GLOBE Project Research Articles

Have German leaders become ‘sentimental’? A qualitative study of novel leadership practices and expectations since COVID

This qualitative study investigates the leadership implications of COVID-induced work-from-home in the German context. We find that sentiment has become part of post-pandemic leadership expectations and identify the ‘coaching leader’, on lower leadership levels, and in relation to one’s peers, as a new style. The increased relevance of empathy, sentiment and development is in contrast to the leadership expectations which project GLOBE has established for Germany. Furthermore, we see that leadership in times of crisis becomes more malleable, providing individuals with the possibility of moving beyond existing norms, such as culture-specific value orientations, standards and leadership styles. The contribution of our study lies firstly in identifying the ‘coaching leader’ as a new style. Secondly, we show that leaders’ creative performances might be more relevant to New Work than the culture-specific styles which comparative cross-cultural management is based upon. Consequently, cross-cultural management research on leadership, as well as leadership development in practice, needs to become more individualized and contextualized. We also find that interviewees continue to make sense of leadership using the established culturally-contingent templates identified by project GLOBE, even though their actual leadership practices have changed. This gap between subjective leadership perception and objective leadership practice needs to be taken into account by cross-cultural management theory and practice. In summary, we propose that cross-cultural management research on leadership should (1) integrate qualitative, in-depth, and quantitative, comparative approaches for mutual enrichment, (2) differentiate leadership contexts into stability and change (crisis), and (3) consider both subjective and objective leadership realities.

Trust in leader and positive employee outcomes: To transform or to serve in cross-cultural leadership

Considering the potential impacts of context-specific value systems in individuals’ perceptions of phenomena, this study seeks to investigate whether and how cultural differences could influence the effectiveness of leadership styles in establishing trust and positive employee outcomes (PEOs) as well as the relationships between such outcomes based on the GLOBE project. The sample consisted of 1647 valid responses from 128 independent hotels’ employees in four countries from two GLOBE clusters (Anglo and South Asia). Multilevel structural equation modelling has been used for the analysis. Significant but different relationships were found between Servant Leadership and Transformational Leadership with Trust, and PEOs in the two clusters, which could be potentially attributed to societal and contextual factors as a deeper layer mechanism. Our findings have significant implications for both academics and hotel managers in terms of the critical role of alignment between context-specific contingencies and the selected leadership style in establishing trust and PEOs.

(Amoralny) familizm: propozycja rekonceptualizacji z wykorzystaniem psychologii ewolucyjnej i międzykulturowej

In his 1958 book Moral Basis of a Backward Society, Edward Banfield introduced the term amoral familism to describe social relations and values in a poor rural community in southern Italy. In my analysis, I propose to abandon the value-laden epithet "amoral" and consider familism as an evolutionary adaptive strategy activated in times of scarcity or crises. I base the thesis of the evolutionary roots of familism on the inclusive fitness theory (Hamilton 1964) and the theory of kin and reciprocal altruism (Trivers 1971). The perspective of evolutionary psychology makes it possible to see the positive functions of familism and to propose a new biological-cultural understanding of familism. Familism has so far been diagnosed primarily "indirectly" in sociological studies of bonding (and bridging) capital and in research on social trust conducted as part of cyclical social surveys such as the World Values Survey and the European Social Survey. In the search for accurate measures of biological-cultural familism we can additionally turn to the research of cross-cultural psychologists conducted for international management. I argue that the dimension of particularism on the 7-dimensional cultural map of Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner (2002) and the dimension of in-group collectivism on the 9-dimensional cultural map of the GLOBE project (House et al. 2004), can valuably complement the measures used in sociological sciences and make the diagnosis of familism more reliable. Finally, I call for in-depth research on Polish familism aimed at testing whether it is possible to build bridging capital on the basis of familist bonding capital.

Operational risk disclosure quality and national culture: Evidence from the E.U. Banking industry

In this study, we analyze the association between national culture and voluntary operational risk disclosure quality in the European Union banking industry. Complementarily, we assess whether the potential impact of culture differs between global banks and banks with low levels of internationalization. Finally, we consider the impact of the formal institutional environment. Our sample covers 15 countries, and we construct a disclosure score based on hand-collected data. Three main results were obtained. First, banks in societies that score higher on individualism or long-term orientation and lower on uncertainty avoidance or power distance have better disclosures. Second, in global banks, where executive board members interact with stakeholders from different cultures, these associations are absent. Finally, contextual factors also affect the association between culture and disclosure, but this substitution effect is weaker than the one we document for globalization. Our results are robust to instrumental variables estimation, the use of the GLOBE project’s cultural dimensions, and a subsample analysis of civil code law countries.

INFLUÊNCIA DA CULTURA DOS PAÍSES NO MONITORAMENTO EXERCIDO PELA AUDITORIA EXTERNA

ABSTRACT This paper verifies whether and how the country’s cultural dimensions moderate the relationship between the quality of the audit firm and the level of earnings management. The sample is formed by 88,428 observations from 18,842 companies in 23 countries, covering the period from 2011 to 2018 in an unbalanced panel. The dimensions of national culture were based on the GLOBE project, and the level of earnings management was estimated by Dechow et al. (1995). The results show that national culture influences the monitoring of the largest auditing firms and benefits companies in preparing financial statements. Such results suggest a relationship of audit bias due to cultural aspects, which may compromise the quality of accounting information.

Cultural Asymmetry between Societal Values and Practices: Extending Insights from Project GLOBE

Cultural Asymmetry between Societal Values and Practices: Extending Insights from Project GLOBE

Determinants of Intention to Revisit in Hospitality Industry: A Cross-Cultural Study Based on Globe Project

This study examines the impact of service quality on intention-to-revisit through variables such as emotion, satisfaction, eWOM and loyalty in the hotel industry from a cross-cultural perspective that goes beyond national boundaries. Four countries were chosen from two clusters, based on the GLOBE Project, the UK and the US from the Anglo cluster and Iran and India from the Southern Asia cluster. A total of 1418 questionnaires were received from guests of 122 independent hotels, and the data were analyzed using the partial square technique in SEM-PLS. The findings reveal that antecedents of intention to revisit follow both similar and different patterns of relationships because of the cultural dimensions of the countries. While positive emotions experienced by Iranians and Indians can make them satisfied customers, the satisfaction of US consumers and the British is derived from their evaluation of service quality. In addition, the intention of US consumers and the British to revisit the hotel is created through their loyalty, but satisfaction and eWOM can lead to Iranian and Indian customers’ revisit intention. This study contributes to the literature on the hospitality industry and the antecedents of intention-to-revisit by defining the distinction between countries within different clusters in the GLOBE Project and adds new knowledge to our understanding of culture.

The effect of cultural orientations (performance and sociality) on country innovation: a trajectories analysis perspective

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the effects of cultural orientations (performance and sociality) on the trajectories of innovation inputs and their results in different countries worldwide between 2011 and 2021.Design/methodology/approachAs a technique for data analysis, one of the spatial Bayesian models and Gray forecasting methods is used. This technique is adequate to achieve the objectives of the investigation because it allows analyzing how the variables move in time ranges and allow the generation of forecasts. This model also allows knowing if there are spills, which investing in a country can positively affect countries with geographical proximity. The databases used were the Global Innovation Index with data from 131 nations and the Globe Project with data from 157 countries between 2011 and 2021. The variables analyzed are institutions, human capital, research infrastructure, market sophistication and business sophistication. On the other hand, regarding moderations of cultural orientations, The Globe Project developed two factors: performance orientation (high degree of masculinity, avoidance of ambiguity, power distance and future orientation) and humane orientation (high-level of femininity, institutional and societal collectivism).FindingsThe results reveal that all inputs grow at different rates over time. In the case of institutions, it is the most difficult to generate changes over time. However, human capital, market sophistication and business sophistication are the ones that have grown the most over time, regardless of the country’s cultural orientation.Research limitations/implicationsAmong the main limitations is the set of data used because it only considers one approach to culture, especially the one considered by Hofstede. However, other approaches could help evaluate the results of this research. Considering the results obtained, the study attempts to provide a different view of the effects of cultural variables on companies’ innovation performance in different countries in the world. In the same way, evaluating these effects allows firms to consider variables associated with the country that will affect the strategies and performance of the firm.Practical implicationsThe results achieved make it possible to strengthen the analysis of the countries’ strategies when it comes to innovation, especially in the permanent evaluation of the results that allow to encourage changes in the execution of innovative activities to maintain their performance over time.Social implicationsThe contributions allow us to understand the dynamics of innovation in the knowledge and creative outputs of countries over time.Originality/valueThe trajectory analysis used in the data analysis is perhaps one of the most robust techniques that makes a time series analysis. This allows identifying trajectories for the independent variables of the study and their influence on the innovation of the country.

Cultural influences on the quality of corporate social responsibility disclosures: an examination of carbon disclosure

PurposeAs more companies choose to disclose corporate social responsibility (CSR) information, it is important to gain an understanding of the quality of disclosures and factors that influence quality. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of culture as a determinant of the quality of voluntary carbon emission disclosures.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses regression analysis to test the influence of culture on the quality of carbon disclosures. The sample of this study comes from companies who voluntarily report to the carbon disclosure project. The authors operationalize the quality of disclosure using the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index. The authors operationalize cultural values using both Hofstede’s metrics (Hofstede, 1980) and Project GLOBE (House et al., 2004).FindingsThis study predicts and finds a negative relationship between quality of disclosure and high individualism scores. This study also finds that the quality of disclosure is lower for companies located in countries with high power distance scores. The authors find that the quality of disclosure is higher for companies located in countries with gender/assertiveness scores that indicate a higher value on the environment than on the importance of economic growth. While quality is marginally related to uncertainty avoidance using Hofstede's measure, quality is not related to uncertainty avoidance using the Project GLOBE metric. The authors did not find a hypothesized negative significant relationship between quality and long-term orientation.Practical implicationsQuality is a measure of importance to users and regulators of disclosures.Social implicationsNational culture is an important determinant of CSR disclosure quality.Originality/valueThis study extends the previous research by using a metric for quality based on an independent evaluation of disclosures and by the role of culture in a multi-country study.

Sustainable Globe Project’s Statement on Challenges for Sustainability

This text is a short overview of the Sustainable Globe Conference 2021, the special issue of the International of Environmental and Science Education and new challenges for the idea of sustainability and its education.

The Effect of Cultural Orientations on Country Innovation Performance: Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Revisited?

Purpose. One of the perspectives that receives the most attention from studies in international business is cultural dimensions. This is due to the greater complexity and incidence of cultural aspects in economic performance. This paper explored the moderation effect of cultural orientations on the creation of innovation trajectories related to levels of innovation and their outcomes in countries from various geographical areas between 2011 and 2021. Design/Methodology/Approach. A growth trajectories model is conducted to achieve the research’s aim, considering the country’s cultural orientation, innovation inputs (institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, and business sophistication), and impact on innovation output. The Global Innovation Index, Globe Project, and Global Entrepreneurship Index databases used this analysis, containing data from nations on different continents. The trajectories’ analysis approach is utilized to achieve the desired goal, which allows for the assessment of the variations in innovation trajectory across countries with cultural tendencies towards performance and humane orientation from 2011 to 2021. Findings. The literature affirms positive results for various innovation inputs, but the results show differences in innovation outputs. The difference is related to their inputs (institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, business sophistication), institutions, and market sophistication. Additionally, a difference depends on the country’s performance culture, generating options to obtain higher outputs, such as knowledge and creative results. Research Limitations/Implications. Based on the results achieved, an attempt is made to provide a different perspective on innovation, especially evaluating the results over time and identifying decreasing trajectories that affect the innovation results in countries with different economic development conditions and cultural characteristics. Practical Implications. The results achieved make it possible to strengthen the analysis of the countries’ strategies regarding innovation, especially in the permanent evaluation of the results, which encourages changes in the execution of innovative activities to maintain their performance over time. Social Implications. The contributions allow us to understand the dynamics of innovation in countries’ knowledge and creative outputs over time. Originality/Value. The trajectory analysis used in the data analysis is perhaps one of the most robust techniques for a time series analysis. This allows for identifying trajectories for the study’s independent variables and their influence on a country’s innovation.

Did Closing Borders to Tourists Save Lives? Tourist Arrival, Self-protective Leadership, and Covid-19 Casualties

International human mobility has been the driving force of economic growth and policy decisions for the tourism industry. However, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated policy changes that explicitly limited mobility. Our research sought to examine whether closing borders to international tourists was related to the reduction in the number of COVID-19 fatalities, and the impact of country-level culturally accepted norms towards leadership in the implementation of these policy. This study builds on the call for further research on how tourism destinations plan for and respond to global crises and disasters. We used data from the World Bank and the GLOBE Project to test the direct effect of international tourist arrivals in 2019 on COVID-19 fatalities in 2020 and the moderating role of self-protective leadership on this relationship. Our findings supported our proposition that closing borders to tourists saved lives but selfprotective leadership is critical. In fact, a key contribution of our study is that attitudes towards leadership play an important role in the effectiveness of policy deployment during times of crisis; in particular, closing the border had a stronger impact in saving lives across countries where self-protective leadership is culturally acceptable and expected. Implications for destination management are also suggested.

Toward the emergence of “humane” entrepreneurial ecosystems. Evidence from different cultural contexts

PurposeAdopting more sustainable and social-oriented perspectives is crucial for the emergence of the so-called humane entrepreneurial ecosystems (HEEs), the last ones supporting the improvement of both economic, environmental and social wealth. Entrepreneurs act as keystone players in each entrepreneurial ecosystem, thus the emergence of Humane Entrepreneurship (HumEnt) is crucial in shaping HEEs. Given the role of culture in affecting HumEnt, the relationships between Humane Orientation (HO) – as defined in the GLOBE project – and the basic components of Humane Entrepreneurship (HumEnt) were, particularly, explored in a selected sample of countries. Both Intellectual Capital (IC) and knowledge management (KM) perspectives were adopted in pursuing the research goal.Design/methodology/approachThe study approaches this by the mean of the Ward method with Euclidean squared distance and the k-means method. The GLOBE project, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) were used as data sources. Correlations between HO “as is” scores and each components of HumEnt were checked for the world sample (N = 36), as well as for the groups of innovation-driven countries (N = 17) and European countries (N = 14).FindingsResearch results show a conditional confirmation of the developed hypotheses, depending on countries cultural levels of HO, with a moderating role exercised by the economic development on the relationship between culture and HumEnt.Originality/valueGiven the increasing pressure of fundamental societal challenges, such as climate change, poverty and increasing inequality within and between countries intensified by pandemic (UN report, 2021), integrating the more traditional approaches to profit seeking with the more sustainable and human-centric perspective is a priority for both scholars and society at large. Previous researches do not provide explanation about the contextual factors responsible for the emergence of more humane-oriented entrepreneurial ecosystems, especially when referring to culture. This article broadens our understanding about the reason why both HumEntr and HEEs differently arise and develop in different cultural contexts.

The lost history of the City of the Captive Globe Project. Architectural myths and a forgotten heroine

The lost history of the City of the Captive Globe Project. Architectural myths and a forgotten heroine

A 10 nation exploration of trustworthiness in the workplace

In the context of the workplace, and especially in today’s often fast-paced, cross-cultural and virtual work environment, a basic type of trust—“swift trust”—forms quickly based on cognitive processes and beliefs, or stereotypes, of another. Interpersonal trust is in large part based on these contextualized assessments of the extent to which another person is trustworthy. While trust across cultural boundaries has been examined, there is a lack of research investigating how trustworthiness is determined cross-culturally, especially with respect to what heuristics are used in the development of trust. The current project explored how trustworthiness is conceptualized and described for both colleagues and supervisors across 10 nations using the Stereotype Content Model. Qualitative descriptors of trustworthy supervisors and colleagues were coded based on the importance ascribed to warmth and competence, and these codes were used as the basis for cluster analyses to examine similarities and differences in descriptors of role-based trustworthiness. Both differences and similarities in the expectations of trustworthiness were found across the national samples. Some cultures emphasized both warmth and competence as equally important components to developing trustworthiness, some emphasized only warmth, while others emphasized only competence. Variations of trustworthiness stereotypes were found in all but two national samples based on role expectations for supervisors and colleagues. Data from the GLOBE project related to societal cultural practices and cultural leadership prototypes were drawn on to discuss findings.

COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of cross-cultural differences on crisis management: A conceptual model of transcultural crisis management

In this paper, leadership tasks and stakeholder response during transboundary crisis management are analyzed based on findings from Hofstede’s study, GLOBE Project, and theoretical concepts in cross-cultural management. Accordingly, a conceptual model of transcultural crisis management is proposed. Seven propositions (P) and sixteen sub-propositions (SP) are developed and then tested using the case method. The case of the COVID-19 pandemic is studied to note the effects of cross-cultural differences and intercultural communication in the pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis stages. Cross-cultural differences are found to affect sense-making, decision-making, sense-giving and meaning-making during pre-crisis and crisis management stages. Implications of these findings and further research agenda are discussed.

Temporal orientation as a robust predictor of innovation

This study investigates the relationship between societal temporal orientation and level of innovation. Previous studies linking culture to innovation have predominantly focused on individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity as determinants of innovation – overlooking temporal orientation. Utilizing theory from sociology and psychology, we elucidate temporal orientation as an important aspect of culture that can promote innovation. We hypothesize and find evidence for the effect of temporal orientation on three different stages of the innovation process. Results suggest temporal orientation dimensions of culture have important implications for innovation at the country level. Additionally, we find differences in effect between the temporal orientation conceptualizations of Hofstede and the GLOBE project. Our results provide evidence to strengthen theory regarding temporal orientation phenomena. Such implications are discussed along with future research directions.

Testing the Connection Between Tertiary Journalism Education and the Rising Number of Female Journalists

ABSTRACT Journalism and communication courses almost unfailingly report a majority of female students such as the Journalism Students Around the Globe project (Mellado and Hanusch 2017), which has led scholars to assume a connection between the rise in the numbers of female journalists and the growth of academic journalism education. But as yet no study has been carried out to test this assumption, which has led us to probe the strength of that presumed link. A comparison between two baseline studies, David H. Weaver’s The Global Journalist (1998) and Hanitzsch et al.’s Worlds of Journalism Study (2019) provides the longitudinal perspective on the numbers of female journalists and educational attainment. The Worlds of Journalism Study data set permits us to see the percentages of women journalists, and of those having specialized in journalism or communication and their ages. The Journalism Students Around the Globe project offers not only percentages of female students but also the students’ stated intention whether they want to become journalists. Based on this data, we examine 19 countries to test the link between academic journalism education and the increase in women journalists, concluding that tertiary journalism education has contributed to the rise in the number of female journalists.

E-Government, Corruption Reduction and the Role of Culture

Using a panel dataset gathered from 57 countries over the period 2003 to 2014, this paper examines the impact of cultural factors on the relationship between e-government development and corruption. The analysis reveals that e-government development have a weak and positive impact on the corruption levels across all countries but varied according to the different cultural factors. Based on the cultural typology of the GLOBE project, the authors found that e-government development was more effective in reducing corruption in countries with certain cultural characteristics. Cultures that put less emphasis on controlling uncertainty shared power more equally among members, valued individualism, and focused more on future development were more favorable to e-government development than others. Finally, they discussed the cultural implications on e-planning.

Variation in project management practices across borders

As project teams become more global and culturally diverse, it is important for project managers to understand how various project management practices are implemented in different countries. We use hierarchical linear modelling to explore variation in project management practices among seven countries using GLOBE dimensions of these countries to understand patterns. Of the nine GLOBE dimensions, two particular elements had an impact on project management practices. Performance orientation has a significant positive influence and gender egalitarianism had a significant negative impact on the adoption of project management practices. Practical implications include that for those two specific GLOBE factors, executives and project team leaders should use such knowledge to anticipate how they will impact on the natural tendencies of project team members in various countries, Further, when operating projects with international team membership, such as global virtual teams, this study illuminates that some cultural differences might lead to differences in style and practice of project team members, requiring cognizant and careful team leadership. The article contributes to theory by showing that only some and not all aspects of national culture impact on project management practices that are theoretically deemed attractive as part of project management’s body of knowledge.