Nonprofit Executive Succession Planning and Organizational Sustainability: A Preliminary Comparative Study in Australia, Brazil, Israel, Italy, Russia, and the United States

PurposeThis study aims to examine the link between power distance culture and whistleblowing intention or propensity in the African context.Design/methodology/approachThe study achieves its aim by reviewing literature on power distance culture and whistleblowing, and it draws on the outcomes of relevant previous studies. It then reflects on some cultural practices in Africa in relation to the topic and uses examples from Ghana to exemplify the discussions.FindingsIt is considered unacceptable and disrespectful for subordinates to challenge or question their superior’s actions and decisions in high power distance societies. High power distance culture increases the perception of the negative consequences of whistleblowing, as whistle-blowers are regarded as traitors instead of civic heroes. These issues consequently provide major disincentives to subordinates engaging in whistleblowing, leading to low whistleblowing propensity in high power distance societies and implications for the increasing rate of corruption in Africa.Practical/implicationsThe study findings imply that high power distance culture creates a “culture of silence”, which in turn provides fertile grounds for corporate crimes and unethical conducts. Authorities in high power distance societies should therefore institute adequate incentive schemes and shields to encourage and safeguard the safety of whistle-blowers.Originality/valueIn this era, where corporate scandals have become the order of the day and indeed a global canker, this study brings to the fore the destructive and limiting roles of culture, specifically power distance culture on the global war against unethical corporate practices and scandals.

This study investigated people's conceptions of an unequal role relationship in two different types of society: a high power distance society and a low power distance society. The study focuses on the role relationship of tutor and student. British and Chinese tutors and postgraduate students completed a questionnaire that probed their conceptions of degrees of power differential and social distance/closeness in this role relationship. ANOVA results yielded a significant nationality effect for both aspects. Chinese respondents judged the relationship to be closer and to have a greater power differential than did British respondents. Written comments on the questionnaire and interviews with 9 Chinese academics who had experienced both British and Chinese academic environments supported the statistical findings and indicated that there are fundamental ideological differences associated with the differing conceptions. The results are discussed in relation to Western and Asian concepts of leadership and differing perspectives on the compatibility/incompatibility of power and distance/closeness.

Building on previous findings of C. S. Burke et al. and Ceri-Booms et al., this meta-analytic review aims to investigate the moderating impact of team size, interdependence, power distance culture, effectiveness criteria, and study settings on the differential relationship of person- and task-focused leadership with team effectiveness. Based on 52 studies with 4,958 teams, results suggested that the differential effects of leadership were moderated by effectiveness criteria and the interaction between team characteristics and culture in societies. In high power distance societies, the relationship between person-focused leadership and team effectiveness was stronger in small teams that were characterized by high interdependence. In low power distance societies, the larger effect size of a person-focused leader was found in small teams, while task-focused leadership emerged as a stronger predictor of team effectiveness than person-focused leadership in large teams. Results can be used to guide leader development programs needed to enhance team effectiveness.

Cultural adaptation in the workplace plays a crucial role in the integration and productivity of international professionals. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory provides a framework for analyzing how cultural differences influence professional behavior, leadership styles, and workplace dynamics. This study offers a secondary analysis of existing empirical findings, focusing on the implications of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs. collectivism, and longterm vs. short-term orientation in workplace adaptation. These dimensions shape communication styles, decision-making processes, and professional expectations, which can either facilitate or hinder cultural integration. Existing research highlights key adaptation challenges: professionals from high power distance societies may struggle in low power distance workplaces, where employees are encouraged to challenge authority. Similarly, employees from high uncertainty avoidance cultures may find it difficult to adapt to flexible work environments. The review also explores individualistic versus collectivist workplace expectations and the role of long-term versus short-term orientation in professional goal setting. This paper is limited to a review of the literature and an exploration of the theoretical background.

National power distance, status incongruence, and CEO dismissal

In societies that oppose social inequality (low power distance societies), intergroup social comparison is relatively more prevalent. However, with an intergroup comparison focus, differences between groups are more salient and self-stereotyping more likely. Consequently, gender stereotypes regarding math may be relatively more consequential in low relative to high power distance societies. To examine this hypothesis, results from a standardized math exam among eighth graders compiled in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study were analyzed. As predicted, the societies' power distance predicted gender differences in math performance: The pattern of boys outperforming girls was more pronounced in low relative to high power distance societies. This effect was independent of the societies' gender equality and prevalence of implicit stereotype.

DISCUSSION OF A Cross-Cultural Study of the Influence of Country of Origin, Justice, Power Distance, and Gender on Ethical Decision Making

PurposeExecutive isolation, also known as workplace loneliness, its factors and impact are major issues for organizational development, future of work for leadership and learning culture. The purpose of this study is to examine the Executive isolation phenomenon where relationships between power distance, organizational culture and executive isolation of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are analysed on how it is considered by their teams. The same is contextualized through the inputs received through interviews conducted with CEOs and employee surveys.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative in-depth interviews of five CEOs, and survey across 34 of the 50 employees, were undertaken over the course of two phases of this study. The investigation focused on identifying executive isolation of CEOs and perspectives of employees that can impact the leadership and learning progress of organizations based on work culture, power distance and decision-making; awareness and experience of executive isolation; workplace friendliness and rejection; and management development initiatives to minimize the impact of executive isolation. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using MAXQDA 2022 (Verbi Software, Berlin, Germany), which is a qualitative data analysis software.FindingsThe findings highlight and expose the significant gap between understanding and analysing of the factors due to which the CEOs undergo executive isolation. It also extends to providing details related to the lack of awareness of the teams’ actions contributing to the CEOs’ isolation. It further highlights the fact that the difference of perspectives between the CEOs and teams leads to the organization slowing in its learning activities due to the leaders’ own challenges of executive isolation The findings also provide immense need of developing knowledge assets and management development initiatives for learning interventions, to help understand, analyse and mitigate executive isolation, in the interest of the organizational learning and development.Originality/valueEarlier research work have contextualized the executive isolation impact on CEOs ability to be a leader. This study extends it to include the implications of leadership and learning culture on the teams that are affected by organization culture, power distance, decision-making and analysing the gap between the understandings about executive isolation of the CEOs. Eventually, it interprets how CEOs courting the executive isolation impacts the overall developmental culture of the organization. This will help in asserting the serious need of new learning frameworks needed to minimize the impact of CEO-level executive isolation.

As a first line of defense to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, people reduced social contacts to avoid pathogen exposure. Using a panel of countries, this research suggests that this was amplified in societies characterized by high social support and future orientation. People reacted more strongly in dense environments; government orders had more effect in high power distance societies. Conversely, a focus on accomplishments was associated with lower changes. Understanding people’s actual behaviors in response to health threats across societies is of great importance for epidemiology, public health, international business, and for the functioning of humanity as a whole.

The employment sector around the world including Malaysia has seen an increasing involvement of millennial generation workers, however, millennial is also being described as frequent job hoppers compared to the previous generation. Millennials are easily leave their organizations less than two years. There is still a lack of knowledge on the real causes of job hopping in collectivist and high power distance society. In this study, six (6) deliberately selected journalists were interviewed and data were analysed using thematic. The findings revealed four main themes: (i) career development; (ii) salary; (iii) work-life balance; and (iv) organization justice, crucial towards preventing millennial journalist from job hopping A proposed concept was presented to explain the job hopping scenario amongst millennial journalists.

Drawing on exit, voice, loyalty and neglect (EVLN) literature, this study examines direct and interactive associations between organizational-level commitment and team-level commitment and the use of EVLN by managers in India. The study is based on a survey of 200 managers and supervisors from seven Indian firms. The findings on the use of voice are consistent with the past research in Western countries, but challenge the prevailing assumption about the use of voice in high power distance societies. The results also indicate that team-level commitment moderates the association between organizational-level commitment and the use of EVLN.

How do country‐level societal norms affect financial investments? We provide evidence that mutual funds managed in high social capital countries are inclined to consider environmental, social and governance filters in their portfolios, especially when acquiring new stocks and investing abroad. We argue that social capital nurtures the investment preferences of retail investors, whose demand incentivizes fund managers to respond in kind. Such impact is more pronounced in individualistic and high–power distance societies, suggesting that the social cohesion benefit of social capital complements altruistic inclinations in the former and provides mechanisms to punish unsustainable investment behaviour in the latter.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss how principals in Taiwan lead student and teacher learning at a time of leadership and learning paradigm shifts and the imminent implementation of the curriculum guideline for 12-year basic education.Design/methodology/approachThis study interviewed 32 elementary and junior high school principals purposively sampled based on reputation and recommendation from senior principals and government officials.FindingsAs a society which values credentialism, principals in Taiwan face challenges in executing the vision of educating student as a whole person. The authors discuss how principals are solidifying whole person education as the espoused value, how they are enforcing school-based curriculum and effective instruction, and encouraging teacher professional learning. Principals are sharing power by recruiting stakeholders’ participation in guiding school development and enacting distributed leadership, while also building relationship as social capital and soliciting support from the community to establish the conditions to improve teaching and learning.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper highlights how principal practices are evolving in a time of changing conception of learning from academic achievement to multiple competencies and the shifting paradigm of power from participatory decision making to distributed leadership. This paper ends with a discussion on how leadership for learning (LfL) as a community engagement has emerged.Practical implicationsWith the shifting of the concept and paradigm of learning, principals in a high power distance society like Taiwan are now facing opportunities as well as challenges to lead teachers to engaging students in inquiry and collaboration.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the indigenous practices of principal LfL in a high-performing East Asian education system in a time of changing notions of learning and leadership.

Is corporate social responsibility (CSR) linked to performance-related instrumentality or real moral concerns? Does CSR create resource advantages? Reasons for and results of CSR remain unclear. We choose a leading retail company in a Confucian, collectivist, and high power distance society and ask whether managers are naturally oriented toward societal actions. We study managerial perceptions regarding the importance and the performance of CSR in relation to other management factors. Drawing on Hunt’s (2000, A General Theory of Competition: Resources, Competences, Productivity, Economic Growth (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA)) resource advantage theory, we find that the perceived importance of CSR is only fair vis-a-vis other management factors, but its high performance makes it a core resource for the company.

We investigate the effect of national culture on women manager appointments. We argue that culture influences women manager appointments through their effects on managerial decision-making. Using firm-level data on 2,456 microfinance institutions (MFIs) across 61 countries, we document that fewer women managers are appointed in societies high on individualism and uncertainty avoidance. On the contrary, high power distance societies are positively associated with the appointment of women managers. We demonstrate that a greater number of women nonmanagers reduces (increases) the appointment of women managers in high individualistic (uncertainty avoidance) cultures. Our findings challenge the “one-size-fit-all” approach adopted by policy makers around the world to increase women manager appointments. Our results are robust to endogeneity.