EDO 818 Module 3 Leadership Across Societies Example

Who Should Run Penang? Using GLOBE's Findings on Leadership Across Societies to Choose and Prepare a Plant Manager

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Doctor of Education Program, Aspen University

EDO 818: Leading Across Contexts and Cultures

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Month Day, Year

Who Should Run Penang? Using GLOBE's Findings on Leadership Across Societies to Choose and Prepare a Plant Manager

Clearbrook Water Systems opened its membrane assembly plant in Penang, Malaysia, in 2023 under an American plant manager who had led the project from Minnesota. He returns home in six months, and the company must choose a successor. Three internal candidates have emerged: Mark, an operations director with twenty years at Clearbrook in Minnesota; Nurul, a Malaysian process engineering manager who has led the plant's largest department since it opened; and Tomáš, a Czech quality manager from the Brno plant who spent four months in Penang during start-up. This paper uses research from the GLOBE project on leadership across societies to inform the choice and to prepare whoever is chosen. The company and the candidates are invented, and societal profiles are treated as averages.

What Is Valued Nearly Everywhere

Den Hartog et al. (1999) analyzed GLOBE survey data from middle managers in many countries, who rated how much each of a long list of attributes would inhibit or contribute to outstanding leadership. A set of attributes was endorsed as contributing to outstanding leadership in virtually every society studied, among them being trustworthy, just, honest, having foresight, being encouraging and positive, being decisive, being a team builder and being a skilled communicator. A smaller set was seen nearly everywhere as inhibiting outstanding leadership, such as being a loner, noncooperative, ruthless, egocentric or dictatorial. Many other attributes were culturally contingent, contributing to outstanding leadership in some societies and inhibiting it in others; examples included being status conscious, taking risks, being individualistic, being cautious and being self-sacrificing.

The finding reframes the appointment. All three candidates will need the universally valued qualities. The question is which candidate can also meet the culturally contingent expectations of the Penang workforce while meeting Clearbrook's own requirements.

How Societies Differ

Dorfman et al. (2012) reviewed twenty years of GLOBE research. The project grouped leadership attributes into six global dimensions: charismatic or value-based, team-oriented, participative, humane-oriented, autonomous and self-protective. Societies were grouped into regional clusters with similar profiles. Charismatic and team-oriented leadership were endorsed strongly across clusters, while the others varied more. The review also summarized a later phase of GLOBE that studied more than a thousand chief executives and their top management teams in many countries. Executives whose behavior matched their society's expectations of leaders were seen by their teams as more effective and had more committed teams, while executives whose behavior fell short of expectations were rated less effective.

Comparing Home and Host Profiles

Javidan et al. (2006) used GLOBE's findings to show how a manager moving between countries can compare the leadership profile of the home society with that of the host. They walked through the example of an American executive taking assignments in several countries, identifying for each where the expected leadership style resembled the American one and where it differed, and what behaviors the executive would need to adjust, such as how participative to be, how much attention to give to relationships and status and how to show care for subordinates. They stressed that the profiles describe expectations to be understood, not stereotypes to be imposed.

Applied to Penang, the comparison suggests that an American manager would need to temper the open, highly participative style that Clearbrook's Minnesota culture prizes, give more personal attention to employees and their families and be more careful about public disagreement and face. These are the adjustments the founding manager made only partly, according to the plant's engagement survey.

The Three Candidates

Nurul's case rests on fit with the workforce and on the evidence that meeting local expectations matters for effectiveness. Her gaps, knowledge of company-wide systems and relationships at headquarters, can be addressed through mentoring and travel, while the gaps of the other candidates involve the subtler work of adapting to a culture they know less well. Reliance on cluster averages is tempered by her own record: engineers in her department rated her highest of all Penang managers in the last engagement survey, and her department met its quality targets every quarter.

Risks of the Choice

Appointing Nurul carries risks the board should weigh. She has not yet managed a budget of the plant's size, and headquarters staff who know Mark well may route decisions around her, undermining her authority with the workforce. Some Penang staff who are senior to her in age may find a younger manager harder to accept, a concern that GLOBE's attention to status suggests should not be dismissed. The preparation plan addresses the first two directly; the third calls for visible support from Clearbrook's chief operating officer at her installation and for Nurul to consult senior staff privately before major decisions, as the plant's expectations favor.

Preparing the New Manager

The recommendation is to appoint Nurul, with three supports. First, Mark will serve as her mentor for a year, with monthly calls and two visits, giving her access to headquarters relationships. Second, she will spend three weeks in Minnesota and one week in Brno before taking over, learning the company-wide systems and meeting her peer plant managers. Third, the company will review its expectations of plant managers with her, distinguishing practices that must be common, such as safety and quality systems, from those she may adapt, such as how meetings and feedback are conducted.

Conclusion

GLOBE research shows that some leader attributes are valued nearly everywhere and others depend on culture, and that leaders who meet local expectations tend to be more effective. Den Hartog and colleagues, Javidan and colleagues and Dorfman and colleagues together suggest that the Penang plant is best led by a manager who already meets the workforce's expectations and can be supported in learning the company's systems. Appointing Nurul with a mentor and structured preparation applies that research without reducing any candidate to a national average.

References

Den Hartog, D. N., House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Ruiz-Quintanilla, S. A., Dorfman, P. W., Abdalla, I. A., Adetoun, B. S., Aditya, R. N., Agourram, H., Akande, A., Akande, B. E., Akerblom, S., Altschul, C., Alvarez-Backus, E., Andrews, J., Arias, M. E., Arif, M. S., Ashkanasy, N. M., Asllani, A., ... Zhou, J. (1999). Culture specific and cross-culturally generalizable implicit leadership theories: Are attributes of charismatic/transformational leadership universally endorsed? The Leadership Quarterly, 10(2), 219-256. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1048-9843(99)00018-1

Dorfman, P., Javidan, M., Hanges, P., Dastmalchian, A., & House, R. (2012). GLOBE: A twenty year journey into the intriguing world of culture and leadership. Journal of World Business, 47(4), 504-518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2012.01.004

Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W., Sully de Luque, M., & House, R. J. (2006). In the eye of the beholder: Cross cultural lessons in leadership from Project GLOBE. Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(1), 67-90. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2006.19873410