Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War. Underlying these styles - and the misunderstandings that persist between Arabs and the West - are many cultural and national factors (including differences in religion, logic, and ideas about truth, freedom, honor, trust, family, and friends) Most of these factors are based on elements of Arab history that Westerners find difficult to comprehend. Arabs tend to use the past as their basis of reference, whereas Americans look to the future.
Prom various accounts, Hussein thinks that his strong leadership means the fulfillment of destiny: Iraq was meant to be the dominant power in the region. Others, however, attest to his use of internal power for personal aggrandizement. His leadership style is, obviously, dictatorial, and to most people in the world he seems a ruthless tyrant and a master of manipulation. However, he is seen as a hero by most Iraqis and by many other Arabs in the region. Participation and delegation in decision making are clearly not among his leadership behaviors, nor is he likely to seek consensus even on radical plans. In contrast, most Western leaders quietly go about team building - consulting widely and building consensus around whatever action they feel should be taken. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, President Bush took time to build strong support behind the scenes, forging a powerful alliance among Arabs, Israelis, Europeans, Japanese, Chinese, and Soviets. Based on continued support, President Clinton ordered further attacks on Iraq in 1998 - 99 after Iraq's lack of compliance with agreements made in 1990, and President George W. Bush followed suit in 2001, keeping up to pressure for compliance.
The effects of participative leadership can vary even in one location when the employees are from different cultural backgrounds - from which we can conclude that a subordinate's culture is usually a more powerful variable than other factors in the environment. Research that supports this conclusion includes a study conducted in Saudi Arabia that found participative leadership to be more effective with American workers than with Asian and African employees, and a study in a U.S. plant that found that participative leadership resulted in greater satisfaction and communication in American employees than in Mexican employees.
In Exhibit 10-9 we depict our integrative model of the leadership process by pulling together the variables described in this book and in the research on culture, leadership, and motivation. It shows the powerful contingency of culture as it affects the leadership role. Reading from left to right, it covers the broad environmental factors through to the outcomes affected by the entire leadership situation. As shown in the exhibit, the broad context in which the manager operates necessitates adjustments in leadership style to all those variables relating to the work and task environment and the people involved. Cultural variables (values, work norms, the locus of control, and so forth), as they affect everyone involved - leader, subordinates, and work groups - then shape the content of the immediate leadership situation.
The leader - follower interaction is then further shaped by the leader's choice of behaviors (autocratic, participative, and so on) and the employees' attitudes toward the leader and the incentives. Motivation effects - various levels of effort, performance, and satisfaction - result from these interactions, on an individual and a group level. These effects determine the outcomes for the company (productivity, quality) and for the employees (satisfaction, positive climate). The results and rewards from those outcomes then act as food back (positive or negative) into the cycle of the motivation and leadership process.
Clearly, then, international managers should take seriously the culture contingency in their application of the contingency theory of leadership: They must adjust their leadership behaviors according to the context, norms, attitudes, and other variables in that society One example of the complexity of the leadership situation involving obvious contextual as well as cultural factors can be seen from the results of a study of how Russian employees responded to participative management practices of North American managers. It was found that the performance of the Russian workers decreased, which the researchers attributed to a his-
tory of employee ideas being ignored by Russian managers, as well as cultural value differences. To gain more insight into comparative leadership situations, the following Comparative Management in Focus highlights the leadership context in India, along with the implications for appropriate leadership by expatriates. The most effective leadership style in India would thus combine
integrity, being organized, an action orientation, being a self starter,
charisma, and a collective orientation; with being a problem solver, a
visionary, entrepreneurial, and inspirational, in that order.
Exhibit 10-8 : Resource for Business Management article from Global Human Resource Management Catagory Exhibit 10-8
Exhibit 10-8 Resource for Business Management article from Resource for Business Management Global Human Resource Management.Free learning from data about Exhibit 10-8 Resource for Business Management Global Human Resource Management Business Management,online business management,business management classes,online business management degrees