Flowers in a Greenhouse: profiling excellence in leadership in Singapore

Abstract

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the changing cultural values that influence the perception of managers to leadership excellence in their organisations in Singapore.Design/methodology/approach– Summated scales for the importance of excellent leader, personal qualities, managerial behaviours, organisational demands and environmental influences were developed using most of the items categorised by Selvarajahet al.(1995) and several other items rated highly in this study. A structural model was constructed to explain the relationship in excellence in leadership.Findings– In all, 249 managers, from the three main ethnic groups: Chinese, Indians and Malays participated in this research. The findings suggest that ethnic differences are not strong determinants of managerial values in organisations in Singapore. However, gender is seen as a differentiating factor in the behavioural values of Singapore managers.Research limitations/implications– This study is purely an exploratory study and the size of the sample is not large enough to create purposeful causal relationships. Certainly the effect of ethnicity on the study should be explored further with a larger sample.Practical implications– Singapore is a highly globalised country that attracts international investments. Statistics in Singapore clearly suggests that there is a sharp increase in women managers in employment. Therefore, understanding the changing behavioural values of managers of both sexes are important for a foreigner engaging with Singapore nationals.Originality/value– This is the first study that looks at behavioural values of Singapore managers with regard to leadership excellence. The masculinity-femininity dimension is pronounced in the gender split.