OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context

Cultural Leadership blog

Russia and the Council of Europe

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In response to Russia’s actions with regards to annexing Crimea in 2014 and its continuance in supporting the insurgency in Ukraine, the Council of Europe suspended Russia’s voting rights (Hall, 2019).  To protest this suspension, Russia stopped sending a delegation to the Council and stopped paying its dues in 2017.  Two years of nonpayment of dues can result in suspension or expulsion from the Council, and those two years will be up in two months.

It would be a shame if Russia left the Council of Europe, as it is Russia’s only judicial connection to Europe.  They utilize the European court to assist with human rights issues, and make up about 30% of the workload of the council.

Europe also does not want to loose Russia, but also does not agree with its actions and does not want to buckle to Russian’s demands.  To complicate it, Russia’s dues to the council make up 7% of the Council’s revenue.  Additionally, with Brexit looming, Europe does not need another be large change to contend with.

If studying Russia using Hofestede’s six dimensions of culture, it is clear that Russia is closely aligned with the values of European culture even though it is technically considered to be an Asian country (PSU, n.d.).  Given the similarities and shared culture of Russia and Europe, it would be a shame if they severed relations.  European leaders have the difficult task of evaluating the situation carefully, and strategizing an appropriate response that will make sense for both countries.

References

Hall, B. (2019).  Bring Russia back in from the cold, says Council of Europe Chief. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/8158d52a-5496-11e9-91f9-b6515a54c5b1

Pennsylvania State University. (n.d.).  Lesson 13: Demonstrating the connection between Eastern Europe and Russia. In OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context: Spring 2019 [Class module]. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1964331/modules/items/25821742

Chi Ku

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A great way to learn more about a country is to examine it using Geert Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture.  One of the dimensions is Indulgence versus Restraint, which refers to how the culture values delayed gratification (Pennsylvania State University, n.d.).  The average score across countries in the world is 45.42, and in studying China we can see that with a score of 24, it is low.  This indicates that moreso than most other countries, the societal norm in Chinese culture teaches the restraint of the basic human desire of immediate enjoyment, and instead values long-term goals and maintaining focus to complete tasks.  They do not focus on one’s own happiness as much as other cultures, nor emphasize the importance of leisure.

A popular Chinese saying is “Chi Ku”, or to eat bitterness (Greenspan, 2011).  This refers to persisting through hardships as a way of life and is one of their most highly regarded virtues.  Chinese deeply appreciate hard work, and believe it necessary in order to become good at anything.  They do not put much stock into natural talent, but instead the discipline and work that goes into developing a skill.  It is through this willingness and societal pressure to sacrifice time and effort now for the promise of a better future, that we can understand that delaying gratification could be social norm in China.

This propensity towards hard work is not found only in China, but across Asia.  Having grown up in Thailand, I can attest to the grueling schoolwork that I had starting even in elementary school.  With hours of homework every night and cumulative exams at the end of every marking period, there was either no time or very little time for play or extracurricular activities.  School was not so much about having fun, but about being disciplined and learning.  Although, when everyone else around you was also doing it so it felt like (and was) the norm, so I think that most of us did find fun or enjoyment in doing our work.

Although the virtue of working hard is admirable, it can certainly be taken to the extreme.  We have seen in this decade how Foxconn employees in China had multiple suicides which were largely blamed by the company’s pressure to work their employees too hard and their overtime policy (Barboza, 2010).  We could learn a lot from the work ethic of the Chinese, but they could also possibly learn to strike a better balance between work and downtime.

References

Barboza, D. (2010).  Electronics maker promises review after suicides.  Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/technology/27suicide.html?pagewanted=all&module=inline

Greenspan, A. (2011).  Tiger moms: The benefits of eating bitterness.  Retrieved from https://psmag.com/education/tiger-moms-the-benefits-of-eating-bitterness-28029

Pennsylvania State University. (n.d.).  Module 10:  Cultural Comparison of China and India.  In OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context:  Spring 2019 [Class module].  Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1964331/modules/items/25821723 [Read more…]

Social Learning in the Workplace

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Albert Bandura proposed his concept of social learning theory, which refers to how people have the ability to learn behaviors through observing others and imitating them (Pennsylvania State University, n.d.).  His work was found to be very influential in explaining human behavior, and was built on the learning theories of classical and operant conditioning (McLeod, 206). 

Bandura’s concepts can be applied to any social setting.  In the workplace for instance, employee behavior can be dramatically influenced either positively or negatively by social learning (Srivastava, 2016).  When an employee has a role model at work who has high levels of engagement, they were found to be significantly more likely to be influenced to also be more engaged.

I have definitely seen social learning in the various places of employment in which I have worked as well.  One small way this can be seen is punctuality at work generally or to meetings.  I have worked at organizations which highly value punctuality, and this is modelled by administrators and coworkers who all are on time or early to work.  Even without having said it outright, their behavior sets the tone for the expectations in the workplace, and people follow suit as they do not want to be the last one in the room for a meeting.  I have worked at other places however that are very relaxed with regards to punctuality, and people stroll it at all hours, come and go as necessary during meetings, or do not even come to the meetings.  They feel that they can do so because they have seen a number of others do it without repercussion, so they know that this is acceptable behavior.

While this is a small example, this can dramatically affect the work environment, and one can see how this concept can be applied to other workplace examples which could really impact productivity.  Employers should study the implications of this to encourage positive behaviors that they would like to see in the workplace like a positive attitude, strong work ethic, good communication, and teamwork.

 

References

McLeod, S. (2016).  Bandura – Social Learning Theory.  Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html

Pennsylvania State University. (n.d.).  Module 05:  Social Learning.  In OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context:  Spring 2019 [Class module].  Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1964331/modules/items/25821692

Riley, C. (n.d.).  Social learning theory infographic 2 [Digital image].  Retrieved February 20, 2019, from https://sites.google.com/site/ide621knowledgebaseriley/social-learning-theory/social-learning-theory-infographic-2

Srivastava, S. S. (2016).  Social learning of employee engagement (Doctoral dissertation).  Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ed24/56a64992949c6e6bdeb5603ab048aaea29c6.pdf

Women in the Workplace

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My husband and I were fresh out of college when we got married, and a few months later I became pregnant.  As we planned for the arrival of our daughter, my husband told me that he did not trust anyone else taking care of her and so thought it would be a good idea for me to stay home with her.  I was completely floored as the idea of being a stay-at-home mom had never once occurred to me.  I viewed myself as an ambitious go-getter just at the point of jump-starting my career and graduate school.  My mother had worked part-time at home, and although I loved that she was able to dedicate that special time to her family, it had never registered with me that I might do the same.  My husband is a highly educated and genuinely sweet man, so he had no bad intentions in saying this—in fact, the young me on the one hand was flattered that he thought so highly of my caretaking skills and that he was willing to sacrifice half the family income, but the other half wrestled with what I had perceived as a life-altering decision for me, and why it should be me and not him.  I did end up staying home with my daughter for the first 2.5 years of her life, and I will never regret that precious time that I had with her.  But I definitely had to put my own career and educational goals aside and felt like I played catch up for quite a long time afterwards in order to make up for it.

Childcare is often a dilemma for couples who want to start a family, and although the number of men staying at home has increased in the past few decades (Livingston, 2018), the norm is still for women to be the ones expected to take time away from work as 27% of moms stayed home with their baby in comparison to only 7% of dads in 2016.

Gender disparities like this feed into the gender inequality in the workplace.  Anecdotally, my sister and her fiancé both had the same job at the same design firm, yet her fiancé made $13,000 more than her per year.  And this happens to women across the United States.  Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014) reported that not only is there a significant salary gender gap, but that women are more likely to be “pigeonholed” into career paths that are not bound for upper-management.  This aligns with their reporting that women only comprise three percent of the top corporate wage earners.

Luckily, industries are finally recognizing these disparities, and the untapped potential of many women workers.  Efforts such as mentoring programing have been made to help women reach and break the proverbial glass ceiling.  But although much progress has been made with gender inequality, there is still much work that needs to be done.

References

Livingston, G. (2018).  Stay-at-home moms and dads account for about one-in-five U.S. parents.  Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/24/stay-at-home-moms-and-dads-account-for-about-one-in-five-u-s-parents/

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014).  Managing cultural differences: Ninth Edition.  New York, NY; Routledge.

 

 

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