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GLOBE: A twenty year journey into the intriguing world of culture and leadership

Author

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  • Dorfman, Peter
  • Javidan, Mansour
  • Hanges, Paul
  • Dastmalchian, Ali
  • House, Robert

Abstract

Since its inception in the early 1990s, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) project has investigated the complex relationship between societal culture and organizational behavior. The focus of this paper is on leadership, specifically what we know and have learned from the GLOBE project so far. Among other findings, we demonstrate that national culture indirectly influences leadership behaviors through the leadership expectations of societies. In other words, executives tend to lead in a manner more or less consistent with the leadership prototypes endorsed within their particular culture. In turn, leaders who behave according to expectations are most effective. We also found that some leadership behaviors are universally effective such as charismatic/value-based leadership; others are much more culturally sensitive such as participative leadership. Finally, we identified truly superior (and also truly inferior) CEOs by the degree to which their behaviors exceed (or fail to meet) their society's expectations. All in all, understanding national culture gives us a heads-up as to which kinds of leadership will likely be enacted and effective in each society. We believe that the GLOBE journey has helped us understand the complex, tricky, and fascinating relationships among societal culture, organizational behavior, and leadership processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Dorfman, Peter & Javidan, Mansour & Hanges, Paul & Dastmalchian, Ali & House, Robert, 2012. "GLOBE: A twenty year journey into the intriguing world of culture and leadership," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 504-518.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:worbus:v:47:y:2012:i:4:p:504-518
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jwb.2012.01.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wanasika, Isaac & Howell, Jon P. & Littrell, Romie & Dorfman, Peter, 2011. "Managerial Leadership and Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 234-241, April.
    2. Kwok Leung & Rabi S Bhagat & Nancy R Buchan & Miriam Erez & Cristina B Gibson, 2005. "Culture and international business: recent advances and their implications for future research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(4), pages 357-378, July.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Kumar Alok, 2017. "Sāttvika Leadership: An Indian Model of Positive Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 117-138, April.
    2. Riaz, Suhaib & Glenn Rowe, W. & Beamish, Paul W., 2014. "Expatriate-deployment levels and subsidiary growth: A temporal analysis," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 1-11.
    3. Castaño, Nathalie & Sully de Luque, Mary F. & Wernsing, Tara & Ogliastri, Enrique & Shemueli, Rachel Gabel & Fuchs, Rosa María & Robles-Flores, José Antonio, 2015. "El Jefe: Differences in expected leadership behaviors across Latin American countries," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 584-597.
    4. repec:krk:eberjl:v:4:y:2016:i:1:p:161-180 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:eee:worbus:v:52:y:2017:i:5:p:702-713 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Flatten, Tessa & Adams, Daniel & Brettel, Malte, 2015. "Fostering absorptive capacity through leadership: A cross-cultural analysis," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 519-534.
    7. Li, Chengguang & Parboteeah, K. Praveen, 2015. "The effect of culture on the responsiveness of firms to mimetic forces: Imitative foreign joint venture entries into China, 1985–2003," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 465-476.
    8. repec:eee:worbus:v:52:y:2017:i:6:p:798-808 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. repec:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:2:p:567-:d:133032 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:eee:jbrese:v:85:y:2018:i:c:p:60-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Cascio, Wayne F. & Boudreau, John W., 2016. "The search for global competence: From international HR to talent management," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 103-114.
    12. Bird, Allan & Mendenhall, Mark E., 2016. "From cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and adaptation," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 115-126.
    13. Chevrier, Sylvie & Viegas-Pires, Michaël, 2013. "Delegating effectively across cultures," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 431-439.
    14. Qinxuan Gu & Thomas Tang & Wan Jiang, 2015. "Does Moral Leadership Enhance Employee Creativity? Employee Identification with Leader and Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) in the Chinese Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(3), pages 513-529, February.
    15. Stephan, Ute & Pathak, Saurav, 2016. "Beyond cultural values? Cultural leadership ideals and entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 505-523.

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