Distinct leadership styles and differential effectiveness across culture: An analysis of South African business leaders

Abstract

Orientation: While some deem business leadership practices as universal, others judge them to be specific to a cultural context, arguing that certain leadership styles are specific to, for example, those from an African or a Western cultural background. Research purpose: The goal of the research was to assess whether the leadership styles of South African leaders differ based on cultural background and whether the effectiveness of these leadership styles is judged differently by subordinates. Motivation for the study: South Africa is sometimes presented as country divided across cultural lines. This research was motivated by the need to assess the extent of this divide and the impact thereof on perceived effectiveness. Research approach and method: A cross-sectional survey was collected from 1140 respondents across 19 organisations. Leadership styles and leader effectiveness was measured, and race was used as a proxy to cultural background. Mean scores on leadership styles and leadership effectiveness were calculated per race and mean score differences were tested. Main findings: The result of this study suggest that leaders in South Africa are perceived to behave similarly in terms of their leadership styles and the effectiveness thereof. Thus, those African and Western cultural backgrounds act similarly, and the outcomes (effectiveness) was comparable. Managerial implications and value add: The cultural divide within the context of leadership styles and effectiveness is small in South Africa, and the results supports the notion that organisations and leaders should set aside culturally based stereotypes when engaging in leadership issues. Leadership styles and effectiveness, based on cultural background, have long been a subject of investigation and have attracted much research interest. The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study is a perfect example of this work, leading to articles such as ‘Strategic leadership across cultures: The GLOBE study of CEO leadership behaviour and effectiveness in 24 countries’ (House, Dorfman, Javidan, Hanges, & De Luque, 2014). This research builds on the GLOBE research and endeavours to investigate how leadership styles and their effectiveness differ across cultures. However, unlike the GLOBE studies, which focus on measuring cultural dimensions, this research focuses on leadership behaviours and assumes that culture is embedded in race. This assumption of culture being embedded in race is not only politically correct but is also not inconceivable, as previous editions of the GLOBE study differentiated between black people and white people in their reporting (GLOBE, 2020 cited in Javidan, Bullough Cotton, Dastmalchian, Dorfman & Egri, 2020).