Luciara Nardon

Culture, cognition, and managerial leadership

Much of the research on global leadership focuses on specific traits that managers and leaders should possess. While the literature acknowledges the importance of cultural differences in influencing both leadership and followership, it largely ignores differences in cognitive processes that can influence how attitudes are developed and behaviours are manifested in local environments as they relate to leadership. With this in mind, this paper examines the role of culture and cognitive processes in leader behaviour, and works to explain why such differences exist across regions. The example of China is used to illustrate the validity of this approach. Implications for research, theory development, and management practice are discussed.

Learning Cultures on the Fly

Developing successful relationships with people from different cultures is challenging by definition. Several reasons account for this, including peoples tendencies to have preconceived notions about how the world works (or should work), how individuals behave (or should behave), and which behaviors are acceptable (or unacceptable). These ideas are largely influenced by our personal experiences and the cultures in which we grew up. We tend to approach intercultural interactions based on our own perceptions, beliefs, values, biases, and misconceptions about what is likely to happen (Kluckhohn, 1954; Geertz, 1973; Hofstede, 1980, 1991; Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1998; Schneider & Barsoux, 2003; Steers & Nardon, 2006). As a result, when we engage in exchanges with people from different cultures we often find that the consequences of our actions are different from what we expected or intended (Adler, 2002). The results can range from embarrassment to insult to lost business opportunities.

Making sense of foreign context: Skilled migrant’s perceptions of contextual barriers and career options

This study amplifies understanding of the occupational marginalization of skilled migrants by elaborating the role of cognition in skilled migrants’ perception of contextual barriers and career options. Our qualitative analysis of interviews with 13 Filipino engineers who migrated to Canada revealed that migrants’ perceptions are influenced by their mobility frames. We identified three cognitive mobility frames: migrant, migrant professional, and mobile professional. We found that migrants accessed local interpretations of contextual barriers through interactions in the situational context and that migrants’ mobility frames focused their attention on particular individual resources and characteristics of context, suggesting potential career options.

Towards a strategic understanding of global teams and their HR implications: an expert dialogue

Abstract Drawing on initial insights emerging from a panel at the EIBA 2016 Conference in Vienna, here discussants and expert panelists engage in a follow-on conversation on the HRM implications of global teams for international organizations. First we set out how HRM can enable global teams and their constituent members to overcome the new and considerable challenges of global teams. These challenges span levels of analysis, time and space. Next we debate global teams as a strategic response to the dual pressures of global integration and local adaptation. We consider what HRM is needed for global teams to successfully resolve this dilemma, challenging practitioners to move beyond the ‘best practices’ and ‘alignment’ dichotomy. Lastly we look to the future to consider implications for research. We propose a rich research agenda focused on the complexities of the global team context.

Refugee workforce integration: an interdisciplinary literature review

In this paper we review multidisciplinary literature on refugees with the aim of stimulating informed interdisciplinary research that addresses the increasingly topical issue of refugee workforce i...

Accounting for Culture in the Development of Global Leaders

Understanding why organizations fail or succeed typically requires, among other things, an assessment of leadership behaviors and contexts. Some experts, mostly those with a stronger psychological inclination, emphasize the figure of those in charge, their personality traits and habits, their charisma and style, their personal or task orientations, and so on. It is then the behavior displayed by specific individuals, particularly those at the top, which accounts for the performance of the firm. Other pundits, however, favor a sociological bias and explain performance less in terms of the behavior of the leader, and more as a function of the organizational leadership context, including here processes and systems, policies and practises orienting the final behavior of people in the organization. Of course, nobody will seriously disregard that both context and behaviors matter, but the fact is that scholars have traditionally felt more comfortable choosing one alternative viewpoint than trying to integrate both of them. As a result, traditional approaches to leadership in organizations suffer from partiality and excessive simplification. Consider the following scenario.

Leading global organizations

Management Challenge Despite the plethora of books on leadership, we still know very little about how or why leadership efforts succeed or fail. And we know even less about how to train leaders, global or otherwise, despite the innumerable training programs available. One thing is clear, however: leadership is not a quality or skill that can be easily replicated around the world. Leadership in Singapore, for example, is based on fundamentally different traditions and assumptions from those in the Netherlands, and these differences cannot be ignored. As a result, the challenge for global managers is to develop a sensitivity and understanding of how leadership efforts play out across countries and cultures, as well as how to behave when placed in or near such responsibilities. We explore this topic in this chapter, looking at the topic from different angles. We also discuss what is probably the most comprehensive study of global leadership (called GLOBE). Throughout, examples are used to illustrate the different faces of leadership across both cultures and organizations. CHAPTER OUTLINE • Dimensions of organizational leadership page 162 • Contemporary approaches to cross-cultural leadership 164 • Limitations on contemporary approaches 171 • GLOBE leadership study 174 • Women leaders: challenges and opportunities 179 • Leadership in China and the West 182 • MANAGERs NOTEBOOK: Leading global organizations 185 • Key terms 188 • Discussion questions 188 • Case: Emerson Electric – Suzhou 190 APPLICATIONS 6.1 Carlos Ghosn, Nissan page 166 6.2 Heroines of Reykjavik 168 6.3 Masataka Shimizu, TEPCO 170 6.4 Patronage and pok chow in Malaysia 173 6.5 Jogo de cintura, Brazil 178 6.6 Women leaders in India 181 A recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, brought together over 1,000 corporate executives, 50 heads of state, and 300 cabinet ministers to discuss world challenges ranging from deficits to competitiveness to deadly diseases. At the conclusion of the conference, an observer from The Economist characterized the meeting as having one overriding theme: the importance of developing global leaders – in corporations, nation states, and NGOs. “The two most popular words in the business lexicon today are ‘global’ and ‘leadership.’ Put them together and people in suits start to salivate.” Indeed, global leadership is both an important topic and a topic about which we understand far less than we pretend.