SummaryThis study investigates (a) the effects of societal culture on group organizational citizenship behavior (GOCB), and (b) the moderating role of culture on the relationship between directive and supportive leadership and GOCB. Data were collected from 20 336 managers and 95 893 corresponding team members in 33 countries. Multi-level analysis was used to test the hypotheses, and culture was operationalized using two dimensions of Hofstede (2001) and GLOBE (2004): Individualism (IDV) and power distance (PD). There was no direct relationship between these cultural dimensions and GOCB. Directive leadership had a negative relation, and supportive leadership a positive relation with GOCB. Culture moderated this relationship: Directive leadership was more negatively, and supportive behavior less positively, related to GOCB in individualistic compared to collectivistic societies. The moderating effects of societal PD were explained by societal IDV.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c tThis study examines the relation between leadership and team cohesiveness in different societal cultures. We expect direct effects of societal culture on leadership and team cohesiveness, as well as a moderating effect of culture on the relationship between leadership and cohesiveness. Data were collected from 29,868 managers and 138,270 corresponding team members in 80 countries. Multilevel analysis was used to test the hypotheses, relating societal individualism-collectivism (IC), with directive and supportive leadership, and with team cohesiveness. In individualistic societies managers use less directive and less supportive behavior, compared with collectivistic societies. Team cohesiveness is not directly related with IC. Directive leadership and supportive leadership are negatively and positively related with team cohesiveness respectively and these relations are stronger in individualistic societies. Implications for managerial education and practices are discussed.

This study examines the relation between leadership and team cohesiveness in different societal cultures. We expect direct effects of societal culture on leadership and team cohesiveness, as well as a moderating effect of culture on the relationship between leadership and cohesiveness. Data were collected from 29,868 managers and 138,270 corresponding team members in 80 countries. Multilevel analysis was used to test hypotheses, relating societal individualism-collectivism (IC), with directive and supportive leadership, and with team cohesiveness. In individualistic societies managers use less directive and less supportive behavior, compared with collectivistic societies. Team cohesiveness is not directly related with IC. Directive leadership and supportive leadership are negatively and positively related with team cohesiveness respectively and these relations are stronger in individualistic societies. Implications for managerial education and practices are discussed.

This study examines the contribution of the psychological contract (PC) framework to the understanding of ethnic minority employees' employment relationships. First, it tests the generalizability of PC types (transactional, relational, and balanced) observed in the general population to ethnic minority employees. Then, to further address the unique needs and motivators of minority employees, this study considers diversity-related PCs. It adopts social exchange theory to explain how transactional, relational, balanced, and diversity-related PC breaches predict organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Moreover, it draws insights from social identity theory and examines the mediating role of organizational identification in the relationship between types of PC breach and OCB. Data from 361 Turkish employees working as ethnic minorities in Belgium indicate that relational and diversity-related PC breaches predict OCB partially via organizational identification while transactional and balanced PC breaches directly affect OCB.

Top management teams are worldwide largely composed of men, with relatively few female members. The gender ratio in top management is indicative of the position of women in management within the organization, as well as related to leadership behaviours of male and female managers. In the present study, the relative importance of societal culture, organizational, and individual characteristics in explaining leadership behaviours and the associations of gender and gender ratio with leadership behaviours are studied. Hypotheses are tested with multi-level analyses using a dataset with information from subordinates rating leadership behaviours of 12,546 managers in 437 organizations in 32 countries. The results show that in a three-level model (i.e. societal, organizational, and individual level) to explain leadership behaviours, differences in leadership behaviours are predominantly explained by individual differences, followed by organizational and societal differences. Further, after controlling for societal influences, a higher gender ratio (relatively more female managers), was positively associated with consideration and negatively related to initiating structure. Moreover, for male managers, there was a negative association between gender ratio and initiating structure, indicating that male managers in organizations with more female managers tend to engage less in initiating structure, whereas the leadership behaviours of female managers were not associated with the gender ratio.