The globalization of trade has made huge implication on the manner in which executives lead and manage organizations that are cross-cultural and multinational (House, Javida, & Dorfman, 2001; McFarland, Senen & Childress, 1993). These implications have created a new dimension where leaders have to focus on ethical leadership to develop organizational culture while simultaneously valuing diversity and social culture of individuals within the organization and the society from which they operate. Thus, the intent of this blog post is to analyze the cultural styles that are ethical for a leader, followed with an assessment of several leadership models that are appropriate for numerous social cultures, and the selection and rational of a leadership model that helps shape organizational culture.
Cultural Styles and Perceptions
Cultural styles from countries around the world impact how a leader might ethically utilize power, influence, and authority. For example, House, Javida, and Dorfman (2001) found that Dutch workers strongly believe in egalitarianism, which would support ethical leadership because leaders and manager have an equal right to achieve opportunities. In essence, the Dutch are not fighting to get ahead, which can be a reason to cut corners in order to attain goals. Similarly, House, Javida, and Dorfman (2001) discovered that Malaysian workforces expect their leaders to serve in a “humble, modest, and dignified manner” (p. 4). This particular cultural style dictates that a leader would need to lead in an ethical manner or their subordinates would not view them as an effective leader, which would cause the workforce to challenge or question the leader. On the other hand, the workforces in America and France expect their leaders to be empowering, forceful, bold, risk-taking, strong, and charismatic (House, Javida & Dorfman, 2001). These environmental factors are causes for unethical behavior or immoral behavior (Hanna, Avolio, Walumbwa, 2011). Overall, the cultural styles of countries around the world impact the perceptions of how a leader utilizes power, influence, and authority.
Ethical Leadership Models
There are several leadership models, servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1977), ethical leadership (Brown, Trevino, & Harrison, 2005; Reilly, 2006), and cross-cultural leadership (Abbe, Gulick, & Herman, 2007; House, Javidan, & Dorfman, 2001), that can be accepted by social cultures as ethical. Russell and Stone (2002) explained that servant leaders utilize vision, honesty, integrity, trust, service to others, empathy, modeling, pioneering, appreciation of others, and empowerment as the mode for leading in ethical manner. These traits and attributes of servant leadership indicate that as leader is grounded in high levels of morality and ethics (Russell & Stone, 2002). Servant leadership has important implications within various cultures, for example, empowerment can be the impetus for followers to take some control or power of leadership. Similarly, ethical leadership “focuses on how leaders use their social power in the decisions they make, actions they engage in and ways they influence others…ethical leaders influence other with honesty, trustworthiness, and integrity” (p. 27-28). Again, this leadership model is based on a leader utilizing a higher ethical and moral compass when making decision and influencing followers. When a leader has a high moral compass, the leaders takes into account the various impacts decisions might make on the environment, communities and people from other cultures. Along the same lines, House et al. (2001) explained that cross-cultural leadership is “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 of different cultures” (p. 494). This model is an excellent example of a framework to create buy-in or support for organizational change or moving the organization in a different direction. In essence, cross-cultural leaders have the ability to mitigate and navigate through different cultures and environments. These three leadership models have various attributes, styles, and traits that can be accepted as ethical models across several cultures.
Leadership Model as a Tool
The leadership model that would be most effective for shaping organizational culture would be cross-cultural leadership (House, Javidan, & Dorfman, 2001). More specifically, House et al. explained that cross-cultural leaders embody the ability, “to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members” (p. 494). A cross-cultural leader works towards effectively bringing together workers who have different motives, beliefs, cultures, and identities. Similarly, Osland, Bird, Mendenhall, and Osland (2006) discovered that cross-cultural leaders have the ability of “influencing the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of a global community to work together synergistically toward a common vision and common goals” (p. 204). Thus, a cross-cultural leader has the ability to adjust their leadership style to meet the needs of their workforce and understand that other people’s culture will impact organizational operations. This particular leadership model was selected because a leader needs to understand that organizational and individual culture will influence organizational practice and leadership. This leadership model can develop an organizational culture that respects individual differences and can allow workers to feel accepted and validated. When validation and acceptance are paramount to the organizational culture; workers will be more inclined to provide input and work harder for their leader. In essence, a cross-culture leader empowers followers to achieve even though there are socio-cultural differences.
Conclusion
In summary, globalization has created some challenges that organizations and leaders have to account for when operating in a cross-cultural or multinational setting. Leaders in multinational organizations have to adjust their leadership style so they do not overstep their power, influence, and authority, otherwise subordinates might be offended by clashes in leadership styles. To avoid offending followers, a leader can utilize servant, ethical, and cross-cultural leadership to help mitigate challenges when there is a clash between diversity and social culture. Of the three leadership styles, cross-cultural leadership is the most appropriate model that will help shape an ethical organizational culture.
References
Abbe, A., Gulick,
L. M., & Herman, J. L. (2007). Cross-cultural competence in Army leaders: A conceptual and empirical foundation. (Study Report 2008-01). Arlington, VA: U. S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.
Brown, M. E., Trevino, L. K., & Harrison, D. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97, 117-134.
Greenleaf, R. (1977). Servant leadership. New York, NY: Paulist Books.
Hanna, S. T., Avolio, B. J., & Walumbwa, F. O. (2011). Relationships between authentic leadership, moral courage, and ethical and pro-social behaviors. Business Ethics Quarterly, 21(4), 55-578.
House, R., Javidan, M., & Dorfman, P. (2001). Project GLOBE: An introduction. Applied Psychology, 50(4), 489-505.
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Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W., de Luque, M. S., & House, R. J. (2006). In the eye of the beholder: Cross cultural lessons in leadership from project GLOBE. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(1), 67-90.
McFarland, L. J., Senen, S., & Childress, J. R. (1993). Twenty-first century leadership. New York: Leadership Press.
Osland, J. S., Bird, A., Mendenhall, M., & Osland, A. (2006). Developing Global Leadership Capabilities and Global Mindset: A Review (9th ed., pp. 197–222). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Russell, R. F. & Stone, A. G. (2002). A review of servant leadership attributes: Developing a practical model. Leadership & Organizational Development Journal, 23(3/4), 145-157.