This Is Karl Moore of the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University with Talking Management for The Globe and Mail. Today I am delighted to be in Vancouver sitting down with Neal Ashkanasy from the University of Queensland.
So Neal, one of the big projects you have been involved in is looking at global leadership. Tell us about the project briefly and then what are some of the key findings?
NEAL ASHKANASY - About 20 years ago a very renowned leadership scholar by the name of Robert J. House decided to look at international leadership and Bob led this group that looked at cultural differences in the way that people looked at leadership and found some interesting things. More recently the group is continuing the legacy, unfortunately Bob passed away a few years ago now, but the group is continuing the legacy.
MOORE – What are some of the latest findings?
ASHKANASY - Some of the latest findings relate to the role of C-Suite, CEO's and people at senior levels in the organization. They also have a different take on the cultural approach and particularly the way they manage diverse employees. It turns out that in some countries diverse employees are appreciated more than in others. In some countries managers are very good at managing diverse work forces and in some countries they struggle a little bit. Japan is an example of a country that struggles a little bit with diverse leadership where as some of the European countries are good at it.
MOORE - As a manager, what should I take away from a couple of these findings?
ASHKANASY - Well managing a diverse work force is different then managing a homogeneous work force. You have to take account of the different styles of leadership that people expect. Some people expect their leaders to be very dominant, others who have a different cultural backgrounds expect their leaders to be much more participative, to expect input. But when you are managing a multicultural group then you are left with that odd question of you got to treat one person very inclusively and the other person really doesn't want to be treated and will work best if they are just given directions and told what to do. So it creates some difficult situations for managers.