1. Cultural intelligence and
Leadership Styles
Coping with national, corporate
and vocational cultures

2. Definitions:
 Generally referred to as CQ
 The ability to make sense of unfamiliar contexts,
consider changing and diverse needs and then
blend in.
Christoper Earley and Elaine Mosakowski (2004)

3. Leadership and Management
Leader Manager
 inspires  controls
thinks
does


 motivates
 initiates change
 organises
 takes decisions
 adjusts to change
 sets objectives  implements
 driving force decisions
 unmethodical  gets results
 apart from others  co-ordinator
self-sufficient
methodical


Michael Shea 1990  involved with others

4. Leadership and Management
 Leadership is more than just
management
 Focuses more on people than task
 Requires ability to motivate and inspire
 Has capacity for independent vision L M

5. Leadership - Schools of thought
Four ways of looking at leadership:
 Trait theories
 What personal qualities are required for
leadership?
 Style theories
 How leadership works
 Situational theories
 How the situation affects leadership

6. Trait theories
 Based on the belief that there are people born with
leadership qualities (or develop them early in life)
 Numerous studies (eg Bennis and Nanus, 1985) have
tried to identify key traits
 In 100 studies up to 1950 only 5% agreement:
intelligence initiative self-assurance
 Hundreds of theories but only 5 traits keep
reappearing:
 Intelligence – above average, not genius
 Initiative – independence and inventiveness
 Self assurance – self confidence, self esteem
 Helicopter ability to give overview
 Good health

7. Criticisms of Trait Theories
 seek an impossible ideal personality
 too many exceptions to the rule
 difficult to define the qualities
 impossible to measure the qualities
 they do not acknowledge context of the
leader
 what came first - trait or leadership
 more democratic society
 Organisations are complex
 requires more than a strong personality

8. Style theories of leadership
(1 dimension)
 How does behaviour affect leaders’
effectiveness?
One dimensional theories identify a single
continuum:
AUTOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC
power from one person power from group

9. Style Theories of leadership
(2 dimensions)
 Two dimensional theories
recognise that leaders tend to focus on:
task AND/OR
people
Concern for
PEOPLE
Blake and Mouton 1964 Concern for Tasks

10. Criticisms of Style Theories
 Too simplistic to say autocratic leadership is wrong and
democratic leadership is right
 Some people prefer to be directed and their work to be
structured
 Theory may be round the wrong way:
Not -
Democratic leadership leads to effective working
But -
Effective working leads to democratic leadership
 Theories emphasise relationship rather than tasks

11. Action-centred leadership
John Adair 1979 TASK
INDIVIDUAL GROUP
Action in one area affects the others

12. Situational/Contingency
theories of leadership
 How do situations affect leadership?
Fiedler, 1967
 LEADERSHIP STYLE
 Task orientated
 Relationship orientated
 SITUATION
 Leader/group relations
 Task structure
 Position power

13. Potential leader control
Task Relations
HIGH orientated Structure
Position power
Relationship Relations
MODERATE orientated
Structure
Position power
Relations
MODERATE Relationship Structure
orientated Position power
Task
Relations
LOW Structure
orientated
Position power
Low/poor High/good

14. Culture & leadership styles
 Laurent’s work (1983, 1989) shows national
culture 3 times more important than age, industry
etc on shaping managerial assumptions
 Gert Hofstede’s Research into IBM managers in
66 countries (’80), 4 primary dimensions
 Power distance – worker influence and participation
 Uncertainty Avoidance – need for rules
 Individualism – person versus group
 Masculinity – attitudes and roles

15. Managing Diversity & Sources
of cultural intelligence
 Cultural intelligence enables a person to distinguish
behaviours produced by a culture in question from those
that are peculiar to particular individuals and those found
in all human beings.
 1. The Head/Cognitive – learning about the beliefs,
customs and taboos of foreign cultures
 2. The body/physical- actions and demeanor must prove
that you have already to some extent entered their world
and;
 3. The heart/emotional/motivational- adapting by
overcoming setbacks and obstacles. This is possible if
you believe in your efficacy.

16. Cultivating CQ
 Examine your CQ strengths and
weaknesses in order to establish a
starting point.
 Select training that focuses on your
weaknesses

17. Motivation and culture
 Japanese saying:
`The nail that sticks out gets hammered down’
 i.e. no individual should stand out from the
group…So an individual reward may be de-
motivating and embarrass employee
 In high context collectivist cultures, offering
rewards for individual behaviour that runs
against group norms is unlikely to motivate

18.  In feminine cultures – shorter/more
convenient working hours are valued
 Masculine cultures value opportunities
for promotionHigh Uncertainty
Avoidance (UA) cultures value job
security

19.  Low UA cultures value job variety
 Wide Power Distance (PD) cultures
value opportunities to work for manager
who shows loyalty to staff and gives
clear instructions
 Narrower PD cultures – value
opportunities to work with a manager
who is consultative