One of the more exciting journals is the Journal of Management
Development, which is a strategic partner of the Academy of
Management's Management Education and Development Division. This
article is an example of that. I invite Romie Littrell to further
discuss this research here in Mg-Ed-Dv.
Cybercollaborating,
Charles Wankel
Mg-Ed-Dv List Director
wankelc@stjohns.edu
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Volume 21 Issue 1 of The Journal of Management Development, is now
available via Emerald Fulltext.
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Title: Desirable leadership behaviours of multi-cultural managers in
China
Author: Romie F. Littrell, Associate Professor of International
Business, Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology,
Auckland, New Zealand
This monograph reports and compares "desirable" leadership traits, and
leadership traits actual exhibited by Mainland and Hong Kong Chinese and
expatriate managers and supervisors as defined by responses on the
original English and a Chinese language translation of the Ohio State
University leadership behaviour description questionnaire XII, (LBDQ
XII). Of the 12 factors on the scale, significant differences were found
only for "Tolerance of Freedom", with the interesting result that the
Chinese leaders tended to be more tolerant of freedom than the
expatriate managers, and the supervisors they managed seemed to desire
even more freedom.
...
The review of the literature and the results of this study indicate that
additional leadership factors beyond the LBDQ factors are important. Of
particular interest would be the addition of a factor estimating
Fukyama's concept of "Trust", as having a significant "Hawthorne
effect", decreasing the numbers participating in the study, and probably
having an influence on the leadership ratings by suspicious subjects.
From this study:
Subordinates with expatriate supervisors indicate that the "ideal
leader" should demonstrate "Tolerance for freedom" less frequently than
do subordinates with Chinese managers. The implication is that after
experiencing "empowerment", Chinese subordinates may desire a return to
close, highly directive supervision requiring them to demonstrate little
initiative, a comfortable, non-demanding environment consistent with
their experience in the socialist/communist work culture.
In comparisons of two widely-divergent samples from Hong Kong and China,
assuming that the PRC is more steeped in Confucian culture than Hong
Kong, PRC subordinates may tend to rate all managers and leaders highly
to demonstrate their respect.
It does not appear that the LBDQ XII, in its present form, is a
sufficient instrument for comparing leadership skills across cultures,
but has value in comparing ratings of leadership behaviours across
cultures on the set of factors measured.
Several implications, both for practitioners and researchers of
international management, may be drawn from the findings of this study
and Selmer's 1996 study. First, it appears that the LBDQ XII is not a
normative device for estimating leadership skills across cultures, but
has some use in actually comparing the 12 factors between cultures.
However, we have the difficult problem of what factors, or traits,
should be included, and whether or not the LBDQ XII defines the 12 most
important factors; perhaps not. Guidelines for expatriate manager
training and counselling may be developed using the LBDQ "ideal" scores
for an organisation to which he or she will be assigned. Second, it
seems obvious that "ideal" leader behaviour varies from culture to
culture, at least when comparing Greater China cultures and "Western"
cultures, and perhaps even PRC and Hong Kong cultures. We are not
surprised at this outcome, as practically every study comparing cultures
since Hofstede's in 1980 have indicated this conclusion.
Pages: 5-74
Keywords: Leadership; China; Hong Kong; Hospitality Industry; Hotels
Article Type: Theoretical with Application in Practice
Content Indicators: Research - *** Practice - ** Originality - **
Readability - **
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