* Academy of Management Executive. 2005, Vol. 19, No.
BOOK REVIEWS
Culture, Leadership, and
Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62
Societies
Edited By Robert J. House, Paul J. Hanges, Mansour
Javidan, Peter W. Dorfman, Vipin Gupta. Thousand
Oaks California: Sage Publications 2004. 818 pages
hard cover, $125.00.
Reviewed by Mary B. Teagaiden, Thundeibird, tbe
Gaivin School of International Management
Globalization does not come with a guidebook.
On a daily basis, leaders grapple with the reality
of globalization and its myriad challenges. Espe-
cially vexing is the applicability of organizational
leadership behaviors and practices as one crosses
cultures. One is never quite sure if what works well
at home will be effective and valued, or even work,
in a foreign context. Robert House and his GLOBE
(Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Effectiveness) project associates have provided
valuable insights for leaders around the world.
Their book. Culture, Leadeiship and Organizations,
explores culture in 62 societies. They review societal,
organizational, and leadership effectiveness.
Culture, Leadership and Organization is the re-
sult of a ten-year, multiphase study in which pa-
tience, persistence, and perseverance have paid
off. Indeed, Harry Triandis calls GLOBE "the Man-
hattan Project study of the relationship of culture to
conceptions of leadership." The GLOBE project is a
truly cross-cultural research program in which the
study was conceptualized and executed by a mul-
ticultural team of researchers who were insiders—
natives or had extensive knowledge and experi-
ence—in the cultures they studied. In reflecting on
this book's contribution, Robert House, the princi-
pal investigator, observed, "we are in a position to
make a major contribution to the organizational
behavior and leadership literature. To date more
than 90 percent of the organizational behavior lit-
erature reflects U.S.-based research and theory.
Hopefully GLOBE will be able to liberate organi-
zational behavior from U.S. hegemony." (p. xxv)
Liberate indeed!
Culture, Leadership and Organizations is note-
worthy for its discussion of findings discussed be-
low. More importantly, it is extraordinary for its
robust, pioneering cross-cultural research meth-
ods. The GLOBE project, characterized as world-
wide, multiphase and multimethod, defined cul-
162
ture as both practices—"the way things are done in
this culture" and values—"the way things should
be done." The 170 investigators — yes 170 — mea-
sured the impact of nine cultural attributes of
leader expectations and the effects of these at-
tributes on organizational practices. One major ob-
jective of the study was identification of univer-
sally accepted and effective leader behaviors,
attributes, and organizational practices, as well as
those that only applied to some cultures. Another
was to understand how attributes of societal and
organizational cultures influence whether specific
leader behaviors and organizational practices
would be effective and accepted.
The investigators left few stones unturned: they
measured culture at the industry level for three
industries around the world: the financial services;
food processing; and telecommunications indus-
tries, selected by consensus of the project research
associates. They looked at several organizations
within each industry, and examined at least three
societies from each major geographical region of
the world. They did not make assumptions about
how to measure culture, rather they used multiple
methods empirically testing which methods were
most meaningful. The most meaningful methods
were then used to query 17,370 middle managers
who worked in 951 organizations about culture,
leadership, and organization, thus testing 27 hy-
potheses. These responses were blended with ar-
chival data, media analyses, individual and focal
group interviews, and unobtrusive measures to un-
derstand and measure cultures and leadership.
As the title hints. Culture, Leadership, and Orga-
nizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies is an
ambitious endeavor. The 20 authors undertook a
collective cross-cultural effort, indeed the schol-
arly high road, to create a seamless book written
by many authors as opposed to the relatively sim-
pler edited book of often-disjointed chapters. They
report, "More than 20 scholars have worked for
more than five years on the various chapters. Many
of the chapters, especially those on cultural dimen-
sions, have undergone at least five major revisions
and numerous drafts" (p. 723). This is not to say that
the authors procrastinated or lacked a bias for
action. As the book reveals, the opposite is true.
The care and dedication with which this book was
written mirrors the extraordinary skill with which
the project was executed and complements the
importance of its findings.
2005 Book Reviews
The book deals squarely with two fundamental
cross-cultural issues: what is culturally generaliz-
able or universal and what is culturally contin-
gent. Readers will find identification of universal
and culturally contingent leader attributes and be-
haviors as well as commonly enacted and most-
favored leader behavior patterns and organiza-
tional practices. Based on careful digestion of the
book, a reader will be able to develop an under-
standing of the role of cultural influences on leader
behavior and organizational practice effective-
ness. Finally, leader behaviors that are culturally
offensive are identified and described. The authors
suggest that "knowledge of culturally endorsed
implicit leadership profiles [that they present]
should be useful for organizations to select, coun-
sel, and train individuals who will work with mem-
bers of other cultures." (p. 709)
The GLOBE project identified ten regional clus-
ters of societies, which reduces the complexity of
reporting findings, and thus increases utility for
leaders. In addition to reducing complexity and
increasing clarity, this clustering is relevant for
guiding human resource staffing, the selection of
managers for international assignments, as well
as for identifying recipients of cross-cultural train-
ing and the content of that training. The authors
note that, "Most interesting, in all cultures leader
team orientation and the communication of vision,
values, and confidence in followers are reported to
be highly effective leader behaviors" (p. 7). Does
culture influence leadership? Does it influence or-
ganizational practices? Yes and yes. Are there uni-
versal leadership practices? Are there universal
organizational practices? Yes and yes. While lead-
ers and others in the business world may have
intuitively known these things, the authors have
provided solid empirical evidence to infuse confi-
dence into the application of these hunches. More
importantly, the GLOBE team members have pro-
vided a grounded world map of which leadership
and organizational practices matters the most and
where they matter.
Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The
GLOBE Study of 62 Societies is an important book,
a must-read for serious cross-cultural manage-
ment scholars, and those who aspire to be. Busi-
ness training professionals, human resource man-
agement professionals, and especially those
responsible for leader development within compa-
nies doing business in the global environment are
all appropriate audiences. Executives who read
Russian novels for relaxation will find this an en-
joyable and informative read. In its entirety, this
book is not for the faint of heart, but executives
who are comfortable reading the last chapter of
163
books first will also find satisfaction. I recommend
that those with a "cut to the chase" bias jump to the
penultimate chapter, the one that effectively syn-
thesizes the GLOBE project's decade of findings.
The story this book tells is complex, long, and
nuanced, but the reality of leadership in the global
environment is equally complex and nuanced. The
stakes for mastering leadership in the globally
competitive business environment are high. This
book can help leaders and the organizations they
lead get it right. Culture, Leadership, and Organi-
zations is the crowning glory of Robert House's
significant life-long contributions to leadership.
Six Sigma Business Scorecard
By Praveen Gupta. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
234 pages, hard cover, $39.95
Reviev/ed by Nicholas Mathys, DePaul University.
Six Sigma Business Scorecard (6o-BSC) offers a
new approach to establishing a corporate-wide
measurement system that will enable leadership
to monitor a company's performance against ex-
pected performance. Specifically, its purpose is
twofold. First, identify measurements that relate
key process measures to a company's profitability,
making the opportunities so transparent that they
are difficult to ignore. The second purpose is to
accelerate the improvement in business perfor-
mance by optimizing such bottom line measures as
profitability, cost, and revenues while also improv-
ing customer and employee satisfaction. The au-
thor attempts to provide a new model for defining
a corporate Sigma level, and discusses how to
align the organizational structure to meet planned
targets by ensuring that leadership at all levels
are accountable for improvement in the measures
that have been developed in the planning stage.
Throughout the book organizations are viewed
as a collection of business processes regardless of
whether they are providing products or services. It
is meant to apply to all organizations — big or
small, profit or non-profit. However, to profit from
the book business leaders need to be willing to
think creatively and to make necessary organiza-
tional changes to balance profitability and growth.
The book is organized into 13 chapters that lead
the reader step-by-step through the implementa-
tion process. Since organizations are likely to face
different challenges in implementing the Six
Sigma Business Scorecard (6o-BSC) depending
upon their complexity and level of commitment,
the author uses examples to fit a variety of situa-