Examples of societal culture questions for measuring ‘as is’ (cultural practice) and
‘should be’ (cultural value)

Society as is
The economic system in this society is designed to maximize:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Individual Collective
interests Interests
Society should be
I believe that the economic system in this society should be designed to maximize:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Individual Collective
interests Interests
46 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)

In countries scoring high on this cultural practice, such as Austria, Spain

and Greece, people have more of a ‘can-do’ attitude and tend to be more
competitive in business. In countries where this cultural practice was low,
such as New Zealand, Sweden and Japan, there is likely to be more
sympathy for the weak, more emphasis on harmony and loyalty.
3 Future orientation is the degree to which individuals in organizations or
societies engage in future-oriented behaviours such as planning, investing
in the future, and delaying gratification. In high future-oriented cultures
such as Singapore, Switzerland or Canada, there is a tendency to have a
longer time horizon for decision-making and more systematic planning
processes. In less future-oriented cultures such as Russia, Argentina or
Poland, there tends to be less systematic planning and more preference
for opportunistic behaviours and actions.
4 Humane orientation is the degree to which individuals in organizations
or societies encourage and reward individuals for being fair, altruistic,
friendly, generous, caring, and kind to others. In countries high on this
cultural practice, such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, human
relations, support for others and sympathy for others (specially the vulner-
able) are highly valued. People value belongingness and caring for the
well-being of others. Paternalistic and patronage associations and rela-
tionships are common and children are expected to be obedient. In
cultures scoring low on Humane orientation, such as Germany, Spain or
Singapore, more emphasis is placed on power, material possessions, self-
enhancement and independence. People prefer to solve their own
problems and children are more likely to be independent.
5 Collectivism I: Institutional collectivism reflects the degree to which organ-
izational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward collec-
tive distribution of resources and collective action. Organizations in
collective countries like Singapore, South Korea and Japan emphasize
group harmony and co-operation and reward the group and not the indi-
vidual. In societies that are more individualistic, such as Greece, Hungary
and Argentina, autonomy, self-interest and individual freedom are valued
and organizations tend to reward individual performance.
6 Collectivism II: In-group collectivism reflects the degree to which individ-
uals express pride, loyalty and cohesiveness in their organizations or
families. Countries scoring high on this cultural practice, such as Iran,
India and China, are societies where being a member of a family and a
close group of friends (an in-group) is very important to people. Satisfying
the expectations of the ‘in-group’ is critical to people. In contrast, in
societies where cultural practice of In-group collectivism is low, such as
Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand, family members and friends do
not expect any type of special treatment and people do not feel obliged to
ignore rules to take care of their close friends and family members.
 Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 47

7 Gender egalitarianism is the extent to which an organization or a society

minimizes gender role differences and gender discrimination. Countries
high on this dimension, such as Hungary, Denmark and Sweden, view
women’s status as being higher and their involvement in decision-making
stronger compared to more male-dominated societies. The latter group,
which includes (according to the GLOBE study) countries such as South
Korea, China and Egypt, has higher status for men and has relatively
fewer women in positions of authority.
8 Power distance is defined as the degree to which members of an organ-
ization or society expect and agree that power should be unequally shared.
Societies that are high on Power distance, such as Russia, Thailand and
Spain, distinguish between those with power and status and those
without, and expect obedience towards superiors. Societies low on Power
distance, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, expect less differentia-
tion between those in power and those without.
9 Uncertainty avoidance is defined as the extent to which members of an
organization or society strive to avoid uncertainty by reliance on social
norms, rituals, and bureaucratic practices to alleviate the unpredictability
of future events. Societies with high scores on Uncertainty avoidance, such
as Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark, value orderliness and consistency,
structured lifestyles and rules and laws to govern situations. Societies
scoring low on this dimension on the other hand, such as Russia, Hungary
and Bolivia, have a strong tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, live
less structured lives and are less concerned about following rules.
These cultural definitions are also represented in table 1 where they are accom-
panied by examples of questionnaire items for each.

Leadership dimensions
Another major question addressed by GLOBE concerns the extent to which
specific leader attributes and behaviours are universally endorsed as
contributing to effective leadership, and the extent to which attributes and
behaviours are linked to cultural characteristics. In generating leadership items,
our focus was on developing a comprehensive list of leader attributes and
behaviours rather than on developing a priori leadership scales. The initial pool
of leadership items was based on leader behaviours and attributes described in
several extant leadership theories. The theories are described in House and
Aditya (1997). These leadership items consisted of behavioural and attribute
descriptors. Examples of these items are presented in table 2. Items were rated
on a 7-point Likert-type scale that ranged from a low of ‘This behaviour or
characteristic greatly inhibits a person from being an outstanding leader’ to a
high of ‘This behaviour or characteristic contributes greatly to a person being
an outstanding leader’. The requisite assumptions and beliefs that people have
48 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)

Table 1 Culture construct definitions and sample questionnaire items

Culture construct definitions Specific questionnaire item

Performance orientation: The degree to which a Students are encouraged (should

collective encourages and rewards group members
for performance improvement and excellence.
Assertiveness orientation: The degree to
which individuals are assertive,confrontational
and aggressive in their relationships with others.
Future orientation: The extent to which individuals
engage in future-oriented behaviours such as delaying
gratification, planning, and investing in the future.
Humane orientation: The degree to which a collective
encourages and rewards individuals for being fair,
altruistic, generous, caring and kind to others.
Collectivism I (Institutional collectivism): The degree to
which organizational and societal institutional practices
encourage and reward collective distribution of
resources and collective action.
Collectivism II (In-group collectivism): The degree to
which individuals express pride, loyalty, and
cohesiveness in their organizations or families.
Gender egalitarianism: The degree to which a
collective minimizes gender inequality.
Power distance: The degree to which members of a
collective expect power to be distributed equally.
Uncertainty avoidance: The extent to which a society,
organization, or group relies on social norms, rules, and
procedures to alleviate unpredictability of future events.
be encouraged) to strive for
continuously improved performance.
People are (should be) generally
dominant in their relationships with
each other.
More people live (should live) for
the present rather than for the future.
(Scored inversely)
People are generally (should be
generally) very tolerant of mistakes.
Leaders encourage (should
encourage) group loyalty even if
individual goals suffer.
Employees feel (should feel) great
loyalty toward this organization.
Boys are encouraged (should be
encouraged) more than girls to attain
a higher education. (Scored inversely)
Followers are (should be) expected to
obey their leaders without question.
Most people lead (should lead) highly
structured lives with few unexpected
events.

about what contributes to or impedes outstanding leadership are referred to as

implicit leadership theory (ILT). GLOBE extended ILT by incorporating
societal culture into the analysis, arguing that such belief systems are shared
among individuals in common cultures. This is referred to by GLOBE
researchers as ‘culturally endorsed implicit leadership theory’ (CLT) (see
House et al. 1999; Javidan et al. 2006).
GLOBE project’s leadership questionnaire consisted of 112 behaviour and
attribute descriptors such as the one in table 2, rated on a 7-point Likert-type
scale. GLOBE empirically reduced this large number of items to 21 primary
and then 6 global leadership dimensions. These 6 leadership dimensions differ-
entiate desirable leadership qualities by taking into account the cultural
profiles (CLT profile). These dimensions are culturally generalizable for meas-
urement purposes, in the sense that respondents from all cultures were able to
 Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 49

Table 2 Sample leadership (CLT) questionnaire items

Definition of leadership Ability to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute to

Sample CLT items
Response alternatives
the success of their organization
Sensitive: Aware of slight changes in moods of others
Motivator: Mobilizes, activates followers
Evasive: Refrains from making negative comments to maintain
good relationships and save face
Diplomatic: Skilled at interpersonal relations, tactful
Self-interested: Pursues own best interests
Impedes or facilitates unusually effective leadership
1 Substantially impedes
2 Moderately impedes
3 Slightly impedes
4 Neither impedes nor facilitates
5 Slightly facilitates
6 Moderately facilitates
7 Substantially facilitates

complete the questionnaire items that comprise these dimensions. Thus, these
dimensions of reported leadership attributes and behaviours are dimensions of
the culturally endorsed theories of leadership (CLT) of the country studied.
Details of the process of arriving at the cultural profiles are described in House
et al. (1999) and House et al. (2004). Table 3 summarizes the GLOBE leader-
ship culture dimensions.
GLOBE’s analysis of leadership also showed that while different societies have
different views about many aspects of leadership and its effectiveness, they also are
in agreement on other aspects of leadership. GLOBE found that there are 22 attrib-
utes that are universally deemed to be desirable. Being motivational, dynamic,
honest and decisive are examples of desirable leadership attributes in all GLOBE
countries. GLOBE also identified eight leadership attributes that are universally
undesirable. Leadership attributes of being a loner, egocentric, irritable and ruthless
are examples of the universally undesirable attributes of leaders.

How can GLOBE help global managers?

GLOBE’s nine cultural dimensions and six leadership scales have provided us
with remarkably comprehensive perspectives and views on different countries’
cultural practices, values and outstanding leadership. Indeed this is the type of
information and perspective that global managers need to be able to better under-
stand and deal with cultural differences. There are many lessons to be drawn from
GLOBE project, and there is no limit to the scope or direction of such lessons for
practice and managerial implications. In the remainder of this paper we will
50 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)

Table 3 GLOBE leadership dimensions, scales and items

Dimensions Scales Questionnaire items (definitions omitted)

Charismatic/value based
Visionary Visionary, foresight, anticipatory, prepared, intellectually stimulating,
future oriented, plans ahead, inspirational
Inspirational Enthusiastic, positive, encouraging, morale booster, motive arouser,
confidence builder, dynamic, motivational
Self-sacrificial Risk taker, self-sacrificial, convincing
Integrity Honest, sincere, just, trustworthy
Decisive Wilful, decisive, logical, intuitive
Performance oriented Improvement, excellence and performance oriented

Team oriented
Team collaborative Group oriented, collaborative, loyal, consultative, mediator, fraternal
Team integrator Clear, integrator, subdued, informed, communicative, co-ordinator,
team builder
Diplomatic Diplomatic, worldly, win/win problem solver, effective bargainer
Malevolent (reversed) Irritable, vindictive, egoistic, non-co-operative, cynical, hostile,
dishonest, non-dependable, intelligent
Administrative Orderly, administratively skilled, organized, good administrator

Self-protective
Self-centered Self-interested, non-participative, loner, asocial
Status consciousness Status conscious, class conscious
Conflict inducer Intra-group competitor, secretive, normative
Face saver Indirect, avoids negatives, evasive
Procedural Ritualistic, formal, habitual, cautious, procedural

Participative
Autocratic (reversed) Autocratic, dictatorial, bossy, elitist, ruler, domineering
Participative Non-individual, egalitarian, non-micro manager, delegator

Humane orientation
Humane orientation Generous, compassionate
Modesty Modest, self-effacing, patient

Autonomous Individualistic, independent, autonomous, unique

highlight some of the obvious lessons with the hope that it encourages global
managers and scholars alike to continue using GLOBE and other studies in an
attempt to improve our managerial and organizational abilities to deal with our
flat and global world of management, business and organizations.
GLOBE provides two types of information on cultures and leadership
styles in different parts of the world: static and dynamic. A brief explanation
of each type is provided below.
 Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 51

Table 4 According to GLOBE, compared to other countries...

Singapore is.... Australia is....

H Performance orientation H Performance orientation

H Assertiveness H Assertiveness
H Future orientation MH Future orientation
H Uncertainty avoidance MH Uncertainty avoidance
H Institutional collectivism MH Institutional collectivism
H Gender egalitarianism M Gender egalitarianism
H In-group collectivism L In-group collectivism
MH Power distance MH Power distance
L Humane orientation MH Humane orientation

GLOBE static information

As explained earlier, we provided data on cultures in 62 societies. We measured

societal cultures through nine cultural dimensions that were described earlier.
The GLOBE database provides four categories of static information.

Country and cluster culture information

We have generated a large database on each country’s culture by showing its
score on each of the nine cultural dimensions. The combination of the nine
dimensions provides a cultural profile for a country or a cultural cluster. For
example, table 4 shows the cultural profiles of Singapore and Australia. It
shows that Singapore is a unique culture. Compared to the other GLOBE
countries, it scores at the top in terms of seven dimensions. It also scores
medium-high on Power distance and low on Humane orientation. No other
country scores so high on so many cultural dimensions.
Knowing Singapore’s cultural profile can help the global manager better
perform her job in that country. For example, knowing that Singaporean
employees are highly future- oriented, the manager is better able to motivate
them by emphasizing future-oriented actions and decisions. She can explain
how their actions can contribute to the company’s strategic plans and priori-
ties. Also, knowing that Singapore is highly collectivistic, the next time the
global manager is meeting with the regulators from the Singapore government,
she can focus on how the actions and decisions by her company will contribute
to the goals and priorities of the Singapore government and the whole society.
• Singapore is the highest ranked country in the GLOBE study on Future
orientation and Performance orientation, and among the highest on
Institutional collectivism. Singapore was ranked among the lowest
countries on Humane orientation.
• China ranked among the highest countries on gender differentiation and
In-group collectivism.
52 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)

• South Korea ranked as the most gender differentiated country and the 2nd
highest country on Institutional collectivism.
• India ranked as the 2nd most gender differentiated country and the 2nd
highest on In-group collectivism, while ranked in the middle on Future
orientation.
• Japan ranked as the 2nd lowest country on Assertiveness orientation and
among the highest on Institutional collectivism. It is in the middle range
on Performance orientation and In-group collectivism.
• New Zealand ranked among the highest countries on Performance orien-
tation and lowest on In-group collectivism. It ranked in the middle on
Humane orientation.
• Russia ranked among the lowest countries on Performance orientation,
Uncertainty avoidance and Future orientation, and is among the highest
ranked on Power distance.

Comparison of two or more countries’ cultural profiles

Using GLOBE data, a global manager can compare and contrast different
cultural profiles. For example, in the introductory case in this article, the
manager is from Australia. Table 4 shows a comparison of the Australian and
Singaporean cultures. The table shows that both countries score high on
Performance orientation and Assertiveness orientation. They both score
medium high on Power distance. They are also somewhat similar in terms of
three other dimensions, Future orientation, Uncertainty avoidance, and
Institutional collectivism. Singapore scores high and Australia scores medium
high on these three dimensions. The two countries are relatively different on
the remaining three dimensions.
A key implication of this comparison is that the strong similarities between
Australia and Singapore make it easier for an Australian manager to success-
fully operate in Singapore. She can leverage the similarities to effectively
communicate and collaborate with her Singaporean clients, colleagues, or
partners. But her knowledge of the differences is also very important. For
example, knowing that Singapore is much more in-group oriented helps the
manager understand how important it is to build personal relationships with
her Singapore stakeholders, be it her employees, her peers, government
officials, clients, or supply chain partners.
In a GLOBE regional study of societies in the Middle East (Dastmalchian
and Kabasakal 2001; Kabasakal and Dastmalchian 2001) a comprehensive
comparison was made of the cultural attributes of Iran, Turkey, Kuwait and
Qatar. The researchers pointed out that while these four countries are all low
on Future orientation, each country demonstrated considerable variation on at
least one cultural dimension. For example, Iran while very high on In-group
collectivism, is a very individualistic culture (low on Societal collectivism) with
uniquely high scores on Assertiveness orientation (Dastmalchian, Javidan, and
Alam 2001; Javidan and Dastmalchian 2003). Compared with the other three
 Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 53

countries, Iran is very high on Performance orientation, Kuwait is high on

Uncertainly avoidance, Turkey is very low on Humane orientation and Qatar
is high on Gender egalitarianism. Other sources have examined the cultural
attributes of specific countries such as Germany (Broadbeck, Frese, and Javidan
2002), Iran (Javidan and Dastmalchian 2003) and China (Javidan and Lynton
2005). These sources and the information provided serve to prepare managers
to deal with others from another culture in a more informed manner.

Information on the profile of outstanding leadership in a country or cluster

GLOBE surveyed middle managers in the 62 societies to understand the profile
of outstanding leadership in every country in the sample. As referred to earlier,
the participating managers were asked to report the extent to which each of
112 leadership attributes can impede or facilitate outstanding leadership in their
society. We identified 21 primary leadership factors based on the global
database of over 17 000 managers. Table 5 shows the leadership profile in
Singapore. It shows that attributes like vision, integrity. Performance orienta-
tion, and inspiration are highly desirable leadership attributes in this country.
It also shows that leaders who are malevolent, self-centered, non-participative,
and autocratic are deemed ineffective.
A global manager’s knowledge of this information can be helpful in how
she leads her Singaporean workforce. Her success as a leader in Singapore is
very much dependent on her ability to create a process that ensures participa-
tion by employees in crafting an exciting, challenging, and inspirational vision
that is credible to the team. It also depends on her ability to avoid any type of
behaviour that is deemed self-centered or autocratic. Similar attribution and
analyses can be found for other counties in the GLOBE project (e.g. Broadbeck
et al. 2002; Dastmalchian and Kabasakal 2001; Javidan and Dastmalchian 2003).

Comparison of two or more countries’ profiles of outstanding leadership

A global manager needs to know how to adjust his/her behaviour in dealing
with those from other cultures and societies. GLOBE findings are helpful in
that they can provide a comparison of the leadership profiles in two or more
countries. For example, table 5 shows a comparison of the leadership profiles
in Australia and Singapore. It shows a very high level of similarity between
what is expected from leaders in both countries. That makes the job of the
Australian manager much easier in Singapore. She can pretty much act the
way she would with an Australian group. Having this information gives her
comfort and confidence in her ability to succeed as a leader in Singapore.

GLOBE dynamic information

The second category of findings produced by GLOBE is dynamic in nature

in the sense that they focus on two relationships among several variables: the
54 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)

Table 5 Leadership profiles in Singapore and Australia

Primary leadership factors Singapore

Australia

Visionary 6.173 6.2402

Integrity 6.1514 6.3602
Performance orientation 6.1147 6.3517
Inspirational 6.0895 6.4025
Team integrator 5.9398 6.098
Decisive 5.8459 6.0218
Administratively competent 5.7122 5.4079
Diplomatic 5.58 5.5593
Team oriented 5.413 5.5219
Self-sacrificial 5.3853 5.1366
Modesty 5.3524 5.0889
Humane 5.1032 5.1206
Autonomous 3.8658 3.9455
Procedural 3.8119 3.5632
Status conscious 3.7834 3.8183
Conflict inducer 3.6421 3.2815
Face saver 3.195 2.6652
Autocratic 2.7272 2.278
Non-participative 2.6812 2.3057
Self-centered 2.0493 1.9123
Malevolent 1.8322 1.6254

relationship between culture and leadership, and the relationship between

culture and societal phenomena.

Culture and leadership

Our study of over 17 000 managers has produced an empirical picture of the
relationship between culture and leadership. While there is much discussion on
this relationship, this is the first rigorous and empirical treatment of this subject.
We have shown that specific cultural values can predict specific leadership
profiles. For example, as shown in figure 3, societies that have high Performance
orientation values tend to desire leaders who are charismatic, team oriented,
and participative. They frown on leaders who are self-protective.
This type of information can help a global manager better predict the style
of leadership that will or will not work in a particular culture. Such an under-
standing goes beyond knowledge of a specific country. It is more generalizable
and more helpful in any society.

Culture and societal phenomena

Global managers live and work in many parts of the world. They live in
diverse societies that have developed a wide range of political, institutional,
 Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 55

Figure 3 Culture and leadership

Performance orientation Cultural dimension

Performance Leadership CLT dimensions

oriented cultural
values Charismatic/VB (S,O)
• Improving Team oriented (O)
performance + Participative (S,O)
• Rewarding Humane oriented (S,O)
performance Autonomous (O)
• Being innovative
• Challenging Self-protective (S)
−
goals

O = Organization level; S = Societal level

societal, and regulatory systems. To succeed in working with such levels of

complexity, they need to understand not just how things are done differently,
but also why. GLOBE provides useful information on how societal
phenomena can be predicted by societal cultures. For example, we have shown
that societies that are highly performance oriented tend to be more econom-
ically prosperous and competitive, have governments that better follow the rule
of law and are more organized and transparent. They also have happier and
more satisfied citizenry who have more confidence in their public institutions.
Knowing such relationships, a global manager is better able to understand,
rather than judge, other societies, and is more effective in dealing with them.

Summary and concluding comments

The purpose of this paper was to provide an overview of the GLOBE project –
a multi-level and comprehensive study of culture, leadership and organizational
practices in 62 societies. This was done with the aim of highlighting the impli-
cations for practicing managers and leaders. We started the paper by describing
the challenges of a typical global manager – Jane Smith – and organized the
presentation of the managerial implications of the GLOBE project to address
her leadership needs and where she could find GLOBE results useful. We
identify six areas in which managerial implications can be grouped. Four of
these six, we argue, fall under a more static type of implications (i.e. country-
specific or cluster-specific leadership and culture information). The other two
can be regarded as dynamic managerial implications in that they relate to the
relationships between leadership and societal culture, and between culture and
56 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)

societal phenomena. In the case of the former, we have shown in the analyses of
the GLOBE data that cultural attributes are capable of helping predict leader-
ship behaviour. In the case of culture and societal phenomena, we have shown
how the complex societal phenomena can be predicted by understanding their
cultural dimensions using GLOBE’s findings.
Whether our focus is HR managers or other leader-managers, the under-
lying message from this paper, and indeed from the GLOBE project, is about
the necessity of developing a global outlook for leader-managers. This is based
on the assumption that all leader-managers need to develop a global perspec-
tive or a global mind-set (Beechler and Javidan 2007). They need to mobilize
global resources in order to pursue the ambitions of their global organizations
and, increasingly, global stakeholders. We believe that GLOBE project findings
have far-reaching implications for managers and organizations, be it in lead-
ership development, managing under uncertain conditions, cultural sensitivity,
or HR practices in the areas of recruitment, selection of high performing indi-
viduals, performance management, compensation, organizational design and
global communication. Project GLOBE’s implications provide insights into all
these areas with the aim of developing global leader-managers. One of the
insights from the GLOBE project has been that in order to develop global
managers, having experience and the perspective of one country is not suffi-
cient (Javidan, Stahl and House 2004). In a world that is increasingly flat
(Friedman 2005) and culturally connected, the GLOBE project’s implications
will be invaluable in developing managers and leaders who have a global mind-
set and who are better prepared to understand and deal with the leadership
requirements of an uncertain and increasingly global world.

Mansour Javidan is dean of Research and Garvin Distinguished Professor at Thunderbird Global School
of Management, Arizona, USA. He is a principal investigator, president and chairman of the board of
directors of GLOBE project and a co-author of the GLOBE’s first book published in 2004. Dr Javidan’s
current research interests are global leadership and change, and global mind-set. He is the co-editor
(with Richard Steers and Michael Hitt) of Advances in international management, vol. 19: The global
mindset. He is a senior editor for Global Leadership for the Journal of World Business, and has been on
the editorial board of Academy of Management Executive. Dr Javidan’s publications have appeared in a
wide range of journals and books.

Ali Dastmalchian is professor of organizational analysis and dean of the Faculty of Business, University of
Victoria, Canada. His current research interests are on cross-national leadership and organizational practices
(with a particular interest in Asia Pacific and the Middle East), organizational change (in the health sector),
teamworking, and organizational and HRM climate. His most recent book (co-authored with Paul Blyton,
Betsy Blunsdon and Ken Reed) is entitled Work–life integration: International perspectives on managing
multiple roles. His publications have appeared in various international journals.
 Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 57

Appendix GLOBE participating countries

Albania Greece Poland

Argentina Guatemala Portugal
Australia Hong Kong Qatar
Austria Hungary Russia
Bolivia India Singapore
Brazil Indonesia Slovenia
Canada Iran South Africa (Caucasian sample)
China Ireland South Africa (indigenous sample)
Colombia Israel South Korea
Costa Rica Italy Spain
Czech Republic Japan Sweden
Denmark Kazakhstan Switzerland (French (speaking)
Ecuador Kuwait Switzerland (German speaking)
Egypt Malaysia Taiwan
El Salvador Mexico Thailand
England Morocco Turkey
Finland Namibia United States
France Netherlands Venezuela
Georgia New Zealand Zambia
Germany (former FRG) Nigeria
Germany (former GDR) Philippines

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