A team of scholars have been studing leadership and organizations from a cross-cultural perspective. In the GLOBE study (published in the 2004 book Culture, Leadership, and Organizations), they make the following points about the make up of the global workforce:
Performance Orientation: "the extent to which the organization is focused on ambitious and challenging goals and results and is driven by competition and winning through innovation and performance improvement." "Organizations are a micro version of the society in which it operates....[and]...reflect the culture (practices and values) in the society in which they are embedded....[S]ocietal cultures...influence the nature of leadership." "Societies who...[have a]...strong Performance Orientation tend to...value education and learning, emphasize results, set high performance targets, value taking initiative, and prefer explicit and direct communication....[S]ocieties...[with]...low Performance Orientation...value social and family relations, loyalty, tradition, and seniority, and use subtle and indirect language" (pp276-7).
Future Orientation: "is almost universally valued." Future oriented organizations tend to "be composed of Participative, Humane-Oriented, Team-Oriented, and Charismatic/Valued-Based leadership styles." Future orinted societies prefer a more "Self-Protective leadership" style. "Visionary leadership is endorsed significantly more in Anglo...[countries and]...in the Middle East...authoritarian leadership is commonly more effective...The French often distrust visionary leaders and emphasize bureaucratic rules that minimize the possibilities of any person pushing his or her idiosyncratic view of the future."Societies in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia stand out for their high value on Future Orientation, possibly reflecting the high priority they set on spiritual orientation and a holistic view favoring matter that is integrated with spirit on a long-term basis." The societies with "stronger practices of future orientation tend to show better economic and societal health, more scientific advanacement, more democratic political ideas, more empowered gender status, and greater domestic savings. Under such conditions, family and friends may play a less prominent role in the life of people. On the other hand, the aspiration for future orientation are stronger in societies that ahve weak economic and societal health, less scientific advancement, less democratic political ideals, and less empowered gender status. These aspirations...are interrelated with a strong emphasis on family and friends and on spiritual orientation" (pp. 331-334).
Gender Egalitarianism: is "the way in which societies divide roles between women and men." [M]emebers of societies whose practices are currently more gender egalitarian achieved greater longevity, knowledge,, and standards of living....Societies in which manager espoused more gender-egalitarian values were more properous economically....A comparison of societal and organizational levels of Gender Egalitarianism revealed that organizational cultures reflect the culture...in the society in which they are imbedded....[G]ender egalitarian organizations and societies endorsed charismatic leader attributes such as "foresight," "enthusiastic," and "self-sacrificial" and participative leader attributes such as "egalitarian," "delegator," and "collaboratively oriented." These same organizations and societies shunned self-protective leader attributes such as "self-centered,""status-conscious," "secretive," "evasive," and "formal" (pp. 386-388).
Assertiveness: refers to the "extent to which people in...societiesgeberally practice or value assertiveness, aggressiveness, dominence, and toughness or nonassertiveness and tenderness." The "relationship among masculine and feminine practices, values and leadership dimensions is not as straightforward" as once thought. "[P]eople in different geographic areas rate their society differently in terms of how assertive they should be, in contrast to the current state of asseretiveness within the society." In many locations 'people tend to strive for less assertiveness." Only in "Southern Asia and Confusian Asia clusters" people indicated "they want more assertiveness, dominance, and aggression in their relationships with others." Regardining organizations, "Anglo organizations...tend to score high on Assertiveness, which seems consistent with the emphasis in Anglo literature and media on individualism and aggressive attitudes needed to succeed in business." Organizatonal leaders that do not value and practice assertivess have a tendency to endorse particpatory leadership and team oriented leadership. Assertive leaders favor autonomous leadership styles. (pp431-433).
Individualism and Collectivism:
Power Distance:
Humane Orientation:
Uncertainty Avoidance:
Societal Culture and Industrial Sector Influences on Organizational Culture:
Leadership and Cultural Variation
"Societies and organizations that value excellence, superior performance, performance improvement, and innovation will likely seek leaders who exemplify Charismatic/Value-Based qualities, and such leaders are likely to ne effective....[I]f an organization wishes to enhance charismatic/valuebased leadership, they might consider developing an organizational or societal culture that is more performance orientated, organizational collective, gender egalitarian, humane, and future oriented. "[O]rganizational members from gender egalitarian and performance oriented organizations are likely to use participative leadership." "Members of humane organizations value attributes such as concern, sensitivity, friendship, tolerance, and support for others....Performance Orientation values were positively related to Autonomous leadership. Regarding Self-Protective leadership, a general impediment...[to most groups]...Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance were strong positive predictors" for leaders who might have this style" (pp. 711-712).
"[T]he scietal and organizational values help delineate cultur-specific boundaries of acceptable, effective leadership behaviors and practices. Leaders who are aware of a culture's values and practices can make conscious, educated decisions regarding their leadership practices and likely effects on the day-to-day operations and crisis management within an organization. Acknowledgement and explanation from aleader to his followers that a customary cultural practice will be breached, and why, can help avoid or diminish problems and complications." Knowledge of cultural diversity and how it impacts the way business is conducted, organizations behave, and leadership is exercised, is "useful for selecting, counseling, and training individualswho work in intercultural environments" (p. 712).
11 comments:
I really want to read this book!
I have been thinking about the correlation between society and organizations since I began this course. Not only are social norms, ethnicity, family up-bringing effecting our organizations but each of us has our own story on top of that. Human beings are more complicated than ever before. Our roles are different; the world is different. We all come to work every day with our "story." And we see our world through our own story, our own pair of glasses. We never really know what's going on with another colleague.
As employees, we need to know ourselves really well and find an organization whose culture suits us so that both the individual and the organization can flourish.
Gender bias and gender bias in roles was always hard for me to accept- HOWEVER- it does work in some societies. Oppressiveness- NO- but gender roles can be a very efficient way to run a happy society. As long as the men and women are comfortable in these gender based roles I see nothing wrong with it!
Knowledge of cultural diversity and how it impacts the way business is conducted, organizations behave, and leadership is exercised, is "useful for selecting, counseling, and training individuals who work in intercultural environments." No matter where we are every individual is unique or "culturally" different. We each have different ideas about gender, work ethics,etc. I think what's important is for each of us to learn that different does not necessarily mean bad or good. Having said that it doesn't mean we should have to endure a difficult/painful work experiece for the sake of "diversity." Thsi is why I like working in a large office - you can always find someone to relate to. There seems ot be a lot of anger around cultural differences. Peopel need ot be a bit more forgiving and look at intent. We don't always know that we're being offensive or hurtful and we might really want to correct our behavior if we knwo what to correct.
I found this topic very interesting and I enjoyed Deborah and Amaurita’s comment. It is so true that everyone comes to work with a life story. Not only, that but they come with history, traditions and values that make up their culture. Culture representative of an individual should be respected and taken into consideration on a day to day basis in the working environment. Blending into and accepting an organization’s culture as well as an individual’s culture is optimum for workday satisfaction. The same concept applied to awareness. I think the topic of diversity as it originated has taken twist and turns and has evolved to encompass an array of qualities identified with this concept. It is about quotas originally but today it is more about awareness, acceptance and opportunities.
I applaud Amaurita for her comment on gender roles. This concept is not favored and is not popular in many countries. Again, awareness and acceptance of culture differences allow for enlightment of what works in other countries and societies. I get on mass transit every day and I am amazed at the diversity that surrounds me daily. A recent new job required a period of new hire orientation that included an extremely informative session on diversity. Interactive role playing allowed for interaction that confirmed and reaffirmed the essence of diversity in a work environment
The impact of a sour workplace culture can go beyond mere unpleasantness to high turnover (especially in hard to fill management positions), low productivity or lost sales. Even when a co-op is doing well financially, the stress caused by such negativity can keep the co-op from achieving its full potential.
Transforming a group's culture requires a broad approach, addressing as many as possible of these elements: mission and vision, goals and measures, policies and procedures, customs and norms, organizational structure, training, performance evaluations, reward systems, communications and ceremonies. Focusing on one element alone will not bring about fundamental change. For example, a mission statement to increase staff diversity changes nothing unless it is reinforced with measurable goals, policies, communications, training and rewards. And changing the basis of raises from seniority to individual performance won't successfully improve productivity without clarification of expectations, restructuring of the evaluation system, and training for supervisors.
I agree that knowledge of cultural diversity and how it impacts the way business is conducted, organizations behave, and leadership is exercised, is "useful for selecting, counseling, and training individuals who work in intercultural environments"
Cultural diversity can be very productive if it is handled properly and delicately by human resource managers and employees. On the other hand, if it is not given proper attention it can make the workplace worse than one can imagine. So, knowledge of cultural diversity is very important for everybody in the organization.
I believe that things would be easier for people if they just learn to accept difference meaning that there is more than one way to skin a cat. We all come from different backgrounds and it can be a challenge to get everyone to mesh. But it's a challenge *not* an impossibility.
I have always treated everyone the same in regards to gender. I think that if one observes the Golden Rule-"Treat everyone the way you want to be treated", things go very well. This does work, but you also have to employ very good communication skills so that you make yourself understood.
We are all caught up in our own little worlds but we must make a point of breaking out of that world and interacting with the human race.
The achievements of a society are the reflection of the performance of its people.
I read a book that defends this point. The title of the book is A Farewell to Alms: A brief Economic History of the World by Gregory Clark. In his book, Mr. Clark focuses on the history of the industrial revolution, and one of his chapters is about why the industrial revolution did not happen somewhere else, but England. One of his main reasons is that England’s population was changing through Darwinism selection. His idea is based on supported data that in those days in England the wealthiest class’ fertility rate was way higher than the poor British. So the ideology of a rich male entrepreneur was spread through all his children and descendants. In contrast, a poor British family with low fertility rates and high mortality did not make the selection. His poor knowledge and low desire to prosper was not spread into society.
I think Mr. Clark’s point of view is similar to societies with strong performance orientation, where society supports the values of education, initiative, responsibility, etc., because the majority of the population of industrialized nations is already changed by the Darwinian selection.
If only we could all behave in the happy way of that 70's Coke commercial with teenagers from many nations singing, "If I could teach the world to sing", or the 80's song also sung by a very culturally divers team "We are the world", we would not have to address this subject. Somehow, we need to take the relationships we can create with individuals of other cultures and expand our feelings toward the individual to the ethnic group in which they belong. Obama's white grandmother who loved him dearly, confessed she felt fear when passing black men along the street.
As humans, we are very ego-centric and tend to view the world with our filters and think everyone should think as we do. It is fascinating that Visionary leadership is valued in the Anglo –centric world while it is looked down up in France. Knowing that French don’t like this ‘idiosyntric’ futurisit thinking and want to push bureaucratic roles to prevent this would be very important to know if you were working with them.
While looking for companies and American would like to expand their business, knowing a country’s philosophy is extremely important. While opposites attract, knowing that “societies with "stronger practices of future orientation tend to show better economic and societal health, more scientific advanacement, more democratic political ideas, more empowered gender status, and greater domestic savings” might be who one should choose to do business with (Globe, 2004).
The power of this knowledge of cultural diversity cannot be underestimated. This knowledge is the key to understanding how best to work with a certain culture and can eliminate some of the pitfalls that come from believing the people one works with share their philosophies and beliefs. This article opened my eyes tremendously in the ways different areas regard leadership. I am sure I am not the only one who needs to be enlightened in this matter.
Understanding the relationship between societal values and effective leadership can be a key tool in successfully engaging employees.
In our efforts to practice equality, we often use the term "colorblind." This blanket view where we see everyone as the same can be subtly dangerous since it does not recognize the unique differences of each culture.
By highlighting the differences, organizations can begin structuring themselves with the right people and right leadership from the start. They can diminish the use of trial and error in looking for the best way to manage individuals and groups within an organization.
When companies start to value the individual values and beliefs of their workers, they will also have more insight as to how to build an inclusive and engaging work culture.
Cultural diversity at work is a given in today's society. In today's society we are a mix of cultures and pretty equal in gender make-up in most jobs today. We as employees and managers are aware of our differences but it should not rule us.
We all need to come together to get our work done in our workplaces. We do that by recognizing our differences. As the article points our we should as "Members of humane organizations value attributes such as concern, sensitivity, friendship, tolerance, and support for others" are attributes we should all carry into the workplace
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