Assignment task: A new manager - an American, who deeply believed in a participative style of management - erroneously applied this philosophy to a culture and a group of employees who were not at all used to participation. In fact, when the American asked his new Indian employees to participate in decision making, they assumed he must not know what he was doing. Instead of building a sense of camaraderie - which was his original intention - the strategy backfired, and he ended up losing the respect of his colleagues. But he took steps to correct the situation. He created a blend between his participative nature and his Indian employees' preference for hierarchy. Instead of asking team members to always share their ideas (which would be purely participative) or simply telling them what he thought (hierarchical), he required each employee to provide him with three suggestions, which he would then consider when making the ultimate decision. This gave him the participation he craved but in a style that worked in the new context. New managers need to be ready to adapt their behavior like this in order to find ways of being effective without compromising their integrity in the process.
Question: This passages best illustrates.
- The concept of leaders according to Hostede
- The importance of knowing about the GLOBE study at it relates to leadership across cultures
- The difference between direct and indirect communication
- The difference between low-context and high-context leaders