Leadership: The five Big Ideas
There are some reasonable qualities that are found in good leaders – qualities that can be developed or may be intrinsically or naturally part of their personality.Robert J. Allio (2009), in his article, laid out some big ideas on how to strategize and lead.
A good leader has an exemplary character.
It important for a leader to be dependable when it comes to leading others. A good leader "walks the talk" and motivates the people around him to do the same thing. By doing so, all will benefit from the positive results, which can also result in a happy workplace.
A good leader is enthusiastic.
A good leader is energetic about their work and embraces their role as a leader. Individuals will react more openly to a leader who has energy and commitment. Leaders should have the capacity to be a source of motivation and be a stimulator towards the goal of the team. This sort of leader won't be reluctant to get involved in the actual work.
A good leader communicates.
Another characteristic of a good leader is having the capacity to convey. Leaders who convey well are those who share their thoughts with employees. They also let their strength and personal character show through in their communication. In addition, they empower those who work for them by characterizing the company's goal and showing them how to strive for it.
Culturally-linked leadership styles
The goal of Uma D. Jogulu’s (2010) article is to determine whether leadership styles vary with culture – are they culturally-linked or are they culturally-biased? A survey that consists of multifactor leadership questions was used, with the goal of proving that the “one size fits all” view about leadership is not appropriate.
Different countries have different cultures
According to the results, transactional leadership was habitually practiced in Malaysia while transformational leadership is seen to often be exercised in Australia. Therefore, it is evident that leadership styles are culturally-linked, which supports the article’s argument.
Plurality of leadership styles
Different cultures hold subjective beliefs towards handling leadership. As an example, it is mentioned above that Malaysia and Australia, possessing different cultures as countries, differ in their approaches to leadership styles. Having said that, it is important to identify the leadership skills and knowledge that are valued most by managers in countries that have different cultures; hence, the plurality of existing leadership styles.
Culture sensitivity
Most, if not all countries, are already experiencing globalization which means that people who are part of businesses or projects may come from different places with different cultures and beliefs. Being sensitive to what they believe in (as part of such cultures) is a huge requirement in leadership within this kind of business set-up.
Culture and Leadership: A Connectionist Information Processing Model
This particular article by Hanges et al. (2000) discussed about the new information processing model of culture and leadership. It showed how this particular model affects the increasing cultural diversity that is found in different organizations globally.
Culture and Leadership
These two concepts are found to be connected with each other in any globalized societies whose organizations and institutions are composed of different people with different beliefs. This is the main focus of the article.
The ‘connectionist model’
Hanges et al. (2000) presented a model of culture and leadership which was used as an efficient and powerful description of how culture and leadership influence follower reactions and behavior.
Integration strategy
This technique was proposed in order for leaders to find ways that resonate with their employees’ existing cultural expectations. Leaders attempt to explicitly learn these new cultures to ensure they effectively lead their workgroups.
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References
Allio, R.J., 2009. Leadership - the five big ideas. Strategy & Leadership,vol. 37(2), pp. 4-12
Hanges P.J. et al., 2000. Culture and leadership: A connectionist information processing model.
New York: William Morrow & Co.
Jogulu, U.D., 2010. Culturally-linked leadership styles. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 31(8,) pp. 705-719.
