Leading and Following Across Cultures

Talk notes by Viv Thomas

‘If men define situations as real then they are real in their consequences’ What do you think about this statement?

We are going to begin with some reflections on self and the people to whom you are going.

Understand self in the system
How would you assess yourself in these areas?

1. The degree to which you believe people are trustworthy
2. The degree to which you believe that people are altruistic or selfish
3. The degree to which you think that people are independent or dependent
4. The extent to which people are controlled by a rational approach versus the irrational.
5. The extent to which people can have differing values versus commonality of perceptions
6. The degree to which you think people are simple or complex organisms

Case Study: Leading across Cultures: India Story
‘ You have left the warm and comfortable surrounding of ANCC and have headed off to India for two years. In spite of all your hesitations you have joined OM! There are 500 people in OM India and Indian’s leads the whole organisation. This is one of the reasons you were so excited to join.

Your first task is to work with a team of Indian’s who are doing evangelism in the villages of northern India. You are going to do this for six months before you work in the slums of Bombay in an administrative role. The team you are joining is working with local churches in the area and you are preaching, selling books and seeking to encourage local believers. The team is made up of four Indians, two from the south and two from the north and two non-Indian’s. Your other non-Indian is from California who plays the guitar a lot, is quite laid back and is depressed because his laptop is in California and he can’t talk to anyone on the World Wide Web. The leader of the team is a 23 year old Indian from Madras, he often has ‘words from the Lord’ to give to the team and is ‘authoritarian’ from your perspective.

You find the whole thing is frustrating. The team is always late, they seem to spend a lot of time joking, the Californian is in a world of his own, you are missing ANCC, you don’t feel that well and you want to make this team work better than it does. The truth is that you are a little angry and you are vaguely aware that you might be going through some cultural adjustment. After three weeks the decision is made that the team leader needs to join another team and the OM office tells you that you are going to lead the team. You are taken for a weeks training in Hyderabad and then you rejoin your team.

You are well aware that good leaders have vision, purpose and are able to focus, after all good leaders get things done. On your second day as leader you tell the team, ‘Anyone who is late in coming back to the truck after evangelism will have to go to the next village by bus and meet us there’. Sagi, an 18 year old from Calcutta is late and you drive off without him. Suddenly, the whole team is hostile to you and anxiety appears to be your only friend.

What do you need to think about?
What do you need to do?

1) The Influence of Cultural Behaviour in the Organisational Environment
Geerte Hofstede ‘Culture and Organisations: Software of the Mind’ 1997 talks of culture and organisational values which include:

Power Distance
The degree to which less powerful members within an organisation accept that power is distributed unequally

Uncertainty Avoidance
The degree to which individuals feel threatened by uncertain or ambiguous situations within an organisation or institution

Individualism
‘ I’ versus ‘We’

Masculinity
The degree to which achievement and success versus caring and quality of life are dominant values in a given society.

Confucian Dynamism
Historic near term point of view versus pragmatic future orientation

2) Problems Asian leaders had with Western leaders.
In as study, which I did in OM in there, were some perceived weaknesses of Western leadership styles:

i) Ethnocentric
They talked better with their own people. Many non-westerners found themselves on the outside of conversation.

People tend to think that:

• what goes on in their own culture is natural and correct, and what goes on in other cultures as not natural and correct.
• Perceive their own culture as universally valid
• Favour and co-operate with in-group members while feeling hostile towards out-groups.

‘Highly individualistic cultures tend to believe that their cultures and ethical codes and procedures ought to be applied universally’ Hofstede (1994)

ii) Underdeveloped listening skills
‘ Westerners, they don’t really take much notice of you, they tend to see through you.’ Asian leader. Westerners tended to be unable to listen with the whole person they were not good at body language.

iii) Relationally distant
One Asian leader said ‘before they can win me there has to be the relational aspect’ They did say that westerners who had spent time in the Middle East knew well how to relate.

This is dominated by a sense of time which differs around the world. Konosuke Matsushita on 5 May 1932 announced his business philosophy and a 250-year plan for his company broken down into 25-year segments! Bartlett and Goshal (1989)

iv) Overly Dominant
One Asian leader said, ‘Western leaders are very dominant, very instructive and don’t really listen’. Westerners tended to feel they knew the history of a place when they did not.

v) Unstable analysis of the environment
One Asian leader said, ‘Their sense of superiority leads them to believe that they know what is best even when they have little knowledge of the local situation’

There is an underlying perception that the east because of its philosophies is unchristian. The west is still perceived to be fundamentally Christian even though there are not be that many Christians.

3) Various models of Leadership.
International Joint Ventures.
From ‘International Management’ (Mead 1994)

If they are going to work they will need to address the issues of:

1. level of trust
2. similar business interest
3. common goals
4. compatibility in size
5. compatibility in time scale
6. agreement in the decision making process

Seven Spiritual Values of the Matsushita corporation:

1. National service through industry
2. Fairness
3. Harmony and co-operation
4. Struggle for bettermen
5. Courtesy and humility
6. Adjustment and assimilation
7. Gratitude

IBM and the nine competencies of the ‘geocentric manager’ Terrance Jackson, ‘Organisational Behaviour in International Management’ (1993)

1. Technical ability
2. Managerial skill
3. Cultural empathy
4. Adaptability and flexibility
5. Diplomatic skills
6. Language aptitude
7. Personal motives
8. Emotional maturity and stability
9. Adaptability of family

Jesuit model of successful global leader
Gunnar Hedland (1986) quoted in ‘Globalising Management’ Pucik, Tichy, Barnett (1986)

1. An aptitude for searching and combining things in new ways
2. The ability to communicate ideas and turn them into action
3. The command of several languages. A knowledge and sympathy for cultures producing a stereo quality to their perceptions
4. Honesty and integrity
5. Willingness to take risks
6. Faith in the organisation and its activities

Hedland also says that ‘the ability to put oneself in the psychological frame of reference of another so that the other person’s thinking, feeling, and acting are understood’, is a key to cross-cultural leadership.

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