Combinative Aspects of Leadership Style: A Comparison of Australian and Chinese Followers
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Combinative Aspects of Leadership Style: A Comparison of Australian and Chinese Followers Gian Casimir and Zhidong Li Newcastle Graduate School of Business, University of Newcastle, Newcastle 2300, Australia. E-mails: [email protected], [email protected]
As foreign investment flows into China, so too do foreign managers and management theories. China is Australia’s third-largest trading partner, while Australia ranks in China’s top-ten. As a consequence, there is a lot of interaction between Australian and Chinese organizations. It is therefore worth examining the preferred management styles of Chinese and Australians, due to the increasing need for international managers from these two countries to adapt to the requirements of different cultural contexts. This study is the first to provide a cross-cultural comparison of followers’ preferences for combinative aspects of leadership style with regard to task-oriented leadership and socio-emotional leadership. Data were obtained from white-collar employees in Australia (n ¼ 101) and China (n ¼ 116) who provided Like/Dislike responses and rankings for four combinative styles relating to task-oriented leadership (ie Pressure) and socio-emotional leadership (ie Support). Both groups preferred to receive Pressure and Support contiguously and to not receive Pressure on its own. Differences in preferred combinative styles were found and these are discussed in terms of power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Asian Business & Management (2005) 4, 271–291. doi:10.1057/palgrave.abm.9200132 Keywords: leadership style; cultural differences; scripts
Introduction China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) has set it on a path that will inevitably integrate its economy into the global economic framework. The greater levels of economic growth and governmental reforms that have occurred since its WTO entry place China in a better position to attract foreign investors. Such investment not only brings in additional capital but also more importantly technology, market information and management (Cheng, 1999). A potential problem that arises from China’s greater economic involvement with the rest of the world, especially with Westernized nations and Australia in Received 2 July 2004; revised 8 December 2004; accepted 17 February 2005
Gian Casimir and Zhidong Li Combinative Aspects of Leadership Style
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particular, is that cultural differences in factors such as social hierarchies and preferred leadership styles may reduce the effectiveness of international managers (Beamer, 1998). A leader is a group member who directs the group’s task-related and socioemotional activities. A manager occupies a position of formal authority and is required to enact several leadership functions (eg task oriented and socioemotional). In this paper, the term ‘follower’ will be used to refer to those employees who report to the leader/manager and are therefore exposed to the leader or manager’s influence attempts. There is a distinction made in the leadership literature between l
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