Free Essay on Leadership and Dimensions of Culture

The aspect of leadership is a concept that differs from culture to culture. Each particular culture has its own perceptions of this concept of leadership. The term culture can be defined in various aspects. For the purpose of this report, we will define culture as the learned beliefs, norms, values, symbols, traditions, and beliefs that are characteristic of a particular group of people who share a common definition. Components of a particular culture can differ from the components in another culture.

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Globally, there are different cultures. These different cultures compare differently globally. My perception on these multiple cultural dimensions became vivid after considering the dimensions of the cultural questionnaire. In my response to question one, I attained a mean score of 6 in uncertainty avoidance. This score was close to the Anglo score of 4.42 (Northouse 2016). The US, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, and South Africa, are the countries that comprise the Anglo-cluster. These countries achieved a medium score on the nine cultural, societal practices. They also scored high on power distance and scored low on gender equality. However, pertaining values of society, which are defined as how things should be instead of how they are, this group attained a high score on performance and humane and future orientation, and family collectivism (collectivism II). Regarding leadership scores, team oriented, charismatic, humane and participative styles scored relatively high while self-protective and autonomous leadership attained a relatively low score.

The summary of this results in accordance with these cultural findings, the results show the evidence placed on participative leadership in facilitating leadership effectively. The countries within this group are Democratic, and regarding the orientation of culture, they are relatively individualistic. The people in these countries greatly emphasis on their freedom of expression thus the leaders need to ensure they recognize and involve all parties in the decision-making procedure. This involves the delegation of responsibility and not trying to lead uncompromisingly from the top (Ashkanasy, Tevor-Roberts, and Earnshaw, 2002, p. 370).

We live in a diverse world with an amalgamation of many cultures, values and different ways of interacting with each other. This diversity can be classified in terms of gender, beliefs, religion, ethnicities, race, marital and parental status, age, physical and mental abilities, education, sexual orientations, languages, income, geographic locations and several other components. It is these components that I will make use of to re-evaluate my family values. We should understand that people want their leaders to be trustworthy, honest, just, decisive and so forth. Expressing these qualities in any given society noticeably varies from another society. If we take the US for example, a leader is perceived to be decisive if he or she makes decisions quickly and approximately.

My education, society, and upbringing have influenced and shaped my perception of culture. These perceptions have evidently influenced some of my scores. With the knowledge of how I perceive culture, I am comparatively aware of my stand with the broad scopes of cultural dimensions. With this knowledge of these differences, I have the awareness of how to work with the other people from other cultures to the benefit of all.

References

Ashkonasy, N.M., Tevor-Roberts, E., and Earnshaw, L. (2002). The Anglo Cluster: Legacyof the British Empire, Journal of World Business, 37 (1), 28-39.

Northouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership, Theory and Practice. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.