Transformational Leadership and Its Relationship With Different Cultural Dimensions - Article Example

Article Analysis Name: Course Code: Assignment Title: University ID: Submission Date: Section 1: Article summary The article to be analysed is about transformational leadership and its relationship with different cultural dimensions (Ergeneli, A., Gohar, R and Termirbekova, Z 2007, Transformational leadership: Its relationship to culture value dimensions, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 31, p. 703- 724). The article was the work of three great authors and researchers in the field of management and who are Azize Ergeneli, Racheel Gohar and Zhanar Temirbekova from Hacettepe University, NUST Institute of Management Sciences and Al-Farabi Kazakh National University respectively. The article was accepted by respective authorities and put into publication on 21st July 2007. The article is comprehensive and has discussed a number of areas that are related to transformational leadership including its aspects, culture and different dimensions that affects its value, and how culture relates with transformation leadership. This is an important aspect in the contemporary society where leadership in global organizations is becoming very critical in ensuring enhanced performance under different cultural environments. This is because the article has taken a thorough analysis of relationship that exists between transformational leadership and all its aspects which include challenging the transformational process, inspiring the shared vision, enabling other people to act, developing the way and encouraging the people. This examination has been supported by the research carried out on Pakistan and Kazakh as well as Turkish students who were undertaking business courses. Section 2: Learning points in the article The article has presented various points that are important for learning both for the business students and business executives working in various organizations. The key points for learning that have been raised in the article include: Transformational leadership with its aspects The article has provided a detailed overview of what transformational leadership is and it’s various aspects. This theory of transformational leadership was originally the development of Burns and later refined by Bass. Unlike other leadership processes like transactional, transformational leadership in this case has been portrayed as the most suitable approach to leadership in the high globalized and competitive world where individuals are very knowledgeable of what is happening around them. Furthermore, transformational leadership in this case, has been presented as the kind of leadership where the managers tend to do whatever they can to motivate their followers to follow a certain direction and also strive to do more than what is expected of them. In other words, transformational leadership is the one in which individuals are encouraged to think beyond self-interests. Further on transformational leadership, five important aspects which include challenging the process of transformational leadership, inspiring a common vision, enabling other people to act, developing the way and encouraging the hearths have been discussed. To start with, the aspect of challenging the transformational process is characterized by the need to have a situation where status quo can be challenged. Inspiring a common vision on the other hand, comes into being when individuals believe that they have the capacity to make a difference in what they do. Enabling others to take action is an important aspect in transformation leadership and is intended to promote collaboration and creation of spirited teams. The aspect of developing the way comprise the process of addressing concerns which are related to how individuals should be handled and different goals pursued. Finally, the aspect of encouraging of the hearth is aimed at demonstrating how hard work in an organization by the employees is critical in accomplishing extraordinary works. Culture and related value dimensions The article has raised a very important learning point and which is about culture and what forms culture. Culture is this case has been presented as those motives, values and beliefs as well as identities that are portrayed by the members of a given group and that influence their perceptions about different events and situations. In other words, culture refers to those distinctive features that differentiate each group from others. This is a very important learning point because it shows how culture at workplace can influence leadership. However, an important aspect about culture is values. Values are described according to Hofstede (2001) as “building blocks” and they form the foundation of any given culture. It is with this regard that culture and different dimensions of culture are considered key points of learning. This is because with certain values which are held by the leaders, a given culture is likely to emerge that would always define leadership approach in an organization. However, the most important points for learning is the dimensions of value that influence culture and which include power distance, individualism and collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity as well as femininity. Culture and its influence on transformational leadership Because of the ever changing global business environment, the demand of highly experienced and competitive leadership has become very necessary. What this means is that, there is need to have leaders who can operate comfortably and successfully across different cultures. It is with this reason that culture has become very important for learning and how it influences transformational leadership. What make culture a very important point for learning are the divergent views by different researchers which show that there are two major perspectives that affect culture and consequently the transformational leadership. First, there is the perspective that culture is universal and that all practices of transformational leaders are expected to operate the same way world over. The other perspective is that culture is specific and that each group has got its own culture and that culture is never uniform and therefore leadership should be specific to a given culture. What this means is that in some cases, some practices related to transformational leadership cannot be transferred to other cultures directly raising the question of the competencies required by managers to be able to deliver on different cultures. Section 3: 4 Statements of contention This research was purposely designed to try and examine if any, the relationship that is there between transformational leadership and the various value dimensions of culture. In the process and after the research had been completed, various statements have been developed some of which can be disputed while others can be agreed with. To start with, the first statement that has emerged in this research is the argument that there is always a significant negative relationship between the uncertainty avoidance as a dimension of culture and the transformational leadership as a whole. This is an agreed statement according to my view. This is because the dimension of uncertainty avoidance refers to the level to which the various members of the society feel unease with the prevailing unstructured scenario and ambiguities. In such a situation the employees are known to operate in such away that they tend to follow those procedures, strategies and rules that are clear with them so as to avoid uncomfortable situations (Boehnke et al 2003). This is the important characteristic that makes the dimension’s relationship with transformational leadership to be significant and negative. This is because transformational leadership is based on the strategy of motivating the followers and stakeholders to think of doing beyond their expectations. What this means is that people will not be able to work under unknown and clear structures. This is because what is more important is positive attitude towards ambiguous and other unstructured situations. Another important statement that is clear in the study and is subject to debate, is the one regarding that majority of the transformational leadership and which include inspiring of a common vision, designing the ways and encouraging of the hearth are significantly associated to value dimensions of culture. However, the kind of relationship differs and can be either positive or negative. Specifically, the statement provides that such aspects of transformational leadership such as inspiring a common vision and developing the way are negatively related to uncertainty avoidance dimension. This is a true statement. This because for instance, to work on an inspired vision, the leaders in an organization have the opportunity to persuade and even motivate others to support the innovation idea and also envision to the business with the move to the future (Ergeneli et al 2007). This however, is likely not to be the thing with the uncertainty avoidance. This is because with uncertainty avoidance dimension, certain people do not accept or feel comfortable to work in a situation where there are no clear and structured policies and procedures. What makes therefore this dimension to have a negative relationship with different aspects of transformational leadership is the situation where the individuals will not be willing to embrace imaginative thing outside the established procedures and structures (Rafferty & Griffin 2004). This therefore means that, with the case of uncertainty avoidance, people will always be limited to doing things that they are used to and have done before than engaging their minds in doing things in new ways and thus lowering the chances of embracing change which is critical for any appropriate transformation leadership to be put in place. As provided for in the research findings, another important statement that has emerged is how the transformational leadership aspect of encouraging the hearth has a positive relationship with the value dimension of culture which is power distance. While justifying this statement, the research had gone further to establish that in power distance, the negative attitudes that are related to authoritarian leadership are more common. This statement can be agreed to some extent because in no way the aspect of encouraging the hearth seems to encourage authoritarian leadership. While in the power distance dimension of culture shows the level at which people at workplace are likely to accept the element of inequality among different institutions and organizations as well as people, in the case of encouraging the hearth, the situation is demonstrated by the process of accomplishing extraordinary works through hard work. This aspect shows how important it is to keep the hopes and determination of individuals alive and recognizing the contribution made by the efforts of individuals. The aspect further explains how individuals in any given winning team tend to share rewards, celebrate accomplishments and make some individuals develop strong ego (Rafferty & Griffin 2004). Irrespective of how the aspect make people feel, it does not clearly show that individuals are given more powers than others but encouraged to do more and remain outstanding from the rest. Finally, the last statement that has emerged from the study and that can be argued upon is the one that is trying to show that the two aspects of transformational leadership which are challenging the process and also enabling other people to act, are not significantly related to any of the value dimensions of culture. This statement according to my own view is true. First, in the aspect of challenging the process, leaders have the opportunity to do away with status quo and can accept challenge as long as they can bring in new innovative ways of doings and this can be across the cultures even though they may exercise limitations to avoid risks of failure. In the case of enabling others act, leaders are likely to be interested in creating teams that can collaborate and actively work together and above all accord respect to others (Hofstede 2001). This is an aspect that can be applied in many cultures and almost uniformly. This therefore means that there are those aspects leadership that are common across countries and can be accepted universally while others cannot and this because of the different cultural dimensions. Section 4: Critical analysis Title One important thing about the article’s title is that, it has shown what the research issue is and what the reader is likely to expect. Important about the topic is that, it has given two important variables for research and which are transformational leadership and culture value dimensions. Literature The literature provided in the article is precise and has tackled all areas related to the topic. Important about the literature is that, the author has acknowledged the work previously done by others to build on his. Methodology The methodology used by the researcher is very scientific and it entails the use of the sampling process and questionnaires to collect primary data. However, this only about quantitative data with very little attention to qualitative data that could have been collected through interviews. Another important thing about methodology is that data analysis despite preference by many to use correlation matrix, it is seems a bit complex and may not be that easy for comprehension by the managers who may not have enough time to interpret. Another major weakness is that it has used students who may not have the real experience at workplace. Findings First and most important is that the research was purposely looking at how various hypotheses were developed. To assert or confirm the hypotheses, the researcher has analysed data collected and came up with four major findings from the study. References The work of this research and more especially the background has been informed by the works done previously by other scholars. To appreciate this work, the researchers, has provided a comprehensive list of what he has used something that demonstrates high level of professionalism Section 5: Application in the UAE national culture The subject matter in this study is the relationship that exists between transformational leadership and the various dimensions of culture. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), what is more important and that can be noted by any manager who wants to succeed, is the element that UAE is a Muslim country and that it has borrowed different cultures from neighboring countries. This has led to the development of numerous and independent cultural groups. Therefore, what this does to managers is to complicate the formula of bringing about transformational leadership as not all aspect of transformational aspects will apply uniformly. Section 6: Lesson learnt In general, what have learnt from this article is that a study into a certain aspect takes a formal process which the preceding step is building on the previous idea and that it requires a scientific approach so as to give more valid and meaningful results. References Boehnke, K., Bontis, N., DiStefano, J & DiStefano, A 2003, Transformational leadership: An examination of cross-national differences and similarities, Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 24(1), p. 5–15. Ergeneli, A., Gohar, R and Termirbekova, Z 2007, Transformational leadership: Its relationship to culture value dimensions, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 31, p. 703- 724. Hofstede, G 2001, Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Rafferty, A & Griffin, M 2004, Dimensions of transformational leadership: Conceptual and empirical extensions, Leadership Quarterly, 15(3), p. 329–354. Read More