Week 4 Turbulent Contexts Leadership in A Multicultural World

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Week 4 Turbulent contexts: leadership in a multicultural

world
Carol Sherriff
Introduction
Welcome to Week 4. To gain an understanding of what you will learn about this week, watch the welcome
video below.
Introduction to Week 4
To help you think about and understand the relationship between culture and leadership, focusing particularly
on leadership in a multicultural world, you will first consider what culture is and why leadership is such an
important element of any culture. You are encouraged to think deeply about culture and how it effects not only
our behaviour but our thinking. You will then move on to consider research that identifies and explains
differences in national cultures, and to organise different national cultures into cultural ‘clusters’. This is a
useful approach, particularly for leaders seeking to lead teams of people from many different cultures, but it is
also open to challenge. For example, is your national culture – usually based on where you were born – the
only or even the most important cultural influence on you? These challenges raise the question of whether
there is a global, multicultural approach to leadership that can rise above these cultural differences to
encourage and enable people with very different cultural expectations to work together. This idea of a global
approach to leadership is often called a multicultural mindset. It is a very attractive idea, but in practice it has
considerable limitations and you will explore both its strengths and limitations during the week. You will do this
through a range of activities which help you to develop your multicultural mindset, including studying how the
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leaders of a multicultural network have developed the leadership practices that support their activities. The
organisation Family for Every Child is a global alliance of national organisations dedicated to improving the
lives of vulnerable children across the world.
The ideas introduced during the week are complex and not universally agreed so a number of activities will
encourage you to continue to develop the critical and systemic thinking skills that are a key part of this block.
Key questions
The key questions you will consider this week are:
What is culture and why does it have a substantial impact on leadership?
What are the key differences in how leadership is thought about and practised in different cultures, and
how does this affect leadership in a multicultural world?
Can a multicultural approach to leadership be adopted that takes into account many different cultures
and if so, how can such an approach be developed?
Activity planner
To help you plan your studies this week, here is a table of the activities you will be working on. Remember that
these timings are approximate and you also need to allow time for reading the linking material and reflecting
on what you have learned.
Week 4 Activity planner
Activity Details Time
1 Sharing a module-wide view of culture Take part in the creation of a collaborative word 15
cloud minutes
2 Exploring the three levels of culture Apply theory to culture and assess strengths 45
and weaknesses of this theory minutes
3 Exploring the difference between national, Select which types of culture different 30
international and multicultural cultures organisations belong to minutes
4 Describing a leader Apply the GLOBE research findings to explore 60

the cultural influences of a leader minutes
5 Strengths and weaknesses of the GLOBE Make note on the strengths and weaknesses of 30
research the GLOBE research minutes
6 Learning from multicultural leaders Listen to audio recordings and take notes 60
minutes
7 How do leaders lead multicultural teams and Watch a video and take notes 30
organisations? minutes
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8 Assessing your global mindset Complete a questionnaire 30

minutes
Reflection on Week 4 Use Twitter to reflect on your learning for the 30

week minutes
There is also an online tutorial focused on TMA 01 scheduled during this week, so do check the details and
sign up to attend.
1 Developing a deeper understanding of culture
Show description
You may have studied different aspects of culture in your previous studies. You will almost certainly have
talked about culture in your work or social life. This section is designed to build on your existing knowledge to
help you develop a deeper understanding of the nature of culture. This is important when considering the need
to work multiculturally across different cultures. You will begin by considering your own initial definition of
culture and use this to create a module-wide word cloud of associations with culture. Then you will consider an
academic definition of culture and how different levels of culture can be likened to a lily pond. You will use this
metaphor to explore the culture of an organisation. The final part of this section looks at the difference
between organisations based on a single national culture, organisations that are international and
organisations that are multicultural.
The word ‘culture’ is used in many different ways in academic study, business and everyday life. People talk
about cultural events, business culture, cultural change, youth culture, a culture of fear. But what do you
associate with the word culture? You might think of culture in terms of museums, art galleries or historical
sites. You might think of phrases such as ‘the way we do things around here’ – based on an observation by
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Handy (1996, p. 3) that ‘Organisations, like tribes and families, have their own ways of doing things, things that
do work for them and things that do not work.’You might think of your own identity, perhaps your national
culture and the traditions and expectations that are part of the way you were brought up. Or you may think in
terms of your age and gender, or youth culture perhaps?
The following activity will help you examine your own views on culture and also create a module-wide word
cloud of associations with the word culture which you can look back on to see how your ideas about culture
have developed throughout the week.
Activity 1 Sharing a module-wide view of culture
Allow about 15 minutes to complete this activity
When you use the word ‘culture’, what are you thinking about? What activities, objects, sayings, thoughts
and feelings come to mind? Record your ideas by clicking the link below to add your ideas about culture
to a module-wide word cloud.
View interactive version
The size and thickness of the words in the word cloud represent how many times the word or phrase is
used.
Are your words and phrases frequently or infrequently by other students?
What other words and phrases have been entered by other students? Which do you agree with and
which ones surprise you?
If you are one of the first to complete this activity your response will feature prominently. You may want to
revisit the word cloud from time to time to see how it changes.
The word cloud helps us move from individual interpretations and understandings of what culture means to a
more shared meaning by highlighting the words and phrases commonly used. This idea of culture always
involving other people is explored in more depth in the following section.
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1.1 Shaping the way we think about the world

Your response to the word cloud activity will be individual to you and will also have some ideas, phrases and
words in common with other students. When we first think about culture, we tend to focus on the surface level
and we often feel as if we are an independent observer seeing evidence of different cultures we belong to but
not recognising that these cultures shape the way we think, behave and experience the world. Indeed, we may
be very resistant to the idea that the cultures we are part of directly affect how we think. That is, until
something is done that directly affects our sense of value or we come across a culture that is very different
from our own. Then we begin to appreciate just how influenced we are by our cultural background. I remember
my first trip to Tokyo, Japan as part of a cultural exchange programme. Tokyo is a modern industrial city that
you would think cannot be that different to London, Cardiff or Edinburgh. But the sights, sounds and feelings
were so overwhelmingly different that for the first few days I could barely string two words together, such was
my sense of being out of balance.
Show description
I had been tutored on cultural differences and the etiquette of, for example, bowing and exchanging business
cards. When I came to exchange business cards for the first time, I found I strongly resisted even a slight bow.
As a British-born female, bowing to me was not an act of politeness or even deference but a symbol of
subjugation that I was not even aware I possessed.
Experiences like this draw our attention to the very deep-rooted nature of culture and how it influences not only
what we see and experience but how we think about and make sense of the world. So far, we are approaching
culture as single individuals, whereas in reality culture never involves the individual; it always involves people
as part of a group. This thought can be quite challenging because if culture influences and shapes our
thoughts and experience, then other people are shaping our thoughts and experience. Our thoughts are not
entirely our own but are in part the result of shared thinking about what is important and what is acceptable.
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1.2 Defining culture

Schein and Schein, leading researchers and authors on culture, provide a definition of culture that includes the
idea that culture affects not only our behaviour but our thoughts and feelings, and that culture is a group rather
than an individual phenomenon:
The culture of a group can be defined as the accumulated shared learning of that group as it solves its
problems of external adaptation and internal integration; which has worked well enough to be considered
valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, feel, and behave
in relation to those problems. This accumulated learning is a pattern or system of beliefs, values, and
behavioral norms that come to be taken for granted as basic assumptions and eventually drop out of
awareness.
(Schein and Schein, 2016 p. 6)
Figure 1 (below) illustrates the suggestion that culture is a process or system rather than a ‘thing’.
Figure 1 The process through which culture is developed based on Schein and Schein (2016, p. 6)
Show description
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The process begins with a group facing problems that are outside the group (external adaptation) and within
the group (internal integration). They are likely to tackle these problems in many different ways, but Schein
and Schein make clear that the ways that have an impact on culture are the ones that solve the problems well
enough to be considered valid. The use of the term ‘valid’ implies that these ways of tackling problems work
with some degree of success and are acceptable to the group. They are then taught to new members of the
group in terms of the correct way to see things, think, feel and behave. ‘Correct way’ is significant because
ways of tackling problems that were at first valid have had a moral imperative added to them. You can get a
sense of this, thinking back to when you were younger; you were taught how to behave around adults either at
home or at school. When I was young it was most important to always be polite to adults no matter how rude
they were to you or if they simply ignored you. You never interrupted a conversation between adults and you
got told off, even punished, if you did. You may have been taught something different, but it is likely that
whatever you were taught was considered to be the ‘correct’ thing to do.
These correct ways of doing things form a pattern or system of beliefs, values and behaviour. In my case, as a
little girl the beliefs and values being taught to me were that adults were more important than children and it
was wrong to demand adults’ attention. This was reinforced so many times at school, at home and in other
places, to me and to other children, that it became part of how I thought the world worked; these were basic
assumptions that I no longer questioned.
1.3 Levels of culture
Figure 2: The Lily Pond as a metaphor for the three levels of culture adapted from Schein and Schein (2016)
and original artwork by James Bowers, Human Synergistics.
Show description
The process through which culture is formed, evolves and is taken for granted is part of the answer to this
week’s first key question about why culture has such an impact. We have been taught that there are certain
‘correct’ ways of doing and thinking about problems, and we begin to take them for granted and they move out
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of our awareness. Figure 2 (above) illustrates the basic model developed by Schein (1984) to identify three
distinct but inter-related levels of culture:
Cultural artefacts which are the visible signs of the culture. This includes how people dress, what offices
look like and nowadays how an organisation presents itself on social media, (for example, its websites).
Just as physically visiting an organisation’s headquarters can tell you a lot about its culture, so can
visiting its website.
Espoused beliefs and values which are often contained in mission and vision statements. For example,
the OU’s mission is that we are open to people, places, methods and ideas, and the way we develop
modules such as this one is designed to display those espoused beliefs and values. The importance is
that these beliefs and values are ‘espoused’. They are openly communicated and there is a sense that
they are ‘correct’.
Basic underlying assumptions which form our mental models of the world and are much more difficult
to articulate. In fact, we often do not know they are there until they are challenged or violated. This is why
thinking back to doing something for the first time can be so helpful because we often have an emotional
response when we achieve something or when we cannot achieve something. It is that emotional
response which can help us track back to the underlying assumptions.
You may have met a model in the past – likened to an iceberg – with cultural artefacts visible above the water,
espoused beliefs and values just under the surface, and basic underlying assumptions deeply buried. Schein
and Schein (2016) have updated this metaphor and likened the levels of culture to a lily pond. The artefacts
are like the lily spreading across the surface of the pond. They are very visible and often the focus of our
attention. The espoused values are what the farmer, or other people who built and maintain the pond, say
about the lily pond. The basic underlying assumptions are the root system on which the lilies grow and
develop. These are out of sight and often taken for granted, but the way in which they are cared for cause the
lilies to thrive or wilt.
1.3.1 Exploring culture

Metaphors like the lily pond can be used as the basis for critical and systemic thinking because they compare
something that is complex and which might not be readily understood, to something that is more easily
understood but is also complex. Through exploring the metaphor you can perceive things about the original
issue that were not immediately apparent. However, all metaphors have weaknesses. They are not an exact
comparison so you also need to look for the strengths and weaknesses of the metaphor.
In the following activity you will use the metaphor of the lily pond to help you understand more about the
culture of a particular organisation. This will help you to explore Schein and Schein’s idea that the three levels
of culture are like a lily pond, and continue to address the key question of why culture has such an impact
particularly on leadership. It will also help you to develop your critical and systemic thinking skills through
considering the strengths and weaknesses of the metaphor. It may help you to complete this activity if you
think back to the first time you entered this website and what you noticed.
Activity 2 Exploring the three levels of culture
Allow about 45 mins to complete this activity
Part A
Thinking about the OU and specifically this module and its website:
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What are the lilies or cultural artefacts?

What does the farmer and those who maintain the pond say about the pond and the lilies, or what
are the espoused values?
What is the hidden root system or basic assumptions?
Record your thoughts in the textbox below.
Save and reveal feedback Reset
Part B
Think about and record the strengths and weaknesses of the metaphor of culture as a lily pond. Think in
terms of how culture is like a lily pond – the strengths of the metaphor – and how it differs – the
weaknesses of the metaphor.
This activity helps to identify some of the challenges to the way culture is thought about. First, there is a
tendency to focus on the visible signs of culture (the lilies) rather than the root systems (the basic
assumptions), which have far more impact on how people behave. Second, leaders are often viewed, and
view themselves, as outside culture but they are as influenced by their cultures as anyone else. Third, people
are not influenced by just one type of culture – the lily pond; many different forms of culture impact thought and
behaviour. You may want to take a moment to look again at the module word cloud to see how it has
developed and the many different associations people have with culture to remind you not to take an over-
simplistic approach to the topics introduced in the rest of the week. The next section focuses on one example
of the ways in which many different cultures intersect in organisations to create multicultural organisations,
movements and societies.
1.4 Exploring the multiculture

Having considered general theories and experiences of culture, you will now turn to what is meant by
multiculture. It is helpful to remember that you are seeking to develop a deeper understanding of culture so are
trying to identify the root system rather than the display of lilies and other flowers.
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Multiculturalism, like culture, has a range of different meanings associated with it. In general terms, it is used in
this module to refer to organisations or activities that involve a number of different cultures, particularly
different national cultures. We differentiate between multicultural and international. International would
describe an organisation or activity that involves different cultures, where one culture dominates. Multicultural
organisations and activities seek to enable different cultures to thrive alongside each other and work together.
However, parts of what we might think of as a national culture can also be described as multicultural. For
example, countries such as the USA and South Africa claim to be multicultural. Cities such as London, Paris,
New Delhi and Dubai – which have people from many different cultures living and visiting – also claim to be
multicultural. The UK’s National Health Service is said to be multicultural because its workforce is very diverse.
Later this week, you will meet leaders from Family for Every Child, a not-for-profit organisation made up of
over 40 different national organisations from across the world. Family for Every Child deliberately sets out to
be multicultural and, for example, to enable people to work in their own language rather than having an agreed
language they work in. The organisation seeks to agree ways of working that are agreed by all rather than
decide on a particular system based, for example on American, Japanese or African ways of working.
The distinction between multicultural, international and national is not absolutely clear cut. The following
activity will help you to clarify your understanding of the different meanings of national, international and
multicultural.
Activity 3 Exploring the difference between national, international and multicultural
Choose whether you would describe each example of organisational culture as predominantly national,
international or multicultural, and use the drop-down menu to make your choice. Justifying your decisions
is an important part of critical thinking so use the right-hand side column to enter the reasons for your
decision.
Reveal feedback
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This activity should help you to understand some of the challenging issues in deciding what multiculture is and
what a multicultural organisation is. It should remind you of the importance of the ‘espoused values’ of the
culture and that these are normally set by leaders within the organisation. It may also remind you that the
basic assumptions – the root system of an organisation – are deeply established, and changing a national
organisation into an international or multicultural organisation is a complex process that cannot just be decided
upon and implemented overnight.
This section has taken a deep look at culture, how it develops and shapes our thinking and behaviour. It has
introduced the three levels of culture represented by the metaphor of a lily pond. The final part of the section
looked at multiculture and how it differs from national and international cultures, particularly in organisations.
Decisions about the nature of the organisational culture are often based on the espoused values of leaders
and what they are trying to achieve. The next section will therefore deal with the relationship between culture
and leadership.
2 Leadership and culture

Having developed a deeper understanding of what culture is and why it has such a significant impact, you will
now focus on the impact of culture on leadership and consider the key differences in how leadership is thought
about and practised in different cultures, and how this affects leadership in a multicultural world.
The module defines leadership as:
A collection of concepts concerned with how meaningful direction is generated, offered, accepted and
resisted within and across groups and organisations.
(Smolović Jones, 2018)
If you take into account the definition of culture introduced in the previous section, then the idea of meaningful
direction needs to be valid within the culture so that it can be accepted and taught to newcomers. Resistance
is often a sign that the direction being offered by a leader is not accepted as valid within the culture or that a
subgroup within the main group thinks that there is an alternative, correct way to solve the problem.
Schein and Schein (2016) argue that leadership and culture are fundamentally intertwined, making three
points:
that leaders as entrepreneurs who found organisations are the main architects of culture – using the lily
pond metaphor they build the pond and plant the lilies
that after cultures are formed, the culture influences the kind of leadership that is possible – to stretch the
metaphor, you cannot plant lilies and expect to farm corn
if the culture becomes dysfunctional, leadership can and must do something to speed up cultural change
– much as a farmer with a failing crop needs to act promptly to restore an environment in which the
plants can thrive.
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2.1 Moving from cultural leadership to multicultural leadership

Schein and Schein are in the main talking about leadership in an organisational culture that may not be
diverse or multicultural, whereas this session focuses on leadership in multicultural settings. The most
common approach to multicultural leadership is for leaders to develop an awareness of their own culture and
its impact upon them (which is one of the things you have been doing in the previous section) and then to
study the culture of their colleagues from different cultures so that they understand their expectations in
relation to leadership (Bird and Mendenhall, 2016).
To help you do that you will now explore some of the research findings from the Global Leadership and
Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness research project (GLOBE). The GLOBE project is an ongoing
research programme begun in 1991 to research into the effect of different national cultures on leadership,
specifically to increase understanding across different cultures and to establish the impact of culture on
leadership effectiveness. The research developed and applied nine cultural dimensions to 62 different cultures
and grouped them into a series of ten regional clusters with similar cultural dimensions.
You will first review the nine dimensions of national culture and then the ten regional clusters.
2.2 The nine GLOBE dimensions of national cultures

The nine GLOBE dimensions are found in all national cultures but cultures differ on how strong each
dimension is. If you think of a spectrum, different countries are somewhere between the high and low end of
each dimension. The interactive map below demonstrates this.
The nine dimensions of national culture identified by GLOBE researchers are as follows:
1. Assertiveness is the degree to which individuals in organisations or societies are assertive,

confrontational, and aggressive in social relationships. For example, German leaders were found to use
straightforward language and directly approach problems with conflict and confrontation being acceptable
in the work environment.
2. Future orientation is the degree to which individuals in organisations or societies engage in future-
oriented behaviours such as planning, investing in the future and delaying individual or collective
gratification or the degree to which they are orientated towards the past or to enjoying the present and
being spontaneous. Leaders in future-orientated cultures will be expected to help create a clear vision of
the future. American leaders, for example, favour planning and seeking to control the future. Whereas in
Middle Eastern countries leaders are past-orientated and value traditional ways of doing things. They
need to emphasise learning from the past.
3. Gender egalitarianism is the extent to which an organization or a society minimises gender-role

differences while promoting gender equity and the equality of genders. Sweden was found to be one of
the most gender-egalitarian countries with espoused beliefs that men and women should share power
and influence equally. Swedish leaders are expected to respect this equality. Whereas countries like
Afghanistan consider men and women have very different roles in society and it is men who are more
traditionally leaders in the public sphere.
4. Humane orientation is the degree to which individuals in organisations or societies encourage and
reward individuals for being fair, altruistic, friendly, generous, caring, kind to others, and exhibiting and
promoting altruistic ideals. Countries in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were found to be
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particularly high in this dimension. Leaders are expected to embody and promote this humane
orientation.
5. Institutional collectivism (Collectivism I) reflects the degree to which organisational and societal
institutional practices encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and collective action.
North Korea, for example, scores highly in this dimension, along with some of the Nordic countries in
Europe. Leaders are expected to practise such collectivism within teams and organisations.
6. In-group collectivism (Collectivism II) reflects the degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty and
cohesiveness in their organisations, families, circle of close friends or other such small groups. Countries
like China, Japan and Singapore score highly in this dimension and leaders will be expected to express
and encourage pride in their team efforts, whereas Canada, the US, Australia and England score on the
low end, and leaders tend to reward individual effort.
7. Performance orientation refers to the extent to which high-level members of organisations and societies
encourage and reward group members for performance improvement and excellence. The USA is very
high in this dimension, and Latin American and Eastern European countries much lower. These
differences effect the attention that leaders will place on performance.
8. Power distance is the degree to which members of an organisation and society encourage and reward
unequal distribution of power with greater power at higher levels. India was found to have a high power
distance, whereas the US has a low power distance. Interestingly, the UK has a higher power distance
than you might expect because of the continuing effects of the class system. These differences effect the
nature of the relationships between leaders and followers and the degree to which leaders are expected
to keep or share power.
9. Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which members of an organisation or society strive to avoid
uncertainty by relying on established social norms, rituals and bureaucratic practices to decrease the
probability of unpredictable future events that could adversely affect the operation of an organisation or
society, and also to remedy the potential adverse effects of such unpredictable future events. The USA
was found to have low uncertainty avoidance, and leaders have a willingness to take risks, whereas
countries such as Kuwait and Egypt have high uncertainty avoidance, and leaders are more risk averse
and want to be clear about the future impact of their actions.
(Adapted from Chhokar et al., 2008 p. 4 and Northouse, 2016 pp. 431–434)
Notes on using the map
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To explore a particular dimension, click on it and then choose high, medium or low to see countries on the
high, medium or low end of that particular dimension. Countries on the high end are marked red on the map
and appear in the text box at the top right. Countries in the middle of the dimension are marked in orange and
also appear in the text box and countries on the low end of the spectrum are marked in yellow and appear in
the text box.
Use the map to explore which countries are high, medium and low on the different dimensions. If a result does
not make sense to you, check back with the description of the dimension above the map.
2.2.1 Ten GLOBE regional clusters

While it is very interesting to look at the individual dimensions, cultures are not dominated by individual
dimensions but the nine dimensions combine together to create different cultures. To help develop a sense of
different groupings of cultures, GLOBE researchers collected data on these nine dimensions in 62 different
cultures. They then grouped the countries into ten regional clusters that are broadly similar in terms of the nine
dimensions.
The interactive map will help you explore these different regional clusters. You can click on the name of the
cluster on the top right of the map and the countries included in that culture are shown. You will begin to see
that the regional clusters are not simply geographical areas – look for example, at the Anglo cultures which
include the USA, UK and Australia. You will notice that the dominant features of that regional cluster appear at
the bottom of the map.
You will use this data in the next section, where you will apply the GLOBE data to a leadership figure.
2.3 Understanding leadership in different cultures

You will now use the findings from the GLOBE reports to help you develop an understanding of different
cultures and how they may effect leadership of people from other cultures.
This activity will help you to develop a general familiarity with the GLOBE dimensions and clusters.
Activity 4 Describing a leader
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The aim of this activity is to familiarise yourself with the dimensions and clusters.
Part A
This part of the activity concentrates on the dimensions of a particular culture and how it might affect a
leader.
Freja is a Danish born team leader in a large Danish company. Spend about 20 minutes reviewing the
nine cultural dimensions and, using the first interactive map, identify which ones are particularly high,
medium or low in the Danish culture. What do you think that this means for the way that Freja lead her
team? Take some brief notes on your findings in the box below.
Save and reveal discussion Reset
Part B
The aim of this part is to help you understand how national cultures have been grouped into regional
cultures and what conclusions you are able to draw from differences in regional cultures.
Imagine Freja gets a new job as a more senior leader in the US multinational organisation. There are not
any other leaders from Denmark in the company but there are other leaders from Sweden and Finland
although most of the senior leaders are American. Using the second interactive map, identify the regional
cluster in which Denmark sits and what other countries are in that cluster. Then find out which regional
cluster the USA is in.
In the box below, note down the difference between the two regional clusters. What advice might you
give Freja as she prepares to take on her new position?
Save and reveal discussion Reset
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You may have found that this activity was helpful in thinking about how cultures are similar and how they differ.
You may also have found it challenging and rather unsatisfactory. The GLOBE research tends to assume, for
example, that all Danish leaders are similar – but there are many other factors that might influence Freja’s
cultural expectations. For example, if one of her parents was from the USA or she had worked or studied there
before, you would expect her to be more familiar with the differences in culture and able to adapt to them more
readily. As you did in the previous section about culture, you need to develop a deep rather than surface
appreciation of national cultures and their effect on leadership.
2.4 Challenges to the GLOBE research

Just as was the case with the three levels of culture and the metaphor of a lily pond, there are strengths and
limitations to the GLOBE research and other attempts to categorise cultures at a national and regional level.
The next activity will help you to identify some of these and prepare you to listen and watch different leaders
talk about how they have approached leading multiculturally.
Activity 5 Strengths and weaknesses of the GLOBE research
Bearing in mind the previous activity using the GLOBE research and dimensions on culture and regional
clusters:
What are the strengths of such an approach for leaders leading across different cultures?
What are the weaknesses and limitations?
Note down your thoughts in the text box below.
Keep these strengths and weaknesses in mind as you study the next section on leading multiculturally.
3 Leading multicultural organisations

You have been considering and applying a number of different theories about culture and leadership, and
answering the first two key questions for this week about the impact of culture and its relationship with
leadership. In this section, you move on to address the third key question about whether a multicultural
approach to leadership can be adopted that takes into account many different cultures. The section will
conclude with how can you develop such an approach in your own practice.
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To help you explore this question, you will begin with what happens in practice and what leaders do when they
are required to lead multicultural organisations. The three leaders in the following activity lead similar types of
organisation in different parts of the world. They are also leaders active in the global network Family for Every
Child, so they have a leadership role at national, global and multicultural levels. We asked them for their
experience of leading an organisation within their national culture and how they felt that their national culture
affected how they acted as a leader. We also asked them how they adapted their behaviour to be effective in
the global, multicultural network.
As you complete the activity below, keep in mind what you have learned so far:
Schein’s definition of culture and the metaphor of the lily pond.
Differences between national, international and multiculture.
The nine dimensions of culture identified by the GLOBE project.

The characteristics of the ten regional clusters.
Activity 6 Learning from multicultural leaders
Listen to the three leaders below and make notes about the points they make in relation to their own
culture, other cultures and working multiculturally.
Part A
Rita Panicker Pinto is the founder and director of Butterflies, a non-governmental organisation founded
in 1989 in New Delhi, India. It works to protect and empower street and working children. Butterflies was
the first organisation in India with the purpose of protecting and empowering children living and working
on the streets with a participatory, non-hierarchical approach. Among other things, Rita helped the street
children to set up their own bank or Khazana as it became known. In the audio clip below, Rita talks
about the way Butterflies works and how this is different to many organisations in India. She explains
how most businesses are structured in India and what it is like to work in the country. She also talks
about her experience of working as part of the Family for Every Child multicultural network.
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Rita Panicker Pinto, CEO of Butterflies
Show description
Rita Panicker
Part B
Rekha Nathoo is founder and director of the Children in Distress Network (CINDI) based in KwaZulu-
Natal, South Africa. CINDI is a multi-sectoral network of over 200 civil society organisations capable of
implementing diverse, effective and sustainable programmes for children and youth infected or affected
by HIV and AIDS. Membership is comprised of 80% community-based organisations (CBOs) and 20%
non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The vision of the organisation is to ensure that children and
caregivers access their constitutional rights through processes of collaboration, leading to community
driven action.
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Rekha Nathoo, Director, Children in Distress Network, South Africa
Show description
Part C
Omattie Madray is director of ChildLinK based in Guyana. ChildLinK gives orphans and vulnerable
children, who are separated or at risk of being separated from their families or communities, a safe and
secure future. ChildLinK’s vision is a Guyanese society in which every child has the right to grow up in a
safe and secure family and community protected from abuse, exploitation and violence. This vision is
further enhanced through ChildLinK’s contribution to the development of child protection systems in the
country.
Guyana is not specifically mentioned in the GLOBE research so listen to what Omattie says about the
national culture.
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Omattie Madray, ChildLinK, Guyana
Show description
The interviews from leaders from three different national cultures in three different regional clusters show that
being alert to these cultural and regional differences can be helpful as a starting point in exploring different
cultural perspectives. However, the interviews reinforce some of the weaknesses identified in Activity 5 about
the GLOBE research and focus on national cultures. All three leaders emphasise the importance of
understanding the different political systems that people come from, and Omattie highlights that a person’s
national political system also affects how the person is used to operating. It is likely that this is particularly
relevant because Family for Every Child works in an area that is politically sensitive and involves government
agencies. However, political backgrounds are also likely to affect thinking and behaviour in business
organisations. The three leaders place emphasis on language: how language is used is different, for example,
between English-speaking countries and countries with Latin-based languages.
The political and language dimensions are not specifically mentioned in the GLOBE research. The interview
with Omattie provides evidence of some of the other criticisms of GLOBE. She comes from a small country
that is not included in the research and thinks that they are affected by their larger neighbours in the US and
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East Africa. She also points out that the three leaders all share a common heritage although they were born
and work in very different societies. This is one of the major criticisms of GLOBE; that it takes no account of
mixed cultural heritage and the movement of people between national areas. The three leaders take a more
flexible approach to leading multiculturally and within diverse national settings. They talk about creating new
practices and approaches to enable them to work alongside colleagues from different cultures. You will hear
more about this in the next section.
3.2 Leading a multicultural, global organisation

The organisation that Rita, Rekha and Omattie are members of, Family for Every Child, is an interesting
organisation to study in terms of leading a multicultural, global organisation as it was deliberately established
as a multicultural organisation.
Show description
Family for Every Child describes itself as ‘a global alliance of local civil society organisations working together
to improve the lives of vulnerable children around the world’ (Family for Every Child, 2019). They work together
to achieve change for children and families. The founders did not want to set up an international organisation
where a particular culture was dominant, but sought to set up a network that enabled different cultures to
flourish and thrive. The next activity will explore how they did that.
Activity 7 How do leaders lead multicultural teams and organisations?
In the following video Amanda Griffith talks about her leadership approach as one of the founders and
the CEO of Family for Every Child. She also talks about the leadership practices that she and the board
have adopted to make sure that Family for Every Child is a multicultural organisation. Watch the video
and take notes on Amanda’s leadership approach and the leadership practices in the text box below.
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Amanda Griffith
The example of Family for Every Child is helpful in redressing some of the limitations in research approaches
like that of the GLOBE research. GLOBE, although it uses the term leadership, is focused primarily on the
style and behaviour of the leader. In research terms this is known as the ‘leadership as leader’ perspective.
This perspective is, as you can see from GLOBE, very influential, but it tends to neglect:
the influence of followers
the fact that many leaders work with other people who are also leaders and not necessarily their
followers
that there is a wide range of collaborative and participative practices that influence leadership within
organisations and groups.
These factors are important in any organisation, but particularly important in multicultural organisations as they
need to be made explicit and negotiated. In the next section, we address some of these issues in encouraging
you to develop a global, multicultural mindset.
4 Developing a global mindset

During this week you have begun the process of developing your own global, multicultural mindset. Research
by Cseh et al. (2013) found that one of the most important elements in the global mindset of successful global
leaders was curiosity and a willingness to learn about other cultures and leadership practices.
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They drew on research into the Global Leadership Mindset (GLM) model developed by Davis et al. (2008).
The GLM model has three elements which guide the process of learning about other cultures and leadership
practice:
Orientation which is about awareness of your own cultural influences and interest, curiosity and
appreciation of the cultural influences on people with different backgrounds to your own. It also includes
being flexible and having an interest in multicultural issues. You can see this very clearly in relation to the
four leaders you have met this week. Hopefully, your studies have developed your orientation.
Knowledge which is about knowledge of different cultures and leadership practices and also the ways in
which you support that system of gaining new knowledge. So, for example, your review of the GLOBE
research and of the interviews with leaders from different cultures will all have helped you to increase
your knowledge. The activities will also have supported the systems through which you expand your
knowledge. For example, using the metaphor of the lily pond is a way of using your imagination to
expand your understanding of cultural impact. The module-wide word cloud is a visual way of gathering
together and categorising different views. Both of these methods are powerful because they bypass our
normal ways of thinking, and as we have found out our normal ways of thinking are heavily influenced by
our own cultural background. Mind maps and systems diagrams can also be helpful in that regard.
Behaviour this element is about acting on the orientation and knowledge, seeking out opportunities to
experiment in a multicultural setting. If while studying this week you have already put something from
your learning into practice that is an excellent example of this element. Well done!
The next activity will help you assess your current global mindset and decide how you might expand it.
Activity 8 Assessing your global mindset
In this activity you will assess yourself against the three elements of the global mindset and reflect on
how you might develop your mindset further. Be honest with yourself and also do not expect too much
from yourself; small actions that you take are better than wide-ranging intentions never executed.
Use the radio buttons to score yourself on the global mindset scale where 1 is low activity on that
element and 6 is high activity.
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Use the text box below to record your reflections on each of the elements and also to record any action
you intend to take. You might also use this as your Twitter activity in the final part of the week.
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The week’s sharing activity and summary of the week will also count as steps in further developing your mind
set. You also return to the subject of diversity and inclusion in an increasingly global world in Week 8.
Summary
Week 4 introduced a deep appreciation of culture based on Schein and Schein’s (2016) definition of culture as
a shared and accumulated learning process based on solving internal and external problems. The solutions
that become part of the culture are ones that the group believes to be valid and which they then teach to new
members of the culture as the correct way to think and behave. Culture can be viewed at three levels, which
Schein and Schein liken to a lily pond. The visible level on the surface are the artefacts which, like the lilies,
are easily seen by others outside the culture. The next level is espoused beliefs, which is what leaders and
other influential parties say about the culture. This is likened in the metaphor to the farmer who builds and
maintains the lily pond. Hidden below the surface are the basic assumptions which, similar to the roots of the
lily, enable the culture to evolve and thrive. These basic assumptions are largely out of awareness but have
significant impact on behaviour, thoughts and feelings. This approach to culture can be applied to national,
international and multicultural organisations. The difference between these cultures is that national
organisations are usually dominated by one culture, international organisations may have a diverse workforce
but are usually led predominantly by one culture. Multicultural organisations seek to develop a way of working
that embraces and celebrates the different cultures in their ways of working.
There is a close relationship between culture and leadership, with the leaders – like the farmers in the lily pond
metaphor – setting the values and beliefs of the organisation. However, it must be remembered that leaders
are also affected by the cultures they belong to. They are not separate from the lily pond. Research by GLOBE
was introduced as one way of identifying nine dimensions of culture which can be applied to all national
cultures. These national cultures are then grouped into ten regional clusters. Understanding the dimensions of
their own culture and which cluster they belong to can be helpful to leaders as a starting point for finding out
how other cultures differ. However, there are limitations to the GLOBE research particularly caused by the way
in which countries are viewed as a single culture regardless of size. Leadership is seen predominantly as
resting in a single leader, not as a collective endeavour.
Finally, in terms of a multicultural approach to leadership, organisations have begun to structure themselves
and design their working practices to reflect their multicultural nature. This includes considering what
languages they work in, where they are based and how their activities are structured. The three elements of
the global leadership mindset were introduced. These are orientation, knowledge and behaviour.
Key points:
At the beginning of this week you were presented with three key questions to be addressed in the learning,
which you should now be able to answer. You have learned that:
Culture has a substantial impact on leadership because it influences how leaders are expected to think
and behave and also because leaders influence the ways of thinking and behaving that form a culture.
The key differences in how leadership is thought about and practised in different cultures have been
identified across nine GLOBE dimensions; leaders in a multicultural world need to understand their own
culture and recognise how other cultures will differ in order to take a multicultural approach to leadership.
A multicultural approach to leadership can be adopted that takes into account many different cultures by
identifying ways of working that enable cultural differences to thrive rather than have one dominant
culture. Developing a multicultural mindset can help leaders do this.
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Reflection and sharing

In this final section of Week 4 you will spend some time reflecting on what you have learned. You will share
your ideas and compare them with the thoughts of others.
Reflection on Week 4
Allow about 30 minutes to complete this reflection
Part A
Ask yourself the following questions:
What have I learned this week that is particularly important or relevant?
How could this inspire me to make a change in my professional or personal life?
Write one or two tweets on Twitter to answer the questions above. You can use hashtags to highlight
particular words and engage in conversations related to these topics.
If you don’t wish to use Twitter you can write a sentence or two on your TGF (be sure to stay within 280
characters as though you were on Twitter).
Part B
Spend a few minutes looking at other students’ tweets or statements and compare and reflect on the
ideas that have been shared.
Reveal feedback
Don’t forget to keep track of the tweets or posts you have written, as these will contribute to 30% of your EMA
grade and 15% of your overall module grade.
References
Bird, A. and Mendenhall, M. E. (2016) ‘From cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and
adaptation’, Journal of World Business, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 115–126.
Chhokar, J. S., Brodbeck, F. C., and House, R. J. (eds) (2007), Culture and leadership across the world: The
GLOBE Book of In-Depth Studies of 25 Societies,’ Mahweh, NJ: LEA.Publishers.
Cseh, M., Davis, E. B., and Khilji, S. E. (2013) ‘Developing a global mindset: Learning of global leaders’,
European Journal of Training and Development, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 489–499.
Davis, E., Khilji, S. E., Critchfield, A. J., Cseh, M., Yarr, L. and Abou-Zaki, W. (2008) ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall,
who has the global leadership mindset of them all,’ in Proceedings of the International Leadership Association
Conference Global Leadership: Portraits of the Past.
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Handy, C. B. (1996) Gods of Management: The Changing Work of Organizations, Oxford University Press,
USA.
House, R. J. and Aditya, R.N. (1997) ‘The social scientific study of leadership: Quo vadis?’, Journal of
Management, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 409–473.
Mezirow, J. (1991) Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Northouse, P. G. (2016) Leadership: Theory and Practice, Thousand Oaks, Sage publications.
Schein, E. H. (1984) Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture, MIT Sloan Management Review,
vol. 25, no. 2.
Schein, E. H., and Schein P. (2016) Organizational Culture and Leadership, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ProQuest
Ebook Central [Online]. Available at https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/detail.action?docID=4766585.
(Accessed 24 October 2018).
Zander, L., Mockaitis, A. I. and Butler, C.L. (2012) ‘Leading global teams’, Journal of World Business, vol. 47,
no. 4, pp. 592–603.
Further reading
If you would like to further explore the concepts covered in this week of study, consider the following
publications:
Schein and Schein (2016) and Chhokar et al. (2007) are both available as complete e-books in the OU library
if you wanted to find out more about research into culture and leadership.
If you would like to know more about Family for Every Child, there is more information on their website
https://familyforeverychild.org/
If you would like to know more about the GLOBE research, the following website is very interesting:
https://globeproject.com/results/countries/DNK?menu=list#list
Please remember that these reading suggestions are optional and will not be covered in any assessment.
Acknowledgements
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources:
Figures
Figure 2: Redrawn from an artwork by Jason Bowes-Human Synergistics in Schein, Edgar H. and Peter
Schein. Organizational Culture and Leadership, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook
Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/detail.action?docID=4766585
Illustrations
Image of a lily pond: Benjamin Evans/Public domain
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Image of Tokyo: Negative Space/stocksnap This file is licensed under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal
(CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
Photo of Rita Panicker: Rita Panicker/familyfor every child.org
Photo of Rekha Nathoo: Rekha Nathoo
Photo of Omattie Madray: Omattie Madray
Image of a woman with two small children: Karen Struthers/Shutterstock
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the
publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
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Week 4 Turbulent Contexts Leadership in A Multicultural World

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Week 4 Turbulent contexts: leadership in a multicultural

What is culture and why does it have a substantial impact on leadership?

Week 4 Activity planner

Activity Details Time

4 Describing a leader Apply the GLOBE research findings to explore 60

8 Assessing your global mindset Complete a questionnaire 30

Reflection on Week 4 Use Twitter to reflect on your learning for the 30

1 Developing a deeper understanding of culture

Activity 1 Sharing a module-wide view of culture

Allow about 15 minutes to complete this activity

View interactive version

Are your words and phrases frequently or infrequently by other students?

1.1 Shaping the way we think about the world

1.2 Defining culture

(Schein and Schein, 2016 p. 6)

1.3 Levels of culture

1.3.1 Exploring culture

Activity 2 Exploring the three levels of culture

Allow about 45 mins to complete this activity

What are the lilies or cultural artefacts?

Record your thoughts in the textbox below.

Save and reveal feedback Reset

Save and reveal feedback Reset

1.4 Exploring the multiculture

Activity 3 Exploring the difference between national, international and multicultural

Allow about 30 minutes to complete this activity

View interactive version

2 Leadership and culture

The module defines leadership as:

(Smolović Jones, 2018)

2.1 Moving from cultural leadership to multicultural leadership

2.2 The nine GLOBE dimensions of national cultures

1. Assertiveness is the degree to which individuals in organisations or societies are assertive,

3. Gender egalitarianism is the extent to which an organization or a society minimises gender-role

View interactive version

Notes on using the map

2.2.1 Ten GLOBE regional clusters

View interactive version

2.3 Understanding leadership in different cultures

Activity 4 Describing a leader

Allow about 60 minutes to complete this activity

Save and reveal discussion Reset

Save and reveal discussion Reset

2.4 Challenges to the GLOBE research

Activity 5 Strengths and weaknesses of the GLOBE research

Allow about 30 minutes to complete this activity

Note down your thoughts in the text box below.

Save and reveal feedback Reset

3 Leading multicultural organisations

Schein’s definition of culture and the metaphor of the lily pond.

Differences between national, international and multiculture.

The nine dimensions of culture identified by the GLOBE project.

Activity 6 Learning from multicultural leaders

Allow about 60 minutes to complete this activity

Rita Panicker Pinto, CEO of Butterflies

Save and reveal feedback Reset

Rekha Nathoo, Director, Children in Distress Network, South Africa

Save and reveal feedback Reset

Omattie Madray, ChildLinK, Guyana

Save and reveal feedback Reset

3.2 Leading a multicultural, global organisation

Activity 7 How do leaders lead multicultural teams and organisations?