Because of my life choices, I am unusually sensitive to cultural nuance and potential complications. It seems odd to me that so few of the studies referred to in Northouse’s (2015) work are based on non-Western environments. I greatly appreciate the willingness of researchers like Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacob, and Felishman (2000) to acknowledge their unique study population and the possible limits to their findings’ generalizability. While it’s the nature of researchers to want to find universal patterns, it is unlikely that we can overemphasize the importance of cultural context in leadership.
For instance, Gen. Stanley McChristal’s claim that “a leader isn’t good because they’re right; they’re good because they’re willing to learn, and willing to trust,” (McChrystal, n.d.) shows a humble adaptability not usually associated with military leaders. However, I wonder if those traits would help military leaders from other cultures. For five years, I was on the selection committee for several U.S. State Department fellowships for international students. The applicants’ essays describing leaders they admired routinely named Stalin, Hitler, Putin, and Genghis Khan, citing their unwavering and ruthless commitment to their vision as the keys to greatness. For many Central Asians, the willingness to consider alternative viewpoints is a sign of weakness that causes followers to turn away.
On the other hand, studies of East-Asian cultures often report that the visible leaders, including CEO’s, political party secretaries, presidents, and prime ministers, are often merely the spokesmen for other unnamed agents. In collectivist societies, true power comes from being able to influence without taking the risk of being identified as the leader (Augsburger, 1995; Rhie, 2005; Roskin, 2012).
On a personal level, we have all probably had experiences in which we needed to vary our leadership styles due to our cultural contexts. As the director of an international school, I attempted to communicate directly and frequently to large groups and individuals. When working with my wife’s mother and aunts, though, I have learned to communicate desires indirectly because they like to make decisions based on a sense of consensus, and they see direct communication as unnecessarily confrontational. When I was the youngest faculty member in a department with eighteen women and only one other man, I learned that I could get things done if I approached each other teacher individually in the days leading up to a department meeting, and then sit quietly through the meeting, but if I presented an idea for the first time in the large group, it would be immediately shut down. When addressing staff problems at the clinic in a Kyrgyz village, though, social norms lead to the best results when I address the staff, all of whom are women younger than me, with a strong and almost angry paternalistic tone in meetings, and then meet individually to follow up on action items – almost a good-cop/bad-cop routine when the “bad cop” leads the meetings and the “good cop” consoles the individuals.
These examples show that McChrystal is right: good leaders need to be willing to learn and willing to trust. However, in some cultures or situations, good leaders need to act as if they know everything and do not trust anyone; they sometimes need to hide their humility and vulnerability.
References
Augsburger, D. W. (1995). Conflict Mediation Across Cultures: Pathways and Patterns. Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press.
McChrystal, S. (2018). Listen, learn … then lead. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal
Mumford, M. D., Zaccaro, S. J., Harding, F. D., Jacobs, T. O., & Fleishman, E. A. (2000). Leadership skills for a changing world: Solving complex social problems. The Leadership Quarterly, 11(1), 11–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1048-9843(99)00041-7
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition (7 edition). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Rhie, W. (2005). Korea Unmasked: In Search of the Country, the Society and the People. (J. UN & L. CHOI, Trans.). Seoul: Gimm-Young International.
Roskin, M. G. (2012). Countries and Concepts: Politics, Geography, Culture (12 edition). New York: Pearson.
