By: Adam Bennett
Below is an image of typical leadership frameworks from around the world. Take a moment to see how different countries typically make up their leadership positions.
Image courtesy of the Business Insider
As you look through the diagram, you still start to see some trends regarding the styles within some regions. If we overlay Blake and Mouton’s leadership grid over the different countries we see that American leadership is described as Authority-Obedience as is the same in Latin American, and Arab counties.
In the UK, Sweden, and other European countries, there is a prominent focus on relationships as it pertains to the team. This makes me think they fall more into the Team manager style of leadership.
Conversely, in Asian countries, there is extra emphasis on consensus, which makes me think that they fall into the Country Club manager leadership style.
Image courtesy of riskmanagement365.com
So why is this important? I believe there are at least two reasons that you should pay notices. The first, and most obvious, is that if you are to work for, or with organizations that support different leadership styles, then it’s important to understand how leaders and subordinates are expected to support each other as well as communicate within the group. This will be of especially great value if there are multiple types of styles working on the same project.
Secondly, it’s helpful to understand these types so we can break down how decisions were made for any given project or team. Since we are not privy to all the strategy meetings that occur before a decision is made, knowing how an organization is affected by its local culture may shed some light.
For example, the Latin/Arab diagram it’s ben found that “authority is concentrated in the chief executive, and family relations are very important, with ubiquitous nepotism” (BusinessInsider.com, 1/6/2014). This hierarchy of leadership is helpful in understanding how different militant organizations are built in the Middle East and must be understood by the military to understand how to remove harmful organizations and build up friendly organizations.
The diagram also states “Spanish leaders, like French, are autocratic and charismatic” (BusinessInsider.com, 1/6/2014). This is helpful in understanding how French and Spanish workers respond to authority and support from leadership. From the diagram we can assume that in France and Spain emphasize country club leadership styles. Interestingly, my father has a story about opening a factory in France that may shed some light on this.
In 1988 he was the CFO of a company that built medical equipment, and in order to support their supply chain, they opened up a small administrative office, and assembly warehouse outside of Paris. Within weeks of opening up the location, there were problems with the timeliness of the fulfillment of orders. My father, and the VP of operations went over numerous times and had issues communicating the importance of fulfilling and shipping orders in a timely manner. They were solely task focused and had he understood that the French system is based on support and focus on employees, then they may have been able to make progress in getting employees to focus on the speed of production.
Although this chart isn’t explicitly stating the different styles (as we have learned styles) of leadership, many leadership behaviors can be assumed simply by understanding the ways in which leadership is founded within that county. Next time you are interacting with an organization that is based in a different country, give this chart a peak and think about how you are to approach your discussion. Perhaps you will be able to glean some information that will help you form your position in a way so it is adopted quickly.
References:
24 Charts Of Leadership Styles Around The World (Business Insider)
By: Lubin, Gus.
http://www.businessinsider.com/leadership-styles-around-the-world-2013-12
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2014). PSYCH 485 Lesson 05: Introduction to Leadership. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa14/psych485/002/content/05_lesson/printlesson.html
James E Kelly says
While we study ways to understand and develop effective leadership in this course, it is valuable to know and appreciate how other countries practice leadership. By showing leadership from the Style Approach, it quickly becomes evident what is important to whom. Northouse explains (pp. 78-83, 2013) how leaders help organizations reach their purposes through concern for production or concern for people. What a great illustration to demonstrate the vast cultural differences and approaches to leadership.
Currently my own company, like many others, is incorporating a larger – more global – approach to business. The challenge is to satisfy our customer needs in all points of the globe, while breaking away from the regional perspectives and habits (we have factories in 20+ countries). Adding to the troubles: our company is based in the UK, the largest operation and revenue is in the US, while emerging markets are rapidly growing in other parts of the world.
According to the grid in this blog, our company executives have their work cut out for them. It is well known that our cultural approaches to leadership clash. Our company recently reorganized in 2014 to find a better way. Overall, the underlying discussion reverts back to the Style Approach and whether they should concentrate their efforts on concern for production or concern for people. Each region, as well illustrated in the Business Insider grid, emphasizes one over the other.
Your example of France hits home for me, as I personally deal with logistics and importing goods to the US from that region. My French counterparts do not have the same sense of urgency or drive to meet deadlines and demands of our customers. It is difficult to understand how they constantly choose to shut down their plant for ‘holiday’ (interrupting the supply chain), while our US operations are 24/7/365 (to always be available and responsive).
But then again, I have to take a step back and understand what’s most important culturally: France puts more emphasis in promoting good social relations while the US emphasizes organizational tasks like sales volume. (Northouse, pp. 78-79, 2013)
In the end, our countries define success differently, and inherently, what effective leadership should be.
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.