The triple role of values in culturally adapted leadership styles

Abstract

Prior research has established that culturally adapted leadership is associated with positive outcomes for organizations as well as for leaders and followers. However, the adaptation of leadership styles to national culture is under pressure mainly due to the professionalization of leadership grounded in a formal knowledge base that is predominantly derived from research in Anglo-American cultural settings and performed by Anglo-American leadership researchers. In this paper, we argue that the forces leading to a drift away from cultural adaptation are partly counteracted by three mechanisms tying leaders to the cultural context in which they operate. This theoretical perspective allows us to understand better observed leadership in a national setting as equilibrium between cultural forces and institutional forces grounded in culturally biased formal research and leadership education based on this research. To illustrate the added value of this perspective, we develop some specific propositions concerning the three mechanisms and their relative strengths under a variety of cultural conditions.