Reconciling culturalist and rationalist approaches: leadership in the United States and Turkey

Abstract

This article empirically investigated the invariance and discriminant validity of a six‐factor leadership model across two very divergent cultures: the United States and Turkey. In conjunction with the rationalist approach to international management, it was hypothesized that the same range of six leadership styles would appear in both cultures. However, coinciding with the culturalist approach to international management, it was also hypothesized that managers would emphasize different styles in each culture. Turkish and US managers each completed the Leadership Effectiveness Questionnaire measuring degree of emphasis placed on six leadership styles. Results of the test of model invariance indicated that the six styles existed in both cultures; however, discriminant analysis demonstrated that the Autocratic and Consensus styles differentiated managers best. Turkish managers emphasized the Autocratic style to a greater extent and the Consensus style to a lesser extent than did US managers. Implications for international management are discussed. ©1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Succession Planning in Family-owned Businesses

“…Managers in a traditional Turkish business are perceived essentially as extensions of the founder owner and they emphasize an autocratic style of leadership (Marcoulides et al, 1998). The typical organizational structure is noted for its high degree of centralization.…”

Cross-National Stability of a Leadership Model

“…A total of 43.4% of the organizations in the study employed more than 100 employees, and 37.8% had annual revenues of $8-10 mdlion and above. Statistical tests (t = .96, p > .01) examining the comparability of this sample (based on managerial status, years of experience, and industry type) indicated no significant differences with data from managers used in previous studies (e.g., Gibson & Marcoulides, 1995;Marcoulides, et al, 1998).…”

“…In contrast, overall there do not appear to be differences between the leadership styles in the middle of the continuum, although Cypriot managers in the service industries place a little more emphasis on the Benevolent Autocratic leadership style than others (F,,,,= 2.63, p < .05). Marcoulides, 1995;Marcoulides, et al, 1998) points toward the consistency of leadership styles across countries, perhaps indicating that closer interaction, technology, and competition may help reduce cross-national differences. The present study suggests that the same six leadership styles are also used by managers from Cyprus, although one style in particular, Benevolent Autocratic, appears to be more frequently implemented in the running of service-oriented organizations in Cyprus.…”

“…Evidence of reconciliation between the culturalist and rationalist views was recently provided by Gibson and Marcoulides (1995;Marcoulides, 1996;Marcoulides, et al, 1998), in their investigations of a six-factor leadership model across various countries. The model originally identified by Flamholtz (1986) consists of a continuum of six leadership styles ranging from very di-rective to nondirective, i.e., Autocratic, Benevolent Autocratic, Consultative, Participative, Consensus, and Laissez-Faire.…”

“…However, there remains much debate regarding the importance of culture for leadership practices. Two opposing views have dominated, the culturalist and the rationalist (Marcoulides, Yavas, Bilgin, & Gibson, 1998). The culturalist view emphasizes country of origin and argues that, although products and services are becoming common across many countries, they still mean different things in each country.…”