Organizational leadership

The crucial fact about leadership in any culture is that it is a complement to subordinateship. Whatever a naïve literature on leadership may give us to understand, leaders cannot choose their styles at will; what is feasible depends to a large extent on the cultural conditioning of a leader’s subordinates.

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Along these lines, Figure 8 describes the type of subordinateship that, other things being equal, a leader can expect to meet in societies at three different levels of Power Distance-subordinateship to which a leader must respond. The middle level represents what is most likely found in the United States. Neither McGregor, nor Likert, nor Blake and Mouton allow for this type of cultural proviso-all three tend to be prescriptive with regard to a leadership style that, at best, will work with U.S. subordinates and with those in cultures-such as Canada or Australia-that have not too different Power Distance levels. In fact, my research shows that subordinates in larger Power Distance countries tend to agree more frequently with Theory Y. A U.S. theory of leadership that allows for a certain amount of cultural relativity, although indirectly, is Fred Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership. Fiedler states that different leader personalities are needed for “difficult” and “easy” situations, and that a cultural gap between superior and subordinates is one of the factors that makes a situation “difficult.” However, this theory does not address the kind of cultural gap in question. In practice, the adaptation of managers to higher Power Distance environments does not seem to present too many problems. Although this is an unpopular message-one seldom professed in management development courses-managers moving to a larger Power Distance culture soon learn that they have to behave more autocratically in order to be effective, and tend to do so; this is borne out by the colonial history of most Western countries. But it is interesting that the Western ex-colonial power with the highest Power Distance norm-France-seems to be most appreciated by its former colonies and seems to maintain the best postcolonial relationships with most of them. This suggests that subordinates in a large Power Distance culture feel even more comfortable with superiors who are real autocrats than with those whose assumed autocratic stance is out of national character.

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The Omnipresence of Change

This is not to argue that global change is not occurring. It is just that change is not occurring universally, it is not as fast in some areas of a culture as in others, and it does not occur in as predictable a manner as the simplistic homogenization model would lead us to believe. And while the occurrence of change today may one day simplify the practice of cross-cultural business operations, at the present stage, it tends only to compound it. The significance of change for the multinational firm may be viewed from two perspectives. One is the change that is occurring in society and the impact of this change on the firm. The other is the change that the firm is able to introduce in the various societies in which it operates.

One major trend that has been noted by numerous authors is the accelerating turbulence in the technological, political, economic, and sociocultural environments. One charac- teristic of this type of environment is an inability to predict the changes that will occur as well as the impact of these unseen changes on the firm. While a firm encountering a crisis situation will tend to centralize authority for decision making through the crisis period, a continuing condition of turbulence in a complex environment (the environment of multinational firms) calls for decentralization. For the multinational firm, this calls for new organization structure responses. These structural responses are more fully discussed in a later article.

When a firm introduces something new into a society, whether it is a product, a service, or a practice, it is introducing cultural change. Whether this change will be accepted, as the firm intends, depends on a number of factors, all of which should be assessed before the introduction of the change itself. Of primary significance in the assessment is whether the change is beneficial or detrimental to the society, the element of the society being impacted, and the nature of the society. If the change is beneficial, it will be more readily accepted than if it is not. If it deals with an element of society that is not deeply rooted (such as food rather than religion), it will be more tolerated. If it is introduced into newer, modern societies, it will be more tolerated than if it were to be introduced into older, more traditional societies. And, lastly, if there are a great number of forces for change in the society — seen, perhaps, in a large number of multinational firms or other international influences — the more likely the change will occur.

The Popular Response to Global Cultural Diversity

Many authors and even more managers respond to this complex cultural diversity by a process of simplification. They see the trend toward global integration as one of homogenizing the cultural heterogeneity that has existed in the past. And when this is done, the appropriate response abroad is simply what would be the appropriate response at home. According to this view, a unique world culture is emerging. Advances in mass media, transportation, and travel are breaking down the traditional barriers among groups of peoples and their differing cultures, so that a homogenization process is underway. Global managers are alert to serving this commonality in human needs and markets with strategies that are transnational.

This is a dangerous strategy. There is enough truth in the idea of the homogenization of world cultures to be enticing, but relying on this as a universal condition will cause the firm to make many costly mistakes. The author, for example, has observed the apparent cultural similarity of youths in Atlanta, Guatemala City, Luxembourg, and Cairo as they listened to the same music and wore the same fashions. He has eaten in and observed the popularity of American fast food restaurants in Dallas, Mexico City, Paris, and Amman. But to conclude that these varied cultures are now the same (or even similar) because of these trends is to be misled.

Fayerweather has noted the variable receptiveness of societies to different “exports” from foreign societies. The ability of firms to transfer abroad their products, services, and practices depends to a large degree on the established cultural patterns in the receiving society. And these cultural patterns remain firmly entrenched. Naisbitt and Aburdene have recently noted the superficiality of this trend toward homogenization. They note, as do others, that trade, travel, and television have laid the foundation for a global lifestyle. This global lifestyle can often be seen in the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the music we listen to. Japanese restaurants are in San Antonio and Mexican restaurants are in Paris. American businessmen wear Italian suits and Russian youth wear blue jeans. The Beatles started a music craze in America and Madonna has won the hearts of teens in Japan. And American television is watched and popular the world over. But these are superficial elements of a society’s culture. The adoption of these foreign cultural products does not require a significant commitment. Nor are they adopted by everyone. And, while this is occurring, we can see people everywhere holding tightly to the deeper values of their culture, the values expressed in interpersonal obligations, social organization, authority systems, religion, language, art, and literature.