Cultural mythology and global leadership

Cultural Mythology and Global Leadership

Dedication

To my beloved sons, Jacob and Daniel, whose childhood pasts planted the

seeds for this book and whose adult futures will (hopefully) reap the benefits

of its germination. – EHK

To the legacies of my grandmothers, Chung How Mah and King Fong Louie,

whose lives carried forth the wisdoms of ancestors through to my mother,

Quen Kui Wong, and to our children, Quentin and Maya. – DJW

Cultural Mythology and

Global Leadership

Edited by

Eric H. Kessler

Pace University, New York, USA

and

Diana J. Wong-MingJi

Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, USA

Edward Elgar

Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA

© Eric H. Kessler and Diana J. Wong-MingJi 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical

or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the

publisher.

Published by

Edward Elgar Publishing Limited

The Lypiatts

15 Lansdown Road

Cheltenham

Glos GL50 2JA

UK

Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.

William Pratt House

9 Dewey Court

Northampton

Massachusetts 01060

USA

A catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008943829

ISBN 978 1 84720 403 5

Typeset by Cambrian Typesetters, Camberley, Surrey

Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall

Contents

Editor biographies vii

List of contributors ix

Introduction to cultural mythology and global leadership 1

Eric H. Kessler and Diana J. Wong-MingJi

PART I THE AMERICAS

1. Cultural mythology and global leadership in the United States 31

Eric H. Kessler

2. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Canada 49

Nina D. Cole and Rhona G. Berengut

3. Cultural mythology and global leadership in the

Caribbean islands 65

Betty Jane Punnett and Dion Greenidge

4. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Argentina 79

Patricia Friedrich, Andrés Hatum and Luiz Mesquita

5. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Brazil 93

Adriana V. Garibaldi de Hilal

PART II EUROPE

6. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Greece 111

Theodore Peridis

7. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Germany 127

Sonja A. Sackmann

8. Cultural mythology and global leadership in England 145

Romie Frederick Littrell

9. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Sweden 166

Lena Zander and Udo Zander

10. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Poland 187

Christopher Ziemnowicz and John Spillan

v

PART III AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

11. Cultural mythology and global leadership in South Africa 209

David N. Abdulai

12. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Kenya 225

Fred O. Walumbwa and George O. Ndege

13. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Iran 242

Afsaneh Nahavandi

14. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Egypt 257

Mohamed M. Mostafa and Diana J. Wong-MingJi

15. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Israel 270

Shay S. Tzafrir, Aviv Barhom-Kidron and Yehuda Baruch

PART IV ASIA AND THE PACIFIC RIM

16. Cultural mythology and global leadership in China 289

Diana J. Wong-MingJi

17. Cultural mythology and global leadership in India 306

Shanthi Gopalakrishnan and Rajender Kaur

18. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Russia 325

Stanislav V. Shekshnia, Sheila M. Puffer and Daniel J. McCarthy

19. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Japan 343

Tomoatsu Shibata and Mitsuru Kodama

20. Cultural mythology and global leadership in Australia 359

David Lamond

Index 375

vi Contents

Editor biographies

Eric H. Kessler, Ph.D. is a senior

Professor of Management at Pace

University in New York City and found￾ing Director of the Lubin Leaders and

Scholars Program, which prepares

students for careers in global business

leadership. He is a Fellow and past

President of the Eastern Academy of

Management, the northeastern United

States association of business manage￾ment scholars, and during that time orga￾nized a symposium on cultural

mythology and leadership at the EAM￾International conference in Cape Town, South Africa that formed the founda￾tion for this book. He has served on several editorial boards and as the guest

editor for a number of professional journals, as well as on review panels with

the US National Security Education Program. Dr Kessler has published or

presented over 100 scholarly papers in top academic outlets and conferences,

won numerous research and teaching awards, and is the author or editor of

several additional books including Handbook of Organizational and

Managerial Wisdom (2007, Sage Publications) and Management Theory in

Action (forthcoming, Palgrave Macmillan). He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa

and has been inducted into national and international honour societies in

Business, Economics, Forensics, and Psychology. Professor Kessler instructs

courses on the doctoral, masters, and bachelors levels, has led several interna￾tional field studies, and has worked as an executive educator, policy analyst,

and business consultant for public and private organizations. His professional

travels have taken him across the six continents represented in this volume.

Eric is an avid reader of history and philosophy, a sports and puzzle junkie, as

well as the spinner of many a bad pun. He lives with his best friend/wife, two

terrific sons, and faithful Black Labrador.

vii

Diana J. Wong-MingJi, Ph.D., is an

Associate Professor of Strategy and

Entrepreneurship at Eastern Michigan

University. She also teaches international

management, leadership, and organiza￾tion development and change. Her

research examines how strategic alliances

evolve through different competitive

conditions and the related development of

leadership competencies to manage

change. In particular, Diana is interested

in organizational change processes related

to globalization. Her international experi￾ences include studying indigenous

communities while attending the

University of Oslo in Norway, working with negotiating teams on subsidies

for the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement and later NAFTA; teaching in Papua

New Guinea and China; and launching an international education agreement

between Eastern Michigan University and Osmania University in India. Her

professional activities include contributing to the internationalization of orga￾nizations, serving as President of the American Society of Training and

Development’s Ann Arbor chapter, and consulting through her practice, Sensei

Change Associates. Currently, Diana resides in Ann Arbor, MI with her family

and spends most summers in Vancouver, Canada.

viii Editor biographies

Contributors

David N. Abdulai is currently the CEO/Executive Director of the Graduate

School of Business Leadership at the University of South Africa. He holds

graduate degrees from the Graduate School of International Studies from the

University of Denver, and the School of International Services at the American

University in Washington, DC. His undergraduate degree was obtained at

Howard University in Washington, DC. His has written widely in the areas of

culture, leadership as well as on development issues pertaining to Africa.

Yehuda Baruch is Professor of Management at UEA Norwich UK and

formerly held visiting positions at the University of Texas at Arlington, and

London Business School. He published extensively in the areas of Global and

Strategic HRM, Careers, and Technology Management, including over 80

refereed papers, in journals including Human Resource Management,

Organizational Dynamics, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Relations

and Organization Studies and over 20 books and book chapters, including

Managing Career: Theory and Practice and co-edited Winning Reviews: A

Guide for Evaluating Scholarly Writing and Opening the Black Box of

Editorship. Editor of Group & Organization Management and former Chair,

Careers Division, Academy of Management.

Rhona G. Berengut, MBA, is a Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour at the

Ted Rogers School of Business Management, Ryerson University in Toronto,

Canada. She is a founding partner of SIGMA Strategic Solutions Inc. where

she works with organizations to align people, performance and strategic

purpose. In her practice, Rhona works with organizations to understand their

culture and the impact of culture on organization dynamics and performance.

Her areas of specialization include: Leading Sustainable Strategic Change,

Critical Thinking and Innovation Skills, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and

Strategic Analysis. Rhona is a Certified Facilitator and Strategic Planner,

Executive and EQ Coach.

Nina D. Cole, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of organizational behaviour and

human resource management at the Ted Rogers School of Business

Management, Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. She is a past president

of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada and a member of the

ix

Academy of Management and the Academy of International Business. She has

lectured on leadership to classes in Canada, Australia, Cambodia and the

Philippines. Her past programme of research on applying organizational

justice theories to human resource management activities has become more

global and her current research focuses on cross-cultural organizational justice

and management of expatriate employees.

Patricia Friedrich is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Language,

Cultures and History at Arizona State University. A trained Sociolinguist, Dr

Friedrich’s research focuses on the social, political and economic impact of the

spread of languages throughout the world and on issues of intercultural

communication especially at the firm level. She is the author of Language,

Negotiation and Peace: the Role of English in Conflict Resolution (Continuum

Books, 2007) and the editor of Teaching Academic Writing (Continuum

Books, 2008). Her work has appeared in such journals as Harvard Business

Review, Management Research, World Englishes and the International

Journal of Applied Linguistics. She is a member of the editorial board of the

International Multilingual Research Journal.

Adriana Victoria Garibaldi de Hilal, Doctor in Business Administration

with focus in International Business (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro –

COPPEAD). Has a post-doctorate at IRIC (Institute for the Research on

Intercultural Cooperation) – Tilburg University – Netherlands, where she held

the position of Hofstede Fellow. She is a full time Associate Professor of

Organizations and International Business at COPPEAD/ UFRJ. She has also

been involved in cross-cultural research with Professor Hofstede

(Netherlands); writes articles and books, which have been published interna￾tionally and in Brazil, and works as a consultant. She has participated in

several projects dealing with organizational culture/ national culture, leader￾ship and change, focusing on takeovers, mergers, acquisitions and the interna￾tionalization of companies.

Shanthi Gopalakrishnan is a Professor and Associate Dean at the School of

Management, at NJIT, New Jersey. She received her Ph.D. in Organization

Management from Rutgers University. Prior to her Ph.D. she did her MBA and

worked in Sales and Product Management for a diversified consumer and

industrial products company. Her research interests are in the area of innova￾tion management, strategic management of technology, strategic alliances and

cross-cultural leadership issues. She has published over 20 articles on these

topics in the top management journals. Dr Gopalakrishnan is a member of the

Academy of Management and was the Past President of Eastern Academy of

Management. She sits on the Editorial Board of several management journals.

x Contributors

Dion Greenridge holds a BA (Honours) in Psychology (UWI) and an MSc in

Work and Organisational Psychology (University of Nottingham). He is

currently completing his PhD at Nottingham, and is an instructor with the

Department of Management Studies, University of West Indies in Barbados.

He has been involved in a number of academic and industry-related research

projects and has presented work at regional and international conferences, and

published in well-established journals. His research interests are the structure

and measurement of personality and other individual difference variables, and

employee job performance constructs – task performance, contextual perfor￾mance, and counterproductive work behaviours.

Andrés Hatum is Associate Professor of Human Resource Management at

IAE Business School at Austral University (Argentina). He received his Ph.D.

in Management and Organization from Warwick Business School at the

University of Warwick (UK). His research interests include flexibility in orga￾nizations, management across cultures in Latin American countries, the study

and dilemmas of careers and talent management in firms in the region. Andrés

Hatum has published papers and books in English and Spanish. His latest book

is Adaptation or Exploration in Family Firms: determinants of organizational

flexibility in emerging economies (Edward Elgar, 2007).

Rajender Kaur is Assistant Professor of English at William Paterson

University, NJ, where she teaches courses in Postcolonial Studies and World

Literatures. Her primary research has been on the Literature of the Bengal

Famine of 1943 and she also works on social justice and the environment,

gender and culture in South Asia, and South Asian Literatures. Currently she

is working on a book project, South Asians in North America: A Documentary

History to be published by Rutgers UP in 2009.

Eric H. Kessler, Ph.D. is a senior Professor of Management at Pace University

in New York City and founding Director of the Lubin Leaders and Scholars

Program, which prepares students for careers in global business leadership. He

is a Fellow and past President of the Eastern Academy of Management, the

northeastern United States association of business management scholars, and

during that time organized a symposium on cultural mythology and leadership

at the EAM-International conference in Cape Town, South Africa that formed

the foundation for this book. He has served on several editorial boards and as the

guest editor for a number of professional journals, as well as on review panels

with the US National Security Education Program. Dr Kessler has published or

presented over 100 scholarly papers in top academic outlets and conferences,

won numerous research and teaching awards, and is the author or editor of

several additional books including Handbook of Organizational and Managerial

Contributors xi

Wisdom (2007, Sage Publications) and Management Theory in Action (forth￾coming, Palgrave Macmillan). He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and has been

inducted into national and international honour societies in Business,

Economics, Forensics, and Psychology. Professor Kessler instructs courses on

the doctoral, masters, and bachelors levels, has led several international field

studies, and has worked as an executive educator, policy analyst, and business

consultant for public and private organizations. His professional travels have

taken him across the six continents represented in this volume. Eric is an avid

reader of history and philosophy, a sports and puzzle junkie, as well as the spin￾ner of many a bad pun. He lives with his best friend/wife, two terrific sons, and

faithful Black Labrador.

Aviv Barhom-Kidron is a doctorate candidate in the Graduate School of

Management at the University of Haifa. She received her MA in organiza￾tional sociology from Bar-Ilan University. She also teaches as instructor at the

Open University of Israel. Her current research interest includes human

resource management integration and leadership. Her articles have been

published in The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science.

Mitsuru Kodama is a Professor of Information and Management in the

College of Commerce and Graduate School of Business Administration at

Nihon University. His research papers have been published in Long Range

Planning, Organization Studies, Technovation, and Research-Technology

Management, among others. He published three books: The Strategic

Community-Based Firm (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), Knowledge Innovation

– Strategic Management As Practice (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007),

Project-Based Organization In The Knowledge-Based Society (Imperial

College Press, 2007).

David Lamond, during the time his chapter was being written, was Founding

Dean of the Kochi International Business School (KiBS) in India, where he

was living out Gandhi’s injunction to be the change he wished to see in the

world. His doctoral degree, from Macquarie University, was focused on

person and situation antecedents of managerial behaviour. David has worked

in many countries and regions – India, China, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia

and the UK – drawing on his insights from those experiences and his migrant

Celt background to inform the analysis in the current chapter. Currently, David

serves as the Associate Dean at the Nottingham Business School and the

Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Management History.

Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA, PhD, FIAIR, is Associate Professor of

International Business at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand,

xii Contributors

and has been involved in academic teaching and research for 12 years in the

USA, China, Switzerland, Germany and New Zealand, and as a visiting

professor in China, India and Turkey. He is facilitator of the Centre for Cross￾Cultural Comparisons and of the Leadership and Management Studies in Sub￾Sahara Africa biennial conferences. Industry experience includes management

and marketing in the USA, England, the Caribbean and Latin America, and

China. His research interests are leadership and management across cultures.

Daniel J. McCarthy is the Alan S. McKim and Richard A. D’Amore

Distinguished Professor of Global Management and Innovation at

Northeastern University, and a Fellow at the Davis Center for Russian Studies

at Harvard University. His research and publications centre on strategic

management, entrepreneurship, and corporate governance, particularly in

Russia’s transitioning economy. He has more than 85 publications, including

numerous journal articles, four editions of Business Policy and Strategy,

Business and Management in Russia, The Russian Capitalist Experiment, and

Corporate Governance in Russia. He earned his AB and MBA degrees from

Dartmouth College and his DBA from Harvard University.

Luiz Mesquita is Assistant Professor of Strategy and International

Management, at the School of Global Management and Leadership, Arizona

State University. He has published on alliance management, networks of

SMEs, cross-cultural management and business groups in emerging

economies in academic journals such as the Academy of Management Review,

Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard

Business Review, Journal of Business Studies and Management Research,

among others. He is also the co-editor of Can Latin American Firms Compete?

(Oxford University Press), as well as Entrepreneurial Strategies: New

Technologies and Emerging Markets (Blackwell).

Mohamed M. Mostafa, Ph.D. University of Manchester UK is a Visiting

Professor of Marketing at Auburn University, AL, USA, having previously

been employed at universities in Egypt, Cyprus, Jordan, United Arab

Emirates, and Kuwait. His research has appeared in several leading academic

peer reviewed journals, including Psychology and Marketing, Journal of

Managerial Psychology, International Journal of Consumer Studies,

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Journal of

International Consumer Marketing, Cross-Cultural Management,

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management,

International Journal of Business Performance Management and Journal of

Economic Studies. He has also presented numerous papers at professional

conferences worldwide.

Contributors xiii

Afsaneh Nahavandi is a professor of Public Administration and associate

dean of the College of Public Programs at Arizona State University. Her areas

of speciality are leadership, culture, ethics and teams. She has published arti￾cles about these topics in journals such as the Academy of Management

Review, the Journal of Management Studies, the Journal of Business Ethics,

and the Academy of Management Executive. Her article about teams won the

Academy of Management Executive’s 1994 Best Article award. She has writ￾ten books about culture and mergers and organizational behaviour and is the

author of The Art and Science of Leadership now in its fifth edition.

George O. Ndege is currently an associate professor of History at Saint Louis

University. He has previously taught at Maseno and Moi Universities in

Kenya. His research focuses on state and society in colonial and postcolonial

Africa. Ndege is the author of Health, State, and Society in Kenya (2001), and

Culture and Customs of Mozambique (2007). He has many articles in journals,

books, and encyclopedias, most recently in the Journal of Development

Alternatives and Area Studies, Economic History of Kenya, Ethnicity,

Nationalism and Democracy in Africa and the Encyclopedia of African

History.

Theodore Peridis, B.Sc., MA, M.Phil., Ph.D, is a professor of Strategic

Management at the Schulich School of Business, in Toronto, Canada and the

Director of the Global Leadership Program. He has taught at universities in

Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. He has worked with many

companies and government committees on industrial policy and has acted as

special consultant on issues of acquisitions and alliances. His work and

leisurely pursuits have taken him to six continents and over 50 countries but

he still can’t find his way around his own back yard. He was named Best in

Class by the Canadian Business magazine and Professor of the Yearby the

Kellogg/Schulich EMBA programme.

Sheila M. Puffer is Walsh Research Professor and Cherry Family Senior

Fellow of International Business at Northeastern University, and a Fellow at

the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University. She has more than

150 publications, including eight books such as The Russian Management

Revolution, Business and Management in Russia, The Russian Capitalist

Experiment and Corporate Governance in Russia. She is a former editor of

The Academy of Management Executive. She holds BA and MBA degrees

from the University of Ottawa (Canada), a Ph.D. from the University of

California, Berkeley, and a diploma from the Plekhanov Institute of the

National Economy (Moscow).

xiv Contributors