Leadership - Cultural Differences

In the last byte, we looked at dynamic followers. Today we look at the aspect of cultural differences in leadership.

We have discussed about situational leadership where in leadership is influenced by the situational context in which the leadership act is shown. Extending this, we could say - we would need to consider the cultural influences in leadership scenario. Culture is definitely an important situational variable when exercising influence and authority. Leaders who think could groom themselves into being global leadership would need to be flexible enough to alter their approaches when crossing national boundaries and working with people in foreign cultures.
 

Here is a small illustration of how the culture influences: Leadership in the American context where the American workers follow traditional Protestant work values. In China the influence is from three perspectives - Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism; these are harmonized to create work values such as trust, hierarchy, loyalty and network.
 

To be effective, leaders must understand other cultures and be sensitive to the minor diversities and not assume homogeneity to be existent.