I have carried out a piece of UK based research into what constitutes a good or bad boss. I am keen to understand if UK employees have different expectations to those of employees elsewhere in the world. I would really appreciate learning more from the experiences of fellow HR professionals.
Lisa Smale
2 Responses
Cross cultural differences
Lisa
I have worked in many countries and cultures and I am sure there are real differences in management thinking, leadership styles and perceptions of what is a good boss. I am not really qualified to say exactly what all those differences are, or the extent that they may vary in different sub-cultures. But, if you have not come across it yet, I’d recommend Culture’s Consequences by
Geert Hofstede – it was updated in 2003 to cover 50 different nations; includes issues such as power, gender, individualism and values. Also look out for Business across Cultures by Fons Trompenaars.
For an academic overview of the current state of research in this area, though mostly focusing on communications, try http://mubs.mdx.ac.uk/Research/Discussion_Papers/Marketing/dpap%20marketing%20no26.pdf
Graham
Good bosses – an international perspective
Gannon in ‘Understanding Global Cultures: metaphorical journeys through 28 nations'(Sage Publications) also looks at leadership in his chapter on authority-ranking cultures where he looks at, for example, Thailand, Japan, Brazil and Poland.
Jo Bloxham
thinkingpeople
specialists in cross-cultural competence training