Chapter 11- Leadership and Culture

A person's culture is what helps to shape what a person does and believes. This chapter of the book talks about that GLOBE Project which is the largest cross-cultural study of leadership and culture to date. All people, even within the same country, have a different meaning of what a leader is. Just because the definitions may all be different, does not mean we have different characteristics to define a good or effective leader.

Some cultures look at someone as being a weak leader for certain attributes while another group of people from a different cultural background see a strong leader. The chapter looks from an Asian cultural perspective and says displaying emotion is a lack of self-control and a sign of weakness. Where the same qualities in Latin and Mediterranean cultures are used to be an effective commmunicator and leader.

From examples like this, we need to be open to people that have a different background. The United States is very culturally diverse today. This means that we will all encounter in our professional careers someone that has a different culture than us. Because of this, we need to be open to others feelings. What we see as effective leadership will not be the case for everyone. This chapter helps us see that whether we are a leader or follower, we need to be alert as to who we are in contact with. By being sensitive to others cultural background, we are being effective leaders from any position of an organization or group.