Transcript Chap08.ppt

Understanding Cross-cultural Management
CHAPTER 8
CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP
• Concept 8.1: Different conceptions of leadership
• Concept 8.2: Leadership in an international context
Slide 8.1
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
The concept of leader
A number of American and European theories about
leadership
• Most assume that leadership has to do with an
individual intentionally exerting influence on others to
structure the relationships in an organization
• Definitions differ as to do with how the influence is
exerted and the outcome of the attempt to influence
• The manager is often seen as the embodiment of
stability within an organization, the leader as one
who ensures the success of the organization
Slide 8.2
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Comparing management and leadership
Management
Leadership
Creating an
agenda
Planning and budgeting –
establishing detailed steps and
timetables for achieving needed
results, and then allocating the
resources necessary to make that
happen.
Establishing direction – developing a
vision of the future, often the distant
future, and strategies for producing
the changes needed to achieve that
vision
Developing a
human
network for
achieving the
agenda
Organizing and staffing –
establishing some structure for
accomplishing plan requirements,
staffing that structure with
individuals, delegating
responsibility and authority for
carrying out the plan, providing
policies and procedures to help
guide people, and creating
methods or systems to monitor
implementation
Aligning people – communicating
the direction by words and deeds to
all those whose cooperation may be
needed so as to influence the
creation of teams and coalitions that
understand the vision and
strategies, and accept their validity,
Table 8.1
Comparing management and leadership
Source: Kotter (1990) Exhibit 1.1, p.6
Slide 8.3
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Comparing management and leadership
(Continued)
Management
Leadership
Execution
Controlling and problem –
solving – monitoring results vs.
plan in some detail, identifying
deviations, and then planning
and organizing to solve these
problems
Motivating and inspiring – energizing
people to overcome major political,
bureaucratic, and resource barriers to
change by satisfying very basic, but
often unfulfilled human needs.
Outcomes
Produces a degree of
predictability and order, and
has the potential of consistently
producing key results expected
by various stakeholders(e.g. for
customers, always being on
time; for stockholders, being on
budget
Produces change, often to a dramatic
degree, and has the potential of
producing extremely useful change (e.g.
new products that customers want, new
approaches to labor relations that help
make a firm more competitive.
Table 8.1
Comparing management and leadership (Continued)
Source: Kotter (1990) Exhibit 1.1, p.6
Slide 8.4
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
The leader and corporate culture (1)
• The mechanisms used by a leader to implant
and maintain corporate culture (Schein)
– What the leader considers important and pays
attention to, what must be measured and controlled
– The way a leader react to difficult situations / crises
– The priorities set when allocating resources
– The examples set by a leader
– The criteria used to allocate rewards and status as
well as to reinforce desired behaviours
– The criteria used for recruitment, selection, promotion
and dismissal
Slide 8.5
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
The leader and corporate culture (2)
• The routines/habits established by a leader may
be difficult to break if there is need for change in
response to a dynamic environment
• The managers may not recognize the need for
change and blame the environment for the
change in fortunes
• The leader must re-assert his position, instigate
changes to revitalize the company, or hand over
the reins to a successor
Slide 8.6
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Scientific leadership
• Standard methods for doing a job - the worker is not
required to think, only the leader
• Bureaucratic organizations the result: carefully
designed hierarchy of authority, with clearly defined
responsibilities
– Functions specialized, information and control
centralized
– Uniform application of standard rules and procedures
Slide 8.7
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
The trait approach
Some people have traits and skills for leadership
• According to Stogdill (1974) great leaders
throughout history have:
–
–
–
–
high intelligence
considerable verbal fluency
overall knowledge
considerable initiative involving energy, ambition and
persistence.
– height: tallness implies authority
Slide 8.8
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
The human factor
• Psychological and human factors identified
relating to social norms and non-economic
rewards.
• Attempts made to marry the scientific and
human approaches by focusing on the role of
the decision-makers.
• To operate successfully, leaders need to find a
compromise between rational, goal-oriented
behaviour and non-rational behaviour among an
organization’s employees.
Slide 8.9
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Theories X and Y (McGregor)
A leader needs
• to remain task-oriented to ensure effective performance
of the organization
• be relationship-oriented leader to ensure greater
satisfaction among subordinates
• Theory X manager is results-driven, has little interest in
human issues or the workers’ morale
• Theory Y manager wants employees to participate in
decision-making and problem-solving, use their creativity
to solve problems and further the organization’s success
Slide 8.10
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
The contingency theory
• Leadership effectiveness is the result of
interaction between the style of the leader and
the characteristics of the working environment
This environment is characterized by 3
factors:
– Leader-member relationship: the degree of
confidence, trust, and respect
– Task-structure: the extent to which goals,
procedure and guidelines need to be spelled out to
the workers
– Position power: the extent to which the leader or
the group holds the power
Slide 8.11
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
The Z theory (Ouchi)
• Focuses on the attitudes and responsibilities of
subordinates
• Reflects basic concept found in Japan that all
employees share a collective responsibility for
their company’s fate
• Individuals are encouraged to develop their
potential within the company: are expected to
function (with training) in different positions
• The theory has had an enormous impact on
views of management in the US
Slide 8.12
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
The new leadership
• The transformational leader
– creates, communicates and embodies a vision which can
influence changes in the attitudes and assumptions of
subordinates
– builds their commitment inspires trust, confidence and loyalty
• Bass (1985) compares this with the traditional,
transactional leader
– has more of a ‘business-like’ relation with subordinates
– appeals to the self-interest of all parties
• Bass maintains that business needs both types of
leadership: the most effective leaders combine
the two styles
Slide 8.13
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
The leader’s role in a ‘learning organization’
• In ‘learning organizations’, according to Senge
(1990)
– people expand their capacity to create the results they
truly desire
– new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured
– collective aspiration is set free, people are continually
learning to see the whole together
• Leaders of learning organizations are essentially
responsible for learning in the organization:
– they design the learning processes
– create, foster and manage a shared vision
– help people to understand what brings about change
Slide 8.14
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Culture and leadership
Concept 8.2
Leadership in an international context
Slide 8.15
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Cultural contingency factors
• Leaders may not be able to exercise all the variables
which Fiedler describes because of cultural constraints
• They may be forced to alter their leadership behaviour to
conform to the cultural realities they face, e.g.
– in large power distance cultures an ideal leader may
well be expected to display great authority, to the
benefit of those being led
– in some cultures which prefer rules and avoid
ambiguities the leader may well need to give strong
direction
• A further contingency factor: the cultural profile of the
leader who is making decisions as to how best to lead
Slide 8.16
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Universal attributes and cultural variables
• GLOBE pinpoints two dimensions of leadership
considered very effective in all societies studied:
– Team-oriented leading, with emphasis on building effective
teams and implementing a goal common to team members.
– The ‘communication of vision, values and confidence in
followers’.
• Some variations between societies regarding:
– The perceived effectiveness of participative leadership.
– Autonomous leadership (degree of social distance from
subordinates).
– Self-protective leadership (maintaining the leader’s safety
and security).
Slide 8.17
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Universal attributes and cultural variables
UNIVERSAL
ATTRIBUTES WHICH
IMPEDE GOOD
LEADERSHIP
UNIVERSAL ATTRIBUTES WHICH
REFLECT GOOD LEADERSHIP




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
Table 8.2
integrity (trustworthiness,
honesty, fairness)
charisma (encouraging,
positive, motivational,
confidence-building
behaviour which shows
dynamism and foresight)
team-oriented leadership
(effective in building teams,
communicating and
coordinating)
decisiveness
intelligence
orientation towards
excellence.








irritable
egocentric
loner
non-explicit
asocial
dictatorial
ruthless
non-cooperative
CULTURAL VARIATIONS OF
ACCEPTANCE/REJECTION OF
ATTRIBUTES










independent, autonomous,
individualistic
subdued, self-effacing, selfsacrificial
domineering, ruler
status-conscious, class
conscious, elitist
enthusiastic, compassionate,
sensitive, sincere
orderly, formal, logical,
procedural, habitual
intuitive
risk-taking, cautious, able to
anticipate
wilful, ambitious
evasive, indirect, cunning
Summary of the findings made by House et al.
Source: House et al. (2004) Tables 21.2, 21.3 and 21.4
Slide 8.18
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Universality of transformational leadership
• Transformational leadership may be universal
• But the way transformational attributes are
expressed may differ between cultures
• E.g. ‘Integrity’ is one attribute universally
considered to be desirable – but how do people
in different cultures conceptualize, perceive and
exhibit behaviour that reflects integrity?
Slide 8.19
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Gender
• Gender stereotypes may hamper developing an
appropriate effective style of leadership
• Overcoming these stereotypes, while focusing on the
characteristics appropriate to the position, is the key task
of any candidate for leadership, whether male or female
• Male and female leaders, it appears, display differing
behavioural tendencies whatever their country of origin
• Although leadership style may be based on gender,
differences in the leadership style employed are based
more on culture than on gender
Slide 8.20
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009
Conclusion
• There are consistent elements of leadership
which are recognized across cultures but whose
form may vary between cultures
• Some modern concepts of leadership generated
in the West appear to have their antecedents in
the East
• Different cultures can generate similar
perceptions of leadership, even if the contexts
within which leadership is affected are very
different
Slide 8.21
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009