Deducing a taxonomy of perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness: a comparative study of effective and ineffective managerial behaviour across three EU countries

Abstract

This qualitative multiple case derived etic study focuses on perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness. It explores what employees in various organizations, organizational sectors and culturally diverse nations perceive as effective and ineffective managerial behaviour. Empirical findings from six emic replication studies carried out previously within three European Union countries were subjected to cross-case, cross-sector, and cross-nation comparative analysis. High degrees of sameness and similarity were found. Further analysis led to the emergence of a behavioural taxonomy comprised of 10 positive (effective) and 9 negative (ineffective) behavioural criteria. We find that managers and non-managerial staff in British and Romanian public-sector hospitals, and in British and German private-sector companies, perceive effective and ineffective managerial behaviour in much the same way. Our findings challenge past literature which argues that managers need to adopt different managerial behaviours to be effective in different organizational sectors and countries.