As the title suggests, this chapter is about culture and leadership. Like the
previous chapter, this one is multifaceted and focuses on a collection
... [Show More] of
related ideas rather than on a single unified theory. Our discussion in this
chapter will center on research that describes culture, its dimensions, and
the effects of culture on the leadership process.
Since World War II, globalization has been advancing throughout the
world. Globalization is the increased interdependence (economic, social,
technical, and political) between nations. People are becoming more
interconnected. There is more international trade, cultural exchange, and
use of worldwide telecommunication systems. In the past 10 years, our
schools, organizations, and communities have become far more global
than in the past. Increased globalization has created many challenges,
including the need to design effective multinational organizations, to identify and select appropriate leaders for these entities, and to manage organizations with culturally diverse employees (House & Javidan, 2004).
Globalization has created a need to understand how cultural differences
affect leadership performance.
Globalization has also created the need for leaders to become competent in cross-cultural awareness and practice. Adler and Bartholomew
(1992) contended that global leaders need to develop five cross-cultural
competencies: First, leaders need to understand business, political, and
cultural environments worldwide. Second, they need to learn the perspectives, tastes, trends, and technologies of many other cultures. Third, they
need to be able to work simultaneously with people from many cultures.
Fourth, leaders must be able to adapt to living and communicating in
Not to be sold, copied, or redistributed. Property of SAGE.
Northouse, Peter G. Leadership : Theory and Practice, Sage Publications Ltd., 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/think/detail.action?docID=459253.
Created from think on 2021-06-30 05:59:52. Copyright © 2009. Sage Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved.
336 Leadership Theory and Practice
other cultures. Fifth, they need to learn to relate to people from other
cultures from a position of equality rather than cultural superiority (Adler
& Bartholomew, 1992, p. 53). Additionally, Ting-Toomey (1999) said that
global leaders need to be skilled in creating transcultural visions. They
need to develop communication competencies that will enable them to
articulate and implement their vision in a diverse workplace. In sum,
today’s leaders need to acquire a challenging set of competencies if they
intend to be effective in present-day global societies.
This chapter is devoted to a discussion of how culture influences the
leadership process. We begin by defining culture and describing two concepts related to our understanding of culture. Next, we describe dimensions of culture, clusters of world cultures, and the characteristics of these
clusters. We then learn how leadership varies across cultures, and which
specific leadership attributes cultures universally endorse as either desirable or undesirable. Finally, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of
this body of research.
Culture Defined
Anthropologists, sociologists, and many others have debated the meaning of the word culture. Becau [Show Less]