1. Leadership and Cultural
Diversity
10 November 2012

2. Managing Diversity
Any organisation that embraces diversity
could be considered to be behaving in a
socially responsible manner
Social responsibility is considered to be a
broader concept that relates to an
organisation’s impact on society

3. Management of Cultural
Diversity
 Organisational culture - valuing
differences & practicing cultural
inclusiveness
 Some of the factors that cultural diversity
can promote/assist:
 Can offer a marketing advantage
 Recruiting and retaining talented people
 Unlocks the potential for excellence
 Offers a creative advantage

4. Key dimensions of differences
in cultural values
 1. Individualism vs collectivism
 2. High power distance vs low power distance
 3. High uncertainty avoidance vs low uncertainty
avoidance
 4. Long term orientation vs short term orientation
 5. Masculinity vs femininity
 6. Informality vs formality
 7. Urgent time orientation vs casual time
orientation

5. Individualism vs Collectivism
 Individualism is a mental set in which people see
themselves first as individuals and believe their
own interests and values take priority
 Collectivism is a feeling that group and society
should be given the highest priority
 Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, German
and the UK are individualistic cultures
 Japan, Indonesia, Korea, South American and
Middle countries tend to be collectivist in their
culture

6. Power Distance
 This refers to the idea that different members of
an organisation have different levels of power.
 High power culture - leaders make decisions and
group members comply
 Low power culture - employees do not recognise
the power of leaders as readily
 High power culture - France, Korea, Spain,
Japan and Mexico
 Low power culture - USA, Australia, NZ, Canada
and Scandinavian countries

7. Uncertainty avoidance
 People who accept the unknown, tolerate risk
and unconventional behaviour are said to have
low uncertainty avoidance- they are not afraid to
face the unknown
 High uncertainty avoidance means that people
want predictable and certain futures
 Low uncertainty avoidance countries include:
USA, Australia, Scandinavia and India
 High uncertainty avoidance countries include
Japan, Italy, Argentina and most of Europe

8. Masculinity vs Femininity
 Masculinity refers to an emphasis on
assertiveness, success and competition
 Femininity refers to an emphasis on
relationships, caring for others and a high quality
of life
 Masculine countries include: USA, Japan, Italy,
Italy and India
 Feminine countries include: Sweden, Denmark,
Korea, France and Spain

9. Long term vs short term
orientatation
 Long-term cultures take the long-range
perspective, are more thrifty and look at
investments in the long term
 Short-term cultures take a short term
perspective, not thrifty and expect immediate
returns
 China and Japan take long term view
 USA, France and West Africa tend to be short
term

10. Formality
vs Informality
 Formality attaches importance to tradition,
ceremony, social rules and tank
 Informality places lower importance on
these
 Latin and South America are very formal
 USA, Australia and New Zealand are
much less formal (UK much more formal
than Australia)

11. Urgent time orientation vs
casual time orientation
 Urgent time orientation is where time is
perceived as a scarce resource people tend to
be impatient
 Casual time orientation is where time is not
perceived as being as important and people
tend to be patient
 USA, Germany etc tend to be urgent time
orientation
 South Sea islands tend to be more casual with
time as do Latin American cultures

12. How these effect leadership
 These impact on leaders-followers in
many ways:
 Rewards and recognition
 Power relationships
 Formality of dealings
 Time orientation
 Casual relationships