Cross Cultural Approaches To Leadership
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13
Cross-Cultural
Approaches to Leadership
Zeynep Aycan
Arabs worship their leaders—as long as they are in power!
—House, Wright, and Aditya (1997, p. 535)
The Dutch place emphasis on egalitarianism and are skeptical 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)
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)
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The author wishes to thank Peter Smith and Mark Peterson for their feedback and suggestions on earlier versions of this chapter.
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220——ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES
For Europeans . . . everything seems to indicate that leadership is an unintended and undesirable consequence of democracy.
—Graumann and Moscovici (1986, pp. 241–242)
Indians prefer leaders who are nurturant, caring, dependable, sacrificing and yet demanding, authoritative, and strict disciplinarian.
—Sinha (1995, p. 99)
A
s captured in the above quotations, leadership, as seen through the eyes of followers, cannot be studied without taking into account the effect of cultural context. To remain key players in the global economy, organizations invest in developing leaders who have competencies to understand and manage diversity both at home and globally. While globalization offers numerous opportunities for cross-border synergies for multinational enterprises, leadership challenges can work against realizing such potential (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1998;
Bartlett, Ghoshal, &
2/22/2008
9:16 PM
CHAPTER
Page 219
13
Cross-Cultural
Approaches to Leadership
Zeynep Aycan
Arabs worship their leaders—as long as they are in power!
—House, Wright, and Aditya (1997, p. 535)
The Dutch place emphasis on egalitarianism and are skeptical 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)
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)
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The author wishes to thank Peter Smith and Mark Peterson for their feedback and suggestions on earlier versions of this chapter.
219
Smith-Ch-13.qxd
2/22/2008
9:16 PM
Page 220
220——ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES
For Europeans . . . everything seems to indicate that leadership is an unintended and undesirable consequence of democracy.
—Graumann and Moscovici (1986, pp. 241–242)
Indians prefer leaders who are nurturant, caring, dependable, sacrificing and yet demanding, authoritative, and strict disciplinarian.
—Sinha (1995, p. 99)
A
s captured in the above quotations, leadership, as seen through the eyes of followers, cannot be studied without taking into account the effect of cultural context. To remain key players in the global economy, organizations invest in developing leaders who have competencies to understand and manage diversity both at home and globally. While globalization offers numerous opportunities for cross-border synergies for multinational enterprises, leadership challenges can work against realizing such potential (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1998;
Bartlett, Ghoshal, &