Week 8

Cross-cultural perspectives on
leadership
Today’s Session
We will:
• Examine culture’s influence on leadership;
• Discuss cultural variants in leadership
approach;
• Take a look at the GLOBE project.
Leaders you admire
Why ?

What makes them a good leader ?

(Padlet)
Manager v. Are there differences?

leader What are these differences?

Can leadership
skills be
developed?

How ?
Leadership
What do you think?:
– What makes a leader?
– What makes a good leader?
– What makes a bad leader?
– Should a leader be
challenged?
– Are leadership skills
something you are born with,
or can they be developed?
 Share vision

Establish direction  shared goals

Introduce strategy

Impose / ensure / monitor strategy

What do
leaders Reduce complexity

do? Bring people together  sense of

team
 Leadership = influencing others’ behaviour
and actions

Understanding psychological processes behind

the ability to exercise this influence, and
mechanisms that prompt others to follow
their leaders is therefore crucial.

Not only psychological! Wider context and

culture are also of importance.

Psychology A leader themselves might be understood as

creating a particular culture. Understanding
of this culture is important, as is understanding
the culture that informs a leaders’ actions.
leadership
Studying Leadership

Academic study of leadership has

involved two foci:
(1) A focus on the individual
(2) A focus on the context

Both require consideration of culture

 How an individual leads will
be influenced by:
- Local Culture
- Organisational Culture
- Their Individual
Personality
A Focus
on The
Leader
 Culture trends are rooted in
the value systems so that
culture can influence the
degree of leadership
commitment, morale, and
cooperation (Reddin, Norma
& Schlander, 1994).
 different leadership styles
and practices, in terms of
formality and hierarchy i.e.,
Power-Distance (Hofstede)
 within a country with high
Influence Power-Distance, such as
Malaysia, a leader is likely to
of Local adopt a more autocratic
leadership style, engaging
Culture infrequently with lower-level
employees.
 • Schein (2010) argues that
all organisations have their
own culture.
• Leaders have been
argued to usually adjust
their leadership style to
that best suited to the
organisation (Lok &
Crawford, 2004; Tsai,
2011)
• Individual departments
within organisations have
Influence of also been argued to have
their own ‘culture’
Organisational (Whelan, 2017)
Culture • A leader themselves might
be understood as creating
a particular culture.
 • Transactional

• Laissez-faire
Types of
leadership • Transformational
(Burns,
1979) (also situational leadership) – Hersey
and Blanchard, (1977)

Are these still used ??

• Research in Western and Asian
countries suggests that
transformational leadership had
positive effects on both Western and
Asian organisations, despite cultural
context differences (Cho &
Dansereue, 2010; Liew, Chi &
Chuang, 2010; Zhang, Cao &
Tjosvold, 2011).

• Does this suggest there are some

core leadership competencies in
transformational leadership?
Are there core leadership
competencies in
transformational
leadership?

If yes, what are these ?

 ---- sensitivity,
empathy,
transparency – are Let’s see…
they incompatible
with leadership?
• Case of Vineet
Nayar (Sampark
Foundation, HCL
Technologies)

• "Employees First,
Customers Second:
Turning
Conventional
Management
Upside Down”

• Changed the
mindset of a large
Indian company,
basing his
corporate strategy
on transparency
and people
empowerment.
Activity

Place yourself in the following leadership

positions:
- Army General
- CEO of a Fashion Design Company
- University Head of Department
What would your leadership approach be
for each position? Would you take the
same approach for all three, or different
approaches?
Influence of
Personality
• Individuals will be socialised into their
own regional culture, resulting in the
internalising of attitudes, thereby
shaping their managerial strategies.

• The interaction between individual,

organisational and national cultures
shapes leaders in different ways.

• Big Five-factor model of personality that

affects leadership styles: openness,
conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, neuroticism (OCEAN)
(Costa & McCrae, 1992)
Cultural perspectives on
leadership

• Haslam et al. (2011) identify three factors that influence a leader’s

capacity or ability to influence others.
– Culture of the leader’s group; department, a team, or an
informal group at one or multiple locations.
– Culture of the organisation and the type of leadership that is
adopted by that institution; autocratic or authoritarian,
transformational or motivating, democratic or participative etc.
– Workplace diversity; how many leaders are men, how many
women (gender representation), how are minority groups or
other identities represented in the leadership structure.
Leaders and Groups

• Cultural variations in leadership will influence perceptions of what

makes a good and effective leader.
• Research shows that employees are more influenced by national
culture than individual leadership style (Denny, 2003; Robbins,
2005).
• For example, Japanese leaders are expected to be humble,
which may override a leader’s individual personality.
• Chen and Kao (2009) found that paternalistic leadership positively
affected psychological health within Chinese workers, yet had a
negative effect in non-Chinese workers.
Activity

Let’s discuss:
• Are there things that ALL good leaders do,
regardless of cultural differences?
• Likewise are there things that no leader
should ever do?
Break
 Aims “to develop an empirically based theory to
describe, understand, and predict the impact of
specific cultural variables on leadership and
Theory: The organizational processes and the effectiveness of
these processes.” (House et al., 2002: 4),
GLOBE
Project Gathered and analysed quantitative data from
17000 middle managers in 62 cultures to find
dimensions of societal culture, and dimensions
of leadership style.

https://www.gl
obeproject.co
m/ They did this to establish a notion of ‘culturally
endorsed leadership theory’.
What did it find?
• Six leadership dimensions:
• Charismatic
• Team-orientated
• Participative
• Humane-orientated
• Autonomous
• Self-Protective
• Some leadership qualities more universally desired by
cultures,
• Some cultures value some leadership dimensions more
than others.
A Look at ‘England’
A Look at the ‘Middle East’
A Look at ‘Malaysia’
A Critical Look…

1 2
What can we use the How can we critique
GLOBE project for? the GLOBE project?
What can it tell us? What are its flaws?
 Do you agree with the suggestion
that there are core global leadership
competencies? Why might this
suggestion be problematic?

Review How do cultural norms and values

relate to leadership traits?
Questions
Can you think of any global leaders
who ‘translate’ well across cultures?
Or any who do not?
 Psychological scholarship recommends
leadership development in three areas:
• Developing self as a leader
• Developing others
• Responding and adapting to the environment

Effective Discuss:
Global
Leadership
Do you think these recommendations respond
well to the challenges of leadership in a global
context?

How do you think these recommendations

could be developed in an intercultural context?
Conclusion

• Examining leadership through a

cultural lens requires
examination of both the leader
and the context,
• Local and organizational levels
of culture as well as individual
layers of personality all
interweave to influence leader
behaviour, and perceptions of
their leadership,
• The GLOBE project offers a way
to understand leadership
effectiveness across cultures,
although it has its criticisms.