Cross-cultural Leadership Dynamics

Our complex global economy has dramatically increased the frequency with which managers from one culture are called on to lead work groups and teams composed of members from different cultures. An important example is the expatriate manager working with host-country staff. Among the possible settings for such cross-cultural leadership encounters, Asia - an area of the world well recognized for both its economic importance and cultural uniqueness is a significant case in point.

Individualism-collectivism and power distance are among the dimensions of national culture frequently discussed in the leadership literature and in executive development programmes. Examines cross-cultural leadership implications of the likely interaction of collectivism and high power distance includes a call for more awareness of how collectivism and power distance may together influence workplace behavior. It is highly suggests that this awareness needs to be incorporated in cross-cultural leadership training and research agendas. The expected culture is a lay theory at best.

It should be carefully tested and refined in the reality of the new work setting. But the very fact that it exists at all can make such cultural "learning" difficult. Especially under the stressful conditions often accompanying a new international assignment, the leader is likely to be more influenced by a priori understandings, however inadequate or incomplete, than by cultural realities. To the extent that these cultural expectations are flawed, the leader's actions may create additional problems of their own. This cycle of action and reaction activated in the leader-follower relationships will most likely confound an already complicated situation, and make it even harder for the newcomer to accomplish the all-important cultural learning.

Therefore, in order to understand cross-cultural leadership situations better, the nature and consequences of emergent leader-follower "interactions" must be fully addressed. This includes being willing to examine more completely the action tendencies of individualistic/low-moderate power distance leaders interacting with collectivist/high power distance followers. Like a drama that unfolds scene by scene, such cultures will meet - or "clash" - in a series of leader-follower episodes with specific and successive iterations of action and reaction. In this dynamic and ever-emerging setting, the results of one episode spill over to affect subsequent ones. These episodic "dramas" in cross-cultural leader-follower interactions must be better understood; they deserve significant attention from researchers and trainers alike. Questions need to be asked and answered regarding how the episodes develop, how they relate to possible cognitive modifications in pre-existing cultural mindscapes, and what eventually happens in respect to leader-follower relationships and outcomes.