Culture and Leadership

Agenda What is leadership? What are cultural differences in leadership? How to be an effective leader across different cultures?– Cultural Intelligence Assess CQ based on experiences in BafaBafa

How to study leadership Subordinates have expectations of what a leader should be like People who meet these expectations are more likely to be judged a s leaders People from different cultures can have different and similar expectations

Research on subordinate expectations Universally “desirable” and “undesirable” expectations Culturally contingent expectations Together form SIX universally common conceptions Cultures vary in degree to which they are expected

Dimensions that subordinates judge leaders on Charisma –Inspire, motivate, high performance expectations, have firm, core beliefs Team oriented Participative Humane Autonomous Self-protective Globe Study

Dimensions of leadership Universal –Task concern –Relationship concern Culture-specific –Fairness? Other reserach

Process of leadership Culture Image of a leader How subordinate responds to a leader Acceptable substitute for a leader Individual & Team Effectiveness

Leader success in different cultures Expatriate adjustment Overcome culture shock, Ability to meet physical needs and social demands Turnover Task performance/Success

Cultural Intelligence: A ‘predictor’ of expatriate adaptation Ability to gather, interpret, act upon different cues to behave in novel and effective ways in different cultural settings or in a multicultural setting –Persist & believe in one self efficacy in spite of obstacles

IQ theories: –Ability to adapt to others and situations Leadership education : –Integrates knowledge, behavior, motivation –Customized to individual strengths and weaknesses CQ and other frameworks

What CQ is not-- SI Social intelligence –Ability to empathize, work, direct, interact with others –Capacity to perform actions with and through others (social problem solving) –Manage people –Assumes others are not culturally different from target individual

What CQ is not-- EI EI –Understand and convey affect –Self regulate emotion –Assumes individual is familiar with culture and context (where the affect has a particular meaning) –Assumes interacting with culturally similar others

CQ is not cultural competence Cultural competence includes personality, CQ does not

Summary of Dimensions of CQ Meta cognition –Strategize about how to learn/interpret cultural differences Cognition –Knowing the content of cultural differences Motivation –Confidence to persist & exert effort in cultural situations Behavior –Ability to imitate social behaviors, acquire new behavioral repertoire e.g., kissing in cultures

Types of meta cognition Meta-cognitive knowledge –Knowing how to ‘learn’ (critical thinking), what to learn, how to deal with knowledge about cultural differences Meta-cognitive experience –What experiences to incorporate, how to do that, to learn for future interactions

Class Activity Go over your answers in the self reflection paper and highlight where you have obtained meta cognitive knowledge and meta cognitive experience If you don’t have it, what should you do to obtain such knowledge and experience

Cognitive CQ Knowledge of cultural universals and differences –Not just values, but also economic, legal systems etc Knowing oneself Being flexible in understanding why people function as they do, and changing perception of oneself

Motivational CQ Motivated (direct attention & energy) to use knowledge of cultural difference and behave appropriate to culture

Motivational CQ--II Believing in one’s ability to be able to deal with people from novel cultures, Not disengaging after initial failure, Not needing rewards to persist even under personal threat Have a problem-solving/strategic approach to overcome obstacles

Set goals to master cultural interactions Flexibility – –Strongly held norms and values (which form self) focus what one attends to behavioral choices, may lead to difficulty Motivational CQ--II

Class Activity Go over your answers in the self reflection paper and highlight where you have displayed motivational cq –Self efficacy, persistence, goal setting, flexibility

Behavioral CQ Able to acquire and display behaviors for new culture (despite reservations) Needs persistence to acquire skills Needs aptitude to determine what new behaviors are needed and how to execute them effectively Observe other’s behaviors to mimic, observe their reactions and modify to put them at ease

Dimensions are inter-related and can affect each other Meta-cognition  cognition Self-efficacy  Strategic thinking (meta cognition)  behavior –> motivation Meta cognition + cognition  behavior

Using features of CQ to design inter-cultural training

Meta-cognitive Training- I Planning –Generate cognitive structures –Higher level thinking strategies –After observing relationships, generate strategies for evaluating validity of relationships across situations –Use conditional knowledge to adjust hypotheses e.g., asking how are you

Monitoring –Reason inductively –Deliberate, formulate hypo concerning actions –Monitory internal and external cues –Focus on culturally discrepant information and adjust schema Meta-cognitive Training-II

Monitoring (cont’d) –Evaluate surroundings –Learn about one’s own learning –Critically reflect on own performance in cultural interactions Meta-cognitive Training --III

Evaluating –Ability to learn about one’s own learning –Think critically and reflexively on one’s own performance in cultural intelligence –Focus on tools for generalization E.g., general cultural assimilator vs. specific one –Emphasize inductive logic and reasoning –Introspect about learning styles Meta-cognitive Training --IV

Training in Cognitive CQ Who, what why and how –E.g., Cultural assimilators, documentaries or experiential learning with a specific culture Examine schemas about the self, social interactions, culture –How personal goals affect info processing & behavior

Training in Motivational CQ Use cultural experiences to build and enhance self efficacy –Short, simple, controlled, successful and incremental experiences (e.g., focus on simple and salient rituals) Efficacy  persistence Generate curiosity – tendency to experiment and observe

Behavioral CQ Use drama to help individual adopt an integrative, multisensory approach to experience learning and improve self knowledge and cognition, improve understanding of feelings and motivation of others, bolster self efficacy, learn nuances of behavior and action –E.g., role plays, performance, visual arts

Behavioral CQ- II Behaviors that are sanctioned are identified and transferred to learner, Reinforcement and punishment are used to guide behavior change in role plays and simulations. –Break out of old habits and gain a new repertoire of culturally appropriate behaviors

Why are previous approaches ineffective Focus on culture specific training Identify cultural value frameworks for trainees that can degrade into stereotyping Do not adjust for individual differences in CQ Do not consider intensity, duration, nature of expat assignments Do not teach for generalization in other cultures

Additional notes not used in lecture

CQ Focus on individual strengths and weaknesses Knowledge, learning, motivation, behaviors

Training in CQ Moves away from culture specific knowledge Values orientation vs direct knowledge/experience

Individual factors predicting expatriate adjustment Self Efficacy Relational Skills Perception Skills

Individual factors predicting Expatriate Success Ability to manage stress Communicate effectively Establish interpersonal relationships