Eye Beholder\', Analyse Leadership Styles Shown Bert

¶ … Eye Beholder', analyse leadership styles shown Bert Donaldson members

There are a number of mistakes that Bert Donaldson made in terms of properly demonstrating global leadership in the anecdote "The case of the floundering expatriate." In all fairness to the executive, these mistakes were actually reinforced if not directly created by other members of his management team at Argos Diesel. The principle mistake that Donaldson, his supervisor Steve Waterhouse, and Argos International's CEO and chairman Bill Loun made was assuming that leading overseas, European workers and employees would be similar to doing so with American workers. This assumption proved to have extremely noxious ramifications, because it overlooked the salient cultural differences that exist between countries and continents, and which directly affect employee productivity and worker morale.

Furthermore, these individuals actually exacerbated this initial mistake by continually harping on the previous success of Donaldson. Both Donaldson and Waterhouse continually reflect on his previous stateside success -- which is of little use on the Continent. Loun, for his part, effectively ignores Waterhouse's concern regarding Donaldson's ability in Europe by dismissing reports of his difficulties as "rubbish" (Adler et al., 1995). None of these leaders is effectively heeding the signs that Donaldson is culturally inept in his new environment.

It is significant to realize the Donaldson's leadership, which was so effective in the U.S., in not so in Europe because of a difference in cultural perspective. Donaldson was characterized as a "charismatic" (Adler et al., 1995) leader in the U.S., which is a hands-on, involved leadership style that works best when workers have an affable rapport with their leader. However, cultural differences between the North American and the European continent result in Donaldson's up front, interactive verbal approach becoming misinterpreted as one that is "abrasive" (Adler et al., 1995) and disarming to employees in Europe, who more than likely prefer an understated style in which one only communicates in when there are problems.

If I were Bert's boss, I would determine the reason that he is unable to adapt his style of leadership to that of his team members for a couple of different reasons. One is that he believes that his previous success (in Detroit) is a universal indicator of his prowess of a leader. Because of that success, Donaldson does not believe that he needs to adapt his leadership style; rather, he believes that others should adapt their working tendencies to augment his own particular style. This sort of thinking is aligned with implicit leadership theory, which contends that

…individuals hold a set of beliefs about the kinds of attributes, personality characteristics, skills, and behaviors that contribute to or impede outstanding leadership. These belief systems, are assumed to affect the extent to which an individual accepts and responds to others as leaders (Javidan et al., 2006, p. 72).

Thus, it is this fundamental flaw in Donaldson's thinking, which is actually the assumption inherent in implicit leadership theory, that is actually preventing him from adapting his style to a more universal form of leadership that is inclusive of the mores of other foreign cultures. The basis of the code-switching development plan that will be implemented to allow Donaldson to adapt to the cultural differences at his new position will revolve around culturally endorsed implicit leadership theory, which is the belief that "universally perceived leadership attributes…are contributors or inhibitors to outstanding leadership (Javidan et al., 2006, p. 73). By attempting to forget his previous success and to broaden his horizons to include more universal input regarding the values of what is considered a good leader, Donaldson will be able to utilize code-switching -- which is defined as "the practice of moving between variations of languages in different contexts" (Coffey, no date) and which includes switching between different cultural norms -- to improve his relationship and rate of success with his European contemporaries.