Corporate and National Cultures:  Influence of the Cross-Cultural Composition of the Management Team on Leadership Preferences in a Chinese Organisation,

A Longitudinal Study

 

 

Romie F. Littrell

Associate Professor of International Business

Faculty of Business

Auckland University of Technology

Private Bag 92006

Auckland 1020, New Zealand

 

Tel. (64) 9 / 917 – 9999 ext. 5805

Fax: 917 – 9629

 

Email: Preferred: romielittrell@yahoo.com, or Romie.Littrell@aut.ac.nz

 

Suggested Tracks:

·        Regional variations, convergence and divergence in HRM

·        HRM in the multinational enterprise 

 

Keywords: cross-cultural management hotel hospitality China LBDQ organization culture
Corporate and National Cultures:  Influence of the Cross-Cultural Composition of the Management Team on Leadership Preferences in a Chinese Organisation,

A Longitudinal Study

 

 

ABSTRACT

 

A comprehensive research program cannot afford to take ideas, norms, and culture as given without investigating how environmental actors produce them; this study discusses the results of the first three years of a planned series of studies on the effect of organisational environment on implicit expressions of desirable behaviour of leaders. The literature review indicated that organisational culture had a significant effect on the behaviour, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs of members of the organisation, to the extent of overcoming national culture when in the work environment.

 This study tests these indications by investigating the changes in self-reported opinions of samples of hotel staff at a three-year interval, with the management staff changing from a majority of expatriate managers (eleven) of twenty senior managers to a minority (four).

The Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire XII was administered to samples of hotel managers and supervisors in Zhengzhou, China, in 1999 and 2002, with the two groups using the LBDQ XII to describe the behaviour of the ideal leader.

An electronic search of business and social science journal databases for 1986 – 2002 did not turn up any studies considering the lasting effect of expatriate managers on an organisation, leading to a test of the hypothesis.  The lasting effect tested was if a change in the cross-cultural composition of the management of the organisation led to a change in the description of the ideal leader. The results indicate a long-term effect of expatriate managers on an organisation, based on a three-year longitudinal study.

Results indicate that the organisational culture does not necessarily change as the cross-cultural mix of managers changes.

 

Keywords: cross-cultural management hotel hospitality China LBDQ organization culture

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Leadership, particularly across cultures, is an art, not a science, dependent upon individual personalities rather than natural laws of business or organisations. As in any study of social interaction, the number of factors influencing the interaction, both internal to the actors and situational, is very large, and the set of variables is as yet unknown. Nonetheless, in art we can improve the outcome of a performance by applying engineering and science, using an excellent piano, well-made oil paints, good canvas, granite, or marble, but the artist is responsible for the final outcome, as is the individual leader, correctly applying his or her talent in concert with the principles of good management. 

Leadership has long been the topic of extensive study; in 1990 Bass identified some 3000 studies of leadership in the academic literature. Other reviews (House, Wright & Aditya, 1997; Littrell, 2002) discuss many theories of leadership, each supported by a body of research, and each criticised by a body of research calling the adequacy of the theories into question.

Stogdill (1974, p. 259) reviewed leadership theories and research, and pointed out that:

 

“There are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept”.

 

Twenty-five years later Russ-Eft (1999, p. 4) concludes from her review:

 

“There was no consensus on what makes a good leader. Lists of skills and attributes differed from study to study. It seemed that every professor, management guru, and strategist had his or her view, and overlapping findings were relatively rare.”

 

And recently, Antonakis & Atwater (2002),

 

“Although our current understanding of leadership is quite broad, we still do not understand the fundamental processes undergirding the influencing effect of leadership.”

 

Most definitions of leadership accept that to be a leader one must have followers. After this, they begin to diverge. The model employed in this study is operationalized by the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire XII, which deals with explicit motives of leaders and followers. Reading Littrell (2002) and Schneider & Littrell (2003) will facilitate comprehension of the issues discussed in this article.

 

LEADERSHIP VS. MANAGEMENT, A THEORETICAL POSITION

 

          The state of the theory leads to difficulties on what to measure.  In business we have the never-ending story of separating leadership and management.  The author must conclude, after seven years of reading the literature concerning management, management across cultures, leadership and cross-cultural leadership, we cannot separate leadership and management.  They are perhaps one continuum of behaviour, or, more likely, a set of interrelated continua, all or some of which may or may not be necessary in evaluating effective leadership and management in a single culture or across cultures. A reasonable conclusion is that when a competent manager needs a leader to accomplish organisational objectives, he or she finds one. Similarly, when a competent leader needs a manager to accomplish organisational objectives, one is found. A frequently encountered thread in the study of leadership is the use of the concepts “visionary leader” and “administrative leader”. The “administrative leader” appears to be a management position. 

          As an example, Rodsutti & Swierczek (2002) list “international leader characteristics” as:

 

1.      Good communicator

2.      Dealing well with difficult situations

3.      Professional

4.      Culturally aware

5.      Technically competent

6.      Experienced expatriate manager

7.      Subjective preference

 

None of these can be distinguished from a description of a good manager. The main aim of a manager is to maximise the output of the organisation through administrative implementation. To achieve this, according to traditional business theory, managers must undertake the functions of

Fayol (1916, “modified” version): forecasting, planning, organising, commanding, coordinating, controlling; or Gullick & Urwick (1937): planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. Leadership is a component of the commanding, directing and controlling functions. A well-publicised, effective leader can effect staffing by attracting prospective employees.

A manager needs formal authority to be effective, while a leader does not. In some circumstances, leadership is not required; self-motivated groups may not require a single leader and may find a dominant leader to be dysfunctional. The fact that a leader is not always required demonstrates that leadership skills can be an asset to a manager in facilitating tasks, but is not essential.

 

SELECTIONS FROM THE LEADERSHIP LITERATURE

 

Academic researchers began experimental study of leadership in the 1940s, prompted by the need for identifying and predicting leaders stemming from World War II. The reviews noted above indicate a large number of definitions of what leadership is, each definition supported by research designed to support the theory.  Discussion of several of the important bodies of study follows.

 

The GLOBE Research Project

 

 

Project GLOBE (House, 2002) is a comprehensive cross-cultural study of leadership begun in 1993. Most Project GLOBE publications focus on “culturally-endorsed implicit theories of leadership”. Cross-cultural research generally concludes that different cultural groups likely have different conceptions of what leadership should entail. The major constructs investigated in the GLOBE research programme are nine attributes of cultures that are operationalised as quantitative dimensions:

 

1.      Uncertainty avoidance.

2.      Power distance.

3.      Collectivism I: societal emphasis on collectivism.

4.      Collectivism II: family collectivistic practices.

5.      Gender egalitarianism.

6.      Assertiveness.

7.      Future orientation.

8.      Performance orientation.

9.      Humane orientation.

 

These dimensions were selected on the basis of a review of the literature relevant to the measurement of culture in previous large-sample studies and on the basis of existing cross-culture theory.

The stated meta-goal of GLOBE is to develop an empirically-based theory to describe, understand, and predict the impact of specific cultural variables on leadership and organisational processes and the effectiveness of these processes. Specific objectives include answering the following fundamental questions:

 

§         Are there leader behaviours, attributes and organisational practices that are universally accepted and effective across cultures?

§         Are there leader behaviours, attributes, and organisational practices that are accepted and effective in only some cultures?

§         How do attributes of societal and organisational cultures affect the kinds of leader behaviours and organisational practices that are accepted and effective?

§         What is the effect of violating cultural norms relevant to leadership and organisational practices?

§         What is the relative standing of each of the cultures' studies on each of the nine core dimensions of culture?

§         Can the universal and culture-specific aspects of leader behaviours, attributes, and organisational practices be explained in terms of an underlying theory that accounts for systematic differences across cultures?

 

The project promises many publications concerning the cross-cultural aspects of leadership, with several available on their website.

The GLOBE project proposes that attributes associated with charismatic / transformational leadership are universally endorsed as contributing to outstanding leadership, and identifies quite a number of cross-cultural, i.e. cross-national, differences. 

Concerning charismatic/transformational leadership, we see Khurama (2002) telling us that kind of leader is potentially dangerous and damaging in crisis situations, and Maccoby (2001) telling us that kind of leader is essential in times of crisis and transition. The classic study by Collins and Porras (1994) cast serious doubt on the idea that charismatic leaders were effective, and provided evidence that they could be detrimental to the growth and survival of an organisation.

 

Harvard University

 

 

The Harvard Business School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government have extensive programmes of study of leadership. A search on the Harvard Business School Publications database produces between 2000 and 3000 hits with “leadership” as the search argument. The papers support a myriad of concepts of leadership, not seeming to favour any, and taking the view that successful leadership is dependent upon applying the correct style to a particular situation and environment, situational leadership.

 

Institute of Management in the UK

 

 

A single-culture research project entitled Leadership: The Challenge for All?, was launched by the Institute of Management in the UK (Editorial, 2002, Human Resource Management International Digest). The project, carried out by the independent think-tank, DEMOS, involved research among senior leaders in the UK, managers at all levels, and young people about to enter the workforce. It incorporated a survey of more than 1,500 managers.

The Institute of Management research shows a significant gap between the characteristics executives see as being vital to good leadership, and the qualities their leaders actually possess. Although 55 percent of managers seek inspiration in their leaders, only 11 percent say their leaders provide this quality (are they really leaders, then?). Other important attributes that executives feel are often lacking are the ability to provide a vision, to look to the future, and to handle change. Even though current leaders are likely to be knowledgeable and ambitious, characteristics seen as giving them a greater chance of promotion, few younger managers identify these as valuable leadership qualities. With the results defining leader characteristics as:

 

          Highly desirable:

·                    Inspirational

·                    Providing a vision

·                    Future-orientation

·                    Skilled in change management

          Less desirable:

·                    Knowledgeable

·                    Ambitious

 

One might question whether “skilled in change management” is a characteristic expected of a leader as opposed to a manager, or whether any of these separate leaders and managers. Some may be “inspired” to be a diligent worker by the example of a manager who is a diligent worker.

          While the understanding of what leadership is is still in the formative stages, we find that investigating differences in implicit and explicit models of leadership preferences has yielded distinct differences, demonstrated in the GLOBE studies, and demonstrated below. A further cultural issue requiring discussion is the relative effects of national and organisational culture.

 

          This particular paper will employ the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire XII model in discussing explicit expressions of leadership behaviour preferences, discussed in the Methodology section.

 

 

Organisational Culture’s Consequences

 

 

          There is a large body of literature concerning developing expatriate managers to be effective outside their home culture. The attitudes of management in multinational businesses range from a belief that an expatriate manager needs to be highly educated and trained in the local culture, to the belief that technical competence is what really matters and that cross-cultural matters are of minor consequence. A search of electronic databases of business and social science journals for 1986 – 2002 did not turn up any studies considering the lasting effect of expatriate managers on an organisation.  The author would welcome any references missed. Brief summaries of recent studies follow:

Heimer & Vince (1998) have proposed that multi-national teams develop a hybrid organisational culture, accommodating the needs of the various members.

A study by Wright & Drewery (2002) examined the role of culture in explaining differences in self-reported evaluations of team cohesiveness in culturally diverse teams. In earlier research, Thomas, Ravlin & Wallace (1994 & 1996) found that teams composed of culturally diverse members experienced less cohesiveness than did those in culturally homogenous teams, supporting “similarity theory” (Nahemow and Lawton, 1983) leading to the expectation that humans will feel a greater attraction to those who are most similar to themselves. Thomas et al. examined the role of nationality on perceptions of cohesion within a mixed-culture team framework. The results found a small but significant relationship between the nationality of the respondents and the degree of cohesion attributed to their mixed culture teams. Asians report the least cohesion, Anglos next, and Polynesians indicating the highest levels.

Sun (2002) notes, in a case study of the culture of a Chinese university, organizational culture plays a powerful role in changing organizations.  Organizational culture cannot exist in a vacuum. It is always embedded into the regional and national culture. Sun suggests we must deal with questions such as:

 

1.      What are the similarities and differences between a national culture and an organizational culture?

2.      What is the relationship between them?

3.      How do the main dimensions of a national culture manifest themselves in and through an organizational culture?

 

Corporate Ownership/Foreign Entry Mode. Park, Gowan & Hwang (2002) investigated the impact of national origin and entry mode on trust and organizational commitment and found no overall difference across nationality for level of commitment or interpersonal trust. The study did find significant differences in both variables relative to entry mode.         

Their results suggest that the degree of interpersonal trust and organizational commitment of individual managers from the same ethnic group can be significantly influenced by the mode of entry. Host country national (HCN) managers and parent country national (PCN) managers working in an international joint venture appear to be less committed to the organization and to have lower levels of interpersonal trust toward peers than HCN and PCN managers operating in a wholly-owned subsidiary. The complexity and multicultural nature of international joint ventures appear to be related to a reduction in commitment and trust not found in the more nearly mono-cultural setting of the wholly-owned subsidiary. Park et al. suggest that this is why it is so difficult to create a cohesive managerial team in international joint ventures.

Joint Venture Performance in India. Pothukuchi, Damanpour, Choi, Chen & Park (2002) Investigated national and organizational culture differences and international joint venture performance. Based on data from a survey of executives from joint ventures between Indian partners and partners from other countries, the authors report that the presumed negative effect from culture distance on international joint venture performance originates more from differences in organizational culture than from differences in national culture.

Ethnic diversity and managerial effectiveness in South Africa. Ghosh (2001) and Thomas & Bendixen (2000) examine the influence of ethnic diversity on organizational culture and effectiveness in South Africa.

The authors also found that neither ethnicity nor race significantly influenced management culture; similarly, management effectiveness was independent of both ethnicity and race. Together, these findings suggest that management culture and management effectiveness are not affected by either culture or race in South Africa.

The results of this indicate that, despite a tumultuous history that includes apartheid, the country's ethnic diversity does not harm its management productivity. They also suggest that education and experience are viable tools to enhance management culture and effectiveness, and may ultimately increase South Africa's level of global competitiveness. Clearly, these empirical findings reinforce a management philosophy that underscores the benefits of diversity in the workplace.

 

NATIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL CULTURES

 

 

It appears from the foregoing review of the literature that organisational culture has a significant effect in moderating or overcoming national and ethnic culture when working in the organisational environment. Hofstede et al. (1990) suggest six core organizational practices that differentiate organizations in their management orientation: process versus result; employee versus job; parochial versus professional; open versus closed system; loose versus tight control; and normative versus pragmatic. The organizational culture dimensions outlined in these six practices identify managerial tendencies in an organization, typified by a set of desirable and expected behaviours. When organizations involve multiple national cultures different in their managerial practices, these differences result in conflicting behaviours, leading to misunderstandings and interaction problems. A strong corporate culture can overcome these problems.

These studies of national and organizational culture distance indicate that using strength of organisational culture is a good predictor of organizational performance. Different dimensions of both national and organizational culture influence performance differently. The presumed negative effect from dissimilarities in national culture could originate more from differences in organizational culture than from differences in national culture.

Hofstede (1994) continues to state, “National culture is the collective programming of the human mind by which one nation distinguishes itself from another nation”. We find marked differences in the values between national cultures and, similarly, differences of organization culture in the same national culture. In his continuing study of organisational culture, e.g., Hofstede 1998 and 1990, he states that studies of organisational culture deal with opinions, attitudes, and values.  This study deals with opinions.

          The national culture distinctions are not neat. There are nations with very distinct regional cultural differences such as in Italy, Switzerland, and China. There are nations with distinct cultural differences between ethnic groups such as Ghana and Kenya. There are nations with distinct cultural differences between classes such as France and the UK. Similarly, there are multinationals in which we find groups of people with different national cultural backgrounds behaving in similar and different manners.

Generally, the stronger the corporate culture the more work practices across individuals and groups within the organisation will be similar (Martin, 1992). The more emotional issues might be, the less corporate culture will override national culture.

 

RELIABILITY AND CONSISTENCY OF CROSS CULTURAL MEASUREMENTS

 

          A demonstration of the effect of industrial organisation membership on cultural measurements can be seen in studies of the most widely used assessment of differences in cultural characteristics, the set of traits developed by Hofstede (1980) and Hofstede and Bond (1988), employing the dimensions of Power Distance, Individualism-Collectivism, Masculinity-Feminity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-Term Orientation, obtained scores for many countries. Replication of results is problematic in any social science research, and particularly in cross-cultural research but recent research indicates that samples based upon industry groups differ from the samples, initially from IBM, first used by Hofstede.  Hofstede (personal communication at “Conference Comparing Cultures, April 26-27, 2001, at Tilburg University, The Netherlands) has stated that the numbers are not absolute and will change due to any number of conditions, but the relative patterns should be expected to be consistent.  We see in Table 2 results of the Low & Shi (2000) study of Chinese construction managers in Singapore using the instrument developed by Hofstede (1980). The results vary from those first reported by Hofstede and Bond (1988) and Hofstede (1980).

 

Insert Table 1. Scores for Chinese Construction Industry Managers, Singapore and China about here

 

Further evidence is presented in Merritt & Helmreich (1996) and Merritt (1996), studying commercial aviation pilots, indicating that the pilots exhibit scores different from national results.

From the preceding discussions of the effects of organisational culture on national culture, we might expect preferences for leadership behaviour to change with change in organizational culture.

 

CHINESE CULTURAL INFLUENCES

 

Confucian ideology has been thoroughly discussed in Asian management literature. Xing (1995) and Bond and Hwang (1986, 1993) indicate that throughout the long history of the Chinese people, Confucian ideology has been firmly established as an undeniable system governing nearly all aspects of Chinese lives. They further propose that thousands of years of a feudalistic system have dominated the Chinese view of themselves and the world. The three dominant cultural influences in modern Mainland China are "Neo-Confucianism", "Legalism", and the mixed rejection, adaptation and modification of these two philosophies in the ever-changing Chinese Communist Party doctrine since 1949.

Chinese culture has manifest rules of behaviour that are derived from Confucian teaching (Littrell, 2002a, pp.16-25; Fu, Wu, Yang & Ye [forthcoming]). It can be argued that the values and prescriptions of these teachings are instilled in Chinese children, even if explicit reference is not made to Confucian texts. The rules of guanxi are prescribed by lun, a set of Chinese feudal ethics that define the hierarchical relationships between the noble and the humble, the close and the distant, as well as the individual and the group (family or clan). Specifically, the three cardinal guides (ruler guides subject, father guides son, and husband guides wife) and the five constant virtues (benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and fidelity) work as the traditional ethical codes that still prescribe the differentiations among role relationships. Further discussion of Confucian cultural influences can be reviewed in Waley (1938).

Today in China, it is extremely difficult to find out exactly what the prevailing management practices are like. Fukuda (1989) investigated case studies involving a travel bureau, a hotel, a factory, and a research institute in China, gathered over five years on visits to the country, giving a glimpse of the then-current management practices.  He found a Confucian cultural orientation in management practices, and noted that the political leader Deng Xiaoping seemed to have adopted to a great extent the Confucian doctrine.

From rhetoric and practice, the current government appears to believe that education holds the key to management reform, adopting the models imported from the West in a number of co-operative business schools with European and US universities.

Ralston, et al., 1993, 1997, and 1999, identified the concept of the “cosmopolitan Chinese manager”, on who is developing Western behavioural traits along with Western management skills. Inglehart’s (1997) World Value Study also predicts a shift toward the “Western” set of cultural values as nations become more developed.  In the hotels studied, a significant management development programme was put in place 1996-1998 to implement “Western” management practices, leading to development of “cosmopolitan Chinese managers” in the hotels. The effects of this programme is the thrust of the analysis and discussion below.

 

ECONOMIES AND CULTURES

 

Breman (2001) reviewed four recent books concerning economic change and culture (Inglehart 1997, Katzenstein 1996, Laitin 1998, and McNamara 1998). The review points out a status quo bias built into much of the work in cross-cultural analysis. Usually, ideas, norms, and culture are viewed as pre-existing parts of the environment, and the focus has been on how they influence outcomes. This task is certainly critical, but a comprehensive research program cannot afford to take ideas, norms, and culture as given without investigating how environmental actors produce them. Most work in the field discusses how relatively static ideas, norms, or cultural attributes produce stable patterns of behaviour over time. This kind of work has been quite successful in helping us understand why environmental actors often remain stubbornly attached to traditional behavioural or decision-making patterns even when confronted with powerful (material) incentives to change.

Inglehart's (1997) Modernization and Post-Modernization updates and expands his previous work on cultural change. In the latest study emerging from the world values surveys he documents a gradual but powerful cultural shift that has reshaped economic and political development across the globe. Inglehart agues (p. 231),

 

Economic development, cultural change and political change go together in coherent and even, to some extent, predictable patterns. This is a controversial claim. It implies that some trajectories of socioeconomic change are more likely than others-and consequently, that certain changes are foreseeable. Once a society has embarked on industrialization, for example, a whole syndrome of related changes ... are likely to occur.

 

The book offers a clear and well-documented argument for the considerable interaction of culture, political, and economic life in changing one another.

Cultural life is not always stable, and researchers must be able to account for both continuity and change. If they cannot, they are open to the charge that variables other than the ones they study offer the answers to crucial questions. Mainland China is undergoing considerable change in all aspects of life, especially in the urban areas. These changes influence the opinions, attitudes, and beliefs of subjects of any study in China today. The environment of the location of this study, Zhengzhou City in Henan Province, has changed in the period January 1999 and July 2002, when the data were collected for this study; 1999 had been preceded by several years of booming growth, and 1999 – 2002 were years of economic shrinkage. Two opinions of the state of the economy in Zhengzhou can be seen in “Henan Economy and Trade”,

http://www.henan-china.com/trade/shange.htm, “Workers' Wasteland: China's prosperous surface masks a rising sea of joblessness that could threaten the country's stability” http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/1101020617/cover.html. China is at least a two-tiered economy, with the growing middle class rapidly adding a third.

The hotels are in an interior province, generally changing more slowly than the coastal regions and Beijing, and the economic situation in the hotels of the study was relatively stable over the three years. The management and staff of the hotels continued to maintain a leading position in the city in terms of guest satisfaction and revenue generation in the face of a business slow-down 1999-2002 compared to 1996-1998, when business was booming. It is unlikely that the economic environment in the area has led to significant changes in behaviour of the samples over the three years of the study.

 

CHINESE HOTEL EMPLOYEE PERCEPTIONS

OF LOCAL AND EXPATRIATE MANAGERS

 

Huyton and Sutton (1996) studied hotel employee perceptions of expatriate managers compared to local managers. Among all of the staff surveyed, it was found that attitudes toward "foreigners" varied according to the degree of staff exposure to such visitors, and the perceived national characteristics of the visitors. The attitude of staff towards foreign visitors could be divided into two groups. Group 1 staff were the older generation of staff, and those employed in "back-of-house" positions (that is those staff without direct customer contact, e.g. laundry, clerks, linen room, etc.) and staff from the more provincial regions (such as the staff in the hotels in this study). These displayed a more markedly stereotypical and ethnocentric impression of what customers were like and what the customer would expect from a hotel. Group 2 staff were "front-of-house" employees and those of the younger generation and had a greater degree of experience on which to base their impressions of the foreign visitor. This group showed a degree of preference for consumers from the West, and for non-Chinese Asian visitors, especially those from Japan. This was in contrast to Group 1, who, despite being curious about foreigners, perceived visiting Chinese simply as returning compatriots and were more suspicious of other ethnic groups. That is, ethnographically, Group 2 staff felt that all Chinese were perceived as being the same both physiologically and culturally, despite coming from a variety of countries. Thus, only non-Chinese could be "proper foreigners".

All hotel staff generally displayed similar attitudes towards expatriate managers. Western managers, for example, were seen as emotional, volatile and demanding, but with a high degree of technical skill, and the ability to listen. They were also seen as being fair in their dealings with local staff. Westerners did not go along with the traditional guanxi principle. Consequently, the older generation of staff felt that Westerners had no scruples, but the younger generation welcomed this break from tradition because it meant that they could achieve promotion through "what you know rather than who you know". Overall, Western management was viewed as a necessary, short-term "safe-keeper" of the industry and as a training medium.

The characteristics of volatility and emotion on the part of expatriates were considered by some staff to be due to frustration caused by communication difficulties, but others saw them as a cultural problem. Western managers were expected by many staff to be a universal panacea to all problems and, as such, these expatriates experienced difficulties when delegating responsibility. Consequently, when local staff were faced with a problem they expected their foreign manager to solve it for them, as this is what they had been used to from their Chinese managers.

          The analyses in the Huyton & Sutton study might lead to the belief that when the “caretaker” expatriate managers left, the corporate culture would change to more reflect the local “national” culture.

 

METHODOLOGY

 

The Ohio State Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire XII was employed to collect data used to define leader behaviour preferences of managers and supervisors in two hotels in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China. Data were collected in 1999 and again from the same population in 2002.

 

The Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire XII

 

 

The original development of the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) at Ohio State University in the USA identified two major characteristic behaviours of leaders, task-orientation and nurturance of the members of the group. Stogdill (1963) redesigned the instrument to measure twelve factors. The twelve LBDQ XII subscales represent a complex and varied pattern of leadership behaviour described as follows:

 

§         Factor 1: Representation measures to what degree the manager speaks as the representative of the group. 

§         Factor 2: Demand Reconciliation reflects how well the manager reconciles conflicting demands and reduces disorder to system.

§         Factor 3: Tolerance of Uncertainty depicts to what extent the manager is able to tolerate uncertainty and postponement without anxiety or getting upset.

§         Factor 4: Persuasiveness measures to what extent the manager uses persuasion and argument effectively; exhibits strong convictions.

§         Factor 5: Initiation of Structure measures to what degree the manager clearly defines own role, and lets followers know what is expected.

§         Factor 6: Tolerance of Freedom reflects to what extent the manager allows followers scope for initiative, decision and action.

§         Factor 7: Role Assumption measures to what degree the manager exercises actively the leadership role rather than surrendering leadership to others.

§         Factor 8: Consideration depicts to what extent the manager regards the comfort, well-being, status, and contributions of followers.

§         Factor 9: Production Emphasis measures to what degree the manager applies pressure for productive output.

§         Factor 10: Predictive Accuracy measures to what extent the manager exhibits foresight and ability to predict outcomes accurately.

§         Factor 11: Integration reflects to what degree the manager maintains a closely-knit organisation; resolves inter-member conflicts.

§         Factor 12: Superior Orientation measures to what extent the manager maintains cordial relations with superiors; has influence with them; is striving for higher status.

 

A thorough discussion of the LBDQ XII appears in Bass (1990), Chapter 24, pp. 511-543.

The LBDQ XII has been used in several countries to study leadership behaviour. Littrell (2002b) compared the results of several studies employing the LBDQ XII; results of various studies can be seen in Table 1A. The results were obtained using a Likert-style scale with E (1) indicating that the ideal leader should never exhibit the behaviour, and A (5) indicating the leader should always exhibit the behaviour, with the anchor points:

 

Always – A = 5

Often - B

Occasionally-C

Seldom - D

Never – E = 1

 

          Further meta-analysis is planned using the studies located so far employing the LBDQ XII in various countries. So far in the instrument is available in English, German, and Chinese.

Table 1A, means, and Table 1B, deviation scores indicate some consistencies emerging, with Tolerance of Uncertainty and Production Emphasis (except for China) yielding relatively low scores, and Integration yielding a relatively high score, followed by Representation and Demand Reconciliation, with the other factors indicating differences in leader behaviour preferences across cultures. A subsequent paper will analyse and discuss these and additional data. (A draft is available at http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com.)

 

 

Insert Table 2A. LBDQ XII Factor Scores By Country, about here

 

 

 

Insert Table 2B. Deviation Scores for Research Studies – Within Sample Deviation from Sample Mean, about here

 

 

 

 

 

Environment of This Study

 

       In January1999 and again in July 2002, a Chinese-character version of the LBDQ-XII was administered, for voluntary completion, to the employees at two hotels in Zhengzhou, China, who held supervisory or managerial posts. The process is described in detail in Littrell (2002a, pp. 25-32). 

Indications of lack of trust in the 1999 survey preparation led to the decision to not identify individuals, as participation would have dropped to an unacceptable level, perhaps near zero. As the requirements of obtaining participation in the surveys was anonymity the samples are non-independent, not paired, and non-random.  The sets of samples include some subjects who participated in both surveys, and some who did not, and who were promoted from supervisors to managers in the three-year period, limiting the kinds of statistical analysis that can be employed.

The technique used, that does not violate statistical assumptions, was hierarchical cluster analysis. Sample sizes were nine senior managers in 1999, eighteen senior managers in 2002, 103 supervisors in 1999, and 79 supervisors in 2002.     

The hotels were operated under a management contract with a very large international hotel chain, initially headquartered in the USA, but acquired in 1990 by a British corporation.

The pre-opening recruitment and training of staff by an expatriate management team began in 1994, with the hotel opening in 1995. A history of the management team appears in Table 3. Such diversity in the national cultures of managers was not unusual in China at the time.

In 1999 a Chinese-character version of the LBDQ-XII was administered, for voluntary completion, to the employees who held supervisory or managerial posts, with 112 (104 supervisors) usable questionnaires produced.  In 2002, the LBDQ-XII was again administered with voluntary completion to the hotels’ supervisory and managerial personnel, with 97 usable questionnaires produced (79 supervisors).

          Table 4 lists the positions and nationalities of the senior management team in 1999 and 2002.

 

HYPOTHESES

 

          From the theoretical implications derived from the literature review we expect the organisational culture to have a significant effect on the opinions, attitudes, and beliefs of the members of the organisation. From Tables C and D we see that the cross-cultural make-up of the management team in the hotel has changed, with the number of expatriate managers falling from eleven to four (of 20) from 1999 – 2002. This change in the cultural composition was expected to lead to a change in the organisational culture, operationalised by measures on the LBDQ XII.

 

          Hypothesis 1. In a multicultural business environment, organisation culture has a larger influence on the explicit specification of the desired behaviour of the ideal leader than does national culture (operationalised by scores on the LBDQ XII); hence changes in the cultural make-up of the management team will lead to changes in the organisational culture. This measure is operationalised by determining if the specification of the desired leader behaviour changes as the cultural composition of the management team of the organisation changes, comparing sample scores from 1999 and 2002.

 

Hypothesis 2. As the proportion of expatriate managers in the hotels is reduced, the organisational culture in the hotels will change toward the host national culture of the organisation. (We do not have normative data from China in general or for other industries in China at this time. Support is being sought to develop these data.) This hypothesis was operationalised by comparing the preferences of the supervisor samples in 1999 and 2002 to those of the 1999 Chinese senior managers, who were older, with little or no exposure to foreign management practices prior to 1994.

 

Insert Table 3. Executive Management Team at Times of Questionnaire Administrations, about here

 

Insert Table 4. History of the Management Team, 1994 – 2002, about here

 

RESULTS

 

          The mean factor scores for the sample groups and differences can be seen in Table 5. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (SPSS version 11 statistical package) was used to compare the differences in the mean factor scores of the samples. The results indicate that the scores of the managers and supervisors are different, and that the 1999 and 2000 groups of managers are less similar to one another than the scores of the two groups of supervisors

.

In 1999, differences between the two groups of managers were smaller on average than the differences between either group of managers and the supervisors, i.e., the Chinese and expatriate managers’ scores were more similar to one another than to the supervisors (Littrell 2002a).

The results of the hierarchical cluster analysis indicate that Hypothesis 1 is not supported; as the national culture composition of the management team changed, the leadership behaviour preferences of the sample of supervisors in the hotels did not change.  Indicating a long-term effect (over three years), attributable to the presence of a high proportion of expatriate managers. 

Hypothesis 2 was operationalised by comparing the preferences of the supervisors to the 1999 scores of the Chinese senior managers.  Hierarchical Cluster Analysis did not support this hypothesis.  The two-cluster solution indicated that the average responses of the two supervisor groups were not similar to the 1999 Chinese senior managers, but were similar to one another.  Hypothesis 2 was not supported.

Detailed analysis and discussion of the differences in factor scores is necessary, but beyond the length requirements set for this paper.  Further analyses will be presented in future papers.

 

Insert Table 5. Mean Factor Scores Employed in Cluster Analysis for Senior Managers and Supervisors, 1999 & 2002, about here

 

 

Insert Table 6. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis Proximity Matrix, Squared Euclidean Distance, All Samples, about here

 

 

The 1999 sample of expatriate managers was most dissimilar from all other groups. The cluster analysis presented in Tables 6 - 9 indicate that the group of Chinese managers in 2002 was most dissimilar to all other Chinese samples, followed by the 1999 managers. The groups of supervisors were least dissimilar.  Heimer & Vince (1998) proposed that multi-national teams develop a hybrid organisational culture, accommodating the needs of the various members. The results of the analyses in this study indicate that this is a probable outcome, with the several cultures on the team in 1999 creating an organisational culture that continued in 2002. As the cultural composition of the management team changed, the specification of the preferences for the behaviour of the ideal leader on the part of the supervisors did not change.  The small sizes of the manager samples make it difficult to draw defendable conclusions.

 

Insert Table 8. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis Comparing Chinese Managers & Supervisors

Cluster Membership, about here

 

          Tables 8 and 9 indicate dissimilarities between the two samples of managers and supervisors, and dissimilarity between the two samples of managers. Further analysis considering demographic variables is underway.

 

Insert Table 9. Proximity Matrix, Squared Euclidean Distance,

Comparing Chinese Managers & Supervisors, about here

 

This is a dissimilarity matrix. Larger values indicate the samples are more dissimilar.

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

The literature review indicated that organisational culture had a significant effect on the behaviour, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs of members of the organisation, to the extent of overcoming national culture when in the work environment. This study tests this by investigating the changes in self-reported opinions of samples of hotel staff at a three-year interval, with the management staff changing from a majority of expatriate managers (eleven) to a minority (four) of twenty.

In terms of preferences for behaviour of leaders by subordinates, the results indicated that significant changes did not take place over a period of three years in response to a change in the cross-cultural composition of the management team.

 

§         The presence of a large number of expatriate managers had a relatively lasting effect on the leadership preferences of supervisors in the organisation after these managers departed.

 

Heimer & Vince (1998) have proposed that multi-national teams develop a hybrid organisational culture, accommodating the needs of the various members. The results of the analyses in this study indicate that this is a probable outcome, with the several cultures on the team in 1999 creating an organisational culture that continued in 2002.

 

§         As the cultural composition of the management team changed, the specification of the preferences for the behaviour of the ideal leader by supervisors did not change.

 

As normative data for the LBDQ XII is not yet available for China, comparing the organisational culture of the samples with global responses from mainland Chinese cannot be accomplished.  However, the data indicated that the leadership preferences of the supervisors in the samples were not similar to those of Chinese senior managers.


INTERNET SITES

 

Forney, Matthew (2002) Workers' Wasteland China's prosperous surface masks a rising sea of joblessness that could threaten the country's stability, http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/1101020617/cover.html, accessed 25 November 2002.

 

GLOBE (2002) http://www.haskayne.ucalgary.ca/GLOBE/Public/, accessed 2 December 2002.

 

Henan Economy and Trade (2002), http://www.henan-china.com/trade/shange.htm, accessed 25 November 2002.

 

Thomas, Mark (2002) Chinese and Western approaches to management, The Executive Issue, http://mworld.mce.be/artView.php?article_id=546&article_area=3, Management Centre Europe, accessed 6 November 2002.

 

 

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Table 1. Scores for Chinese Construction Industry Managers, Singapore and China

         

 

Hofstede, Hofstede & Bond

Low & Shi

China:

 

 

Power Distance

80

64

Individualism

15

18

Masculinity

55

34

Uncertainty Avoidance

40

35

Singapore:

 

 

Power Distance

74

114

Individualism

20

53

Masculinity

48

6

Uncertainty Avoidance

8

24

 


 

Table 2A. LBDQ XII Factor Scores By Country

 

 

Cn

1999

M

Cn

2002

M

Cn

1999

S

Cn

2002

S

HK

Sel

HK

B&P

US

B&P

In HK

US

B&P

US

Lucas

M

US

Lucas

Sub

US

Stogdill

UK

DE

Avg. all samples

1 Representation

4.47

4.50

4.50

4.50

4.30

3.74

4.07

3.87

4.10

4.10

4.10

4.10

4.30

4.20

2 Demand Reconciliation

4.42

4.24

4.39

4.28

4.40

3.37

3.37

3.85

4.20

4.10

4.10

4.20

4.50

4.11

3 Tolerance of Uncertainty

3.53

3.63

3.59

3.66

3.90

3.02

3.02

3.37

3.70

3.70

3.80

3.60

3.80

3.56

4 Persuasiveness

4.28

4.22

4.26

4.20

4.20

3.39

3.39

3.67

4.10

3.90

4.00

4.30

4.20

4.01

5 Initiation of Structure

4.31

4.44

4.43

4.43

4.40

3.68

3.68

3.66

4.10

4.10

3.80

4.40

4.10

4.12

6 Tolerance of Freedom

3.68

3.92

3.83

3.71

4.30

3.63

3.63

3.88

3.90

4.00

3.70

4.00

4.10

3.87

7 Role Assumption

4.08

3.94

3.91

3.84

4.10

3.58

3.58

4.00

4.20

4.20

4.20

4.20

4.10

3.99

8 Consideration

3.83

4.14

3.96

4.10

4.20

3.51

3.51

3.87

4.00

3.90

4.00

4.00

3.80

3.91

9 Production Emphasis

4.35

4.14

4.17

4.11

3.90

3.39

3.39

3.29

3.50

3.30

3.70

3.80

3.00

3.70

10 Predictive Accuracy

4.29

4.20

4.10

3.97

4.40

3.68

3.68

3.71

4.10

3.90

3.90

4.10

3.90

3.99

11 Integration

4.49

4.34

4.50

4.51

4.40

3.74

3.74

3.79

4.40

4.20

4.90

4.40

4.30

4.29

12 Superior Orientation

4.20

4.02

4.11

4.03

4.30

3.68

3.90

3.84

4.00

3.90

4.10

4.10

3.80

4.00

Avg. all factors

4.16

4.14

4.15

4.11

4.23

3.53

3.58

3.73

4.03

3.94

4.03

4.10

3.99

 

From: All Cn: Littrell (2002a, this study), survey in Chinese; HK Sel: Selmer (1997), survey in English;  B&P: Black & Porter (1991), survey in English; Lucas et al. (1992), survey in English, UK & DE, Schneider & Littrell (2003), surveys in English and German, Stogdill (1963), survey in English.


 

Table 2B. Deviation Scores for Research Studies – Within Sample Deviation from Sample Mean

 

 

Cn

1999

M

Cn

2002

M

Cn

1999

S

Cn

2002

S

HK

Sel

HK

B&P

US

B&P

In HK

US

B&P

US

Lucas

M

US

Lucas

Sub

UK

DE

Avg.

all

samples

Factor   /   N=

9

18

103

79

240

30

77

52

35

143

36

46

 

1 Representation

0.31

0.36

0.35

0.39

0.40

0.21

0.49

0.14

0.08

0.12

-0.05

0.23

0.25

2 Demand Reconciliation

0.26

0.10

0.24

0.17

-0.13

-0.16

-0.21

0.12

0.20

0.20

0.09

0.49

0.11

3 Tolerance of Uncertainty

-0.63

-0.51

-0.56

-0.45

-0.29

-0.51

-0.56

-0.36

-0.37

-0.20

-0.56

-0.26

-0.44

4 Persuasiveness

0.12

0.08

0.11

0.09

-0.06

-0.14

-0.19

-0.06

0.01

-0.02

0.16

0.12

0.01

5 Initiation of Structure

0.15

0.30

0.28

0.32

0.08

0.15

0.10

-0.07

0.09

0.15

0.25

0.04

0.15

6 Tolerance of Freedom

-0.48

-0.22

-0.32

-0.40

-0.09

0.10

0.05

0.15

-0.12

0.05

-0.10

0.05

-0.12

7 Role Assumption

-0.08

-0.20

-0.24

-0.27

0.05

0.05

0

0.27

0.15

0.22

0.11

0.10

0.01

8 Consideration

-0.33

0

-0.19

-0.01

-0.31

-0.02

-0.07

0.14

-0.01

-0.05

0.07

0.08

-0.06

9 Production Emphasis

0.19

0

0.02

0

0.25

-0.14

-0.19

-0.44

-0.55

-0.61

-0.26

-0.78

-0.21

10 Predictive Accuracy

0.13

0.06

-0.05

-0.14

-0.03

0.15

0.10

-0.02

0.06

-0.08

0.02

-0.09

0

11 Integration

0.33

0.20

0.35

0.40

-0.08

0.21

0.16

0.06

0.36

0.24

0.25

0.31

0.23

12 Superior Orientation

0.04

-0.12

-0.04

-0.08

0.16

0.15

0.32

0.11

0.05

-0.03

0.01

-0.28

0.02

Avg. all factors

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

 

 


 

Table 3. Executive Management Team at Times of Questionnaire Administrations

 

 

Nationality - 1999

Nationality – 2002

General Manager

Singapore

Singapore

Deputy GM

China

--

Financial Controller

Pakistan

China

Executive Assistant Manager

Philippines

Singapore

Executive Housekeeper

Singapore

China

F&B Manager

Singapore

China

Executive Chef

Singapore

Singapore

Executive Sous Chef

Australia

China

Front Office Manager

China

China

Sales & Marketing Manager

Philippines

Holland

Sales Manager

China

China

Sales Manager

Nepal

China

Chief Engineer

China

China

HR Manager

China

China

Deputy HR Manager

USA

--

Laundry Manager

Nepal

China

 


 

Table 4. History of the Management Team, 1994 – 2002

 

Nationality

Position

Promotion

Promotion

Start Date

End Date

Nepal

Laundry Manager

Assist Exec.

Housekeeper

 

1995

2002

Nepal

Front Office Manager

Dir. of Marketing

 

1997

2001

Singapore

F&B Manager

 

 

1994

2001

Australia

Exec Sous Chef

 

 

1998

2000

Hong Kong

Asst Head Chef

Head Chef

 

1997

2000

Philippines

Sales & Marketing Manager

Exec Assistant

Manager

Resident Manager

1994

2000

Pakistan

Financial

Controller

 

 

1994

1999

USA

Training Manager

Deputy HR Manager

 

1996

1999

Hong Kong

Asst Head Chef

Head Chef

 

1996

1998

Singapore

Exec Sous Chef

 

 

1997

1998

Belgium

Chief Engineer

 

 

1994

1996

Belgium

Executive Chef

 

 

1994

1996

Canada

P&T Manager

 

 

1995

1995

Germany

General Manager

 

 

1994

1995

USA

Training Manager

 

 

1995

1995

Holland

Sales manager

Dir. Of sales

Dir. Sales & Marketing

1997

Continuing

Singapore

Executive Assistant

Manager

Resident Manager

General Manager

1994

Present

Singapore

Head Housekeeper

Rooms Div Manager

 

1994

Present

Singapore

Exec Chef

 

 

1998

Present

China

Security Manager

 

 

1994

Continuing

China

Sales Manager

 

 

1995

1999

China

Personnel Manager

P&T Manager

HR Manager

1995

Continuing

China

F&B Supervisor

F.O. Manager

Rooms Div. Mgr

1995

Continuing

China

Deputy General

Manager

 

 

1995

1999

China

Assist Controller

Financial Controller

 

1995

Continuing

China

Assist Chief Engineer

Chief Engineer

 

1995

Continuing

China

Recreation Manager

Front Office

Manager

 

1995

Continuing

China

F&B Supervisor

Asst F&B Mgr

F&B

Manager

1995

Continuing

China

Security Manager

 

 

1995

1999

China

Sous Chef

Assist. Head Chef

Head Chef

1997

Continuing

China

Asst Purchasing Manager

Purchasing Manger

 

1995

1999

China

Purchasing Manger

 

 

1994

1996

 


 

Table 5. Mean Factor Scores Employed in Cluster Analysis for Senior Managers and Supervisors, 1999 & 2002

 

Ex: Expatriate Managers, M: managers, S: supervisors

 

Factor

 

Difference

Managers

99-02

 

Difference

Supervisors

99-02

 

1999

Ex

 

1999

M

 

2002

M

 

1999

S

 

2002

S

1

Representation

-0.03

0.00

4.34

4.47

4.50

4.50

4.50

2

Demand Reconciliation

+0.18

+0.11

3.92

4.42

4.24

4.39

4.28

3

Tolerance of Uncertainty

-0.10

-0.07

3.44

3.53

3.63

3.59

3.66

4

Persuasiveness

+0.06

+0.06

4.26

4.28

4.22

4.26

4.20

5

Initiation of Structure

-0.13

0.00

4.37

4.31

4.44

4.43

4.43

6

Tolerance of Freedom

-0.24

+0.12

3.24

3.68

3.92

3.83

3.71

7

Role Assumption

+0.14

+0.07

3.71

4.08

3.94

3.91

3.84

8

Consideration

-0.31

-0.14

3.56

3.83

4.14

3.96

4.10

9

Production Emphasis

+0.21

+0.06

3.91

4.35

4.14

4.17

4.11

10

Predictive Accuracy

+0.09

+0.13

4.17

4.29

4.20

4.10

3.97

11

Integration

+0.15

-0.01

4.46

4.49

4.34

4.50

4.51

12

Superior Orientation

+0.18

+0.08

4.16

4.20

4.02

4.11

4.03


 

 

Table 6. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis Proximity Matrix, Squared Euclidean Distance

All Samples

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case

1

2

3

4

5

1. 99 Expats

.000

.417

.711

.491

.570

2. 99 Cn Mgr

.417

.000

.341

.163

.350

3. 02 Cn Mgr

.711

.341

.000

.113

.129

4. 99 Cn Supv

.491

.163

.113

.000

.073

5. 02 Cn Supv

.570

.350

.129

.073

.000

This is a dissimilarity matrix. Larger values indicate the samples are more dissimilar.

 

 


 

Table 7. Cluster Membership, Comparing Chinese Managers and Supervisors with Expatriate Managers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case

4 Clusters

3 Clusters

2 Clusters

1. 99 Expats

1

1

1

2. 99 Cn Mgr

2

2

2

3. 02 Cn Mgr

3

3

2

4. 99 Cn Supv

4

3

2

5. 02 Cn Supv

4

3

2

 

 

Table 8. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis Comparing Chinese Managers & Supervisors

Cluster Membership

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case

3 Clusters

2 Clusters

1-1999 Managers

1

1

2-2002-Managers

2

1

3-1999-Supervisors

3

2

4-2002-Supervisors

3

2

 

 

Table 9. Proximity Matrix, Squared Euclidean Distance,

Comparing Chinese Managers & Supervisors

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case

1

2

3

4

1-1999 Managers

.000

.426

1.706

1.180

2-2002-Managers

.426

.000

1.133

.679

3-1999-Supervisors

1.706

1.133

.000

.374

4-2002-Supervisors

1.180

.679

.374

.000