Cross cultural management - Dissertation Example

Globe program used nine cultural dimensions to capture the different norms, beliefs and cultural values that determine the effectiveness of leadership, these dimensions include power distance, uncertainty avoidance, human orientation, institutional collectivism, in-group collectivism, assertiveness, gender egalitarianism, future orientation and performance orientation (Bertsch & Girard, 2011 p23). This dissertation will critically review the various leadership styles used in United States of America, China and Nigeria using the nine dimensions of culture as brought forward by the GLOBE study.

In America, most of the business leadership is usually far from the political class and the success of leadership does not necessarily depend on the contacts that the leaders have with the political class (Bertsch, 2012 p7). Most of the leadership roles in America has for a long time been centralised to the leader, the leader is in control of all the activities that are taking place in the organisation, however, this has been changing with organisations being encouraged to decentralise the decision making process to the subordinates workforce.

Bureaucratic procedures have always defined the mode of running organisations in America where the leaders have insisted on the following of the laid down processes and procedures in any activity. Humane orientation in most of the leadership position where the workers are rewarded for being kind or altruistic to the society does not exist, most of the focus is on how the organisations will maximise profits for their ownership. America, being one of the countries that have practised capitalism since their pre-colonial times, emphasises more on individualism than collective action in undertaking various roles, however, they pride themselves and show loyalty to the institutions that they work for; they have a sense of identity with their organisations or country.

Gender roles in America, especially in the institutional and organisation platform have not been differentiated and there is no discrimination in leadership roles that can be assigned to either men or women, all roles are open to all genders (Anonymous, 2012, p91). Most of the organisations in the United States of America are involved in planning and strategising on how to improve themselves for better delivery of their roles and for the sustainability of their operations (Venaik & Brewer, 2010 p1299).

Assertiveness is encouraged in organisations in order to gain a competitive edge over rival organisations or to increase area of coverage and market share, performance improvement and excellence is highly encouraged in individuals. In America, Charismatic value based style was the most effective where values are emphasised, autonomous leadership was the least effective in USA according to globe. Humane oriented leadership although preferred to some extent did not rank high in the United States, participative leadership in America which include involving others in decision making would not be effective due to the population size.

Team oriented leadership was also not favourable in USA and the self-protective leadership was similarly perceived to be practised in USA though not to a large extent. Most of the organisational leadership in the people’s republic of China are more concerned with the welfare of the people they serve and hence performance is not emphasised much, however, the trend is changing with the country heading toward a full capitalistic nation where excellent