INTERCULTURAL LEADERSHIP: Key Concepts for International Researchers

1. INTERCULTURAL LEADERSHIP:Key Concepts for International Researchers Iván C. Balán, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology (in Psychiatry) Columbia University Adjunct Faculty Robert J. Milano School of Management and Urban Policy The New School

2. Research & Leadership RESEARCHER -Recruitment -Data Collection -Assessments -Intervention -Data Analysis -Publications -Dissemination -Implementation • LEADER • -Leader vs. boss • -Inspire • -Motivating • -Team Cohesion • Team Engagement • Retain Talent • Organizational Change RESEARCH

3. Levels of Cultural Difference Individual Team Professional Discipline Organizational Culture National Culture

4. Goals of the presentation • Highlight the importance of leadership in conducting research • Provide a framework for understanding cultural differences • Identify how cultural differences affect the conduct of research, through: • leadership styles • team cohesion • motivation and commitment • Discuss the development of intercultural competency

5. The GLOBE Study House, R.J., Hanges, P.J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P.W., and Gupta, V. (2004). Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 societies Chhokar, J.S., Brodbeck, F.C., and House, R.J. (2007). Culture and Leadership Across the World: The GLOBE Book of In-Depth Studies of 25 Societies

6. Leadership Defined “The ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members” (the GLOBE Study)

7. GLOBE Overview • Funding: U.S. Dept. of Education , NationalScienceFoundation • Begun in 1993 with grant proposal and lit review • Over 150 Co-investigators • Requirements for participation • Domestic companies, no foreign multinationals • At least two industries from each society (ie., financial, food processing, telecommunications) • multiple respondents had to be obtained from each organization • respondents had to be middle managers

8. Some key questions • Are there leader behaviors, attributes, and organizational practices that are accepted and effective across cultures? • How do attributes of societal and organizational cultures affect the kinds of leader behavior and organizational practices that are accepted and effective? • What is the effect of violating cultural norms relevant to leadership and organizational practices? • What is the relative standing of each of the cultures studied on each of the nine core dimensions of culture?

9. GLOBE Dimensions • Performance Orientation • Future Orientation • Gender Egalitarianism • Assertiveness • Individualism and Collectivism • Institutional • In-Group • Power Distance • Humane Orientation • Uncertainty Avoidance

10. Data Collection • Qualitative • Quantitative • Societal and Organizational Culture • Society vs. Organization and As it is vs. As it should be • The economic system in this society is designed to maximize 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 individual interests collective interests • Leadership Questionnaire

11. GLOBE Participants • 17,370 middle managers, from 951 organizations in 62 countries • Number of participants per country ranged from 27 to 1,790, avg. 251 • More than 90% of the societies had sample sizes of 75+ participants • 74% of respondents were men • Mean F/T work experience of 19.2 years; Mean 10.5 yrs. as manager • Participants had worked for their organizations an avg. of 12.2 years • 51% had worked for a multinational corporation

12. Core Dimensions of Culture

13. Performance Orientation The extent to which a community encourages and rewards innovation, high standards, and performance improvement.

14. Performance Orientation

15. Future Orientation The degree to which a collectivity encourages and rewards future-oriented behaviors such as planning and delaying gratification

16. Future Orientation

17. Gender Egalitarianism The degree to which the differentiation between male and female roles is stressed.

18. Gender Egalitarianism

19. Assertiveness The degree to which individuals in organizations or societies are assertive, tough, dominant, and aggressive in social relationships.

20. Assertiveness

21. In-group Collectivism The degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and interdependence in their families

22. In-group Collectivism

23. Institutional Collectivism The degree to which institutional practices at the societal level encourage and reward collective action

24. Institutional Collectivism

25. Power Distance The degree to which a community accepts and endorses authority, power differences, and status privileges

26. Power Distance

27. Humane Orientation The degree to which an organization or society encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, friendly, generous, caring, and kind to others.

28. Humane Orientation

29. Uncertainty Avoidance The degree to which members of collectives seek orderliness, consistency, structure, formalized procedures, and laws to cover situations in their daily lives.

30. Uncertainty Avoidance

31. Culture and Leadership

32. Assessment of Desired Qualities • 112 characteristics and behaviors • Sensitive- Aware of slight changes in moods of others • Motivator- Mobilizes, activates followers • On a scale from 1-7, asked how much each item inhibits or contributes to effective leadership • Factor analyses yielded 6 global leader behavior dimensions

33. Leader Dimensions • Charismatic/value-based: ability to inspire, motivate, and expect high performance outcomes from others on the basis of firmly held core values. • Team-oriented: emphasizes effective team building and implementation of a common purpose or goal among team members. • Participative: Reflects the degree to which managers involve others in making and implementing decisions. • Humane Oriented: Reflects supportive and considerate leadership but also includes compassion and generosity. • Autonomous: Independent and individualistic approach to leadership. • Self-protective: Ensuring the safety and security of the individual or group member; emphasizes procedures, status-consciousness, and 'face-saving‘

35. Intercultural Competence:The Key to Bridging Cultural Differences “The critical element in the expansion of intercultural learning is not the fullness with which one knows each culture, but the degree to which the process of cross-cultural learning, communication, and human relations has been mastered.” (Hoopes)

36. Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity Milton Bennett, Ph.D.. • Theory posits a developmental approach to cultural sensitivity • A continuum of increasing sophistication in dealing with cultural difference, moving from ethnocentrism to enthnorelativism • Intercultural sensitivity is not natural, making this a proposal as to how to change “natural” behavior • Focuses on how an individual experience cultural differences

37. Experience of DifferenceDevelopment of Intercultural SensitivityDenial Defense Minimization Acceptance Adaptation Integration ETHNOCENTRIC STAGES ETHNORELATIVE STAGES

38. Ethnocentric Stages-----Ethnorelative StagesDenial--Defense--Minimization------Acceptance--Adaptation--Integration • Assuming that the worldview of one’s own culture is central to all reality • Similar to egocentrism • Basis for ethnocentric processes such as racism, negative evaluation of other cultures, and in-group/out-group distinctions

39. Ethnocentric Stages-----Ethnorelative StagesDenial--Defense--Minimization------Acceptance--Adaptation--Integration • A denial of difference is the purest form of ethnocentrism • A rather benign stage since conflict is avoided. For conflict to exist a recognition of difference has to exist • People of oppressed groups tend to not experience denial since non-dominant groups are often inundated with reminders they are different • Two stages of Denial: • Isolation: Found in areas where everyone is similar • Separation: Purposeful separation from other who are different

40. Ethnocentric Stages-----Ethnorelative StagesDenial--Defense--Minimization------Acceptance--Adaptation--Integration • A posture intended to counter the impact of specific cultural differences perceived as threatening • Threat is to one’s sense of reality and to one’s identity • Rather than denying differences, as seen in the previous stage, cultural differences are recognized, and specific defenses are created against them • Because cultural difference is recognized, it is growth from denial, though often more problematic since it is conflictual • Three forms of Defense: Denigration, Superiority, and Reversal

41. Ethnocentric Stages------Ethnorelative StagesDenial--Defense--Minimization-----Acceptance--Adaptation--Integration • The most advanced level of ethnocentrism • We are all alike…they are all like me!! • Cultural differences are glossed over and trivialized: • “being one of the guys” “The Golden Rule” • Minimization quickly degenerates into defense when interactions based on assumed similarities are not met. • Two aspects to minimization: • Physical Universalism: Because we must all eat, breathe, and die we are basically the same • Transcendent Universalism: “We are all God’s children”; everyone values capitalism

42. Ethnocentric Stages------Ethnorelative StagesDenial--Defense--Minimization-----Acceptance--Adaptation--Integration • The assumption that cultures can only be understood relative to one another and that particular behavior can only be understood within a cultural context • There is no absolute standard of rightness or “goodness” that can be applied to cultural behavior. Cultural difference is neither good nor bad, it is just different • One’s culture is not any more central to reality than any other culture, although it may be preferable to a particular group or individual • The ethnorelative experience of difference is not threatening, but most likely to be enjoyable

43. Ethnocentric Stages------Ethnorelative StagesDenial--Defense--Minimization-----Acceptance--Adaptation--Integration • Cultural difference is acknowledged and accepted • The existence of difference is a seen as a necessary and preferable human condition • Two forms of development occur at this stage: • Respect for Behavioral Differences • Respect for Value Difference

44. Ethnocentric Stages------Ethnorelative StagesDenial--Defense--Minimization-----Acceptance--Adaptation--Integration • New skills appropriate to a different worldview are acquired • Old skills are not replaced, new skills are added so it is adaptation and not assimilation • You function from the standpoint of your culture, going into another culture when necessary then returning to yours • Major aspect is developing alternative communication skills • Two phases to adaptation: • Empathy: an attempt to understand an experience by imagining or comprehending it from another’s perspective • Pluralism: the internalization of two or more fairly complete cultural frames of reference.

45. Ethnocentric Stages------Ethnorelative StagesDenial--Defense--Minimization-----Acceptance--Adaptation--Integration • “a person whose essential identity is inclusive of life patterns different from his own and who has psychologically and socially come to grips with a multiplicity of realities” (Adler, 1977). • In adaptation there is a sense of a primary culture and others added to differing degrees. In integration, the primary culture is lost • Two forms of integration exist: • Contextual Evaluation: An evaluation of a situation based on the cultural context in which it occurs • Constructive Marginality: There is no natural cultural identity; the experience of one’s self as a constant creator of one’s own reality

46. Key Points • Differences in values can affect: • Leadership styles • Approaches to work • Success of workteams • Intervention approaches • Attainment of research goals and aims • Intercultural leadership requires that we step out of our culture and function within the other culture. • what works well at PI in NY in U.S.A, may not always be effective elsewhere—and can interfere with team functioning.

47. Key Points • Intercultural competency and effective leadership require active thinking and energy….but are essential to the successful international research.

48. Thank you!