Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cultural leadership'

Effective communication is important, particularly for the over 26 million immigrant workers with non-English speaking backgrounds who have entered the U.S. workforce. The research problem addressed the disillusion of non-English speakers in the workplace because of the communication gap. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of non-English speaking immigrant workers in overcoming language and cultural communication challenges at work. The research question focused on how non-English speakers or English as a Second Language (ESL) speakers describe their communication experiences in the workplace. The theoretical framework was based on the cultural approach to organizations and the transactional model of communication. A qualitative narrative inquiry design was used that employed sources of information including an interview questionnaire and existing literature. The target population was immigrant employees who are managers, assistant managers, and supervisors in New York City and Long Island who work in accounting, banking, finance, information technology, and marketing with at least 5 years’ experience. A purposive sampling procedure was used to select 20 participants for semistructured interviews. The qualitative data were subjectively analyzed by using member checking and triangulation. Key findings indicated 6 themes: miscommunication, lack of appropriate terms, delays in work completion, loss of respect, inability to express oneself clearly, and the need to use alternative means of communication. Opportunity for contributions to social change can include increased understanding and utilization of effective management and communication strategies for dealing with non-English-speaking and ESL workers. This can also help to bridge cultural and language gaps.

The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study contributed a wealth of knowledge regarding the differences across national/societal cultures. However, it did not attempt to measure the potential variations in implicit leadership theories (ILTs; leadership prototypes) that could occur due to individuals being influenced by more than one national culture within countries, such as bicultural individuals. Variations found within a country can be described by their extent of acculturation or adoption of one or more cultural influences. The extent of a person’s acculturation may predict individual ILTs, which are the patterns of attributes that bicultural persons associate with good leaders. In addition, the extent of a person’s cultural intelligence (CQ) may interact with acculturation in impacting ILTs because CQ influences a person’s ability to understand and adjust mental modes to cultural norm. This study explored the relationships among acculturation, CQ, and ILTs in a sample of respondents from Mexican descent living in the United States. The results of the study provide a better understanding of how variations in national culture impact ILTs. In addition, the findings suggest interpretation of cultural dimensions is complex. Significant findings include (a) differences across acculturation levels regarding expectation for a leader to be characterized by the ILT dimensions of sensitivity and tyranny; (b) very Mexican-oriented individuals (acculturation Level 1) showing more expectation for a leader to be characterized as well-dressed, well-groomed, compassionate, understanding, sympathetic, and sensitive and less expectation for a leader to be domineering and demanding than Anglo-oriented individuals (acculturation Level 3), acculturation serving as a predictor of metacognitive CQ; (c) acculturation and metacogntive CQ clearly interacting thus complicating the picture of cultural effects occurring during adjustments to a new cultural setting; and (d) metacognitive CQ serving as a partial mediator between acculturation level and the ILT dimension of sensitivity.

There is a lack of universally applicable team leadership models for cross-cultural work teams. The research on cross-cultural team leadership has mostly been conducted with an ethnocentric or culturally comparative approach. Therefore, the purpose of this study has been to discover a universal leadership theory, leading to high cross-cultural team performance.

This dissertation describes the prior research bound to the research topic and the development of a universal, cross-cultural team leadership style. The new, created leadership style, the Integration Oriented Leader, was designed to bring forth high cross-cultural team performance. The suggested theory was empirically tested in a laboratory experiment and received strong support. The conclusion of the conducted research is that the Integration Oriented leadership style may very well be the most suitable leadership style to implement in cross-cultural work teams.

This study found that current selective admission practices continue to reflect traditional norms of leadership in which title and prestige of organization are most valued, in part driven by increasing external pressure for quantification which emphasizes higher positions in prestigious or familiar organizations because they are easier to enumerate and are perceived as having higher status.

Professionals in this study were asked a series of questions to identify how leadership could be better defined and measured in their current practices. Eighteen constructs across the three categories of Personal Traits, Interpersonal Skills, and Capacities for Socially Conscious Behaviors were identified as preferred characteristics demonstrating good leadership.

Forms of cultural capital shared by admission officers in this study include having college-educated parents, being raised in a home where college was an expectation, and who had earned at least a bachelor's degree. Further, most had worked as an undergraduate in admission, residence life, orientation, or as a tour guide.

Several of those interviewed questioned if and in what ways their own biases impacted their evaluation of an application. There was a genuine desire to be objective but also to understand the student in her or his own context. This contrasts with Bourdieu, but does agree with Swartz (1997) who posits that habitus can be raised to a conscious level and therefore can be adaptive.

A final emergent finding addressed a gender dynamic in which female staff expressed concern that female students are less likely to explicate their accomplishments compared to male students. Another aspect of this unexpected finding about perceptions of leadership in the office revealed some staff felt adherence to traditional forms of hierarchical leadership minimized or even excluded opportunities for younger staff, particularly female, to share their insights and participate in decision-making.

This study used grounded theory to understand how the first two generations of Korean- American pastors conceptualize leadership. Interviews were conducted with both first- and second-generation Korean-American pastors both in Northern and Southern California. This study discovered that the first-generation Korean-American concept of leadership is heavily influenced by Confucian thought where the ideal leader is called by God. In response, the leader regularly practices the rites of spirituality, prayer and sacrifice. The practice of these rites gives the first-generation pastor legitimacy in exercising authority over his congregation. In contrast, the second-generation leadership model appears to be influenced by being in the Millennial generation. Two of the key aspects of Millennial desire for their work environment are (a) maximizing the balance of work and life and (b) the strong desire for mentorship. Both of these are highly evident in the second-generation concept of leadership. Legitimacy for exercising authority within the second-generation comes from the sacrifice demonstrated in the mentoring relationship. Comparing both generations concept of leadership to Bass’ (1999) four aspects of transformational leadership, this study discovered that both generations can fit into Bass’ model of transformational leadership. Applying Pearce’s (2004) coordinated management of meaning to understand the intercultural communication issues present between the two generations, this study discovered that although the terminology of both generations were similar, the undergirding concept was quite different and to some degree opposite.

This dissertation begins using Pierre Bourdieu (1979b), Gloria Ladson-Billings (2009), and Jean Anyon (1980) as a theoretical framework to examine how culturally relevant curriculum influences student engagement. This qualitative study utilized narrative inquiry to examine the effect of culturally relevant curriculum and student engagement. Four research questions were used in interviews of students, parents, teachers, and administrators, and were as follows: To what extent does culturally relevant literature influence student engagement with academic material in fourth grade? What common themes related to culturally relevant curriculum emerge when observing and listening to authentic voices of parents and fourth graders? Based on research findings of this study, what curricular and instructional recommendations can be made related to the influence of culturally relevant curriculum on student engagement in fourth grade? Does culturally relevant literature engage students more than traditional curriculum in a fourth- grade classroom? Social and cultural capital is demonstrated through all three themes of school culture, curriculum, and instruction. Used as a tool to guide pedagogy, teachers and administrators were able to form trusting relationships allowing for more behavioral and affective student engagement. Using authentic voices from the 14 interviews, two themes emerged from school culture, including relationships and identity; three themes emerged from curriculum, including making connections, human resources, and physical resources; and three themes emerged from instruction, including communication, support, and interactive environments.

The purpose of this two-phase, sequential mixed methods study was to examine and explain factors relating to leadership in diversity-oriented churches in the United States by obtaining quantitative results from a sample of 65 senior pastors and 92 top-management team members, then follow-up with a multiple case study to explain the results in more depth. The instruments used for quantitative data collection were the 20-item four-factor Cultural Intelligence Scale, the adapted 8-item Openness to Diversity Scale, and the Leadership Practices Inventory. The study's sixteen findings establish significant relationships between leader cultural intelligence, top-management team openness to diversity, and leadership practices, and elucidate how those relationships contribute to a positive organizational diversity climate. In addition, openness to diversity and church polity were discovered to influence TMT perceptions of the senior pastor's leadership practices. Therefore, the findings support the conclusion that investigating intercultural leadership in a domestic organization could reveal new theoretical insights while having implications for leadership practice and organizational effectiveness.

As globalization is proceeding, it is more and more important to understand effective leadership also in terms of cultural dimensions. This new challenge in the business world has not been approached by scientists in a satisfactory way so far and was the main reason for the conduction of this study.

The aim of this research is to investigate how effective leadership varies between cultures and to state the crucial differences of leadership effectiveness among Sweden, England, France and Germany.

To be able to figure out these differences a research team out of four students and one professor designed a questionnaire which was sent out to employees in the four studied countries. In this questionnaire the subordinates had to assess different behaviours and skills of their direct leader. The different questions belong to a list of predetermined topic groups which were planned to be used afterwards to set the results into connection with existing theories.

The results of this multinational survey offer a general picture about the differences among the average leaders in the four cultures. To be able to make statements about the different importance of leader attributes for effective performance, a statistical evaluation is made. After given the reader a general idea about the gathered data and its composition, the adequateness of the combinations inside the topic groups are revised and some additional topic groups are build up.

The findings of the study are used to discuss and challenge McClelland’s Research on Managerial Motivation and to figure out the different relevance of Katz’ three skill dimensions for each national culture. The difference emphasis of task-, relations- and change oriented behaviour in relation to effective leadership as well as the importance of charismatic leadership for effectiveness is exposed and distinguished for every country. Hofstede’s theory of five cultural dimensions is used to provide the necessary explanation for the cultural differences regarding the different theoretical dimensions.

As an additional theory the GLOBE Project is introduced. Unfortunately, the results of this project were not available on time, so that they could not be compared to the results of the study.

The conclusion at the end of the paper summarizes the general outcome of the thesis and points out the found cultural differences of effective leadership in the four cultures. Charisma and Human skills were found to be important for effective leadership in all countries. However, for effective German leaders it is concluded to possess more technical skills as in the other cultures and to have a higher need of achievement. Controlling employees is much more important in Germany than anywhere else. In England the need of achievement is also higher than in France and Sweden. Effective French leaders have the strongest socialized power orientation. For Sweden no big difference to the others countries could be found. Effective Swedish manager mostly possess a good mixture of the different skills, needs and behaviours suggested in the theory, but were not outstanding significantly in one dimension in comparison to the other three countries. In total, a high concern for relations is concluded for them.

There is a growing need to understand what effective multicultural leadership and followership look like in a faith-based, nonprofit, international organization where communication is mostly conducted through electronic means. Very little research has been done on this subject. The purpose of this grounded theory study is to understand and describe what leaders and followers want leadership and followership to look like in this kind of setting. Data for this study were gathered largely through interviews with ten leaders and sixty-five followers working in SIL International and its partner organizations. Study participants originated from twenty-one countries, and, at the time of the study, were based in ten countries. The core elements of desired qualities of leadership and followership emerged through the analysis of these semi-structured interviews. This study proposes a substantive theory about the perception of leadership and followership: Both followers and leaders in SIL, where computer-aided communication is the most frequently used communication platform, perceive that effective leadership and effective followership derive from specific and identifiable relational qualities, task-oriented competencies, character-related qualities, spiritual qualities, cultural intelligence, and the way communication by computer is used and understood. Strengths and drawbacks of communication methods impact the relationship between leaders and followers.