21/03/2023

LEADERSHIP
ACROSS
CULTURE

PHAM THI BICH NGOC

Chapter Objectives
1. DESCRIBE the basic philosophic foundation and styles of managerial leadership
2. EXAMINE the attitudes of European managers toward leadership practices
3. COMPARE and CONTRAST leadership styles in Japan with those in the United States
4. REVIEW leadership approaches in China, the Middle East, and developing countries.
5. EXAMINE recent research and findings regarding leadership across cultures.
6. DISCUSS the relationship of culture clusters and leader behavior to effective leadership
practices, including increasing calls for more responsible global leadership.

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Chapter Objectives
v Is leadership a global concept?

v Is there a set of leader behaviors and styles that are universally important?

v To what extent are universally recognized leader behaviors equivalent across

cultures, both conceptually and in practice?
v To what extent are specific leadership characteristics and behaviors enacted
differently in different cultures?

LEADERSHIP
FOUNDATIONS

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Leadership Foundations
v Theories X,Y and Z (philosophical background):
– Theory X: A manager who believes that people are basically lazy and that
coercion and threats of punishment often are necessary to get them to work.
– Theory Y: A manager who believes that under the right conditions people not
only will work hard but will seek increased responsibility and challenge.
– Theory Z: A manager who believes that workers seek opportunities to
participate in management and are motivated by teamwork and responsibility
sharing.

WESTERN LEADERSHIP THEORIES

TRAIT BEHAVIORAL CONTINGENCY IMPLICIT

THEORY THEORY THEORY THEORY

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Behavioral theory
v Behavioral theories: Focus on how leaders behave and assume that successful
leadership is based on definable, learnable behavior.
v 2 dimensions of leader behavior:
• Initiating structure: The extent to which a leader defines leader and group member roles,
initiates actions, organizes group activities, and defines how tasks are to be accomplished by the
group.
• Consideration: The extent to which a leader exhibits concern for the welfare of the members of
the group. This factor is oriented toward interpersonal relationships, mutual trust, and friendship.
v Relationship-oriented leaders are welcomed across cultures but the influence of
task orientation is more complex and differs depend on cultures

Contingency theories
v Contingency theories: States that a leader’s effectiveness is contingent upon how
their leadership style matches to the situation.
• Fiedler contingency theory
• Path-goal theory: A theory based on specifying a leader’s style or behavior that best fits the
employee and work environment in order to achieve a goal.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N719umOxj-A

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Path-goal theory
v In directive leadership, the leader tells followers what they should do and how to do it. This
suits situations where their jobs are unclear but are interesting to do.
v In achievement-oriented leadership, the leader sets challenging goals, expects followers to
perform well, and shows confidence in them. This suits occupations such as those in sales,
science, and engineering, where achievement of high-level goals (e.g., in science) is
required.
v In participative leadership, the leader consults with followers before making decisions. This
suits situations where subordinates have close, highly personal involvement in their work.
v In supportive leadership, the leader tries to satisfy followers’ needs and values. This suits
situations where followers face psychological or physical distress.

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Implicit theory
v Implicit theories: Based on the idea that individuals have implicit expectations and
assumptions about the personal characteristics, traits, and qualities that are
inherent in a leader.

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Transformational –Charismatic leadership

Transformational leaders:
v source of charisma; enjoy admiration of followers
• Idealized influence: Enhance pride, loyalty, and confidence in their people; align followers by
providing common purpose or vision that the latter willingly accept
• Inspirational motivation: Extremely effective in articulating vision, mission, beliefs in clear-cut
ways
• Intellectual stimulation: able to get followers to question old paradigms and accept new views of
world
• Individualized consideration: able to diagnose and elevate needs of each follower in way that
furthers each one’s development

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GLOBE
PROJECTS

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GLOBE
PROJECT

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GLOBE
PROJECT

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Culturally Contingent Beliefs Regarding

Effective Leadership Style
Self-
Country Charisma Team Participative Humane Autonomous
Protective

Brazil 6.01 6.17 3.50 6.06 4.84 2.27

China 5.57 5.57 3.80 5.05 5.18 4.07

Denmark 6.01 5.70 2.82 5.80 4.23 3.79

India 5.85 5.72 3.78 4.99 5.26 3.85

Mexico 5.66 5.75 3.86 4.64 4.71 3.86

United States 6.12 5.80 3.16 5.93 5.21 3.75

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Performance –
Leadership in
Maintenance Paternalism
Arab World
theory

Non-Western theories of leadership

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Performance – Maintenance theory

v Performance–maintenance (PM) theory suggests that the consequences of
leadership are ordinarily the result of an interaction of P-orientated and M-
orientated behaviors.
• The performance dimension (P) includes behavior directed toward achieving group goals,
pressure-type and planning-type behavior
• The maintenance dimension (M) includes behavior directed at maintaining subordinates’ well-
being and preserving social relationships in a group.
v P & M dimensions are concerned with behavior as experienced by followers
à Differ according to cultural context and P dimension is the most susceptible to the
influence of a specific cultural interpretation.

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Performance – Maintenance theory

vIn Japan: discussing an employee’s personal problems with other organization members in
that employee’s absence (represent M) is consistent with leadership style but considered
inappropriate in Western culture
vSome P-type behaviors, such as “your supervisor is strict about the work you do,” “your
supervisor is strict about observing regulations,” and “your supervisor makes you work to your
maximum capacity,” which are considered positive in Japan are viewed less positively
elsewhere.
vTo be effective, Japanese managers must emphasize both P and M
vTests of PM theory outside Japan support the idea that there are both culture-free and
culture-specific leadership behaviors.

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Leadership in the Arab world

v Sheikocracy: characterized by hierarchical authority, a lower concern for
effectiveness than for human relations and personal connections, and conformity to
rules and regulations based on the personality and power of those who made them.
• Islamic religion & tribal tradition à authoritarian and patriarchal approach to leadership

v Prophetic–caliphal model An Arab leadership theory based on the desire for a great
man to emerge to fill a leadership void.

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Paternalism
v Paternalistic leadership: An approach that involves a dominant authority figure
who acts as a patriarch or matriarch and treats employees and partners as though
they are members of a large, extended family. In exchange, the leader expects
loyalty and trust from employees, as well as obedience.
v Paternalistic leadership is based on traditional values of familism, Confucian
ideology, and Feudalism

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Paternalism
v 5 dimensions of paternalistic leaderships are:
• Creating a family atmosphere at work
• Establishing close and individualized relationships with subordinates
• Involvement in the non-work lives of subordinates
• Expecting loyalty from subordinates
• Expecting submission and respect from subordinates

v In collectivist and large power distance cultures, such paternalistic leadership has
been associated with positive employee attitudes.

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Leadership in the International Context

v How leaders in other countries attempt to direct or influence their
subordinates.
v International approaches to leadership
v Research shows there are both similarities and differences. Most
international research has focused upon Europe, East Asia, the Middle
East, and developing countries such as India, Peru, Chile, and Argentina.

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Leadership in the International Context

European managers tend to use a participative approach. Researchers investigated
four areas relevant to leadership:
1. Capacity for leadership and initiative (Theory X vs. TheoryY)
2. Sharing information and objectives: general vs. detailed, completed instructions
for subordinates.
3. Participation: leadership support for participative leadership
4. Internal control: leader control through external vs. internal means

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Leadership in the International Context

v The role of level, size, and age on European managers’ attitudes toward
leadership:
• Higher level managers tend to express more democratic values than lower-level
managers in some countries; in other countries the opposite is true.
• Company size tends to influence the degree of participative-autocratic attitudes
• Younger managers were more likely to have democratic values in leadership and
initiative, information sharing and objectives

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Leadership in the International Context:

Japanese
v Japan is well known for its paternalistic approach to leadership
v Japanese culture promotes a high safety or security need, which is present
among home country-based employees as well as MNC expatriates
v Japanese managers have much greater belief in the capacity of subordinates
for leadership and initiative than do managers in most other countries. Only
managers in Anglo-American countries had stronger feelings in this area

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Integrated cross-cultrual model of leadership

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Conclusions about leadership across cultures

v Universal leadership functions

v Culture seems to affect which type of leader behavior will be accepted and effective
in a given society.
v The characteristics of the situation can influence the extent to which leadership can
make a difference.

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INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
01 global business and
organizational savvy

PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL
GLOBAL
MINDSET 02 openness to differences,
capacity to change

SOCIAL CAPITAL

03 the ability to build trusting

relationships

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THE GLOBAL MINDSET OF SUCCESSFUL LEADERS

Personal works tyle General perspective

v High “cultural quotient” (CQ) v Broad system perspective

v Open minded and flexible v Personal autonomy and emotional resilience

v Effective cross-cultural communicator and v Change is welcomed and facilitated

collaborator 0000000000000
v Team player in a global matrix v Enables boundary-less organization

v Supports global objectives and balances global with v Operates easily in cross-cultural and cross-
local goals and practices functional environment

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Cultural Quotient
v An outsider’s seemingly natural ability to interpret someone’s unfamiliar and
ambiguous gestures the way that person’s compatriots would.
v A culturally intelligent people have
Ø Knowledge : to understand the cross-cultural phenomena
Ø Mindfulness: is to observe and interpret particular situations
Ø Skills required to adapt behavior to act appropriately and successfully in a range of
situations

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Global leadership effectiveness

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