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Leader Effectiveness and Culture: The GLOBE Study
The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness Research Program (GLOBE) is a multi-phase, cross-cultural project that was carried out by investigators around the world to investigate inter-relationships between organizational culture, societal culture and organizational leadership (House et al. 2002). Robert, J. House saw the need for cross cultural leadership theory as well as research and conceived the action point of a global research undertaking in 1991. The program formally began in 1993 with a team of 160 scholars who studied societal and organizational structure, and the attributes of effective leadership in 62 countries (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010). The researchers measured culture at different levels of industry organization and society and presented results in the form of qualitative and quantitative data sourced from responses of 17,000 managers from a number of entities (951 organizations to be specific), from the 62 societies. This text compares societal cultures and the cultural dimensions of the United States and India, and finds out the extent to which culture moderates relationships between organizational processes and organizational effectiveness. And China on the GLOBE cultural dimensions in detail.
The nine dimensions of culture
One of the major issues that were addressed by the GLOBE research was the dimensions that would measure societal and organizational cultures. Researchers came up with nine cultural dimensions that captured diversities and semblances in values and beliefs amongst different societies. These are: Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, humane orientation, collectivism 1 (institutional), collectivism II (in group), assertiveness, gender egalitarianism, future orientation, and performance orientation (House et al., 2004). Globe also established specific leader behaviors and how they are linked to cultural features.
Table 1 displays the value dimensions which are divided into values and practices. Value data are from answers to the "what should be" questions and practice data answers the question "what is" since it is widely acknowledged that cultural ideals are often different from cultural practices (New Mexico State University, 2014).
Table 1: The U.S. And China GLOBE cultural dimensions
Dimension
The United States
China
Value
Practice
Value
Practice
Power distance
2.85
4.88
2.67
5.47
Uncertainty avoidance
4.00
4.15
4.73
4.15
Humane orientation
5.53
4.17
5.28
4.57
Collectivism I
4.17
4.20
4.71
4.38
Table 2: Differences between the U.S. And China cultures
Dimension
The United States
China
Value
Practice
Value
Practice
Power distance
The U. S believes in separation by power, authority and prestige
The actual segregation of people as per ranks, power and prestige is lower than China
Powers are not distributed equally. A few people control the population
The actual number is higher than the ideal and greater than that of the U.S.
Uncertainty avoidance
The society believes in orderliness, consistency and structure
The degree to which the society actually relies on rules and procedures is high
The people of China believe social norms and rules alleviate unpredictability of events in the future.
Reliance on norms, rules and procedures does not greatly translate to orderliness and consistency in day-to-day life.
Humane orientation
The society believes that people should be fair, generous and caring towards each other
The degree to which the people are caring and altruistic is lower than that of China.
The Chinese culture invigorates persons to be equitable, generous and kind to others.
A large percentage of the population is, however, less caring and generous.
Collectivism I
Organizations and institutions believe in collective resource distribution as well as collective action
The actual number of organizations who practice harmony and cooperation is high.
The society highly encourages institutions to integrate individuals into broader entities with harmony and cooperation
A lot of institutions do not encourage cooperation, although the number is higher than that of the United States
Collectivism II
The American culture believes people should be proud of and loyal to their families, organizations and employers
The degree to which the society embraces and is loyal to their families…
References
Ahlstrom, D. & Bruton, G.D. (2010). International Management: Strategy and Culture in the Emerging World. South-Western: Cengage learning
Alon, I. (Ed). (2003). Chinese Culture, Organizational Behavior, and International Business Management. Westport: Praeger Publishers
House R.J. And Hanges P.J., Javidan M., Dorfman P.W., Gupta V. (2004). Culture, Leadership, and Organizations. The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
House R.J. And Hanges P.J., Javidan M., Dorfman P.W., Gupta V. (2002). Understanding Cultures and Implicit Leadership Theories Across the Globe: An Introduction to Project Globe. The Journal of World Business (37) Retrieved 13 January 2015 from http://www.iucedu.eu/group/sem1_L3/2013%20CCAINT/reading/Understanding%20cultures%20House%20Javidan.pdf
New Mexico State University. (2014). GLOBE Phase 2 Aggregated Social Level Data for Society Culture Scales. The NMSU College of Business Library. Retrieved 13 January 2015 from http://business.nmsu.edu/research/programs/globe/instruments/
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