Cross-Cultural Leadership
Understanding of how individuals of different cultures interact with each other is very important. Not all individuals can adapt to the leadership styles expected in a different culture whether that culture is organizational or national. In a fast-paced business environment, developing a richer understanding and sensitivity to other cultures is a skill that leaders must possess. Learn to be effective in a cross-cultural setting.
Why we need Cross-Cultural Leadership?
As workforces become increasingly multicultural and businesses continue to expand overseas, the homogenous workforce has become a thing of the past. In such a global economy, cross-cultural leadership skills are critically important. Global markets are increasingly taking advantage of the strength and economic advantages of a diverse global workforce. Most of the companies operate on international projects with multi-cultural teams located in multiple countries. It is also common to find such projects led by Project Managers who come from many different countries that add diversity to the teams and creates a need for a greater amount of collaboration and need for leadership at multiple levels.
Today’s international organizations require leaders who can adjust to different environments quickly and work with partners and employees of other cultures. As firms move from regional to trans-global enterprise models, leadership must provide the bridge between cultural diversity and business goals achievement. The ability of a leader to motivate diverse teams to manage change effectively is a critical issue in the international environment. It cannot be assumed that a manager who is successful in one country will be successful in another.
What is Cross-Cultural Leadership?
Cross-cultural psychology attempts to understand how individuals of different cultures interact with each other. Cross-cultural leadership is the way to understand leaders who work in the newly globalized market. Cross-cultural leadership involves the ability to influence and motivate people’s attitudes and behaviors in the global community to reach a common organizational goal.
GLOBE authors describe organizational leadership as “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members” and their definition for culture includes “shared motives, values, beliefs, identities, and interpretations or meanings of significant events that result from common experiences of members of collectives and are transmitted across age generations.”
Theories on Cross-Cultural Leadership:
Implicit Leadership Theory (ILT):
This theory asserts that people’s underlying assumptions, stereotypes, beliefs, and schemas influence the extent to which they view someone as a good leader. Since people across cultures tend to hold different implicit beliefs, schemas and stereotypes, it would seem only natural that their underlying beliefs in what makes a good leader differ across cultures.
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions:
This is one of the most prominent and influential studies to date regarding leadership in a globalized world. The study reveals similarities as well as differences across cultures and emphasizes the need to be open-minded to understand the differences in other cultures. As per this theory, there are five dimensions of culture to compare cultures, to help leaders with an understanding of how to adjust their leadership styles accordingly; Individualism/Collectivism, Feminine/Masculine, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long Term/ Short Term orientation.
GLOBE - The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness Research Project:
The GLOBE study extended the ILT to include individuals of a common culture maintaining a relatively stable common belief about leaders, which varies from culture to culture. They labeled this the Culturally Endorsed Implicit Leadership Theory (CLT). The GLOBE study expanded Hofstede's dimensions to include Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance, Collectivism I: Societal Collectivism, Collectivism II: In-Group Collectivism, Gender Egalitarianism, Assertiveness, Future Orientation, Performance Orientation, and Humane Orientation.
Traits for Cross-Cultural Leader:
Given below is a list of traits found to be associated with successful international executive by different researchers:
- General Intelligence
- Business Knowledge
- Interpersonal Skills
- Commitment
- Courage
- Ease in dealing with cross-cultural issues
- Open Personality
- Flexibility
- Drive
- Language Skills
- Multicultural Perspective Taking
- Knowledge and cognition
- Cultural Awareness
- Cross-cultural Schema
- Cognitive Complexity
An effective cross-cultural leader must have a well-rounded skillset and understanding of the differences that exist among people from different backgrounds.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
The ten most important qualities that define a good leader are self-awareness, interpersonal and communication skills, ethical values, organizational consciousness, self-confidence, adaptability and flexibility, imagination and creativity, focus & result-orientation, continuous self-development and accountability and ownership for his actions. These ten qualities of leadership every good leader should possess to a certain extent and must continually strive to develop them.
-
What are the functions which a leader does to establish as a leader? What are the activities undertaken by them to become great leaders, rather revolutionary leaders? The most important tasks done by a leader in all situations are defining the vision, mission, and goals, leading the team, administrative functions, motivating followers, decision making and conflict resolution, and continuous development.
-
Participative leadership is one of the most effective styles and creates higher productivity, better contributions from group members, and increased group morale. The democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members by promoting the interests of the group members. Learn more about this leadership style and situations when it is effective.
-
Crisis leadership is a very important part of leading in today's world. The skills a leader needs in order to guide people during a crisis are different from the skills needed to help a group grow. Are you a good crisis leader? What is your leadership style in case of a business crisis situation? A business crisis can test the strongest of leaders, read this article to explore how to ensure you’re ready to take action and weather the storm when one strikes you.
-
Authentic leadership is an approach to leadership that emphasizes building the leader's legitimacy through honest relationships with followers which value their input and are built on an ethical foundation. The authentic leader acts upon his or her values and beliefs, and inspires others to do the same, is committed to know and develop oneself. Are you committed to developing yourself; know your motivations and the purpose of your leadership? Read this article to know more about authentic leadership style and discovering your authentic self.
-
Authoritarian Leadership Style
Although generally considered as a traditional, outdated, and non-preferred style of leadership, the autocratic style still can be used effectively in certain situations. It is a leadership style characterized by individual absolute control over a group. If you work for an autocratic leader, your job is usually to do what you're told. Learn more about this style and situations where this could be an effective style to use and when to avoid this type of approach. Analyze the characteristics of this style to evaluate if your followers consider you an authoritarian leader!
-
Have you ever resonated that there seem to be as many different ways to lead people as there have been great leaders? When we recall the success of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon Bonaparte to Steve Jobs and Jack Welch, we also notice that they all used different approaches that were suitable to their specific situations and circumstances. Over the last century, researchers and psychologists have developed simple ways to describe the “Styles of leadership” and in this section, we will explore these commonly known leadership styles.
-
Leadership has been defined in different ways by different sets of scholars. In very simple terms leadership can be defined as the skill of a person to influence an individual or a group for achievement of a goal in a given situation. One can use different dimensions and perspectives to define leadership. Through the evolution of leadership thought, leadership has been defined in various ways discussed here.
-
Facilitative Leadership is all about involving the employees in the decision-making process at all levels enhancing their sense of ownership, responsibility, and motivation. Facilitative leadership style uses a number of indirect communication patterns to help the group reach consensus and build commitment for the decision taken. To be effective in modern organizations, managers need to become facilitative leaders, learn what it means to be a one.
-
Power is the ability to exercise influence or control over others. Leadership involves authority and it is very important for leaders to understand what type of power they're using. The 5 Types of Power in Leadership are Coercive power, expert power, legitimate power, referent power, and reward power. Authority is the right to command and extract obedience from others. It comes from the organization and it allows the leader to use power.
