Cross-cultural Management

This essay explores the cultural implications on leadership style and how cultural diversity affects team performance. It also reviews the leadership styles in Pakistan, China, France, and Nigeria and the relationship among these countries and the characteristics of leaders among these countries. The author shares their own experience in managing and leading a team with diverse cultural backgrounds and concludes that cultural diversity can be a strength for a team if managed effectively.

Running Head: Cross-cultural Management
Cross-cultural Management
Essay
System04104
7/21/2018

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Introduction
The success or failure of an organisation depends upon the culture, values, norms, and beliefs
of the people within the organisation. The culture of a nation plays a key role in the whole
organisation that determines the way of progress and growth of the whole organisation. I am
fortunate to have three team members who belong to China, France, and Nigeria having the
different culture and thinking style, but it does not affect the teamwork. The main objective
of this report is to find out what are the cultural implications on leadership style. In addition,
how cultural diversity affects the team performance. I will first try to understand the cultures
of all the three countries, which helps in analyse the culture and its effect on the leadership
style. As per study, I found that the cultural diversity do not necessarily affect the team
performance. In my study, I found that that people from China are more collectivistic in
approach, while people from France are aggressive in nature and people from Nigeria are
cool in nature, hence I decided to combine the nature of all these three people on a single
platform. It is not easy to lead the different people having different nature and culture. People
from different culture having different thinking and. However, Mr A, who belong to China
having some similarity in culture and thinking with Pakistani culture. Mr A is more focused
towards the assignment, while Mr B who belongs to France is aggressive in nature and Mr C
who belongs to Nigeria is a cool person. For me it is difficult to manage these people to
complete the task. However, I manage and motivate them according to their culture to
complete the group task and find out some cultural similarity and difference during leading
and motivating these peoples.
In my experience, I found that cultural difference does not necessarily have a negative impact
on team performance. The different culture does not create any conflicts rather it creates
because of organisational context and individual team member’s responses towards the
cultural norms. Many studies shown that a homogenous team can do better than the
heterogeneous team. Some studies shown that homogeneous team avoid mistakes caused by
miscommunication and the subsequent conflict of more diverse team. However, in my study,
I found that diversity does not have predictable negative effects on team performance.

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Review of Literature
The review of literature includes the different styles of leadership practices in Pakistan,
China, France, and Nigeria. The current review of literature also helps in to understand the
relationship among these countries and the characteristics of leaders among these countries.
This review of the literature shows the different culture, leadership skills, and ethics practised
by Pakistani leaders.
Leadership and Culture
Daft (2014) describes in his book ‘The Leadership Experience', culture and leadership are the
main aspects of any organisation. Culture determines the behaviour of a leader. The national
culture of a country sets the way of management practices and determines the behaviour of a
leader with his/her subordinates. The culture, beliefs, value, norms, ideology, and ethics of an
organisation guide the leaders, how to influence and manage people in the organisation.
Culture can be defined as a belief or value system of a people that influence what people
believed to be acceptable or not acceptable (Anderson, 2013). Normally, people from the
same culture share common culture, values, ethics, and approach of managing people. People
from the same culture also interpret and analyse the things in the same way while people
from different cultures usually think differently and analyse the things in their own way
which closely related to their culture.
According to Ashman and Lawler (2008), leadership style generally focuses on "what leaders
do" rather than a leader’s own identity, which considered "who leaders are.” The different
leadership style has their own importance in the different environmental and global business
conditions (Lynch, 2013). These leadership styles are autocratic leadership style and liaises-
fair style which describes how a leader behave and influence his/her subordinates in the
organisation and it also shows the approach the leader bears with dealing with the employees
(Christina, John and Warren, 2012). An effective leader is a person who influences and
motivated their followers, thus they can achieve the desired result in an effective and efficient
way. The leader can motivate his/her followers and pursue them about the desired target of
the organisation.
In the words of Bourke (2010), leadership is a social and cultural influence process that
inspire and motivate others for actively participating in the work, thus the objective of the
organisation can easily achieve in a pre-determined manner without losing the efficiency of
people. In Pakistan, managers practised a collective approach to leadership in which the

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manager involves their subordinates and employee in his major decision-making. The
Pakistani leaders are not following the individualistic approach of leadership. Normally, the
Asian countries like India, China, and Pakistan believe in others and practice the collectivistic
approach of leadership approach (Jeevan and Sumeet, 2015).
Leadership style in Pakistan
The Pakistani leaders having the habit of thinking more tactfully and strategically comparing
to the Chinese leaders are good to follow the rules and regulations more strictly (Bock,
Opsahl and Gann, 2011). Pakistan is a developing country where a study of leadership needs
the study of culture and language of a country, which all business organisations follow. In
Pakistan, a prime concerned how the leadership is created, educated, and entrenched within
the national corporate context of organising. The Pakistani leaders are well educated and
follow the culture, norms, and values of the country and so rigid about their cultural norms.
Today's business environment is so competitive and advanced because of technological
advancement that demands effective leaders who understand the complexities of the rapidly
changing environment and focuses on maintaining a good relationship with their colleagues
and their subordinate.
Gates (2016) defines about the leadership styles in his article ‘6 leadership styles around the
world to build effective multinational teams’, the two popular leadership styles in the world
are the transactional leadership style or transformational leadership style. Apart from this, the
leaders across the world follow either the individualistic approach of leadership or
collectivistic style of leadership, which depends on the organisational management style. The
transformational leadership theory focuses on to understand the needs and motives of the
followers and initiate, develop, and bring changes in the organisation (Friesel, Sackmann, and
Kremser, 2011). The transactional leadership theory based on exchange relationship of
leaders and followers, where leader promotes the relationship according to give and take
approach. In the transactional leadership, approach leader’s reward their employees in turn of
their good work performance and ensure compliance and stability in the organisation through
better planning and strategy. Apart from this, the individualistic approach of leadership more
focuses and prioritize on "I" concept and the collectivistic leadership style give more
emphasis on "we" concept, where organisational interest has been prioritizing rather than
individual interest (Stephan and Pathak, 2016).

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Nardon and Stters (2018) describe in his article ‘The Culture Jungle: Divergence and
convergence in models of national culture’, as the culture, values, norms and belief has
substantial impacts on the projects, the creative organisation culture includes creative and
innovative role to perform. China is a big economy in comparison to Pakistan and spread its
business in the country that also helps to spread Chinese culture in Pakistan. The Chinese
companies like Huawei and ZTE more focusing on HR practices in Pakistan while they
spread their business in South Asian countries. At one side, China has a high context culture
and they followed the collectivist approach of leadership while Pakistani leaders more
focusing on their culture and ethical values in their leadership approach. Although both are
Asian neighbour countries, they follow the same collectivist approach to leadership. The
decision-making style of a leader normally influenced by his/her national culture, values,
norms, and ethics (Walls and Triandis, 2014). Since the modern business environment is so
dynamic and unpredictable, a leader has to make complex decisions regarding keep in mind
of long-term effect and consequences, and it is understandable that the complex decisions are
beyond all other, consequences of social values that apply on every people of the organisation
(Northouse, 2013). Therefore, the cultural and social values determine the style of decision-
making of a leader in the organisation. Decision style approach is a useful approach to
understanding managers and their way of decision-making. The decision-making style of a
leader is also a subsystem within leadership styles. In general, researchers and management
practitioners have been different approach and opinion on decision-making styles. In
Pakistan, there is the huge gap between the upper and lower level of employee in any
organisation in terms of education level. Thus, the top managers avoid the opinions or
feedback of lower level employees and the result is absent of a participatory approach in the
organisation.
Leadership style in China
Li, Leung, and Luo (2012) describes in his article “Indigenous research on Chinese
management: what and how” about the Chinese culture is that the Confucianism, familiarized
by Kong Zi (551-479BC), presented the basic root of Chinese culture. Then it was promoted
and developed by Meng Zi and highly publicised by the dynasties. A great importance is
given by the Chinese people on Confucianism but other ancient schools of thoughts like
Buddhism (introduced from India) and traditional Taoism absolutely ignored in that era.
Confucianism continuously influences Chinese society and individuals up to the present time.
The Chinese leaders follow the culture and making their decision by considering the

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Confucianism theory. Although the Chinese people also followed the Buddhism, which was
introduced from India, there is a significant impact of Confucianism in the decision-making
roles of a leader in their business organisation. The Chinese people believe in bringing people
together thus, they can give their best to the organisation. Both the Pakistani and Chinese
leaders believe in their culture therefore, they make their rules and regulations keeping the
culture in their mind.
Leadership style in France
In the words of Raziq (2018), in comparison to the Chinese leadership and Pakistani
leadership style, French leadership style is more autocratic in nature. In France, the manager
or leader seems to have a more roving role in compare to Chinese and Indian leadership style.
The French people often focus to involve their subordinates and consult with middle-level
managers, technical staffs and with the lower level workers but normally decisions taken by
the top leaders of the organisation. The French history shows the leadership style of the
French people that how Nepolian and Petain knew for their heroics rather than failure. The
Ultimate success is less important than the thrill of the chase and ability to quicken the
national pulse. The approach of French leaders is more individualistic and autocratic in
compare to Pakistani and Chinese leaders.
Leadership Style in Nigeria
Although Nigeria follows the democratic leadership style which, is different from Pakistani
leadership approach. It means the leaders are more open and friendly, pragmatic and
participatory with their subordinates and make their plan and making decisions in considering
the opinion and suggestions of the lower level management (Warburton, 2016). The French
leaders are normally fear to accept new changes, but innovations and new ideas are welcome
by the leaders and they motivate and inspire their subordinates for the same. In France,
missed deadlines are the sign of incompetency and leaders take it so seriously against their
subordinates, as agendas are highly scheduled and planned out. The French leaders give more
emphasis on teamwork by appointing a team leader by giving the power to monitor and guide
all. This is the same as the Pakistani and Chinese leaders do in the business organisation.
According to Stout-Rostron (2014), understanding the culture is an essential factor to
understand the leadership style of any country. A good knowledge of culture helps a leader to
better adjust in the diversified teams and groups and helps a manager to complete the project
successfully. The cultural understanding of a manager helps to motivate and unite their team

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members that help to achieve the objective of the organisation. Although there is a similarity
in leadership style and approach, the Pakistani and Chinese cultural diversity has no
significant impact on the organisational success (Warner, 2014). The Chinese culture is
highly complex in nature while Pakistani culture is collectivistic nature that determines the
leadership approach of a leader in the country. However, the low-cost strategy of Chinese
organisation to export product on the cheap rate and the leadership style of Chinese leaders is
more effective than Pakistani leaders (Tsai, 2011). The Pakistani leaders are self-confident
same as the Chinese and French leaders and they believed in their followers and motivate
them to achieve the organisational objective in given deadline with efficient and effective
manner. The Pakistani leadership approach same as the Indian leadership approach of
managing people because of the cultural similarity and their language. Pakistan, China, and
India all following the collectivistic approach of leadership style because the organisational
objective is their primary area of interest rather than the individualistic approach of
leadership.
My Own Experience in Managing and leading Team
The area of trust, positive feedback, efficacy, cohesion, and commitment are considered as
essential factors in any team performance. These factors are the key foundation for
collaboration and cooperation in within a team. In my opinion, increasing trust among team
members and motivate them by positive feedback is a great key of success through diverse
cultural team members. In my experience of managing the team, I found that the diversity
does not necessarily have any impact on the team performance.
For increasing the effectiveness of the team and its productivity, it is essential that every team
member feel satisfied and motivated in what they are doing. In my study, I found that
Learning and satisfaction might contribute to strengthening the teamwork and create a
positive environment among the people relationships. Furthermore, the satisfaction of team
member results in positive feedback for others that also boost the effectiveness of
multicultural teams.
The only factor that creates problem and challenge to manage a multicultural and diverse
team is the ‘communication style’. I faced challenge when I lead these groups in form of
direct and indirect communication, accent and fluency, and attitude towards the hierarchy and
authority. The person having different norms regarding their decision-making causes

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problems for the team performance. In fact, apart from these challenges, I feel that managing
a diverse team is very easy if you have knowledge about their culture and norms. The cultural
awareness about these people helps me to make a strong coordination among the team
members.
Conclusion
Culture plays a crucial role in leadership style and approach of a leader and his decision-
making. The Pakistani leaders are more focuses on their culture and practices collective
approach to leadership in the organisation same as the Chinese leaders. The Pakistani leaders
more concentrate on organisational development rather than individual interests. In compare
to Pakistani leaders, the French leaders are more individualistic in nature and they look for
self-interests and are more confident in their decision-making. The Nigerian people are soft
and cool in nature and following the democratic style of leadership, where they give more
importance to their subordinates and making their decision by considering the decisions of
their subordinates. The Pakistani leaders are less risk-taker in compare to French leaders.
However, the Chinese and Pakistani leaders almost follow the same culture and leadership
style where they both focus on the collectivistic approach to leadership where the focus is on
the success of the organisation. The Pakistani and Chines people are more culture oriented
and good neighbour of each other. Thus, we can say that two Asian giants Pakistan and China
considering the value of their subordinates and giving more emphasis on the collectivistic
approach of leadership and there is no difference in the leadership style and approach of these
two Asian countries. While the French and Nigerian people are different in their leadership
style and approach because of their culture dissimilarity from Pakistan and China.

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