Mansour Javidan

Understanding cultures and implicit leadership theories across the globe: an introduction to project GLOBE

GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) is a research program focusing on culture and leadership in 61 nations. National cultures are examined in terms of nine dimensions: performance orientation, future orientation, assertiveness, power distance, humane orientation, institutional collectivism, in-group collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and gender egalitarianism. In a survey of thousands of middle managers in food processing, finance, and telecommunications industries in these countries, GLOBE compares their cultures and attributes of effective leadership. Six global leadership attributes are identified and discussed.

Components of CEO Transformational Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility

abstract We use transformational leadership theory to explore the role of CEOs in determining the extent to which their firms engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). We test this theory using data from 56 US and Canadian firms. CEO intellectual stimulation (but not CEO charismatic leadership) is found to be significantly associated with the propensity of the firm to engage in ‘strategic’ CSR, or those CSR activities that are most likely to be related to the firms corporate and business‐level strategies. Thus, studies that ignore the role of leadership in CSR may yield imprecise conclusions regarding the antecedents and consequences of these activities. We also critique transformational leadership theory, in terms of its overemphasis on charismatic forms of leadership. This leads to a reconceptualization of transformational leadership, which emphasizes the intellectual stimulation component in the context of CSR.

Project GLOBE: An Introduction

Le projet GLOBE est decrit dans cet article, avec ses bases conceptuelle et methodologique. Une introduction est indispensable puisque les travaux presentes dans ce numero relevent de ce projet qui est une etude exceptionnelle de 61 pays sous divers aspects et a partir de plusieurs methodes; il porte sur la vaste question de la culture, du leadership et des pratiques organisationnelles. Plus de 150 specialistes du management et des sciences sociales des 61 pays y ont contribue. L’objectif global du projet est le developpement d’une theorie empirique destinee a decrire, comprendre et predire l’impact de variables culturelles specifiques sur le leadership, les processus organisationnels et leur efficience. L’article survole differents aspects de ce projet et peut etre utilise pour se reperer dans les autres contributions.

Southern Asia cluster: where the old meets the new?

The GLOBE southern Asia cluster consists of India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand. The cluster has a total population of almost 1.5 billion and a gross domestic product of almost U.S.

Effective Leadership and Culture in Iran: An Empirical Study

1 trillion. The hallmark of the cluster is its high power distance and group and family collectivism practices. In terms of values, it aspires for a much stronger future orientation and performance orientation, and much lower levels of power distance. The cluster highly values charismatic, team oriented, and humane leadership. The managerial implications of GLOBE findings are discussed in the paper.

Exploring Charismatic Leadership in the Public Sector: Measurement and Consequences

On analyse dans cet article les caracteristiques du leadership efficace en Iran, puis on envisage les liens possibles entre ce profil de leadership et les dimensions culturelles du pays. A partir des donnees fournies par 300 managers provenant de plus de 60 organisations relevant de trois secteurs industriels, on commence par utiliser les dimensions du projet GLOBE pour evaluer la culture iranienne dont les scores sont compares a ceux d’autres pays. S’appuyant a la fois sur l’emic et l’etic du leadership, les auteurs developpent sept dimensions du leadership: encourageant, dictatorial, visionnaire, familial, modeste, loyal et receptif. Ils soutiennent que certaines de ces dimensions traduisent les aspects universels (ou etic) du leadership (encourageant, dictatorial), alors que d’autres procedent de l’emic, c’est-a-dire de la specificite culturelle du leadership (modeste, familial, loyal). Les resultats sont discutes en terme de positionnement de la culture iranienne entre des entrelacements fondamentaux et des traditions culturelles complexes. On aborde enfin la question des retombees sur les recherches a venir.

Managerial implications of the GLOBE project: A study of 62 societies

A survey of more than 203 middle and upper–middle managers that assessed their superiors (N=51) in the Canadian public sector showed that charismatic leadership in such a setting comprises four dimensions: (1) energy and determination; (2) vision; (3) challenge and encouragement; and (4) risk taking. However, such leadership is only modestly related to motivational consequences and is not significantly related to unit performance. We discuss our findings in terms of their theoretical implications for leadership research in general and for the public sector in particular.

Superior and Subordinate Gender and the Acceptance of Superiors as Role Models

This paper provides an overview of the GLOBE project, a comprehensive study of leadership and culture in 62 societies and discusses the practical implications of the study for managers and leaders. The GLOBE study identifies nine cultural and six leadership dimensions and was designed to examine a number of theoretical propositions and research questions. This paper, while emphasizing aspects of the study from the Asia Pacific region, highlights six major managerial implications of the GLOBE project ranging from more static information on the cultural attributes and leadership dimensions of specific countries or groups of countries (clusters) to more dynamic implications such as relationships between culture and leadership, and relationships between culture and societal phenomena. The paper concludes by emphasizing the significance of the GLOBE studys practical implications for global managers (including HR practitioners) in todays global business world.

Conceptualizing and measuring global mindset

This study investigates the criteria for acceptance of an employees superior as a role model, with special attention placed on the effect of superior/subordinate gender. The data for the study were collected from 1579 senior managers from three large Canadian public and quasi-public organizations. While significant gender differences were found, they were relatively unimportant determinants of role model acceptance. By far the most important determinant of subordinate acceptance of a superior as a role model is the subordinates perception of the superiors performance.

Leading a high-commitment high-performance organization

The Global Mindset Inventory® has been developed through a very rigorous theoretical and empirical process. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated three components: (a) intellectual capital, (b) social capital, and (c) psychological capital. Each component had good internal reliability. Each component showed evidence for discriminant and convergent validity. The instrument development followed a multiphase, multimethod research methodology, and has robust psychometric properties as evidenced by its strong reliability scores and its multidimensional validity properties.