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A cross-cultural comparison of leader ethics.
ABSTRACT
The answer to what makes an effective leader has long been the "holy grail" of business research. By and large, theorists have abandoned trait and behavior approaches in favor of situational leadership theories. Popular press gurus, however, continue to focus on a "leader ethic" (traits and behavior) as the foundation to effective leadership. Further, gurus such as Bass (transformational leadership), Goleman (emotional intelligence) and Covey (seven habits) believe that this fundamental ethic is universal to mankind. As such, this research uses Stephen Covey's seven habits of effectiveness and the characteristics of emotional intelligence and transformational leadership to explore how leaders from various cultures (e.g., U.S., Russia, Germany, and China) rank the popular traits and behaviors that make up a "leader ethic." The rankings are compared across gender, age groups, supervisory levels, and professions. Cultural differences of opinion are examined in terms of Hofstede's cultural dimensions (e.g., uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, power distance and time) for possible insights to variances in "leader ethic." The findings endorse the universality of Covey's "Seven Habits" and have clear implication for understanding and training cross-cultural leadership. INTRODUCTION The answer to what makes an effective leader has long been the "holy grail" of business researchers. Part of the problem is that the term "leadership" means different things to different people. Most, however, agree that leadership involves influencing followers to accomplish organizational goals. Originally, this influencing power was thought to spring from the leader's extraordinary abilities such as tireless energy, penetrating intuition, uncanny foresight and irresistible persuasive skill. Eventually this thought was abandoned because empirical researchers noted that the possession of these traits did not necessarily guarantee the successful accomplishment of organizational goals. Subsequently, researchers began to believe that it was the leader's behavior that made all the difference (e.g., focus on task, focus on employees or some combination thereof). Now, however, theorists believe that effectiveness is dependent upon providing the right leadership style for a given situation. In other words, the situational factors (e.g., leader's authority, subordinates' capab...See the full content of this document
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