Global Leadership
akashaseeja
MGMT5006GLWk7Leadershipinsocio-culturalcontext.pptxMGMT5006 Global Leadership Week 7: Leadership in socio-cultural context
Students can pick up a Unit Outline and a number card on the way into class
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Overview
Looking back to Week 6
What does ‘leadership’ look like in different cultures?
How do different cultures perceive ‘effective leadership’?
GLOBE project
Research using GELI (Global Effective Leadership Inventory)
Are there alternatives to Western global leadership models?
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Looking back to Week 6 Ethics & Leadership
Last week we considered:
“what is ethical leadership?”
“what types of ethical dilemmas might global leaders encounter?”
“how might we deal with ethical challenges?”
We recognised that in the global business context:
Ethical leadership is a recognized principle, but
Ethics is contextual
Differences in ethical values /position can lead to ethical dilemmas
Leaders are responsible for establishing the ethical framework and addressing dilemmas
Questions for discussion (open)
Questions for discussion are:
1. What does the world in which I have to function as a leader look like?
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Linking to Week 7 Leadership in socio-cultural context
Just as what is considered ethical may vary according to cultural context, the understanding of ‘leadership’ and the expectations of leaders and their behaviours may also vary according to where you are from and/or where you are working
Returning to the early weeks: aspects of leadership are culturally contingent. This week we ask:
What does leadership looks like in different cultures?
Are there alternatives to Western leadership thinking?
Who has better leaders?
Week 7 Leadership in socio-cultural context
Leadership and Cultural Context
The cultural context influences:
how we think about leadership;
the meaning of ‘leadership’;
the power that we ascribe leaders;
how we evaluate a leader’s leadership effectiveness; and
a leader’s behaviour
Research suggests that there are some ‘universal’ leadership attributes but most attributes and behaviours are culturally contingent
Global Leadership and Organisational Behavioural Effectiveness (GLOBE) Project (House et al 2004)
A large project investigating links between leadership expectations, effectiveness and culture
3 main studies so far
2004: 62 countries; >13,000 managers working in over 1000 organisations
2007: 25 countries; in-depth exploration
2014: CEO study: first large-scale study of CEOs and Top Management Team (TMT) members across cultures and countries
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GLOBE Project Identifying global leadership attributes
The 2004 study identified 128 global leadership attributes
These are grouped into 6 ‘global leadership dimensions’ (see next slide for definitions:
Autonomous
Charismatic / Performance-oriented
Humane-oriented
Participative
Self-protective
Team-oriented
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GLOBE Project 6 Global Leadership Dimensions
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Charismatic / Performance-oriented
high standards, decisiveness, and innovation
Team-oriented
seeks to inspire people around a vision
creates a passion among them to perform
instils pride, loyalty, and collaboration
highly values team cohesiveness and a common purpose or goals
Autonomous
independent, individualistic, and self-centric approach
Humane-oriented
stresses compassion and generosity
patient, supportive, and concerned with the well-being of others
Participative style
encourages input from others in decision-making and implementation
emphasizes delegation and equality
Self-protective (and group-protective) style
procedural, status-conscious, and 'face-saving' behaviours
focus on the safety and security of the individual and the group
GLOBE Project Cultural context
The 2004 study also grouped the 62 countries into culturally similar groups, based on nine cultural dimensions (see next slide)
This enabled culture-leadership relationships to be established
Some attributes are ‘universal’ or seen as desirable by all cultures
Most leadership behaviours are more or less desirable depending on the cultural group
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Leadership in socio-cultural context
Grouped countries into culturally similar groups based on 9 cultural dimensions:
Power Distance: The degree to which members of a collective expect power to be distributed equally. Uncertainty Avoidance: The extent to which a society, organization, or group relies on social norms, rules, and procedures to alleviate unpredictability of future events.
Collectivism II: (In-Group) The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others. Collectivism I: (Institutional) The degree to which organizational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and collective action.
Humane Orientation: The degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations or families. Assertiveness: The degree to which individuals are assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in their relationships with others.
Gender Egalitarianism: The degree to which a collective minimizes gender inequality.
Future Orientation: Performance Orientation:
The extent to which individuals engage in future-oriented behaviors such as delaying gratification, planning, and investing in the future. The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence.
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Power distance
Uncertainty avoidance
Collectivism (Institutional)
Collectivism (In-group)
Humane Orientation
Assertiveness
Gender Egalitarianism
Future Orientation
Performance Orientation
Universal leadership attributes
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Culturally contingent leadership attributes
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Leadership in socio-cultural context
More desirable
Less desirable
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Culture and Leadership Behaviour
Agrawal & Rook (2014) explore the links between cultural origin and global leadership behaviours
Do all global leaders display the same patterns of global leadership behaviour, or are there differences according to the leaders’ culture of origin?
Used the Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI)
12 leadership behaviour dimensions
Reveal the “underlying drivers of successful leaders”
Developed from interviews with senior executives and executive team observation
Surveyed 1748 global leaders and their observers, asking for self and observer ratings using the GELI
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GELI – 12 main Leadership Behaviours
Power Distance: The degree to which members of a collective expect power to be distributed equally. Uncertainty Avoidance: The extent to which a society, organization, or group relies on social norms, rules, and procedures to alleviate unpredictability of future events.
Collectivism II: (In-Group) The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others. Collectivism I: (Institutional) The degree to which organizational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and collective action.
Humane Orientation: The degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations or families. Assertiveness: The degree to which individuals are assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in their relationships with others.
Gender Egalitarianism: The degree to which a collective minimizes gender inequality.
Future Orientation: Performance Orientation:
The extent to which individuals engage in future-oriented behaviors such as delaying gratification, planning, and investing in the future. The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence.
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Visioning
Empowering
Energizing
Designing and aligning
Rewarding and feedback
Team building
Outside orientation
Global mind-set
Tenacity
Emotional intelligence
Life balance
Resilience to stress
Culture and Leadership Behaviour
What did they find?
There are many similar patterns of global leadership behaviours
There are some significantly different global leadership patterns across cultures
Global leaders from ‘The East’ are perceived to (Eastern Europe, Middle East, Sub Saharan Africa, Southern Asia, Confucian Asia)
Exhibit higher levels of leadership traits:
Designing and aligning
Outside orientation
Emotional intelligence
Higher levels of resilience to stress
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What can explain the differences?
There are differences in perceptions of the extent that global leadership behaviours are practiced
Some behaviours are practiced more that others depending on the context (the situation or person that the leader is dealing with)
Leadership effectiveness is perceived differently in different cultures
Culture and Leadership Behaviour
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Global Leadership Models
There are three main approaches to thinking about global leadership
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Universal
Normative
Contingency
Leadership is generalisable
Behaviours are universal regardless of context
Effective global managers are characterised by personal skills/attributes
Suggest how managers should approach leadership in global setting
There are no universals in describing effective leadership
Eg: global mindset
Eg: transformational / transactional leadership models
Leadership as a culturally embedded process
Characteristics of success vary with the situation
Eg: GLOBE project
An Alternative: Leadership as a Cultural Construct
The meaning of leadership is embedded in the diverse cultures where it is practised
“Leadership means different things to different people” (Sanchez-Runde et al 2011)
This thinking suggests that leadership is not a Western construct that can be applied to different cultures
A variety of ‘leadership’ imagery exists that vary with culture
Different connotations of trust, authority, power
Different expectations of leader behaviour and effective leadership
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An Alternative: Leadership as a Cultural Construct
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What does this mean for leaders?
It is important to:
1. Understand cultural differences
2. Understand how cultural differences influence relationships and interactions with others
3. Reflect on your understanding and meaning of leadership, leading, leaders/followers
4. Understand your unique context (your background AND current cultural context)
5. Work to incorporate and accommodate differences
6. BUT remain authentic as a leader
What do you think?
How do you perceive effective leadership?
Do you think that your expectations of a leader are influenced by your cultural background and/ot work experiences?
