Management style is an important factor in cross-cultural management studies, both in terms of national and organizational culture. It is obvious that, in a rapidly internationalizing world, managers are having to lead a variety of people situated or originating in different countries. Cultural differences in leadership processes and styles have only recently attracted research attention, perhaps because of the increasing pace of globalisation but also because it has become evident that the process of managing a British worker may not be applicable in leading a group of Chinese workers. As countries of origin begin to blur, the issue of leadership effectiveness in different cultural settings is becoming an important topic of analysis. Leaders throughout the world are faced with linking employees from diverse cultural backgrounds where the workforce is multicultural. The trait, personal-behavioral and situational explanations of leadership paid little attention to multicultural differences, stereotypes, biases, language differences and a host of other factors. Putti et al (1998) contend that, while some countries accept a participative leadership style, in other countries (high power distance ones particularly) authoritarian styles are more acceptable.

Lately, this rather neglected area of international management research has been addressed on one of the biggest cross-cultural studies since the work of Hofstede in the 1980s. Named ‘The Globe Project’ a group of researchers from a wide range of countries have been brought together to investigate cultural differences in leadership. The Globe Project website contains a wealth of information and a number of working papers are available free of charge in a range of formats.

Consider the role of leadership in managerial behavior and note down some aspects of leadership that might be subject to cross-cultural differences. For example, some people would perceive a good leader as being a champion for the department or section.