Mapping Global Leadership

Mapping Global leadership
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Cross-Cultural Business Skills minor
CCBS-Press
First edition 2020, ISBN: 978-90-79646-55-5, NUR: 812
Editorial managers: Sander Schroevers, Christopher Higgins, Aynur Doğan
Assistant lecturers: Natalia Kempny, Poland, Stylianos Kouloundis (Στυλιάνος Κουλουντής), Cyprus, Mert Ayvaz
Academic English and citations editor: Isabella Swart, University of Pretoria, South Africa
CCBS is an elective course (highest evaluated) at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA)
Inner and cover design: Sander Schroevers, Jaguar Print, Netherlands
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Altun Talha, Alyssa Melillo, Amber Stellingwerf, Amelie Kurz, Amira Mekkaoui, Anne Marie Carrillo Puentes, Anouk
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Ros, Celine Zorn, Christian Ibink, Christina Thomas, Danique Hsu ( 徐丽蕊), Daphne Guijt, Dayna Nichols, Demet
Tuncer, Devin van Rijn, Eric Henriquez, Eyup Kavas, Fabian Briceño Toro, Gabe Irish, Gaye Kaya, Gerry
Selvelieva (Гергана Селвелиева), Gina van der Veen, Gino Kraan, Hamid Hafizi (‫)حافظی حميد‬, Han Ying Min, Hsin-
I Lee (李欣怡), Hsuan-I Hshieh (謝瑄憶), Ikram Amazgiou, Imane Ben Mohamed (‫)إيمان بن محمد‬, Iris Koch, Ivan
Milivojevic (Иван Миливојевиц), Jean Kluinhaar, Jelmer Prenger, Jennifer Sawyer, Jopke Meijers, Julie Hallman,
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Rockey Mahamoed, Romée Hoogenbosch, Sabrina Ait khouya Lahsen, Sana El Otmani, Sander van den Horst,
Sanne Brinkman, Sarah Bnademjdid, Shaye Dubberke, Shekinah Francisco, Sinem Durcan, Stefan van Ginkel,
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Sprang, Willem Griffioen, Willemijn Wijnhoff, Yassine Khlif ( ‫)ياسين خليف‬, Yoran de Vries, Yuki Amano (天野祐希)
and Ziba Bahadori Motlagh.
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Table of Contents
Click-click
Preface ................................................................................... 5
About CCBS ............................................................................ 6
Methodological approach ....................................................... 7
Country profiles ...................................................................... 8
Algeria .................................................................................. 14
Argentina ............................................................................. 22
Armenia ............................................................................... 29
Azerbaijan ............................................................................ 38
The Bahamas ........................................................................ 45
Bangladesh ........................................................................... 53
Belgium ................................................................................ 63
Cameroon............................................................................. 72
Côte d’Ivoire ......................................................................... 79
Czechia ................................................................................. 86
Dominican Republic .............................................................. 94
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El Salvador ......................................................................... 102
France ................................................................................ 110
Guyana .............................................................................. 118
Luxembourg ....................................................................... 126
Madagascar ....................................................................... 135
Moldova ............................................................................ 143
Nicaragua........................................................................... 152
Nigeria ............................................................................... 160
Saudi Arabia....................................................................... 168
Serbia ................................................................................ 176
Slovakia ............................................................................. 183
Tunisia ............................................................................... 191
Uganda .............................................................................. 200
Bibliography....................................................................... 209
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Preface
Welcome to the latest edition of our ongoing empirical cross-cultural analyses of

global leadership styles and practices, which this year comprises twenty-four entries.
This book is the result of collaborative research by 125 students on the ‘Cross-Cultural
Business Skills’ elective (minor), which is hosted by the University of Applied Sciences
Amsterdam. Over the course of a single semester, these students have empirically
investigated leadership styles and practices across twenty-four countries, through
employing a combination of research methods. More specifically, the students
performed desk-based literature reviews of local scholarship, in conjunction with
generating both quantitative and qualitative data through conducting a survey and
interviews with thousands of local business professionals and cross-cultural scholars
and practitioners. This achievement is made even more notable by the fact that their
investigations were largely conducted against the backdrop of the Covid-19
pandemic, and the attendant lockdown policies of governments across the globe,
which led to many students having to leave Amsterdam and return to their home
country. The consequence of this was that the final stages of this book had to be
completed across significant spatial distance and across multiple time zones, which, in
itself, demonstrates the importance of one of the key issues of the book, namely
effective cross-cultural skills. The quality of the contributions in this collection thus
testify to the perseverance and collaborative work ethic of everyone involved, and,
moreover, provide rich and colourful insights into countries that we may not be able
to visit in the immediate future. First and foremost, we would like to take this
opportunity to thank all the individual co-authors for their flexibility and
determination to complete their respective analyses during such difficult times.
Moreover, we also wish to extend our upmost gratitude to all the survey respondents
and interviewees for being gracious enough to share their experiences and provide
insight into the prevailing leadership styles and practices in their country. Simply put,
this book and the Cross-cultural business minor would not be possible without their
participation and generosity. Neither would this book be possible without the
involvement of Part-Time Academy Director David de Vries, to which we also extend
thanks. Finally, we would like to thank Isabella Swart, Natalia Kempny, Stylianos
Kouloundis and Mert Ayvaz for their hard work and professional expertise.
To the reader, we hope this book finds you safe and well, and that we are all soon
able to travel the world and apply the numerous insights from this book on cross-
cultural leadership within our respective business practices.
Christopher Higgins (CCBS)
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About CCBS
Since 2010, Cross-Cultural Business Skills (CCBS) has sought to educate bachelor
students in both the fundamentals of cross-cultural business skills and specific
research methods. CCBS is an elective course (‘minor’) established and taught
by prof. Sander Schroevers, alongside Aynur Doğan MA and Christopher Higgins MA
at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (the Netherlands).
Educational approach
At CCBS we believe that effective learning takes place through sharing and
engaging with first-hand experiences. For this reason, we challenge our students
to produce new knowledge from a localised perspective. Often this involves
conducting research in an unknown language, alphabet or cultural milieu, which,
in turn, helps out students develop fundamental skills for the contemporary
interconnected world. Our main objective is to co-create country-specific bodies
of knowledge, which we generate through carrying out both expert-interviews
(video and audio) with native professionals and scholars and in-depth analyses of
local academic and trade literature. In order to create a truly international
classroom experience, we try to host students from across the globe. Moreover,
we attempt to connect our students with a broad range of representatives from
the business, media and diplomatic sectors, through hosting professional
symposia in the school. All CCBS-learning materials (print, digital and video) are
100% bespoke. We are honoured by the fact that we have consistently received
the university’s highest evaluation scores over the last several years.
About CCBS global-fact-tank

CCBS global-fact-tank is our ongoing academic research project for the
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, which directly informs the cross-
cultural business material taught on the minor. Every six months, CCBS
researchers survey C-level executives around the world. Our analytical gaze is
focused on five main areas: management, meetings, leadership, recruitment and
expatriates. Since conducting the inaugural international poll in 2012, the CCBS
global-fact-tank has conducted interviews in 93 trade nations, with more than
twelve-thousand professionals. Thank you!
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Methodological approach
Three modes of data collection were employed to generate the insights

published in this book. Firstly, insights into the cultural aspects of leadership
were gathered through country-specific literature searches, in both peer
reviewed academic journals and in-country books, which served as the
foundation for the subsequent research.
Secondly, a global online survey on leadership was conducted with qualified
respondents from each country (CCBS Survey, 2020). Expert sampling was used
to identify the survey respondents, in conjunction with snowballing techniques,
which were subsequently introduced to target a population who are often
difficult to reach. In total, over 12,500 respondents participated in the CCBS
survey; however almost two-thirds of these surveys were not used, because they
were not fully completed, or their background or sometimes IP-addresses did not
match our target group.
The survey was created in English and subsequently translated by competent
bilinguals, who were either research collaborators or supervised by them. The
present study made use of translations into Arabic, Azeri, French, German,
Romanian, Spanish and English. Evaluations of translation accuracy were
completed by using back-translation or parallel translations, where possible.
The English version was rolled out in ten countries. The questionnaire comprised
27 items, both multiple-choice and open-ended questions, which provided
descriptive information on national-based views on leadership. The respondents
answered the multiple-choice questions on a six-point Likert scales, which were
anchored by terms ranging from ‘not at all’ to ‘a lot’. All the qualitative data
provided comprehensive knowledge into the topic of local leadership styles and
practices. The multinational survey and interviewing was conducted between 11
February and 20 May 2020. The findings that emerged out of this research have
not been presented prior to the publication of this book.
Thirdly, in addition to the survey respondents, a selection of 48 leadership
experts were also interviewed for the present study. These audio and video
recorded interviews lasted between 20-40 minutes on average, and were
transcribed verbatim (a selection of these will be published on the YouTube
and SoundCloud channels of the CCBS minor).
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Country profiles
Sander Schroevers
For the purposes of writing this paragraph, I conducted a quick check on

Amazon.com for the number of books with the word ‘leader’ in their title, which
produced an incredible 60,000 results. Similarly, a quick search on ProQuest (one
of the databases we recommend to students for accessing scholarly journals)
resulted in almost a million hits for ‘leadership’. Notwithstanding the volume of
literature on this topic, as noted by the Global Leadership and Organizational
Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) Research Program: “to date, 90 percent of
leadership literature reflects US-based research and theory”. The American-
centric nature of extant literature is a profound problem, insofar as it fails to
account for how leadership theories, styles and practices operate across national
frontiers. This is important, because as the number of countries expand, so do
does the differences. It is for this reason that I have always been fond of Peter
Drucker’s quote: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right
things”. That is to say, leadership encompasses the human element of business,
whereas management is often about systems and processes. There is extensive
research informing us of how leaders’ communication styles are profoundly
influenced by the geographical region in which they are operating. Regrettably,
some business leaders overlook local managerial and cultural practices, and
instead acquiesce to management-styles that are grounded in Western concepts,
which, in turn, undermines the performance of their organisation. Given that
ineffective managers risk costing organisations notably large sums of money,
there is an emergent trend among both human resource professionals and senior
executives to adopt more localised leadership styles and practices.
Chapter makeup
This book consists of 24 country-specific chapters, which each describe at length
the leadership styles and practices within their respective country. All country
profiles have been written in a standard format, in order to allow for a clearer
identification of points of similarity and divergence across the different business
cultures. Most of the 24 country profiles in this book contain the following
sections:
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▪ Country introduction,
▪ How the indigene characterise leaders,
▪ Survey results and what local respondents say,
▪ An in-country YouTube review,
▪ A transcribed telephone interview with a local leadership scholar,
▪ A summarised video interview with a local cross-cultural trainer,
▪ A description of an in-country best-selling book on leadership,
▪ Understanding hierarchy in the chapter’s country,
▪ How to achieve leadership empathy in that particular culture.
I will briefly introduce each of these sections in turn below.
Local leadership analysis

The more I work abroad, the more I realise that it takes more than just a survey
to examine and classify national cultures. More specifically, there is too much
cultural heterogeneity and nuance, which substantially impacts upon how one
effectively operates in a particular country, but yet simply does not fit within
prevailing academic constructs on this topic. Notwithstanding the many good
Western-centric books on a variety of countries, what is invariably obfuscated in
these texts is the local perspective. The need to address this lacuna in the field by
prioritising localised perspectives became pivotal to our approach to
investigating country-specific leadership styles and practices. This approach
comprises gathering data from indigenous sources, including: (i) survey-results
and what local respondents say, (ii) a local leadership scholar, (iii) a local cross-
cultural trainer, (iv) and an in-country best-selling book on leadership. While
having to conduct research sometimes in other languages and even scripts has
proven to be incredibly challenging for some of our students, it has undoubtedly
produced rich local-based data that provides insight into how leadership styles
and practices are enacted in these 24 selected markets.
Understanding hierarchy in a country

Most of the trends in Western leadership across the twentieth century were
centred on moving away from hierarchical command-and-control processes. To
this end, both management literature and business school education began to
introduce a more egalitarian and facilitative style of leadership. For example, we
started to see open-plan office architecture and 360-degree feedback. However,
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it is important to note that there are profound cross-cultural differences with

respect to how authority is viewed. In India, for example, the teaching staff are
addressed by Madam or Sir, while I also observed on occasion students standing
up when their ‘senior-lecturer’ entered the classroom. Conversely, on my own
Dutch course (CCBS - the authors of this book) local students address me by my
first name, and at times even feel free to contradict me in front of the class.
Perhaps inspired by this, we asked around a 1000 qualified respondents in our
global survey if they expected to be addressed by their first name rather than by
their title. The following average scores were obtained for each of the countries
studied.
Belgium Argentina Czechia Saudi Arabia Guyana Azerbaijan Nigeria

Luxembourg France El Salvador Armenia Nicaragua Bangladesh
Dominican R. Algeria Bahamas Cameroon
Serbia Slovakia Ugandaa Tunisia Madagascar
First name Use title

Figure: Employees can address their leader in this country by the first name.
Relational hierarchy
Eight out of ten Swiss survey respondents (CCBS Survey, 2017) reported that
employees greeted their leaders by their first name. This low-level of hierarchy
results in equal and harmonious relationships between superiors and their
employees, which are based on mutual trust. Being acutely aware of someone’s
relative level of authority is of critical importance in a country such as South
Korea. This is because it determines how colleagues interact with each other,
including choosing between the many different linguistic levels of politeness. For
example, organisations tend to have far more levels of management compared
to some other countries, each of which have their own corresponding forms of
address. Hence, the informal way in which business is conducted in Australia,
for example, would likely completely confuse the average Korean employee.
This would especially be the case for those Korean workers who have attained
senior positions within their organisations, and are wholly accustomed to VIP
treatment.
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Power Distance
The words Hierarchy and Power Distance are often used interchangeably. The
latter can be defined as “the degree to which members of an organization or
society expect and agree that power should be stratified and concentrated at
higher levels of an organization or government” (House & Javidan, 2004, p. 12).
Countries that have scored high Power Distance values in either Hofstede or
Trompenaars’ respective research, believe that power dispenses agreement,
social order, and role stability, and, hence, should be concentrated within those
in the upper echelon of organisations. In high power distance cultures, leader-
subordinate relationships are characterised by paternalism, whereby a leader
assumes a parental role and feels obligated to provide support and protection to
subordinates under their care (Yan & Hunt, 2005).
Many of the 24 country profiles in this book reference their country’s Power
Distance Index score (PDI), as measured by Dutch cultural scientist Geert
Hofstede. However, the value score in and of itself cannot fully explain how
hierarchy operates within a particular culture. For example, despite Greece and
South Korea both having equally high PDI values (60), leadership is enacted in a
fundamentally different way in both countries. Therefore, in this book we
attempt to account for such cultural contingencies by conducting culture-specific
qualitative research, including interviewing local cultural experts.
How to achieve leadership empathy

This section addresses a specific people-oriented leadership requirement:
empathic soft skills. Here, empathy is defined as a leader’s capacity to relate to
the feelings and experiences of their employees. Empathy is an altogether
broader category than sympathy, and, in fact, several researchers consider
empathy to be both a key part of emotional intelligence and a critical element of
being an effective leader (Bar-On & Parker, 2000). Of course, the ability to
successfully build and maintain relationships has long been regarded as a
fundamental managerial skill; however, in accordance with the Center for
Creative Leadership, the point being made here is that, in some cultures,
empathy is more important to job performance than other aspects of leadership
(Gentry, Weber, & Sadri, 2016). In addition to this, the way empathic
understanding is expressed varies dramatically from country-to-country. Above
all, empathy touches upon a leader’s understanding of role requirement. To
understand its importance across different cultures, several questions in our
online survey (CCBS Survey, 2020) pertained to the specific expectations that
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local leaders had towards empathy. Furthermore, each team attempted to

interview local experts, scholars and cross-cultural trainers on the country-
specific ways in which empathy is effectively utilised. To cite an example:
whereas in Nordic countries empathy is partly established through low-key and
modest behaviour, Latin countries prefer a warm, personal and ‘simpatico’
approach, while, conversely, South Koreans value a courteous leader who, above
all, attempts to save face (Kibun). It is well-established that how we connect with
people is dependent on our cultural background, and, as such, the ability to be
empathetic is especially important for leaders working across cultural boundaries
(Alon & Higgins, 2005). The results of our CCBS survey (2020) reflect this, insofar
as a large majority of the respondents from the different cultures examined in
this book agreed with the statement that a manager should actively spend time
on the personal wellbeing of their team members. When one compares the
actual country scores (Dell, Eriks, 2018), South Korea and Ukraine score
significantly lower on empathy than countries such as Uruguay and Portugal,
due, in part, to the fact that Ukrainian and South Korean leaders generally prefer
to keep more personal distance from their employees. However, it is important
to stress that having empathy for others is not the same as demonstrating
empathy; this is because staff expectations may vary considerably across culture
in terms of: (i) the amount of verbal attention employees require; (ii) the praise
and encouragement expected by staff; or (iii) the daily routine of managers.
When managers increase their awareness of the cultural context in which
empathy takes place, it often has a direct impact on employee performance, the
organisational climate, and the quality of the productive working relations
between leaders and employees.
Concluding Remarks
It was Darwin who first showed us the supreme value inherent to diversity. With
this in mind, both the increased cultural heterogeneity of today’s workforce and
the increasingly global footprint of contemporary organisations transforms the
styles and practices through which we lead teams. This calls for leaders with an
ability to decode cultural differences and adjust their leadership-style to fit the
cultural milieu in which they are operating. In summary, I hope that our findings
contribute to increasing the richness of extant leadership literature, alongside
aiding professional leaders to recalibrate their skills and mindsets in a manner
advantageous to themselves, their employees, and, above all, the organisations
they serve.
12
de Baas
সিইও
Generaldirektør
Директор
Chief Executive Officer
Patrão
Generálny riaditeľ
Գլխավոր տնօրեն
‫المدير التنفيذي‬ CEO

総監督
Président Directeur Géneral
Consejero Delegado Dyrektor generalny
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Algeria
Amira Mekkaoui, Christina Thomas, Ikram Amazgiou, Imane Ben Mohamed

& Melanie van den Akker
Algeria, which is often referred to as the country of cherries and dates, is located
in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is Africa’s largest country and is four
times the size of France. Despite its size, only around a tenth of Algeria is
inhabited by its total population of 42 million people. ‘By the people and for the
people’ )‫شعب‬ّ ‫شعب ولل‬
ّ ‫ )بال‬is Algeria’s motto, which is also reflected in the country’s
semi-presidential governmental system. The majority of the populace lives in the
north of the country by the Mediterranean coast due to its mild climate, while
the remainder of the population lives in the southern region, which encompasses
more than four-fifths of the country (CountryWatch, 2020). The first official
language of Algeria is Modern Standard Arabic (‫)العربية‬, while the second official
language is Tamazight (ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ). However, the most commonly used language
is the Arabic dialect called Darija )‫)درجة‬, which is spoken by the majority of the
population (Sawe, 2019b). Given that Algeria is the second-largest Francophone
country in the world, French is commonly used in day-to-day communication,
writing, media and entertainment. It is also used as a tool in conveying scientific
knowledge in schools, along with being the predominant language used in
business communication (Belmihoub, 2018). Algeria has been profoundly
influenced by the many different ethnic groups that have left their mark on the
country and made Algeria what it is today (Nelson, 1978). The country has an
abundance of natural resources, which is vital for the development of the
country’s economy. An example of this is that Algeria is one of the world’s largest
oil producers, along with being the world’s second-biggest producer of helium
(Kiprop, 2019). Algeria is a developing country characterised by a minimally
diverse economic structure.
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How the Algerians characterise leaders

In Algeria, the predominant leadership style tends to be based on hierarchy
(Abderrahmane & Mokhtar, 2017). An entrepreneur of a consulting company
who completed the CCBS survey (2020) argued that leadership in Algeria has
little to do with competence or clarity of one’s vision. Rather, it has far more to
do with one’s age and years of experience working in the country (CCBS Survey,
2020). According to a study by Abderrahmane and Mokhtar (2017), leaders in the
public sector lack integrity, both in terms of executing their tasks and in dealing
with people. In other words, leaders in this sector are characterised by the
paucity of their ethical and moral values. Moreover, Algerian leaders are less
open-minded than some nationalities when it comes to taking on board their
subordinates’ perspectives and opinions. However, when deliberating over a
tough decision, leaders will seek guidance from others at their level before
reaching their verdict. Algerians favour a leader who is flexible and able to
manage teams. They also tend to venerate leaders who can overcome daily
challenges and achieve organisational targets, as demonstrated by the fact that
the executives in the CCBS survey (2020) responded that it was important for
leaders to be visionary thinkers and strong decision-makers (CCBS Survey, 2020).
A study conducted by the University of Mohamed Khider Biskra in Algeria
examined leadership behaviour from the perspective of individuals working in
the management, economic and commercial faculty. The attitudes and
behaviours associated with good leadership in Algeria were seen as being
representative of a transformational leadership style. According to the
aforementioned study, this leadership style is characterised by its practical
approach and its attempt to foster emotional commitment within an
organisation. More specifically, transformational leaders seek to establish a
realistic and attainable vision for the organisation and proceed to communicate
this vision to their followers to inspire a feeling of commitment and purpose
(Sabah, 2015).
Survey results and what local respondents say

The respondents of the CCBS survey (2020) unanimously agreed on the
importance of certain characteristics of a leader in Algeria. Thus, the responses
show that it is important for a leader to have a strong charismatic personality
and extensive organisational experience, as well as being a visionary thinker and
powerful decision-maker. Three-quarters of the respondents also emphasised
15
that managers should actively spend time on the personal wellbeing of their
team members. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents disagreed that
employees may bend the rules without asking, in order to improve their
performance or achieve better results. However, there were notable differences
in the respondents’ answers, as Lotfi Boughadou, a business unit manager in the
mining sector, also noted that “It’s always a good deed to have procedures in a
company to execute, in the best way, all tasks according to authority regulation
and specific points of the business, but I also leave some independence to
employees to discuss this procedure to improve it and always make it better for
sustainable development” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Another notable finding that emerged out of the survey pertained to the fact
that half of the executives reported that there was no difference between the
leadership styles of men and women. In contradistinction to this viewpoint, Lotfi
Boughadou, a business unit manager, reported that there were differences,
noting: “There are some women leaders in Algeria, but only 5% can succeed in
their position. It is not easy for men to accept it, and we also have some
employees that are very difficult to manage even in our business (mines and
quarry). In our company, we only have one woman leader” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
This is further supported by Mehdi Terrak, a tech industry manager, who notes
that Algeria has a patriarchal style that makes it difficult for both young
managers and women to attain senior positions, but there is an emergent shift in
this regard in telecommunications, pharmaceutical and technology companies.
The patriarchal style is slowly disappearing, and only people with the requisite
skills are deemed capable of leading other skilful people within organisations
(CCBS Survey, 2020).

An Algerian leadership scholar
We interviewed a PhD researcher whose primary subject area is the study of
ethical behaviour in public companies in Algeria. He has conducted multiple
research projects on public management and organisational behaviour. He
argued that most Algerian leaders adopt a transactional leadership style, which is
a leadership style that uses a system of rewards and punishments to incentivise
or discipline employees. Algerian managers also utilise their religious values to
persuade their employees and gain their trust. Indeed, he suggested that
executives who demonstrate their commitment to Islam are viewed in Algeria as
a person who is worthy of respect. He proceeded to explain that hierarchy plays
16
a major role within Algerian business culture as leaders expect their employees
to follow their instructions without question. When asked if age is important in
terms of leadership in the country, he conceded that respect for elders is deeply
ingrained in Algerian culture, since older people are deemed to be more
knowledgeable on a range of matters. This explains why older individuals are
considered to be better suited for senior positions than their younger
counterparts. The researcher concluded with a rather surprising point, which
was that women were well-represented in leadership positions within the public
sector, but that such equity was not replicated in the private sector where
leaders remained predominantly male (Leadership Scholar, 23 March 2020).
Imene Ferhat: an Algerian scientist and leadership coach

Founder of the start-up Geosediments, as well as a leadership and management
coach, Imene Ferhat is currently preparing for her PhD and already has a
master’s degree in structural geology. According to Ferhat, the most important
quality for a leader to possess is to be human with your employees, which is to
say that a leader has to master the subtle art of taking control of their team,
while, simultaneously, managing them in such a way that it does not feel like
they are operating under a dictatorship. Furthermore, when asked about the
gender role division in the country, she stated that “In my point of view, women
have taken their places in different business fields during the decade” (Ferhat,
4 April 2020). One can discern from the above statement that she does not
consider gender to be a determining factor in leadership. In fact, she framed
leadership as a correlation between emotions and social relationships, which, in
turn, leads to greater stability, involvement and integrity. Finally, she concluded
our interview by stating: “In Algeria, the American leadership model is adapted to
the culture of the country. So, the American leadership is an idealised case but
could be customized depending on the country and the culture” (Ferhat, 4 April
2020). This appears to suggest that, while Algeria is adopting more Western-
oriented leadership styles and practices, these are being interwoven with
preexisting cultural values and norms.
In-country leadership bestseller

Algérie entre l’exil et la curée is a book written by Omar Aktouf, an Algerian
author and management professor at HEC Montréal. This autobiography
recounts the political, economic and cultural situation facing Algerians of his
generation after the civil war and details how his vocal opposition to the
resulting inequalities led to him embarking on a self-imposed exile to Canada.
17
It was only in 2014 that Aktouf’s bibliography, which by that point was already
world-renowned, was finally allowed to be published in his home country. This
led to the publishing of a new edition of the work that same year, in which the
author re-affirmed the statements that he made all those years ago and argued
that they still resonate with the climate in which Algeria finds itself in modern
times.
Local leadership book

Title Algérie entre l’exil et la curée
Subtitle
Author Omar Aktouf
Publisher L’Harmattan
Year 1989
ISBN 978-2738404725
Algerian leadership YouTube review

In her video, Majd Nafissa Rahal discusses the issues in Algerian
entrepreneurship from a young woman’s perspective. She explains that
entrepreneurship is still not fully accepted as a legitimate pursuit for women in
Algeria. “Society has not yet fully integrated that women can be entrepreneurs as
well” (Rahal, 2018, 0:53). Yet, in contemporary society, ever more businesses in
Algeria are owned by women. According to Lamia Khodja, there is no difference
between male and female entrepreneurs: “Being a female entrepreneur in
Algeria has the same advantages and disadvantages for both men and women”
(AP Archive, 2018, 0:28). From her perspective, then, men and women have
equal chances of success as either entrepreneurs or leaders.
In another video, billionaire Issad Rebrab, who is the CEO of Cevital, the largest
privately-owned conglomerate in Algeria, was asked about how he has achieved
so much success. Mr Rebrab was quick to remark that as a leader he merely
considers himself as akin to a conductor of an orchestra and that being a
successful leader is wholly dependent on building a valuable team around you,
which can only be done by investing in human capital. He prides himself on his
level of investment in Algerian employees, who, according to him, do not have
18
“[…] a single reason to envy even the best managers or engineers in the
developed countries” (Rebrab, 2018, 4:13). He also heavily emphasised that
Algerian leaders’ commitment to human investment in Algerian workers would
not only generate growth and improvement for individual companies, but also
the country as a whole.
Understanding hierarchy in Algeria

The degree of hierarchy within a country can be analysed by using dimensions to
measure the national cultural values and practices of a country. According to a
large national survey of employees in Algerian companies, the Algerian national
culture exhibits high uncertainty avoidance and a medium-level of power
distance (Mercure, Harricane, Seghir & Steenhaut, 1997). This demonstrates that
there is a need for structure, formal procedures, social norms and laws in
Algerian society. Concerning the workplace, hierarchy serves to reduce the level
of uncertainty. The existence of a medium level of power distance testifies to the
fact that, firstly, power and authority are important and, secondly, that there is a
marked distance between leaders and employees. In other words, businesses in
Algeria are deeply hierarchical. The decision-making process begins with the
executives at the top of the organisation (Yahia-Berrouiguet, 2015). This is
consistent with the findings of the CCBS survey (2020), in which more than half
of the respondents reported that they preferred some distance and a level of
respect from their employees.
The low assertiveness orientation and low performance dimensions in Algerian
culture serve to discourage employees from striving for higher standards and
improving their efficiency. In this respect, the role played by hierarchy in the
workplace is crucial as it helps managers to instruct, motivate and lead their
employees by setting a good example (Rouibah, Khalil & Hassanien, 2009).
The low future orientation dimension in Algerian culture is due, in part, to the
inability to save for the future and the tendency to focus instead on achieving
quick results. It also derives from the great respect for traditions witnessed in the
country. As mentioned previously by the Algerian leadership scholar (23 March
2020), Islamic religious values carry considerable weight in business ethics.
This is evident in the fact that Algeria is more of a collectivistic culture than an
individualistic one. Thus, by virtue of their Islamic values, people are more loyal
towards their group and colleagues than to authorities, or even the law.
Therefore, they have been shown to be more comfortable in manipulating rules
than their secular co-workers (Calza, Aliane & Cannavale, 2010). This also ties in
19
with Algeria’s masculine culture. According to the CCBS survey (2020) results, the
respondents are motivated by achievement and believe in creating some form of
competition amongst their employees, which are consistent with more masculine
attributes and conform to in-group collectiveness. With respect to gender
egalitarianism, given that Algeria is a patriarchal society, men are more likely to
be in higher hierarchical positions than women (Calza et al., 2010). When asked
whether there was a difference in leadership styles between men and women,
one business unit manager employed in the mining industry explained that, in his
view, very few women can succeed in leadership positions as female leadership is
often not easy for men to accept. However, an operational manager, who
worked in the tech industry, stated that: “all my best experiences were in
companies managed by women” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
How Algerians achieve leadership empathy

Leadership empathy in Algeria is based on the values that derive from Islam.
There are common values in Islamic culture that a leader must possess that
facilitate a sense of connection between a manager and his or her employees. As
aforementioned, Algeria has a medium power distance, so empathy might not be
expressed similarly to how it would in a country where it is more acceptable for
leaders and employees to interact at the same level. One particular trait that
aligns with Islamic values and helps to create a sense of empathy from
employees is being courageous. Leaders display this by showing a willingness to
take risks on behalf of their employees, while, simultaneously, having their best
interests in mind. Moreover, managers must show that they are fiercely loyal to
their firm, in conjunction with honouring the prevailing social and moral values at
all times (Calza et al., 2010).
Furthermore, according to Brahim, Riđić and Jukić (2015), the performance of
Algerian employees is heavily reliant on rewards, which according to a scholar
who specialises in Algerian leadership, corresponds with a transactional
leadership style. When an employee achieves a goal, they are positively
rewarded, which, in turn, motivates the employee to successfully conduct
business. As one respondent noted, “Most of the employees are motivated just
by the salary” (CCBS Survey, 2018). However, when an employee does not reach
a goal or perform well, a leader can gain insight into the level of competence of
the employee (Budhwar & Mellahi, 2016). This information can then be used to
coordinate the employees and conduct further training programmes if required,
with the express aim of helping them attain better results in future. As a result,
20
a sense of emotional attachment between the company and its employees can
help to keep an employee motivated and satisfied. It also increases the
productivity of the employees, which, in turn, increases the company’s profits,
their international standing and the overall atmosphere. Therefore, it is more
likely for an employee working under a transactional leadership style to remain
with the company in the long-term (Brahim et al., 2015). However, some
executives do not base promotion solely on employees’ performance.
Rather, they base it on priority, loyalty and good interpersonal relationships
(Budhwar & Mellahi, 2016).
21
Argentina
Tijmen Hennekes, Dayna Nichols, Wendy van Sprang & Koen Posthuma
República Argentina (the Argentine Republic) is unique in comparison to other

countries in Latin America. This derives from the fact that almost the entire
population of the Argentine Republic is of Spanish or Italian heritage, as a result
of mass immigration stemming back to the 18th century (Sanchez-Alonso, 2019).
The extent of immigration to the world’s eighth-largest country and the second-
largest country in South America has had a profound impact on Argentinian
culture (Le Bihan, 2011). For instance, Buenos Aires is often referred to as the
“Paris of South America”, a moniker which signals the European ancestry of large
numbers of the population. Today, however, citizens of Argentina consider
themselves neither Latin nor European but rather view themselves above all as
Argentinians (Baudino, 24 March 2020). Argentina shares the Southern Cone of
Latin America with Chile and shares its borders with a total of five nations. While
its name derives from the Latin word Argentum (silver), the nation’s vibrant
culture far exceeds its name. Argentina constitutes the largest Spanish-speaking
nation in the world, while it has both the second largest population and economy
in Latin America, behind Brazil. Argentina is most famous for its beef production,
the tango and its vast landscapes. Although Argentina has suffered notable
economic challenges in recent decades, there is nevertheless significant potential
for economic growth due to both the working-age population being large and the
emergence of a younger generation of Argentinian professionals (Gragnolati,
Rofman, Apella & Troiano, 2015). The combination of Latin American charisma
and flexibility and a more European-esque disciplinarian management style
culminates in a distinct organisational culture and leadership style within
Argentina (Baudino, 24 March 2020).
How the Argentines characterise leaders

Argentinians tend to have a negative view of the prevailing leadership style of
managers in the country. Managers have an obligation towards their firm to control,
while it is a leader’s responsibility to lead. In an interview with Professor Bernardo
Bárcena, he stated that “a lot of people think that it is bad to be a manager, and it is
22
good to be a leader” (24 March 2020). However, he is convinced that if a person is

to be successful, then it is important to strive to be both. Due to the economic
challenges of the last two decades in Argentina, a gerente (which means manager)
must now be increasingly flexible and capable of reducing uncertainty, in order to
maintain both the company’s image and the wellbeing of his or her employees. A
good gerente develops new ideas, listens to his or her employees and cares about
their interests. The following statement from Aimar and Stough (2007) captures this
sentiment nicely: “Personal interest is placed above national performance and
success” (p. 17). This also stems from the fact that Argentina is a high-context
culture that values personal relations and social confidence, which is reflective of
the general culture of collectivism within the business sector in Latin America as a
whole. Contemporary Argentinian society is primarily built upon solid relationships.
Indeed, a good network is seen as being one of the fundamental pillars of doing
business, as noted by Aimar and Stough (2007), who purport that “Networks serve
as safety nets and facilitate mobility” (p. 18). Business deals are established on trust
and time, while visitors are also welcomed warmly. Communication is both formal
and professional, while active participation in passionate discussions and heated
arguments are encouraged. As a leader, it is necessary to engage in such discussions
with charm. Hence, it is important for leaders to be charismatic, while nevertheless
being cognisant of the hierarchical division between themselves and their
subordinates. This can be traced back to the new society created by the European
immigrants who arrived in the 1900s, which necessitated a more individualistic
approach to management (González, 2017). In our interview with Hernán Pisotti, a
cultural consultant, he cited an additional effect of immigration, noting how
because of Italian passion, “[…] it is like we are used to chaos. […] We are so flexible
that we have a structure and the next day we have another structure” (Pisotti, 24
March 2020). Despite being an incredibly masculine society with far more men in
management positions than women, several of the respondents go out of their way
to state that the characterisation of good leadership is not based on gender but,
rather, on personality.

To gain a comprehensive insight into leadership styles and practices in Argentina,
we asked a substantial number of respondents from various management
backgrounds to complete the CCBS survey. According to the respondents,
leadership in Argentina remains heavily dependent on social connections and
long-term relationships to create a productive work environment. In support of
23
this, respondents confirmed that leaders should actively spend time on the
personal wellbeing of their team members. Leaders should seek to close the
personal distance between themselves and their employees, whilst ensuring that
they do not lose the requisite level of respect (CCBS Survey, 2019). Various
respondents repeatedly stated that it was important for leaders in Argentina to
be intellectual, to have access to the right networks and to have strong political
connections. Respondents also reported that people expect their leader to be a
powerful decision-maker (CCBS Survey, 2020). Ordinarily, in a hierarchical
business culture, such as Argentina, titles constitute a highly valued status
symbol. However, Argentina appears to be somewhat of an exception in this
regard, insofar as the majority of the respondents either disagreed or strongly
disagreed with the statement: “An academic title on your business card or in your
e-mail signature is important”. This finding is reflective of the more egalitarian
side of Argentinian business culture. Respondents also observed that it is not
important for subordinates to address leaders by their titles or positions and, in
fact, noted that it is very common for subordinates to call their leader by their
first name (CCBS Survey, 2020). This is due, in part, to the fact that successful
leadership in Argentina is heavily dependent on the personality of the leader and
his or her leadership style. For instance, Argentina is a highly masculine society
with predominantly male leaders, yet several respondents stated that the
characterisation of good Argentine leadership is not based on gender but,
rather on personality and character.

Bernardo Bárcena: an Argentine leadership scholar
Bernardo Bárcena, a professor from the Institute of Business Development of
Argentina (IDEA), was interviewed to gain insight into his knowledge and
personal experience. He has lectured on leadership and negotiation for around
six and a half years at the postgraduate level (MBA) and written three books on
leadership, management and negotiation tactics. Bárcena stressed in his
interview that there is a big difference between Argentinian leaders and other
South American leaders. Specifically, Argentinian leaders are driven, motivated
and eager to take action. They “have a motor inside, [resulting in a] ‘let’s do, let’s
do’” attitude (Bárcena, 24 March 2020). This is in marked contrast to what is
commonly observed in comparable Latin American leadership models. While
other Latin American leaders use the expression mañana (tomorrow), Argentine
leaders would rather tackle the problem right there and then. The reason for
24
such differences, from Bárcena’s perspective, pertain to the large number of

immigrants from Spain and Italy. As well as the aforementioned historical events
impacting the country, new generations have also had a profound influence on
the development of the business culture. As Bárcena purports, “in the last five or
10 years, the millennials, Generation Y and Generation Zeta [have had an impact
on] the way to communicate and the relation with the bosses” (Bárcena, 24
March 2020). This, in turn, has resulted in a more direct and informal approach,
which is relatively rare in South America and, as such, has led to some culture
clashes with those countries more steeped in typical Latin American cultural
values.
Marcelo Baudino: an Argentine cross-cultural trainer

For the purposes of gaining insight into cross-cultural expertise, we interviewed
Marcel Baudino, the founder and intercultural consultant for Iceberg Intelligencia
Cultural, which specialises in strategic diversity management. He has trained
executives, global leaders, expatriates and multicultural teams in a range of
international organisations across more than ten Latin American countries.
According to Baudino, “a good leader needs to be able to develop relationships,
build trust with colleagues and […] have some sort of charismatic point of view.
To be able to socialize […], you need to feel the energy of being connected with
other people, and this is an advantage and a privilege that extroverted people
have” (Baudino, 24 March 2020). Baudino has a greater affinity for the more
South American-esque cultural heritage in Argentinian leadership, which
underpins the continued importance placed on connections and relationships.
Building relationships and taking care of them remain the key to being a
successful leader. Argentinians are more direct in their communication. As
Baudino notes, employees need to feel valued and heard: “we speak our mind,
we usually give our opinions [and] we challenge our bosses” (Baudino, 24 March
2020). Building informal relationships is expected, but incredibly challenging
given that “there is a thin line that you know, you are not supposed to pass”
(Baudino, 24 March 2020). One notable advantage for Argentina is the cultural
infusion of Latin American and European influences, which represents an
opportunity for Baudino, insofar as Argentinians “are not that far away from any
other country; we are right there in the middle, which gives us the possibility of
not being too distant from any other culture” (Baudino, 24 March 2020).
25

One of the best, locally written books in Argentina on leadership is Gerencia y
liderazgo (Management and Leadership) by Santiago Lazatti and Edgardo
Sanguineti. It discusses the fundamental part that managers must play, which,
above all, is the role of the leader. The book adopts an integrated approach to
both of these issues. Rather than examining the characteristics of a leader, it
instead provides a comprehensive overview of leadership in Argentina.

Title Gerencia Y Liderazgo
Subtitle -
Santiago Lazatti and Edgardo
Author
Sanguenetti
Publisher Ediciones Macchi
Year 2003
ISBN 9789505375950
Argentine leadership YouTube review

To supplement our academic research, interviews and online survey, YouTube
was also used as a source through which to gain better insight into leadership in
Argentina. Alejandra Marcote is a leadership trainer, who is active in the online
environment. She emphasises that trust is of paramount importance in
Argentinian leadership and sets out to explain what leads employees to trust
their leaders. In her video, Liderazgo - Academia Argentina Emprende, she
explains how this integral component of leadership is based upon two pillars.
Firstly, she emphasises the importance of employees having confidence in a
leader’s competence to successfully lead the team to the benefit of the
organisation. Secondly, she highlights the importance of leaders establishing a
clear alignment between what they say, what they think and what they do. It is
only when these factors are in alignment with one another that people will
become more eager to trust and follow them (Marcote, 2018).
Tyler Waye is a YouTube vlogger who contemplates life, work and leadership in
an international context. In his video, Work & Life in Buenos Aires and Argentina -
26
Watch before You Go, Waye (2019) cites fluctuations in the Argentine Peso as
being one of the most significant problems in Argentina. Indeed, inflation was so
extreme at one point that the value of the Peso dropped by half in a period of
only a few months. Within such an uncertain socio-economic context, one in
which the wages of your employees might one day be worth half of what they
were the day before, mutual trust and a strong investment in long-term
relationships become essential for successfully running a company.
Understanding hierarchy in Argentina

Even though Argentina is a multicultural country with European influences, which
informs their relatively egalitarian business culture, Parrado, Rodríguez, Cabezas
and Saray (2018) nevertheless argue that decisions are invariably only made by
those at the highest echelon of the organisation. Managers expect their
employees to respect them, which, in turn, enable them to make decisions
without prior consultation with their subordinates (Gonzaléz, 2017). According to
German Di Trolio (2019), this is reflected in the principle of leadership in smaller
companies, where it is still viewed as a position of power, rather than one of a
motivator or a team player. The fact that decisions are made at the top level
without any consultation with employees is indicative of the high level of power
distance in the culture. Nevertheless, leaders do take into consideration
employees’ suggestions by listening closely to their opinions and providing
guidance in their professional development (Ruiz, Hamlin & Carioni, 2016).
Communication from leaders to their employees is often informal yet direct.
It is for this reason that Argentinian leaders are said to manipulate via charisma.
This is why most politicians are likely to adopt a populist style of leadership.
This is not only limited to politics, however, as a populist leadership style has
also been shown to extend into the corporate environment (Chhokar, Brodbeck
& House, 2007). Gender inequality also forms a strong part of Argentine
leadership. Indeed, only 5% of all leadership positions in Argentina are occupied
by females. Moreover, in the rare instances that women do occupy senior
management positions, they are generally paid less than their male counterparts.
This is also emblematic of the masculine culture that is pervasive in the
Argentinian business sector (Alexeichuck, Fernandez, Celeste & Ruiz, 2016). As
Baudino confirms, “it is a big issue. There are a lot of inequalities in terms of
salary, […] representation in politics [and] representation in the corporation,
especially in the leaders’ status” (Baudino, 24 March 2020). Whilst gender
inequality is a lived reality in Argentina, not all Argentine leaders believe this to
27
be the case. Facundo Pardo, an Argentine CEO, stated in the CCBS survey: “I think
that education, family, environment and life experience make a person to be a
good or bad leader regardless of gender” (CCBS Survey, 2019). During our
interview with Hernán Pisotti (24 March 2020), he indicated that companies that
are led by people from older generations, predominantly baby boomers, retain a
more traditional mindset. However, he believes that this tradition will wither
away as the younger generation comes to take up positions of influence. He
stated that “I think that the millennials in 10 years are more aligned with what is
going on in the world today. And that is a good thing for us because most of the
changes that we need in organisations are going to be driven by this” (Pisotti).
How Argentines achieve leadership empathy

Empathy is the ability to experience and relate to the thoughts, emotions or
experiences of others. For leaders in Argentina, empathy is a crucial part of
management. Argentinians, unlike some other cultures, value both the forming
of relationships and the ability to connect with those that they work with. As a
leader in Argentina, forming a deep connection and empathising with your
colleagues is simply the best way to get work done. Bernardo Bárcena described
empathy as a form of trust, noting that “trust is the base of all the relations”
(Bárcena, 24 March 2020). Argentinians also value mutual relationships, which is
to say, if you put in effort to help colleagues, then they will likely return the
favour. According to Chhokar et al. (2007), Argentinians are also likely to express
their emotions, along with displaying emotional sensitivity in their daily
communication. It is for this reason that they prefer to meet and converse in
person, as opposed to engaging in phone calls or text messages. This makes
workplace relationships easy-going and well-balanced. On the other hand,
empathy in the workplace is often also used as a form of control. That is to say,
once a personal relationship is established, people are easier to manipulate
during negotiations and business deals. According to Di Trolio (2019), a leader is
nothing but one more member of the team whose primary task is to listen to the
people who comprise it and convince them to carry out various tasks and
organisational goals. Hence, for Di Trolio, leadership is hard work as it requires a
person to win the hearts and minds of his or her team members to ensure that
their commitment to the team’s goals, as determined by the leader, is secured.
Leaders in Argentina thus use empathy as a tool through which to both boost
employee engagement and loyalty, providing them with a distinct edge in the
workplace.
28
Armenia
Olivier Vriends, Pieter Houtkoop, Nino van Paridon, Iris Koch & Sander van den Horst
Armenia (Հայաստան) is claimed to be one of the oldest countries in the world,

having been in existence for over 2,800 years. It became the first Christian nation
in 301 AD, which means that it predated the Roman Empire’s acceptance of
Christianity (Haytayan, 2011). For this reason, not to mention the fact that it has
more than 4,000 monasteries in its highly concentrated diverse landscape,
Armenia is referred to as the “land of churches” (երկիր է եկեղեցիներ).
The capital, Yerevan, is home to just under half of the country’s total population
of three million people. Whilst Armenians mainly speak Armenian (Հայերեն), the
older generation typically also speaks Russian because of its Soviet history.
Although the official language used for conducting business is Armenian, English
is often used as an alternative, particularly in Yerevan (Tapia, 2011, p. 3).
Armenian culture is rich with tradition and historical influences, with hospitality
and wine being imbued with especial cultural importance. Indeed, while wine
exporting constitutes only a meagre 0.5% of their GDP (OEC, n.d.), it nevertheless
plays a significant role in Armenian culture. This is evident from the moment
visitors arrive at the international airport in Yerevan, where they are greeted by a
six-meter-high wine bottle.
Armenia is a country of marked contrasts, and this is no different with respect to

leadership. Its rich history, Soviet past and distinct culture, allied with the
prominence of religion, have culminated in a country in which the leadership is
variable, complex and difficult to define. The three prevailing leadership styles in
the country are autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire, or delegative as it is also
known (Malakyan, 2012, p. 2). In this respect, Armenian leaders strongly reflect
both the behaviours and attitudes of their historical leadership styles and
practices, allied with approaches that have been imported to post-Soviet
Armenia from Western Europe (Malakyan, 2012). As Kouchakdjian (24 March
2020) opined during our interview, “[business] leadership in Armenia can be
analysed by looking at the prime ministers,” as different political trends have,
over time, had an impact on the country’s business culture.
29
How the Armenians characterise leaders

As aforementioned, leadership is a contradictory and complex phenomenon in
Armenia. Recent years have signalled a transition, which has caused a
pronounced division between the younger and older generations. This is the
result of a long period of Soviet rule that has heavily impacted leadership styles
and practices. Research has shown that former Soviet leaders differ significantly
from their Western counterparts (Ford & Ismail, 2006, p. 178). Soviet leaders
score low in charismatic or transformational leadership, but high in transactional
leadership, which is indicative of both a clear hierarchy within organisations and
of motivating employees via punishment or reward (Ford & Ismail, 2006, p. 178).
While there are indications in the southern Caucasus countries that there is a
greater feeling of responsibility towards employees and their families, Soviet
leaders, conversely, are more autocratic, ruthless and isolated.
As Armenian scholar Michael Kouchakdjian (24 March 2020) posits: “A-grade
leaders hire-A grade teams, whereas B-grade leaders hire C-grade teams.”
Management in Western companies operate completely differently: their
authority does not derive from their title but, rather, stems from the strength of
their empathic engagement with their employees and the clarity of their vision.
In contradistinction to this, Armenian management is based on titles: a leader
must be known and followed above all else. In this sense, organisations largely
function on a clan-based principle, which, in turn, results in malfunctioning
companies. This point was confirmed in the CCBS survey (2020), where one
respondent noted that “Armenians are ‘solo players’ and can do everything
better alone, which also concerns leadership and business. Good proof [of this] is
that Armenians are good at ‘one-player’ games, such as chess” (CCBS Survey,
2020). Further research from Malakyan (2013a) found that two-thirds of the
Armenians questioned for his study believed that there was a leadership culture
based on relations as opposed to a task-orientated culture. This finding is
interesting when viewed alongside the other finding that the majority of the
younger respondents reported that leadership followed a more task-orientated
culture. In terms of both quality and quantity, one can conclude that there is a
high level of power distance across every sector in Armenian society.
To summarise, trust, the ability to make choices and taking responsibility are the
most important values in Armenian leadership culture. However, one must also
take into account the fact that the younger generation of managers believe that
they are more task-orientated, which indicates a marked sea-change in Armenian
leadership styles and practices. One possible explanation for this shift is the rapid
30
growth of the ICT sector, two-thirds of which is driven by Western investment

(Arzumanyan, 2008).

Armenia is the only country that has its own word for “democracy”
(ժողովրդավարություն). The direct translation of “democracy” is “people
management”, which, as a senior advisor from Civil Society (NGO) reported, is a
backwards translation of demagogy in Greek (CCBS Survey, 2020). Consequently,
there were some interesting responses to the following question: “Do you feel
that there is something specific about leadership in your own country, that
makes it different from what we see in the leadership literature from abroad?”
As Anna Saghabalyan, a director of communication in the mining industry, stated
there is a “lack of corporate and office culture due to 70 years under Soviet rule,
but also [a] lack of discipline which challenges some post-Soviet corporate
leaders” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Similarly, a business manager in the IT industry
said: “In my point of view, leadership is still developing in Armenia and it is
definitely on the positive track. And the situation changes rapidly day by day in
Armenia” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
The findings of the survey support the notion that Armenia has a highly formal
organisational culture; indeed, half of the respondents reported that they
maintained a personal distance from their employees in order to receive the
requisite respect and, in turn, achieve better results for their respective
companies. Despite such formalism, more then two-thirds of the respondents
noted that their employees may address them by their first name. However, as
one leader in the IT-sector opined, “there are [still] some financial institutions
where you should keep the official part. But in IT you will never ever see any
formalities of that kind” (CCBS Survey, 2020). In contrast to this example, in more
conventional situations half of the respondents reported that they addressed
their leaders by their titles, such as Տնօրեն (Director), Ղեկավար (Head of…) or
Կառավարիչ (Manager of...), but in all other situations either Պարոն (Sir) or
Տիկին (Madam) was deemed to be the proper etiquette (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Hasmig Baran’s (2012) research on Armenian women in business shed light on

the challenges that women encounter on their path to securing senior positions
within Armenian organisations. These included the lack of a supportive network,
difficulties managing a family-work balance and the history of leadership being a
male-dominated domain (Baran, 2012). The survey results indicated that half of
31
the respondents (strongly) disagreed that men and women have equal access to
senior leadership positions. According to one CCBS survey respondent, there is
also a difference in the leadership styles of the genders. Thus, women are more
inclined to listen, pay more attention to detail, but also be more emotionally
affected than their male counterparts, while men are more pragmatic,
spontaneous, and act faster in certain situations (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Strielkowski (2018) posits that the younger generation of leaders in Armenia
typically seek to instantiate and promote a more modern-oriented business
culture, in which values such as professional activities, an innovative mind and
cultural factors are prioritised more (Strielkowski, 2018). For Strielkowski (2018),
and as noted in the CCBS survey (2020), a real leader is someone who acts to
help those around them and is guided by moral values, whilst, simultaneously,
possessing charisma and intellect.

Michael Kouchakdjian: an Armenian leadership scholar
Michael Kouchakdjian is an Armenian leadership scholar and director of the
Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Centre (EPIC) at the American
University of Armenia (AUA) in Yerevan. He is a professor who teaches classes in
business and management as well as business and entrepreneurship. In his
interview, Kouchakdjian (24 March 2020) distinguished between companies that
were run in accordance with Western and Armenian styles of leadership. Firstly,
concerning companies that are run in a typically Armenian style, leaders are
more bureaucratic and rigid in their approach. The leader of the company or the
department is typically self-confident and dictates what needs to be done. The
whole organisation is run in a fixed manner with almost no degree of flexibility
for the employees. Hence, Kouchakdjian (24 March 2020) argued that teams are
not being utilised to their full potential as a result of such rigid bureaucratic
procedures, while Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is rarely exercised by
management.
Secondly, companies that adopt a more Western-oriented approach are run
completely differently from these aforesaid companies. These companies are
primarily associated with the West through the services or products that they
provide, which, in turn, have forced them to adapt to more Western leadership
styles and practices. Kouchakdjian (24 March 2020) posited in our interview that
32
this approach allows leaders to be more engaged with their employees and
teams, thus enabling them to display more empathic understanding and better
express their vision to their employees, which, in turn, creates deeper levels of
commitment. A manager’s authority does not derive from the title they hold,
but, rather, from the relation they have developed with their co-workers through
consensual management. Moreover, skills and competencies are also more
valued within this style of leadership, which leads to greater flexibility and
freedom for the employees, and better serves the company in the short- and
long-term. In conclusion, Kouchakdjian made a comparison between Armenian
leaders and prime ministers over the years, to illustrate the transformation that
was taking place within the country. “The current prime minister shows real signs
of understanding leadership and EQ, whereas the former prime minister showed
more signs of the old Soviet way of leadership” (24 March 2020).
Mane Beglaryan: an Armenian cross-cultural trainer

Mane Beglaryan is a professor at the AUA, along with being one of the
researchers for the GLOBE project in Armenia. She teaches a variety of courses
including “foundations of management” and “managing people and
organisations and managerial negotiations”. According to Beglaryan, Armenian
leadership is still male-dominated, but this is slowly changing. Traditional leaders
tend to have a monopoly over the decision-making process. In turn, employees
are expected to do their job, while believing that leaders have their best interests
in mind. In our interview, she highlighted key differences between those
companies focused on the internal market and those that have stronger ties to
the West (Beglaryan, 8 May 2020). These differences also have consequences for
female occupied leadership positions. She purported that many women are
located in educational jobs but that the new generation is slowly creating further
opportunities for women in senior leadership positions. Furthermore, Beglaryan
(8 May 2020) pointed out that, although leaders possess legitimate authority as a
result of their job function, in more Western-oriented companies employees are
more involved in each step of the decision-making process. Overall, Beglaryan
concluded that there remain contradictions in the leadership styles and practices
adopted in Armenia, but that change is coming. While religion and historical
influences still carry notable weight within leadership, as new generations
emerge the weight accorded to these traditions will be re-evaluated (Beglaryan,
8 May 2020).
33

One of the best-selling books on leadership is written by Valeri Mirzoyan. Valeri
Mirzoyan is a professor at the Armenian State University of Economics and has
written several books on (historical) management and leadership. In 2011, his
book Առաջնորդման հոգեբանությունը` ըստ Գարեգին Նժդեհի (The
psychology of leadership according to Garegin Nzhdeh) was published, in which
he focusses on the early-twentieth-century war hero Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan’s
philosophies and psychology of leadership. Garegin (nom de guerre Garegin
Nzhdeh) was a military leader in the early twentieth century in a region where he
later became the leader of the First Republic of Armenia. Mirzoyan used
Nzhdeh’s philosophies and vision to write about leadership from multiple
perspectives. Although Garegin Nzhdeh’s ideas are over a century old, the ideas
are significant for the fact that they were not heavily influenced by Soviet
philosophies, and, as such, are still of relevance for contemporary society. Given
that the book addresses philosophers, entrepreneurs, politicians, students and
managers, it would be fair to say that it is of interest for anyone interested in
management behaviour.
Առաջնորդման հոգեբանությունը`
Title
ըստ Գարեգին Նժդեհի
Subtitle -
Author Valeri Mirzoyan
Publisher ՎՄՎ-ՊՐԻՆՏ – VMV Print
Year 2011
ISBN 9789939601
Armenian leadership YouTube review

In this YouTube video, Larisa Hovannisian discusses what makes leaders
successful (Hovannisian, 2016). Larisa is the founder of Teach for Armenia,
a social organisation that employs young graduates to teach in underserved
schools and regions. She delineates some of the key characteristics of successful
leadership, such as academic qualifications, integrity and language skills,
34
but concludes that the ability to tell a story is the key skill required by leaders.
Through her teaching, Hovannisian (2016) believes that future generations will
also find their own story and find out how they can shape their future. For a
leader to fulfil their potential, they must take ownership of their own learning. To
illustrate this point, Hovannisian quoted the great Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy:
“You are always talking about changing the world, but you are never talking
about changing yourself” (Hovannisian, 2016, 8:44).
In another video, Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian investor and social
entrepreneur, shares part of Hovannisian’s vision in his interview with Dialogue
of Civilisations TV (Vardanyan, 2017). Firstly, Vardanyan believes that the most
important skill required by a leader is the ability to engage in dialogue with
others so that they understand each other. By starting a dialogue, people can
understand each other and come to an agreement. Secondly, Vardanyan
signalled his agreement with Hovannisian about the importance of education in
leadership, noting that school and education increase knowledge, but being
educated in other skills and competences is also critical.
Understanding hierarchy in Armenia

According to Yegyan (2018), Armenia is a country that is characterised by a high
level of power distance. In his research with 50 Armenians aged between 18 to
29, Yegyan (2018) demonstrates that Armenians have a significant relationship
with a high level of power distance, thus representing how important a strong
hierarchy is within Armenian leadership culture. Malakyan (2013a) also
researched leadership in Armenian culture following the principles of Hofstede
and drew several conclusions about Armenia’s relation to strong hierarchical
leadership. Firstly, he concluded that leadership is accorded a high level of social
status while, simultaneously, being a follower has a low level of social status
(Malakyan, 2013a). Secondly, Armenian leaders, who typically exercise a
hierarchical leadership style, appear rude and treat their subordinates with little
respect (Malakyan, 2013a). Armenians believe that leaders should project
toughness and retain distance from their employees. Finally, leaders are not
expected to consult with their subordinates or invite them to contribute to the
decision-making process as a result of their lower status (Malakyan, 2013a).
Despite these characteristics, there is a marked difference between the older and
younger generation. The older generation of leaders has a higher power distance,
as a result of greater value being placed on hierarchy and the attendant
expectation that leaders have sole responsibility for decision-making.
35
However, this power distance rating is decreasing now that the younger
generation is transforming the business landscape (Yegyan, 2018). Younger
leaders tend to involve subordinates more in the decision-making process, but
this differs profoundly across different industries. Direct leaders can be seen as
autocratic, as demonstrated in the research conducted by Malakyan (2013a) and
Euwema, Wendt and Van Emmerik (2007). As Kouchakdjian stated (24 March
2020), “Armenia can be describeds as a bureaucratic country in terms of
leadership”.
How the Armenians achieve leadership empathy

As aforesaid, the opening up to the West has engendered a significant transition
in leadership styles and practices in Armenia. Firstly, historical influences meant
that Armenian leadership has typically been bureaucratic, insofar as leaders’
titles and positions are accorded notable status (Kouchakdjian, 24 March 2020).
Such leaders utilise confidence to dictate the course of action, while employees
are expected to simply fulfil their roles without having any consultation in the
decision-making process. Within such an approach, there is little to no
consensual management, while the communication style is direct (Malakyan,
2013a). This form of leadership is primarily still observable in local Armenian
market-based companies, while leaders in companies with more international
employees tend to be more respectful, less bureaucratic and less direct in their
communication style. Such differences were acknowledged by Beglaryan (8 May
2020).
Secondly, companies that are more aligned to Western organisations via their
products or services are thus more open to Western styles of leadership, which
are necessary for companies to operate in this market. Employees in these
companies are more involved in the day-to-day running of the business and the
decision-making process. Moreover, one’s skills and competencies are valued
more highly than one’s socio-economic or family background, while EQ is
regarded as the best method through which to optimise the potential of your
employees and get the best from them. These types of leaders place more trust
in their employees, which, in accordance with Kouchakdjian’s (24 March 2020)
vision, empowers employees to work more effectively. EQ can be described as a
feminine characteristic from the perspective of Hofstede’s principles, which have
been applied to the Armenian context in previous research (Yegyan, 2018). This
transition in the style of leadership was demonstrated previously by Malakyan
(2013b). Moreover, the difference between leadership styles is also visible at the
36
level of individualism, as delineated by Hofstede. Here, the Soviet influence

remains tangible and harks back to the Soviet period in which leaders were
expected to be strong and autocratic. A sense of belonging within a company is
evolving as a result of the emergence of more Western styles of leadership,
which lead to employees feeling more motivated and valued (Yegyan 2018).
In conclusion, a good Armenian leader is someone who understands the history
of the country and uses this knowledge to actively involve their employees.
Armenian leaders continue to show strength by setting targets, taking strong
decisions and proving their competency, while, simultaneously, valuing input
from employees and engendering a feeling of belonging within their
organisation.
37
Azerbaijan
Demet Tuncer, Gaye Kaya, Nevin Günay, Riad Fetah, Sinem Durcan & Eyup Kavas
Marco Polo first referred to Azerbaijan as “the land of eternal fire”, in reference
to the many natural everlasting gas fires that fed off the enormous underground
natural gas supplies. This is reflected in the state’s emblem, whose focal point is
a stylised flame from the mountain, named Yanar Dag (which means burning
mountain). A land of plentiful natural resources, Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan in Azeri
language) is a nation located in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. This
geographical crossroad between Europe and Asia was ruled over by various
empires until it became the first secular democratic Muslim state in 1918.
However, their freedom did not last long, as only two years later they were
absorbed by the Soviet Union. Only in 1991, following the dissolution of the
Soviet Union, did Azerbaijan again emerge as an independent republic.
Even though more than half of the Azeri people left Azerbaijan to live in Iran,
the Azeris are a proud nation who are strongly influenced by the Western
consumerist lifestyle. Azerbaijan has a youthful population of which Turkic
Azerbaijanis constitute the vast majority (over 90%). The country’s various ethnic
minorities represent 9% of the population, including Lezghins (a Caucasian
language), Russians, Avars, Talysh, Tats, Kurds and Armenians. The country is a
developed industrial and agrarian country with a strong, expanding economy
(Allworth, Suny, Silaev & Howe, 2019). Azeris now conduct business all over the
world, most notably with their neighbour Turkey, since their two languages are
very similar. Azeri leadership styles and practices were formerly influenced
greatly by the Soviet Union, but are now influenced by Western management
ideas and pan-Turkic management approaches.
How the Azeris characterise leaders

The traditional business organisational culture in Azerbaijan is hierarchical. It has
a chain of command that adheres to a rigid structure within the organisation. As
a result, the leadership style in the country has traditionally been autocratic in
nature. However, since Azerbaijan gained its independence in 1991, the country
has been gradually transitioning from an authoritarian towards a more self-ruled
38
system (Magno, 2013). As a CCBS survey respondent opined: “There is a need for
change, and I think that these new changes will be executed by the younger
generation. We are currently in the process of changing the society in a way that
will hopefully benefit everyone in an equal way” (CCBS Survey, 2019). On the
other hand, since tradition is highly valued within Azerbaijan, such changes are
not readily embraced, simply because they are new and may impact upon the
continuity and stability in the country. In the past, only one person was
recognised as a leader: President Aliyev (Isabalayeva, 2018). However, not long
after Aliyev’s presidency, a group of young Azeris returned from their studies in
the West. Inspired by their experiences, they coined a new Azeri term: liderlik
(which translates as leadership) and applied it to any in positions of leadership as
opposed to solely the position of the president (Magno, 2013). This new
leadership style has created a gap between the two generations: the new
generation has a slightly more European mindset, while the older generation is
still predominantly influenced by Soviet rule (Novruzova, 12 March 2020).
Nahid Cəfərov, an Azeri politician, claims that a lider is someone who has a
concrete vision for the future and makes their employees believe in this vision. In
contemporary society, the Azeris characterise a leader as a strong, self-
controlled, forward-thinking and educated person (Atlantic Azerbaijan, 2019).
Azeris are believed to prefer strong leaders that show no weakness. People in
leadership positions are expected to be well-dressed and equally well-mannered,
according to Azeri work etiquette (CCBS Survey, 2020). A leader is thought to be
strong, decisive and charismatic (Novruzova, 12 March 2020). Moreover, Cəfərov
claims that a leader is not the person who shouts the loudest, but the person
that comes with logical ideas that motivate and inspire people around him
(Atlantic Azerbaijan, 2019).
In general, the leadership styles in Azerbaijan can be described as self-protective

and autonomous. The self-protective style comprises leaders who are status-
conscious, self-centred and conflict-inducing, and engage in face-saving
behaviour, while the autonomous style is a more independent, individualistic and
self-centred approach, insofar as leaders cannot rely on anyone else (Chhokar,
Brodbeck & House, 2007). Given that they come from a society that has a
strong relationship orientation, the Azeris are also open to more empathic
conversations, such as sharing information about their family, network
and company (Azpromo, 2018).
39

To provide a verifiably accurate depiction of leadership styles and practices
within Azerbaijan, a survey was designed and distributed among more than fifty
local Azeri professionals. Through an analysis of the respondent data, general
conclusions on leadership within the country can be drawn. One of the first
conclusions that becomes apparent when analysing the data is that men and
women do not have equal access to senior leadership positions in Azerbaijan
(CCBS Survey, 2020), as evidenced by the fact that 70% of the respondents
indicated that this is the case. This response was enhanced further by consultant
Sevda Aliyeva, who noted that the lack of gender equality within companies is a
factor at both the executive level and in middle-management (20 March 2020).
The second conclusion that can be drawn from the analysis of the survey data is
that 95% of the respondents felt that a manager should actively spend time on
the personal wellbeing of their team members (CCBS Survey, 2020). This suggests
that there must be a strong personal bond between leaders and their employees.

Sevda Aliyeva: an Azeri leadership specialist
Sevda Aliyeva is a consultant who specialises in leadership transformation and
transformation programmes. In our interview, Aliyeva claimed that “there are
separate types of leadership styles for international companies versus local
companies. The first often [have] blended leadership styles” (20 March 2020). The
second point raised by Aliyeva pertained to the mixture of national backgrounds,
and the fact that expats from Nordic countries, such as Sweden or Finland, have
very different time management expectations than natives. Above all, Aliyeva
believed that differences in planning are what distinguished Azerbaijani
managers at this juncture from their international counterparts. She affirmed
that corporate culture in Azerbaijan is now going through a transition in terms of
leadership dynamics. This transformation has been engendered, in part, by
young Azeri graduates who studied in Western countries and are now returning
to Azerbaijan. This younger generation is “becoming more demanding in terms of
transparency” (Aliyeva, 20 March 2020). There is also a tendency for younger
leaders to be more socially involved with their employees.
40
When discussing leadership in relation to empathy, Aliyeva noted that empathy

is a “fundamental aspect or component of EQ, which is still very much
undervalued in Azerbaijan” (20 March 2020). Trust is also critically important to
the working relationship. According to Aliyeva, there is room to socialise with co-
workers and talk about a variety of subjects, including one’s family. Finally,
Aliyeva delineated an often-forgotten aspect of informal hierarchy, which is not
necessarily related to the formal organisational structure per se, but rather is
based much more on feeling. An informal leader or influencer “might have even
more influence than the actual people at the top. They can influence [the
decision-making process]” (20 March 2020). From these comments, one can
discern that hierarchy is predominantly based on relationships. If one does not
cultivate strong relationships in an organisation, then it is much more difficult to
effectively fulfil a leadership position in Azerbaijan (Aliyeva, 20 March 2020).
Aygun Novruzova: an Azeri cross-cultural trainer

Aygun Novruzova is a certified professional trainer and coach, who works as a
programme coordinator and acts as a liaison between partner agencies and
university departments. She also assists in the realisation of international
enrolment strategies. Her six years of experience have made it clear to
Novruzova that empathising with others is a critical component of leadership. In
so doing, leaders can truly come to understand the people in front of them and
learn how to get the best out of each of their employees. Novruzova emphasised
the importance of a leader’s ability to adjust their leadership style to each person
in order to create a stronger relationship. For Azeri leaders, experiencing a
human connection with their employees is paramount. Novruzova proceeded to
explain that investing in the right relationship can make the difference between
an efficient and inefficient team. She simplified this as “efficient teams spend
time [together] after work and bond, while inefficient teams do not bond after
work” (12 March 2020).
In addition to this, Novruzova opined that, team bonding notwithstanding,
personal feedback is also of vital importance. Too often leaders have tunnel
vision when it comes to delegating tasks and achieving set goals, rather than
providing constructive feedback and acknowledging the hard work of the team.
Furthermore, Novruzova stressed that promoting task-ownership increases job
performance, insofar as it motivates and inspires employees to take
responsibility and ownership of their work. However, both acknowledging the
hard work carried out by a team and providing constructive feedback is currently
lacking in Azerbaijan. To cite an example from Novruzova (12 March 2020),
41
“when receiving feedback, many times it ends up as a monologue rather than

a dialogue,” and more often than not it is done so publicly as opposed to
individually. This is problematic because “the most important thing is to
empathise, understand [the] people in front of you and to be able to adjust
your leadership style [accordingly]” (Novruzova, 12 March 2020).

Leadership books in Azerbaijan are rare. One of the few best-selling books about
leadership in Azerbaijan is Liderlik Felsefesi (Prezident Kitabxanasi, 2004). Written
by Professor Vaqif Abbasov, the basis of this book derives from the author’s own
extensive knowledge and experience. Among other things, the book contains
information regarding Heydar Aliyev, who was president of Azerbaijan from
1993 to 2003. The writer hopes to inspire future political and business leaders
in Azerbaijan by outlining what type of leader Aliyev was.

Title Liderlik Felsefesi
Subtitle -
Author Vaqif Abbasov
M.F. Axundov adina Azerbaycan
Publisher
Milli Kitabxanasi
Year 2004
ISBN 9957162934
Azeri leadership YouTube review

In addition to reviewing academic literature and analysing the CCBS survey
(2020) data, YouTube was utilised as a source of information through which to
study local Azeri standpoints on leadership styles and practices, starting with the
neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) speaker, Babek Bayramov, who elucidated
his perspective on leadership on a talk show in Azerbaijan (Bayramov, 2013).
Leadership, from Bayramov’s perspective, is not synonymous with simply being a
manager or a boss. A manager is someone who observes their employees, checks
their work and monitors their attitude. Conversely, a leader is someone who is
being observed by their employees and, as such, must work hard to serve as a
42
strong and inspiring example to their workforce. Bayramov concludes the

interview by arguing that Azerbaijan needs to have more female leaders as their
stronger emotional intelligence will make it possible to achieve the desired
growth in the business sector (Bayramov, 2013). Another video that proved
expedient for our analysis of the leadership styles and practices in Azerbaijan is
by writer and psychologist, Rövşən Abdullaoğlu, who focuses on leadership
competencies. In the video, he states that good Azeri leaders must have high
levels of self-esteem and be incredibly motivated. It is imperative that leaders
believe in themselves because this energy ultimately reflects upon their
employees. Abdullaoğlu (2016) then proceeds to elucidate how a leader ought to
make sacrifices for their company, such as by doing overtime if the tasks are not
finished yet. Abdullaoğlu argues that although, traditionally speaking, Azeri
leaders are incredibly formal, modern leaders should not separate themselves
from their subordinates, but rather should seek to minimise the hierarchy
between them. In this respect, Abdullaoğlu opines that sincerity is ultimately
what enriches the bonds between leaders and employees, insofar as it makes
employees feel like they are being listened to (Abdullaoğlu, 2016).
Understanding hierarchy in Azerbaijan

In 2019, Halis and Guliyev wrote that when looking at the hierarchical system in
terms of cross-cultural knowledge and understanding in Azerbaijan, it is critically
important that successful intercultural management recognises the importance
of maintaining their position of authority. Under this hierarchical system,
subordinates are expected to open doors for their superiors and stand up when
they enter the room. Aygun Novruzova, who works at Northeastern University as
a programme coordinator, confirmed this statement, noting that “titles are
symbolic; they shape how others approach or respect you” (12 March 2020). In
addition to this, Halis and Guliyev (2019) also argue that there is a strong and
positive relationship between the business-oriented behaviour of the managers
in Azerbaijan and the public’s perception of what constitutes effective leadership
in the country. Despite the persistence of the hierarchy model, 76% of the CCBS
survey respondents reported that a manager should actively spend time on the
personal wellbeing of their team members. It can thus be concluded that views
on the hierarchical system in Azerbaijan are divided. For example, in some
organisations an employee can easily express his or her opinion and make
suggestions. This is evident from the results of the CCBS Survey (2020), in which
37% of the professionals agreed that they prefer to keep personal distance from
43
their employees, while 30% indicated the exact opposite. Moreover, employees
should use the titles Mr, Miss or Mrs when addressing someone at the office,
including their boss, co-workers and other staff members. Only after they have
gotten to know colleagues better is it appropriate to use their first names.
Consequently, it is evident that Azerbaijan is slowly moving towards a culture
that strives for equality in the workplace.
How the Azeris achieve leadership empathy

Azerbaijanis tend to be relationship-oriented and connected to their culture. In
this respect, relationships are vitally important, insofar as the Azeris are far more
emotional than their Western counterparts. Therefore, empathising and
understanding both the culture and needs of their employees are key methods
through which Azeri leaders can achieve empathic understanding with their
subordinates. Importantly, most of this work is done after official working hours,
during which time employees engage in team building. Indeed, Azeri companies
see great value in encouraging bonding between teams as they frequently fund
trips and other activities for their staff. Accordingly, all teams receive a quarterly
budget that is proportionate to their size. As mentioned before, Novruzova
argued in her interview that team bonding is ultimately what makes the
difference between efficient and inefficient teams (12 March 2020). This view is
supported by the CCBS survey (2020) in which over 90% of the respondents
agreed that a manager should actively spend time on the personal wellbeing of
his or her team members. Despite leaders investing time in the wellbeing of their
employees the relationship between leaders and their employees remains
formal. Thus, most younger leaders try to establish a friendly yet professional
relationship with their subordinates. In contrast, the older generation is wholly
stricter and are thus perhaps difficult to approach. Another critical factor for
achieving empathic understanding is how one provides feedback. Here, once
again, the difference between the younger and older generation is night and day.
The former engage in constructive dialogue with their subordinates when
providing feedback, while the latter tend to engage in unconstructive
monologues, to which their subordinates have no choice but to listen.
As relationship building is very important in Azerbaijan, the wrong approach
can result in employees feeling disconnected and demotivated.
44
The Bahamas
Amelie Kurz, Emilia Smith, Mirna Nasr & Raquel Everduin
Blue water, endless white sandy beaches and palm trees: this is the common
image that comes to mind when one thinks of The Bahamas. However, it is a
little-known fact that these islands were the first land of the New World that
Christopher Columbus discovered on his maiden voyage in 1492 (Boultbee,
1990). Since then, The Bahamas have become an independent member of the
Commonwealth. The Islands of Songs, as they are known, are rich in culture,
music, art and the Junkanoo, which is a celebration held on both Boxing Day and
New Year’s Day. These are good topics to bring up in any business meeting as
Bahamians are deeply connected to their culture and history (Hoffman & Cleare-
Hoffman, 2013). Other effective ways to establish a connection with Bahamians
is via a casual greeting, such as “What’s up, boy?” (Munroe, 21 March 2020).
The Bahamas have a small and prosperous economy that is primarily financed
through tourism, which accounts for nearly half of its GDP. The financial service
industry is the second most important economic sector in the country
(CountryWatch, 2020). Given its status as an offshore banking centre,
The Bahamas are incredibly tax-friendly to foreign individuals and corporations
(Francis, 1985). This helps to explain why the archipelago of around 700 islands is
both a tourist magnet in the Atlantic Ocean and a popular business partner for
foreign direct investment (CountryWatch, 2020). Therefore, it is important to
understand the hierarchical structure of The Bahamas, the preferred leadership
styles, as well as how leaders achieve empathy, both within multinational and
Bahamian-based companies.
How Bahamians characterise leaders

English is the official general and business language used in The Bahamas.
The North American business culture has a major influence on how business
is conducted in The Bahamas, particularly in the public and private sector.
Consequently, there is a strong degree of homogeneity in their respective
leadership styles (McKinney, Bancroft & Hughes, 2017). According to Newman
and Nollen (1996), both The Bahamas and the United States are feminine
cultures, insofar as they are both defined by an underlying nurturing and caring
45
character. Hence, the preferred leadership style in The Bahamas tends to be

empowering and consultative, with staff participation being both encouraged
and valued by leaders.
Moreover, Gonzalez (2014) suggests that there has been a shift in leadership
styles as a result of the increased presence of multinational companies within
the Bahamian market. For example, teamwork has become far more important in
recent years due to the prioritisation of strong and clear communication within
multinational companies, which, in turn, has led to the emergence of less
autocratic leadership styles. This change is highlighted in the research conducted
by Gooden and Preziosi (2004), who discovered that transformational leaders are
the most revered in the Bahamian business world. In other words, those who can
influence their subordinates and empower them to play their part in
transforming the company will ultimately be more successful. This is due, in part,
to the collectivist culture in The Bahamas, where transformational leadership is
more prevalent than in individualistic cultures (Jung & Sossik, 2002).
This point finds further support in the research of Koufopoulos and
Chryssochoidis (2000), who indicate that in cultures with high levels of
uncertainty avoidance, CEOs are strongly involved in strategic planning, while
lower-level employees are invariably not included in this process.
In contradistinction to these aforesaid cultures, The Bahamas have a relatively
low level of uncertainty avoidance, which suggests that lower-level employees
are granted the opportunity to voice their opinions. To summarise, this indicates
that superiors delegate their tasks to employees, while the preferred
management style is consultative and transformational (Gooden, 2004).
In a similar vein, Bowe (2017) posits how in the tourism sector, which is the
biggest industry in The Bahamas, a new form of servant leadership is gaining in
prominence. Servant leadership is a management style that was specifically
designed to help improve the motivation of frontline Bahamian hotel employees.
Rather than using power to control their employees, leaders instead share their
power and delegate it to their employees. Frontline staff directly deal with guests
on a daily basis, and, hence, servant leadership encourages them to become
more involved in the decision-making process, which, in turn, increases their
agility and motivation. Importantly, Gardner and Reece (2012) illustrate how
servant leadership has been successful in a range of work environments, which
lends weight to the argument that more Bahamian organisations should seek to
adopt this leadership style.
46

To gain more knowledge and insight into leadership in The Bahamas, C-level
executives and managers with substantial leadership experience were asked to
share their opinions in the CCBS survey of 2020. The survey focuses on leadership
style, leadership qualities and gender equality. The most important findings that
emerged from the survey are summarised below. The first interesting result is
that most respondents agreed that managers should actively spend time on the
personal wellbeing of their team members (CCBS Survey, 2020). This confirms
that Bahamians are relationship-oriented. As one respondent explains, because
“The Bahamas, [is] such a small, close-knit nation, […] leaders tend to have a lot
more compassion for the workers. […] Leadership is very involved” (CCBS Survey,
2020). Therefore, caring about employees and showing compassion towards
them is a distinctive feature of Bahamian leadership.
Secondly, it is interesting to note that most respondents reported that
management decisions cannot simply be changed, as well as the fact that
employees are expected to follow established procedures. This suggests that,
although Bahamians revere caring leaders, hierarchy and obedience to the rules
are nevertheless of equal importance. This is supported by the fact that just over
half of the respondents said that employees are not allowed to bend the rules
without asking. As one respondent noted: “whereas there may exist some
flexibility in certain unique circumstances, rules are there for a reason and
without rules and adherence to rules, there is no structure” (CBBS Survey, 2020).
Similarly, Edison L. Summer, a principal in private sector development, stated
that within Bahamian organisations “Employees or associates are to operate with
the defined rules […] to achieve expected results” (CBBS Survey, 2020).
Thirdly, another fascinating theme in the data pertained to the preferred
qualities that a leader should embody, namely organisational experience, market
expertise and technical competence, coupled with the expectation that a leader
should be a powerful decision-maker, a visionary thinker and a good listener.
Competence is also important, as well as care and strong leadership. These
characteristics aid the development of a fuller picture of Bahamian leaders. In
conclusion, Bahamians prefer a transformational and consultative leader, who
both encourages and leads by example. “In The Bahamas […] leaders’ skills are
base[d] upon […] professionalism, warm personality and [competence within
their] profession” (CBBS Survey, 2020).
47
The last notable result from the survey pertains to gender equality. Most
executives state that women have the same opportunities to procure senior
leadership positions as their male counterparts. “There are [many] women in key
leadership positions […] not because of artificially imposed quotas or social
pressure” (CBBS Survey, 2020). Despite this, more men occupy senior leadership
positions, while gender-typical tendencies prevail. According to Adam Nicholas
Brown, the CEO of a film company, this is not due to sexism per se, but rather the
fact that “more men tend to gravitate toward certain things which are either
highly competitive or very physical” (CBBS Survey, 2020). Moreover, when
women do hold leadership positions in The Bahamas, their leadership style
differs markedly from their male colleagues “because The Bahamas is a very
patriarchal society, women leaders are expected to be tougher in order to garner
respect” (CBBS Survey, 2020).

Shamron Munroe: a Bahamian leadership scholar
The interview with Shamron Munroe from Exuma provided several insights into
the leadership styles adopted in The Bahamas. He works at IM International and
is also a local speaker and leadership developer. He explains that due to
colonialism, a general leadership style has not been established in The Bahamas.
Rather, it is generally a mixture of democratic and autocratic styles, depending
on whether the manager is of Bahamian origin or is a descendant of the
colonisers. As Munroe said, “The Bahamas still have not developed what I would
consider a whole [concept] in regard to leadership and business” (Munroe, 21
March 2020). This is a product of its colonial history and the attendant separation
of the archipelago. Indeed, Bahamians behave more submissively as a result of
their dependence on the United Kingdom and their still unbroken affiliation with
their ceremonial representatives. This submissiveness can also be discerned in
the workplace. For instance, Bahamians are used to following the rules and are
rarely permitted to bend them (CBBS Survey, 2020).
However, according to Munroe, there is a change in leadership and employee
behaviour. The younger generation demands greater participation; in fact,
“millennials want leaders [to] move aside” (Munroe, 21 March 2020). Therefore,
a good Bahamian leader would be someone who incorporates empowering,
empathic and servant leadership styles. If one seeks to gain further insight into
leadership in The Bahamas, then one should seek out the work of Munroe’s uncle
Dr Myles Munroe, who by all accounts is an outstanding leadership researcher.
48
Indeed, both Munroe and most of the C-level executives who completed the
CCBS survey (2020) agreed that he is “a visionary, a spiritual leader”, and would
recommend his work to anyone seeking to learn more about Bahamian
leadership (Munroe, 21 March 2020).
Ian Ferguson: a Bahamian cross-cultural trainer

To gain additional insight into Bahamian leadership, an interview was conducted
with Ian Ferguson, who currently works as the executive director at the
Bahamian Ministry of Tourism. With his 26 years of working experience, he has
had his fair share of interactions with people in leadership positions, both in
The Bahamas and internationally. Ferguson posits that the most important
characteristics for Bahamian leaders to display are “effective communication,
being able to motivate teams, having a certain degree of technical acuteness and
technical competence” (23 March 2020). Furthermore, he argued that certain
traits are specific to Bahamian leaders. For example, it is common, almost
mandatory even, to greet each other when you first walk into the office. A simple
“hello” will suffice, but it is nevertheless crucial as it shows respect and care.
From his experience, some foreign leaders working in The Bahamas lack this core
skill of communication. Hence, foreign executives “[should] go through a cultural
immersion programme to get a full understanding of [the] Bahamian history, […]
geography [and] culture […] so that the assimilation process is […] much simpler”
(Ferguson, 23 March 2020). This once again speaks to the importance of culture
and history for Bahamians.
Moreover, Ferguson said that Bahamian leaders display a highly collectivistic
approach to leadership and that individualistic ways of thinking in the workplace
are strongly rejected. “We are psychologically and physically created to be in
relationships, which is essentially the message of leadership. […] Leadership is
that you inspire others to walk with you” (Ferguson, 23 March 2020). Finally, he
succinctly described Bahamian leadership in just three words: “The first one
would be relationships, the second one would be nurturing [and] the third one
would be results” (Ferguson, 23 March 2020). In summary, Bahamians are
relationship-oriented, but also task-oriented in their leadership tendencies.

One of the most well-known leadership books is The Power of Character in
Leadership, written by Myles Munroe, a Bahamian-born author. Munroe was not
only known as a writer but also as an inspiring lecturer and leadership mentor.
Munroe wrote several books on various aspects of leadership and is one of the
49
most respected authors in The Bahamas. His work is not only applied and
appreciated in The Bahamas but is also internationally recognised for its insight
into leadership and the character of leaders. In this particular book, Munroe
discusses what character is, what it means to develop moral force and how to
preserve leadership influence so that it is both effective and enduring.

The power of character in
Title
leadership
How values, morals, ethics, and
Subtitle
principles affect leaders
Author Myles Munroe
Publisher Whitaker House
Year 2014
ISBN 978-1603749558
Bahamian leadership YouTube review

One particularly expedient view of Bahamian leadership comes from Dillon
Archer, a young Bahamian who is attempting to establish a leadership curriculum
to be taught to Bahamian students so that they can develop a broader
understanding of leadership. In his TEDxYouth Talk, which took place on the
island Grand Bahama, he explains that it is young people who will ultimately
grow up in this new environment in which leadership plays a crucial part in the
development of the country. Archer feels that it is up to young Bahamians, the
millennials, to become proactive and seize the initiative in learning about
leadership. In so doing, future Bahamian leaders would be better trained and be
even better leaders than those who preceded them. Moreover, he believes that
one of the best ways to achieve this goal is to teach the Bahamian youth the
importance of strategy and character for becoming effective leaders (Dillon
Archer, 2017).
An additional YouTube source that discusses Bahamian leadership is the
Caribbean Leadership Programme, a project that was created to help further
develop leadership skills in the Caribbean, including The Bahamas. This channel
50
deals with various aspects of business leadership, including the challenges

associated with being a leader and how to overcome them. The channel covers a
wide range of topics specific to Caribbean and Bahamian leadership, such as self-
awareness, emotional intelligence, relationships and coaching. For example, Lois
Parks (2017) talks about the importance of building relationships: “It is important
not only to have a good working relationship but to actually know those persons
as individuals” (Lois Parks, 2017, 01:40).
Understanding hierarchy in The Bahamas

Even though The Bahamas was not included in Geert Hofstede’s study in 1980,
Gooden (2004) demonstrates that The Bahamas scores high on power distance.
In societies with a high level of power distance, leaders adopt a more dominant
leadership style while employees tend to behave submissively in the presence of
their superiors, thus resulting in deeply hierarchical organisations. Moreover, it is
not commonplace for subordinates to address leaders by their first name, which
highlights that most Bahamian leaders like to retain a personal distance from
their employees (Stringer, 20 March 2020). However, in recent years the
Bahamian business culture has shifted towards a more informal environment,
especially in modern organisations (Rolle, 20 March 2020).
Status and power are also very important in The Bahamas (Munroe, 21 March
2020). This is demonstrated by the fact that most of the executives in the CCBS
survey (2020) reported that having an academic title on their business card is
important to them, as well as the fact that leaders should receive respectable
office space and transportation that reflects their position in the hierarchy. In
addition to this, most C-level managers in the CCBS survey (2020) agreed that
they would confront subordinates during a staff meeting if necessary, which
underlines both the subjugation of employees and the power of the leader.
Moreover, the highest paid jobs in The Bahamas are all found in the capital city
of New Providence; these jobs are predominantly held by men, as they are the
main source of income for most Bahamian families. In the educational sector,
specifically, previous research has shown that men are deemed to be much more
suitable for these higher positions due to their physical strength (Tooms, 2007).
Consequently, when women hold higher positions, they tend to exert even
stricter hierarchical behaviour than men, “to overcompensate […] their
positions, by being extra tough” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
51
How the Bahamians achieve leadership empathy

The collectivistic culture of The Bahamas greatly influences how leaders show
empathy towards their followers. Therefore, it is critically important to connect
with your colleagues. The same applies to people in leadership positions, as
highlighted by a study by Mujtaba (2010), which shows that Bahamian leaders
are more relationship-oriented than task-oriented. This means that the bond a
leader creates with his or her employees is an integral part of the business.
Empathy and caring for employees are thus essential aspects of leadership. Or, as
Ferguson (23 March 2020) puts it: “Bahamian employees are perhaps spoiled”
when it comes to caring leaders. Notwithstanding the fact that Bahamians are
more relationship-oriented, the task-oriented mindset still forms an integral part
of leadership in The Bahamas. Support for this comes from research by Gonzalez
(2014), who found that the Bahamian management style is based on rewards and
punishment. Consequently, Bahamian leaders wholly support the notion that the
higher the risk, the higher the reward.
In summary, Bahamians focus heavily on relationships within an organisation,
while, simultaneously, working professionally and diligently on the tasks assigned
to them (Mujtaba, 2010). While the management style in The Bahamas used to
be less teamwork-oriented, in recent years Bahamian management and
leadership have become more communicative and even participatory due to
the nascent presence of multinational companies. As a result, it is becoming
increasingly important for Bahamian leaders to empower their employees and
help them achieve success, which, in turn, showcases their empathic skills
(Gonzales, 2014). This point was also noted by Ferguson, who argues that
collectivism is critically important in The Bahamas. “It’s about listening, it’s about
hearing [and] to come to agreements that work for everyone” (Ferguson, 23
March 2020). This is supported by Gooden’s (2004) study, which concluded that
The Bahamas scores low on individualism. This suggests that companies tend to
operate as a collective and that it is important for leaders to treat their
employees as family if they hope to achieve the highest level of leadership
empathy in The Bahamas (CCBS Survey, 2020).
52
Bangladesh
Lingli Hu, Naomi Smid, Danique Hsu, Han Ying Min & Rockey Mahamoed
Bangladesh (বাাংলাদেশ), or the People’s Republic of Bangladesh as it is officially

known, is located in South Asia. It borders four other countries, while the
southern section of Bangladesh opens into the Bay of Bengal, which is the largest
bay in the world. The majority of the country comprises a delta formed by two
rivers: the Ganges, or Padma (পদ্মা) as it is known locally, and the Brahmaputra,
which is known as Jamuna (যমুনা). Nearly 164 million inhabitants live in the
country, which makes it the eighth most densely populated country in the world
(Rashid, 2019). Bangladesh is not particularly wealthy, and only a quarter of the
population is literate, while only half of its inhabitants have access to the internet
(Azad, n.d.) Bangladeshis speak Bengali; however, English is also used in the
country, especially in the governmental sector. The use of English originated in
the 15th century when the British, French, Portuguese and Dutch began to trade
with India (Chowdhury & Kabir, 2014). Due to the rich production of opium in
Bangladesh, the British were especially interested in the country, and, hence, the
British East India Company controlled Bangladesh until 1858. As a result of
Bangladesh’s colonial past, cricket remains to this day the most popular sport in
the country (Rashid, 2019). Bangladesh has an extremely fast-growing economy,
mainly driven by strong domestic demand. The highest export value derives from
the garment manufacturing or textile industry. Given Bangladesh’s rich history,
they have developed leadership styles and practices that are distinct to their
country, which will be elaborated on in the following sections.
How the Bangladeshis characterise leaders

Bangladesh is a country where organisational changes from traditional leadership
and autocratic leadership can be observed within every level of an organisation.
Khan Mohammad Mahmud Hasan, a Bangladeshi CEO in the service industry and
a CCBS survey (2020) respondent, explained that “from my experience, [foreign]
leadership means essentially working together whilst in our country, leadership is
most likely to adopt an autocratic style”. Similarly, an executive officer opined
that in Bangladesh “an autocratic leadership style is followed by most of the
managers” (CCBS Survey, 2020). In recent years, leadership in Bangladesh has
53
steadily changed to be more in accordance with their external business partners,

particularly in the West, insofar as managers are becoming more open with their
employees and encouraging greater horizontal communication and involvement
in the decision-making process. As Muhibul Haque Bhuyan, a university professor
and chairman, reported, “in our country, most leaders are not cooperative or
proactive. They are [the] reactive, fault-finding type. I think they should be more
proactive and positive-minded about their sub-ordinates and should work hard
for the betterment of all” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Good communication and
management skills are key determinants of an excellent leader in Bangladeshi
organisations. Bangladeshi authority figures highly value the organisation and are
both goal and performance driven (Selvarajah, Meyer & Bose, 2018). The
consequence of this is that they can often come across as stiff and harsh. In the
CCBS survey (2020), when asked about leader characteristics, most of the
respondents reported that employees look up to their leaders on the grounds of
their organisational and technical know-how, as well as their age. Moreover,
leaders should also be visionary thinkers, good listeners and powerful decision-
makers (CCBS Survey, 2020). According to CEO and Founder of Think Turbine Mr
Imtiaz Ahmad, “today’s business culture in the world is changing [at] a faster
speed, which enables everyone in the organisation to have any details they want,
at any given time” (Ahmad, Habib & Kamruzzaman, 2015, p. 179). This indicates
that even lower-level workers possess crucial knowledge about almost every
aspect of their organisation. Research conducted by Ahmad, Habib and
Kamruzzaman (2015) lends further support to this claim, insofar as they found
that corporate leaders require extensive support from subordinates, and thus
need capable personnel who can make decisions based on the situation.
However, the ability to extract this information is dependent on leaders’
interpersonal communication skills. This also illustrates the importance of
having networks in Bangladesh. Furthermore, according to the respondents,
a leader is characterised by having a charismatic personality, being resourceful
and having access to the right networks (CCBS Survey, 2020).

In order to gather data on Bangladeshi leadership style and practices, a number
of professionals from a range of industries were approached to complete the
CCBS survey (2020) and share their professional insight and extensive local
knowledge. The findings indicate that most of the respondents believed that
leadership is emotionally driven and that leadership style depends on the gender
54
of a leader. For example, it was stated that female leaders tend to adopt more of
an assertive and stern leadership style in comparison to their male counterparts.
Khan Mohammad Mahmud Hasan confirmed this by stating that “women are
more autocratic than men” (CCBS Survey, 2020). The underlying rationale for this
leadership style may be that women feel they must adapt to this style in order to
progress and be taken seriously. This was the view expressed by Hasina Rahman,
an assistant country director from Bangladesh, who posited that “female leaders
are often disliked for leadership traits that are normal to male leaders and they
are considered being vulnerable, which is not true at all, but yet a common
perception” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Even though Bangladesh is still an incredibly
male-dominated environment, it is important to note that business opportunities
for women are increasing. With regards to having access to senior leadership
positions, a slight majority of the participants believed that there is gender
equality in Bangladesh. Contrary to this belief, some respondents opined that
women still do not have the same rights as men. According to Rahman, “female
leaders have to really work hard to get buy-in and earn respect from their male
peers” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Employees are expected to follow established rules
and procedures. This became abundantly clear when assessing the participants’
responses regarding rules. Two-thirds of the leadership professionals agreed that
employees should either always, or at the very least most of the time, follow
established procedures. The remaining participants partially agreed with this
statement but believed that employees also required some level of
independence. Moreover, two-thirds of the respondents disagreed with the
statement that employees may bend rules without permission. Hasan expressed
it as follows: “rules are like a law in my organisation. If one needs to bend some
rules, one will be required to go through a procedure” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Approximately 65% of the participants preferred to receive indirect criticism
outside of staff meetings. With regards to changing a management decision after
it has been made, over 70% of the respondents believed that it is not easy to
change decisions once they have been made. Moreover, almost all the
participants agreed with the statement that missing a deadline is more or less
equivalent to failure, while over 90% agreed that a manager should encourage
some sense of competition within his or her team in order to achieve better
results. These findings thus appear to indicate individualistic and result-oriented
practices within the workspace (CCBS Survey, 2020).
55

Dr Ansar Ahmed: a Bangladeshi-American management consultant
Dr Ansar Ahmed, an effective management consultant, who is currently based in
the United States and owns a consulting firm, has a PhD in sociology and has
extensive experience working in Bangladesh as a pro-vice-chancellor at the BRAC
University in Dhaka. According to Ahmed, the leadership styles in Bangladesh do
not significantly differ from other countries, which signals a departure from
earlier periods. Such changes are a result of enhanced international exposure
and interaction. A typical leader only manages and is a traditional-minded
person. “A future plan or framework is not typically the way things are done [in
Bangladesh]” (11 May 2020). Simply put, according to Ahmed, leadership is more
about crisis-management, addressing daily issues from an authoritarian
perspective. Cultural differences such as traditions, attitudes, personality and
social structures create differences in styles of leadership. The traditional
leadership style among Bangladeshi businessmen places profit as the ultimate
objective, around which everything else revolves. In his words: “once you are in a
profit-centred [way of] thinking, you will tend to control others, manage others
and create [a] hierarchy. So, unfortunately, what I have seen is this strict
adherence to the traditional model thinking” (11 May 2020).
A key characteristic that Bangladeshi leaders should seek to improve on is to

develop a long-term strategy on hiring, retaining and developing employees. As
Ahmed opined, “It is the leader’s job to try and make sure that every employee
from [the] bottom to the top can grow professionally. That is one thing that I
found to be missing in Bangladesh” (11 May 2020). When describing typical
relationships between leaders and employees in the country, he observed that
“the employees tend to feel and [are] made to feel subordinate. They are not
contributors. They are simply expected to follow directions and do not question
anything” (11 May 2020). Status is important to leaders, and they ensure that
everyone knows this fact. When asked if all people had equal chances at
attaining a leadership position, Ahmed stated: “no. There are gender gaps, class
gaps, seniority, family name, your background. [These factors] matter a lot” (11
May 2020).
In Bangladesh, business lunches are more common than dinners, since “dinner
makes it too late; dinner is for family time. On rare occasions, when it is a very
huge community gathering you can be invited for dinner, but more likely than
56
not, it [will be] lunch” (11 May 2020). Business relations are most likely to be
established through networks. As Ahmed explained, “in Bangladesh, the
businessman is very eager to expand all the time so they will not say no. Once a
business relationship is established, it starts to become more friendly. So, two
CEOs would now have a personal connection on top of the business connection,
and they would behave as if they are friends” (11 May 2020).
Professor Mostafa Azad Kamal: a Bangladeshi scholar

Mostafa Azad Kamal is the current dean of the School of Business at Bangladesh
Open University (BOU). Kamal began teaching at BOU in 1995 and became
engrossed with academic activities which subsequently led up to his position as
the dean. Furthermore, Kamal has (co-)written numerous academic journals,
volunteers for the global non-profit organisation Creative Commons, and takes
part in other international educational programmes.
Generally speaking, Bangladesh is a hierarchical culture; however, Kamal noted
that “every human being is unique; I think everybody is intelligent” (9 May 2020).
His leadership style is clearly on the empathic end of the spectrum. Leadership
for him does not mean dictatorship. Indeed, for Kamal “leadership is not a kind of
top-down thing. For me, it is kind of inside out. That means, whatever I’d like to
do, my colleagues should be informed first. I share everything with my colleagues.
And maybe, sometimes, it is slow, but I do not try to do anything in a
monopolised way. I do not believe that to be sustainable” (9 May 2020). The
scholar proceeded to compare ideal leadership to a democratic process, in which
one strives for open discussions between colleagues. Furthermore, from Kamal’s
experience, Western leaders appear to act more as coordinators than leaders.
Traditional Bangladeshi leaders run more authoritarian regimes, in which they
act like a boss rather than conducting meetings. Although subordinates may state
their opinions, the final decision ultimately belongs to the boss alone. Moreover,
sharing opinions as a junior employee is not common, nor particularly
appreciated unless this junior has connections with influential figures: “for
example, someone at a junior level has some other identity. So maybe he or she is
the son or daughter of an [important person]” (Kamal, 9 May 2020).
In addition to this, Kamal highlighted that there is growing gender equality in
Bangladesh, noting: “it has been minimized because there are a lot of
rules/policies. In the parliament [and local government], you will even find some
reserve seats for women” (9 May 2020). In this sense, the once prevalent
perception that females were of lesser quality has clearly dissipated in recent
years. Kamal noted that while males continue to dominate in the educational
57
sector, females dominate the political sector in Bangladesh, which is in marked

contrast to Western politics where females continue to be in the minority.

Learn leadership: From the global leadership guru (লান ললডারলশপ
ন ফ্রম েয গ্লাবাল
ললডারলশপ গুর) is one of the finest Bengali books on leadership. Masum
Chowdhury (গ্মাোঃ মাছুম গ্ ৌধুরী), who wrote several books and holds multiple
degrees, is now working as a head of marketing and sales. Learn leadership was
published in early 2020. The book provides readers with multiple perspectives of
leadership, including insights from the world’s top 25 leaders and their respective
books. While Chowdhury argues that leadership is based on a person’s inherent
qualities, the author also emphasises that these qualities are not enough on their
own and need to be developed further. To this end, the author demonstrates
how one can improve these qualities by taking readers on a journey, referencing
past experiences to illustrate the importance of leadership and team
management.

Title লার্ সলডারসিপ
ন
Subtitle From the global leadership guru
Author Masum Chowdhury
Publisher Pundravardhana Publications
Year 2020
ISBN 978-984-94673-1-1
Bangladeshi leadership YouTube review

“Profits, globalization and leadership – Muhammad Yunus: Banker to the poor”,
posted by KnowledgeAtWharton in 2013, is an interview with Muhammad Yunus
about the impact of globalisation on the microfinance business as well as
leadership, the characteristics of leaders, how they factor into the future success
of a business and the social good that they bring. Muhammad Yunus is a
Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader.
Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to create economic and
58
social development and is regarded as the father of microcredit and

microfinance. In the video, the Nobel laureate defines a leader as “someone who
represents the emotions, thoughts and aspirations of a broader group of people.
You see further down than everybody else in the group [so] that you can give
them a vision that they get excited about” (Yunus, 2013, 00:38). Masses who
cannot express themselves clearly or efficiently, but who nevertheless share the
same vision will flock towards a real leader. This was also a very important
characteristic for the survey respondents, insofar as almost everybody stated
that a leader had to be a visionary thinker (CCBS Survey, 2020). Furthermore,
Yunus highlights the importance of leaders’ attitudes and “having the right
attitude when getting involved, us[ing] talent, creativity and management skills
to help” (Yunus, 2009, 7:20). Given that Yunus places value on the abilities of
every human being, teamwork is another important aspect of what constitutes a
good leader for him.
Ejaj Ahmad is the founder and president of Bangladesh’s first leadership
institute: Bangladesh Youth Leadership Centre (BYLC). The theoretical framework
of BYLC was developed in 2009 while Ahmad was still a graduate student at
Harvard and was driven by a vision of creating a more just, prosperous and
inclusive society by training the next generation of leaders. In “The Work of
Leadership: Ejaj Ahmad at TEDxDhaka”, posted by TEDx Talks in 2012, Ahmad
purports that there is a clear line between authority and leadership, despite the
fact that many people confuse the two. People expect certain services from
authority: “authority provides order, direction and protection” (Ahmad, 2012,
3:36). For instance, re-occurring problems take place, an authority solves it and it
is forgotten. However, when an authority cannot solve a complex issue, a leader
is needed to develop the system. According to Ahmad, authority focusses all the
attention on itself whereas leaders focus the attention of the masses onto the
work that needs to be done to solve the problem. In Ahmad’s words, “Whoever
focusses a group’s attention to the work of the centre and makes progress is
exercising leadership. We need leadership when a community, a group, a society
faces adaptive challenges” (Ahmad, 2012, 4:08). Furthermore, Ahmad posits that
exercising leadership is not easy: making people step out of their comfort zone
and motivating people to work is by no means effortless. He adds that
“adaptation is difficult because adaptation means you have to change your
priorities, values and habits. Engaging in adaptive leadership is risking a price
because people will resist you” (Ahmad, 2012, 12:41). Leaders need to
59
experiment in order to innovate. Towards the end of the video, Ahmad

elaborates that leadership has to be inclusive and a collaborative effort, no
matter one’s background.
Understanding hierarchy in Bangladesh

The power distance between employees at different levels of Bangladeshi
organisations is slowly decreasing (Abdullah, Boyle & Joham, 2011). This shift
involves the transition from traditional leadership to more horizontal forms of
authority. The head of an organisation has substantial influence in decision-
making, and, as such, subordinates hardly ever oppose the decisions made by
their superiors (Kazi, 2012). This was confirmed by an assistant manager in the
power and energy sector, who explained that “often the manager takes decisions
based on their experiences, knowledge, skills and job target; they avoid the
opinions coming from the junior executives who are the fresh blood for the
organisation with new ideas and knowledge” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Personal
relationships and traditions between employers and employees are encouraged
by the customary system of Bangladesh. Simultaneously, respect, loyalty and
obedience to superiors are expected from employees. Other attributes valued in
employees in the business sector include having a good family background and
strong morals (Dutta & Islam, 2016).
Over 70% of the survey respondents reported that leaders should retain personal
distance from their employees to maintain an appropriate level of respect, while
a majority of the respondents believed that subordinates should address leaders
by their title or position. Three-quarters of the participants also reported that
employees should not be allowed to address their leaders by their first name.
However, as aforementioned, the power distance between employees and
leaders is slowly decreasing, as evidenced by the fact that some of the
respondents posited that employees can address their superiors by their first
name (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Most organisations in Bangladesh are owned and controlled by family members,
therefore human resource activities tend to be viewed as merely carrying out the
wishes of the company owner. Managers consider recruitment of employees a
personal matter and often use their own informal recruitment contacts.
Friendship and family tend to be more important than qualifications and skills as
managers fulfil their social obligations to support relatives and friends. When
managers do advertise a position, it is either because the job position requires
high-level technical competencies that cannot be found among friends and
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relatives, or it is done to generate publicity for the organisation, rather than

indicating a genuine job opening (Mahmood & Absar, 2015). Bangladesh’s
colonial past has facilitated the shift towards a more horizontal line of authority,
particularly in the ancient rural areas (Jamil, 2007). The hierarchical structure in
Bangladesh results in a society where saving face and self-esteem are an
essential part of Bangladeshi culture hence any individual criticism in business
settings must be done carefully and with sensitivity.
How Bangladeshis achieve leadership empathy

Given the prominence of Islam in Bangladesh, most civilians are by nature highly
respectful, accepting and tolerant towards others. According to Selvarajah,
Meyer and Bose (2018) based on this understanding, one can presume that “An
excellent leadership in Bangladesh organisations displays values that are
empathic to the feelings of the community” (p. 38). In addition to this, Islam, Ali
and Shahzad (2018) state that managerial leadership in Bangladesh organisations
is influenced by relationship-based managerial behaviour and good
communication skills. Bangladeshi leaders place significant importance on
relationships with those around them. This is reflected in the fact that the vast
majority of the respondents indicated that it is important for leaders to actively
spend time on the wellbeing of each person inside and outside the organisation
(CCBS Survey, 2020). In their study examining the effect of charismatic leadership
communication in the Bangladeshi public sector, a good leader was found to be
someone “who exhibits communication conduct, for example, being positive,
understanding the victim’s emotions […] and having the capacity to empathise
with the victims during crisis impacts perceptions of organisational-reputation”
(Islam, Ali & Shahzad, 2018, p. 97). In this way, authoritarian figures gain trust
and support from their subordinates, who place a strong emphasis on
maintaining relations with senior figures.
Moreover, the CCBS survey (2020) results indicate that Bangladeshis look for a
leader who has a strong charismatic personality. Being very charismatic can
benefit them in terms of obtaining helpful knowledge from the perspective of
their employees, which, in turn, can further improve the company and its
organisational goals (CCBS Survey, 2020). For Bangladeshi executives to achieve
leadership empathy, they need to establish relationships with people that are
operating for or with them, alongside acting as a positive role model for their
employees. This was confirmed by Salahuddin Ahmed, a marketing manager in
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the FMCG sector, who noted that “a leader must have the intention to not only
create exemplary work inside the office but also lead a lifestyle outside the office
which people can follow and progress. A leader has to be very emotionally driven”
(CCBS Survey, 2020). Notwithstanding empathy being achieved via good
communicative practices by leaders, it is equally important that leaders
understand the needs of subordinates. Commonly observed behaviour among
Bangladeshis is that they are implicit communicators, which is to say that they
have long, rich and contextual phrases that are accompanied by highly
demonstrative body language. Moreover, Bangladeshis often suppress their
emotions due to the fear of losing face. Loss of dignity, respect and self-esteem
leads to Bangladeshis never saying “no”. Rather, they will give subtle hints or say
nothing at all (Wilce, 1997). People from direct communicative cultures may find
this communication style troublesome and inadequate. However, if one takes the
time to observe the visual cues, body language and potential silences, then this
may prevent issues from arising.
62
Belgium
Anouk Hagemans, Aurelia Vuillemard, Gabe Irish & Tim Edelbroek
The Kingdom of Belgium is a small country situated in Western Europe that is

renowned for its art, music, literature, architecture and culinary delicacies.
Although it is designated as a kingdom, the country is, in fact, a constitutional
monarchy, wherein the king is not coronated but rather must take an oath, in
both Flemish and French, to observe the laws and constitution of the Belgian
people (The Belgian Monarchy, n.d.). The fact that this oath is undertaken in
multiple languages testifies to the diversity of Belgium’s population. Indeed, the
country itself is technically trilingual, insofar as its 11.4 million populace
comprises three distinct cultural groups (Statbel, 2020). The largest of these
groups is the Flemish community that resides primarily in the north, followed by
the French-speaking Walloons in the south, and the smaller German-speaking
community that is located in the eastern region of the country. Language is far
from the only difference between these groups as the relationship between co-
workers, preferred work environment and what constitutes an ideal leader all
differ across these distinct cultures in the country. Located between the Flemish
and Walloon community lies the capital city of Brussels. Brussels is often referred
to as the political capital of Europe since it is the unofficial capital of the
European Union (EU) and home to its administrative-legislative, executive-
political and legislative branches. Hence, Brussels is a highly globalised
environment in which cultural differences are ever-present. The extent to which
a leader is capable of managing these cultural differences determines whether
they serve as an asset or a hindrance to the organisation. While cultural
differences impacting upon leadership styles and practices is not unique to
Belgium, the close proximity of heterogeneous cultures within an international
political hub does represent unique challenges. There is a Flemish proverb that
aptly describes the challenge posed to leaders in Belgium: “Wie de kern wil
smaken, moet eerst de noten kraken”, which means those that would eat the
kernel, must crack the nut (Manser, 2007).
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How the Belgians characterise leaders

First and foremost, it is important to reiterate that Belgium as a whole is a
diverse and multinational country. As a result of this diversity, there are
differences in the expected characteristics of leaders between the Flemish region
in the north and the Wallonia region in the south (Bogaert & Vloeberghs, 2005).
Flemish businesspeople are typically most comfortable with a participative style
of leadership. This is a leader who establishes their authority on the basis of their
competencies and abilities, rather than their position in the hierarchy. An
effective leader in this region is actively involved in day-to-day operations,
involves others in the decision-making process and delegates tasks effectively
and efficiently. A supervisor would also be expected to act in exactly the same
manner as their colleagues, irrespective of their higher status within the
organisation. Be that as it may, in Wallonia there are completely different
expectations from a leader. One of the things mentioned by Elizabeth Kelly (27
April 2020) in our interview was that there is a clear preference for a more
typically structured team-oriented style of leadership, wherein rank, job titles,
offices and other symbols of distinction are considered vital.
Although the expectations placed on leaders differs between the Flemish region
and the Wallonia region, there are still common characteristics valued by both
groups. The first and arguably most important of which is being a motivator,
insofar as leaders are expected to motivate their colleagues and facilitate their
professional growth (Claus, Vloeberghs & Pichault, 2002). Secondly, feedback
given from a leader is expected to be constructive, genuine and honest, along
with being phrased in such a way that avoids unintentionally causing offence.
Moreover, while Belgian workers generally appreciate regular feedback, a typical
goal-oriented performance appraisal method will not achieve the desired effects
among Walloon workers, as demonstrated by Ellis (2012), who found that “Only
three out of 10 participants thought structured [performance appraisals] helped
them perform, and only one expressed a preference for results to be measured”
(p. 2095). Finally, as shown by Hofstede, Belgian workers are subject to
significant levels of stress as a direct result of long-term planning and uncertainty
(Brans, De Visscher, & Vancoppenolle, 2006). Consequently, a leader must be
capable of engaging in long-term planning activities and be prepared to minimise
uncertainty in order to mitigate employees’ stress.
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It should also be noted that Belgians strongly value humility in leaders and that,
although power distance is present in the country, overly extravagant symbols of
status are deemed to be arrogant and leave a negative impression rather than
one of power and status. This point was further emphasised in the CCBS survey
(2020), in which a large percentage of the respondents disagreed with the
sentiment that a leader’s material possessions should match their position
(CCBS Survey, 2020). This can be a difficult line to walk without crossing it, and,
hence, leaders are advised to use their position and experience as a means
through which to garner respect, rather than relying upon their material
possessions. Leaders typically have a formal employer-employee relationship,
which, at first glance, can appear to be distant. Furthermore, leaders are of
course expected to be capable of making executive decisions capably and
confidently (CCBS Survey, 2020).

To provide a verifiably accurate depiction of leadership within Belgium, the CCBS
survey (2020) was designed and distributed among Belgian professionals.
Analysis of the respondents’ data allows for general conclusions to be drawn on
leadership styles and practices in the country. One of the first conclusions that
become evident when analysing the survey data is that, although power distance
is present in Belgium, it does not define one’s social standing within an
organisation. This was evidenced by the fact that the overwhelming majority of
respondents (97%) found it acceptable to address leaders by their first name
(CCBS Survey, 2020). Furthermore, the general consensus among the
respondents was that leaders are rarely, if ever, referred to by their official title
(CCBS Survey, 2020). The second conclusion that can be drawn from the analysis
of the survey data is that respondents placed significant value on consensus. A
survey respondent, a risk manager in banking, aptly described this as follows:
“Belgium, in large organisations, is very much a country of consultations and
compromise... Major decisions are not taken alone but by [a] forum of
stakeholders very often with a ‘chairman’ to finalize decisions” (CCBS Survey,
2020). This statement was corroborated by respondent data pertaining to the
desired traits for leaders. The most coveted competency among leaders, which
was selected by almost all the respondents (97%), was organisational experience
(CCBS Survey, 2020). Several other noteworthy competencies were visionary
thinking (70%), good listening (86%) and being a powerful decision-maker (89%)
65
Although these competencies are not necessarily a prerequisite for achieving

consensus, they nevertheless all greatly assist in doing so – perhaps with the
exception of powerful decision-making skills, which can be utilised in the event
that consensus cannot be reached.
Another observation that can be drawn from the data pertains to the fact that
respondents did not see gender as an important factor of leadership. This was
reinforced by the survey data, in which almost 80% of those surveyed either
agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that men and women have equal
access to senior leadership positions (CCBS Survey, 2020). Moreover, roughly
60% of the respondents felt that there was no discernible difference in
leadership styles between men and women (CCBS Survey, 2020).
The final conclusion to be drawn from the survey data is that Belgian leaders
expect workers to follow established procedures unless they have actively
informed others of their actions. This sentiment was verbalised by a French and
Belgian customer lifecycle manager, who noted that this very much depends on
the situation: “There’s empowerment, but there are rules and procedures, as
well. In any case, whatever decision you take might have [an impact] on other
people/teams and, as such, should be shared” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This
statement is in accordance with the majority of respondents, who stated that
most of the time Belgians were expected to follow procedures unless their
superiors and co-workers were notified otherwise (CCBS Survey, 2020).

Elizabeth Kelly: a Belgian-American cross-cultural trainer
Elizabeth Kelly is the principal of Cross-Cultural Consulting, a company that
provides a range of services, including intercultural training and cross-cultural
coaching. Kelly was born and raised in the United States but has dual American-
Belgian nationality. She is an executive with more than 20 years of experience,
who has harnessed her business knowledge, facilitation skills and her multi-
cultural knowledge to become an effective English and cross-cultural coach
(Cross-Cultural Consulting, n.d). When asked what constitutes an ideal leader,
Kelly noted that being a good leader has little to do with the country in which
leaders operate and everything to do with how they motivate and listen to their
employees. According to Kelly (27 April 2020), in general, a leader needs goals to
pursue, but also must be flexible and adaptable to any situation that may arise.
In Belgium specifically, consensus is extremely important. Belgium is a
hierarchical culture, which is to say that the boss has ultimate control over
66
decision-making, but nevertheless tries to involve people and receive input from
various parties. This desire to receive input, both formally and informally, results
in an abundance of conversations transpiring both inside and outside of the
meeting space. According to Kelly (27 April 2020), Belgium is known for having
excessive amounts of meetings, which can lead to the decision-making process
taking a considerable amount of time. This is done to ensure that all employees
have the ability to assess a situation from 360 degrees in order to minimise any
potential risks. Furthermore, Kelly posited that Belgians are very modest and not
status-oriented. Job titles are not particularly important to them, and they are
more concerned with what a leader has to offer as opposed to how he or she
comes across (27 April 2020).
Hugo der Kinderen: a Belgian leadership scholar

Hugo der Kinderen was also interviewed for this study of leadership styles and
practices in Belgium. Der Kinderen is a consultant on leadership and teaches PhD
candidates at the University of Antwerp. According to Der Kinderen (15 April
2020), leadership begins with trust. If a leader is not trusted, then it will be
difficult for him or her to be accepted as a manager and to have any impact on
the organisation. He argued that, as a manager, one must develop an in-depth
vision of the future and communicate this in an inspiring manner, so that it
becomes the major driving force of the organisation. Trust, vision, dialogue,
agreement and being a culture carrier are the key elements to leadership, from
Der Kinderen’s perspective. The exercising of power within leadership simply
does not fit within his vocabulary. It is not about who knows more than the other
or expecting obedience on the grounds of this knowledge. That is an example of
old-fashioned leadership, according to Der Kinderen (15 April 2020), and
“participation without insight leads to statements without [vision]”. The fact that
Belgium is a multilingual country represents additional challenges, but according
to Der Kinderen (15 April 2020), the language barrier is only a surface-level
problem. Underneath these kinds of problems lay more significant challenges
deriving from cultural differences. For example, the southern part of Belgium is a
culture where leadership and power are much more varied in comparison to the
northern part of the country. The fact that the south and north have different
cultures profoundly impacts on the entire culture of the population, and, from
Der Kinderen’s perspective, constitutes the major difficulty that Belgium faces
today (15 April 2020).
67

One of the best-selling books about Belgian leadership was written by Michel de
Coster. As a young salesman, De Coster was interested in the question: What
makes a good manager? When he became a manager, the answer came naturally
to him, and, hence, he decided to write a book about it, entitled No Nonsense.
The book was first published in 2012 and has been republished several times in
the interim. Michel de Coster has over 25 years of experience in leadership.
According to De Coster, efficiency and common sense (brains), excellent human
interaction (heart) and some courage (guts) are the basic features of a good
leader and, ultimately, constitute the key pillars that No Nonsense is based on.
“Brains” is about analytical skills, using facts and figures, and organising work
accordingly. The heart stands for communicating, emotional capacity and having
the guts to think outside of the box and follow your intuition. De Coster refers to
these three ingredients as “a winning cocktail”, which can be used anywhere.
Moreover, they are easy to remember; simply use your own body as a reminder.
Starting with the head, and then below that the heart and the abdomen. Simple
and convenient. The book is written for anyone who takes their job to heart and
wants to find a way to have a life outside of the workplace.

Title No nonsense
Brains, heart, guts. Troeven van de
Subtitle
manager.
Author Michel de Coster
Publisher Lannoo Campus
Year 2012
ISBN 978940105706
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Belgian leadership YouTube review

Lars Sudmann is an executive trainer who specialises in leadership, strategy,
innovation and communication. He is the six-time champion of public speaking in
Belgium, a two-time champion of public speaking in Europe and the former Chief
Financial Officer of Procter and Gamble in Belgium. In his presentation, Sudmann
claims that self-leadership forms the basis of successful leadership. He proceeds
to elaborate that self-awareness, self-reflection and self-resolution are the
methods through which one can become an almost utopian leader. This paints a
portrait of a leader who looks inward for clarity and inspires employees and co-
workers via their work ethic (Sudmann, 2016).
Another video that was found useful for our local analysis focuses on coaching
leadership competencies and features Jan Buermans. Buermans is a certified
trainer with a master’s degree in communication sciences. He has expertise
pertaining to, among other things, communication, change management and
presentation techniques. In the video, Buermans cites creative leadership as
being essential for improvement. His presentation delineates how to lead a
person from their current “main” position to their “desired” position (Expert
Academy, 2013).
The final video that was analysed is a presentation by Valérie De Bue, the current
Walloon minister of civil service matters and former minister of local
government. She primarily focuses on essential managerial strategies for
operations, such as organised time-management. She also advocates in the video
for leaders to have open communication with workers, urging them to remain
transparent leaders to their council and audience (De Bue, 2018).
Understanding hierarchy in Belgium

The established hierarchy within Belgium can fluctuate depending on the region.
Flemish organisations are more likely to adopt a flatter organisational structure,
in which symbols of status are of less value than a better salary. Alternatively,
Wallonia is characterised by more typical superior-subordinate relationships, in
which rank is valued highly. Power distance is present in both environments but
is less accepted within Flanders (Brans et al., 2006). In both these regions,
individualism is held in high regard, and thus independence and private decision-
making are favoured over being part of a larger group. Moreover, professional
matters will often not form a topic of discussion until a more personal
relationship has been established by the respective parties.
69
In Belgium, an essential aspect of the established hierarchy is uncertainty

avoidance, as evidenced by the fact that they have one of the highest scores
globally (Brans et al., 2006). This factor helps to explain why capability and
decision-making skills are such desired traits for leaders within the country.
When uncertainty is present, it is a very stressful experience for Belgian workers,
and, hence, there is a strong preference for leaders who are capable of
navigating such uncertainty. This also helps explain why Belgians prefer
hierarchy, despite their preference for individuality. The hierarchical system is
employed largely because of its ability to ensure consistency and avoid
inadequate decision-making (Naert, 2009). Although Belgians prefer to be
recognised as individuals, they are willing to waive this recognition to the extent
that it minimises the uncertainty that causes them so much stress. This fact was
also reflected in the CCBS survey (2020), wherein every single respondent
indicated that he or she admires leaders on the basis of their organisational
experience. This desire to avoid uncertainty also results in Belgian workers
preferring passive conflict management strategies over active ones (Van
Oudenhoven, Mechelse & De Dreu, 1998). Therefore, behaviours such as
reflective thinking, delayed responses and adaptation are more suited to the
established hierarchal system.
How Belgians achieve leadership empathy

To achieve leadership empathy a skilled Belgian leader must not only establish
personal connections with workers but also understand their respective
strengths and weaknesses. When interacting with co-workers or leaders, Belgian
employees tend to initially be quite reserved, quiet and value their privacy
(Arcand, Arcand & Chrétien, 2009). Over time, as trust develops between leaders,
they may start to open up regarding their personal lives. Thus, prospective
leaders in Belgium should practice patience and allow workers to feel
comfortable before attempting to know employees on a more personal level.
Hence, according to Kelly (27 April 2020), some distance between a leader and
other workers is initially advised, since if one attempts to prematurely establish a
relationship, “Belgians will find [them] superficial, and they don’t trust someone
like that”. Moreover, leaders in Belgium would benefit more from listening to
their employees than speaking to them, insofar as the survey respondents
reported that Belgians largely expect their leaders to be good listeners (CCBS
Survey, 2020).
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To expedite the process of trust-building, a leader can try to relate to their

employees better. This can be achieved by understanding which cultural
subsection of the population workers belong to and expressing awareness of and
interest in said culture (De Winne & Sels, 2010). Many Belgians take great pride
in their heritage, and, hence, mistakenly referring to the Flemish people as Dutch
or the Walloons as French can cause great offence. As indicated by E. J. M. van
Oort (2019), managerial trustworthy behaviour is the foundation on which
leadership empathy is built. The five attributes of managerial trustworthy
behaviour, namely behavioural consistency, behavioural integrity, delegation of
control, communication and expression of concern, can all affect empathy to
varying degrees (Whitener, Brodt, Korsgaard & Werner, 1998).
Behavioural consistency is especially important for Belgian workers, who as
aforementioned loathe uncertainty. Erratic behaviour will thus undermine trust
and decrease empathy, whereas consistent performance inspires others and
forms a deeper understanding between leaders and their employees.
Delegation of control is likely the hardest attribute to properly exhibit as the
desired extent of delegation differs between the Flemish and Walloons. While
the Flemish prefer a leader that involves others in decision-making, the Walloons
prefer a more traditional style that is predicated on implied trust in leaders to
make appropriate choices. In closing, expressions of concern pertaining to
employee’s needs and interests play a vital role in establishing empathy. Leaders
in Belgium are trusted to meet the needs of those that they lead, and the
betrayal of that trust could cause irreparable damage to the relationship
between leaders and their employees.
71
Cameroon
Fabian Briceño, Celine Zorn, Rik Ravelli, Abbas Barak & Antoine Meillassoux
The triangular-shaped country of Cameroon (Cameroun in French), whose official

name is the Republic of Cameroon, is a country with a population of over 25
million people. Every part of Cameroon has its own distinct culture and traditions
from the rhythms of the drums in the south to the sounds of flutes playing in the
north. The country has 200 ethnic groups, three major religions and more than
20 languages spoken (Mbaku, 2005). In conjunction with the wide variety of
wildlife, this makes Cameroon one of the most diverse countries on the African
continent. This goes some way to explaining why it is often referred to as
l’Afrique en miniature. The name of the country was given 400 years ago by
Portuguese explorers and derives from Rio dos Camerōes (River of Prawns)
(Mbaku, 2005). In 1961, French-Cameroon and British-Cameroon became one
independent republic. Post-independence, coffee and cocoa beans have become
the most important exports of the central African country and, indeed, are
served in almost every business meeting across the world (Gbetnkom & Khan,
2002). To develop the business sector in Cameroon, the government has
established various initiatives to grow the level of business investment, increase
efficiency in agriculture, improve trade and recapitalise the banks. As part of this
process to build up its infrastructure, job creation and economic footprint,
Cameroon has sought significant levels of foreign investment, but the volatile
business environment has largely dissuaded businesses from investing (Pinon &
Haydon, 2010). The following chapter examines the business environment and
leadership styles and practices adopted within Cameroon.
How the Cameroonians characterise leaders

Cameroonian culture is based on a person-centric professional relationship style.
That is to say, “Leaders must have followers and the nature of their relationship
with their followers is a key determinant of their performance as leaders and the
performance of their organizations” (Kuada, 2010, p. 17). According to Meriggi
and Bulte (2018), the key to developing efficiency is good leadership behaviour.
Hence, it is vital to build long-term relationships as this provides opportunities
to get to know each other, which, in turn, leads to greater efficiency.
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The importance of this aspect of leadership was supported by the participants in

the CCBS survey (2020). As one participant stated: “In my country leadership is
much more about position, power and authority than about service and delivering
results” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This correlates with the fact that managers in
Cameroon are respected for their expertise, but also because they are ultimately
in charge, and it is their responsibility to manage and control their teams.
Nepotism is another recurring feature of the Cameroonian business sector,
insofar as people from specific ethnic groups, schools, associations, clubs or
religions favour one another. This is relatively routine in small companies,
where having a friend, family member or someone from your community or
ethnic group within the company affords considerable advantages (Nomad
Network, n.d.). However, in more formal, structured and larger companies
decision-making tends to be based on rational considerations rather than
nepotism. Regarding language, the two main languages in Cameroon are English
and French, which from the perspective of the CCBS survey respondents impacts
upon how one approaches leaders in Cameroon.

In order to gain greater insight into the organisational culture and leadership
styles and practices in Cameroon, the CCBS survey was sent to over 200
managers who are currently working or have previously worked in Cameroon.
From the data, it is evident that to be a leader in Cameroon, it is important to
establish and maintain a strong network and good political connections. Indeed,
86% of the CCBS survey (2020) respondents reported that access to the right
networks is key for a manager. Alongside this, a leader is expected to have
extensive organisational experience, market expertise and technical prowess, as
well as being a visionary thinker, eloquent speaker and good listener. This
correlates with Kuada’s (2010) research, which stresses that the personal
wellbeing of employees has a major impact on their performance at work. Hence,
Cameroonian leaders should strive to listen to and show interest in the personal
lives of their employees. This is supported by one of the CCBS survey
respondents, who noted that “a leader should take care of the personal
wellbeing of the staff. In our country, solidarity is very important” (2020).
However, despite the fact that leaders should show interest in their employees,
this does not mean that they should be addressed by their first name. Rather,
this is dependent on a range of factors, including the region in Cameroon; as one
respondent reported: “In the Anglo-Saxon companies and culture [using a
73
manager’s first name] is applicable, but in the Francophone culture

it is considered as a lack of respect” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Moreover, employees must follow the established procedures and are unable
to change managerial decisions easily, based on the fact that a certain level of
respect for the manager is demanded. Consequently, if an employee disagreed
with his or her manager and wanted to change something, then he or she would
need to do this outside of a meeting and in consultation with their superior. This
is supported by one CCBS Survey respondent who opined that “employees may
bend the rules with the permission of the hierarchy. It means that when an
employee thinks that to achieve results concerning some specific cases they have
to bend the rules then they need to refer to this hierarchy” (2020). A final
interesting result from the CCBS survey is that women have less access to senior
leadership positions than their male colleagues. One promising finding
concerning this point is that only slightly more than half of the respondents
agreed that this was the case, which may indicate that cultural attitudes are
shifting in this regard. Local leadership analysis
Lilian Lem Atanga: a Cameroonian leadership scholar

Gender, Discourse and Power in the Cameroonian Parliament by Lilian Lem
Atanga investigates gender and power relations in the Cameroonian parliament.
Skilled in discourse, media and political analysis, gender and discourse analysis,
and higher education management, Atanga is now active as a Fulbright scholar at
the University of Florida after having worked at the University of Dschang in
Cameroon. From Atanga’s perspective, the business culture in Cameroon is
primarily based on unwritten rules, noting that “you must be streetwise in the
business culture of Cameroon and understand the culture of favours to get what
you need” (Atanga, 20 March 2020). Atanga posits that it is neither expected nor
acceptable to criticise one’s manager as management is usually very powerful in
organisations. Managers expect their employees to follow orders to the letter, in
order to satisfy both their manager’s and company’s needs. Given the power
wielded by management, it is critical to establish a vast network if one hopes to
transition from an employee to a manager and maintain this position in
Cameroon, which was confirmed by the respondents in the CCBS survey (2020).
Javnuyuy Joybert: a Cameroonian operations design cross-cultural trainer

We interviewed a native scholar, who is a PhD graduate and a researcher at the
Oulu Business School at the University of Oulu. Javnuyuy Joybert raised a very
important point in his interview, which pertained to a shift in how ethics and
74
values operate inside companies and informal businesses. More specifically,

Joybert highlighted that this is due to the marked contrast between the older
generation and the new generation of leaders in the country. On the one hand,
Cameroon has always been a place where work ethics was organised around
authority and control over employees, who, in turn, had almost no recourse to
comment on their leaders (Joybert, 20 March 2020). From our survey data, it is
evident that this is still the case as several of the respondents reported that it
remains taboo for an employee to speak out against his or her manager (CCBS
Survey, 2020). On the other hand, the younger generation appears to be radically
different, in part because of globalisation and new modes of thinking, which
foreground employee wellbeing and deem satisfied employees as being key to
organisational efficiency and success. Managing such people necessitates more
socially-oriented forms of management, such as empathic leadership, if one is to
get the best out of one’s employees. As a business growth and operational
design trainer, Joybert places notable emphasis on this profound shift in the
Cameroonian approach to leadership. He stated that as a trainer he encourages
managers to not consider their clients, but rather their employees as the real
kings and queens as this will encourage them to, in turn, treat the client as well
as they have been treated by their superiors. He also drew attention to the
presence of a significant amount of smaller cultural sub-groups in Cameroon,
who have their own languages and values, and noted that being cognisant of
such heterogeneity has always been a key characteristic of being a successful
leader (Joybert, 20 March 2020). In other words, leaders must understand both
their own values and cultural background and the diverse values and background
of their employees if synergistic relations are to be established within an
organisation.

Le Leadership Local au Cameroun is one of the most highly-recommended books
on leadership in the country. It is written by Célestin Nkou Nkou, who has a
degree in economic and social studies at the National Institute of Economic and
Accounting Techniques (CNAM) and is known for his critical perspective. In this
book, the author delineates his definition of what constitutes a good leader. He
addresses the socio-demographic issues within the country and provides a strong
critique of the socio-economic elites within Cameroon. More specifically, he
conducts an in-depth analysis of how the elites are controlling the country and
some of the deleterious consequences of this, including youth unemployment
and damage to other sectors in the country.
75

Title Le Leadership Local au Cameroun
Subtitle -
Author Célestin Nkou Nkou
Publisher L’Harmattan
Year 2012
ISBN 9782296559806
Cameroonian leadership YouTube review

Both the YouTube videos of Cameroonian professionals shed light upon
leadership styles and practices in the country. In the first video, Mr Severin
Wandji, Regional Director for Marketing at Boeing, shares his experiences about
leadership at a congress. Stressing the difference between leadership and
management, Wandji (2015) argues that Cameroonian leaders have greater
influence than anyone else in the growth of Cameroon. He stresses that what
comes to mind for him every time he thinks of leadership is impact. Citing the
examples of Nelson Mandela and Abraham Lincoln, Wandji encourages the public
to also associate impact with leadership. Another point which he makes is that
Cameroonian leaders are very negative about their country and that they need to
focus more on problem-solving in the future as opposed to merely focusing on
negative outcomes. To achieve this goal, every leader must put forward a vision
about what they want to change and be passionate about it. He ends the
congress with the following call to action: “What are you doing to grow the next
generation? If you don’t like it? Fix it!” (Wandji, 2015, 17:19).
In the second YouTube video, Joel Nana Kontchou (CEO of SONEL) gives a speech
about leadership at the Cameroon Professional Society congress. He emphasises
that teamwork is essential for achieving the best possible results. During his
speech, he is very positive and optimistic about the future of Cameroon.
Kontchou recommends to leaders that “you have to build your future at the
intersection: what Africa needs, what you do best and what you enjoy doing”
(Kontchou, 2014, 8:25). In this quote, he is signalling the importance of becoming
someone who can satisfy more people, rather than merely thinking about
oneself. Another point that Kontchou stresses is how leaders should perform:
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“Leadership is not about what you do; it is about what you make other people do;
it is about the result you can produce” (Kontchou, 2014, 32:25). This stresses the
importance of showing real interest in people, which correlates with the person-
centric professional relationship style that characterises Cameroon.
Understanding hierarchy in Cameroon

Regarding hierarchy in the workplace, Cameroonian leaders tend to be more
paternalistic as opposed to autocratic in their leadership style. In Cameroonian
organisations the boss is the key figure and a certain level of respect is
demanded from employees. As Pendati posits, “The hierarchical system is
characterised by disproportionate respect for the elders and those in authority,
highly centralized decision-making and abused of power by those in authority”
(Pendati, 2016, p. 193). Generally speaking, workers accept the hierarchical gap
between themselves and their leaders.
Although most of their leaders adopt paternalistic styles, they are also likely to
display autocratic traits, which, in turn, reproduces the hierarchical structure
within a company by securing the respect and obeyance of employees. For
example, employees are not allowed to be involved in the decision-making
process and would likely be punished if they tried to insert themselves.
Moreover, Cameroon has a high power index, which indicates that they accept
that their superiors are at a different level to themselves and have
disproportionate power over them. This high power level creates an
authoritarian environment, where the boss is respected and workers who
contradict the leader are not accepted (Pendati, 2016). The reason for this
behaviour is that, in reality, workers not only respect their leader for their status
but also fear the legal authority of their superior (Teko & Bapes, 2010). In such an
autocratic environment, it is normal to call the leader by titles such as Monsieur
le Directeur or Chief. However, in recent years Cameroonians have begun to
embrace a more paternalistic leadership style, where communication between
leaders and workers is more accepted and employees are allowed to voice their
opinions and give input. Furthermore, while historically it was almost impossible
for women to become a senior leader within a company, there are several
examples today of women occupying senior positions in Cameroonian
companies. Despite such shifts, the majority of the CCBS survey (2020)
respondents reported that there was still a significant difference in the
accessibility of senior leading positions for women and men.
77
How Cameroonians achieve leadership empathy

Leadership in Cameroon is based on the strength of the relationship between
leaders and their followers, and, therefore, both leaders’ and organisations’
performance is dependent on how solid this relationship is (Kuada, 2010). As
Ngwane (2012) mentions in his book, The Cameroon Condition, Cameroonians
view their leader as someone who can represent their views and interests, and,
as such, a leader is not a master but rather a servant of the people. To be a
servant, a leader should be approachable to his or her employees. Leadership
empathy can thus be achieved by having expertise in the field and having related
experience. In addition to this, having the ability to motivate colleagues to do
their work will also make the leader liked and respected. Given that people’s
social activities will always have a major impact on their work performance, it is
essential that a leader bears in mind the social dimension of leadership (Kuada,
2010). Multiple CCBS survey (2020) respondents reported that employees expect
their leaders to be good listeners, insofar as it helps leaders to show interest and
support in the social lives of their employees. Conversations about subjects such
as mourning, births and weddings thus serve to increase the level of trust
between leaders and their employees, which, in turn, leads to employees being
more dedicated and motivated to go above and beyond (Global Affairs Canada,
2020). Ultimately, it is up to the leader to strike the appropriate balance between
being professional and showing an active interest in the social lives of their
employees if they hope to achieve leadership empathy.
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Côte d’Ivoire
Devin van Rijn, Kalvin Bakker, Ricardo Heerema & Oscar Schiering
Located in the inter-tropical coastal zone of West Africa, the Republic of

Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) has a population of around 23 million people.
In the fast-growing economy of Ivory Coast, the two most important cities are
Yamoussoukro and Abidjan. Yamoussoukro is the political capital and is located
in the centre of the country, while Abidjan is the economic capital and the largest
city. In the south of the country, there was a considerable ivory trade, which is
how the country initially got its name. During the medieval period, the region
that today encompasses Ivory Coast was the hub for several major trading
routes, linking various empires together. More recently, France colonised the
country for almost an entire century, which explains why the official language is
French. Ivory Coast gained its independence from France in 1961 (South Africa
History Online [SAHO], 2019). Alongside French, 65 other languages are spoken
across the country, with the most popular of these local languages being Dioula.
Most Ivorians are Christians, and, indeed, the largest church in the world, the
Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, is based in Yamoussoukro. Football has been the
most popular sport in Ivory Coast for a number of years (CCBS Survey, 2020). The
national team’s nickname is the elephants (Les Éléphants). Agriculture is crucial
for the country, both in terms of revenue and employment, and it is the world’s
largest producer and exporter of cocoa beans. While the western African country
was at one time a model of post-colonial stability, an armed rebellion in 2002
culminated in the nation being split in two. In terms of political leadership, the
situation has stabilised somewhat in recent years. Continuing challenges include
a lack of statistical information on their markets, industries and sectors for
foreign investors (Visser & Tolhurst, 2010).
How the Ivorians characterise leaders

Traditionally, the essence of Ivorian leadership could be summarised in a single
word: respect. A leader earns the respect of his or her followers by being a good
listener and making sound decisions (CCBS Survey, 2020). Formality is also an
important feature of leadership in Ivory Coast. Here, people-oriented leadership
takes precedence over task-oriented leadership (Anzouan, 7 April 2020).
79
Therefore, when working as a manager, it is important to be respected by your

colleagues. A good leader is someone who engages with his or her employees,
and who asks about their family and wellbeing. In other words, being connected
to your staff is of paramount importance, as it serves to create humble and
highly-motivated employees. According to a local scholar, one of the principal
character traits that a good leader should possess is wisdom, which explains why
leaders are often a bit older and more experienced than their subordinates
(Aphing-Kouassi, 20 April 2020). As a result, leaders are expected to retain a
certain distance from their team members. However, the job of a leader will
continue long after the normal work day is over, as a result of problem-solving or
being there for their employees on a more personal level. Moreover, the team
members deeply respect their leaders and see them as being akin to their village
chief in certain respects. Although Ivorian leaders are respected, admired and
retain a certain distance from their employees, this is not to say that they are not
friendly or approachable. Indeed, according to the CCBS survey (2020), almost all
the respondents confirmed that leaders are approachable and friendly.
Ivorian leaders are deeply motivated and are expected to put forward a clear
vision about specific goals, in addition to working hard and striving to develop
the country’s economic growth (Aphing-Kouassi, 20 April 2020). Leaders are also
required to closely supervise their teams and serve as an exemplar of how to
work in an exceptional manner. An open mind, patience, and persistence are
required if leaders wish to gain the trust and respect of their employees.
Conversely, managers who push their teams too hard will likely experience
resentment towards them. The most common leadership styles in Ivory Coast
are autocratic and authoritative (Aphing-Kouassi, 20 April 2020).

The CCBS survey (2020) collected various responses from Ivorian professionals
with a background in business, who shared their opinions and gave insight into
their extensive experience of leadership styles and practices in Ivory Coast. The
main findings that emerged from our analysis of the survey data pertain to the
profound influence of culture, the hierarchical structures within organisations
and the importance of interpersonal relationships. Many CCBS survey (2020)
respondents reported that there is a unique leadership style in Ivory Coast.
According to one local leader, Donald Ayebi, providing social support and having
a big heart is what characterises leaders in Ivory Coast. According to him, it is
important to support the poor because this will generate a considerable amount
80
of respect, which, in turn, will lead to employees working even harder for you
(CCBS Survey, 2020). More than half of the CCBS survey (2020) respondents
highlighted the importance of culture in relation to leadership in the Ivory Coast.
More specifically, leaders must be cognizant of the culture in the country in order
to understand people and earn status as a good leader.
Another important feature of organisations emerging out of the survey data
concerns the hierarchical nature of organisations in Ivory Coast. Indeed,
practically all of the respondents agreed that employees in Ivory Coast need to
follow the hierarchical ladder for all communication. For example, it would
simply be out of the question to approach the CEO of a company without seeking
prior approval from your manager. As our interviewee opined, “leaders need to
understand cultural and generational aspects. The method that would work is a
leadership style that combines all the above-mentioned parameters” (Anzouan, 7
April 2020). This interview extract lends support to the aforementioned point
that leaders in Ivory Coast must have extensive knowledge about the local
culture and customs to be recognised as a leader by their employees. In addition
to this, more than half of the respondents affirmed that managers should actively
spend time on seeking to maximise the wellbeing of their employees in order to
be a good leader (CCBS Survey, 2020).
With respect to gender equality within the country’s business sector, the
respondents pointed out that in Ivory Coast, while it is possible for women to
obtain senior management positions, they are far less likely to do so than their
male counterparts (CCBS Survey, 2020). This is due, in part, to the fact that
Ivorians still possess fairly traditional attitudes about gender, and thus have
lower expectations for women. However, notwithstanding the persistence of
traditional gender norms, it is important to stress that there is an emergent trend
of young female leaders in Ivory Coast, which should help to change these
gender norms in the long-term. The prevalence of female leaders is partly
dependent on the type of company. As one respondent noted, multinational
companies are more likely to have female leaders, whereas, in small
family-run companies, female leadership is less prevalent.

Adonis Anzouan: an Ivorian business developer
To achieve additional insight into Ivorian leadership styles and practices, we
conducted an interview with a local manager, Adonis Anzouan (7 April 2020).
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Based on his eight years of experience working in the ICT industry, Anzouan
believes that hierarchy that is based on age is important within organisations.
This is because an older person deserves more respect than someone who is
equally educated but younger. According to him, respect is of paramount
importance when conducting business in the country. Furthermore, a leader
must define goals, be responsible and display initiative if they want to receive
respect from their employees. Moreover, Anzouan opined in the interview that a
good Ivorian leader should be faithful to their employees, trust them and view
them as akin to family. “People [whom] you work with are like family” (Anzouan,
7 April 2020).
According to Anzouan, the business culture in Ivory Coast is deeply traditional.
Hence, to be a leader, you must have a strong economic standing in the
community (Anzouan, 7 April 2020). He also reiterates that, in terms of gender,
there is a marked difference in the number of male and female leaders with men
occupying around 70% of the official leadership positions in the country. This is
because Ivorians have lower expectations of women than men when it comes to
leadership. Hence, they invariably prefer to choose men when looking for people
to run their organisations (Anzouan, 7 April 2020). Finally, Anzouan (7 April 2020)
concluded that it is important in Ivory Coast for employees to see a leader who is
deeply committed to the company and always striving towards a better future.
Lynda Aphing-Kouassi: an Ivorian entrepreneur

Lynda Aphing-Kouassi is the CEO of the Cabinet International Kaizene
International, which is a training, coaching, events and institutional conferences
organisation. The company primarily trains employees in such a way that it builds
on their existing capacity, assists them in maximising their potential and instructs
them on how to be more impactful within their organisation, communities and
society. The coaching element of the organisation concentrates on developing
the inner selves of future African leaders. Aphing-Kouassi described a typical
Ivorian business leader as “motivated, having a vision, wanting to reach certain
goals, working hard and striving for the country’s economic growth” (20 April
2020). From her perspective, the most common leadership styles in the country
are autocratic and authoritative. While those at the top of the hierarchy primarily
comprise of mature people (ie those aged between 40 and 60 years old), in
recent years younger business leaders have begun to attain more senior
positions, which Aphing-Kouassi argued is a step in the right direction. However,
she also noted that most of the top positions are still occupied by men.
82

One of the best-selling books about leadership in Ivory Coast is written by Gilles
Atayi (2015), entitled Les 51 pratiques fondamentales des leaders (The 51
fundamental practices of leaders). In this book, the author prescribes how a
leader should act and delineates the ways in which a leader is capable of
changing. More specifically, the book outlines to young leaders how they can
improve by following 51 guidelines, which Atayi calls the fundamental practices
of leaders. The author of this book has conducted several studies in leadership
and is considered an expert in the field of leadership.

Les 51 pratiques fondamentales
Title
des leaders
Author Gilles Atayi
Publisher Aleph bookstore
Year 2015
Ivorian leadership YouTube review

There is a large distance between leaders and their employees, which is why
meetings often occur in dynamic settings. In these situations, leaders attempt to
reach everyone and lay out their blueprint for achieving individual and collective
goals. To accomplish this, leaders must take responsibility for their initiatives and
vision. In charismatic approaches to leadership, the leader has a natural
magnetism that helps them retain control over a group (RTI Officiel, 2019).
Performing an action that is not underpinned by a clear goal and vision is a waste
of time. An Ivorian leader is someone whom people notice when they walk in
a room. Such leaders bring a positive influence to the entire organisation,
whose residual effects are felt even when they are no longer around.
A good leader will motivate people to take action and take responsibility for their
assigned tasks (RTI Officiel, 2020). Leadership is neither a job nor a position; it is
a quality of life. Many leaders lose respect for others because they think the title
of the leader will bring them immediate respect. However, it is something that
must be earned.
83
Understanding hierarchy in Ivory Coast

A typically Ivorian company will have a steep vertical hierarchy with a powerful
male at the top (CCBS Survey, 2020). In such organisations, the most important
aspects that determine one’s position within the hierarchy are age and
experience. Ivory Coast has a high level of power distance. Thus, there is a
notable distance between the low-ranking employees and their managers, and
people understand their place in the working environment and accept it. In
addition, there is minimal contact between the leader and employees, which is
reflected in the fact that decision-making does not involve employees but is
rather the sole responsibility of senior leaders. The employees expect to be told
what to do by people from a higher rank than themselves. Hence, it is routine for
decisions to be made from the top-down, often after consultation with a range of
close contacts of similar rank. In the CCBS survey (2020), the respondents
answered that people have a lot of respect for leaders and, hence, that hierarchy
is important. One of the respondents even went so far as to confirm that it is
wholly possible in Ivory Coast for employees to agree to something that they do
not understand. This serves as a good example of how communication problems
can arise under a traditional leadership style, which is driven by respect and
defined by a profound distance between leaders and employees. While firms are
changing across the world, insofar as superiors are beginning to prefer that their
employees refer to them by their first name, in Ivory Coast most companies are
still very traditional. According to the respondents of the CCBS survey (2020), it
remains important to use the title of the person you are talking to. According to
most of the respondents, the most used title for a director in Ivory Coast is
directeur general. Ivorians tend to believe that by passing on information, they
lose some of their power, which means that they have a tendency to sit on
information within the company. Therefore, should a conflict arise within the
company, it is better to get a third party involved to act as an intermediary
as this gives the two sides a chance to explain themselves to a third party.
Another important factor to understand in Ivory Coast is social class. Being

related to someone in a senior position immediately bestows respect on
someone. Aphing-Kouassi (20 April 2020) noted that there are changes afoot in
Ivory Coast and that it is becoming less hierarchical. In her own words: “In
general, the hierarchy is composed of mature people (40-60) who have already
had a career or have a lot of experience, but we see more and more young
business leaders nowadays. Therefore, we can positively say that this is changing
84
in the right direction” (Aphing-Kouassi, 20 April 2020). This view is supported by J.

Daoury-Tabley, a general director, who emphasised that the most important
factors in a hierarchy are age and experience (CCBS Survey, 2020).
As in most African countries, gender is also a significant factor in the hierarchical
structure. In general, women are ranked lower than men, although, as with the
rest of Africa, female leaders are emerging and becoming more accepted in
society. A good example of this is Martine Helene Coffi-studer, who founded an
advertising company that operates in 20 African countries and served as the
minister of state for communication.
How Ivorians achieve leadership empathy

The culture in Ivory Coast is a collectivist culture, like most African cultures
(Richmond & Gestrin, 2009) For example, Ivorians put considerable effort into
fostering friendships and brotherhoods (Anzouan, 7 April 2020). This is even
discernible on the work floor, where being in a group is critically important
(Anzouan, 7 April 2020). Furthermore, leaders and managers foster close
relationships with their collaborators (CCBS Survey, 2020). Ivorians respect their
culture and are in this sense very traditional. To be a leader in Ivory Coast, then,
you need to have a traditional mindset and a high level of knowledge of
economics (Anzouan, 7 April 2020). One of the most revered characteristics of
leaders in Ivory Coast is vision and the ability to articulate one’s vision to
subordinates. Above all, people want to rely on their leader and be pushed by
them to maximise their potential (Aphing-Kouassi, 20 April 2020).
Unfortunately, promotion within companies is largely predicated on the
candidate’s age. This is because older people are accorded far greater respect in
Ivory Coast and are viewed as more knowledgeable people (Anzouan, 7 April
2020). Moreover, having an open mindset and being patient are also critical
because, as Richmond and Gestrin (2009) note, if leaders or managers want to
change something small, it is going to take additional time because the Ivorians
are very risk-averse and resistant to change. When leaders set deadlines for their
employees, managers need to push their team to reach these deadlines,
otherwise managers must explain why they did not manage it on time. Receiving
a reward is also a useful incentive through which to motivate people and
encourage them to work extra hard (Richmond & Gestrin, 2009).
85
Czechia
Meifeng Houweling, Owen Masters, Lisa Bakker & Michiel Pot
The Czech Republic (Česká republika), or Czechia (Česko), is one of the youngest
countries in the world. A landlocked country in Central Europe, Czechia is
bordered by four countries. It is renowned for its lager and, indeed, has the
highest level of beer consumption per capita in the world. On average, each
person drinks 1.5 litres of beer per day. This is perhaps due to costs as it is more
expensive to buy water than beers in Czech bars.
The country is regarded as one of the more prosperous and stable post-
Communist states. Czechia’s economy is profoundly dependent on exports, with
its open economy primarily being built on manufacturing, innovation and
services. Due to both its central geographical position within Europe and its
excellent transportation infrastructure, it attracts many international businesses
and significant levels of foreign investment (Pavlínek, 1998).
Czechia’s history is incredibly diverse, due, in part, to the fact that the country’s
Velvet Revolution engendered a fundamental reconstruction of its economy and
society (Auer-Rizzi & Reber, 2013). One of the key societal changes brought
about by the revolution was a decline in both the influence of traditional religion
and the prominence of the role played by the church, which, in turn, led to an
increased emphasis on independence and individualism (Panasenko, 2013). The
perseverance and individualistic work ethic that characterises Czechs is
embedded in their national motto, “Pravda vítězí”, which means truth prevails.
These cultural and historical shifts have also profoundly impacted how leadership
is conducted in the business sector. The following paragraphs analyse and define
business and leadership culture in Czechia by drawing upon empirical research
and primary data generated from surveys and interviews with Czech managers
(ředitelé).
How the Czechs characterise leaders

In Czechia, leadership styles are primarily hierarchical in nature. This derives, in
part, from both the historical development of the country and the distinct
character of the Czech people. Czechs to varying degrees are realists,
pragmatists, sceptics and fiscal conservatives. In this respect, they are strict
86
adherents of the proverb, “Dvakrát měř a jednou řež”, which means measure
twice and cut once. However, as Rechcígl (1964) observes, one can also discern
their idealistic tendencies across history. With respect to leadership and
management styles, Czechia is defined by an absence of group decision-making.
Instead, the predominant approaches applied by Czech leaders in organisations
are autocratic, consultative and transactional leadership styles. A transactional
leadership style is predicated on the assumption that employees are only
motivated by explicit rewards and punishments. Above all, it is the self-interest
of the manager and organisations themselves that is of paramount importance.
Research conducted by Dedinova (2015) establishes that most Czech managers

adopt a combination of transactional and transformational management styles
and are heavily opposed to a laissez-faire management style. The Czech
leadership questionnaire, Dotazník přístupu k vedení lidí (Procházka, Vaculík &
Smutný, 2016), found similar results to Dedinova’s (2015) research, showing that
a transformational leadership style is now the number one approach adopted
across the country. Transformational leadership is focused on behaviour change,
whereby a leader with an inspiring vision inspires and motivates his or her
employees to strive harder and increase their productivity. While this
inspirational style produces better long-term results, it also requires greater
levels of exertion from managers as they need to identify and harness the
intrinsic motivations of their employees. Furthermore, while Czech employees
are task-oriented, according to a study carried out by Nekužová, Vaculík and
Procházka (2015), they ultimately want more than autocratic and transactional
styles of leadership. More specifically, in their study “Osobnostní rysy Big Five”,
the aforesaid authors found that friendliness, which is associated with self-
regulation of emotions and prosocial behaviour, is of paramount importance for
promoting a sense of belonging within organisations and encouraging employees
to feel like a family member. Consequently, Czech leaders would gain more
appreciation from their employees if they moved away from autocratic styles and
adopted more transformational leadership styles.

Approximately forty Czech high-level managers and CEOs shared their views and
opinions on leadership styles and practices in their country. Firstly, the survey
indicated that there was a marked difference between the older and younger
generation. The old-fashioned way of managing tends to be focused on keeping
87
things running, while younger managers strive to modernise the workplace and
organisation (CCBS Survey, 2019). Iva Honigova confirmed that the old-school
style was the authoritarian way, wherein the leader is always right and nobody
will disagree, while “[y]oung leaders, on the other hand, tend to adopt [an]
encouraging leadership style [,and they] make [an] effort to get the best of
creativity and industriousness from their people” (CCBS Survey, 2019) She further
claimed that Czech leaders take care of their team members’ comfort, develop
relationships, foster understanding and create good working conditions (CCBS
Survey, 2019). As a branch manager at Seznam.cz opined, “A high number of
leaders [that] I have met during my career were self-learners with a little interest
of improving their level of leading and managing skills through books, courses or
studying. Most of them were also relying on their ‘common sense’ in leadership”
With respect to whether men and women have equal access to leadership
positions, the survey results varied notably. A third agreed with this statement, a
third were neutral, while a third indicated that men and women do not enjoy
equality in Czech organisations (CCBS Survey, 2019). Iva Honigova concurred that
there were definitely differences, arguing that “[m]en tend to be more
authoritative, straightforward, use more power [and are better at keeping] their
main goal in mind. Women seek consensus more often, are more thoughtful,
empathetic, more hesitant [and] more effective in finding multipurpose solutions”
(CCBS Survey, 2019). Conversely, Petra Vondruskova, an assistant office manager
in the Czech Republic, noted that there is no difference in the leadership styles of
Czech men and women. However, the degree to which women are expected to
have a different leadership style is evidenced by the fact that some leaders
expressed surprise at the fact that some women can have the same success as a
man and sometimes even be better (CCBS Survey, 2019).

Jakub Procházka: a Czech leadership psychology scholar
Jakub Procházka (19 March 2019) is an assistant professor of psychology at the
Masaryk University of Brno, who has a doctorate in social psychology and a
master’s degree in psychology and finance. He argued that the characterisation
of Czech leaders varied by the type of company in which they worked, as well as
the types of employees within an organisation. Above all, this highlights the fact
that every person is different and unique within Czechia, and that there are
different types of companies, which was also supported by Lantink (19 March
88
2019). Procházka highlighted a recent study on the preferred skills of a

prototypical Czech leader: high integrity, high performance, skilled in
administrative tasks, inspirational, not authoritative, clear vision, leads his or her
people in a participative manner and behaves diplomatically. He noted, however,
that while this delineates how a typical Czech leader should be, there are some
hierarchical conflicts within certain companies which prevent these attributes
from coming to the fore. According to him, power distance is higher in Czechia
than in Scandinavian countries, while it is lower in comparison to Arabic or Asian
countries. This relates back to the predominant leadership style adopted in the
country. Procházka argued that the more important a decision is, the more likely
that the leader, in discussion with a small group, will make the final decision (19
March 2019). What is important is the fact that a modern leader expects his or
her employees to be capable of deciding on their own and acting in the
company’s name. Even with the aforementioned power distance in mind, it is
expected that everyone follows the same set of rules. Moreover, Procházka (19
March 2019) noted that feedback is primarily given privately because giving
public feedback in a group setting could tarnish someone’s image. This, he
argued, is of critical importance because Czech leaders place tremendous value
on presenting themselves well in front of their subordinates. When a leader
wants to demonstrate empathic understanding with their employees, the best
approach is to listen to the employees and take their goals and needs into
consideration (Procházka, 19 March 2019).

Jan Mühlfeit was born in 1962 in Jilhava, Czech Republic. Mühlfeit has played a
big role in Microsoft since 1993. He has held different leadership roles, such as
general manager, and was named regional director of Microsoft Eastern Europe
in 2000. In 2006, Mühlfeit became the vice-president of EMEA Corporate and
Government Strategy (VUB tech transfer, 2014). In his book, Pozitivní leader,
Mühlfeit shares what he has learnt through his many years of experience in the
field of leadership. The book delineates how to become a positive leader. One
way to achieve this is to eliminate all negative influences (Amazon, 2020). There
are some interesting chapters on his personal mission and how it can be adapted
to suit each individual leader. Another chapter of interest entitled “Success
Slave” explores the drawbacks from striving too hard towards the path of success
or “tryharding” as it were. Deepak Chopra, author of The Soul of Leadership,
opines: “The Positive Leader by Jan Mühlfeit is the perfect guide that can help
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unlock greatness in any leader who wishes to be a catalyst for change and
transformation” (Databazeknih, 2017).

Title Pozitivní leader
Jak energie a štěstí pozitivně
Subtitle pohánějí špičkové týmy na
cestě k úspěchu
Author Jan Mühlfeit
Publisher BizBooks
Year 2017
ISBN 978-80-265-0591-4
Czech leadership YouTube review

An interesting view of Czech leadership comes from Radka Dohnalová in her
YouTube interview. She has worked for the United Nations and McKinsey and
now leads a firm that advises business leaders. She developed the Leadership
Games, which involves her asking several notable leaders about their tough
moments. She believes that we ultimately grow through learning from such
tough moments and taking on different perspectives and points of view. She also
stresses that while everyone must do things to make money, it is also important
to give back and do things that will make a difference to society (Dohnalová,
2016). In an interview with Marian Jelínek, ice-hockey coach, trainer and lecturer
in business, she asked how he maintained such a good atmosphere and kept his
team members motivated over the years. He indicated that it is important to
combine rational and emotional motivation. Money alone is an insufficient
source of motivation. Rather, it is all about the guidance one gives to your team,
that is, how you as a leader communicate your message through face-to-face
interactions with your team, in such a way that is inspiring and understandable.
He also emphasised the importance of inspiring people to not only love the
results but also to enjoy the path towards these results. In his estimation, current
evaluation is often based on past results, and today’s results are ultimately what
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serve as the foundation for your next contract (Jelínek, 2016).

In another interview from the Leadership Games series, Dohnalová asks Milan
Vasina, managing director of T-Mobile Czech Republic, how they make difficult
decisions in their organisation. His three tips were as follows. First, he purports
that it is always the leader who must decide; no one else will do it for you.
Second, he argues that leaders should not postpone their decisions; rather, once
you have all the relevant information, you need to decide – an action that he
believes is in fact liberating for the leader. Finally, it is critical for leaders to
surround themselves with qualified people whom they trust as the task of a
leader is not to understand everything (Vasina, 2016).
Understanding hierarchy in Czechia

Hierarchy and titles remain critical social indicators in Czech society. According to
Hofstede Insights (2020), Czechia is a deeply hierarchical and individualistic
society, which is reflected in the profoundly hierarchical structure of
organisations in the country, and the fact that it scores high in terms of power
distance. This means that employees in Czechia are generally accepting of a
clearly defined hierarchical order, one in which everyone has a specific place
without the need for further justification. In other words, Czechs both expect and
accept an unequal distribution of power. This point finds support in the fact that
Czech employees have consistently been found to be relatively accepting of
paternalism, preferential treatment of associates and autocratic modes of
leadership (Reber, Auer-Rizzi & Maly, 2004). Within this context, employees
expect to receive strict instructions about what to do at work and how to achieve
the aims of their managers, while the ideal boss is a compassionate autocrat.
Simply put, employees demand that their leaders stand behind their actions and
take responsibility for their decisions. One regularly-witnessed consequence of a
strong hierarchical culture is deep-seated inequality. Given that many companies
in Czechia are characterised by a strongly defined chain of command, the
decision-making process within these organisations is invariably top-down, and
reminiscent of the so-called “German Business Model”. However, in recent years,
smaller start-up companies have begun to experiment with and instantiate more
relaxed and flatter organisational structures. Despite these developments, the
legacy of the Communist period can also still be espied in the leadership context
in Czechia, insofar as companies generally tend to have two very different kinds
of leaders, with wholly contrasting visions. On the one hand, there is the old-
fashioned director, who gives orders without ever being questioned by his or her
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subordinates, while, on the other, there is the newer type of leader, mostly
managers, who supports independent work and wants to democratise their
power. As one might expect, many employees in Czechia from the older
generation are more comfortable with the old-fashioned type of leader.
However, the fact that some Czech employees are more comfortable working
under autocratic leaders whose decisions must not be questioned raises
problems. For instance, erecting a glass wall around the decision-making process
makes it harder for decisions to go through and for the business culture to
change on a broader scale, which, in turn, contributes to the perpetuation of this
autocratic style. Hence, it is notable how the national culture in Czechia remains
a dominant factor in terms of the conceptualisation and execution of leadership
styles (Reber, Auer-Rizzi & Maly, 2004).
As aforesaid, Czechia is also a deeply individualistic society, whereby individuals
ultimately take on the responsibility of caring for themselves and their
immediate families, and this has consequences for the leadership context.
Zabrodska and Květon (2015) observe that this individualism manifests itself in
the idea that it is individuals who must accept the credit and take responsibility
for their job performance or lack thereof, as opposed to teams or the
organisation as a whole. In this respect, Czech employees tend to see themselves
as being wholly independent of groups and, as such, invariably prefer being set
individual rather than group goals. Hence, the relationship between managers
and employees is framed as a mutual contract, which should be advantageous
for both parties.
How the Czechs achieve leadership empathy

According to Richard D. Lewis (1996), Czechs, above all, value humour, morality,
loyalty, stability, rationality, creativity and tolerance. Berka, Palán and Stastny
(2008) argue that, while they are often perceived otherwise by other nations,
Czechs are in fact relatively prudish, and thus leaders should avoid talking about
emotions when at all possible. If leaders hope to establish teams within their
organisations who are respectful of others and willing to consider situations from
other people’s perspectives, then they should take into account previous
research conducted in the Czech Republic. One notable piece of research asked
112 Czech employees about the frequency of lies and found that men lie more
frequently than their female counterparts. However, women scored higher in
two specific types of lies: firstly, lying to earn a reward; and secondly, lying to
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receive admiration from others. This is important in the leadership context

because frequently telling lies can lead to bad management and a team losing a
leader. Czechs value leaders to be sincere (Mynaříková, 2013).
Czechs also value leaders who are capable of improvising because this is viewed
as a symbol of ingenuity and an ability to adapt (Záluský, 2008). According to
Šípková (2008), who cites a renowned Czech management expert Radomira
Gilarova, a good manager must be emotionally stable, possess good listening
skills and be able to read between the lines. To cite an example of what reading
between the lines looks like in Czechia, in a debating situation the person who
wins a debate is not necessarily the person who is telling the truth or who has
the most valid argument, but, rather, the person who is the loudest or who has
the most to say within the allocated time (Berka, Palán & Stastny, 2008). Finally,
professionalism and loyalty are essential factors to be possessed by business
leaders in Czechia, along with respect for colleagues, job positions and titles
(Vágnerová, 2019).
93
Dominican Republic
Ziba Bahadori-Motlagh, Anne-Marie Carrillo, Marie Mouffokes, Melina Pfaff & Willemijn Wijnhoff
Where the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean meet, lies the island of
Hispaniola. The Dominican Republic (La Republica Dominica) is located on the
eastern two-thirds of the island, which it shares with Haiti, a former French
colony (Rogozinski, 2000). Once ruled by Spain, the Dominican Republic became
independent around two decades ago (Rogozinski, 2000). Nevertheless, they still
retain many of their Spanish influences, such as their language, Dominican
Spanish, which is derivative of Spanish. Today, the majority of the populace in
the Dominican Republic are of mixed European and African origin. Their Western
heritage can also be espied in their architecture, art and literature, while the
African influence is predominantly felt in the music, especially in rural areas
(Brown, 1999). The Dominican Republic is a middle-income developing country.
They are a largely self-sustaining nation, insofar as they consume most of the
food products that are produced across the country. Sugar processing is one of
the prominent industries in the Dominican Republic. Most notably, they are the
main exporter of tobacco in the world (Vedovato, 1986). The Dominican Republic
also has a long-standing, close economic relationship with the United States,
which is predicated on the fact that the United States is the destination for
approximately half of all Dominican exports (Destler, 1974). While the country
has long been viewed primarily as an exporter of sugar, tobacco and coffee, in
recent years the service industry has outgrown the agricultural sector due to the
noticeable growth in the tourism industry. Indeed, the Dominican Republic is
now the most visited destination in the Caribbean (Vedovato, 1986). Dominicans
are routinely described as incredibly warm and hospitable people, who value
friendly interpersonal relationships. These characteristics also profoundly
influence the way in which business is conducted in the country, as well as the
leadership styles and practices that are adopted (CCBS Survey, 2020).
How the Dominicans characterise leaders

Networking and maintaining formal relations are integral in the Dominican
business sector. Indeed, knowing the right person often yields more benefits
than one’s ability or talent (Vedovato, 1986). This can be explained by the fact
94
that a considerable amount of the most prominent businesses in the

Dominican Republic are family-owned. These firms are underpinned by a
traditional style of conducting business, insofar as the leaders in these family-
owned businesses know their company inside out since ownership and control
have remained in the same circles for generations. Hence, it can be difficult to
move beyond these traditional ways of conducting business. For example,
effective decision-making can be particularly challenging because the
organisational structure is skewed towards the family members’ individual
interests rather than the interests of the company (CCBS Survey, 2020).
One of the essential qualities that Dominican leaders are expected to possess is
the capacity to recognise individuals’ effort. This creates a better work
environment as it fosters a spirit of collaboration. It is a highly important task for
leaders to keep their followers motivated. This motivation can be achieved
through, for example, the promise of growth opportunity within the company
(CCBS Survey, 2020). Dominicans strive for development and are very proud of
their successes and achievements in life (Hofstede Insights, 2020).
Moreover, appearance is critically important in society, as people believe it is
indicative of one’s social standing. Despite the country’s tropical climate,
business attire is conservative: a suit for men and a business dress for women.
This is because professional attire and quality clothing are representative of
one’s social status and level of success (Vedovato, 1986).
The business climate is hampered somewhat by the administrative system, more
specifically, the fact that the interpretation of law and regulations is almost
entirely arbitrary. Indeed, the regulations change constantly, while complaints
about judicial and administrative corruption are routine. Corruption is also
directly related to how organisations operate since it is wholly integrated within
the work culture itself. To quote an example, during colonialism, Dominicans
grew up with the view that corruption was simply a natural condition of power
and, hence, that it is was normal for anyone in a position of authority to expect a
payoff in return for offering favours (Hartlyn, 1998).

The CCBS Survey was conducted in order to gain valuable insights into the
leadership styles and practices adopted within the Dominican Republic from
esteemed local professionals. It is evident that the business culture in the
Dominican Republic is incredibly amicable. Three-thirds of the respondents
reported that leaders in the Dominican Republic are addressed by their first
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name. As the CEO of a consultancy firm in the Dominican Republic explains, “In
general, we have many family-owned companies and that influences the business
climate and decision-making” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Across the survey, there was a general agreement on the characteristics that the
respondents associate with leadership. Above all, a leader with a strong vision
was the most highly valued by the respondents. Around 85% of the respondents
expect their leader to be a visionary thinker. Abrami Aquino Sanchez, a manager
in the financial sector, stated: “I think that everything has to do with the
mentality and vision of a person” (CCBS Survey, 2020). He further explained that,
for him, “Leadership is having a vision and having people help you achieve that
vision – leadership means influence” (CCBS Survey, 2020). All the respondents
agreed that a manager should actively spend time on the personal wellbeing of
his or her team members. More specifically, 90% of the respondents were wholly
supportive of this, while the remaining 10% partially agreed. As a distribution
manager in the Dominican Republic opined, “In the Dominican Republic, you take
the employee’s emotion strongly into account compared to other nations” (CCBS
Survey, 2020). Most respondents (73%) rated a leader’s ability to be a good
listener as highly important in a corporate environment. As one of the
respondents, a deputy manager in the banking sector, noted, “Our culture
promotes friendship in the workplace. The leaders share activities and informal
meetings with [their] subordinates and peers” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Moreover,
most respondents disagreed with the statement that, in their capacity as a
leader, they preferred to retain personal distance from their employees. Edwin
Peña, a vice president in the finance sector, highlighted the importance of
fostering close relationships with the team. This was a recurring theme amongst
the respondents, who posited that “Building and maintaining a close relationship
with your team is very important” (CCBS Survey, 2020).

Julissa Mateo Abad: a Dominican speaker, teacher and IT director
A speaker, teacher and IT director was interviewed for this book to learn from
her local perspective about business practices and leadership in the
Dominican Republic. Julissa Abad described a leader as someone who has the
ability to both be self-motivated and motivate others – a person that people will
want to follow because they recognise themselves in that person and his or her
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vision. According to Abad, a leader must possess and convey a strong sense of
passion, in combination with being energetic and capable of surmounting
challenges. However, one quality above all stands out for her: “The relationship
between a leader and an employee in the Dominican Republic is close. It is not as
structural and straight as I have seen it in other countries” (Abad, 23 April 2020).
Consequently, a leader must be cognizant of the distinct situations that each of
their employees lives in. Knowing more about their life and personality allows
leaders to be more empathic. Indeed, empathy derives primarily from getting to
know the other person and having knowledge and insight into all of your team
members. In this respect, she argues that the emergence of digital media has
diminished personal contact, which, in turn, has deleteriously impacted on
leaders’ ability to display empathic understanding.
Moises Espinosa: a Dominican sales manager

Moises Espinosa is a Dominican sales manager with several years of international
corporate sales experience. He was interviewed to gain insight into the
leadership styles and practices adopted in Dominican organisations. During the
interview, he explicated that a highly important characteristic of a leader is the
ability to value and motivate his or her employees. Indeed, he cited the capacity
to motivate, evaluate and recognise employees’ abilities as being the most
powerful tool that a manager can possess. The style that Espinosa adopts to
manage his sales staff is based on a low level of hierarchy. In other words, he
interacts with his team as if they were on the same level as him, that is as if they
were co-workers. He paid special attention to the warm character of the
Dominicans, who are often referred to as chercha (a person that likes to make
jokes), even going so far as to use the term “friendship” when describing the
relationships within the team. He is convinced that good relationships in a team
will be reflected in strong professional results. The Dominicans care a lot about
their team, as both people and as professionals, valuing their work and offering
them an opportunity for growth. Or, to put it in Espinosa’s words: “The
Dominicans care about their employees in a general sense” (13 March 2020).

One of the best-selling books about leadership was written by Ney Dìaz in 2019
entitled Las 12 Preguntas. The author, Ney Dìaz, is the president of what many
consider to be the main specialist training company in the Dominican Republic. In
his book, Las 12 Preguntas, he puts forward 12 key questions that pertain to the
different qualities that shape a person as both a leader and a human being. The
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12 questions revolve around motivation, purpose, focus and uniqueness.

Through stories, anecdotes and reflections, Dìaz shares various lessons that
should educate and inspire the readers of the book.

Title Las 12 Preguntas
Subtitle -
Author Ney Dìaz
Biblioteca Nacional Pedro
Publisher
Henrìques Ureña
Year 2019
ISBN 9789945805758
Dominican leadership YouTube review

During his talk, “Le felicidad en el trabajo” (Happiness at work), Santiago Vázquez
(2010) explains that the best way to achieve successful results as a leader is to
invest in their employees’ happiness. Vázquez is a sociologist, economist and
public speaker, who specialises in motivation and leadership training. He has
worked in Spain and the Dominican Republic for the last twenty years.
Vázquez (2010) purports that there are specific characteristics, namely
confidence and autonomy, that are more important than technical skills.
Consequently, leaders should not simply demonstrate their skills and acumen to
their employees but should, rather, also hone their ability to get the best out of
their team members. Simply put, without the requisite personal traits, technical
skills are useless. Vázquez discusses the correlation between employee
satisfaction and customer satisfaction. More specifically, he suggests that
research shows that they increase in parallel with one another, which indicates
that the inside of the company is reflected on the outside as well. Hence,
optimising your subordinates’ happiness will be reflected in their level of
performance. Neither companies that are purely people-oriented nor purely
result-oriented are sustainable in the long-term. Rather, leaders must focus on
achieving sustainable results through developing the happiness of their staff and
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increasing their commitment. In the video, “Liderazgo sinfónic por Cristina

Cubero” (Symphonic leadership by Cristina Cubero), Cubero introduces a
management style entitled “symphonic leadership”, which is predicated on
functional cooperation between all members in an institution. Cubero is the
director of a consulting firm based in both Central America and the
Dominican Republic, which aims to inspire clients to identify potential challenges
and opportunities for their businesses. She explains that there is an emergent
trend within companies to break away from the typical rigid organisational
structures and establish more flexible organisations that seek to empower teams.
It is important for leaders to discern these movements so that they too can
adjust their activities accordingly and develop action plans to achieve results.
According to Cubero, the base of an organisation is structured in an analogous
fashion to writing and conducting a musical composition. As a leader it is
important to know the entire team, in terms of the people, the dynamics, their
unique ways of working and their distinct tasks and plans. She also stresses the
importance of fostering a comprehensive participatory dynamic in order to
achieve alignment in every element of the organisation (Deloitte, 2018).
Hierarchy in the Dominican Republic

When leading professionally in the Dominican Republic, it is of great importance
to build and maintain relationships. In order to be accepted and validated, it is
crucial to be introduced by a third person. Doing favours and collecting on debts
is commonly practised (Vedovato, 1986). Business meetings are typically held in a
highly casual atmosphere. It is also commonplace to engage in small talk prior to
discussing business. This provides an opportunity to get to know everyone better
and build trusting relationships. For example, Dominicans do not hesitate to ask
business partners about their family or personal lives. According to one of our
CCBS survey (2020) respondents, while establishing friendly relationships
between leaders and followers is certainly possible, respect must be shown when
conducting business activities particularly towards senior and higher-ranking
executives. Another of our respondents reported that the organisational culture
is improving in the Dominican Republic, insofar as employees are more willing to
invest greater energy in tasks that are allocated to them by someone that they
are friendly with. Nevertheless, hierarchy remains vitally important, even though
it is not always overtly observable due to the friendly and casual encounters
between people of different levels of seniority. One way in which persons with
high levels of authority can be identified is in the decision-making process as
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their opinion weighs far more heavily than that of their subordinates (CCBS
Survey, 2020). The Dominican Republic is designated as a collectivist society,
insofar as close long-term relationships are deemed to be vitally important.
Loyalty is also venerated, and everyone is expected to take responsibility for their
other group members. The importance of this can be evidenced in the fact that
hiring and promotional decisions also take relationships and an employee’s
position within the group into consideration (Hofstede Insights, 2020). Senior
positions are predominately occupied by those from the upper socio-economic
class, while status is determined by racial and economic variables, as well as
family background and wealth. In the Dominican Republic, nepotism does not
have the negative connotations that it does in so many other countries. In fact,
mentioning the names of powerful friends, family members and business
contacts is a critical aspect of attaining a higher position within an organisation.
How Dominicans achieve leadership empathy

Dominicans are family-oriented people who pride themselves on their
hospitality. Interpersonal relationships, including loyalty to family and friends,
constitute the thread that holds the entire country together. They are very warm
and welcoming people. According to a CCBS survey respondent (2020), local
leaders are interested in their employees’ wellbeing as it is important for the
organisational culture that everyone feels comfortable in their position. Building
trust is also crucial to developing relationships in the Dominican Republic.
Leaders who know their purpose can be very inspiring and capable of affecting
their followers by virtue of their character and motivation. In this vein, a majority
of the CCBS survey respondents regarded the characteristic of visionary thinking
as being extremely important. When followers understand and identify with their
leader’s vision and personality, then mutual trust is instilled in both parties. This
mutual trust creates an inspiring company culture, in which leaders and followers
can work productively in collaboration (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Another interview respondent reported that there is a close relationship

between leaders and followers. They often know about each other, not only on a
professional level but also on a personal level. According to one interviewee’s
experience, these interactions are not as formal and structurally stratified as they
are in other countries. Indeed, managers and employees often share events from
their personal lives with each other, which, in turn, enables empathy to further
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develop (CCBS Survey, 2020). One area of potential concern pertains to the fact
that one of our interviewees argued that the arrival of digital media poses a
potential threat to the prevailing warm and personal interactions between
Dominican employees and leaders, which, in turn, could detrimentally affect an
empathic leadership style (CCBS Survey, 2020).
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El Salvador
Alyssa Melillo, Alfonso Romero, Bente Soldaat & Lawrence Semper-White
The Republic of El Salvador (República de El Salvador) is both the smallest and

most densely populated country in Central America; indeed, it is smaller than the
state of Massachusetts. The overall population of El Salvador is around 6.4
million (United Nations, 2016). The vast majority of the populace are Mestizos,
which is to say they descend from both Spanish and indigenous ancestry, whilst
only a fraction of the population claims pure Spanish descent (Hernandez, 2012).
The capital and largest city, San Salvador, houses a metropolitan population of
2.4 million inhabitants, along with being the cultural, financial and political hub of
the country. Interestingly, nearly one-third of the Salvadoran population lives
outside the country, with the American Community Survey estimating that 2.2
million Salvadorans reside in the US (USCIS, 2020; United Nations, 2016). Indeed,
El Salvador is economically dependent on the US and other developed countries
(Social Watch, 2009). This, allied with the fact that Salvadorans themselves are a
migrant population, helps explain why they customarily display compassion,
respect and empathy towards visiting foreigners in terms of both business and
tourism. According to The Associated Press (2012), “Salvadorans are positive,
very contented, friendly people” (par. 4). In El Salvador, 70% of business ventures
are categorised as pymes, which are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
and often family-run businesses, with the remainder being made up of large
businesses, corporations and multinationals (Umaña, 30 April 2020).
How Salvadorans characterise leaders

Leaders in El Salvador obtain their positions primarily through on-the-job
experience, market expertise and technical competence (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Salvadoran leaders are characterised by their wisdom and the extensive
experience that they are expected to have accumulated in their field, without
which, it is assumed, they would not have reached such positions of power (Cruz,
Mónchez & Amaya, 2019). Employees understand this and invariably look up to
and respect the decisions made by upper-management (Davila & Elvira, 2012b;
Pellegrini & Scandura, 2008). It has also been observed that large organisations in
El Salvador behave in a uniformed manner, in coordination and in accordance
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with multinational corporations, sharing their globally-imposed management

guidelines, service protocols, values and norms. Conversely, SMEs tend to be
strongly influenced by Salvadoran culture and more localised behaviours, values
and norms (Umaña, 30 April 2020). Research has demonstrated that in
El Salvador, as well as neighbouring Central American countries, the leader is an
authoritarian-benevolent paternalistic figure (Martínez, 2005; Davila & Elvira,
2012b). This is reflected in the CCBS survey, which shows that subordinates
expect their leaders to be powerful decision-makers and visionary thinkers (CCBS
Survey, 2020). The Salvadoran business world also places special importance on
forming relationships. Indeed, scholars argue that friendliness, compassion and
honesty are the most valued leadership attributes across Latin America and that
these are also expected from employees in return (Castaño, Luque, Wernsing,
Ogliastri, Shemueli, Fuchs & Robles-Flores, 2015). Maintaining a positive
reputation amongst the community is also of paramount importance to
Salvadoran leaders. Hence, applying the values that one learns from one’s
parents and adhering to the company’s mission statement are fundamental to
the decision-making process (Irizarry, 21 April 2020).
In the CCBS survey (2020), respondents were asked to select the most important
qualities that they expected from a good leader. The majority of the respondents
chose organisational experience and technical competence, which highlights that
good leaders are expected to excel in these specific areas (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Leaders who overtly focus on protecting themselves at the expense of the
“family” of workers will not be perceived as effective leaders (Castaño et al.,
2015). Finally, El Salvador is a collectivist country, which is highly dependent on
networking, personal relations, trust and relationship building. While it is normal
for collective decisions to be more important than individuals, the older
generation differs markedly from the newer generation, insofar as they place
greater value on individual decision-making (Maceda, 5 May 2020).

Fifty-five Salvadoran professionals shared their knowledge and experience on
leadership styles and practices in El Salvador by completing the CCBS survey
(2020). Whilst the findings appear to indicate that leadership in El Salvador is
heterogeneous and differs across companies, some common features of both
leaders and employees are the deep understanding of and profound respect
shown towards workplace regulations and procedures, along with a strong
commitment to order and punctuality, as well as drive and perseverance towards
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the job being undertaken (Schimmel, 6 May 2020). This can be attributed, in part,
to the fact that Salvadorans strive for excellence in everything they do as they
have no support, aid or subsidies from industry confederations, groups or
governmental bodies. Instead, Salvadorans rely purely on their skills and own
motivation, in contrast to organisations in other countries who are aided by
external support, which explains the strength of character and work ethic of
Salvadorans (Umaña, 30 April 2020).
In the CCBS survey (2020), 50% of the respondents reported that employees are
expected to follow the established procedures, which is interesting when viewed
alongside the fact that the majority of the respondents agreed that employees
may bend the rules without asking in order to improve their performance or
achieve better organisational results. As one respondent opined, “[employees]
are able to bend the rules if they can provide a clear justification and prove the
short- to long-term benefits for the company” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This testifies
to the fact that innovation and decision-making by employees lower down the
organisational structure is generally accepted by Salvadoran leaders if it yields
positive outcomes for the company. Moreover, as one leader stated: “I look for
proactive employees and I am always open to suggestions that can help us to
improve as a company” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Another notable finding emerging
out of the CCBS survey (2020) pertained to the fact that 57% of the respondents
disagreed that men and women had equal access to senior leadership positions,
while only 28% of participants agreed with this statement. This is interesting,
insofar as Salvadoran scholar Mauricio Umaña (30 April 2020) argued that there
is no glass ceiling preventing women from attaining senior positions within large
enterprises and multinational organisations, whereas within SMEs men tend to
dominate leadership positions. As another respondent observed, “[women] do
not have the same opportunities as men, although this seems to be changing
with time” (CCBS Survey, 2020).

Mauricio Umaña: a Salvadoran leadership scholar
Mauricio Umaña is a professor and scholar from El Salvador. He is currently
teaching at the Universidad Católica de El Salvador. He obtained his bachelor’s
degree in industrial engineering, before going on to receive an MBA from INCAE
Business School in Costa Rica. Furthermore, he obtained his doctorate in business
competitiveness and economic development. Umaña is also a doctoral professor
in research economics. He has published and presented his work in universities
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across Europe, South, North and Central America. Amongst other occupations, he
is also a board member, director, speaker and business owner. Umaña (30 April
2020) firmly believes that the basics of leadership, entrepreneurship and
management should be taught by the education system, not only at the higher
level but also within middle school and high school. He argued that such
education is still woefully lacking in El Salvador. As Umaña expressed, one is not
born a leader, but rather is taught and learns to develop and transform into one.
He defined leadership as the ability to serve others, which, in turn, necessitates
one to remain humble. Noting that some Salvadoran leaders often overlook this
attribute, he urges leaders to prioritise it as he considers this to be a vital trait in
becoming a true leader.
Furthermore, leaders must accept their mistakes and actively attempt to learn
from them. Umaña (30 April 2020) claimed that to be a leader: “no puedes tirar
la toalla” (you cannot throw in the towel), which is a metaphor about the
importance of staying motivated. To be a good leader one must have a high
tolerance of failure and seek to nurture one’s sense of perseverance. There is
little respite for a leader; it is an occupation that simply never ends. One tip
proffered by Umaña to foreigners seeking to conduct business in El Salvador is
that it is always a good idea to have a lawyer present during talks and
negotiations, both to have a legal perspective and to ensure that everyone
commits to their agreement.
Guillermo Felix Dardano Schimmel: a Salvadoran cross-cultural trainer

We interviewed Dardano Schimmel, a native professional who received his
bachelor’s degree from Tampa University in Florida in business administration,
personnel management and finance. Schimmel began his career working in the
coffee industry, a historically valuable market in El Salvador that remains so to
this day. He has become an advisor for the production and (global)
commercialisation process of coffee, as well as a sommelier. However, Schimmel
also entered into the academic world by becoming a professor for the Minister of
Education in Talnique, El Salvador. His latest venture is achieving his cross-
cultural coaching certificate in Hamburg, Germany. Amongst other places, he has
worked in Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, the US, Germany and, of course,
El Salvador. In his interview, Schimmel (6 May 2020) posited that Central
American countries have many common denominators, especially when it comes
to culture, society and business. If the business approach conducted in Honduras
or Nicaragua is successful, then it will very likely also be successful in El Salvador.
105
This is because Central American countries used to be united under the same
federal republic, named PUCA, and shared production and exportation of the
same products. Schimmel noted that this symbiosis continued until El Salvador
entered a decade long civil war. This led to a marked differentiation between
El Salvador and its neighbouring countries. The autocratic and military command
style of leadership also entered the business world, thus creating strong and
orderly-formed leadership and procedures, which can still be discerned to this
day. Many entrepreneurs fled the country as a result of the civil war, going on to
establish themselves and their business ventures all over the world. A generation
later, the sons and daughters of these entrepreneurs returned to El Salvador and
brought back new methods and techniques, which, in turn, modernised and
developed the nation, according to Schimmel (6 May 2020). The consequence of
this, for Schimmel, is that Salvadorans are not surprised by foreign influences or
technologies, but, rather, are wholly cognizant of and well-informed about a
range of developments transpiring outside of their borders. One tip offered for
foreigners conducting business in El Salvador is to establish a strong human
connection and feeling between the involved parties, as this is vital in building a
smooth relationship. This is because Salvadorans want to know who it is that
they are dealing with; they want to move past mere appearances as they value
transparency and honest input about both their personal and business
trajectories.

Funcion publica Y gestion del talento humano en El Salvador (Public function and
management of human talent in El Salvador) is a book that was written by Dr
José Antonio Morales Carbonell, who holds a PhD in political science and
international relations and was the former undersecretary of governance in
El Salvador. This book addresses work related to the public and service sectors
and sets out to modernise public administration through a combination of strong
leadership and empowering human talent within organisations.
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Funcion publica Y gestion del
Title
talento humano en El Salvador
Subtitle -
Author Jose Antonio Morales Carbonell
Publisher UCA Editores
Year 2019
ISBN 9789996110672
Salvadoran leadership YouTube review

The following is a review of two Salvadoran business leaders who have discussed
their experiences and insights on YouTube. A single mother at age 17, Sofía
Aparicio tells the story of her journey to success in a linear career-oriented
society dominated by men. She gave a TEDx Talk in Antiguo Cuscatlán, one of the
poorest areas in El Salvador, to show that in order to make a living, you have to
create it for yourself, just as she did. She struggled to find a job due to her youth
and lack of experience, which resulted in her channelling her entrepreneurial
spirit to create a successful clothing brand in El Salvador. Her advice to others is
to view your failures as lessons and use them to evolve (Aparicio, 2016). She also
encourages the audience and viewers to surround themselves with people who
are either equal to or higher than them because these are the people that will
remind them to use their failures to grow when they hit rock bottom (Aparicio,
2016). Sofia’s story reflects the fact that Central American societies are beginning
to view women in leadership roles as a more common feature of the business
sector. In another video, Vanesa Bandak, an investment manager, discusses
doing business in El Salvador on The Central American Group YouTube channel.
She explains the favourable investment opportunities that El Salvador holds for
foreign investors. Indeed, she argues, El Salvador is an export-oriented free-
market economy and one of the best countries for doing business in the region in
Latin America according to the Green Business Ranking of 2019 (Bandak, 2018).
El Salvador offers a productive labour force that is world-renowned for its
efficiency and work ethic (Bandak, 2018). Bandak observes that this is why many
multinational companies are choosing to invest and bring their companies to
El Salvador.
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Understanding hierarchy in El Salvador

Organisational behaviour in El Salvador is deeply hierarchical, insofar as roles,
responsibilities and job functions have been found to be both well-defined and
highly respected (Molina, 4 May 2020). In El Salvador, the predominant
characteristics of the organisational culture are reflective of the cultural values in
the country, namely dependency, obedience and loyalty, where the powerful
protect the weak and take responsibility for them (Dennery, 1994). This can be
traced back to the educational system in the country, which historically has
focused on training employees rather than training entrepreneurs (Paredes
Martínez, 2012). However, this culture in which leaders think, act and make
decisions in a way that engenders care and loyalty for their employees, while, in
return, employees give total commitment and abdicate decision-making
authority to leaders, can be traced further back still. Rodriguez and Rios (2009)
demonstrate how “this concept has historical roots in the ‘hacienda’ system
where the ‘patrón’ (owner-boss) employed and lorded over the employees and
their families” (as cited in Castaño et al., 2015, p. 7). Amongst subordinates,
there is an expectation that those at a higher level should show their decisive and
authoritarian leadership skills, whilst simultaneously emphasising the importance
of cooperation and teamwork. This cultivates a symbiotic relationship between
superiors and their subordinates, which, in turn, produces a dependability of
reciprocal loyalties (Davila & Elvira, 2012b).
There is a fairly rigid order within daily operations (Sayes, 2015), which is why
each employee has his or her own designated position within the firm and is
expected to perform this function correctly. Within such a system, it would be
viewed negatively if someone failed to live up to the responsibilities of their role,
without justification or a stated purpose (Schimmel, 6 May 2020). In general,
managers of Salvadoran firms expect patience from employees and their full
participation in fulfilling the task assigned to them (Sayes, 2014). One anonymous
respondent from the CCBS survey (2020) highlighted the importance of leaders
striving to relate to the rest of their team as more than simply a boss, which has
been proven to be a source of compromise and engagement with their values.
This style derives from Latin culture and makes leaders develop a close
relationship with their employees, to ensure that they feel like they are
all part of the same team (CCBS Survey, 2020).
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How Salvadorans achieve leadership empathy

A Salvadoran leader achieves empathy by building interpersonal relationships
with his or her subordinates. This was confirmed in the CCBS survey (2020), in
which one local leader reported that personal relations between leaders and
their team members are very common in El Salvador, and across Latin America
generally. Moreover, awareness of the core values of the society is of paramount
importance, namely that family relationships and group cohesion are vital.
Leadership invariably reflects the cultural traits of society as a whole, and,
indeed, Latin American culture strives to develop amicable relationships in order
to work better together (CCBS Survey, 2020). The Salvadoran people tend to
value trust, integrity and sincerity in building long-lasting relationships (Umaña,
30 April 2020). While expressing emotions may be more effective for a leader
overall, rather than hiding them or acting in a neutral and impersonal way, when
handling disagreements and rejections, an indirect approach is preferred. As one
respondent noted, “It is a cultural thing of Salvadorans: they have trouble saying
things directly to others, when they think that it [is] not going to be good or it
could make someone mad” (Marroquín, 2 May 2020).
Leaders offer genuine care and protection, while employees show loyalty out of
respect and appreciation for the leader’s compassion (Pellegrini & Scandura,
2008). Jose Luis Irizarry, a Salvadoran project manager with over 18 years of
management experience, opined that good business leaders in El Salvador
actively listen to their employees and help them with tasks when necessary. The
establishment of positive relationships between business leaders and their
subordinates creates a business environment that favours effectiveness in daily
work. This is why many managers pay their employees more than the minimum
wage as it has proven to be a key driver in retaining staff (Irizarry, 21 April 2020).
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France
Suwar Bildirici, Théotime Choquet, Michiel Feenstra,

Anwar Mourabet, Mitch Rewijk & Kirsten Verhoeven
France is a country that is renowned for its metropolitan area, la Ville Lumière.
Various multinational corporations, such as Air France, Peugeot and Vogue, are
established in Paris, primarily in the business quarter La Défense, which was the
first established business quarter within Europe. The national motto is “Liberté,
égalitié, fraternité”, which translates as “liberty, equality and fraternity” in
English. This motto can be found on the currency, government logos and even
postage stamps. With the seventh-largest economy in the world and the second-
largest in Europe, France is an economic powerhouse. Key industries, including
chemicals, aircraft, automobiles and tourism, have helped to grow the French
economy into its current position of prominence. More than half of its trade
takes place with other members of the European Union (EU), while Japan, the US
and China are also major trading partners. France is one of the founding nations
of the G8, which is a continually-expanding intergovernmental forum for
industrialised countries. Even though it is an industrialised country, agriculture
still plays a major role in comparison to other countries. This is due, in part, to
both the relatively low population density and the fact that rural areas and family
farms play a particularly important role in French national identity.
With respect to leadership styles and practices, those in the business sector
attach great significance to someone’s appearance. One must be soigné, which is
to say one is required to put care and thought into one’s appearance. Simply put,
elegance is the standard (Joseph, 2009). When this elegance is combined with
loyalty, trust and politeness, then you have all the necessary ingredients for a
great French business leader.
How the French characterise leaders

Président-directeur général, the equivalent of a Chief Executive Officer, is the title
bestowed upon French leaders when they ascend to the upper echelon of the
business world. This testifies to how highly regarded formality is within the
country, and, indeed, one should always address one’s superior as Monsieur
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or Madame. In order to become a président-directeur général and secure a top

management position within an organisation, it is almost a prerequisite to have
studied at one of the six most prestigious French schools entitled Les Grandes
Ecoles (Deneire, 2010). According to Joël and Sibille (2017), when the
management team has a higher level of education, they are able to have a
greater level of involvement in every aspect of the business. Laurent (1983)
found that 88% of French managers reported that their career success was
primarily dependent on their notable potential. From the CCBS survey (2020),
other criteria identified as being important for leaders are the possession of a
strong charismatic personality, access to prestigious business networks,
organisational experience and market expertise.
Highlighting the importance of one’s background and cultural capital, Chhokar,
Brodbeck and House (2007) posit that “leading managers often work closely
together, a feature of the camaraderie based on the network maintained
between former members of the top Grandes Ecoles” (p. 550). In other words,
once a leader has attained a senior role within an organisation, they can rely on
their strong network of former school members. In this respect, it is evident why
top managers in France predominantly belong to the political, social and
economic elite in the country, who have been described as both politicised and
intellectualised, characteristics which correspond with their elite educational
background (Jack, 1998).
In France, la premiére impression is of critical importance in negotiations. Indeed,
making a good first impression can close a deal, while a bad first impression can
unquestionably be a deal-breaker. In order to make a good first impression, one
must be polite and respectful towards one’s business partners. This is not all,
however. As aforesaid, appearances are incredibly important in the French
business sector. It is important to note that while French culture is formal in
terms of its dress code, it is not explicitly stipulated, and thus each person can
still express their uniqueness. For example, French leaders can be properly
dressed in business attire, while, simultaneously, wearing jewellery and
accessories to show that they mean business. In this respect, French business
leaders have absolutely no conception of the concept of Casual Friday (Dykstra,
2018). While first impressions are important, more than half of the CCBS survey
respondents reported that it was more important for French leaders to be
visionary thinkers (CCBS Survey, 2020). Deffayet, Livian and Petit’s (2010)
research adds to this by noting that it is not only about visionary thinking, but
also about being imposing to one’s subordinates. While visionary thinkers tend to
concentrate on laying out long-term goals for their organisation and employees,
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Chhokar et al. (2007) argue that French companies actually focus more on short-
term than long-term plans. They explain that this preference for short-term goals
is a by-product of France’s strong distrust for visionary leaders, who invariably
attempt to shake up existing bureaucratic procedures and the prevailing
hierarchy (Chhokar et al., 2007).

The CCBS survey (2020) was completed with local managers and directors from
various business sectors in France and sheds light on the leadership styles and
practices adopted in the country. We analysed the results and discuss them
below in relation to extant literature on leadership in France. Firstly, concerning
the expectations that employees have towards their managers’ skills, around
three-quarters of the respondents reported that a good leader should possess
the ability to listen to his or her staff, be a visionary thinker and make powerful
decisions (CCBS Survey, 2020). Additionally, as Laure Browne, CEO of the famous
lifestyle sneaker brand Veja, observed, “A manager should also be team-
oriented” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This involves being respectful when talking to the
employees within his or her team and acknowledging their efforts.
Secondly, the survey results demonstrate the existence of a strong hierarchical
structure within French organisations. In the words of Sonia Thabet, who works
in the management sector: “From my experience, I see that leaders are always
put aside from the team. [It is] either a form of respect or it is because of the
authority of the leader that can never be forgotten by the team” (CCBS Survey,
2020). Similarly, a number of respondents indicated that when a decision has
been made by management, it will not be easily changed. As Thabet explained,
“In France, we obey [and] follow the recommendation of the leader, even though
we may know better than them” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
A third noteworthy finding emerging from the CCBS survey (2020) is that men
and women do not have equal access to senior leadership positions. Indeed, just
more than half of the respondents believed that there is a significant difference
in the business opportunities available to men and women. Laurent Barbezieux, a
manager in the strategy consulting sector, posited that “women might have to
show they can be tough to counter the clichés [or] bias against them” (CCBS
Survey, 2020). Finally, the survey produced interesting results with respect to
formal standards within French business culture. Sixty-five per cent of the
respondents agreed with the statement that an academic title on a business card
or e-mail signature is not of particular importance. In addition to this, a further
112
notable finding was that subordinates hardly address their leader by their title
when communicating with them. Overall, more than half of the respondents
indicated that they typically address their manager by his or her first name, but
this differed across companies. This result is further reinforced by Law, a CEO in
the construction materials industry, who observed that “Managers encourage
the use of their first name, but this is not natural for most of the employees”
(CCBS Survey, 2020). This is in contradistinction to Deneire’s (2010) findings,
which suggested that formal standards were fundamental to French culture.

Benjamin Pelletier: a French leadership trainer
With over two decades of experience, Benjamin Pelletier, a freelance cross-
cultural management trainer and lecturer in cultural intelligence at Ecole de
Guerre Economique, is unquestionably an expert in the field of cross-cultural
skills. When Pelletier was asked about how the French defines leadership, he
replied that, while no literal definition could be given, “leadership [in France] is
characterised by hierarchical distance to the leader” (14 March 2020). Pelletier
argued that the problem with this pervasive hierarchical culture is that
employees do not dare to raise critical questions or opinions to their manager.
Simply put, Pelletier noted, not only will employees not be listened to if they do
speak out, in some instances, they may even be punished for doing so.
Employees are merely expected to blindly follow their managers’ instructions.
Pelletier described the hierarchical structure within French companies as being
analogous to various aeroplane crashes that occurred as a result of the
hierarchical distance between the captain (leader) and the co-pilot (staff
member) who was too scared to point out mistakes made by the captain.
Pelletier noted that he himself was not free of this typical strict hierarchical
distance between employee and leader, noting that “If I make a mistake as
a co-pilot, I am going to hide it rather than say it because I am afraid of being
punished” (Pelletier, 14 March 2020).
Valéria Fernandes: Cross-functional Team Leadership Expert

Although Fernandes was born and raised in Brazil, she has over seven years of
experience within what she described as the ‘closed’ French business culture.
To illustrate what she meant by closed culture, Fernandes (1 April 2020) stated
that it can take years before colleagues become personal with each other.
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According to Fernandes, the root cause of this closed culture is the historically
strong hierarchical structure within French organisations. Fernandes argued that
the hierarchical structure and closed culture underpins the formality and sense of
superiority that French leaders display towards their subordinates. She also
highlighted the importance of attending the right universities in France. Indeed,
when one introduces oneself in a business context, people invariably expect to
hear the name of the university where one studied. This indicates that, in France,
the degree that one attains at university is not only important for the knowledge
that is acquired but also an important part of one’s identity and cultural capital.
Fernandes also made reference to the combativeness of the French in meetings,
which in combination with their strong opinions about what they deem to be
good for business, can make it extremely difficult to change anyone’s opinion.
Until you prove them wrong, they will try to convince you that they are right
(Fernandes, 1 April 2020).

La Prouesse Française is a state-of-the-art leadership book written by Ezra
Suleiman, Yasmina Jaïdi and Frank Bournois. Equipped with their respective
experiences as a professor, academic and management director, they combined
their professional skills and knowledge to write this highly recommended
management book. Indeed, the three writers are currently teaching at one of the
most respected universities in the world. This book shows how major French
companies are selecting a trade-off between concern for performance and
concern for people, performance rigour and innovation. The arguments
presented in the book are based on an empirical analysis of the experiences of
2,500 managers in French organisations.

Title La Prouesse française
Subtitle Le management du CAC 40 vu d’ailleurs
Ezra Suleiman, Yasmina Jaïdi and Frank
Authors
Bournois
Publisher Odile Jacob
Year 2017
ISBN 978-2-7381-3587-2
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French leadership YouTube review

We searched YouTube for videos by French business professionals, who
delineated the archetypal characteristics and mentality that make up a great
business leader. In their respective videos, both the business-related channel,
Le formateur Français, and CEO of Lifestyle Media Group, Alexandre Roth,
emphasise the importance of leaders being dominant characters. Le formateur
Français (2017) adds that it is important for a leader to be highly logical at all
times and to not make things too personal, while simultaneously ensuring that
his or her employees feel comfortable and challenged to achieve their full
potential. According to Roth (2017), a good leader is “someone with an iron hand
in a velvet glove”. Thus, a leader’s objectives are known and he or she can
convince people that their vision for achieving this objective is the right one for
the company to follow. In the same video, Roth (2017) also cites that it is
critically important for a leader to be mentally stable, to be able to listen and
display initiative when needed, as well as being capable of making tough
decisions, which corresponds with the findings of the CCBS survey (2020).
When discussing the required qualities for future leaders, certified leadership
coach Sandrine Tolegano Jourdren (2018) is crystal clear on this. During her
twelve-minute talk, she specifically argues for the necessity of shifting from a
masculine leadership approach towards a more feminine style of running
organisations and managing employees. This feminine approach, Jourden (2018)
posits, would be characterised by a more personal and kinder way of managing
and inspiring other colleagues.
Understanding hierarchy in France

France is renowned for its strong hierarchical structure and power distance
culture, which applies equally to the political sphere and its business sector
(Robbins, 2015). Weber (1986) describes this hierarchy as being defined by a
centralised, bureaucratic and autocratic quasi-leadership approach. Similarly, in
her interview, Fernandes (1 April 2020) defined the hierarchy in France as akin to
a pyramidical structure, with the president-directeur general at the helm.
However, she also noted that there was an emergent trend within start-ups and
other ventures where the formal and strong hierarchical culture was giving way
to a more open and personal culture. The traditional role of the president-
directeur general is a combination of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a
managing director (Graves, 1973). The leader must be a dominant role-model
for his or her employees and needs to inspire other aspiring leaders. French
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employees often respect and trust their leader, which, in turn, makes it easier for
them to execute the orders (Dykstra, 2018). Further evidence for the persistence
of the hierarchical structure within French companies came from the CCBS
survey (2020) respondents. Specifically, 60% of the leaders indicated that they
believe that staff should follow established procedures, while another 55%
believed that while procedures should be followed, employees have some
degree of independence in how they execute their tasks (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Deneire’s (2010) research demonstrates that “middle managers have shown that
social influence depends more on hierarchical position and status [than] real
skills” (p. 841). In order to climb the French hierarchical pyramid, then, one is
expected to have a high level of education at a prestigious university. However,
more than three-quarters of the leaders reported that charisma and the right
contacts played an even more important role in attaining senior positions (CCBS
Survey, 2020). Notwithstanding these aspects, seniority was shown to still play
an important role across the different hierarchical levels within French
organisations. For example, communication between members who work at the
same hierarchical level is, like with many other cultures, relatively common in
France. Conversely, communication between members who work at different
levels of the hierarchical levels is strictly limited to providing information or
advice. The manager only receives information that is of a high quality and which
is substantiated by sound arguments or solid facts. Research by Lau and Caby
(2010) shows that participation is not as important as in other cultures. This is a
result of the high power distance and individualism within French culture.
How the French achieve leadership empathy

In order for managers to be able to empathise more with their employees, they
are required to be more personal with their team members. According to the
respondents in the CCBS survey (2020), around 70% of them agreed with the fact
that managers should actively spend time on the personal wellbeing of their
team members. Additionally, around 60% of the respondents expected the boss
to be a good listener (CCBS Survey, 2020). Alongside verbal actions, staff also
expect their managers to show sympathy when a team member is undergoing
difficult personal issues. For example, Fernandes noted that when, due to
personal circumstances, it would appear best for a staff member to take a day
off, the majority of French managers will not have any problem with this
provided that this is communicated properly to them (Fernandes, 1 April 2020).
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To make it more personal yet still and display empathic understanding with the
staff, around 80% of the leaders responded in the survey that they do not mind
being called by their first names and that, in fact, they encourage their
employees to do this (CCBS Survey, 2020). However, given that the French are
proud people, managers nevertheless still expect their employees to be formal
with them. This is because being too personal and disclosing too much personal
information is seen as potentially making both the staff member and manager
feel uncomfortable. In order for employees to empathise more with their
manager, they should seek to engage in more abstract thinking style, which
correlates with France’s rich literary history (Chhokar et al., 2007).
One should also be deeply committed in their actions when at work.
However, Pelletier posited that people from other cultures who try to empathise
with the French can feel very uncomfortable at times since the French have a
tendency to be a little too insular in their focus compared to other cultures
(Pelletier, 14 March 2020).
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Guyana
Daphne Guijt, Jopke Meijers, Margot Geukes, Shaye Dubberke & Yoran de Vries
Guyana is a country located in the northeastern corner of South America.

While it is comparable in size to the United Kingdom, large sections of the
country are uninhabited. Prior to gaining its independence half a century ago,
it was colonised firstly by the Dutch and subsequently by the British. As a result
of this colonisation, English became the primary language (Richardson & Menke,
2019). Interestingly, Guyana is the only English-speaking country on the
continent. One notable advantage of having English as their primary language is
that it makes the country more attractive to international companies. Although
English is the official language, Guyana is nevertheless populated by a broad
range of ethnic groups. Just under half of its inhabitants originate from India,
while people from African, Chinese and European descent also make up a sizable
portion of the population. On the one hand, this ethnic diversity makes the
country unique and beautiful, but, on the other hand, it also presents challenges.
For example, this ethnic diversity has been found at times to result in racial
prejudice within organisations (Johnson, 12 March 2020). To gain further insight
into such issues, we aim to examine how Guyana’s primary language (English)
and ethnic diversity influence leadership styles and practices in Guyana.
How the Guyanese characterise leaders

Similar to other Caribbean countries, Guyanese leaders tend to be charismatic.
Allahar (2001, p. 156) explains the predilection for charismatic leaders in post-
independence Guyana: “people look for charismatic leaders in times of crisis,
when other kinds of authority no longer work, and when they hope for the radical
changes that these leaders promise”. More often than not, this charisma
pertains, in part, to the fact that they lived at the right time and cultivated a
paternal image (Allahar, 2001). Davila and Elvira (2012a) argue that Latin
American leaders generally adopt authoritarian styles of leadership. One can
discern this in Guyanese business meetings, in which it is always best to let the
leader speak first (Culture Crossing Guide, 2017). This is based on the expectation
that business leaders are qualified for their jobs and capable of making rational
decisions (Global Affairs Canada, 2018a). Consequently, top-down decision-
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making is the prevailing method in the country (Punnett & Greenidge, 2009). The
CCBS survey (2020) demonstrated that the qualities that subordinates look for in
a leader are to be a respectable age and to have both the requisite organisational
experience and ability to make important decisions. All of these aforesaid
qualities correspond with an authoritarian leadership style. While being
authoritarian and charismatic are undoubtedly important, this does not mean
that Guyanese leaders keep their distance from their subordinates. In fact, the
exact opposite is the case: the ability to form relationships is deemed to be of
equal importance. This is supported by the CCBS survey (2020), wherein most
of the executives reported that managers should actively spend time on the
wellbeing of their team members. This is highly characteristic of a paternalistic
leadership style, where in return for displaying father-like behaviour, employees
have great faith in their leader and his or her decision-making prowess. Despite
the fact that successful Guyanese leaders are often portrayed as married, older,
Afro-Caribbean males with a family, female participation is nevertheless strongly
encouraged. This representation is primarily reflected in politics. For example,
Guyana is the only Caribbean country to have introduced gender quotas in
politics to ensure a minimum number of female candidates in political parties.
As a result, two-thirds of all Guyanese ministers in 2018 were female (UN
Women, 2018). This development testifies to the fact that Guyanese leaders
are more accepting of women in positions of power and authority.

Guyanese managers, CEOs and other C-level executives were asked to outline
their vision in a survey on leadership styles and practices in Guyana. The principal
themes were leadership style, leadership qualities and gender equality. The
results indicate that a relationship-oriented leadership style is the most common
leadership style in Guyana. Over two-thirds of the executives reported that in
order to maintain a good relationship, a manager should actively spend time
on the personal wellbeing of his or her team members (CCBS Survey, 2020).
In addition to this, most of the respondents disagreed with the statement that
leaders should keep personal distance from employees in order to maintain the
right level of respect (CCBS Survey, 2020). However, despite the fact that
superiors keep close connections to their employees, most still prefer to be
addressed by their title as opposed to their first name though this is dependent
on the type of company (CCBS Survey, 2020). Indeed, an executive from the
medicine sector supported this point by noting how “In more progressive
119
organisations, they can, but in older, more established organisations and in

government, titles are always used, alongside sir or ma’am” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Thus, one can conclude that relationships are highly important for leaders in
Guyana and that most leaders prefer to be addressed by their title. When looking
at the requirements of a leader, qualities like organisational experience, market
expertise and technical competence were reported as being of slightly less
importance than personal background or other characteristics, such as age,
charismatic personality, or the ability to make powerful decisions (CCBS Survey,
2020). In this respect, it is evident that Guyanese leaders prefer an authoritarian
leadership style. As one respondent observed, “Locally, many people
(subordinates) would much rather have a leader who is more authoritative than
anything else. This is due mainly to the fact that we have a pervasive colonial past
that still lingers today” (CCBS Survey, 2020). For instance, almost half of the
leaders responded in the CCBS survey (2020) that subordinates should always
follow established procedures. Similarly, two-thirds of the leaders stated that in
their organisation employees could not bend the rules without asking, even if
this was done in order to improve their performance or achieve better results.
One Guyanese leader from the finance sector shone additional light on this,
noting: “In an instance where the rules must be bent, then this is usually done
with the blessings of the CEO” (CCBS Survey, 2020). However, one respondent
from the CCBS Survey (2020) added nuance to the typical image of the
authoritarian leader, opining: “Participatory and passive leadership styles are
generally subject to intense ridicule and seen as weak forms. They are however,
being embraced by organisations which have adopted or were formed around
modern ideas and aims. That being said, the status quo still remains one that
seemingly requires near autocratic leadership styles, from simple office
management, to running the country as executive president and associated
political party”. This indicates that there are companies that are undergoing the
shift towards more modern leadership styles. A final interesting result from our
analysis of the survey data pertains to the issue of gender equality in Guyana,
where the vast majority of the executives agreed that men and women have
equal opportunities to become senior managers (CCBS Survey, 2020).
However, it was noted that there were significant differences in leadership
styles between men and women. As one respondent from the CCBS survey
commented, “Male leaders tend to have a more relaxed approach, while female
leaders tend to be more assertive and strict” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This response
was reinforced by Ashema Franklin (17 March 2020), who stated that male
executives are more laidback overall, whereas female leaders are more strict
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and to the point. This could derive from the fact that women are positioned as
needing to prove themselves more than their male counterparts.

Joseph DeJonge: a Guyanese leadership scholar
Joseph DeJonge is a Guyanese manager consultant, who studied international
business at the London South Bank University in London prior to teaching
leadership there for several years. According to Joseph DeJonge (20 March 2020),
there are contradictions in the well-established leadership theories developed by
North-American scholars. DeJonge argues that these authors invariably neglect
to mention the nepotism in Guyana, which he claims is incredibly common. The
result of this is that in business meetings it is management who ultimately make
the decisions, with very little consultation with subordinates. Moreover, the
personal development of employees in terms of learning new styles and skills is
not particularly encouraged within organisations. Indeed, even if employees have
optimised their skillset, this in and of itself would not lead to them acquiring a
better position, or becoming more involved in decision-making.
DeJonge then proceeded to discuss different leadership role-models in Guyana,
citing the former president, Forbes Burnham, as being particularly influential.
Burnham was a Guyanese scholar and lawyer who, according to DeJonge, had a
great management style although he was also somewhat radical. His strength
derived from his charismatic speeches, which gained him many followers.
Another leadership role-model cited by DeJonge was Clifford Reis, who owns
some local banks in Guyana. Reis is not a public figure and, hence, does not give
much business advice or hold seminars. Despite this, the management style that
Reis adopts in his company is great and is not representative of a dictatorial style
(DeJonge, 20 March 2020).
In terms of local books on leadership, DeJonge stated that they were non-
existent. Most Guyanese books are about Guyanese history, poetry or culture.
There is no book specifically on Guyanese leadership due to the lack of research
in this area. Indeed, academic research is primarily focused on politics and
culture, rather than a management perspective. The fact that there are not many
professional management styles adopted in Guyana is the main reason why there
is a scarcity of local research on leadership (DeJonge, 20 March 2020).
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Ashema Franklin: a Guyanese language and cross-cultural coordinator

Ashema Franklin has an impressive resume, including community development
work, disaster risk education, housing development, cultural training and
administrative work. Franklin is currently working as a language and cross-
cultural coordinator. To be a successful leader in Guyana, Franklin (17 March
2020) argued that individuals need to be strong, which is to say that they must
be resilient and able to stand on their own. She also reported that they need to
have the ability to express their ideas and thoughts with other co-workers and
employees. “They need to be able to share the team goals and visions with their
partners and subordinates” (17 March 2020). Moreover, Franklin posited that
individuals should be unbiased and respectful of the differences (race, gender,
ethnicity) within organisations. This can help to prevent racism from occurring in
the workplace.
Franklin noted that in Guyana your coworkers are not your friends. This is
because workers can start to become complacent with their managers and take
advantage of the relationships they have built with people in positions of
seniority. Finding that middle ground for relationships between leaders and their
subordinates is important within Guyanese culture. Franklin also highlighted
notable differences between women and men in leadership roles. On the whole,
she believes that men are more lenient and friendly with their subordinates:
“Men tend to have a better relationship in the Guyanese work culture than
women” (17 March 2020). Conversely, women tend to make an effort to
distinguish their role from their subordinates; for example, a female leader may
take pains to stress: “I am the manager, and you are the secretary”. Overall,
Franklin suggested that a leader should be approachable and worthy of respect.

Ruel Johnson (12 March 2020) recommended the book The Legacy of Walter
Rodney in Guyana and the Caribbean. This book is about developing countries
that have to deal with uneven development and ethnic disequilibrium. Walter
Rodney is a philosopher who is an important part of the history of the Caribbean.
Rodney helped to free the Caribbean people from ethnic chauvinism after their
independence from Britain. He argued that the extreme social inequality in the
country, such as master-slave relationships and racism, was a result of both the
oppression from the capitalist countries and their own leaders. Rodney’s work
critiqued all social, economic and political institutions in Guyana and became the
heritage of Guyanese and Caribbean history.
122

The legacy of Walter Rodney in
Title
Guyana and the Caribbean
Subtitle -
Author Arnold Gibbons
Publisher Upa
Year 2012
ISBN 9789501296372
Guyanese leadership YouTube review

YouTube videos have been proven to contain valuable information on leadership.
This section provides an overview of what Guyanese leadership experts have said
about leadership styles and practices in the country. The first video is of Dr Leslie
Ramsammy, who is the former Guyanese minister of health and the current
minister of agriculture. In this video, he explains how his leadership managed to
make vital health improvements in Guyana, as well as how he motivated his staff
to contribute countless hours to fulfilling this vision. Ramsammy emphasises that
it all starts with a vision. He is not afraid to dream big and set ambitious goals,
noting: “I don’t think that you can really visualise your world effectively unless
you can dream about it” (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2015, 9:34).
This is the type of mindset that enables him to identify issues to confront rather
than problems. In terms of executing his vision, he states that an important trait
of a leader is to be able to deal with resistance. He mentions multiple ways to
approach resistance, including leading by example. However, most importantly,
he wants his subordinates to feel that they are a key part of the process, and
thus he believes that educating people about what they can do to improve their
own situation is empowering and produces incredible results (Harvard T.H. Chan
School of Public Health, 2015).
The second video is of Abbigale A. Loncke, a Guyanese entrepreneur who owns
multiple enterprises. Alongside this, she has dedicated her life to empowering
women by creating an online environment in which women can learn from and
help each other. In this particular video, she speaks to Dr Colleen Bovel about the
importance of empowering female leaders (Abbi’s Power Lunch, 2019). This is in
accordance with Ramsammy’s aforesaid point about empowering others to be
123
aware of what they can do themselves to improve a situation (Harvard T.H. Chan
School of Public Health, 2015). The main argument advanced by Loncke in this
video is that it is especially important for women to lead by example, due to the
scarcity of female managers (Abbi’s Power Lunch, 2019).
Understanding hierarchy in Guyana

There is a pronounced hierarchical structure within many Guyanese
organisations. Decisions are often made from the top-down, which means that it
is the executive decision-maker who ultimately decides how something should
be done (Franklin, 17 March 2020). While this hierarchical structure exists in
most companies, the results from the CCBS survey (2020) signal a shift towards a
more egalitarian structure in the country. Ashema Franklin agreed with this
prognosis, adding that “Western culture has an influence on us in that way” (17
March 2020). When attempting to establish where the country ranks on the
power distance scale, it can thus be concluded that Guyana ranks quite high.
However, the shift towards a more egalitarian structure within organisations
could also be suggestive of the country moving to a lower ranking on the power
distance scale. This shift is also evident in that Guyanese work culture has also
become more relationship-based. According to the survey data, more than half
of the professionals reported that they did not prefer to keep a personal distance
from their employees (CCBS Survey, 2020). Rather, it is common in Guyana to see
professionals have relationships with their subordinates in an appropriate and
professional manner. Overall, while the hierarchy model is practised,
management prefers to foster a cordial environment in the workplace.
Yet, despite employers having personal relationships with their teams, titles are
still of critical importance. For example, “It is seen as gauche for a junior to
address a senior staff member by his or her first name in the workplace” (Global
Affairs Canada, 2018a). The CCBS survey also indicates that most Guyanese
professionals agreed with the statement that it is important for subordinates to
address leaders according to their title or position (CCBS Survey, 2020). The
importance of titles also extends outside of the professional context. Many locals
who are called by their first name by a foreigner would view it as them “talking
down” to them (Global Affairs Canada, 2018a). Therefore, while Guyana
currently ranks high on the power distance scale, one can conclude that it is
slowly moving towards a more egalitarian business environment.
124
How Guyanese achieve leadership empathy

Empathy, which can be defined as the ability to understand another’s feelings,
represents an important concept for emotionally intelligent behaviour (Mayer,
DiPaolo & Salovey, 1990). Goleman (1995) believes that empathy is necessary for
establishing types of interpersonal relationships that make change possible.
Moreover, Goleman states that empathy makes resonance possible, and, thus, if
leaders lack empathy, they are inclined to act in ways that create dissonance.
Strong personal relationships with employees and business partners are essential
as employees more or less expect their leaders to show interest in their personal
life. An example of this could be attending an employee’s wedding. In addition to
this, leaders “define their successes and failures in relation to the other” (Hinds,
2011, p. 30). According to DeJonge (20 March 2020), historically, empathy was
not particularly prevalent in Guyana; rather, “it was either you do it my way, or
no way”. However, due to changes in the environment engendered by the
implementation of international standards, business owners have come to
appreciate the importance of establishing good relationships between
employees and employers. As DeJonge (20 March 2020) stated in our interview,
“If there is no empathy it is not possible to create a policy programme”.
Furthermore, Guyana is considered to be a multi-active country (Lewis, 1996),
which is to say the people are characterised as being warm, emotional,
loquacious and impulsive. This is supported by the findings of our survey, which
showed that the majority of the respondents believed that a leader does not
need to keep a personal distance from employees to maintain the right level of
respect (CCBS Survey, 2020). Importantly, people have limited respect for
authority as their place will be accepted in their own social or company
hierarchy. Therefore, strong bosses are expected to protect them (Johnson,
12 March 2020).
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Luxembourg
Natasha Kremer, Romée Hoogenbosch, Jelmer Prenger & Nestor Basas
Luxembourg, or Lëtzebuerg as it is known in its native language, is one of

Europe’s smallest countries, geographically positioned between Germany, France
and Belgium. Luxembourg comprises two main regions: the Oesling, a hilly region
with large mixed forests in the north that is part of the Ardennes massif, and the
Gutland, which is a relatively urbanised region in the south (Nationsonline, n.d.).
Luxembourg became an independent state in 963 (Everett-Heath, 2000). Despite
its small size, the world’s only grand duchy is far from inferior to its neighbouring
countries given that the country has one of the highest minimum wages across
Europe and the world’s leading economy in terms of GDP (Countryeconomy,
2019; Schulten & Luebker, 2019). The Luxembourg financial sector has
established itself as one of the main international banking centres from the
1960s onwards, due, in part, to its unparalleled range of services, financial
infrastructure and expertise (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, n.d.). The country also
played a significant role in the formation of the European Union (EU) and has
served as a home to EU institutions from 1952. In addition to this, it is also one of
the three institutional seats of the EU (Luxembourg, 2020b).
Another notable fact is that in a population of over 600,000 people, only half
of its citizens are of Luxembourgish nationality. The remainder of its diverse
population comprises of people of Portuguese, French, Italian, Belgian and
German nationalities (Luxembourg, 2020a). With such an international influence,
it is perhaps unsurprising that there are three official languages in Luxembourg,
namely German, French and Luxembourgish. However, English is the lingua
franca among the large international community where it is the predominant
language spoken in the finance sector and business meetings (Luxembourg,
2020a). Ultimately, as Schinzel (2019) notes, Luxembourg’s cultural and linguistic
particularities mean that responsible leadership, corporate social responsibility,
and the link between them are not homogeneous, and leadership in Luxembourg
varies, therefore, depending on the company and the individual leader.
Moreover, Luxembourg has a reputation for being small but powerful, which is
reflected in their national motto: Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn (We want to
remain what we are) (Luxembourg Times, 2013).
126
How the Luxembourgers characterise leaders

The business organisational culture in Luxembourg is deeply hierarchical and
characterised by a strictly-defined chain of command. Consequently, the
leadership style in Luxembourg is best described as being autocratic in nature. In
accordance with the explicit hierarchical structure, senior management are
accorded a high level of respect and imbued with the sole responsibility for
decision-making, whilst lower-ranked employees have very little influence in this
process. Employees are highly dependent on their managers but appreciate
transparency and conscientious task delegation. Moreover, leaders are judged on
the basis of their intellect, personal appearance and educational background. An
employee’s position within the hierarchy is reflected in various perks, including
job titles and office space. This is supported by the CCBS survey (2020), in which
more than half of the Luxembourgish respondents reported that leaders are
provided with offices and transportation that reflect their standing in the
organisation. Moreover, Dr Ursula Schinzel (24 March 2020) emphasised in our
interview that “a leader in Luxembourg has to be strong and be a [role] model”.
As a result of globalisation, Luxembourg’s leadership style has changed over the
years as increasing multinational corporations establish bases in the country.
According to Rita Knott (24 April 2020), a managing partner in the coaching,
mentoring and consulting sector, “there are so many foreigners working in
Luxembourg, that intercultural awareness is very important”. The pace and
impact of this influx of multinational corporations are expressed by a general
manager from the financial services: “Luxembourg has changed rapidly, and my
organisation, in particular, is very multicultural” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This is in
accordance with Garnjost, Brown and Andreassi’s (2015) research, which
suggests that the influence of national culture is diminishing in this multicultural
business environment. Indeed, as Murdock (2017) posits, given that 47% of
Luxembourg’s population are foreigners, what constitutes the majority and the
minority in the first place is a highly complex issue. This is why Schinzel (2018a)
believes that Luxembourg requires new ways of thinking and greater innovation
in the future. Simply put, there is no “one size fits all” leadership style in such a
heterogenous country (CCBS Survey, 2020). Globalisation has produced other
notable shifts; for example, Schinzel (2015) purports that management in most
multinational companies do not act in an authoritarian manner since
multinational companies tend to have flatter organisational structures. This helps
to foster a greater degree of collaborative teamwork and brainstorming among
colleagues. As noted by Schinzel, during our interview, “modern leaders
127
appreciate [a] fast exchange of communication as the business requires quick

actions” (24 March 2020). Alongside this, several other key characteristics of
leadership have emerged in Luxembourg in recent years, such as a strong
charismatic personality, access to the right business networks, resourcefulness
and intellect (CCBS Survey, 2020).

An online survey was conducted with over thirty C-level executives and managers
to gain insight into leadership styles and practices in Luxembourg. Firstly, it is
evident that hierarchy still plays a significant role within organisations in
Luxembourg. For instance, more than half of the respondents agreed that when a
management decision is made, it is unlikely to be changed. This finding is in
accordance with that of the previous edition of the CCBS book (Schroevers &
Doğan, 2019). However, 96% of our respondents reported that employees can
address their leader by their first name. Moreover, more than half of the
respondents did not maintain personal distance from their employees in order to
ensure that they were accorded the right level of respect.
Research conducted by Cames, Vinnicombe and Singh (2001) found that male
and female managers held similar views about leadership. This is supported by
our survey findings, which indicate that more than half of the respondents
agreed that men and women have equal access to senior leadership positions
(CCBS Survey, 2020). This suggests that the working landscape in Luxembourg is
changing. According to Gruwez (1999), “the development shows a trend towards
teamwork, where work, power and authority are evenly distributed among
several persons and carried out correspondingly” (p. 6).
Secondly, half of the respondents indicated that they preferred to hear criticism
indirectly and outside of staff meetings. The study conducted by Albert, Ferring
and Michels (2013) conclude that value consensus is especially important. This
finds support in our survey, insofar as 95% of the respondents agreed that a
manager should actively spend time on the personal wellbeing of their team
members.
Thirdly, regarding the issue of time management, most of the respondents
preferred to schedule meetings between 10:00 and 11:00. This is because, as one
CEO in the financial services sector put it, since “a lot of people have to travel to
work, starting a meeting before 9 am is difficult and will lead to a number of
people not being there at the start” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Moreover, just over half
of our respondents agreed that missing a deadline is more or less synonymous
128
with failure. This finding was reinforced by Schinzel (24 March 2020), who stated:
“we love punctuality, and if you are not, this is seen as the biggest error that you
could make”. Finally, the survey results indicate that employees expect their
leader to be a visionary thinker, a good listener and powerful decision-maker, in
conjunction with having extensive organisational experience, market expertise
and technical competence (CCBS Survey, 2020).

Dr Ursula Schinzel: a Luxembourg academic leadership scholar
Dr Schinzel is a well-known scholar from Luxembourg. She holds a doctorate in
business administration and has written several books and published articles
about management and leadership. She is a member of the editorial boards for
both the Journal of Academic Oasis and the International Journal of
Organizational Analysis. Currently, she is a trainer and consultant for
management and leadership. In her article “Responsible leadership and
corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Luxembourg”, Schinzel (2018a) concludes
that because of the linguistic and cultural characteristics of Luxembourg, there
can be no homogeneous “one size fits all” leadership style. Rather, it is always
dependent on individual and cultural factors. As an employer herself, she cited a
piece of valuable advice during the interview: “I give the biggest responsibilities
to my employees. I probably do not pay them the best salary because I obviously
cannot compete with the multinationals, but I respond by giving them the
freedom that they need in order to develop their creativity. And, employees would
very much appreciate this freedom because freedom has no price” (Schinzel, 24
March 2020). This is supported by our survey findings where more than half of
the respondents were supportive of flexibility in the workplace to achieve better
results (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Rita Knott: a Luxembourg cross-cultural consultant

Knott is both a native and a managing partner in the coaching, mentoring and
consulting sector in Luxembourg. Her company provides coaching services for
sustainable leadership to multinational companies. She also posited that
Luxembourg does not have a “one size fits all” leadership style and, as such, that
“a leader in Luxembourg, in the Luxembourg-structure, needs to adapt to the
[varied-culture] work environment and little to the cultural background of the
specific employees he or she has to deal with” (24 April 2020). However, she
129
added the caveat that the leader’s style has to be combined with the company
culture: “Leaders need to step back and understand what kind of horizon the
background of the people they are dealing with [has] and communicate with
them so they are on the same level. Leaders who are working in companies which
have their head office in Luxembourg have to adapt enormously. They need to
continue with what works and stop with what does not work” (Knott, 24 April
2020). While Knott has travelled extensively, she has yet to see any other country
that is similar to Luxembourg: “you can only be successful here, if you embrace
diversity” (Knott, 24 April 2020).

Parlons Affaires! - Let’s Talk Business! - Business op Lëtzebuergesch! is a survival
guidebook for business professionals written by Welschbillig Myriam, Bernard
Bruno and Dasty Florence in 2014. In a country as multicultural as Luxembourg,
expressing oneself and understanding others can be a profound challenge. This
book addresses this challenge and bridges the gap between academia and the
business sector by drawing upon real-life examples from the business world.

Parlons Affaires! - Let’s Talk Business!
Title
Business Op Lëtzebuergesch!
Welschbillig Myriam, Bernard Bruno
Author
and Dasty Florence
Publisher Editions Schortgen
Year 2014
ISBN 978-99959-36-01-3
Luxembourg leadership YouTube review

An interview with the leadership coach Lemay-Vriesde (2019) focuses on
leadership in Luxembourg. She mentions three factors that are critical for
achieving success in an international business context. First, Luxembourgers need
a leader, someone to follow and someone whom they can relate to. Secondly,
one must be cognizant of the cultural differences in Luxembourg since more
than half of its population comprises foreign nationals (Lemay-Vriesde, 2019).
130
This point is supported by a CEO from an energy service company, who stated
that: “as we are in a very international environment, [the] leadership style will
differ a lot due to cultural differences” (CCBS Survey, 2020). The third factor
pointed out by Lemay-Vriesde pertains to developing an international mindset.
These three factors are all supported by the findings from our CCBS survey
(2020). Moreover, Inside Amazon Videos (2019) conducted interviews with
Amazon employees based in Luxembourg. In the video, the employees discuss
the importance of having direct contact with leaders, being involved in
international projects and having management support.
Understanding hierarchy in Luxembourg

As aforesaid, the Luxembourgish business culture is deeply hierarchical and
highly structured. This was supported by David Schrieberg, a CEO from the digital
media sector, who noted that “Companies generally maintain silos and are very
rule and procedure-oriented. Especially given Luxembourg’s history in finance,
which it has moved sharply over the past decade to rectify” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
This sentiment is echoed by Jan Glas, a business partner in the design and
consulting sector, who suggests that “Older established structures ‘suffer’ often
from classic hierarchy. It is difficult to change that” (CCBS Survey, 2020). A study
by Scholtens and Dam (2007) also posits that Luxembourg has a high level of
hierarchy. However, given that 80% of the workforce in Luxembourg are foreign
nationals, not all companies will exhibit a typically Luxembourgish business
culture. Indeed, in contradistinction to Scholtens and Dam’s (2007) findings,
Schinzel (2013) and Garnjost et al. (2015) classify Luxembourg as a country with
a low level of hierarchy. This was based on a quantitative study with 134
Luxembourgish employees, who were questioned about the six cultural
dimensions discussed in Hofstede’s work. The results show that employees
in Luxembourg have an average power distance index of 29 (Schinzel, 2018a).
As a business partner from the financial services sector expressed, “Compared to
for instance Germany or France, Luxembourg is a very international, multi-
cultural place. As you know, hierarchical structures are not the same in different
cultures. A Chinese bank has a different hierarchical structure from a French bank
or a German bank or an American bank. So, it depends greatly for which company
one is working” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This notion that Luxembourg does not have
a singular culture is in accordance with other literature, which argues that it is
hard to classify the hierarchical level of Luxembourgish organisations.
131
For instance, Knott (24 April 2020) claims that power distance levels are primarily
determined by the nationality of the person that one is interacting with.
However, the extent of hierarchy is not only affected by nationalities but also by
other demographic factors. According to Valentova (2013), role differences occur
to a lesser extent amongst younger and middle-aged people compared to the
elderly, which suggests that both gender and age are also determining factors in
the level of hierarchy. In conjunction with nationality, these two factors can
influence how businesses are structured, which, in turn, results in distinct
organisational cultures. Glas, a business partner from the design and consulting
sector, stated that “Young enterprises led by people (I would say up to 40 years
old), have a much more flat-hierarchical approach: co-creation/design [and]
consensus finding” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This is also reflected in our survey,
where 50% of the respondents agreed that employees are expected to follow
established procedures. In addition, Knott (24 April 2020) noted that in the
companies in which she coached, half of them had incredibly flat hierarchical
structures (ie the German-orientated businesses), while the other half had a
more vertical hierarchical structure (ie French-orientated businesses). Within the
former companies, it is not unusual to contact your supervisor on a daily basis,
while such contact is far more infrequent in the latter. From a leadership
perspective, Knott (24 April 2020) purports that this can impact the decision-
making process. In light of the fact that the hierarchical level within Luxembourg
is still relatively unclassified, the survey results afford the possibility of gaining a
broader overview of the organisational culture in the country. In the CCBS survey
(2020), a staggering 96% of our respondents agree that employees in
Luxembourg can address their manager by his or her first name. This is in
contrast to the results from the 2019 CCBS survey (Schroevers & Doğan, 2019)
which concludes that a strict hierarchical structure is practised at all times.
This point is echoed by Annica Törneryd, a coach in the leadership sector, who
opined: “Just for the record; Luxembourg standards: a title is VERY important.
My personal standards: I don’t care about your title” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
However, Manuel de Magtige, a financial and logistics manager in the trading
industry, emphasised that it “depend[s] on the relationship” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Furthermore, the vast majority of respondents reported having some degree of
independence when making business decisions. This is evidenced by the CCBS
survey results, in which more than half of the respondents posited that
employees may bend the rules without asking, in an effort to improve their
performance or achieve better results (CCBS Survey, 2020). Although, according
to one business partner in the financial services sector, “At the end, the result
132
counts most. However, I expect my staff to communicate when they need to bend
rules and not just take the decision that they can” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Knott (24
April 2020) noted that, in most cases, employees decide the extent to which they
discuss their decisions with their supervisors but that this is dependent on the
type of supervisor. For example, when a supervisor is more hierarchically-
orientated, in the sense that he or she is from a culture where this is normal,
then the employee will take this into account. This is supported by Gruwez
(1999), who argues that a cooperative system exists in Luxembourg as a result
of the range of nationalities. Given that almost all of the respondents reported
filling in the survey from the perspective of their Luxembourg nationality, one
could thus interpret that the culture tends to be in closer alignment with a lower
power distance level. To conclude, one should remain cognizant of the fact that
Luxembourg comprises multiple nationalities, which, in turn, makes it almost
impossible to classify it as monocultural. However, when one does examine it
in unity, it becomes evident that a more horizontally-oriented hierarchical
structure is most suitable.
How Luxembourgers achieve leadership empathy

While the overall system of leadership in Luxembourg has been significantly
influenced by developments in neighbouring countries, the specific aspect of
leadership empathy has followed its own distinct line of development (Seifert
2011). Leadership empathy in Luxembourg is the result of the plentitude of
resources and talent abroad and the lack of it within the country itself. This
deficiency necessitates the country to seek talent outside of its borders (Schinzel,
2017). Decades of talent importation have led to an educated and culturally
diverse population. The end result of having such a multicultural population is,
among other things, a unique combination of a strong long-term orientation,
high level of uncertainty avoidance, high level of collectivism and a medium level
of masculinity (Schroevers & Doğan, 2019). In other words, growth is carefully
planned, and security is of vital importance. The collectivism translates into
private circles that can encompass the social structures of villages or
communities. In business there is a considerable level of competitiveness while
hierarchy is respected on a level similar to German companies (Schinzel, 2017).
A business partner in the financial services sector concluded that “because of the
multi-cultural environment, it is important to understand the differences in
cultures and to be able to deal with people from different cultural backgrounds”
133
Luxembourg’s employment relations system has been described as neo-

corporatist, albeit with some statist elements, due to the fact that the
government retains a coordinating role and a strong foothold in all areas of
national social dialogue (Kirov & Thill, 2015; Vollaard et al., 2015). According to
Glas, leadership empathy can be divided into two classes: “Older class: via
materialistic outings (big car, big house, exclusive holidays, etc.), but also through
networking and philanthropic activities; younger class: via societal engagement,
combined with professional activities, more experienced-based, less materialistic,
community-oriented [and] networking” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Furthermore, Annica Törneryd, a coach in the leadership sector, stated that the
difference between the respective leadership styles of men and women is that
“men in leadership focus on creating big results in numbers, while women in
leadership focus on creating a big impact for people – which mostly leads to great
results in numbers” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This is further supported by the CCBS
survey results in which respondents indicated that female leaders are more
empathic, consensual, understanding and better listeners (CCBS Survey, 2020). In
conclusion, leadership empathy in Luxembourg is about how a leader is, rather
than how they act. Empathic leaders in Luxembourg earn trust and inspire others
through their language and their employee relations (Schinzel, 2017).
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Madagascar
Kelsey Baguley, Nalini Koesal, Gino Kraan & Eric Henriquez
The Republic of Madagascar (Repoblikan’i Madagasikara) is the world’s fourth-

largest island and lies in the Indian Ocean southeast of Mozambique (Smith,
Shepherd & Dorward, 2012). The capital city of Madagascar is Antananarivo
(Tananarive). Madagascar became independent from France in 1960, which is
why French is one of their official languages. The other official language of
Madagascar is Malagasy, although many people also speak English as a result of
its historical ties to the British Empire. Madagascar’s main industries are
agriculture, which accounts for a quarter of its GDP, and mining. Although the
majority of the populace are farmers, most of this farming is solely for purposes
of subsistence. Despite being an incredibly poor country with an extremely high
rate of poverty, their economy is growing quickly in comparison to other
countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
How the Malagasy characterise leaders

The culture in Madagascar is referred to as Malagasy. A leader, or mpitarika as it
is known in Malagasy, is predominantly a highly-educated male from an affluent
socio-economic background (Razanadrakoto, 2019). In this respect, the prevailing
leadership styles closely mirror Asian styles of leadership (Altius &
Raveloharimisy, 2016, p. 133). In terms of formal education, Madagascar has
fairly low attendance rates and a high percentage of drop-outs, which directly
influences the future generation of leaders in Madagascar (Razanadrakoto,
2019). It does so inasmuch as individuals who possess potentially great
leadership skills yet come from impoverished backgrounds are destined to not
become leaders (Razanadrakoto, 2019). The leadership style in Madagascar is a
combination of a laissez-faire approach and a servant type of leadership. These
leadership styles culminate in three predominant behaviours: impression leaving,
friendliness and being attentive. Moreover, leaders are framed as fatherly
figures, according to Hasina Ranaivo (9 April 2020). For example, leaders often
send out a “we-message”, which, in turn, stimulates communication and
teamwork amongst their subordinates. They should also display their cognisance
of the needs and goals of their employees. According to a country cluster study
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(GLOBE), of which Madagascar was included, a leader should foreground “the

pride of the company and reference competitors and talk about previous
successes” (Cherfan, 2016, p. 55).
The importance of good communication in the country is illustrated by the fact
that the former president of Madagascar was impeached because of his way of
communicating and leading. Subsequently, a new president was elected who was
more open and relaxed in his style of communication. In addition to these
aforesaid qualities, a leader should act and sound intelligent, be articulate and
follow up their talk with concrete action. A small act of humbleness also goes a
long way in Malagasy culture; therefore, a leader is primarily venerated for their
human-oriented characteristics (Cherfan, 2016). In summary, a balance between
respect and friendship should be the number one priority for a leader in
Madagascar. An ideal leader should create a father-son dynamic with their
employees, while, simultaneously, displaying a charismatic, team-oriented
and participative leadership approach. That is what makes the difference in
business in Madagascar (Andrianary, 9 April 2020).

The CCBS survey (2020) provides meaningful insights into Malagasy leaders’
experiences of leadership styles and practices in the country. Leadership styles in
Madagascar tend to be indirect, but leaders are well respected because of the
respect accorded to elders generally in society. Formal authority is valued more
than one’s leadership capabilities in the business sector, and most leaders are
older and male. In Madagascar, employees look up to their leaders on the
grounds of their organisational experience, technical competence and market
experience. One’s age, appearance and family background are other notable
factors underpinning respect towards leaders. Just under half of the respondents
reported that it is always important for subordinates to address leaders by their
titles or positions, while almost all of the respondents stated that it is often
important to do this. The majority of respondents considered it to be
inappropriate for employees to address their leader by their first name, and, in
fact, even went so far as to consider it to be disrespectful to do so. The preferred
titles to be used when addressing leaders were cited by the respondents as being
Chef, Directeur, Madame or Monsieur, Boss, Mr or Mrs, followed by their name
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The majority of the respondents somewhat agreed that decisions taken by

managers are deemed as final and, as such, are unlikely to be changed after the
fact. In Madagascar, leaders need to be decisive. This is important, according to
the respondents, because Malagasy people are considered to have a mora-mora
(take it easy) mindset and tend to go with the flow. Moreover, the CCBS survey
(2020) highlighted that once rules have been established, it is generally
unacceptable for employees to bend these rules, even if they do so in an effort to
improve performance or achieve better results. Mirana Rasamimanana, a general
manager in training, social and technical studies within the leadership sector in
Madagascar, added that “bending the rules would be the exception, and the
frequency of bending the rules would mean that the rules themselves need to be
changed to improve performance” (16 April 2020). Although they value formal
authority and accept a hierarchical style of leadership, almost all of the Malagasy
respondents reported that managers should actively spend time on the personal
wellbeing of their team members. In addition, employees expect their leader to
be a good listener, a visionary thinker and a powerful decision-maker.
With respect to gender equality within organisations in Madagascar, only a

quarter of the respondents believed that men and women had equal access to
senior leadership positions. As a Malagasy information system management
consultant commented, “Madagascar needs more female empowerment, as
[they] think that women are fanaka malemy (weak furniture)” (CCBS Survey,
2020). Similarly, Michella Rakotolahy, the Directeur d’Exploitation (COO) of a
logistics company in Madagascar, opined: “as a woman you have to double your
efforts to be considered” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Our interviews with female
business leaders and trainers also demonstrated that women have been working
hard to get to the forefront of Malagasy leadership through utilising a range of
qualities such as empathy, attention to detail and visionary thinking.

Haingo Andrianary: a Malagasy cross-cultural trainer
Haingo Andrianary, CEO of Haingo Consulting, is an experienced consultant in
Madagascar. She has a master’s degree in economics and was selected for the
Young African Leaders Initiatives (YALI), which led to her studying at the
University of CESAG, a very prestigious university in Dakar, Senegal. According to
Andrianary (9 April 2020), a leader is a person who is capable of motivating their
employees to achieve a common goal. As well as this, a leader should both be
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humble and strive to display a degree of humility to their employees. This

corresponds with the modern idea of being an empathic leader towards one’s
employees, which, in turn, establishes warmer relationships between leaders and
their subordinates. However, within traditional business structures, a certain
degree of distance is always maintained between leaders and their subordinates.
For example, an employee should direct their communication only to their
supervisor rather than speaking directly to the figurehead of the company.
Andrianary posited that this is different within her company, in that she has
personal relationships with her employees and do not consider them as her
employees per se but, rather, as equals and co-workers. For this reason, her
company could be considered as an example of a more modern organisation
within Madagascar. In contradistinction to her organisation, in traditional
companies a leader is often expected to be a dominant male, based on the fact
that women are deemed to be fanaka malemy, which means the weaker sex in
Malagasy. This is something that Andrianary does not agree with, however. In
fact, she argued that women can be better leaders than their male counterparts
due, in part, to their attention to detail, which men tend to overlook in her
estimation. Hence, while leadership is relatively new in Madagascar, it is evident
that the prevailing traditional type of leadership is slowly beginning to give way
to a new approach, which is more empathic and allows for a greater degree of
participation by women (Andrianary, 9 April 2020).
Hasina Ranaivo: a Malagasy cross-cultural trainer

Hasina Ranaivo, Executive Coach Certifiée at HEC Paris, is an expert in public
leadership on Madagascar and also a member of the International Foundation of
Women Empowerment. According to Ranaivo (9 April 2020), leadership is closely
related to the culture of Madagascar. She cited the example of how the leader of
a household is commonly deemed to be the father. She also discussed how
leadership was often defined by age and experience, especially in the corporate
world. It is important to note that while leaders in Madagascar are
predominately male and older in age, Ranaivo purported that female leaders and
younger leaders are starting to become more common in the country. As a result
of this shift, leadership in Madagascar is slowly beginning to transition away from
being gender-based to quality-based. Specific Malagasy leadership qualities cited
by Ranaivo included the ability to control a situation and being able to determine
and communicate to their followers what is right and wrong within the
organisation. Alongside this, Ranaivo (9 April 2020) also noted that “a leader
must be able to bring change and enrich [employees] lives,” which is becoming
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the new norm of how people see leadership in Madagascar. Presence is another
important quality and pertains to the need to be attentive, to be there for your
followers and to listen to them. This, once again, harks back to the importance of
empathy that was also raised in our interview with Haingo Andrianary. A final
important quality is flexibility. In Madagascar, this refers to leaders being able to
admit when they are wrong. In other words, the more leaders show that they are
human as opposed to a machine, the more they will be listened to and respected
by their employees.
Mirana Rasamimanana: a Malagasy cross-cultural trainer

Mirana Rasaminana is a project manager at Swiss Leaders Group in Madagascar
and is a certified trainer and coach in leadership. Alongside this, she is a
consultant for a variety of companies. In contrast to the previous interviewees,
Rasamimanana has a more international background and has worked with
companies located in America, China and Madagascar. In light of this experience,
she brings a distinctly unique perspective to leadership in Madagascar. When
asked about how she feels leadership is perceived in Madagascar, she replied
that it is primarily “based upon age, influence, and position” (16 April 2020).
What is also very important is masina, which means sacred in Malagasy. In
Madagascar, it is believed that leadership is a sacred quality that only a select
few people can possess. In her estimation, a good leader is “a person who listens
to their people, to influence them in a good way, and to bring out the best in
them, in an effort to realise the vision of the company or institution” (16 April
2020). When asked in the interview about how leaders in Madagascar use
empathic understanding, Rasamimanana commented that “Malagasy people as a
whole put a lot of emphasis [on] social relationships” (16 April 2020). There is a
special word in Malagasy called fihavana, which means the way you relate to
others, the way you get close to others. This suggests that the way leaders in
Madagascar use empathy is by listening to others, being there for them and
giving them support as and when they require it.
The subject of comparing leadership styles also came up in the interview, which
was particularly relevant given her background working for American and Asian
companies and her experience of their distinct leadership styles. With regards to
American leadership styles, she noted that their “leadership style is less formal
compared to Madagascar” (16 April 2020). Interestingly, she said that Asian
leadership styles “[are] very similar to how it is in Madagascar; they are very
formal and respect their elders” (16 April 2020).
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For our in-country leadership bestseller, we selected Tikoland by Jeannot
Ramambazafy, which is currently only available in French. The book is a
biography of the ex-president of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, and primarily
focuses on his ability to abuse his leadership skills and methods. He served as
president of Madagascar from 2002 to 2009. The name Tikoland derives from the
name of his company Tiko, of which he was the CEO whilst simultaneously being
the president of Madagascar. During his presidency, he expressed the same
leadership traits that are prevalent in the business sector in Madagascar,
including being empathic, showing people that he listens to them and acting like
an honest person. Sadly, it was all just an act. He abused the power of being
president to position his company as one of the most successful in Madagascar,
while also avoiding paying corporation tax. Behind closed doors, he was noted by
the author to view his position as the president merely as a job (Ramambazafy,
2018). While he led a rather dishonest first and second term as president, in 2009
he was removed and received a jail sentence for his numerous crimes. This was a
major scandal, which, in turn, led to leadership being taken much more seriously
in Madagascar.

Title Tikoland
Les comptes de fait de Marc
Subtitle
Ravalomanana
Author Jeannot Ramambazafy
Publisher Independently Published
Year 2018
ISBN 9781730728679
Malagasy leadership YouTube review

According to Hasina Ranaivo (9 April 2020), in Madagascar there is a traditional
type of leadership in which leaders are often male and come from prosperous
and affluent families. There is, however, a small but notable shift going on,
whereby females are beginning to occupy more senior positions within
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companies. Across Africa, several programmes have been implemented, most

notably the Young African Leaders Initiative (U.S. Embassy in Madagascar, 2019)
and the Young Women Leadership Programme (Razafinimanana, 2015), whose
express aims are to encourage women to reach their full potential in their
careers in Madagascar. “We firmly believe that young women can bring a positive
change in their lives and community just because they have a vision”
(Razafinimanana, 2015, 0:20). These programmes help maximise young women’s
capacities and skills, for the express purpose of ensuring that they have more
opportunities to become leaders in Madagascar and other African countries.
Hence, these programmes constitute an important empowering step in realising
a different organisational culture across the continent, one in which the idea of
female leaders is more normalised than it is presently. As Tina Razafinimana
stated in her video, the goal of the Young Women Leadership Programme is to
“strengthen young women’s management, leadership, and technical skills to
enhance and bring to scale programmes that advance young women’s
empowerment” (Razafinimanana, 2015, 0:54).
Understanding hierarchy in Madagascar

In Madagascar, the hierarchical order, or ambaratongam-pitantanana as it is
referred to in Malagasy, is similar to that found in Asian countries, such as China,
Japan and Korea. Above all, this means that hierarchy is predicated on age,
gender and the respective positions of an individual within their society or
company. Drawing parallels between Malagasy leadership styles and Asian
leadership styles is justified on the basis that Madagascar follows Eastern values
more than Western values. Indeed, according to comparative research
conducted by Dahl (1999), which examined the similarities and differences
between Western values and Malagasy values, in Malagasy culture individuals
must submit to the authority figure or elder, which is in contrast to more
Western cultural norms. This provides insight into how hierarchy functions in
Madagascar in the business context. Similarly, social hierarchy in Madagascar
tends to be highly formal and requires subordinates and younger people to show
emotional control as they are expected to always adhere to strict rules of
conduct and politeness when expressing themselves to or in relation to a
superior or elder (Pritzker, Fenigsen & Wilce, 2019). To further explain this point,
it is instructive to cite the example of an interaction between a parent and child.
Children are expected to always be humble and restrained when speaking to
their parents, no matter what the conversation is about. This means that even in
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an argument in which the parent is clearly wrong, the child must always control
him or herself and show the elder respect.
How Malagasy achieve leadership empathy

Empathy, or nahay niara-niory, is important in the context of business
leadership, insofar as it has a positive connection to employees’ level of
engagement in their work (Dalh, 1999, pp. 6-7). In Malagasy culture, individuals
value empathy and are indirect in their communication in order to not offend
others or damage relationships (Dahl, 1999). Malagasy leaders even go as far as
to speak in soft voices since loud voices are viewed as a sign of disrespect
(Cherfan, 2016). The Malagasy achieve leadership empathy by fostering
relationships, while “direct speech is often avoided, as such speech risks
disturbing the [amicable] relationship that is preferred among humans who live
and work together” (Dalh, 1999, p. 15). Although relationships are an integral
element of conducting business in Madagascar, Ranaivo (9 April 2020) notes that
“empathy is sometimes misunderstood” as when Malagasy leaders try to use
empathy by asking questions to better understand their employees, it is at times
perceived as a judgement. Hence, “the leader has to be authentic, true to himself,
[…] sincere, honest and ready to hear feedback even if it is not good feedback” if
they are to truly achieve leadership empathy (Ranaivo, 9 April 2020). Given that
they are a collectivistic society, the Malagasy are very loyal to the groups to
which they belong and tend to value these relationships above all others. This is
also true with respect to places of employment and businesses in Madagascar.
Leaders should be cognizant of this and strive to be genuine in their interactions
with employees, in order to foster positive relationships with them.
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Moldova
Amber Stellingwerf, Jean Kluinhaar, Gina van der Veen & Sanne Brinkman
Moldova is officially referred to as the Republic of Moldova (Republicii Moldova).

It is a former Soviet republic near the Black Sea, which is bordered by Romania
and Ukraine. As a result of its different cultures, picturesque hilly landscapes and
having the biggest wine cellar in the world, it has been called one of the best-
kept secrets on earth. Although the country gained its independence in 1991
(Ciscel, 2005), the Soviet legacy remains discernible in the economic and political
spheres even though its culture is more closely related to Romania. The country
is sparsely populated with approximately 3.5 million habitants, while the
population growth is essentially zero (Plecher, 2019). The most commonly
spoken language within the country is Romanian. The name Moldova itself
derives from the Moldova River, which constituted the main political base at the
time of the foundation of the Principality of Moldova (Brezianu & Spânu, 2007).
As Dorian Furtună, author of several scientific texts, observes: “Republica
Moldova este o ţăra cu un trecut imprevizibil”, which translates to the Republic of
Moldova is a country with an unpredictable past (Citatepedia, n.d.). Specifically,
the culture and history of the Republic of Moldova are distinguished by two
distinct components: annexed Bessarabia, which was part of Romania for a long
time; and a slice of Western Ukraine, which is characterised by Russian (Slavic)
traditions (Ghedrovici & Ostapenko, 2016). Currently, there are notable
developments in Moldovan business culture, characterised by leadership styles
and practices shifting from a Soviet-based approach to more Western-oriented
approaches.
How the Moldovans characterise leaders

Post-Soviet countries have pursued different paths in their transitions following
the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As a result of communism, the leadership
style in Moldova is hierarchical, and leaders tend to adopt an authoritarian
leadership style. According to Covaş (2019), the organisational environment is
strictly controlled and structured. The leadership style is known to be risk-averse
and to follow strict regulations and procedures. As Eugenia Caracas, one of our
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CCBS survey respondents reported, “From my point of view, the Post-Soviet

Union has printed [a] certain [form] of leadership […] in the older […] generation,
[which] is mostly to change in the youths’ approach to this topic” (CCBS Survey,
2020). This is in accordance with research conducted by Sali and Kalve (2012),
who found that young professionals in Moldova were more focused on change,
innovation and efficient collaboration than their older counterparts.
In Moldova, leaders tend to display minimal interest in problem-solving, and

rarely seek the advice of their employees; instead, they are solely concerned with
fulfilling daily requirements and tasks (Jackson, 2002). Evidence for this task-
oriented focus was found in our survey results, which indicates that the vast
majority of respondents viewed missing deadlines as a sign of failure (CCBS
Survey, 2020). Furthermore, in Moldovan companies there is a contradiction
concerning the management profession: on the one hand, there is recurring
demand for managers to show professionalism, while, on the other hand, there is
routinely expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of business education and
management courses in the country (Cotelnic, 2011). In other words, it is fair to
say that there remains considerable uncertainty about the position and task of
managers within companies in Moldova. This was reinforced by a local
respondent, who explained that “in Moldova, a leader is often confused with the
manager itself, which is not the same in my opinion. Only progressive managers
are leaders as well” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
In reality, the biggest obstacle to establishing effective teams in Moldovan

companies derives from the lack of training of managers on how to interact and
collaborate with their subordinates. This is a significant obstacle as both Covaş’s
research (2019) and the CCBS survey (2020) results emphasise the importance of
leaders interacting with their team and its current shortcomings in Moldova. This
is supported by the results of the CCBS survey (2020), insofar as the majority of
the respondents believed that leaders should motivate their team members and
encourage a sense of competition within the team to achieve better results.
However, the professionals who took part in the CCBS survey (2020) indicated
that a major limitation in Moldovan leadership is the excessive level of
independence displayed by managers, who, ultimately, want to rely more on
themselves than on their peers. Moreover, as scholars have noted, there is
insufficient motivation to engage in teamwork in Moldova (Guzun, 2016), due to
the inability to trust and motivate each person on the team.
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Around 50 local professionals, from managers to CEOs, completed the online
CCBS survey (2020) to provide detailed and localised insight into leadership styles
and practices in Moldova. Overall, it is evident that there was no unanimity over
specific leadership styles in Moldova, as indicated by the heterogeneity of the
responses. After gaining its independence in 1991, a new style of leadership has
emerged in Moldova. Despite such shifts, the older generation continues to
adhere to the former hierarchical form of leadership, which characterised the
Soviet system. Nikita Snurcov, a business development manager, confirmed the
persistence of this approach: “Due to the influence of the Soviet Union, many top
managers in Moldova are expressing their position of power in an excessive way,
showing off the ability to make decisions, overrule others, and have it their way.
While many younger executives are striving for a more western approach to
leading a company, the older generation of top managers [is] still heavily tied
with previous experiences of being a boss rather than a leader” (CCBS Survey,
2020).
However, as aforementioned, there has been a shift in leadership styles in the

country, as evidenced by the fact that the importance of hierarchy in Moldovan
organisations has waned in recent years, which is discernible from the fact that
over 70% of the respondents reported that employees can address their leaders
by their first name. However, this varied across organisations. As a manager in
research and international relations explained, “It is more common that
employees can address their leader by the first name in small businesses, family
businesses and usually in informal discussions. In formal discussions, the public
discussions, it is typical for subordinates to address leaders according to their
titles or positions” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
When asked about the factors that were important for employees to be able to
look up to their leaders, the majority of the respondents reported that
organisational experience is the most important quality for a leader, followed by
technical competence and market experience. Overall, these characteristics were
preferred over family background or respectable age (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Regarding the time-management of Moldovan business leaders, according to

almost 90% of the respondents, the most appropriate time to conduct meetings
is usually in the morning (CCBS Survey, 2020).
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Daniela Munca-Aftenev: a Moldovan leadership scholar
Daniela Munca-Aftenev is a Moldovan academic with a PhD in English Philology
from The Alexandru loan Cuza University in Lași, Romania. Munca-Aftenev has
several certificates and degrees in the field of linguistics and extensive
experience in leadership positions. According to Munca-Aftenev (22 March
2020), Moldovan companies conduct business at a relatively fast pace. Moldova
has only been an independent country for a few decades, and, as such, it still
displays remnants of its prior history, such as an authoritative leadership style.
Consequently, Moldovan laws, governmental issues and leaders of the country
routinely change every six months or so. This necessitates a certain degree of
flexibility when conducting business in the country. Ordinarily, international
companies are used to long-term projects and five-year-plans focused on
sustainability, whereas Moldovan companies are focused on surviving in the here
and now, as a result of the fact that changes can occur so quickly and
unexpectedly. Hence, Munca-Aftenev argued that it can be difficult for foreign
companies and investors to understand how things are done in Moldova and
adjust to this.
A further interesting point raised in our interview pertained to the fact that,
while Moldova is predominantly a country in which primarily men do business
and dominate senior positions, the country is beginning to witness the increased
presence of impressive female leaders. Munca-Aftenev believes that women
tend to be more socially-oriented, whereas men adopt a more pragmatic,
success-oriented approach to management. She explained that “it is not that one
is better than the other; their approach is different which gets you different
results, which is why it is important to have mixed teams” (Munca-Aftenev, 22
March 2020). In other words, a good leader is not necessarily a man or a woman.
Rather, a good leader must be tough and capable of making sound decisions in
times of crisis.
Moreover, leaders are expected to make these tough decisions on their own in
Moldova. Indeed, Munca-Aftenev noted that “Very, very few leaders would
actually address or involve other members of their teams to [make] decisions. So,
they are supposed to know what they are doing, and everybody is expecting them
to take decisions and know how things should work. Everything is very top-down”
(22 March 2020). Despite the predominance of a top-down organisational
146
approach, it is nevertheless paramount that managers recognise the needs of

their employees and at times put effort into addressing their personal wellbeing.
Employees are dissuaded from critiquing their manager as this will be perceived
as offensive and, in most cases, will result in the employee being penalised.
Moldovans are expected to remain formal in their communication with their
manager and being cognizant of their position in the organisational hierarchy.
Such practices create a relationship predicated on mutual respect and a shared
understanding of one another. Due to the economic and political instability in
Moldova, some of the country’s best minds and experts have left the country,
which Munca-Aftenev referred to as the brain drain. She concluded our interview
by stating: “We are still in between past and future, a country trying to find its
way in the world” (Munca-Aftenev, 22 March 2020).
Larisa Cepoi: a Moldovan business coach

Larisa Cepoi, a Moldovan business coach and board member of Human Business
Associations in Moldova, shared her views and opinions on leadership in
Moldova during our interview with her. “First of all, I want to say that we are
moving in the right way because now [since the declaration of Moldova as an
independent country after the dissolution of the Soviet Union] we have lots of
opportunities to travel and to interact on the internet. A lot of leaders from other
parts of the world are actually giving us a big opportunity to have this exchange
programme” (Cepoi, 30 March 2020). Once again, the importance of Moldova
defining itself as a relatively young country stood out in this interview. Cepoi
stated that a lot of cultural influences still remain from the Soviet system and
that these are primarily observable in the leadership styles adopted within
organisations and the governmental sector in the country. For example, the
prevailing leadership style in Moldova still tends to have facets of the Soviet-style
autocratic leadership style, which is top-down and incredibly strict.
However, Cepoi also argued that the current Moldovan leadership style
comprises listening to one’s employees, making decisions and being able to both
give and receive feedback. This is due, in part, to the fact that Moldova is
growing and changing incredibly quickly and because of the increased
international exchange opportunities are attracting more (international)
investors to Moldovan companies (Cepoi, 30 March 2020). Consequently, these
investors provide Moldovan companies with an opportunity to learn about
different leadership styles and practices from successful international companies,
as well as from people who have more experience in business (Cepoi, 30 March
2020). Both Cepoi and Munca-Aftenev reported that it was relatively uncommon
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to leave Moldova for a few years and then come back: “From my experience, I
can tell you, I used to live in Ireland for five years and then after five years I came
back to Moldova. And, of course, there were a lot of questions: ‘Why was I doing
this?’ Because usually people are leaving the country and I came back” (Cepoi, 30
March 2020). However, for Cepoi, it was very important to make a positive
contribution to her home country. She had been given the opportunity to do this
and is now doing everything she can to fulfil this duty. “In Moldova, I can live and
grow in my country, which is actually a very beautiful country. And if you have
this opportunity in Moldova, you can grow and enjoy life” (Cepoi, 30 March
2020).
In-country leadership publication

One of the best papers about leadership and management in Moldova was
written by Stela Guzun, a PhD student at the Free International University of
Moldova. The title of the article is: “The interaction of team members as a key
factor in the development of its skills and benefits in the enterprises of the
Republic of Moldova”. The paper is available in different languages: English,
Moldovan and Russian. The author discusses the importance of management
teams, in terms of identifying and classifying the unique qualities and behaviours
of each respective team member, and finding a way to harness these effectively
within the team. Moreover, Guzun (2016) acknowledges the existence of
different leadership styles in the country and argues that this needs to be
properly analysed so that the leadership styles adopted in Moldova can be
modernised. Finally, Guzun delineates some recommendations for how to
establish new styles of leadership, and how to improve the functioning of
management teams within the Republic of Moldova.
Local leadership article

The interaction of team members
Title
in enterprises of Moldova
Author Stela Guzun
Institutul National de
Publisher
Cercetări Economice
Year 2016
Type Revistă teoretico-ştiinţifică
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Moldovan leadership YouTube review

In this YouTube video, Alexei Kishlaru, founder of Kishlaru Consulting, states that
managing a group does not require the re-education of employees or attempting
to change their personalities. Rather, he argues that one of the main tasks of the
manager is to communicate and remind the employees of their common goal.
Failure to achieve common goals is the result of employees not cooperating and
activities not matching (Kishlaru, 2019). In addition, he opines in the video that a
good manager ensures that the work is interrelated and that every employee
knows what he or she has to do in order to achieve their goal. Furthermore, he
describes how a valuable manager should reward those employees who perform
well. For Kishlaru (2019), with respect to leadership, everyone accepts that
certain privileges are the result of achieving higher results. However, this ethos
needs to be applied to all employees as this way we do not create an exception
to the rules for someone, but we are creating new possibilities for everyone
(Kishlaru, 2019).
The second video features Cristian Ziliberberg, who worked for the Leadership
Institute of Moldova, running training workshops on personal and professional
development, ethics and communications, alongside being a business coach and
consultant. In 2011, he gave a speech at TEDx Chisinau and purported that the
management and leadership styles used years ago are no longer relevant.
“Achieving the perfect way of management is becoming increasingly difficult, as
all conditions are constantly changing” (Ziliberberg, 2011, 6:58). Moreover,
Ziliberberg argues in this video that it is important for managers and leaders to
display a genuine interest in the proper functioning of teams. This is because it is
the participants in activities who ultimately determine and ensure whether it will
be a success or otherwise. In order to properly fulfil their role, then, managers
and leaders must be cognizant of this fact and apply it within their leadership
styles and practices.
Understanding hierarchy in Moldova

Hierarchy in Moldova can be defined in two ways: an older, conservative
approach and a newer, modern one. As aforementioned, younger executives
are striving for more Western-oriented leadership styles and practices, while the
older generation of top-down managers is still chiefly informed by their previous
experiences of being a boss rather than a leader. Although they do not have a
vertically structured business hierarchy like those seen in Western countries,
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the Moldovan business hierarchy is not as horizontal as Russian culture (Stanciu,

10 April 2020). Indeed, the power distance in Moldova is significantly high.
Specifically, Moldova has a score of 85, which is to say that people accept a
hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and that this requires no
further justification (Neculăesei & Tătăruşanu, 2008).
This power distance is strongly reflected in Moldovan organisations. The CCBS
survey (2020) emphasises the fact that when a management decision has been
made, it is not easy to change it. Moreover, leaders ensure that their team
members are encouraged by challenging them on a professional level to improve
their professional abilities. Today, while most Moldovan subordinates can
address their leader by their first name, this depends on the personal
relationship between a leader and a subordinate and the type of organisation. As
Eugenia Caracas, CEO, noted: “It depends on the relationship between them if you
can call a leader by their first name” (CCBS Survey, 2020). In addition to this,
Serge Beresnev, Comandante, confirmed that “It depends on the business. In
general – if it is more Western style management – you can, but passion for the
external attributes of power is a common thing. Especially for [those over 35
years of age]”. On the other hand, 55% of the CCBS survey (2020) respondents
agreed that when communicating with a leader, you should address them by
their title or position.
A further important shift taking place within Moldova pertains to gender politics
within the country, and what this means for gender equality within organisations.
The level of equality in a country can be measured from 0 to 100 based on the
Gender Equality Index (GEI). In 2016, the GEI results showed that Moldova was
paying much closer attention to gender equality, but that they still had extensive
work to do. While, it appears that the situation has improved in the interim,
among other things, the gender pay gap persists (CCBS Survey, 2020).
How Moldovans achieve leadership empathy

Following 1991, a lot of Moldovan citizens left the country for the EU, US and
Russia. The citizens who left constituted the cultural and intellectual elite of
Moldovan society. Consequently, it has taken time for Moldova to find its way
back to its own culture and reaffirm the important characteristics of its populace.
Today, Moldovan citizens have been described as very welcoming and free
minded people. Given that there are sixteen nationalities within the country,
Moldova comprises heterogeneous cultures, languages and traditions all
trying to live together in harmony (Stanciu, 10 April 2020).
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For a long time, Moldovan business ethics has been influenced by the shadow
economy, while informal economic activity has been based upon dubious
business rules and regulations. The shadow economy principally involves the
concealment of business (illegal entrepreneurship), business operations, labour
recruitment and income (Ghedrovici & Ostapenko, 2016). In comparison to the
older generation, the younger generation in Moldova is more ambitious, curious
and have wanderlust (Beresnev, 10 April 2020). Now more than ever, with the
evolving leadership styles, empathy will begin to play an even bigger role in
leadership. The CCBS survey (2020) indicated that employees look up to their
leader on the basis of their experience at an organisational level. Moreover, they
expect their leader to be a good listener and a powerful decision-maker. As one
CCBS survey (2020) respondent observed, “Leadership in Moldova is somehow
specific due to the personal relationships between employer and employee”.
However, the CCBS survey (2020) also produced different perspectives on this
issue. For example, most professionals preferred to keep a personal distance
from their employees in order to maintain the requisite level of respect (CCBS
Survey, 2020). While personal relations between Moldovan leaders and team
members can be difficult at times, leaders do find the personal wellbeing of their
team members important. However, this is combined with stimulating
competition between employees, with the express aim of inspiring employees to
perform at their highest potential and remain focused at all times (Covaş, 2019).
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Nicaragua
Mary Jo Blanza, Lamyae Douhri, Myrthe Fromm & Sundas Khan
The Republic of Nicaragua, or República de Nicaragua as it is known in its native

language, is renowned for its exceptional mountain-grown coffee, its award-
winning cigars and Flor de Cana rum, which is the smoothest aged rum ever to
come out of an oak barrel. Nicaragua is a bicoastal nation in Central America with
borders on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It has a multi-ethnic
and multilingual population of just over 6.5 million people. Over three-quarters
of the population are mestizos, which is the term historically used to refer to
people of combined European and American descent. The remainder of the
population are white, black and Indigenous Amerindian (Maddicks, 2019). The
predominant language in Nicaragua is Spanish. However, native tribes on the
eastern coast speak their own languages, which are Miskito, Sumo, Rama and
Creole English. Speaking these four languages is equivalent to speaking Spanish in
the eastern region. Even though the Indian languages have disappeared on the
west coast, their influence is still visible in place names and many of the nouns in
Nicaraguan Spanish (Lombardo, 2006).
During the revolutionary period in the 1980s, everything American was
prohibited, including English. However, today in the Nicaraguan business sector,
the native languages are Spanish and English. While old Nicaraguans rarely speak
English, the younger generation of Nicaraguans speaks it fluently (Whisnant,
1992). This derives from the fact that Nicaraguan students regularly study in the
United States. As Maddicks (2019) notes, the fact that managers received their
business degrees in the US has led to several businesses employing American
management styles. Due to these sorts of developments, Nicaragua has been
able to turn the economy around in recent years and is now more accessible
and open to international business (Portillo, 18 March 2020).
How the Nicaraguans characterise leaders

According to the Nicaraguan leaders who took part in the CCBS survey (2020),
the first and most important trait that a leader must possess is to be charismatic.
Secondly, three-quarters of the respondents reported that it is also crucial for
leaders to be intellectual and critical in terms of both their thinking and their
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actions, while just over half of the Nicaraguan leaders opined that leaders should
have access to the right business networks (CCBS Survey, 2020). Our analysis of
the CCBS survey (2020) also shows that empathy and setting a good example is
also of particular relevance, especially with respect to operating in a
heterogeneous multicultural environment. In addition to this, employees in
Nicaragua also expect their leaders to be powerful decision-makers and visionary
thinkers (CCBS Survey, 2020). According to Tayron Portillo (18 March 2020), it is
important to be a good leader because “If you have a vision, you can share this
vision; you can persuade somebody to follow you and to share that vision”.
One further interesting aspect of leadership in Nicaragua pertains to the
observed difference in the behaviour and thinking of female leaders compared
to their male counterparts (CCBS Survey, 2020). For example, as Granja, a
respondent of the CCBS survey (2020) stated, “Men tend to be more Machistas”,
which is a well-known term in Latin America to describe a certain type of hyper-
masculinity. Conversely, women are also framed as being more open to change,
more controlling (CCBS Survey, 2020), and more willing to compromise than male
leaders, who are more likely to be authoritarian (Caldera, 17 March 2020).
However, Portillo (18 March 2020) believes that such differences between
women and men are exaggerated because Nicaraguan women tend to have
strong personalities.

The survey generated various responses from C-level managers in the country,
who shared their experiences and opinions of leadership styles and practices in
Nicaragua. This data was subsequently analysed to gain a more in-depth
understanding of Nicaraguan leadership. According to the CCBS survey (2020),
Nicaragua is a multi-ethnic environment that is stratified by markedly varying
levels of education and poverty. This is important, Márquez (29 March 2020)
argued, because “as a leader you have to have more empathy in a multi-ethnic
environment”. Therefore, business leaders who lack broad knowledge and
experience would manage in wholly different ways to those leaders who do have
extensive knowledge, education and experience. In addition to this, the
respondents agreed with the fact that leaders need to be open and social to be
successful. Professor C. M. Salaverry further argued that being socially involved
with employees and offering them a listening ear helps leaders to connect on a
human level with their employees and bring out the best in them (CCBS Survey,
2020). This is the main reason why the respondents indicated that they prefer
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not to retain a personal distance from their employees (CCBS Survey, 2020). It is
also crucial to consider how the leaders who completed the survey spoke about
the health and wellbeing of their subordinates. According to the CCBS survey
(2020), more than 80% of the respondents found it of the utmost importance to
spend time addressing the personal wellbeing of their team members, while
more than 75% of the respondents identified with the statement that a manager
should seek to engender some form of competition within a team in order to
achieve better results. One further interesting finding from the survey pertained
to the fact that more than half of the respondents did not like to miss deadlines,
insofar as they deemed this to be a failure as opposed to merely a delay.
As one respondent stated: “Due to a lack of opportunities in my country, we
have to find business opportunities. Missing them is certainly not an option”

Tayron Portillo: a Nicaraguan leadership scholar
Tayron Portillo was a professor at Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in
Nicaragua. He has extensive experience as a manager and leader in the business
sector. He described himself as a pioneer because of the many foreigners who
came to Nicaragua to study his leadership style in his business up close (Portillo,
18 March 2020). In this sense, he is not like the typical “old school” leaders in
Nicaragua. Rather, in our interview, he posited that he was completely “the other
way around”. He proceeded to discuss that the new Nicaraguan generation is
more open to new trends. More specifically, he believed that the new generation
focuses, for example, on the right openings in the market to do business and
works hard to try and anticipate new trends. Conversely, according to Portillo (18
March 2020), the older generation focuses on improving employee relationships
and fixing problems within their organisations, so that they are robust enough to
adjust to new trends. This focus on trends is evidently a sign of the profound shift
that has taken place as the older generation gave way to the newer one, which
has resulted in different leadership styles emerging (Portillo, 18 March 2020).
Christopher Membreño: a Nicaraguan business intelligence advisor

Prof Membreño is a business intelligence advisor and trainer at his former
college, the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in Nicaragua and TECNASA U
Learning Centres. He mainly works as a market analyst for consumer products
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and has experience as a leader in the business sector. In our interview with him,
Membreño (26 March 2020) asserted that Nicaraguan leadership is focused on
growth and, as such, that leaders are constantly challenged to take risks and
follow through in this process. While uncertainties are to be avoided at all costs,
ultimately how you deal with these is what develops you as a leader (Membreño,
26 March 2020). Furthermore, he stated that there are two ways of running a
business in Nicaragua: the first type of leader only cares about the productivity of
their subordinates while the second type of leader cares not only about
employees’ productivity but also about long-term growth (Membreño, 26 March
2020). In Nicaragua, leaders are straight, disciplined and active in the decision-
making process. Moreover, leaders are always striving to adopt an objective
stance regarding their business and are continually working to anticipate and
solve problems (Membreño, 26 March 2020).

While there are currently no books about leadership in Nicaragua, there is a book
by Antonio Espinoza Ruiz scheduled to be published in 2021. The book provides
guidelines for leaders to both measure and develop their current level of
leadership in relation to a four-tiered hierarchical model developed by the
author. Doing so, Ruiz posits, will enable companies to make the requisite
improvements to their businesses that will help them to compete in the global
marketplace (Ruiz, 13 April 2020). Ruiz began writing this book in response to the
lack of good leadership books in Nicaragua. The book is framed around the
quote: “Stop talking about leadership, and start measuring what kind of leader
you are” (Ruiz, 13 April 2020). The above quote is indicative of Ruiz’s ethos that it
is important for books to be focused on practical leadership as opposed to
theoretical leadership (Ruiz, 13 April 2020).

Title La ecuación del liderazgo 
Subtitle -
Author Antonio Espinoza Ruiz
Year 2021
ISBN TBC-2021
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Nicaraguan leadership YouTube review

On the 19 April 2016, a TEDx TU talk on “Power and inequality from Nicaragua”
was uploaded on YouTube. This video stems from the cooperation between
Tulane University and TED. In this video, Manolo Baca, born and raised in
Nicaragua, provides his perspective on lessons in power and inequality from
Nicaragua. Baca (2016) was always taken aback by the pervasive economic
inequality and poverty that affected the majority of Nicaragua, spending his
childhood trying to comprehend how poverty develops and is experienced. Baca
explains that Nicaragua is the eternal paradox: it is the best of times; it is the
worst of times. It is the best of times in Nicaragua because it is filled with colonial
towns brimming with ancestral culture and character. Conversely, it is the worst
of times because it lacks infrastructural investment: the streets are full of
potholes, schools have dirty floors and hospitals do not have nearly enough beds.
It is the best time in Nicaragua because the people there are some of the nicest
people in the world. They greet you with a smile from ear to ear, and despite the
aforesaid hardships, they keep on moving. However, it is the worst of times
because most of the people are extremely poor in the country. In fact, 30% of
Nicaraguans live on under $2 a day. Growing up in Nicaragua, Baca faced the
negative effects of inequality. During his childhood, he grew up with an acute
sense of class differences. When Manolo Baca was twelve years old, a child who
was his age called him Señor. Hierarchical relationships are an inevitable by-
product of unequal societies. When you go up to someone in Nicaragua, such as,
for example, an economist or a politician and ask what three things Nicaragua
needs most, they will all say better infrastructure, better education and
economic growth. Baca finds economic inequality abhorrent. He is referring to
the type of economic inequality where some people live in gated houses with
pools and tennis courts, while others barely have a roof over their heads. Baca
states that income inequality arises when opportunity has not been
democratised. Hence, Baca firmly believes that opportunity is a universal human
right and that any attempt to improve Nicaragua must go hand in hand with a
conscious effort to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.
Understanding hierarchy in Nicaragua

In Nicaragua, most organisations are still deeply hierarchical in structure. Indeed,
in our interview with him, Membreño (26 March 2020) posited that a lot of
Nicaraguans believe that their future is already decided in advance. This
ideological belief can be traced back to the traditional hierarchy, in which a
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person’s status in the hierarchal structure is wholly dependent on the family that
he or she comes from. Within such a structure, members of important families
will always secure high-level management positions (Membreño, 26 March
2020). In addition to this, Portillo (18 March 2020) also reported that the
predominant leadership style in operation in Nicaragua is an autocratic one. This
is not necessarily of the leader’s own making but, rather, derives from the
cultural belief held by many in Nicaragua that somebody in a higher position will
solve everyone’s problems (Portillo, 18 March 2020). It is for this reason,
according to Portillo (18 March 2020), that the leader is the most valued person
in the hierarchical structure, which, in turn, causes a high level of power distance
between leaders and other employees at different levels of the hierarchy
(Portillo, 18 March 2020).
Furthermore, in Nicaraguan culture, it is seen as being disrespectful and

disobedient for employees to contradict a leader who is above them in the
hierarchy (Martín, Garcé & i Puig, 2013). However, interestingly, Nicaraguan
leaders prefer to hear criticism in a direct manner rather than indirectly. People
look up to their leaders, whom they see as experts and accordingly treat with
respect (Aalbers, Blom, Deckers, Roumimper, van Tienderen & van Wirdum,
2017). It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that Nicaraguans are formal, polite and
show respect towards their managers by addressing them by their titles (Aalbers,
et al., 2017). Indeed, most of the respondents agreed with the fact that higher-
level management should be addressed by their titles (CCBS Survey, 2020).
According to the CCBS survey (2020), the most common titles are Presidente,
Gerente General or Director. In the event that a leader is older than the
employee, employees may at times also address their leader as Don or Doña
followed by their first name, as a display of respect towards their elder (CCBS
Survey, 2020). However, in recent years, the power distance between employees
and leaders has begun to decrease. Historically, retaining distance, not building
relationships with employees and maintaining the right level of respect was the
norm as reported in the CCBS survey (2020): “In Nicaragua, many of the ‘leaders’
weren’t really leaders, but bosses. They felt like people needed to obey them to
gain respect and therefore [could not] build relationships with employees.”
However, in contemporary Nicaragua, there has been a gradual shift towards
leaders showing empathy towards subordinates, being open and social, and
building relationships with their employees. Despite such progressive shifts, the
issue of gender inequality remains a reality in Nicaraguan organisations, insofar
as there is still a marked discrepancy between the genders in terms of securing
leadership positions (Aalbers, et al., 2017). This research was supported by the
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findings in the CCBS Survey (2020), which illustrated that men and women in
Nicaragua do not have equal access to senior leadership positions.
How Nicaraguans achieve leadership empathy

Research conducted by El Cheikh Taha (2015) demonstrates that there is a strong
relationship between emotionality, empathy and openness in Nicaragua. Indeed,
family plays an integral role in Nicaraguan culture. As, Portillo (18 March 2020)
opined, “family is the whole world for us”, while Membreño also affirmed that
“In Nicaragua, family is the most important thing” (26 March 2020). Hospitality is
also highly appreciated in Nicaraguan culture, which is to say that it is important
for people to be friendly towards one another. These norms and values that
underpin Nicaraguan culture also manifest in how Nicaraguan leaders attempt to
achieve leadership empathy. When asked about the important values that are
required by a Nicaraguan leader, Caldera (17 March 2020) immediately
responded with “empathic ability”. Similarly, Membreño (26 March 2020)
responded as follows to the same question: “empathy, the ability to understand
the feelings of another”. Furthermore, when Caldera (17 March 2020) was asked
where Nicaraguans’ empathic ability came from, he responded: “I think it is a
personality trait, it is a set of values that has been assigned to you through the
Nicaraguan family culture”. To cite an example of what empathic understanding
looks like in practice, it is instructive to refer once again to Portillo (18 March
2020), who described it as follows: “If a family member of a subordinate dies, and
they are going to have a religious celebration at church for that beloved person, I
will be there for emotional support”. Empathy is thus above all about displaying
sensitivity towards others, viewing one’s employees as discrete individuals rather
than as a homogeneous group, and working hard to understand their position
and the best way to communicate with and influence them (El Cheikh Taha,
2013).
According to the CCBS survey (2020), Nicaraguans find it very important that
leaders present a positive example for their employees, as well as attempting to
bring employees together and make them feel part of a team, in order to
produce strong individual and organisational results. This is especially important
given that Nicaraguans are a deeply relationship-oriented society. In addition to
this, the respondents (CCBS Survey, 2020) strongly agreed with the fact that a
leader should actively spend time on the personal wellbeing of their team
members.
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Caldera (17 March 2020) observed that “The way to show empathy is to simply
ask subordinates how things are going back home”, while Prof Portillo (18 March
2020) noted of Nicaraguan leaders: “When we ask you how you are, we mean it. I
do it on a regular basis because I like to do it”. This is not an entirely selfless
endeavour necessarily. Indeed, Portillo’s (18 March 2020) favourite leadership
quote is the following: “try to help others and you will help your self-growth at
the same time”. This quote motivates him constantly to help people in his
country secure jobs. When asked about his favourite leadership quote, Caldera
(17 March 2020) answered: “being in a position of power doesn’t make you a
leader, but a leader is simply someone who takes responsibility and takes care of
another human being, in this case, a subordinate”.
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Nigeria
Noa Cremers, Shekinah Francisco, Nikki Pennings, Carlijn Ros, Talha Altun & Lennard Olagoke
Nigeria, which is often referred to as the Giant of Africa, is the continent’s most
populous country (Zulu, 2009; Adogame, 2010). Its size is reflected in the
heterogeneity of the country’s ethnic groups. Overall, the country has more than
250 ethnic groups, with the largest of these being Hausa, Yoruba and the Igbo
(Onah, 2014). Its size makes it the largest African market, which, in turn, has led
to Nigeria having the largest economy in the continent. The well-known saying
that “when Nigeria sneezes, other countries catch a cold”, testifies to the scale of
the country’s economical impact (Terwase, Abdul-Talib & Zengeni, 2014; Mawere
& Marongwe, 2016, p. 232). Moreover, the natives speak more than 400
indigenous languages (Adegbite, 2003), which means that even one’s neighbour
may speak a wholly different language. Despite such linguistic pluralism, the
country’s national language is English, which is a remnant of the time when
Nigeria was a British colony. The prevalence of English within the country also
plays out in the context of leadership as neighbours will either use the term
“jagoranci” or “leadership” (Onah, 2014). Alongside this, Nigeria’s cultural
prioritisation of love, trust and respect are also deeply embedded within
organisational leadership (Udegbe, 2012).
How the Nigerians characterise leaders

In Nigeria, culture and leadership are intertwined. Consequently, Nigerian
leaders are wholly cognizant of the broad diversity of tribes, traditions, customs
and languages that make up the aforementioned diverse ethnic groups (Ejimabo,
2013). In general, Nigerian leaders are autocratic rather than democratic. That is
to say, they are more likely to impose initiatives and ideas upon their
subordinates as opposed to selling the idea to the team and gaining their buy-in
(CCBS Survey, 2020). Given these cultural characteristics, a hierarchical
organisational structure is the most widely adopted model across Nigeria (Fields,
2007). According to Sokoya (1998), a further discernible feature of Nigerian
leaders is that they are discouraged from taking risks and have a low level of
tolerance for uncertainty. In accordance with this, specific Nigerian rituals that
aim to ensure certainty before engaging in new activities continue to be
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practised to this day (Sokoya, 1998). Within Nigerian business culture, the
majority of subordinates expect their leaders to be visionary thinkers, eloquent
speakers and good listeners. They tend to follow leaders who have great vision,
as well as leaders who display a marked tendency to influence them in positive
ways (Iguisi, 2014; CCBS Survey, 2020).
Within traditional Nigerian society, authority is distributed according to one’s

position within the group. Hence, the head of a community bears the
responsibility for all of the other group members. Thus, the delegation of
authority is almost non-existent. Assisted by the council of elders, leaders
ultimately make their own decisions. Elders are deemed to possess wisdom as a
result of their life experiences, which forms the basis of their authority to
regulate and police socially accepted behaviour within their communities. This is
why strong elderly figures tend to occupy all of the key leadership positions and
be positioned at the top of the hierarchy in Nigerian companies. In both social
and business environments, senior figures are expected to show direction,
determine tasks and designate any potential rewards (Ejimabo, 2013; CCBS
Survey, 2020). Younger members, in turn, are expected to both respect and
abide by their decisions (Iguisi, 2014).

The CCBS survey was completed by a significant number of Nigerian executives,
and the results provide crucial insight into their local professional experiences.
According to the respondents, Nigerian leaders face extensive challenges, due, in
part, to the heterogeneity of ethnic groups in the country. This constitutes a key
reason why leaders in Nigeria are expected to be resilient if they are to excel in
their role. Alongside resilience, every single one of the executives who responded
to the survey reported expecting their leader to be a visionary thinker and a
powerful decision-maker.
Conversely, the respondents also expressed characteristics that they felt Nigerian
leaders were lacking in and highlighted some of the ways in which they differed
from other countries. For instance, it was reported that many leaders prioritise
controlling their subordinates over and above service. This results in leaders who
do not consistently lead by example and who are seen as demigods. While citing
a leader as being someone who asks their subordinates to do something that
they themselves would also be willing to do, and thus leading by example,
Appolo Goma, a CEO in Nigeria, concedes that: “quite a lot of people don’t
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practice what they preach” (CCBS Survey, 2020).

As aforementioned, Udegbe (2012) posits that love, trust and respect are what
characterise Nigerian leadership. With this in mind, it is instructive to examine
how our survey respondents discussed the health and wellbeing of their
subordinates. In this regard, the vast majority of the executives stated that a
leader should actively dedicate time to the wellbeing of his or her subordinates.
Moreover, two-thirds of the respondents preferred not to retain a personal
distance from their subordinates. In addition, it was reported that leaders should
also attempt to foster a sense of competition within teams so that their
employees would seek to excel (CCBS Survey, 2020). Another interesting finding
from the survey data is that more than two-thirds of the respondents assumed
that their subordinates would not bend the rules without asking. However, a few
respondents indicated that there are circumstances that may change this
approach as exemplified by Ehidiamen Olanrewaju Eromosele’s response that:
“the rules are there as a guide but initiatives that will determine better outcomes
are highly encouraged” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Finally, one further interesting detail that emerged from the CCBS survey is the
fact that observable shifts are occurring in Nigerian leadership. For example,
while addressing leaders by their first name remains relatively taboo in Nigeria,
addressing leaders by their forename is becoming more normalised. Obabayi
Fagade, a communication manager, observed that “this is a growing trend,
especially in organisations with a young workforce” (CCBS Survey, 2020). The
second shift concerns gender equality, which is a topical issue across Africa and
within Nigerian businesses. According to the executives surveyed, women
typically must prove themselves to a much greater degree than their male
counterparts, as well as having to work harder to prove that they merit a
leadership position. However, the executives noted that there is increasingly
more acceptance towards female leaders (CCBS Survey, 2020).

Charles Awodu MSc MBA: a Nigerian leadership scholar
Charles Awodu was the head of the internal audit at Covenant University, which
was deemed to be Nigeria’s best private University in 2018. He has written an
internationally published book about leadership, and currently runs the World
Leadership and Inspirational Foundation. During out interview, Awodu (13 March
2020) posited that Nigerian business leaders are more or less autocratic, not out
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of their own desire necessarily, but because of the system in which they operate.
This is due, in part, to the rate of corruption in Nigeria, which results in business
leaders seeking to exercise full control over their resources. He believed that
adopting a situational leadership style would be better for Nigerian leaders
because flexibility and the ability to adapt and overcome obstacles is key to
running a business effectively in Nigeria (Awodu, 13 March 2020). When asked
about how tribalism affects business leadership in Nigeria, Awodu stated that
leaders favour subordinates from their tribe, even in cases where they are ill-
suited for the job. Furthermore, Awodu (13 March 2020) observed that “people
tend to move closer to their own tribe”. As aforementioned, respecting your
seniors in Nigeria is crucial. In this regard, Awodu noted that there should be
respect shown towards seniors even if they may be wrong, or as he put it:
“respect over truth; kindness over truth” (13 March 2020). Overall, Awodu
displayed a positive outlook on Nigerian leadership, observing that Nigerian
business culture is slowly becoming more respected and that globalisation is
changing leadership in the country for the better.
Adedoyin Adebayo: a Nigerian leadership consultant

Adedoyin Adebayo, a local consultant and managing partner of the company
Insel Consulting, has extensive expertise and experience in leadership
development and organisational design. He helps organisations to align their
people strategies with their business strategies. In our interview with Adebayo,
he stated that, historically, Nigerian business leaders had often been tough and
autocratic, but that there had been notable changes in recent years. Today,
Nigerian leaders place more value on an authentic leadership style, but,
undoubtedly, the autocratic leadership style remains the most common. He
proceeded to explain that the leader is solely involved in decision-making, which
lends support to the survey results. Adebayo (10 March 2020) added that
“leaders have the sole decision of hiring or firing”, which suggests that the
hierarchy in Nigerian businesses is rigorously structured and revolves around the
leader. As Adebayo (10 March 2020) explained: “you do not go directly [to] talk
to your CEO. You will go through one manager, [who] will talk to another
manager and he will pass the message across to the CEO”. Moreover, he
reported that the Nigerian business culture is male-dominated and that there are
organisations offering positions that can solely be occupied by men.
Furthermore, Adebayo argues that subordinates are more likely to be forced to
work to achieve a common goal. However, Adebayo believes that 21st century
leaders must first understand and develop their own values, beliefs, strengths
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and weaknesses, which subordinates can then seek to model their behaviour and
attitudes on (Adebayo, 10 March 2020).

One of Nigeria’s best-selling books about leadership was written by Dr Maxwell
Ubah in 2016 and is called The Alphabet of Leadership. The book is an extensive
field guide for leaders to navigate them through today’s complexities and help
them achieve breakthrough results. Ubah outlines five leadership qualities that
are indispensable for achieving success as a leader, which are represented by the
acronym IDEAL. IDEAL stands for integrity, decisiveness, emotional energy,
attitude and leadership styles. In addition to this, Ubah also considers how
subjects such as leadership attitudes can guarantee greatness (Amodu, 2017).
Evidence for the widespread appeal of Ubah’s book comes from the fact that
Obabayi Fagade, a Nigerian communication manager, cited Ubah’s book as being
popular among leaders in Nigeria (CCBS Survey, 2020).

Title The alphabet of leadership
The A-Z of improving your
Subtitle
leadership effectiveness
Author Dr Maxwell Ubah
Publisher Partridge Africa
Year 2016
ISBN 9781482860696
Nigerian leadership YouTube review

In addition to academic research and survey data, Youtube also proved to be an
invaluable source of information for studying local Nigerian perspectives on
leadership, beginning with the consultant Sam Adeyemi, who is a Nigerian native
and influential voice on leadership in Nigeria. He defines leadership, in a business
context, as the ability to expand one’s level of effectiveness among subordinates.
Adeyemi also emphasises the importance of being a caring and supportive leader
towards one’s subordinates. These leadership characteristics are fundamental
164
when assessing the success of a leader. Furthermore, Adeyemi argues that if “you
want to be a successful leader and an effective one? Believe in people”
(SamAdeyemiTV, 2015, 19:26). Here, Adeyemi is touching upon the value of
trust, belief and confidence in subordinates. These characteristics are essential
for the long-term effectiveness of leadership styles in Nigeria. Moreover,
Adeyemi emphasises the importance of diversity in modern business culture.
More specifically, he argues that contrasting perspectives and opposing views
benefit a team in terms of its comprehensiveness and breadth. Finally, Adeyemi
stresses that leaders should view their subordinates as their equals rather than
feeling superior to them (SamAdeyemiTV, 2015).
In the next leadership video, CEO and professional speaker Dr Nicholas Okoye
discusses the influence of leaders during an interview. Okoye argues that
influence over others is what defines a leader: “leadership is for everybody and
once you have people that look up to you, you are a leader” (CNBC Africa, 2013,
00:55). Similarly, the leaders who participated in the CCBS survey also spoke of
the importance of influence for leadership.
Finally, we consulted Niyi Adesanya’s video on the importance of effective

communication in leadership. Adesanya has over fifteen years of experience in
public speaking on leadership and communication. He indicates that successful
leaders take the initiative when it comes to communicating with their
subordinates, noting that “it is not solely up to subordinates to understand what
a manager says. It is about [a leader] making them understand what [he or she]
said. That is what leadership is all about” (Adesanya, 2019, 00:26). As well as the
ability to convey messages properly, Adesanya notes that leaders should be
empathic and social and that a leader should be able to look at a subordinate and
say what personality or temperament they have: “as a leader, it is your job to
understand your people” (Adesanya, 2019, 01:44).
Understanding hierarchy in Nigeria

In Nigeria, leadership styles tend to be highly structured and hierarchical.
Moreover, there is a significant level of power distance, insofar as most
institutions favour a highly stratified structure (Adebayo, 10 March 2020).
Culturally, this observed power distance is exacerbated by other factors, such as
social class and age (Adegboye, 2013). Therefore, Nigerians will often address
you with tremendous courtesy and explicit signs of respect, such as by using titles
and honorifics rather than first names (Udegbe, 2012). The importance of age
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was confirmed by one Nigerian manager, who stated: “I think that in Nigeria, age
is one of the determinants for leadership. An older manager will not get
questioned as often and will be followed more often” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Along
with age and class, the Nigerian hierarchy is also characterised by gender
inequality. Gender inequality is prevalent in Nigeria, insofar as a clear distinction
is drawn between male and female leaders. For this reason, the majority of
people who occupy positions at the top of the hierarchy are men (Nwoye, 2007).
Indeed, as Iretiogo Oke, a brand marketing and portfolio manager, declared
“women typically have to prove themselves a lot more than men” (CCBS Survey,
2020). In light of this fact that Nigeria has a marked gender distinction, the way
that Nigerians treat each other is of great import. Communication is one of the
primary modes through which people convey respect (Udegbe, 2012). Indeed, it
is a common belief that the Oga (leader) at the top knows best, and that, as such,
subordinates should listen to their leaders. Moreover, subordinates should not
challenge or embarrass them by giving unsolicited opinions or suggestions (Umar
& Hassan, 2013). This is supported by one of our respondents, a Nigerian brand
manager, who claimed that “the Nigerian culture is very hierarchical; this
translates even to the business space. Leaders and managers are more or less the
mini gods over their subordinates” (CCBS Survey, 2020). However, as aforesaid,
Nigerian leadership styles are slowly changing. The strong hierarchical focus is
slowly giving way to a more open, inclusive and respectful environment (CCBS
Survey, 2020).
How Nigerians achieve leadership empathy

As Adebayo (10 March 2020) noted, if Nigerian leaders wish to display empathy,
“it is about showing that you actually care”. Indeed, Nigerian culture demands
that leaders should not simply take care of themselves, but, rather, also care for
those around them. Doing so helps leaders to develop a better and more
comprehensive leadership style. Almost all of the Nigerian leaders in the CCBS
survey agreed that a leader should actively spend time on the personal wellbeing
of their team members (Ejimabo, 2013; CCBS Survey, 2020). Similarly, Awodu (13
March 2020) argued that leaders should encourage and inspire their
subordinates and that it is seen as a leader’s duty to enliven their employees and
make them feel better (Awodu, 13 March 2020). As aforesaid, subordinates tend
to follow leaders with great vision and who positively influence them because
Nigerians perceive leaders as being influential (CCBS Survey, 2020). In
conjunction with looking after them and being influential, subordinates also
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expect their leader to adopt a paternal approach, wherein subordinates consider

it a duty of the leader to be protective and mindful. Paternalistic leadership is a
parental approach to gaining a subordinate’s deference (Lawal & Babalola, 2017).
Nigeria’s tribalism conjointly plays a role in this expected paternal style of
leadership. More specifically, Nigerian leaders must display an ability to adapt
and vary their leadership style in response to the ethnic diversity in their team
(Njoku, 2013). For example, Osunde and Olokooba (2014) state that a Nigerian
can become upset if he or she is wrongfully associated with another tribe
(Osunde & Olokooba, 2014). Hence, leaders should focus on managing the
diversity within their team, along with being cognizant of how age functions in
Nigeria, if they hope to achieve a successful display of empathy (Osuoha, 2002).
Finally, it is essential for Nigerian leaders to speak English fluently given that not
all indigenous languages in Nigeria are universally understood (Udegbe, 2012).
Ultimately, successfully addressing all of these aforesaid elements of leadership
empathy leads to greater levels of success in Nigerian organisations.
167
Saudi Arabia
Sana el Otmani, Sabrina Khouya Lahsen & Jennifer Sawyer
The heart of the Arabian Peninsula is also known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
َّ ‫)ٱ ْل َم ْملَكَة ٱ ْلعَ َر ِبيَّة ٱل‬. The Kingdom benefits greatly from its central location
)‫سعُ ْو ِديَّة‬
between the European, African and Asian continents. The Red Sea, which is
bounded to the Kingdom, has stimulated trading relations with North African
countries as well as with Mediterranean countries (Shoult, 2006). The nation has
achieved massive economic growth over the course of the last century and now
stands as a modern First World economy. This is primarily because the Kingdom
owns around a quarter of the world’s oil reserves (Kayed, 2011). However, the
Kingdom is not only known for its oil; from Muslims’ perspective, it is “the land of
the two holy mosques” (Althaydi, 2017, para. 1). This testifies to how
Saudi Arabia is both a modern nation and one that continues to honour Arabic
traditions and adhere to Islam (Shoult, 2006). The Saudis have a very collectivistic
society, which means that the society is mainly focused on the group rather than
the individual. Indeed, family and friends even take priority over organisational
goals and performance. Given this collectivistic focus, it is evident why Saudis
have been said to clearly distinguish between in-groups and out-groups (Bright,
Harbi & Thursfield, 2017). Despite this, over one-third of its population are
immigrants. The nation’s youth population is just below half of the nation’s
population and continues to increase, which will have consequences for the
future of the country (Ali, 2009). Indeed, some of these consequences are
already being felt, insofar as the country is developing, and old traditions are
slowly fading away. One example of this is the fact that women are becoming
more educated and are increasingly acquiring more leadership positions within
Saudi organisations (Abalkhail, 2017). However, old traditions continue to govern
the Kingdom in many respects.
How the Saudis characterise leaders

The leadership in Saudi Arabia is defined by a profound vertical hierarchy, which
is to say that it is relatively paternalistic (Hofstede Insight, 2020). As one of the
respondents in the CCBS Survey (2020) reported, a strong charismatic personality
is essential for being a leader in Saudi Arabia. Having certainty and confidence in
168
one’s actions and behaviours is an important quality for leaders to possess. This
is because it encourages them to take risks, set and achieve ambitious targets,
and take immediate action or make tough decisions when conflicts arise (Al-
Emad & Rahman, 2018). This is supported by Alexander’s (2013) research on
female leadership in the country, which described the charismatic leadership
style as follows: “leaders who are very self-confident, recognize the challenges
that lie in front of them and are willing to take personal and professional risks to
achieve their vision and goals” (Alexander, 2013, pp. 145-146).
As in other Arab countries, Saudi women face profound difficulties with respect
to attaining and succeeding in leadership positions. More specifically, Shahine’s
(1997) assessment of gender equality in the country concluded that, despite the
increased involvement of women in leadership positions, traditional beliefs and
practices often prohibit the career advancement of women in Saudi Arabia.
Moreover, to become an effective leader, Saudi females are invariably required
to adopt characteristics not naturally associated with Saudi women, such as
assertive behaviour, commitment and motivation (Al-Ahmadi, 2011).
More generally, employees in Saudi organisations look up to and admire leaders
who have strong network connections and family backgrounds (CCBS Survey,
2020). A consultant who was interviewed for this study lends support to this,
noting that “In terms of pushing a project of certain ideas which is new here, you
need someone who has some level of authority to back you up. It is of advantage
to network here. As a result, you will gain more respect” (2 April 2020).

Managers, CEOs and scholars were asked to reflect upon their knowledge and
experience of leadership styles and practices in Saudi Arabia by completing the
CCBS Survey (2020). The survey respondents all lived in the Kingdom for at least
five to ten years and, hence, have extensive experience of business leadership in
the Kingdom. Generally speaking, securing respondents for the survey was
incredibly difficult due, in part, to the fact that leadership is a fairly sensitive
topic in the nation. This is also the reason why most of the respondents will be
quoted anonymously throughout the following sections. That being said, the data
that was generated from the survey was relatively heterogeneous.
One of the key themes that emerged from the survey is the centrality of personal
connections within Saudi business culture; indeed, most of the respondents
reported that it is crucial to have the right networks and political connections if
one wishes to thrive and climb the corporate ladder. Leadership in Saudi Arabia is
169
very much predicated on the concept of wasta, which refers to utilising one’s
personal connections to get things done. Saudi citizens are convinced that with
the right connections anything is possible. As a senior consultant noted,
“Leadership in Saudi Arabia is very much based on a personal management style”
(CCBS Survey, 2020). A distinct feature of leadership in Saudi Arabia, which
stands in marked contrast to Western leadership styles and practices, is that
decisions are often changed at short notice, deadlines are missed and people are
not held accountable for their errors of judgement. Therefore, problems
accumulate to the point to where sudden and drastic decisions are required,
such as dismissals or abrupt changes in work strategies. Simply put, decisions are
predominantly based on emotions as opposed to facts. Regarding gender
equality, while women are achieving higher positions, it remains challenging for
women to attain and flourish in leadership positions. Confrontations with male
leaders are often avoided, for example, while women also often tend to look for
compromises. This observed disparity in gender is also reflected in salaries,
promotions and board member representation (CCBS Survey, 2020).

A Saudi senior consultant
We interviewed a Saudi senior consultant, who was active in financial services
and has over 20 years of organisational development and HR experience at a
senior level. The participant provided several insights into leadership styles and
practices, both in relation to local Saudi Arabian organisations and international
organisations operating in the country. Based on their personal preference, they
will be quoted anonymously. According to the participant, having a strong
charismatic personality and good political connections are of critical importance
for being a great leader in Saudi Arabia as it increases the respect accorded to
them by employees. The participant observed that Saudi leadership has been
developing at an increased pace in recent years: “Due to the increase of new
young leaders, Saudi’s leadership styles are evolving. The new generation of
leaders in Saudi Arabia have completed their studies mostly in Western countries.
Hence, they adopt a more Western leadership style within organisations” (2 April
2020). In recent years, Saudi management has become more focused on the
personal interactions between leaders and their employees. Throughout the
decision-making process, personal opinions are scrutinised as opposed to
employees merely following strict guidelines. However, the interviewee stated
that old leadership styles are still visible in the country, especially within
170
organisations that consist mainly of employees from the older generation. Within
these organisations, Saudi management continues to differ markedly from
Western styles of leadership. Indeed, the fact that the interviewee grew up
adhering to British norms and values has led to some difficulties in terms of
adhering to the prevailing cultural and religious values in the country. The
interviewee believed that foreign leaders based in the country must thus be
cognizant of the fact that their employees adhere to different norms and values
than themselves, which, in turn, will enable them to achieve empathic
understanding with their employees.
The interviewee posited that power distance serves an integral function in day-
to-day business life and that hierarchically determined respect is demanded. For
example, employees are expected to address their leaders formally, rather than
by their first names. Regarding this point, the interviewee argued that the strong
hierarchical culture slows down business in Saudi Arabia, as a result of it
becoming more bureaucratic and time-consuming (2 April 2020).
A Saudi cross-cultural trainer

A local senior consultant with years of experience in providing cross-cultural
training in the academic sector was also interviewed for this study and provided
extensive information about leadership styles and practices in the civil service
sector in Saudi Arabia. However, the consultant requested anonymity and thus
will be referred to as the interviewee. The interviewee noted that the prevailing
leadership style was especially traditional in the country: “The Kingdom is quite
traditional, hierarchical and it is more like an autocratic system” (8 April 2020).
Moreover, the consultant indicated how Saudis work together with many levels
of leadership or management within an organisation. Therefore, the consultant
observed, a great leader is someone who must be wholly adaptable, diplomatic,
and capable of displaying humility when needed (8 April 2020). The interviewee
recommended the book entitled The Five Dysfunctions of a Team as being a very
helpful tool for consultancy traineeships. The book focuses on efficient teamwork
and provides numerous examples of both successful and dysfunctional
teamwork. As the interviewee noted, “I felt that this was a useful book during our
leadership training. Just for them to see how their teams should look. It is crucial
to recognise a dysfunctional team” (8 April 2020). From the interviewee’s
perspective, culture is the main difference between Saudi Arabia and the West.
Saudi Arabian leadership is heavily influenced by culture. The higher up a person
is within the leadership chain, the higher the level of respect accorded to them,
which is different from the West. “For example, in the UK I would refer to my
171
manager by her first name, whereas here I refer to the management as doctora
or doctor” (8 April 2020).

Although there are many books that describe the Arab Business Code, the
bestselling book in Saudi Arabia is The Leadership of Muhammad. According to
the two largest bookstores, Jarir Bookstore and Tihama Bookstore, both of which
are located in the capital Jeddah, this is the best-selling and most borrowed
book. The writer, John Aidar, has no Saudi roots and is not Islamic. Therefore, in
the book Aidar neither aims to explain nor glorify Islam and Islamic teachings,
which allows him to hone in on the aspects of the Prophet Muhammad’s
personality and cultural context in order to illuminate his leadership qualities
(KnowledgeAtWharton, 2010). In contrast to many books, this book offers an
objective view, which explains why it is widely used as an educational tool across
economics courses in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, providing a personal opinion
or vision is accepted, as long as it does not contravene the rules of Islam. In light
of this, it will never be possible to write a book as a local that criticises Saudi
leadership styles as they are ultimately based on the rules of Islam. To cite a well-
known Arabic expression: ‫ال تتحدث إذا كان ما ستقوله ليس أجمل من الصمت‬. This translates
as La tatahadath ‘iidha kan ma sataquluh lays ‘ajmal min alsamt, which means
do not speak if your words are not more beautiful than the silence.

Title The Leadership of Muhammad
Subtitle -
Author John Adair
Publisher Kogan Page
Year 2010
ISBN 9788175544994
Saudi leadership YouTube review

Abdurahman Afia is a director of Leadership Development at Crestcom in
Saudi Arabia and has extensive experience of Saudi Arabian leadership styles
172
and practices (Abdurahman Afia, n.d.). According to Afia, an effective leader is

someone who encourages their employees. Employees want to feel cared for on
a personal level (InsightsWithAfia, 2020a, 0:09). However, displaying
appreciation towards employees tends to be difficult for leaders, due to their
relatively high workload. Yet, Afia argues that an effective leader should learn to
strike an effective balance between leading and engaging actively with their
employees. This is because a leader should focus on improving the employees
who work under them, rather than solely focusing on the work they perform. As
Afia argues in the video, “When you manage someone, you should show them
how to do a good job, but when you lead someone, you are helping them to
become better individuals” (InsightsWithAfia, 2020b, 0:10). Improving and
optimising one’s employees is thus a critical element of effective leadership.
In another YouTube video, a managing director at DHL Global Forwarding

describes the emergent changes in Saudi organisations with respect to gender
equality. Over the course of the last decade, women have gained significant
rights in the country, while, simultaneously, carving out greater opportunities for
themselves in both the front and back office. Consequently, people feel
compelled to include women more in organisations and to open up access to
senior positions for them. This is being done solely on the basis of women being
qualified for these positions, as opposed to deriving from the country seeking to
obtain a higher equality ratio. Overall, the level of respect accorded to women in
Saudi organisations is very high (Breakbulk Event & Media, 2020).
Understanding hierarchy in Saudi Arabia

Hierarchy (‫ ) التسلسل الهرمي‬constitutes an important feature of Saudi Arabia, both
within organisations and society at large (CCBS Survey, 2020). In Saudi
households, it is the father who has the sole responsibility for decision-making
and is, in this respect, the family leader. Such hierarchy persists also in Saudi
organisations. Indeed, in Saudi Arabia, many companies are family-owned
businesses. Hence, the final decision-making power invariably lies with the head
of the family, who is typically the father (Niblock, 2006). It is thus critical that
contact is made with him. Indeed, as the well-known Arabic saying goes:
“Ask the wise father for advice” (Hornok, 2020).
It is essential to properly address a Saudi Arabian leader, and, indeed, failure to
do so could adversely affect business relations. One survey respondent reported
how Saudis are often addressed by names that refer to their eldest son.
173
For example, Abu Saad implies father of Saad. Many respondents mentioned
that, while employees are allowed to address leaders by their first name, they
should always use a title, such as Dr or Mr, when communicating with a
professional. Displaying such respect is crucial for conducting business in
Saudi Arabia, due to how hierarchically structured it is (CCBS Survey, 2020). In
this respect, it is in marked contrast to what people are used to in Western
countries. Islamic values and norms underpin everything in the country and serve
as the justification for men having higher positions than their female
counterparts (Abir, 2006). There is no freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia,
which is to say that employees do not provide unsolicited opinions to those in
more senior positions than themselves. Consequently, there is a notable degree
of power distance between normal workers and those operating in the upper
echelon of management. Age constitutes a further marker of differentiation
within Saudi organisations, insofar as older men tend to dominate senior
positions due, in part, to the fact that they are believed to have considerable
experience. In Saudi business culture, it is believed that one’s visual attention
also serves as a marker of respect. Hence, when one is in a business meeting, it is
possible to immediately identify who the decision-maker is as everyone will look
at them constantly. Furthermore, respect is shown by the fact that a decision-
maker is never interrupted. Even if the manager is not speaking, they are still
recognisable as the leader, as they sit at the front and nobody challenges them
(Hornok, 2020).
How Saudis achieve leadership empathy

“Leaders in Saudi Arabia still practice the oldest forms of leadership that focus on
the performance of workers, not the workers themselves” (p. 315). “Some of
them believe that a leader should be the one who gets served and not the one
that serves” (Shafai, 2018, p. 313). Various faculty members that participated in a
study reported that delegation is one of the most significant characteristics of an
effective leader. However, delegation is not always effective, as employees tend
to become discouraged in instances when leaders closely monitor or belittle
them, which, in turn, can result in embittered employees, who lose trust and
restrain their ideas (Gonaim, 2017). However, the results of the CCBS survey
(2020) show that leaders were surprisingly open to indirect criticism, which they
believed enhanced productivity between leaders and employees. Multiple survey
respondents also noted that employees are allowed to bend the rules in order to
improve their performance (CCBS Survey, 2020). Encouraging employees to
174
speak out and express their opinions and ideas motivates them and enhances
their productivity. Indeed, employees appreciate leaders who listen to and take
them into account. One can observe this in the new generation of female leaders
who are consensus builders and encourage broader participation in decision-
making. Women are more personally open with colleagues and their
subordinates than their male counterparts. Moreover, female leaders tend
to show greater interest in the wellbeing and personal concerns of their
subordinates. Women display empathic understanding by expressing concern
and having interpersonal relationships with their co-workers and employees.
This is very much appreciated by employees, in light of the fact that male leaders
have been found to do this far less frequently (Alexander, 2013). One respondent
from the survey lent support to this statement by noting that: “As a leader, I
prefer to keep personal distance from employees, to maintain the right level
of respect” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
In Saudi Arabia, people admire leaders that communicate well with their
employees as Saudis are trained from childhood to engage and participate in
public conversation. Saudis believe that they can display their eloquence and
cultivate a positive personal image through their personal interactions with
others. Overall, Saudi society has a marked preference for face-to-face meetings
since these kinds of meetings tend to indicate more concretely whether further
long-term business opportunities are possible (Ali, 2009). Making a strong first
impression and establishing interpersonal connections is very important for
doing business with the Saudis.
175
Serbia
Sarah Bnademjdid, Stefan van Ginkel, Mike Grund, Christian Ibink & Matthijs de Kruijf
The Djerdap cave, or the Iron Gate as it is also known, is a 134-kilometre-long

cave based in Serbia (Србија). It constitutes the most important access road from
the Black Sea to Western Europe. Serbia is in the Balkans and, as well as allowing
access to other territories through the Djerdap cave, is landlocked by eight
different countries. The agricultural sector comprises mainly of family-owned
companies and provides jobs to over a fifth of the workforce in the country.
Serbia is an upper middle-income country with a population of almost nine
million inhabitants, of which native Serbians account for the largest percentage
of the population (Statista, 2019). While there are five different religions, the
vast majority of inhabitants identify as Christian Orthodox. Serbia’s business
culture is, in many respects, intertwined with its neighbouring countries. In
conjunction with this, as noted by Bechev, Serbia has made overtures towards
the European Union (EU): “Mirko Cvetković (Микро Цветковиц), the prime
minister of Serbia, observed that regional cooperation is a common shared value
by Serbia and the EU, so we will do everything which is possible to support good
and friendly regional relations and to encourage cooperation with neighbouring
countries.” (Bechev, 2011, p. 1). Currently, Serbia is in the process of entering the
EU, which, in turn, could lead to opportunities for various European countries in
Serbia (Europa-Nu, n.d.). However, as well as the notable benefits to be gained
from such cooperation, there could also be a potential culture clash regarding
organisational leadership styles and practices. Hence, it will be important for
both current and future Serbian leaders to remain open to new approaches and
adapt their styles in light of the increased presence of multinational corporations
and foreign-national employees.
How Serbians characterise leaders

The prevailing leadership styles in Serbia are characterised by autocratic and
authoritative traits, insofar as Serbian leaders tend to have a monopoly over the
decision-making process. The CCBS survey (2020) lends support to this as the
respondents reported that Serbian leaders are powerful decision-makers.
Moreover, the majority of these leaders do not allow their employees to bend
176
the rules without asking. However, as one IT manager explained, “They can bend
the rules if the upper management agrees and their arguments are reasonable”
(CCBS Survey, 2020). Today, a more task-oriented leadership style is developing
in the upper echelon of Serbian organisations. Leaders with higher levels of
authority are responsible for the results achieved, along with the allocation of
tasks and task-management, while those with lower levels of authority are more
focused on building interpersonal relationships within the enterprise (Mitrovic,
Milisavljevic, Cosic, Lekovic, Grubic-Nesic, & Ivanisevic, 2011). According to the
CCBS survey (2020), the important characteristics for a leader are organisational
experience, intellect and a strong charismatic personality.
The Serbian business culture is similar in many respects to other Southeast

European countries. However, in contrast to other Southeast European
countries, Serbia has always been more Western-oriented (Terterov, 2006). This
is because Serbian managers were educated in Western standards and have
numerous opportunities to cooperate with Western companies. Consequently,
certain Western values have come to be adopted by Serbian managers, especially
among the younger generation, and can be discerned within their business
culture (Terterov, 2006; CCBS Survey, 2020). Notwithstanding the aforesaid
differences in leadership styles compared to other countries, there are also
marked differences between men and women in the country. Specifically, the
majority of management positions in Serbian companies are occupied by men,
despite the fact that women represent over half of the population (Torlak &
Torlak, 2016). In our interview, Professor Adžić explained this as a consequence
of women being too busy with maintaining their family as opposed to focusing on
attaining leadership positions (Adžić, 2 May 2020). However, even when women
are in senior positions, they display different styles of leadership compared to
their male counterparts. Stojanović-Aleksić, Stamenković and Milanović (2016)
argue that female leaders are more inclined towards a democratic style of
leadership, while men more frequently adopt an authoritarian style. This is not
always the case however given that one respondent from the CCBS survey (2020)
described women’s leadership style as follows: “Women are more aggressive,
cold-hearted and more ambitious than men in leadership roles”.

The survey examined different aspects of leadership styles and practices in Serbia
and produced several notable findings. Around two-thirds of the respondents
177
agreed that when a management decision has been made, it will not be changed
very easily (CCBS Survey, 2020). As stated by a company owner in the human
resources sector, “The standard leadership style in Serbia is autocratic, with little
or no consulting of employees’ opinions” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This supports the
aforementioned discussion about the predominance of an authoritarian
leadership style within the country. The survey also lent support to the
persistence of gender inequality in Serbian organisations, insofar as the majority
of the respondents reported that there was gender inequality on the work floor.
As one IT manager said, “[women] are judged more harshly” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
We also asked local respondents about their thoughts on what aspects of
Serbia’s leadership styles were distinct to the country. The responses indicated
that a Western-style of leadership has been adopted in newer companies. A
Serbian company owner described the situation as follows: “Young people tend
to learn more from the liberal and Western culture about how to manage their
employees, while older people tend to be cruder and to the point” (CCBS Survey,
2020). Another leader from the IT sector stated that “Leadership in small and
medium-sized Serbian enterprises is still mostly autocratic” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Geert Hofstede conducted research on Serbian culture. One aspect of his
research related to the level of uncertainty avoidance in Serbia. He found that
Serbia scored very high in that particular aspect, before proceeding to note:
“Countries exhibiting high Uncertainty Avoidance maintain rigid codes of belief
and behaviour and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas” (Hofstede
Insights, n.d.). The CCBS survey (2020) found similar results in this respect,
particularly as it pertained to restrictions on individual ideas. This was indicated
by the fact that the majority of the respondents agreed with the following
statement: “In my organisation employees are expected to follow the established
procedures” (CCBS Survey, 2020). This does appear to suggest that the
authoritarian leadership style is still the most common approach in Serbia.

Slobodan Adžić: a Serbian leadership scholar
Professor Slobodan Adžić began his career by completing a master’s degree in
Serbia, after which he studied for an MBE (Model Based Enterprise) at a British
university. Subsequent to completing his studies, he acquired substantial
experience in leadership in Serbia. He became a city manager in the local
government, alongside taking up CEO positions within several companies. Based
on these experiences, Professor Adžić wrote the first local academic book on
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leadership in Serbia. The aim of the book is to introduce academic leadership

theories into Serbian organisations. Adžić examined patterns of leadership in
different countries worldwide, combining the leadership approach with strategic
management. He believed that these two factors could be successfully combined
in aiding leadership within organisations. According to Adžić, there are a lot of
similarities between leadership in Serbia and other landlocked countries, in both
Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Specifically, hierarchy is a prominent feature
in these countries, especially in Serbia, which enables leaders to justify having a
monopoly over decision-making (Adžić, 2 May 2020).
Janneke Mol: a Serbian cross-cultural trainer

To gain further insight into leadership styles and practices in Serbia, we
conducted an interview with Janneke Mol. She has experience working as a
manager in Serbia and has lived in the country for almost twenty years. Today,
Mol works as a full-time writer. She shared with us her experiences and
knowledge about Serbian business culture. Mol indicated that she believes that
Serbian leaders are behind in their leadership style compared to the Netherlands.
This is because, in her experience, employees are obliged to listen to their
manager, which lends support to the persistence of hierarchy within the country.
In Mol’s words: “He or she is the leader and the employees have nothing to say”
(12 March 2020).
Furthermore, she observed that Serbian leaders are viewed by their workforce as
a standalone leader as opposed to a manager. That is to say, “I am the leader and
you must do what I say with no hesitation” (Mol, 12 March 2020). In recent years,
there have been profound changes taking place within Serbian business culture.
For example, businesses now have far more younger people working there.
Moreover, Serbia is becoming more open to the ideas of Western employees.
Mol explained the situation as follows: “Younger people are more advanced and
more focused in the Western way of leadership” (Mol, 12 March 2020). Today,
there are still differences between male and female in the Serbian business
culture. Mol posited that within typical Serbian companies there are relatively
few women employed in leadership roles. As she opined, “Women are under the
impression that they have to seduce men in order to get a higher position within
the company” (Mol, 12 March 2020).
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In 2004, Slobodan Adžić wrote Lider u marketingu (A leader in marketing), which
is one of the few local Serbian books about leadership. In the book, Adžić states
that managing is about efficiency and that leadership is about the efficiency of
changes. The need for leadership derives from the continuously changing work
and societal environment. The leader of the organisation must anticipate signals
from the environment and point towards the right direction. Adžić observes that
there are two types of leadership styles, which he classifies as traditional and
modern ways of leading a company. There are multiple branches for each style
with matching characteristics. According to Adžić (2004), democracy is the only
leadership style that entails everything, and is therefore unavoidable, in a
changing modern society. This is because it is the most efficient way of keeping
up with the changing work and societal environment.

Title Lider u marketingu
Subtitle -
Author Slobodan Adžić
Publisher Institute of Economics, Belgrado
Year 2004
ISBN 9788673290546
Serbian leadership YouTube review

Youtube was also utilised as a source through which to study and understand
leadership in Serbia. The video that was analysed to gain greater insight into
Serbian leadership was made by Srđan Janićijević, a general manager from the
Mokrogor School of Management. Srđan Janićijević is a Serbian native consultant
and influential speaker on leadership in Serbia. According to Janićijević there are
two types of leadership styles: modern leadership and old leadership. Modern
leadership can be described as a ‘shared leader’. Janićijević states in the video
that the best way to describe a shared leader is as follows: “the leader is as
strong as the team he is playing in” (Janićijević, 2016, 1:40). In other words, the
team is equally as important as the leader. Modern leadership should thus take
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place within a teamwork-orientated environment that fosters harmonious

interpersonal relations and culminates in a low hierarchy culture. The opposite of
shared leadership is the old conservative centralised leadership style, which,
historically speaking, was the predominant approach adopted within Serbian
companies. In these types of organisations, there is an extensive power distance
based on hierarchy (Janićijević, 2016).
Understanding hierarchy in Serbia

Serbia has been described as a deeply hierarchical society, culturally,
economically and politically. Above all, people respect the hierarchy and their
leader. The integrated hierarchy in Serbia derives from the socio-historical
background of the country and the preference for collective meaning-making
(Konja, Matic & Lalic, 2014). Serbian history has been characterised by a strong
power distance. Power distance pertains to how people higher up in the
hierarchy give orders to lower ranked employees. Higher ranked employees have
decision-making power, while lower ranked people must listen to and execute
the orders. The level of power distance in a society is especially high when
gender inequality and political connections become noticeable. As Grujičić, an
operational manager at Younited Agency, noted in the CCBS survey (2020),
“Good political connections are important in the public sector”. Alongside political
connections, there is statistical evidence demonstrating that women rarely have
jobs with actual decision-making power in the country. Moreover, women tend
to earn less in comparable positions than their male counterparts (Torlak &
Torlak, 2016). In Serbian business culture, power distance is discernible by the
high social distance between leaders and workers. This distance is dependent on
the hierarchical position one holds within the company. By virtue of the demands
of the job, the higher the hierarchical level of the leader the less immediate
contact he or she has with employees (Mitrovic et al., 2011).
However, face-to-face communication within Serbian organisations is highly

respected. This is because face-to-face communication is characterised by verbal
and non-verbal messages, which, in turn, facilitates growth in the level of respect
and trust (Terterov, 2006). Despite this, leaders at the higher levels are less
focused on face-to-face contact and tend to be more task-oriented. According to
Adžić (2 May 2020), “there is no teamwork in the top of an organisation”. This is
because high-level leaders are solely responsible for results, business vision and
strategy, and if they do not make decisions by themselves, they will be
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considered weak. Leaders at lower levels of the hierarchy have been found to be
more focused on interpersonal relationships insofar as they have to work with
the employees in such a way that the plans from the top manager are executable
(Mitrovic et al., 2011).
How the Serbians achieve leadership empathy

According to the CCBS survey (2020), the vast majority of respondents fully
agreed with the statement that “a manager should actively spend time on the
personal wellbeing of the team members”. This supports the findings of Pečujlija,
Azemović, Azemović and Ćosić’s (2011) research, which indicates that employees
of Serbian companies prefer a leader who displays helpful behaviour. Although
this indicates that employees prefer an empathic approach from their leaders, as
noted by our local expert Janneke Mol, this is not the standard in Serbia. “The
Serbian style is as follows: I am the leader and you must do what I say without
any hesitation” (Mol, 12 March 2020). Having said this, the current autocratic
style appears to be undergoing a shift. As aforementioned, a new style is
emerging in Serbia, namely a task-oriented leadership style. This style requires a
more personal bond between leaders and their employees. As Mirotvic et al.
state, “Leaders have a patronizing attitude and confidence towards their co-
workers, motivating them through rewards, providing subordinates with
feedback and a highly controlled participation in decision-making” (2011, p. 4). A
reward system is mostly used in Serbian companies. Adžić (2 May 2020) pointed
out that the minimum wage in Serbia is not that high and, as such, that these
rewards are in high-demand by employees. These statements support the idea
that, while a more empathic style of leadership is emerging, aspects of the
autocratic leadership style nevertheless remain. The CCBS survey (2020) lends
support to this claim. As one respondent noted, “As a leader, I prefer to keep a
personal distance from employees, to maintain the right level of respect” (CCBS
Survey, 2020). However, two-thirds of respondents disagreed with this
statement. While this may appear to contradict prior discussions about the
autocratic leadership style, our respondents identified as mainly Western-
oriented leaders. Therefore, when viewed together, these statements appear to
indicate that the new leadership style is more focused on personal connections,
rather than the more job-focused approach adopted by autocratic leaders. This
new leadership style creates opportunities for other European companies to set
up in Serbia, while, simultaneously, increasing the productivity of employees and
enhancing the quality of the work that is performed (Pečujlija et al., 2011).
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Slovakia
Luuk Keurentjes, Mirco Nieberg & Tarik Azouagh
Slovakia (Slovensko) is a country ideally suited for explorers and adventurers,

insofar as it is a unique combination of traditional and native elements and more
modern developments. This is what makes this small and rapidly-changing nation
in the centre of Europe so interesting and attractive to tourists. After the collapse
of communism and the ensuing Velvet Revolution, the Slovak population sought
independence and ultimately broke away from Czechoslovakia in the 1990s to
become an independent state. Today, Slovakia has a population of over 5.4
million people, while its main religion is Roman Catholicism and the native
language is Slovak (Slovenský). Slovakia’s largest exports are cars and vehicle
parts (OEC, n.d.). The main car manufacturers are Volkswagen, PSA Peugeot
Citroen, Kia Motors and Jaguar Land Rover. In fact, these four companies employ
half of the workforce in the car manufacturing industry in Slovakia (Sario, 2020).
The shift to a market economy in the 1990s led to increased investment in the
country from international firms, which, in turn, resulted in a marked increased
of foreign managers working within Slovak organisations. This significantly
impacted on the business culture and leadership styles and practices in Slovakia
(Bauer, 2015).
How the Slovaks characterise leaders

Čiefová’s (2017) research demonstrates that competence and the ability to make
decisions are highly valued in Slovakia in relation to leadership, while the ability
to think critically is valued considerably less. Overall, Slovakians prefer team-
oriented and charismatic leadership styles (Pucko, Remisova & Lasakova, 2013).
These aforesaid styles produce strong feelings of pride and loyalty between team
members in Slovak organisations, in which team cohesiveness and having a
common purpose are accorded strong significance. The charismatic leadership
style is predicated on leaders inspiring their subordinates through the clarity and
power of their vision. Bauer’s (2015) research supports and develops the findings
of Pucko et al. (2013) by putting forward the argument that integrity, which is a
part of ethical leadership, is the most important factor in effective leadership.
According to Lašáková, Remišová and Kirchmayer (2017), Slovak leaders listen to
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what their employees have to say and, in turn, are trusted by them. More
specifically, leaders in Bratislava were found to be more ethical in their practice
than leaders in other parts of the country. Overall, however, foreign-owned
companies scored higher in terms of ethical leadership than Slovak companies.
In our interview with a local scholar, Lenka Theodoulides (16 March 2020), she
posited that the influence of these multinational enterprises has led to a
profound change in leadership style in the country towards more foreign-based
methods and styles. In parallel with these developments, a generational shift in
the country has also led to leaders and managers increasingly seeking to educate
themselves on coaching, alongside developing their emotional intelligence.
Viskupicova (2016) stresses the importance of emotional intelligence in
leadership, opining that an “emotionally intelligent leadership approach becomes
more and more urgent. And this especially applies for the contemporary Slovak
business environment” (p. 77). Despite this, she concludes that the majority of
Slovak organisations continue to overlook emotional intelligence when seeking to
recruit new managers. The respondents in the CCBS survey similarly believed that
employees expect their leaders to be emotionally intelligent and capable of
developing the skills and capacities of their subordinates. Finally, as per the
findings of extant literature, our respondents also noted that it is important for
Slovak leaders to be viewed as visionary thinkers (CCBS Survey, 2020).

The CCBS survey (2019) was completed by numerous C-level executives and
experienced managers currently working in the country and provides notable
insights into the prevailing leadership styles and practices in Slovakia. A
noticeably large number of respondents reported that their leaders are firm and
decisive, as well as being unlikely to change their management decisions. In most
cases, missed deadlines are classified as failures, with staff being chastised
accordingly in staff meetings to obtain the desired results. However, most
respondents asserted that they do not seek to maintain personal distance from
their employees. Hence, it is evident from the survey data that there is
simultaneously a firm leadership style and team-oriented style in operation,
perhaps as a result of the aforesaid Western influence in the country in recent
years. As one respondent observed: “I am sensing that it is trending towards
blurred lines between personal and professional relationships at the workplace. It
is getting more important for people to feel comfortable at work, making friends
with co-workers and being on good terms with superiors” (CCBS Survey, 2020).
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When questioned about whether leaders need to be addressed by their titles,

around 70% of the respondents reported that it is not necessary. Indeed, an even
greater percentage of the respondents noted that employees could address their
leaders by their first name (CCBS Survey, 2020). This confirms that leaders do not
position themselves as above their employees but, rather, as being at the same
level as them. This finding is also in accordance with the observed trend of more
Western leadership styles.
In response to what skills leaders must possess in order to fulfil the role, around
80% of the respondents answered organisational experience and market
expertise. Around 15% of the respondents agreed that leaders need to be of a
certain age and background, or be elegant in their appearance (CCBS Survey,
2020). This testifies to the fact that Slovakians only select their leaders once they
have wholly examined their competence for the requisite position.

Lenka Theodoulides: a Slovak leadership scholar
Dr Lenka Theodoulides has been a senior lecturer in the Department of
Corporate Economics and Management at the Matej Bel University in Banská
Bystrica from 2003. Her principal teaching and research areas are management
and leadership. She has conducted research and written multiple journal articles
and monographs on a range of leadership topics, such as innovation in
leadership, leadership in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region and the
role of leadership in organisational change. However, Theodoulides’ main focus is
mapping changes in management and leadership styles (16 March 2020).
She posited that one of the most interesting changes in leadership in recent
years is that companies and managers are shifting from a production-oriented
approach towards an innovation-oriented approach and, in turn, a people-
focused approach. However, the pace of this transition varies significantly across
different sectors. For instance, the governmental and public sectors continue to
adopt more traditional and autocratic leadership styles, as do heavy industries
like steel and mining. Conversely, ICT, smaller businesses and daughter
companies of multinational enterprises tend to be more progressive in terms of
both their organisational structure and democratic and participative leadership
styles. These progressive industries are also more inclined to utilise coaching,
mentoring and feedback. Theodoulides (16 March 2020) purported that the
cause of this aforementioned transition is the greater influence played by foreign
companies in Slovakia, as well as the inclusion of greater numbers of generation
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Z members in the workforce, who demand to be treated equally at work.

While she has not conducted research specifically on gender, she nevertheless
posited that there are fewer female C-level managers and executives. However,
with respect to those women who are in positions of power, she believes that
there is little difference in their managerial and leadership approach compared
to their male counterparts. Lending support to Čiefová’s (2017) research,
Theodoulides (16 March 2020) stressed that it is vital for managers and leaders
to develop their critical thinking skills and that this should occur within
universities so that future leaders will be even better.
Eva Gaborikova: a Slovak cross-cultural trainer

Eva Gaborikova, MA, PhD, ACC, has been an intercultural trainer for the past 15
years. In this time, she has worked with numerous international companies to
help them settle in not only Slovakia but also the Czech Republic, Hungary and
Austria. Given that she specialises in helping expatriate companies in these
countries, she has extensive knowledge of hierarchy and leadership in Slovakia.
In our interview, Gaborikova (18 March 2020) emphasised that Slovakia has two
highly contradictory leadership styles: the more traditional style of leadership
and an emergent more progressive style. This hybridity derives from the
aforesaid transition from a planned economy to a market economy. When
Gaborikova was asked what distinguishes Slovakia from its neighbouring
countries, she concluded that while Slovakia has a lot in common with its
neighbouring countries, the one notable difference is Slovakia’s open economy,
which she believes resulted in faster economic development compared to
neighbouring countries (18 March 2020). Gaborikova then proceeded to discuss
that it is important to understand this business culture in Slovakia because it
explains why there are two distinct types of leaders. On the one hand, there are
leaders who were around before the transition to the market economy, who
learned their skills during the communist era and had to adapt to the transition.
On the other hand, the generation who grew up under a market economy
developed their knowledge and gained experience during an era in which
numerous expatriate companies were setting up in Slovakia, and bringing new
leadership styles with them. In the interview, Gaborikova reported that Slovaks
expect their leaders to take care of them and their loved ones and help them
build a good future. For Gaborikova it is important for leaders to have mentors to
teach them these fundamental values. While this has changed over time, she
believes that a mentoring system is still vitally important for socialising
prospective leaders.
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The only title available in online bookstores on the subject of leadership in
Slovakia is Etické vedenie ľudí v slovenskom podnikateľskom prostredí (Ethical
leadership in Slovak business environment) written by Anna Remisova, Anna
Lašáková, Ján Rudy, Rozália Sulíková, Zuzana Kirchmayer and Jana Fratričová.
The main goal of this book is to identify which cultural and ethical factors
influence managers’ decision-making in the field of value-oriented leadership.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on delineating the
theoretical framework. The second part is about the research objectives, content
and subject matter. It also delves deeper into the research methods used and the
criteria on which the results were evaluated. The third part presents the main
findings of the research. These are directly applicable to both the domestic and
international business environment as well as management development. Hence,
every manager in Slovakia should have this book on their shelf.

Etické vedenie ľudí v slovenskom
Title
podnikateľskom prostredí
Subtitle -
Anna Remisova, Anna Lašáková,
Authors Ján Rudy, Rozália Sulíková, Zuzana
Kirchmayer and Jana Fratričová
Publisher Wolters Kluwer
Year 2015
ISBN 9788081681998
Slovak leadership YouTube review

Tomáš Hasala is the co-founder of Limba.com, the industry leader of Central
European reservation systems. Since 2014, he has also been the CEO of Nexteria,
a non-profit organisation that supports young talent and leaders. In this
interview he talks, among other things, about the differences between leading a
private company and a non-profit organisation in Slovakia and what it is like to
start and lead a company there. He begins by stating that he prefers to cooperate
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with others when starting a company because when you co-found a company
with, for example, four people, everybody is fully focused on the company.
Conversely, if you have four employees, they will never have the same
relationship to the company that you do as a founder (Startup Grind Local, 2019,
21:33). He then proceeds to say that it is very important to take risks when you
are leading an organisation. He notes that this is why he and his former business
partner went their separate ways. Because, even though they had the same
values, his former partner was unable to take risks. Alongside risk-taking, the
other most important quality needed to be a successful leader of a company is
generosity. That is to say, you should attempt to help other people to succeed
even if this may go against your own interests at times (Startup Grind Local,
2019, 24:21). Later in the interview, he talks about switching from the private to
the public sector in Slovakia, noting that a major challenge for him was gaining
money to start the business in the first place. “We’ve had no state money, no
European money and we have no money at all from ‘strange’ private sources,
which is absolutely normal in Slovakia” (Startup Grind Local, 2019, 44:45). This
appears to suggest that the business landscape in Slovakia is still not necessarily
completely ethical. By way of concluding the interview, he states that in modern
times it is very important to be a team player and, as such, every day is
somewhat of a compromise.
Two other specialists in the field of organisational structures and leadership in

Slovakia are Jan Gregor and Roman Kurnicky. Both are CEOs of companies that
help organisations with people-related transformation and process management.
They gave a lecture at OpenSlava 2017, in which they talked about the
possibilities of building an agile organisation in Slovakia. One of the slides in their
presentation notes that building an organisational structure is not about
changing structure but, rather, about embracing agile values. In this respect, they
argue that a lot of Slovakian companies are still not fully able to, or even open to,
embracing these values (OpenSlava, 2017, 2:49). The first issue that they observe
in those organisations that do attempt to become more agile is that they try to
do so by using the old-fashioned reward and punish leadership style. Managers
also find it hard to grant their employees freedom, while employees find it hard
to have freedom because freedom also brings responsibility, which they are not
used to (OpenSlava, 2017, 9:55). In tandem with this newfound responsibility is
the necessity for employees to reflect on their own actions when attempting to
implement solutions and help the company move forward. However, employees
tend to focus on merely making the business owners happy instead of making
the customer happy, which needs to be inverted in an agile organisation
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(OpenSlava, 2017, 11:45). Based on the lecture, it can be concluded that there
are nevertheless some Slovakian organisations that are ready to progress to
working in an agile fashion.
Understanding hierarchy in Slovakia

Slovak culture has changed profoundly since the fall of communism. The reason
for this is that numerous international companies have settled in Slovakia, and
brought a lot of expatriate workers with them. This has resulted in a marked
change in the business culture in Slovakia, according to Eva Gáboríková an
intercultural trainer specialised in the Slovak culture (18 March 2020). In
Hofstede’s original study, Slovakia scored notably high on power distance (103
out of 100), but this has changed over time. Bašnáková, Brezina and Masaryk
(2016) conducted a closer examination of Hofstede’s dimensions and came to
the following conclusion: Kolman’s original reporting on Slovakia’s high position
on power distance (103) must have been false because the new score was only
25. The controversy suggests that there are different types of business skills
needed in Slovakia. The transition undergone in Slovakia has culminated in the
organisational culture that currently prevails. Those leaders who worked during
the period of transition adopt a style that is reminiscent of neighbouring
countries. More specifically, the old-fashioned Slovak leader feels like a father
figure, insofar as he or she cares about their subordinates and their families. For
the older generation, a person’s title reflects their status, and status is very
important when conducting business. The traditional leadership style is also
based more on relationship building. To improve one’s status, ranking and
authority you have to gain trust by caring for employees (Bauer, 2015).
Moreover, leaders adopt a top-down management approach that characterised
communist societies. In this approach, employees do not speak up to their
leaders and have a lot of respect for them. This leadership style is still seen in
traditional Slovak companies.
However, in recent years a new generation of leaders has emerged, who display
a markedly different approach to leadership. Their style is infused with methods
and styles from the various international companies that have settled in Slovakia
since their transition into the market economy. Lenka Theodoulides (16 March
2016) states that this younger generation does not look up to leaders in the same
vein that the older generation did; rather, this generation appreciates equality
more than difference in status. Hence, the leadership style that is best suited for
this generation is a flat organisational structure, in which work is carried out in
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collaboration with a manager, and it is normal to share your thoughts. That is to

say, this is an altogether more democratic style of leadership, in which leaders
coach and help their employees, as opposed to controlling and commanding
them. As aforesaid, this approach is mostly seen in foreign companies and in
younger and smaller Slovak companies.
How Slovakians achieve leadership empathy

There are different leadership styles utilised in Slovakia, which also result in a
different style of orientation. As Bauer argues, “It is noticeable that Diplomatic is
most accepted for supporting effective leadership - while it is generally accepted
that Self-centred inhibits it” (2015, p. 18). Perhaps the biggest challenge in the
aforementioned transition from the traditional task-oriented leadership style to
the more democratic people-focused leadership style is attempting to secure
empathy from one’s subordinates. To achieve this in contemporary society,
increasing amounts of leaders are seeking to develop their own competences in
coaching and providing feedback to their teams. The most difficult aspect of this
task is not only to give the right feedback but also to be able to effectively
receive feedback from their employees (Theodoulides, 16 March 2020).
However, Bauer’s research (2015) highlights that charismatic-inspirational and
charismatic-visionary competences are also deemed to be the most accepted
methods for achieving effective leadership. The survey respondents (CCBS
Survey, 2020) reported that managers should actively spend time on the
personal wellbeing of their team members. This indicates that there is indeed a
trend of leaders being more concerned with the personal development of their
employees than with the task at hand. “We found that most of the project
managers [have] a sufficient level of competence. For competencies, we can
consider the competencies development of others, helping other people develop
their capabilities, realize their potential and identify opportunities” (Krchova,
2019, p. 239). Hana Krchova (2019) also states that the main difference in the
respective levels of competence between male and female project managers
pertained to their ability to gain empathy from subordinates, wherein female
managers showed a higher level of competence. This is because they are better
equipped to respond to the feelings and concerns of their subordinates.
Consequently, as noted by Theodoulides (16 March 2020), Slovakia is undergoing
significant changes with respect to management. Managers who watch and
delegate are beginning to make way for leaders that take care of the wellbeing of
their employees and want to develop their skillsets and capacities.
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Tunisia
Ivan Milivojevic, Leon Lifshin, Yassine Khlif, Ranim Adjali & Hamid Hafizi
The Republic of Tunisia (‫ )الجمهورية التونسية‬is the most northern nation in Africa and
has a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea. It is dominated by the Atlas Mountains
in the north and the Sahara Desert in the south. It is slightly larger in terms of
both its surface area and population size than modern-day Greece. Prior to
gaining its independence in 1956, it had been colonised, in turn, by Berber tribes,
the Ottoman Empire and France (Perkins, 2014). As a result of becoming a
protectorate of France, French is spoken throughout the nation, but especially in
administrative, commercial and academic sectors. From a business perspective,
the relationship with France remains strong, insofar as nearly a third of the
nation’s exports end up there (OEC, n.d.). Other languages spoken are Tunisian
Arabic, also referred to as Darija (,‫ ;)الدارجة‬Berber; and Classical Arabic, which is
also recognised as an official language (CountryWatch, 2020). Nearly the entire
population practises Islam, and per Article 1 of the national constitution, Tunisia
is officially an Islamic state (Sadek, 2013). However, in the aftermath of the Arab
Spring in 2010 the constitution was subsequently modified in 2014 to include
more secular and Western-oriented policy-making, which, in turn, has led to it
becoming one of the most open-minded and democratic Islamic countries in
Northern Africa (EIU, 2020). This, in part, explains why Tunisia has also been a
leading party in North Africa in terms of improving women’s rights and achieving
equality (Moalla, 9 December 2019). In this chapter, we examine how Tunisia’s
business leaders abide by the aforementioned secular legal structure, while,
simultaneously, adhering to the more traditional cultural values of Islam.
How Tunisians characterise leaders

After orchestrating its independence in 1956, the Republic of Tunisia above all
sought charisma from its leaders to help guide them through this period of
uncertainty. As a result, leaders in the country adopted a paternalistic approach
because “[paternalism] allows for a charismatic style of leadership, one prefered
where authority must be exerted” (Primecz, Romani & Sackmann, 2013, p. 65).
It is also important to note that Tunisia is a collectivist society, while,
simultaneously, being high in power distance (Basabe & Ros, 2005), which goes
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some way to explain why paternalistic leadership was readily adopted as a viable
management strategy (Pellegrini & Scandura, 2007). Deriving from this
paternalistic management strategy, an authoritarian leadership style gradually
emerged, which nullified the communication and transparency that was sought
by the populace. As a result of the Arab Spring in 2010, of which Tunisia was a
key catalyst, sections of the population expressed their desire for a different style
of leadership. Although the resulting change in Tunisian business culture has
been relatively slow, Driss Boussif (2010), a Tunisian researcher at the University
of Central Lancaster, found that 66% of Tunisian employees preferred some
version of consultative management while less than seven per cent preferred an
autocratic method (Boussif, 2010). This means that an effective, modern Tunisian
leader is expected to consult and communicate with their subordinates, while
still ultimately being responsible for the final decision-making process.
Moreover, according to a local study conducted by Ben Romdhane Ziadi and

Morjene Zouari (2016), when a leader wishes to initiate change in the workplace,
it is essential that they focus on the human factor. That is to say, their role
“Should not be limited to mere executors of instructions but rather should be
involved from the beginning” (Ziadi & Zouari, 2016, p. 204). This is further
emphasised by Baouab, Ben Hassine and Zeribi (2012), who state: “Our empirical
results show a strong positive and significant correlation between information
sharing and business performance. The employee feels a full member in the firm”
(Baouab et al., 2012, p. 12). In their study, an anonymous public Tunisian figure
explains that “If we give [them] information, that means we recognize [their]
skills and abilities and then [they] become more productive” (Baouab et al., 2012,
p. 12). Finally, it is important that one should not let the word “paternal” create
the illusion that only men can be leaders in Tunisia. In fact, over 80% of our CCBS
survey respondents indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with the fact
that women can achieve positions of senior management (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Indeed, this discourse of equality is firmly embedded in the newly modified 2014
constitution, in which the UN reports, “Women exerted significant influence on
the text of the constitution itself” (Holt-Ivry, O’Reilly & Tamaru, 2018, p. 1). From
2010 to 2015, the number of Tunisian women in parliament rose to 31%, more
than a 50% increase from the beginning of the decade, which at that time was
the highest level of female representation amongst any Arab country (Arfaoui &
Moghadam, 2016).
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A variety of Tunisian entrepreneurs, C-level executives and senior directors
provided their perspective on local leadership by completing our survey. The
survey focuses on leadership style, leadership qualities and gender equality. After
analysing the survey, it was evident that the preferred style of Tunisian leaders is
a team-oriented one. Above all, commitment to one’s team is deemed to be
vital, which is demonstrated by the fact that two-thirds of Tunisian leaders
agreed or strongly agreed that the majority of their time is spent on the
wellbeing of their team (CCBS Survey, 2020). In conjunction with this, nearly
three-quarters of the professionals disagreed with the statement that leaders
should keep a personal distance from employees in order to maintain the right
level of respect (CCBS Survey, 2020). Despite the fact that superiors retain close
connections to their employees, just over half of them nevertheless indicated
that they prefer to be addressed by their title as opposed to their first name
(CCBS Survey, 2020). Thus, it can be concluded that relationships are highly
important for leaders in Tunisia and that, when in doubt, one should address
leaders by their title.
Regarding the desired requirements of a leader, a range of qualities such as
having a charismatic personality as well as being a decision-maker and a visionary
were reported to be most important (CCBS Survey, 2020). These paternal
qualities are sought out. Indeed, Dr Adel Grar, who works in the financial sector
in Tunisia, acknowledged that under a paternalistic approach “People co-operate
better and are more effective when they feel this confidence” (CCBS Survey,
2020). It also should be noted that formal qualifications are not necessarily the
most sought for attributes of a leader. Instead, the respondents indicated that
competency is a more desired quality in a leader (CCBS Survey, 2020). As another
respondent opined, “The person who leads in Tunisia is not always the most
qualified or educated. You can often see very good teams with very well-trained
elements, led by people with minimal education or none at all” (CCBS Survey,
2020). Given that leadership in Tunisia relies heavily on consulting subordinates,
the final decision is pivotal, which is why the vast majority of respondents
indicated that they expect their subordinates to abide by the decisions that they
make. Moreover, slightly over two-thirds of the respondents reported that
employees cannot break the leader’s rules even if they felt it would benefit the
company (CCBS Survey, 2020). In conclusion, leadership qualities in Tunisia are
highly paternal and reliant on charismatic individuals capable of making
decisions, who are visionaries and establish parameters for their employees to
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operate within. The most one-sided statistic in the entire survey pertained to
both men and women having equal access to senior positions (CCBS Survey,
2020). Although the vast majority of the respondents responded in favour of
women having equal access to positions of leadership, there were some
conflicting responses regarding the way that men and women lead. Roughly half
of the leaders stated that there is a minimal difference; for example, Mr Anis
Jmour, a vice president in the airline industry, reflected on leadership being
genderless by stating that “Leadership is a mentality, a state of mind and a
management style” (CCBS Survey, 2020). In contrast, being a female manager in
a male-dominated domain (such as engineering, finance or computer software)
led some to report that female managers are often stricter as a result of having
to prove themselves. Indeed, as Nejah Sellami, a director of finance in Tunisia,
posited that “Women generally find it difficult to be well listened to by male
employees” (CCBS Survey, 2020).

Rahma Khlif: a Tunisian leadership scholar
Rahma Khlif spent her childhood in the second most inhabited city in Tunisia,
Sfax, where she received her high school diploma. She then pursued her studies
at the University of Social Sciences in Toulouse (France), where she obtained her
Doctorate in Management Sciences and Marketing. Khlif is currently a professor
at the École Supérieur de Commerce de Sfax. She is also an instructor in
university pedagogy and works as a marketing consultant for various
organisations. Khlif began the interview by discussing the communication skills
that an effective leader must have in the Tunisian business context. She revealed
that it is important to have good listening skills because in Tunisia employees
might otherwise feel left out or ignored. Subordinates want to be able to discuss
anything related to work or their family with their boss. In addition, leaders
usually communicate indirectly with their employees. In any business situation,
Khlif noted, “it is disrespectful not to get news from others before starting the
discussion” (12 April 2020). Another important quality for leaders is to reward
those employees who take initiative. Khlif believed that many Tunisian
employees, especially those from the younger generation, take the initiative
without receiving the reward they deserve (12 April 2020). This causes
employees to lose motivation, which, in turn, detrimentally impacts upon the
quality of their work. When asked about the perception of time in Tunisian
culture, Khlif responded that “A fifteen minute delay is tolerable” (12 April 2020).
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Nevertheless, she proceeded to stress that a good leader must set a strong
example to the entire organisation to ensure that employees maintain the
requisite level of discipline. In general, the main conclusion of her interview was
that the Tunisian business environment is traditional and paternalistic. Khlif
explained that, in her view, this is an important topic at this juncture because
while some minor changes have occurred in recent years, her testimony signals
that the prevailing leadership style has not changed significantly.
Chedli Triki: a Tunisian cross-cultural trainer

Chedli Triki was raised in Tunisia before moving to Munich (Germany) to
complete his university studies at the Technical University of Munich. Triki
obtained a master’s degree in senior processing. He began his professional career
in Seoul (South Korea), where he worked in the energy sector. He was in charge
of business development for French-speaking countries in Africa. He later moved
to Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) where he managed a technical assistance
company. Finally, in 2010, he came back to his homeland and joined his family’s
consulting firm. They support construction companies in the energy sector by
providing a suite of services, such as business development, product support and
contract negotiations.
The interview began with discussing the business environment in Tunisia. After
working around the globe, Triki (15 April 2020) commented that, relatively
speaking, “[Tunisia] is not very dynamic [nor] innovative and it is actually very
conservative”. Furthermore, when discussing the role of women as leaders and in
other activities in Tunisia, he affirmed that women have made great strides in
recent years. Triki reminded us that, since 2011, a woman, Wided Bouchamaoui,
has been the head of the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and
Handicrafts. In fact, this confederation was awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.
While these kinds of steps undoubtedly inspire and motivate women across the
country, Tunisia nevertheless remains a male-dominated society. When talking
about the relationship between a leader and an employee, Triki (15 April 2020)
opined that “[employees] want their leader to be their friend sometimes and
break the barrier”. He added that a successful leader needs to strike the right
balance between establishing the requisite level of authority and being close to
their employees in order to gain their trust. While the Tunisian Revolution did
not drastically change the business environment, according to Triki, the younger
generation has gained more opportunities to become leaders in various
organisations. Overall, he believed that the business environment in Tunisia
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lacks dynamism and innovation, but highlighted the increasing number of women
and younger people occupying senior positions.

Tunisian executive Samira Nefzi recommended the book Habib Bourguiba le bon
grain et l’ivraie (Habib Bourguiba the good grain and the tares). The book is
primarily about Habib Ben Ali Bourguiba, who became the first president of the
Republic of Tunisia following its independence in 1956. The book is written by his
eventual successor, Beji Caïd Essebsi, who won the first democratic election and
became head of the nation in 2014. President Essebsi discusses Ben Ali’s
preferred method of leadership for controlling the country. The book includes
different opinions on Ben Ali’s leadership style, including what he did well and
what Essebsi believes he should have done differently, which he subsequently
implemented into his own leadership style. Furthermore, the book highlights
specific reasons for why Tunisia did not become vulnerable during the Arab
Spring, above all citing the constitutional precautions taken by Ben Ali in 1957.
The fact that these reforms were not introduced in neighbouring countries is
cited as the main reason for the chaos that ensued. These changes comprised
focus on education, secularism over Islam and gender equality, including divorce.

Title Habib Bourguiba
Subtitle Le bon grain et l’ivraie
Author Beji Caïd Essebsi
Publisher Sud Editions Tunis
Year 2011
ISBN 9789938010656
Tunisian leadership YouTube review

Alongside academic sources and the data collected from surveys, we also used
YouTube videos to compile accurate insights from local leadership experts in
Tunisia. Sawsan Bellaj (2019) is a female Tunisian leadership coach, an author,
and the founder of a Tunisian e-learning website, whose goal is to offer online
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training sessions to Tunisian managers. With over ten years of leadership

coaching experience, Bellaj presents six essential points associated with
becoming a better leader. More specifically, this video is primarily geared
towards female managers in Tunisia. She explains her reasons for helping women
in management as follows: “When a woman advances, she will be an example for
other women. This would help them change their situations and improve
themselves. This will allow a real change in the mentality and culture of Tunisia”
(Bellaj, 2019, 8:55). The central tenets of her advice are: to be a more active
participant in meetings, to be an active member of discussions, to express
opinions, to propose ideas and to never stop learning. Her final observation is
that in Tunisia, like many countries, women often do not get the credit they
deserve for the work that they do. This is why it is imperative that Tunisian
women ensure that their work is recognised. While the emphasis is evidently
on women in management, these points are critical for Tunisian women
seeking to take on any type of leadership role.
Understanding hierarchy in Tunisia

Within Tunisian organisations, the hierarchical structure plays a vital role. As
Allaya Aida and Mellouli Majdi, two management professors in Tunisia, observe
“Tunisian national culture is characterized by a great power distance. Tunisian
people accept hierarchy and this attitude is explained by paternalism [being
presented as a current form of problem resolution]” (Aida & Majdi, 2014, p. 4).
They believe that Tunisian children are raised to listen to their fathers without
question, and as a result, children grow up believing heavily in authority figures.
In support of this point, it should be noted that 70% of the CCBS survey
respondents reported that someone’s hierarchical position is the highest factor
on the list with regards to respecting a leader (CCBS Survey, 2020). Although this
top-down hierarchical structure unquestionably exists and is a by-product of the
broader paternal culture in the nation, it is still imperative that leaders care for
their subordinates (Global Affairs Canada, 2018b). Interestingly, only 23% of
CCBS survey (2020) respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that they
should keep their distance from their subordinates and maintain a strictly
professional relationship while the vast majority were more comfortable with
having a more friendly bond with their employees. With respect to
communication within an organisation, more specifically the need to adapt one’s
speech depending on the person, Triki (15 April 2020) affirmed: “You [will not]
talk to your business development manager the same way you would talk to the
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driver or the logistics person”. He stressed that while all of them are important to
the organisation, you need to adapt your speech depending on the employee’s
background if you want to be effective. Moreover, in situations where the
relationship is underdeveloped, in order to show respect, subordinates should
address their superiors by their title. When addressing a local leader, this would
be their official title (directeur géneral (DG), docteur (Dr), etc.) followed by their
surname; if their title is unknown, they can also be referred to as Si or Monsieur
for men and Madame for women.
How Tunisians achieve leadership empathy

A common theme throughout this chapter has been the paternalistic approach to
Tunisian management and its impact upon organisations. With respect to
empathy, the paternalistic leadership style has received its fair share of criticism
in Western literature, in part, due to the exchange that paternalistic cultures
demand. For instance, in paternalistic societies, authority figures consider it an
obligation to provide protection to those under their care in exchange for loyalty
and deference (Aycan, Kanungo & Sinha, 1999). Several scholars have posited
that there is a relative dearth of empathic practices in paternalistic societies,
which is illustrated in the comments of Lofti Saibi, a Tunisian management
consultant and Harvard graduate, when speaking about his nation’s educational
system: “Students never learned how to develop a sense of empathy, necessary
to understand their peoples’ needs and translate them to actions” (Saibi, 2018).
However, as aforesaid, Tunisia is also a collectivist society that relies heavily on
relationships, and it is no different in the business world. As Khlif noted during
our interview, “In Tunisia, the most important aspect [in leadership] is
relationships. A leader must establish a good relationship with [their] workers or
colleagues” (12 April 2020). An effective relationship is one that fosters trust,
develops routes for communication, along with generating a sense of empathy.
While it is understandable that Tunisian leaders are not as demonstrative with
their emotions, including empathy, as their Western counterparts, given that it
is evidently one of the most important aspects of leadership, it is present.
A further example of how Tunisian paternalism deleteriously impacts upon

empathy is the skewed focus on competition within the workplace. With an
almost 2:1 ratio, the participants in our survey indicated that they believe that
creating a competitive environment increases a team’s productivity, which is a
deeply traditional approach to business (CCBS Survey, 2020). Despite the fact
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that an individual can be both competitive and empathic, there is a statistical

correlation between them, insofar as when you increase one, the other
decreases (ie increased competition leads to decreased empathy) (Kohn, 1993).
That being said, from the perspective of a leader, over 75% of the respondents
agreed that the majority of their time is spent ensuring the wellbeing of their
team. It can thus be said, then, that the issue of empathic understanding in
Tunisia is quite complicated. This is because, on the surface, leaders are still stuck
in the paternal, authoritative, non-comforting methods of the past, which
manifest in non-empathic practices like fostering competition between
employees, yet underneath this layer, they appear to have their team’s best
interests in mind.
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Uganda
Almasa Ćerimovic, Julie Hallman, Philip Nilsen, Gerry Selvelieva & Alex Tallon
While visiting Uganda, which at that time was still under British rule, Winston
Churchill referred to it as “the pearl of Africa”. Since then, numerous others have
described it as a fairy tale, because of its colour, diversity and beauty (Churchill,
1909). The Republic of Uganda (Jamhuri ya Uganda) is located in East Africa and
shares borders with Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo and South Sudan. Kampala is the country’s capital and largest city. The
country’s population is over 45 million, less than one-fifth of which lives in urban
areas. English and Swahili are the official languages of Uganda; however, Luganda
is also widely spoken (Lyons, Ingham, Kokole & Kiwanuka, 2020). The most
prevalent religion is Protestantism, followed by Roman Catholicism and Islam.
The national currency is Ugandan shilling (UGX), whose official exchange rate
against foreign currencies is set by the government. The country has a mixed
economic system as government regulations, centralised economic planning and
private freedom are all combined. Uganda is a member of many regional and
international economic organisations, including the Common Market for Eastern
and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) (Ravenhill, 2017). The country is slowly becoming an
essential player in the world economy, in part, due to Ugandan business leaders,
who have become known for being honest and trustworthy (Lituchy, Ford &
Punnett, 2013).
How the Ugandans characterise leaders

As aforesaid, Ugandan leaders are defined as being honest and trustworthy
(Lituchy et al., 2013). Overall, workers in Uganda prefer a transformational
leadership style, as opposed to transactional or laissez-faire leaders (Musinguzi,
Namale, Rutebemberwa, Dahal, Nahirya-Ntege& Kekitiinwa, 2018). A
transformational leadership style has been shown to positively impact on
employees’ motivation and job satisfaction, as well as improving teamwork
among workers. In Uganda, a good leader is expected to be fully committed to
the team, to prioritise the need for compromise and consensus and to maintain
good personal relations (Bagire, Begumisa & Punnett, 2017). In addition to this,
200
leaders in Uganda tend to be quite strict, especially when it comes to meeting

deadlines. Indeed, missing a deadline is deemed to be equivalent to a personal
failure (CCBS Survey, 2020). Therefore, Ugandans expect leaders to hold them to
task when it comes to meeting their targets and objectives. Moreover, as
Ugandan business leader, Susan Nsibirwa (15 April 2020) opined, “people do not
speak out when they see what […] is going wrong, simply because you do not
want to get on the wrong side of the leader”. This extract emphasises how much
Ugandans respect their leaders, insofar as they will keep quiet about certain
things because they want to remain on good terms with their employers.
According to the CCBS survey (2020), Ugandans also expect their leader to
be a visionary thinker and a powerful decision-maker (CCBS Survey, 2020).

In order to obtain a better understanding of leadership in Uganda, qualified
professionals from various positions were asked to participate in the CCBS survey
(2020) and share their knowledge and experience. According to the majority of
survey respondents, once a leader has made his or her decision it will not be
easily changed. In consideration of this finding, we can surmise that Ugandans
score relatively high on the Power Distance Index and that hierarchy is of great
importance for them. This would appear to indicate that the power distance is
endorsed by both leaders and employees. The survey data also indicates that the
most frequent leadership titles are CEO (ssentebe), managing or executive
director (nankulu) and chairman (omukubiriza) (Kisakye, 6 March 2020).
However, а higher position in a Ugandan organisation does not necessarily
guarantee the occupant a corner office or a more expensive mode of
transportation. Furthermore, our analysis of the CCBS Survey (2020) found that
the most valuable characteristics of a leader are a strong charismatic personality,
access to the right professional networks, resourcefulness and intellect.
Additional qualities venerated in leaders are technical competence and
organisational experience. A further observation that can be made from the
survey data is that although some managers found receiving criticism by
employees in an indirect manner to be more favourable, most of the
respondents indicated that their preference is to receive feedback or criticism
during staff meetings (CCBS Survey, 2020). The vast majority of respondents
reported that the best time to schedule a team meeting is between 8 and 10 am
in the boardroom. Ethan Michael, a business development manager, explained
that meetings are held at this time because that is when a person’s brain is at its
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best. Furthermore, in order to achieve better results, most respondents

suggested that competition between team members is encouraged in their
organisations (CCBS Survey, 2020).
Regarding gender equality, nearly half of the Ugandan executives agreed that
women have the same access to senior leadership positions as their male
counterparts. According to Nicholas Kafee, CEO at the Uganda Freight
Forwarders Association, “Women tend to thrive more in business/profit-oriented
industries whereas men are at the peak of technical and capital-oriented
projects” (CCBS Survey, 2020). Moreover, when considering the differences
between male and female styles of leadership, one respondent opined that
“leadership styles are personal, based on one’s personality, character, learning,
exposure, background and experience” rather than their gender (CCBS Survey,
2020). However, there were some differences in the responses. For example, a
Chief Corporate Officer claimed that in his opinion there is a significant
difference in male and female leadership styles, namely that “Men focus on
objective outputs [while] women focus more on emotional rationalisation”

Dr Muhangi: a Ugandan leadership scholar
Dr Muhangi is a head lecturer at Makerere University, which is the leading public
university in Uganda. He has been in his current leadership position, head of
department, for roughly over a year. In our interview, Muhangi argued that the
general trend for hierarchy within companies in Uganda is predominantly
vertical. This is a result of people at the top of the hierarchy scale wishing to be
powerful and seeking to retain a degree of distance from those at the bottom
(Muhangi, 9 May 2020). He also noted: “we have a number of organisations now,
government authorities, government corporations where you find that the salary,
the monthly salary of the topics initiative is like 50 times a month on the shop
floor” (Muhangi, 9 May 2020). Furthermore, he emphasised that the Ugandan
business environment needs to strive towards implementing more horizontal
structures and closing the gap between managers and employees.
Moreover, regarding changes in Ugandan leadership over the years, Muhangi
stated that the primary difference is the increase in female leaders. He also
highlighted a recent decrease in the age required to be accepted into such
positions. This is important, he noted, because it may provide fresh new
perspectives and disrupt the prevailing male-dominated leadership structures.
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Muhangi deliberated on the topic of gender politics and opined that “female
leaders are less corrupt” (Muhangi, 9 May 2020). Concerning the nascent focus
on the wellbeing of employees in Ugandan organisations, he observed how
numerous companies are offering specially developed programmes in an attempt
to help employees save money and potentially borrow money if needed.
Furthermore, organisations are now focusing on offering exercise opportunities,
such as aerobics, to help employees maintain their health and wellbeing.
Finally, Muhangi discussed the topic of communication and empathy between
Ugandan managers and employees, as well as between workers in general. When
asked how leaders delivered criticism and feedback to their employees in a
professional manner, he expressed that they often generalise it without directly
pointing any fingers: “sometimes it may require some level of confidentiality so
you do not have to put it where others are listening”, and “only if it may educate
the other employees will it then be told to the rest of the employees” (Muhangi, 9
May 2020).
Susan Nsibirwa: a Ugandan cross-cultural trainer

Susan Nsibirwa is a managing partner, as well as a marketing, communications
and business consultant, at Urge Uganda Ltd. She has held numerous senior
management positions across private corporate organisations as well as in the
public sector in Uganda. Based on these wide-ranged experiences, in our
interview with her, Nsibirwa argued that these two sectors differ significantly
with respect to their hierarchical approaches. Private organisations tend to apply
a flatter hierarchy model, with an example of this being the practice of greeting
other team members on a first-name basis. Despite this, Nsibirwa believed that
there is generally a clear hierarchy of management throughout Ugandan
organisations, whereby leaders tend to strictly uphold rules and values (Nsibirwa,
15 April 2020). Moreover, as an experienced leader herself, Nsibirwa emphasised
the significance of networking and trust-building between workers and leaders
for all levels of Ugandan organisations. She described her leadership style as
follows: “I am the type of leader who ensures that if there is a birthday party, if
somebody has given birth or if somebody is sick, I actually lead by example to go
to the hospital” (15 April 2020). In addition to this, she underlined the positive
impact that healthy relationships can have on a workplace by explaining how the
collective approach in Ugandan culture correlates with the model of a team-
based approach. This is widely adopted throughout Ugandan work settings
(Nsibirwa, 15 April 2020). Indeed, the loyalty and sense of collectiveness
between workers are often so strong that employees may cover for each other’s
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mistakes in order to avoid disrupting the team environment. Nsibirwa explained

that while it may become problematic for managers, the solution to transparency
between workers and managers lies in trust-building and empowerment of
personnel (Nsibirwa, 15 April 2020).

One of the best-selling books about leadership in Uganda was written by Yoweri
Kaguta Museveni in 1997 and is entitled Sowing the mustard seeds: The struggle
for freedom and democracy in Uganda. It was written by the current president
of Uganda, who is one of the most widely respected African leaders of his
generation. The book shows how his development-oriented leadership style
helped the nation to liberate their country from helplessness. The text
highlights Museveni’s ideology along with his leadership strategies.

Title Sowing the mustard seed
The struggle for freedom and
Subtitle
democracy in Uganda
Author Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
Publisher St. Martin’s Press
Year 1997
ISBN 9780333642344
Ugandan leadership YouTube review

In 2015 Joanita Akello, then president of AIESEC Uganda, gave a keynote speech
as part of the TEDx held in Kiratown. In the video, she evaluates her leadership
journey and delineates the lessons that she has learned in an energetic
presentation to the audience. In short, the key pillars in her story pertains to the
challenges that youth leaders inevitably face, which although they are tough, are
necessary for transforming one into a proper leader. According to Akello (2015),
one must clearly identify one’s own passion and vision before expecting to
inspire and motivate others with it. She also emphasises how greater things are
achieved in groups, and that developing one’s communication skills is another
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essential part of being a leader that is capable of guiding a set of employees. In

conjunction with this, a leader should aspire to avoid the idea that intimidation
will drive others to be passionate, along with being cognizant of the fact that
directness should not be mistaken for being offensive. She concludes with the
message that limitations and excuses are only burdens on your journey of
becoming a good leader (Akello, 2015).
Understanding hierarchy in Uganda

Ugandan leadership and hierarchical standards (emitendela) (Kisakye, 6 March
2020) have been shaped by its social, cultural and historical context (Jackson,
2004). The current hierarchical order, with respect to power distance, emerged
against the backdrop of various historical events and is continuously developing.
In contemporary Uganda, masculinity, collectivism and low power distance
characterise the business culture. The collective values that are embedded in the
culture testify to the fact that groups seek to perform a meaningful function in
organisations in addition to the strive to achieve individual and collective goals.
In conjunction with this is an avoidance of uncertain situations, which results in
high-values for assertiveness and competition in Ugandan culture (Rarick,
Winter, Nickerson, Falk, Barczyk & Asea, 2013). Indeed, the CCBS survey (2020)
indicated that many leaders related to the statement that competition should be
encouraged within their teams in order to enhance performance levels and boost
results. While power inequality is not appreciated by the Ugandan populace, this
does not necessarily mean that authority figures are not respected or highly
venerated. Indeed, while trust and compromise constitute fundamental
components of Ugandan business negotiations, the hierarchical order presumes
that leaders are always right and, thus, that they should not consult
subordinates, but instead have sole responsibility for decision-making (Bagire et
al., 2017). This lack of consultation is also reflected in everyday communication,
insofar as subordinates will never reach out to senior management unless they
already have a direct personal relationship with them. Rather, direct supervisors
should be consulted first (Nsibirwa, 15 April 2020).
Given that employees expect to be challenged and cajoled by their managers to
achieve the best possible results, the Ugandan hierarchy can be defined as
directive in nature. This point is also supported by the results of the CCBS survey
(2020) as various leaders indicated that employees are mostly expected to follow
established procedures. Further evidence for this derives from research, which
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shows that uncertain situations are wholly avoided in Ugandan business culture
through the establishment of clear policies and protocols (Rarick et al., 2013).
How Ugandans achieve leadership empathy

One key way in which leadership empathy (obukulembeze okulumililwa) (Kisakye,
6 March 2020) is achieved in Uganda is by nurturing the relationships between
manager and employees (Manyak & Mujtaba, 2013). This, allied with an indirect
communication style, entails leaders adopting a sensitive approach when
interacting with individual workers (Galperin, Melyoki, Senaji & Michaud, 2017).
It is important to do so because Ugandans have been shown to receive negative
feedback as a personal critique. This means that leaders in a work setting should
strive to deliver constructive criticism alongside support and encouragement
(Beyanga, 2015). Nsibirwa, a Ugandan business consultant and managing
partner, also emphasised the significance of developing relationships between
business leaders and employees: “It is very important to build those networks.”
To achieve this, she would personally host events and gatherings that has
nothing to do with their shared profession, but everything to do with boosting
relationships across the team (Nsibirwa, 15 April 2020).
Notwithstanding this relationship-based approach, another fundamental aspect

of developing leadership empathy in Ugandan organisations pertains to the
significance accorded to the realisation of a collective culture and a spirit of
teamwork (okukolera ewamu) (Kisakye, 6 March 2020), as well as sympathy
between employees in a work setting (Rarick et al., 2013; Moran, Harris &
Moran, 2011). To name and shame any individual publicly runs contrary to the
common social codes and practices. Furthermore, Ugandans tend to perceive
failure in the workplace as a personal defeat rather than an opportunity to learn
and improve. Consequently, a manager may come to question the progress of
the whole team for things having not gone as planned, rather than singling out
one individual, which would be interpreted as a personal threat. Dr Muhangi
from Makerere University confirmed that this is a common leadership strategy,
noting that “an employee may make a mistake. But as a leader, when you are
talking about it in a staff meeting, you may not point out a particular name or the
person who has made a mistake. You make it appear in general and then you
deliver the point” (Muhangi, 9 May 2020). Nsibirwa highlighted an alternative
practice that involves employees covering for each other’s errors in an attempt
to hide mistakes from managers, noting that “people may cover for others, even
206
though it is not correct. They may cover for others at the expense of themselves
because they do not want to be the ones who told on somebody. Many times, you
may be the last person to know exactly what is going on in your team” (Nsibirwa,
15 April 2020). Moreover, internal conflicts among employees may disrupt the
desired level of group harmony (okusa ekimu) (Kisakye, 6 March 2020) within a
team. Ugandans strongly value group cohesiveness, and it has been proven to be
integral to employees’ wellbeing, motivation and performance (Galperin et al.,
2017; Obicci, 2015). The data from the CCBS survey (2020) suggests that the
majority of business leaders agreed upon the importance of actively spending
time to improve the wellbeing of their team members. One major task facing
Ugandan leaders is to foster a positive team environment by supporting and
encouraging their employees to uphold calm and peace (Beyanga, 2015), while,
simultaneously, serving as an example of empathic and ethical behaviour
(Obicci, 2015).
207
208
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229
Selected previous CCBS editions
Local Leadership Lessons

Comparing leadership practices in eighteen countries
2017, HvA CCBS minor
ISBN 978-90-79646-37-1
World-wide workforce
An intercultural benchmark of
global recruiting practices
2015, HvA CCBS minor
ISBN 978-90-79646-25-8
Where cultures meet

A cross-cultural comparison of
business meeting styles
2013, HvA minor CCBS
ISBN 978-90-79646-17-3
230

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Mapping Global leadership

About CCBS ............................................................................ 6

Methodological approach ....................................................... 7

Country profiles ...................................................................... 8

The Bahamas ........................................................................ 45

Côte d’Ivoire ......................................................................... 79

Dominican Republic .............................................................. 94

El Salvador ......................................................................... 102

France ................................................................................ 110

Guyana .............................................................................. 118

Luxembourg ....................................................................... 126

Madagascar ....................................................................... 135

Moldova ............................................................................ 143

Nigeria ............................................................................... 160

Saudi Arabia....................................................................... 168

Serbia ................................................................................ 176

Slovakia ............................................................................. 183

Tunisia ............................................................................... 191

Uganda .............................................................................. 200

Welcome to the latest edition of our ongoing empirical cross-cultural analyses of

Christopher Higgins (CCBS)

About CCBS global-fact-tank

Three modes of data collection were employed to generate the insights

For the purposes of writing this paragraph, I conducted a quick check on

Local leadership analysis

Understanding hierarchy in a country

it is important to note that there are profound cross-cultural differences with

Belgium Argentina Czechia Saudi Arabia Guyana Azerbaijan Nigeria

First name Use title

How to achieve leadership empathy

local leaders had towards empathy. Furthermore, each team attempted to

Chief Executive Officer

‫المدير التنفيذي‬ CEO

Consejero Delegado Dyrektor generalny

Amira Mekkaoui, Christina Thomas, Ikram Amazgiou, Imane Ben Mohamed

How the Algerians characterise leaders

Survey results and what local respondents say

Local leadership analysis

Imene Ferhat: an Algerian scientist and leadership coach

In-country leadership bestseller

Local leadership book

Algerian leadership YouTube review

Understanding hierarchy in Algeria

How Algerians achieve leadership empathy

República Argentina (the Argentine Republic) is unique in comparison to other

How the Argentines characterise leaders

good to be a leader” (24 March 2020). However, he is convinced that if a person is

Survey results and what local respondents say

Local leadership analysis

such differences, from Bárcena’s perspective, pertain to the large number of

Marcelo Baudino: an Argentine cross-cultural trainer

In-country leadership bestseller

Local leadership book

Argentine leadership YouTube review

Understanding hierarchy in Argentina

How Argentines achieve leadership empathy

Armenia (Հայաստան) is claimed to be one of the oldest countries in the world,

Armenia is a country of marked contrasts, and this is no different with respect to

How the Armenians characterise leaders

growth of the ICT sector, two-thirds of which is driven by Western investment

Survey results and what local respondents say

Hasmig Baran’s (2012) research on Armenian women in business shed light on

Local leadership analysis

Mane Beglaryan: an Armenian cross-cultural trainer