CROSS CULTURAL

MANAGEMENT

LECTURE 7
Cross-cultural leadership

Dr. Mathew Abraham

Associate Professor of Organisation Behaviour
Nottingham University Business School
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Learning Outcomes
Students should be able to:

 Discuss the context of leadership

across cultures.
 Evaluate leadership concepts
 Discuss leadership styles in different
countries.

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 Leadership is a cultural construct.
 it is not a Western construct that is easily expanded to global
dimensions, because leadership means different things to
different people!
 What is a direct translation of the word “leader”
into different languages?
 Invokes a variety of images, including dictator, parent, expert,
and first among equals.
 May have strong connotations of highly directive or
authoritarian styles of leadership that many people reject.
 Leaders are not necessarily to be trusted, and people wonder
about their motives and true goals, or about other potentially
undesirable behaviors and characteristics.

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Theories and leadership
 Research on organisations and decision-makers focused
originally on the organization of work systems.
 The production process, including increasing
specialisation and division of labour starting from
industrial revolution, was the focus of attention.
 What was the best way for a leader to get the job done in
the most efficient way possible?
 Led to the development of principles of scientific leadership,
whereby the questions of planning, organising, leading and
controlling a group of employees were approached in a scientific
way.
 Standard methods for doing a job were developed – the
worker was not required to think, only the leader.
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Theories and leadership
 Bureaucratic organisations were the eventual
product of this approach to managing production
processes, particularly as a response to much larger
companies.
 The leader heads a carefully designed hierarchy of
authority;
 responsibilities are clearly defined.
 Functions become specialized
 Information and control – centralised.
 Rational approach of this model is emphasised by the
uniform application of standard rules and procedures.

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Leadership across cultures
 Trait Theories
 Search for personality characteristics – great man
theory.
 Behavioural Theories
 What leaders actually do and assumptions leaders
can be developed.
 Two dimensions; initiating structure and
consideration
 Basically across cultures the fact remains
relationship-oriented leaders increase subordinate
satisfaction.

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Leadership across cultures
 Contingency theories
 Fiedler – leader’s personality influences
leader’s behavior style and situation
moderates relationship between leader’s
style and effectiveness.
 In Japan the research failed to find the
relationship between leader types and
personality.
 Path-Goal – how leadership could influence
different aspects of motivation.

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 Contemporary Approach to Leadership

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Leadership patterns (East & West)

Management across cultures challenges, strategies, and skills

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(2020) by Joyce Osland Richard M. Steers, Chapter 6, 4th ed.
Cross cultural leadership

HBR Video - How cultures across the

world approach leadership

 https://hbr.org/video/5476393165001/how-cult
ures-across-the-world-approach-leadership

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Understanding leadership
 Societies with a highly stratified distribution
of power:
 leaders who make a positive contribution to
society may be revered and
 emulated by others in the culture.

 Hoppe (2004) points out that in countries

such as France, England, the United States,
and Russia people tend to publicly
commemorate ‘‘macho’’-like military leaders

Dickson, M.W. Castano, N. Magomaeva, A. Hartog, D.N.D. 2012. Conceptualizing 11

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leadership across cultures, Journal of World Business, 47, 483–492.
Understanding leadership

 Countries such as Australia, Canada,

Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand,
and the German regions of Switzerland,
‘macho’ commemorations are rare
(Hoppe, 2004).
 These cultures are more egalitarian and
gives less emphasis to the role of the
leader.

Dickson, M.W. Castano, N. Magomaeva, A. Hartog, D.N.D. 2012. Conceptualizing 12

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leadership across cultures, Journal of World Business, 47, 483–492.
Leadership across cultures-issues
 When leadership research is conducted
elsewhere;
 models and measures used are developed
in North America.
 This type of research may not be useful,
given that that the applicability of theories
and concepts developed in one part of the
world, should not be taken for granted when
applied in other cultures (Boyacigiller & Adler, 1991).

Dickson, M.W. Castano, N. Magomaeva, A. Hartog, D.N.D. 2012. Conceptualizing 13

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leadership across cultures, Journal of World Business, 47, 483–492.
Leadership across cultures-Issues
 Drawbacks of the general leadership
literature across cultures
 has a North-American bias (Den Hartog & Dickson, 2004).
 unclear whether research findings generalize
beyond North American culture (primarily US
culture), or
 Whether our knowledge about leadership is
in fact culturally limited.

Dickson, M.W. Castano, N. Magomaeva, A. Hartog, D.N.D. 2012. Conceptualizing 14

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leadership across cultures, Journal of World Business, 47, 483–492.
Leadership across cultures
 Japan – Performance-Maintenance Theory
 2 basic dimensions – performance and
maintenance
 Viewed as functions that a leader has to
perform.
 P – describes behavior directed towards achieving
group goals and includes pressure type and
planning type behavior.
 M – behavior directed at maintaining individual well-

being and preserving social relationship in a group.

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Japanese leadership
 Japanese concept of ‘wa’ - the spirit of harmony,
 a principle of Japanese thought, applied to all relationships – even to the
relationship with nature.
 reflected in the considerable degree of collaborative behaviour and consensus-
building within an organisation.
 Fundamental to decision-making in business and
involves proposals
 discussed informally on the work-floor before being pushed up through the
organisation’s hierarchy
 each level of management gives its input and suggestions.
 managers are seen as facilitators in making decisions rather than the actual
decision-makers.
 Building a consensus within the organisation may take time:
 the need to go into detailed discussion and give everyone the feeling that they
are participating in the decision-making process.

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Japanese leadership
 Ouchi (1981) describes the basic elements of the Japanese
management approach (Z Theory) reflects the Japanese concept
of “wa”
 employees are disciplined, have a strong moral obligation
 employees work hard and establish close, co-operative working
relations with their colleagues and for whom they are working.
 employees can be trusted to work hard as long they are given
maximum support and care by management.
 the organisation giving consideration to the workers’ families and
traditions since these are as important as work itself.
 management’s job is to ensure that employees increase their
knowledge of the company through training and job rotation.
 rather than becoming specialists, the employees develop a range of
skills that can be applied in many parts of the company’s operations

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 Japanese vs US leadership styles

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Leadership across cultures
 Arab world – leadership behavior is
influenced by Islamic religion and tribal
traditions.
 Tribal – managers expected to behave like
fathers. Protect, care and have overall
responsibility for business.
 Rigid bureaucracy legacy of Ottoman
Empire.
 Combination results in authoritarian and
patriarchal approach - sheikocracy
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Characteristics of leadership
across cultures

 Hofstede (1993) points out that U.S.

management theories contain
idiosyncrasies that are not necessarily
shared in other parts of the world (e.g.,
focus on the individual; focus on the
manager rather than workers).

Dickson, M.W. Castano, N. Magomaeva, A. Hartog, D.N.D. 2012. Conceptualizing 20

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leadership across cultures, Journal of World Business, 47, 483–492.
Characteristics of leadership
across cultures
 House (1995) makes a similar observation:
 most leadership theories and measures reflect
individualistic rather than collectivistic values;
 they emphasize assumptions of rationality
rather than ascetics, religion, or superstition;
 focus on individual rather than group incentives;
 stress follower responsibilities rather than rights
and
 assume hedonistic rather than altruistic
motivation.

Dickson, M.W. Castano, N. Magomaeva, A. Hartog, D.N.D. 2012. Conceptualizing 21

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leadership across cultures, Journal of World Business, 47, 483–492.
Characteristics of leadership
across cultures
 Leadership styles that emphasize
participation are valued in the individual
cultures in the West, whereas they are
questionable styles in Eastern collectivistic
cultures.
 Charismatic leaders may display highly
assertive manner, as in the case of John F.
Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr., or a
quiet, nonassertive manner, as in the case of
Mother Teresa (House, Wright, & Aditya,1997).
Dickson, M.W. Castano, N. Magomaeva, A. Hartog, D.N.D. 2012. Conceptualizing 22
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leadership across cultures, Journal of World Business, 47, 483–492.
Characteristics of leadership
across cultures
 Dorfman and Howell (1988) also reported
different effects associated with charismatic
leadership when comparing Mexican and
American employees.
 Charismatic leadership had a strong positive
relationship with both Mexican and American
employee satisfaction levels; however, the
relationships were much stringer for
American versus Mexican employees.

Dickson, M.W. Castano, N. Magomaeva, A. Hartog, D.N.D. 2012. Conceptualizing 23

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leadership across cultures, Journal of World Business, 47, 483–492.
 Leadership styles across
cultures
 Paolo Rocca, Chairman and CEO, Tenaris
SA, compares leadership styles across
cultures.
 A global manufacturer and supplier of steel
pipes and related services, primarily for the
energy industry with nearly 23,000 employees
around the world.
 https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/video/videos/engaging
-leaders-paolo-rocca-global-leadership-styles

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Effective leadership across
cultures
 For leaders to be effective in this global
context, four developmental shifts are
required:
 developing multicultural effectiveness,
 becoming adept at managing paradoxes,
 cultivating the being dimension of human
experience, and
 appreciating individual uniqueness in the
context of cultural differences.
Dickson, M.W. Castano, N. Magomaeva, A. Hartog, D.N.D. 2012. Conceptualizing 25
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leadership across cultures, Journal of World Business, 47, 483–492.
Influence on leadership
 Culture can influence strategic leadership
effectiveness through five aspects:
 observable experiences,
 personality,

 values,

 cognitive style, and

 leadership behaviors.

 Culture serves as either an antecedent or

moderator to influence different aspects of
executive leaders.
05/15/202 Wanga, H., Waldman, D.A., Zhang, H. 2012. Strategic leadership across cultures: current findings 26
3 and future research directions’, Journal of World Business, 47, 571–580.
 Pyramid Model of Global Leadership

05/15/2023 Management across cultures challenges, strategies, and skills (2020) by Joyce Osland Richard M. Steers, 27
pg. 208, 4th ed.
 Global Leadership Dimensions

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 Globe Leadership Dimensions

05/15/2023 Management across cultures challenges, strategies, and skills (2020) by Joyce 29
Osland Richard M. Steers, Chapter 6, 4th ed.
 New Leadership Model

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3
Leadership styles
 Arabs worship their leaders – as long as they
are in power! (House et al., 1997, p. 535)
 The Dutch place emphasis on egalitarianism
and are sceptical about the value of leadership.
Terms like leader and manager carry a stigma.
If a father is employed as a manager, Dutch
children will not admit it to their schoolmates.
(House et al., 1997, p. 535)

 The Malaysian leader is expected to behave in

a manner that is humble, modest and dignified.
(House et al.,1997, p. 535)

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Leadership styles
 The Americans appreciate two kinds of leaders. They
seek empowerment from leaders who grant autonomy
and delegate authority to subordinates. They also
respect the bold, forceful, confident and risk-taking
leader as personified by John Wayne. (House et al., 1997, p.
536)
 Europeans….everything seems to indicate that
leadership is an unintended and undesirable
consequence of democracy. (Graumann and Moscovici, 1986, p.
241–2)
 Indians prefer leaders who are nurturant, caring,
dependable, sacrificing and yet demanding,
authoritative and strict disciplinarian. (Sinha, 1995, p. 99)
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 Leadership across Cultures

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 Leadership across Cultures

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https://hbr.org/2015/05/leadership-across-cultures
Summary
 The concept of leadership in the West has
evolved.
 Based originally on scientific principles, it has
taken on a much more human orientation,
reflecting the influence of the way leaders
behave in Asia.
 There now appears to be a consensus across
cultures as to what makes an effective leader
 (including integrity, charisma, decisiveness and being
team-oriented).

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