In the Eye of the Beholder
Cross Cultural Lessons in Leadership from Project GLOBE
• Culture covers every aspect of human behaviour.
• Global leadership has been identified as a critical success factor for large MNCs.
• Most US companies are not positioned to implement global strategies due to a lack of global
leadership capabilities.
• Advice to global managers needs to be specific enough to help them understand how to act in
different surrounding.
• Importance of cross-cultural relationship management and communication.
Nine Cultural Attributes
1. Performance Orientation
The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards group members for performance
improvement and excellence.
2. Assertiveness
The degree to which individuals are assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in their
relationships with others.
3. Future Orientation
The extent to which individuals engage in future oriented behaviours such as planning,
investing et cetera.
4. Humane Orientation
The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic,
generous, caring and kind to others.
5. Institutional Collectivism
The degree to which organisational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward
collective distributions of resources and collective action.
6. In-Group Collectivism
The degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organisations
or families.
7. Gender Egalitarianism
The degree to which a collective minimises gender inequality.
8. Power Distance
The degree to which members of a collective except power to be distributed equally.
9. Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which a society, organisation, or group relies on social norms, rules, and
procedure to alleviate unpredictability of future events.
• Managerial leadership differences and similarities among nations may be the result of the
citizens' implicit assumptions regarding requisite leadership qualities.
Cross Cultural Lessons in Leadership from Project GLOBE
• Culture covers every aspect of human behaviour.
• Global leadership has been identified as a critical success factor for large MNCs.
• Most US companies are not positioned to implement global strategies due to a lack of global
leadership capabilities.
• Advice to global managers needs to be specific enough to help them understand how to act in
different surrounding.
• Importance of cross-cultural relationship management and communication.
Nine Cultural Attributes
1. Performance Orientation
The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards group members for performance
improvement and excellence.
2. Assertiveness
The degree to which individuals are assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in their
relationships with others.
3. Future Orientation
The extent to which individuals engage in future oriented behaviours such as planning,
investing et cetera.
4. Humane Orientation
The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic,
generous, caring and kind to others.
5. Institutional Collectivism
The degree to which organisational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward
collective distributions of resources and collective action.
6. In-Group Collectivism
The degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organisations
or families.
7. Gender Egalitarianism
The degree to which a collective minimises gender inequality.
8. Power Distance
The degree to which members of a collective except power to be distributed equally.
9. Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which a society, organisation, or group relies on social norms, rules, and
procedure to alleviate unpredictability of future events.
• Managerial leadership differences and similarities among nations may be the result of the
citizens' implicit assumptions regarding requisite leadership qualities.
