Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mansour Javidan
Thunderbird School of Global Management, Glendale, Arizona, USA
Ali Dastmalchian
University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources. Published by SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi,
Singapore and Washington DC; www.sagepublications.com) on behalf of the Australian Human Resources
Institute. Copyright © 2009 Australian Human Resources Institute. Volume 47(1): 41–58. [1038-4111]
DOI: 10.1177/1038411108099289.
42 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)
significant staffing issues locally and in some of the regions which she
needs to understand. This is particularly so for southern China, Vietnam
and South Korea where the sales targets have not been met for a while. At
9 am she has to meet with representatives from the local government in
Singapore regarding the extension of the business permits. As a foreign-
owned company operating in Singapore, the company has had some
challenges regarding the nature of the business permit to comply with the
new legal requirements in Singapore.
Her next activity for the day is to attend a meeting of the regional sales
executives where she is expected to make a presentation on the future plans
of the company. She is then to meet and greet briefly with the
representatives from some of the most important clients in the region to
emphasize the new round of negotiations that will start next week with
regards to the regional contracts. She is nervous about this and is wondering
which aspects to emphasize with each key regional customer representative.
A growing percentage of the longstanding customers have changed their
buying habits and moved to competition lately.
Shortly after noon she is having lunch with the VP of the British bank
that provides funding for the expansion of their operations in China. The
key purpose is to clear a misunderstanding regarding credit issues of the
parent company in France. Immediately after lunch she has to rush to their
main office building, where most of the local staff are located, to engage in
a conversation with the six senior managers making their annual request
for resource and infrastructure funding for facilities, benefits and
equipment for 250 employees under their supervision. Their 250 people are
spread among four countries in the Asia Pacific region. At 3 pm she is
meeting with two top suppliers that produce most of the boxing and
packaging materials for their products – one from Hong Kong and the
other from Malaysia. Maintaining good and steady relationships with these
partners is crucial to the stability of supply of their products in the region.
Her next meeting at 5 pm is a phone meeting with her boss in France to
discuss the quarterly productivity reports for her region. One of her issues
is that the accounting system used in the French headquarters is not
compatible with the one they are using in some of the countries in the
region, and she has not been able to make any headway on this matter. The
next item on her agenda is a 30-minute performance review meeting with
her personal assistant, who is from Japan and has worked most her life in
North America. Jane’s personal assistant has had some difficulties adjusting
to life in Singapore. At 7 pm Jane is having dinner with the lawyer from
the firm that is helping them with a lawsuit that was recently filed against
them charging them with the breach of their contract in Bangkok.
Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 43
Lead
• Motivate global
workforce
• Manage global
careers
Negotiate
Create M&A
• Buyers
• Manage other
• Sellers
global partners
• Creditors
Global
manager Build global
organization
Monitor
and resources
• Environments
• Maintenance
• Competitors
• Manage global
performance
Balance Manage
• Manage local relations
and HQ • International JV,
• Transfer global partners,
knowledge and alliances
The story while disguised portrays the real life of a global manager. Global
managers are required to deal with a variety of issues, challenges and stakeholders
who represent diverse cultural and political and institutional systems. Figure 1
shows the web of roles that a global manager such as Jane Smith performs.
contact than ever before, the need for better understanding of other cultures
and ways of doing business is clearly driving business education and challenges
leadership and human resource development in business and industry. In this
article, we first provide an overview of the need for a better global outlook for
leaders and managers followed by an introduction to project GLOBE and its
purposes and processes. In the second major section of the paper, we outline
some of the key practical implications for managers, leaders and organizations.
Cultural dimensions
Project GLOBE defines culture as ‘shared motives, values, beliefs, identities,
and interpretations or meanings of significant events that result from common
experiences of members of collectives and are transmitted across age genera-
tions’ (Javidan and House 2001, 293) . Culture is measured through common-
ality of values and practices. Values are expressed, for example, in response to
questionnaire items in the form of judgments of ‘what should be’. Practices
are measured by indicators assessing ‘what is’, or ‘what are’, common behav-
iours, institutional practices, and prescriptions. Figure 2 shows an example of
the way in which items measuring the ‘as is’ and ‘should be’” aspects of culture
were framed and measured.
The following is the description of the nine GLOBE dimensions of
societal culture. More detailed information is available on GLOBE’s public
website at www.thunderbird.edu/wwwfiles/ms/globe/ (also see House et al.
2004; Javidan et al. 2006).
1 Performance orientation refers to the extent to which an organization or
society encourages and rewards group members for performance improve-
ment and excellence. In countries where they scored high on this cultural
practice, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand, organizations
are likely to emphasize training and development. In countries where the
score on this dimension is low, such as Russia, Argentina and Greece,
family connections and background are more emphasized.
2 Assertiveness orientation is the degree to which individuals in organizations or
societies are assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in social relationships.
Figure 2 Examples of societal culture questions for measuring ‘as is’ (cultural practice) and
‘should be’ (cultural value)
Society as is
The economic system in this society is designed to maximize:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Individual Collective
interests Interests
Society should be
I believe that the economic system in this society should be designed to maximize:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Individual Collective
interests Interests
46 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)
Leadership dimensions
Another major question addressed by GLOBE concerns the extent to which
specific leader attributes and behaviours are universally endorsed as
contributing to effective leadership, and the extent to which attributes and
behaviours are linked to cultural characteristics. In generating leadership items,
our focus was on developing a comprehensive list of leader attributes and
behaviours rather than on developing a priori leadership scales. The initial pool
of leadership items was based on leader behaviours and attributes described in
several extant leadership theories. The theories are described in House and
Aditya (1997). These leadership items consisted of behavioural and attribute
descriptors. Examples of these items are presented in table 2. Items were rated
on a 7-point Likert-type scale that ranged from a low of ‘This behaviour or
characteristic greatly inhibits a person from being an outstanding leader’ to a
high of ‘This behaviour or characteristic contributes greatly to a person being
an outstanding leader’. The requisite assumptions and beliefs that people have
48 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)
complete the questionnaire items that comprise these dimensions. Thus, these
dimensions of reported leadership attributes and behaviours are dimensions of
the culturally endorsed theories of leadership (CLT) of the country studied.
Details of the process of arriving at the cultural profiles are described in House
et al. (1999) and House et al. (2004). Table 3 summarizes the GLOBE leader-
ship culture dimensions.
GLOBE’s analysis of leadership also showed that while different societies have
different views about many aspects of leadership and its effectiveness, they also are
in agreement on other aspects of leadership. GLOBE found that there are 22 attrib-
utes that are universally deemed to be desirable. Being motivational, dynamic,
honest and decisive are examples of desirable leadership attributes in all GLOBE
countries. GLOBE also identified eight leadership attributes that are universally
undesirable. Leadership attributes of being a loner, egocentric, irritable and ruthless
are examples of the universally undesirable attributes of leaders.
GLOBE’s nine cultural dimensions and six leadership scales have provided us
with remarkably comprehensive perspectives and views on different countries’
cultural practices, values and outstanding leadership. Indeed this is the type of
information and perspective that global managers need to be able to better under-
stand and deal with cultural differences. There are many lessons to be drawn from
GLOBE project, and there is no limit to the scope or direction of such lessons for
practice and managerial implications. In the remainder of this paper we will
50 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)
Charismatic/value based
Visionary Visionary, foresight, anticipatory, prepared, intellectually stimulating,
future oriented, plans ahead, inspirational
Inspirational Enthusiastic, positive, encouraging, morale booster, motive arouser,
confidence builder, dynamic, motivational
Self-sacrificial Risk taker, self-sacrificial, convincing
Integrity Honest, sincere, just, trustworthy
Decisive Wilful, decisive, logical, intuitive
Performance oriented Improvement, excellence and performance oriented
Team oriented
Team collaborative Group oriented, collaborative, loyal, consultative, mediator, fraternal
Team integrator Clear, integrator, subdued, informed, communicative, co-ordinator,
team builder
Diplomatic Diplomatic, worldly, win/win problem solver, effective bargainer
Malevolent (reversed) Irritable, vindictive, egoistic, non-co-operative, cynical, hostile,
dishonest, non-dependable, intelligent
Administrative Orderly, administratively skilled, organized, good administrator
Self-protective
Self-centered Self-interested, non-participative, loner, asocial
Status consciousness Status conscious, class conscious
Conflict inducer Intra-group competitor, secretive, normative
Face saver Indirect, avoids negatives, evasive
Procedural Ritualistic, formal, habitual, cautious, procedural
Participative
Autocratic (reversed) Autocratic, dictatorial, bossy, elitist, ruler, domineering
Participative Non-individual, egalitarian, non-micro manager, delegator
Humane orientation
Humane orientation Generous, compassionate
Modesty Modest, self-effacing, patient
highlight some of the obvious lessons with the hope that it encourages global
managers and scholars alike to continue using GLOBE and other studies in an
attempt to improve our managerial and organizational abilities to deal with our
flat and global world of management, business and organizations.
GLOBE provides two types of information on cultures and leadership
styles in different parts of the world: static and dynamic. A brief explanation
of each type is provided below.
Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 51
• South Korea ranked as the most gender differentiated country and the 2nd
highest country on Institutional collectivism.
• India ranked as the 2nd most gender differentiated country and the 2nd
highest on In-group collectivism, while ranked in the middle on Future
orientation.
• Japan ranked as the 2nd lowest country on Assertiveness orientation and
among the highest on Institutional collectivism. It is in the middle range
on Performance orientation and In-group collectivism.
• New Zealand ranked among the highest countries on Performance orien-
tation and lowest on In-group collectivism. It ranked in the middle on
Humane orientation.
• Russia ranked among the lowest countries on Performance orientation,
Uncertainty avoidance and Future orientation, and is among the highest
ranked on Power distance.
The purpose of this paper was to provide an overview of the GLOBE project –
a multi-level and comprehensive study of culture, leadership and organizational
practices in 62 societies. This was done with the aim of highlighting the impli-
cations for practicing managers and leaders. We started the paper by describing
the challenges of a typical global manager – Jane Smith – and organized the
presentation of the managerial implications of the GLOBE project to address
her leadership needs and where she could find GLOBE results useful. We
identify six areas in which managerial implications can be grouped. Four of
these six, we argue, fall under a more static type of implications (i.e. country-
specific or cluster-specific leadership and culture information). The other two
can be regarded as dynamic managerial implications in that they relate to the
relationships between leadership and societal culture, and between culture and
56 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2009 47(1)
societal phenomena. In the case of the former, we have shown in the analyses of
the GLOBE data that cultural attributes are capable of helping predict leader-
ship behaviour. In the case of culture and societal phenomena, we have shown
how the complex societal phenomena can be predicted by understanding their
cultural dimensions using GLOBE’s findings.
Whether our focus is HR managers or other leader-managers, the under-
lying message from this paper, and indeed from the GLOBE project, is about
the necessity of developing a global outlook for leader-managers. This is based
on the assumption that all leader-managers need to develop a global perspec-
tive or a global mind-set (Beechler and Javidan 2007). They need to mobilize
global resources in order to pursue the ambitions of their global organizations
and, increasingly, global stakeholders. We believe that GLOBE project findings
have far-reaching implications for managers and organizations, be it in lead-
ership development, managing under uncertain conditions, cultural sensitivity,
or HR practices in the areas of recruitment, selection of high performing indi-
viduals, performance management, compensation, organizational design and
global communication. Project GLOBE’s implications provide insights into all
these areas with the aim of developing global leader-managers. One of the
insights from the GLOBE project has been that in order to develop global
managers, having experience and the perspective of one country is not suffi-
cient (Javidan, Stahl and House 2004). In a world that is increasingly flat
(Friedman 2005) and culturally connected, the GLOBE project’s implications
will be invaluable in developing managers and leaders who have a global mind-
set and who are better prepared to understand and deal with the leadership
requirements of an uncertain and increasingly global world.
Mansour Javidan is dean of Research and Garvin Distinguished Professor at Thunderbird Global School
of Management, Arizona, USA. He is a principal investigator, president and chairman of the board of
directors of GLOBE project and a co-author of the GLOBE’s first book published in 2004. Dr Javidan’s
current research interests are global leadership and change, and global mind-set. He is the co-editor
(with Richard Steers and Michael Hitt) of Advances in international management, vol. 19: The global
mindset. He is a senior editor for Global Leadership for the Journal of World Business, and has been on
the editorial board of Academy of Management Executive. Dr Javidan’s publications have appeared in a
wide range of journals and books.
Ali Dastmalchian is professor of organizational analysis and dean of the Faculty of Business, University of
Victoria, Canada. His current research interests are on cross-national leadership and organizational practices
(with a particular interest in Asia Pacific and the Middle East), organizational change (in the health sector),
teamworking, and organizational and HRM climate. His most recent book (co-authored with Paul Blyton,
Betsy Blunsdon and Ken Reed) is entitled Work–life integration: International perspectives on managing
multiple roles. His publications have appeared in various international journals.
Managerial implications of the GLOBE project 57
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