Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the leadership tendencies of Afghan and Japaneserespondents by exploring their task and relationship orientations. While there are many published studies onthe Japanese work culture and leadership practices, research about Afghan working adults is limited. Usingthe Style Questionnaire, this research collected and compared the leadership orientations of 400 respondentsfrom each country based on national culture on the task and relationship-orientation continuums. To deepenthe understanding of Afghan leadership tendencies, we explore their culture of “guzaara†(getting along)practices. Similarly, we discuss the Japanese concept of “ba†(interactive knowledge creation) as one exampleof a best practice that can be benchmarked by others in society. Both Afghanistan and Japan are high-contextcultures; therefore, people are expected to be more relationship-oriented. While respondents from bothcountries do have a stronger focus on their relationships, data shows that Afghans have a significantly higherscore on both the task-orientation as well as relationship-orientation continuums, compared to their Japanesecounterparts. Implications, recommendations and limitations of the study are provided. The findings thatJapanese and Afghan employees are indeed focused on their relationships, and that they have a moderatelyhigh task orientation scores, are useful for managers and expatriates working in these two Asian countries.
Highlights
The leadership tendencies of modern managers and working professionals can be researched using their task and relationship orientations
Task behavior is the extent to which leaders engage in top-down communication by explaining what the follower is to do, as well as when, where, and how each function is to be accomplished; and relationship behavior is the extent to which leaders engage in joint communication with followers while providing socio-emotional support (Hersey, 2008)
Summary: This paper provided an overview of the culture and people of Afghanistan and Japan
Summary
The leadership tendencies of modern managers and working professionals can be researched using their task and relationship orientations. To explore the behavioral tendencies of working adults in the Afghan and Japanese workplaces, we review the traditional norms of each country’s rich cultural practices while assessing their leadership similarities and differences. The Afghan and Japanese cultures both have a rich history with strong traditions and norms which provide good learning opportunities for application in the modern workplace (Huang, Mujtaba, Cavico, and Sims, 2006; Scagliotti and Mujtaba, 2010; Molz and Mujtaba, 2011; Mujtaba and Isomura, 2012; Nguyen, Mujtaba, Tran, and Rujis, 2013; Nguyen, Mujtaba, & Pham, 2013). Understanding the leadership orientations of the Japanese is increasingly more important for global leaders (Schneider and Littrell, 2003; Mujtaba and Isomura, 2012)
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