Romie Frederick Littrell, Gillian Warner-Soderholm, Inga Minelgaite, Yaghoub Ahmadi, Serene Dalati, Andrew Bertsch and Valentina Kuskova
The purpose of this paper is to develop a reliable and valid field survey research instrument to assess national cultural cognitive templates of preferred leader behaviour…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a reliable and valid field survey research instrument to assess national cultural cognitive templates of preferred leader behaviour dimensions to facilitate education, development, and training of managerial leaders operating across diverse organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study consists of focus group evaluations of the validity and the translations to local languages of a survey instrument assessing leader behaviour preferences in business organisations.
Findings
The studies find that the survey instrument and its translations are valid and reliable for assessing preferred leader behaviour across national cultures. The length of the survey is problematic, and a new project is underway to produce a shorter version with equivalent reliability and validity.
Research limitations/implications
As the research project is long term, at this point, a relatively long survey is available for research, with a shorter version planned for the future.
Practical implications
Practical implications include producing and validating a field survey research instrument that is reliable and valid across cultures and languages, and can be employed to improve the understanding, development, and education of managers and leaders of international business organisations.
Social implications
Management and leadership processes are employed in all aspects of life, and can be better understood and improved through this research project.
Originality/value
The majority of cross-cultural research is leader-centric studies of implicit leader characteristics; this project expands the scope of studies further into follower-centric studies of observed leader behaviour.
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Olga Stangej, Inga Minelgaite, Kari Kristinsson and Margret Sigrun Sigurdardottir
The purpose of this paper is to examine how prejudice in a post-migration labor market can be mitigated, specifically, whether education received in the host country can serve as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how prejudice in a post-migration labor market can be mitigated, specifically, whether education received in the host country can serve as a signal of social integration for immigrant workers in employment settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an audit discrimination study, using an experimental setup to examine the interplay between prejudice and education as a signal of the social integration of immigrants in employment settings.
Findings
The results of the study indicate that signals of social integration, such as, qualifications acquired in the host country through education, counter prejudice against Polish immigrants in Iceland.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides evidence that immigrants are subjected to prejudice that can restrain their employment opportunities. The acquisition of education in the host country can mitigate this effect, but also diminishes the line between social integration and assimilation. However, the study is limited by a relatively small sample size and a single-country context.
Practical implications
The study offers insights for both countries and organizations worldwide that are facing the need to successfully embrace a mobile workforce and the challenge of a diverse workforce composition.
Originality/value
The study addresses the under-researched effects of education on human capital transferability in the host labor market. More specifically, it uncovers that the differentiation between education acquired in the home country and education acquired in the host country is a signal that can mitigate prejudice and its effects on the employment of immigrants in the host countries.
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Gillian Warner-Soderholm, Inga Minelgaite and Romie Frederick Littrell
The purpose of this paper is to refine and validate the most widely used leader behavior measurement instrument, LBDQXII, into a more parsimonious instrument for assessing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to refine and validate the most widely used leader behavior measurement instrument, LBDQXII, into a more parsimonious instrument for assessing cognitive templates of preferred leader behavior across cultures.
Design/methodology/approach
The 100-item LBDQXII survey was administered to 6,451 participants from 14 countries; these data were used to refine the survey.
Findings
The shorter survey instrument is a valid and reliable tool for assessing preferred leader behavior. Four periods in the LBDQXII “evolution” are identified: emergence, expansion, stagnation and revival.
Research limitations/implications
The new LBDQ50 can be used to collect data across cultures, contributing to both global management development and scholarly studies.
Practical implications
This project corresponds to calls to shorten the well-established leader behavior instrument into a measurement tool that is reliable and valid across cultures and languages. This can be administered by both private and public organizations, contributing to greater effectiveness. Furthermore, it retains its scholarly scope encompassing follower-centric studies of leadership.
Social implications
Leadership processes are found in all aspects of life and can be better understood and improved within and across cultures using the shorter version.
Originality/value
An efficient instrument to measure preferred leadership behavior across and within cultures. The availability of the LBDQ50 will allow practitioners and researchers to advance understanding of preferred leadership behavior as a predictor of organizational effectiveness. Most such instruments are overly-long, which hinders data collection opportunities. This newly developed instrument can lead to better response rates and easier applicability in organizational settings.
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Jasenko Ljubica, Romie Frederick Littrell, Gillian Warner-Søderholm and Inga Minelgaite
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the relationships between societal culture value dimensions and employee preferences for empowerment behaviors by…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the relationships between societal culture value dimensions and employee preferences for empowerment behaviors by managerial leaders across societal cultures. To do this, the authors synthesize the extant literature to underpin this study and to set the research agenda for future empirical work.
Design/methodology/approach
Using field survey research method, the authors obtain and analyze data from ten samples in eight geographically and culturally diverse societies from a global longitudinal study of preferred managerial leader behavior.
Findings
Cultural value dimension predictor variables affect employee preferences for leader empowerment behaviors in the societies studied. Some significant effects of gender and organizational factors on these relationships were found.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should expand upon variations in the meaning of employee empowerment across cultures, consider other cultural models and theories, and a more extensive set of personal, organizational and relational factors.
Practical implications
Employee preferences for leader empowerment behaviors are more likely the result of the interplay, exchange and trade-offs between cultural, personal and organizational values. The effectiveness of employee empowerment is contingent upon well-designed training programs aligning management and worker values, goals and tasks.
Originality/value
The authors offer more realistic, objective and evidence-based insights into the cultural influences on the effectiveness of empowerment and employee cognitions towards it than the extant, conceptually and methodologically compromised, strategic cross-cultural studies.