Sessie 9: Leading across
cultural boundaries
In the Eye of the Beholder: Cross Cultural Lessons in Leadership from
Project GLOBE (Javidan)
In this paper, findings from the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness
(GLOBE) research program are used to provide a sound basis for conceptualizing worldwide
leadership differences.
IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION
The reality for American corporations is that they must increasingly cope with diverse
cross-cultural employees, customers, suppliers, competitors, and creditors.
It is a truism by now that large corporations need executives with global mindsets and
cross-cultural leadership abilities.
Advice to global managers needs to be specific enough to help them understand how
to act in different surroundings.
Because of the lack of scientifically compiled information, businesspeople have not
had sufficiently detailed and context-specific suggestions about how to handle these
cross-cultural challenges. This is a particular problem for those in leadership
positions.
Success will be determined by two criteria: the executive’s ability to produce results
and to show effective leadership in different cultures and settings.
COMMON CULTURAL DIMENSIONS
To be open minded and to understand the cultures of the different countries,
managers need to be able to compare their own cultures with those of other
countries.
GLOBE conceptualized and developed measures of nine cultural dimensions.
o Performance Orientation
o Assertiveness
o Future Orientation
o Humane Orientation
o Institutional Collectivism
o In-Group Collectivism
o Gender Egalitarianism
o Power Distance
o Uncertainty Avoidance
MANAGING AND LEADING IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
Acceptable management practices found in one country are hardly guaranteed to
work in a different country.
Cultural universals versus cultural specifics.
o The former are thought to be found from the process of cultural convergence
whereas the latter from maintaining cultural divergence.
o Perhaps not surprisingly, empirical research supports both views.
1
, Substantial empirical evidence indicates that leader attributes, behavior, status, and
influence vary considerably as a result of culturally unique forces in the countries or
regions in which the leaders function.
Some view the basic functions of leadership as having universal importance and
applicability, but the specific ways in which leadership functions are enacted are
strongly affected by cultural variation. Other researchers question this basic
assumption, subscribing more to the viewpoint that cultural specifics are real and woe
to the leader who ignores them.
DO REQUIRED LEADERSHIP QUALITIES DIFFER AMONG NATIONS
According to implicit leadership theory (ILT), individuals hold a set of beliefs about the
kinds of attributes, personality characteristics, skills, and behaviors that contribute to
or impede outstanding leadership.
The belief systems are assumed to affect the extent to which an individual accepts
and responds to others as leaders.
We refer to this shared cultural level analog of individual implicit leadership theory
(ILT) as culturally endorsed implicit leadership theory (CLT).
Convincing evidence from GLOBE research showed that people within cultural
groups agree in their beliefs about leadership; these beliefs are represented by a set
of CLT leadership profiles developed for each national culture and cluster of cultures.
The six dimensions of the CLT leadership profiles are:
o Charismatic/Value-Based
Contribute to outstanding leadership
o Team-Oriented
Contribute to outstanding leadership
o Participative
Contribute to outstanding leadership
o Humane-Oriented
Neutral in some societies and to moderately contribute to outstanding
leadership in others
o Autonomous
Range from impeding
outstanding leadership to slightly
facilitating outstanding leadership
o Self-Protective
Impede outstanding leadership
CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP IS NOT ONLY
ABOUT DIFFERENCES
There is a basic assumption that leaders
operating in different countries will be facing
drastically different challenges and
requirements. GLOBE surveys show that while
different countries do have divergent views on
many aspects of leadership effectiveness, they
also have convergent views on some other
aspects.
We found 22 attributes that were universally
deemed to be desirable.
2
cultural boundaries
In the Eye of the Beholder: Cross Cultural Lessons in Leadership from
Project GLOBE (Javidan)
In this paper, findings from the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness
(GLOBE) research program are used to provide a sound basis for conceptualizing worldwide
leadership differences.
IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION
The reality for American corporations is that they must increasingly cope with diverse
cross-cultural employees, customers, suppliers, competitors, and creditors.
It is a truism by now that large corporations need executives with global mindsets and
cross-cultural leadership abilities.
Advice to global managers needs to be specific enough to help them understand how
to act in different surroundings.
Because of the lack of scientifically compiled information, businesspeople have not
had sufficiently detailed and context-specific suggestions about how to handle these
cross-cultural challenges. This is a particular problem for those in leadership
positions.
Success will be determined by two criteria: the executive’s ability to produce results
and to show effective leadership in different cultures and settings.
COMMON CULTURAL DIMENSIONS
To be open minded and to understand the cultures of the different countries,
managers need to be able to compare their own cultures with those of other
countries.
GLOBE conceptualized and developed measures of nine cultural dimensions.
o Performance Orientation
o Assertiveness
o Future Orientation
o Humane Orientation
o Institutional Collectivism
o In-Group Collectivism
o Gender Egalitarianism
o Power Distance
o Uncertainty Avoidance
MANAGING AND LEADING IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
Acceptable management practices found in one country are hardly guaranteed to
work in a different country.
Cultural universals versus cultural specifics.
o The former are thought to be found from the process of cultural convergence
whereas the latter from maintaining cultural divergence.
o Perhaps not surprisingly, empirical research supports both views.
1
, Substantial empirical evidence indicates that leader attributes, behavior, status, and
influence vary considerably as a result of culturally unique forces in the countries or
regions in which the leaders function.
Some view the basic functions of leadership as having universal importance and
applicability, but the specific ways in which leadership functions are enacted are
strongly affected by cultural variation. Other researchers question this basic
assumption, subscribing more to the viewpoint that cultural specifics are real and woe
to the leader who ignores them.
DO REQUIRED LEADERSHIP QUALITIES DIFFER AMONG NATIONS
According to implicit leadership theory (ILT), individuals hold a set of beliefs about the
kinds of attributes, personality characteristics, skills, and behaviors that contribute to
or impede outstanding leadership.
The belief systems are assumed to affect the extent to which an individual accepts
and responds to others as leaders.
We refer to this shared cultural level analog of individual implicit leadership theory
(ILT) as culturally endorsed implicit leadership theory (CLT).
Convincing evidence from GLOBE research showed that people within cultural
groups agree in their beliefs about leadership; these beliefs are represented by a set
of CLT leadership profiles developed for each national culture and cluster of cultures.
The six dimensions of the CLT leadership profiles are:
o Charismatic/Value-Based
Contribute to outstanding leadership
o Team-Oriented
Contribute to outstanding leadership
o Participative
Contribute to outstanding leadership
o Humane-Oriented
Neutral in some societies and to moderately contribute to outstanding
leadership in others
o Autonomous
Range from impeding
outstanding leadership to slightly
facilitating outstanding leadership
o Self-Protective
Impede outstanding leadership
CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP IS NOT ONLY
ABOUT DIFFERENCES
There is a basic assumption that leaders
operating in different countries will be facing
drastically different challenges and
requirements. GLOBE surveys show that while
different countries do have divergent views on
many aspects of leadership effectiveness, they
also have convergent views on some other
aspects.
We found 22 attributes that were universally
deemed to be desirable.
2
