Cross-Cultural Management: Understanding Leadership Styles and Behaviors in India and China

Running Head: Cross-Cultural Management
Cross Cultural Management
Essay
System04104
7/19/2018

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Introduction
Culture, values, norms and beliefs of the people are the key considerations to complete any
task or work when there are numbers of people working with you from different places
having different attributes. The culture of a person determines the way he behaves, acts or
thinks. Even culture plays an important role in any organisation that determines the way of
progress and growth. My all team members belong to China, and I am fortunate that they are
my good friends as well as they belong to my neighbour country. Both China and India are
neighbour countries and even there are some similarities in their culture. In my current study,
I found that the cultural diversity does not necessarily impact the team performance even
though we belong to different places, speaking different languages and different lifestyle. In
my study, I found that my Chinese teammates are more energetic and helpful in nature when
we assign a role to each person to complete the task. However, it is not easy to maintain the
coordination among the people even having some cultural similarity. Because People from
different cultures, having different thinking styles and attitudes about a particular thing.
However, my all team members belong to China and there was a very good coordination
among our team to complete the task. However, I find out some cultural similarity and
dissimilarities during leading and motivating these peoples.
As per my study, I found that cultural difference does not necessarily have a negative impact
on team performance. If there is an understanding among the team members and they respect
and awareness about other's culture and norms, a difficult task can easily be completed in an
effective manner. People always think that the group of people who belongs to same culture
and background think in the same way and can perform the task in better ways in comparing
to a group of those peoples who belongs to different culture and norms. But in my study, I
found that there is no adverse effect on the team performance of a diverse team group.
Review of Literature

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The review of literature includes the different styles of leadership in China and India and the
characteristics of leaders in these two neighbour countries. This review of literature also
focuses on the different leadership skills and leadership ethics practised by the Indian and
Chinese managers in the organisation. This literature shows a study on the cross-cultural
relationship between India and China and their leadership styles.
Anderson (2013), mentioned in his book ‘Principle-Based Leadership', an effective leader
influences its followers in the desired manner and helps them to achieve the target of the
organisation in the effective and efficient way. Leadership is a social influence process in
which a leader pursues the voluntary participation of its subordinates to achieve the
organisation objective and goals. Today’s the business organisation needs effective leaders
who understand the intricacies of the rapidly changing business environment. If the leader has
a good relationship with employees then its increase the productivity of the employees and a
highly structured task can easily complete by the employees. In Asian countries like China
and India, the manager plays a role as a boss in the organisation and his/her subordinates
follow his order by a certain amount of differential behaviour.
Role of Culture in Leadership Styles and Behaviour
According to Rahman (2014), culture and leadership are main aspects of organisational
issues. Culture has a great impact on leadership behaviours. The culture of a nation influences
the management practices in different societies. Culture is a belief and value system of people
that influence what people believed to be acceptable and not acceptable. People from the
same culture can interpret things in the same way and naturally share common values and
belief, while people from different cultures usually interpret things in different ways.
Daft (2014), describes in his book ‘The Leadership Experience’, the Indian leaders have a
habit of thinking more strategically and entrepreneurship, where Chinese leaders tend to good
at bringing people together. This helps Chinese leaders to execute their plan and strategy is
concerned with their subordinates that successfully meets the objective of the organisation.
The Indian leaders are normally like to look at the bigger picture in determining the talent
required to grow in the future. On the other hand, the Indian leaders not performing well on
the competencies criteria as compared to Chinese leaders. The Chinese leaders do not believe
in strategic decision-making, building organisational talent or entrepreneurship like India
(Cappelli, Singh and Useem, 2015). Chinese leaders are self-confident such as Indian leaders

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and accept leadership roles without too competitive. Indian leadership are more flexible in
their nature where Chinese leaders are open to the ideas of others but are very slow to
implement.
In the words of Everhart, D. (2010), former head of Korn/Ferry International’s Leadership
Development Solution, Indian leaders are more commanding and hierarchical in compare to
the Western leaders and less anxious about appearing open to the input of others and building
consensus. This approach of leadership effective in Indian leadership context but such
leadership style can be less effective in the context of international management teams who
may need to feel a stronger sense of empowerment to stay productive and motivated
(Mitchell, Ray and Sutcliffe, 2014). Indian leaders are more proactive and participative in
accessing the information related to their complex decision making which is required for the
business.
According to Alexander (2014), leadership style is a more focus on "what leaders do" rather
than a leader’s identity which focuses on "who leaders are". The different leadership style
like autocratic leadership style and liaises-fair style of leadership style all have their own
importance in different environmental and global business conditions.
Lynch (2013) describes in his book ‘One leadership style does not fit all’ there are different
definitions and meanings of leadership for people, like democracy, love, and peace. Every
people define the leadership in their own words and define its meaning according to their
point of view. A leader without followers may be just like a car without petrol. Leadership is
a successful process to inspire and motivate others to achieve the objective of a business
organisation. Leadership can define as the ability of an individual to inspire and influence a
group of individuals.
Bourke (2010), describes in his article ‘Chinese and Western leadership models’, the
Confucianism, introduced by Kong Zi (551-479BC), established the basic root of Chinese
culture. Then it was developed and promoted by Meng Zi, and highly publicised by the
dynasties. A great emphasis is given by 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.