Explicit preferred leader behaviours across cultures: Instrument development and validation
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.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The paper was prepared within the framework of a subsidy granted to the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, by the Government of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the Global Competitiveness Program. Some data and information employed in this study were provided by and collected in collaboration within the Leadership & Management Studies in Sub-Saharan Africa consortium (http://crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/lmsssa.html), and parts of the data were utilized in other studies with different research questions, hypotheses, and analysis approaches. Some data and information employed in this study were provided by and collected with the assistance of the Steadman Group in Kenya; the company provided generous support with the collection of the surveys in Sub-Saharan African countries and their assistance is greatly appreciated.
Citation
Littrell, R.F., Warner-Soderholm, G., Minelgaite, I., Ahmadi, Y., Dalati, S., Bertsch, A. and Kuskova, V. (2018), "Explicit preferred leader behaviours across cultures: Instrument development and validation", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 243-257. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-09-2017-0294
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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