Forum
Date
11. Mai 2012
12.00-13.00 Uhr
Hörsaal 1
Content
Most existing leadership theories have been developed by researchers from a Western background through interviews with Western managers. Moreover, these approaches view Asians merely as followers which are led by a Western leader. Hence it is questionable whether these models are applicable both for preparation of Asian leaders for overseas assignments and for deriving hints of how to best foster efficient collaboration in cross-Asian leader-follower-dyads.
Our research project is one of the first contributions aiming at filling this research gap. We interviewed more than one hundred top tier executives stemming from Singapore, China, and Indonesia in our qualitative study`s first phase. We explored their views concerning their respective leadership behavior during encounters with persons coming from other Asian countries of origin. Since leadership always aims at influencing people to behave in a desired way, we have also gathered the perceived leadership success from the view of the managers led by the top-level bosses. A key finding is that leadership behavior that has proven to be highly effective in one country can become obsolete when being transferred unreflectively to changed cultural contingencies. A globally successful leader must therefore routinely ask him/herself how his shown leadership behavior is assumedly perceived by the followers. Applied intercultural psychology can help leaders to face this seemingly easy and highly challenging question - and, even more important, to honestly answer it and modify leadership behavior if needed.
We are conducting in-depth interviews with selected leaders from the first data collection phase and their close personal and professional contacts in the currently running second project round. By comparing their self-images to the perceptions of these significant others we want to understand which experiences triggered the development of their globally successful leadership skills - whether in a positive or negative manner. Our aim is to develop a formal model describing how to systematically prepare emerging leadership talent for potentially conflict-ridden intercultural encounters. Already at this early point of theory development one can conclude that routinely having a look at the "jesters` mirror", Bildstein & Gueldenberg, 2012a,b, will be a key component of this model. Ironically, the needed self-reflection is on the one hand somewhat obvious, but on the other nevertheless all too often completely unattended in daily leadership efforts.
Dipl.-Psych. Ingo Bildstein is a research assistant and PhD candidate in his final year of studies at the International Management Chair. He stayed at the Department of Psychology of Zhejiang from the middle of February until the middle of March conducting research together with Prof. Dr. Hora Tjitra, the co-supervisor of his dissertation. Together, they wrote two works concerning efficient leadership behavior in cross-Asian leadership dyads that will be published later this summer in the journals Personal Quarterly and Zeitschrift für Personalführung. The presented research findings are supported by the Human Capital Leadership Institute in Singapore and the data collection was done in collaboration with Zhejiang University and the Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia.
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