Cross Cultural Leadership

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CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP

– A CASE STUDY-

INTRODUCTION

This paper is aimed to give a deeper understanding to effective cross-cultural leadership. A

The study includes both a primary qualitative research and a secondary researh in order to implement an interview dedicated to cross-cultural leadership in a particular context. The interview has been constructed to identify and explore key behavioral, cognitive, and attitudinal factors that contribute to contextual leadership judgment and behavior, as reflected in leadership effectiveness.

The case study presented in this research is focused on an Iraqi expatriate leader working in Romania.

The second purpose of the paper is to outline the model of current and future expatriate managers in order to develop the personal and intrapersonal capacities that underlie effective cross-cultural leadership. (Deng &Gibson, 2012)

The research work develops an extensive qualitative interview with expatriate revealing a series of cross-cultural leadership components of his profile leading to reveal his transformational leadership style.

The model developed from the findings and presented in this paper can be used to guide cross-cultural leadership development processes.

The findings resulted from the content analysis developed in the case study is meant to enlarge perspectives on cross-cultural leadership concepts and to build a pragmatic support that could assist companies in selecting expatriate leaders.

While these previous studies focused on cultural influences as a complicating factor in the effectiveness of foreign businesses, they gave less attention to expatriate managerial cognitive styles and attitudes relevant to leadership dynamics within the context of cultural differences.

As Romanian business macro environment faces various aspects of cross-cultural leadership on a daily basis, the study is aimed to provide valuable findings and perspectives in order to give a more proper approach to each aspect involving the expatriates’ contribution to leadership.

While many companies now offer training in the different cultures, it is important that employees communicate across cultures, and work to increase their knowledge and understanding of these cultures. It is important that leaders use their ability to see that a person's own behaviors and reactions are culturally appropriate, as most often culturally driven.

In case of working across cultures or with individuals come from a different cultural background, the leader or manager of a team needs to work to convey a new understanding that may refer to employees practicing different religions, or to members of society that require tolerance, by considering any special needs the individuals from the team may have: they may observe different holidays, or even have a different timing for work. A leader should keep everyone involved, aware and respectful of such differences.

CONTENTS

CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP p. 5

CROSS-CULTURAL APPROACH p. 5

THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP p. 7

2.1. Approaches on leadership styles p. 13

CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP HYPOTHESIS p. 16

LEADING CHANGE IN THE ORGANIZATION p. 18

DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP SKILLS p. 20

RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY p. 24

Intro p. 24

The Chosen Methodology p. 24

Primary Research p. 25

Semi-structured Interviews – Open-ended Questions p. 26

Secondary Research p. 27

Construction of the Questions p. 27

CASE STUDY p. 29

Intro p.29

3.1. The Leadership Challenge of an Expatriate in Romania p. 30

3.2. Behavioural component of Leadership p. 32

3.3. Leadership effectiveness and individual orientation p. 33

3.4. Brief on Expatriate Leadership Presence p. 35

CONCLUSIONS p. 36

ANNEX p. 37

Bibliography p. 40

CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP

International business is a living experience at the cross roads of cultures, where success depends on the interaction of teams and leaders from different cultures and parts of the world. In this way, the term cross-cultural is referring to “the interaction of people from different backgrounds in the business world”. (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cross-culture.asp)

` Companies around the world dedicate substantial resources towards training their staff in order to generate efficient interaction with their peers from other cultures and consolidate in this way a global cross-cultural experience.

The most typical context of a cross-cultural experience is that of an employee transferred to another country challenged by the language and culture of the foreign country. It can be even more difficult in case of a manager, who is supposed to communicate effectively and understand the employees in the team he is leading. If a manager cannot understand properly his employees he/she loses credibility and this can have irreversible effects on the management processes. Being unfamiliar to the customs, language and current rules of behavior acceptable in a specific culture can cause confusion, uncertainty and anxiety, described as a “culture shock”. Any leader is characterized by the strength of his/her adaptability capacity in a larger a cross cultural approach of a global business environment in full development.

CROSS-CULTURAL APPROACH

The term “cross-cultural” was used for the first time in the 1930s, by George Peter Murdock, a Yale anthropologist, in the introduction to the Cross-Cultural Survey, a series of comparative studies based on statistical cultural data. In time, the term was more and more used by referring to cultural interaction.

The step from a collateral determinant to a whole new cultural paradigm was made in the 1970s with the growth of cross-cultural or intercultural communication developed as part of the cross-cultural paradigm. This cross cultural background was developed as a response to the phenomenon of globalization, which induced the necessity of cross-cultural awareness training in various business areas.

Cross-cultural studies developed a new term that of cross-culturalism, describing various forms of cultural interactivity and their deriving discourses. Almost synonymous with transculturation, cross-culturalism was coined by Fernando Ortiz in the 1940s to describe some kind of cultural hybridity in the cultures of Latin America.

According to Trimmer & Warnock, (1992), the new term became prevalent in cultural studies in the late 1980s and 1990s, although the term was earlier proposed by Wilson Harris, a Guyanese writer,  who wrote in The Womb of Space (1983) about "cultural heterogeneity or cross-cultural capacity" as an "evolutionary" impetus to the imagination. (Wilson Harris, 1983)

The development of cross-culturalism in literary and cultural studies was strongly influenced by anthropology. The concept of cross-culturalism evolved in the works of Claude Lévi-Strauss, a French anthropologist who imposed structuralism and and became a successor of post-structuralism.

Multiculturalism is associated to transculturation, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, interculturalism, and globalism, while partly synonymous to cross-culturalism, which in this way is included in an ideological context. Yet, cross-culturalism is a fundamentally neutral term, included in the process of portraying other cultures or in the processes of cultural mixing.

The two terms, multiculturalism and cross-culturalism are different from one another: while multiculturalism deals with cultural diversity within a particular nation or social group, cross-culturalism refers to the exchange beyond the boundaries of the nation or cultural group.

As cultures are considered national, the cross-cultural may be considered as overlapping the transnational, often referring to colonial and postcolonial, while colonialism is by definition a form of cross-culturalism. 

Of the various terms, "cross-culturalism" is the most inclusive, apart from transnationalism perceived as depending on the nation-state or colonialism/postcolonialism restricted to colonized or formerly-colonized regions. Above all, the inclusiveness of the term cross-culturalism leads to certain ambiguity in its definition, while in practice, "cross-cultural" is usually referring strictly to significant culturally divergent situations.

2. THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP

Since ancient times, there has been a permanent debate on the qualities that distinguish an individual as a leader. Plato in his Republic and Plutarch in his Lives explored the characteristics or traits of leaders.

The origins of leadership are at the formation of all societies and organizations.

The most basic human relationship is with two individuals. Because of perceived differences, one may defer to the other in various areas, ones, a critical one being competence and personality, among others. Once the deference occurs, there is hierarchy, or an establishment of levels. (Horne, 2012)

Chemers (1997) defined leadership as "a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task".(Chemers, 1997) Early leadership theories, emerging in the early twentieth century, focused on the qualities that made the difference between leaders and their followers, while further theories were concerned of variables like situational factors and skills. From the great variety of theories on leadership theories, Kendra Cherry distinguishes eight major types, classified as follows: "Great Man" Theories, Trait Theories, Contingency Theories, Situational Theories, Behavioral Theories, Participative Theories, Management Theories, Relationship Theories.(Cherry K., online)

"Great Man" Theories, evolving about mid 19th century, assume that leaders are “born-to-be” not made, and that the leadership capacity is inherent. This type of theories has no scientific certainty. It assumes that the traits of the leadership are intrinsic, while it is impossible to put up a combination of human characteristics that could identify great leaders.

The term "Great Man" was used especially referring to military leadership, in connection with a male quality. Such theories portray great leaders as heroic, mythic and destined to appear when needed.

2. Trait Theories share some similarities to "Great Man" theories by supporting the idea that leadership is based on individual attributes and by assuming that people inherit certain qualities and traits that recommend them as leaders. Trait theories often identify particular personality or behavioral characteristics associated to leadership. This theory proves to be incomplete in its demonstration, as it is impossible to explain why some people, who possess qualities that are key features of leadership, are not leaders.

This theory has been embraced by some notable writers like Thomas Carlyle and Francis Galton. In Heroes and Hero Worship (1841), Carlyle identified the talents, skills, and physical characteristics of men who had access to power. In Hereditary Genius (1869), Galton examined leadership qualities in the families of powerful men, showing that the number of eminent relatives dropped off when moving from first degree to second degree relatives, while in this way Galton concluded that leadership was inherited.

More recently, Zaccaro (2007) stated that trait theories still focus on a small set of individual attributes, considered by him the Big Five personality traits, to the neglect of cognitive abilities, motives, values, social skills, expertise, and problem-solving skills. The same author identified other characteristics of trait theories in failing to consider patterns or integrations of multiple attributes, not being able to distinguish between leader attributes that are not malleable in time and those that are shaped and determined by situational influences.As well he did not consider how stable leader attributes account for the behavioral diversity necessary for effective leadership. (Zaccaro, 2007)

In contrast to the traditional approach, theorists' arguments on the leader attribute pattern approach are based on considering the person as an integrated totality rather than a summation of individual variables.

In spite of the basic schematic structure of this theory, it has been ultimately reestablished as a viable approach to the study of leadership.

3. Contingency Theories focus on some particular variables related to the environment, considered to determine the particular style of leadership best suited for a specific situation. At the same time, these theories consider that there is no leadership style fit in all situations. Among the factors of success, these theories acknowledge the leadership style, qualities of the followers and aspects of the situation.

In Fiedler contingency model, the leader's effectiveness is based on what Fred Fiedler called situational contingency, resulted from the interaction of leadership style and situational favorability, also called situational control.

This theory defines two types of leaders: the relationship-oriented ones, who tend to accomplish the task by developing good relationships with the group, and those who are task-oriented and have as their prime concern carrying out the task itself. According to Fiedler, both task-oriented and relationship-oriented leaders can be effective if their leadership orientation fits the situation, but there is no ideal leader.

4. Situational Theories suggests that leaders choose the best course of action according to situational variables. According to this theory, some styles of leadership may be more appropriate for certain types of decision-making. If the leader is the most knowledgeable and experienced member of a group, then the authoritarian style of leadership might be most appropriate. Accordingly, if group members are skilled experts, a democratic style would be more effective.

Situational theory emerged as a reaction to the trait theory of leadership. Herbert Spencer (1884) and Karl Marx as well said that the person is the product of times and not the other way around. Consequently, the history seems to be more than the result of intervention of great men as Carlyle suggested.

Victor Vroom, Phillip Yetton (1973) and later Arthur Jago (1988) described leadership situations by including them in a taxonomy, used in a normative decision model where leadership styles were associated to situational variables, defining the proper type of approach suitable to a specific situation.

In this theory it is assumed that different situations call for different characteristics and that there is no single optimal psychographic profile of a leader. The theory states that "what an individual actually does when acting as a leader is in large part dependent upon characteristics of the situation in which he functions." (Vroom & Yetton, 1973) 

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the focus shifted away from traits of leaders to an investigation of the leader effective behaviors. For the next few decades this approach dominated most of the leadership theory and research.

Behavioral Theories are built in response to the early criticisms of trait theories. Scientists began to research leadership as a set of behaviors, by evaluating the behavior of successful leaders, and determining behavior taxonomy. Then they identified broad leadership styles.

Behavioral theories of leadership are based on the belief that great leaders are made, not born. This leadership theory has its roots in behaviorism and focuses on the actions of leaders not on their mental qualities and inner states.

In order to lead, it is essential to have self-confidence and high self-esteem, and according to David McClelland leadership always refers to a strong personality with a well-developed positive ego. Through teaching and observation, people can learn to become leaders.

Behavioral theories of leadership are classified as such because they focus on the study of specific behaviors of a leader. For behavioral theorists, a leader’s behavior can predict his leadership influences and determine his or her leadership success.

This approach has a real marketing potential, as it is well-known that behaviors can be conditioned so that for specific stimuli one can have a specific response.

From the supposition that leaders are born, like in the Great Man Theory through to the possibility that leadership potential can be measured as in Trait Theory, through psychometrics measurements and then to the point that anyone can be made a leader, like in behavioral theories, by teaching them the most appropriate behavioral response for any given situation, this is the thinking path of leadership approach.

In the context of leadership studies, a group of people from Ohio State University developed a list of 150 statements, designed to measure nine different behavioral leadership dimensions, resulting in a questionnaire known as the LBDQ or the Leaders Behavior Description Questionnaire.

One of the purposes of the study was to identify common leadership behaviors. After analyzing results, the study came to the conclusion that there were two groups of behaviors strongly correlated, defined as Consideration (People Oriented behavioral Leaders) and Initiating Structure (Task Oriented Leaders).

Task oriented leaders focus their behaviors on the organizational structure, on operating procedures (S.O.P.) as they like to keep control. Task-oriented leaders are still concerned with staff motivation, even if it is not their main concern.

People oriented leaders focus their behaviors on ensuring that the inner needs of the people are satisfied. Thus they seek to motivate their staff through emphasizing the human relation. People oriented leaders still focus on the task and the results; they just achieve them through different means.

6. Participative Theories suggest that the ideal leadership style is the one taking into account the input of others. They stimulate participation and contributions from group members and encourage group members feel more relevant and committed to the decision-making process. In participative theories, the leader’s right to allow the others’ input is prevalent. At the University of Michigan, leadership studies were led by the organizational psychologist, Dr. Rensis Likert, who identified three characteristics of effective leadership; two of which were previously observed in studies conducted at Ohio State University as well. The studies emphasized that task and relationship-oriented behaviors weren't of major significance within the world of organizational psychology, but it was the third component that introduced a new concept, that of participative leadership.

If the leader just commands or orders the team for specific tasks, then it is likely that the team lacks motivation and performs less than others with a more motivating leader.

If a group or team is lead by an effective and good leader, it is more likely that the team will be able to fulfill their tasks as well as the organizations goal and objectives successfully.

Also known as the Democratic Leadership Style, participative leadership is a method that involves all the team members in the process of identifying important goals as well as developing strategies and procedures to achieve these goals.

Participative style of leadership can be characterized as the leadership that operates as facilitator, different from the one who simply issues commands or orders or makes assignments for each member of the team. This kind of leadership style could be a choice in volunteering, business or even home management.

Participative style is preferred for its availability of involving the active participation of every team members, enabling them to demonstrate their creativity and talents. Trough this leadership style, a team can discover hidden assets and can help people and organization thrive. Every member has in this way the opportunity to share their abilities in the team.

Participative leaders stimulate and increase the range of possibilities for the team by encouraging team members to be involved in the decision making process, while in this way an action can be seen or approached from different angles. Strengths and weaknesses of a certain approach become more evident and can be resolved by the team working together to find the best decision for the company.

This leadership style usually engages time requirement before taking an action and allows each team member to have an input. All this contributes to the team or organization effectiveness.

Finally, successful participative leaders allow the skills and talents of every member of the team to be employed in arriving to the best decision, which is beneficial. Even though the team leader is typically responsible for making the best final decision, which shares the function within the team, sharing ideas, opinions, skills and talent is still effective for the whole team to be efficient and successful.

7. Management Theories are known also as transactional theories. They focus on the managerial roles of supervision, organization and group performance. In the framework of these theories, leadership is based on a system of rewards and punishments. Managerial theories are often used in business when employees are successful, as they are rewarded, while when they fail, they are reprimanded or punished accordingly.

This leadership style is often perceived by the team as rigid, low-motivational and with little contribution to stimulating creativity and the contribution of each member of the team to making the best decision.

8. Relationship Theories are also known as transformational theories, and focus on the connections developed between leaders and followers. Transformational leaders are focused on the performance of group members and motivate and inspire people by helping group members see the importance and advantages of a given task. These leaders are preoccupied to stimulate each person to fulfill his or her potential. It is largely agreed that leaders with this style often have high ethical and moral standards.

Relationship-oriented leadership is a contrasting style in which the leader is more focused on the relationships amongst the group, as being more concerned with the overall well-being and satisfaction of group members. This type of leaders emphasizes communication within the group, shows trust and confidence in group members, and unrestrained appreciation for work done.

Relationship-oriented leaders are focused on developing the team and the relationships within it. In such kind of environment team members are more motivated and have support, while the emphasis on relations as opposed to getting a job done might make productivity suffer.

On the other hand, task-oriented leaders are typically less concerned with group members, and more concerned with acquiring a certain solution to meet a production goal. This is why, they are typically able to make sure that deadlines are met, but the well-being of their group members may suffer.

2.1. Approaches on leadership styles

The functional leadership theory proved to be a very useful theory addressing specific leader behaviors that are expected to contribute to organizational or unit effectiveness. Developed by Hackman & Walton (1986), and also by McGrath (1962) or Adair (1988), this theory asserts that the leader's main job is to see what is necessary to the group and if this is taken care of properly. A leader can be said to have fulfilled their job well when they have contributed to group effectiveness and cohesion (Hackman & Walton, 1986).

These functions are expected to be facilitated by a variety of leadership behaviors. Fleishman (1953) observed in his work identifying leader behavior that subordinates perceived their supervisors' behavior in terms of two broad categories referred to as consideration and initiating structure. Consideration refers to behavior involved in fostering effective relationships like showing concern for a subordinate or acting in a supportive manner towards others. Initiating structure refers to the leader’s actions as focused specifically on task accomplishment. This includes different components like role clarification, setting performance standards, and holding subordinates accountable to those standards.

Integrated Psychological theory offers a foundation for leaders wanting to apply the philosophies of servant leadership and authentic leadership.

This leadership theory attempts to integrate all the strong points of previous theories (traits, behavioral, situational and functional). It addresses their limitations by introducing a new element, the necessity that leaders develop their leadership presence, attitude toward others and behavioral flexibility by psychological mastery. After the publication of According to James Scouller's Three Levels of Leadership model (2011), the Integrated Psychological theory began to gather more attention while the older theories offered only limited assistance in developing a person's ability to lead effectively. Scouller pointed out that traits theories, tending to reinforce the idea that leaders are born not made, are less useful for developing leaders.

Scouller therefore proposed the Three Levels of Leadership model, which was later categorized as an "Integrated Psychological" theory aiming to summarize what leaders have to do, not only to bring leadership to their group or organization, but also to develop themselves technically and psychologically as leaders.

Another theory that addresses a specific aspect of the leadership process is the leader–member exchange (LMX) theory, which evolved from an earlier theory called the vertical dyad linkage (VDL) model. These two models are focused on the interaction between leaders and individual followers.

The neo-emergent leadership theory (from the Oxford school of leadership) asserts that leadership is created through the emergence of information by the leader or other stakeholders, not through the true actions of the leader himself. 

Any leadership style is focused on providing direction, on plans implementation, and motivating people. The style is the result of the philosophy, personality, and experience of the leader.

Models for understanding leadership have also been developed by rhetoric specialists like Robert Hariman or Philippe-Joseph Salazar. They have demonstrated that different leadership styles are required in different situations. When there is little time to come to an agreement and there is a designated authority with significantly more experience or expertise than the rest of the team, an autocratic leadership style may be most effective. On the other hand, in a highly motivated team characterized by a homogeneous level of expertise, a democratic or laissez-faire style may be more effective.

The style adopted should always be that which most effectively achieves the objectives of the group, while at the same time balancing the interests of each of its members.

Stephen Cohen has mentioned engagement as one of four key leadership practices for tough times: "what these initiatives do for the organization is to engage both leaders and employees in understanding the existing conditions and how they can collectively assist in addressing them. Reaching out to employees during difficult times to better understand their concerns and interests by openly and honestly conveying the impact of the downturn on them and their organizations can provide a solid foundation for not only engaging them but retaining them when things do turn around”.

By autocratic leadership style the decision-making process is centralized in the leader, as in case of dictators. The autocratic management is successful as it provides strong motivation to the manager, and it allows quick decision-making, while there is only one person who decides for the whole group, keeping each decision to him/herself until he/she feels it needs to be shared with the rest of the group. Leaders of this style do not encourage any suggestions or initiatives from subordinates.

Also called shared leadership, the democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members by promoting the interests of the group members and by practicing social equality.

Laissez-faire style may characterize a person in a leadership position who does not in fact provide leadership, as subordinates are given a free hand in deciding their own policies and methods. Consequently, subordinates are motivated to be creative and innovative.

Narcissistic leadership is a leadership style in which the leader is fully interested in his/her own person. They are their only priority, against the basic interests of group members. This leader is characterized by arrogance, dominance and hostility. Yet, this is a common leadership style. The narcissism may range all between healthy and destructive. Narcissistic leadership most of the times destructive) is criticized for arrogance, self-absorption, and a personal egotistic need for power and admiration.

A toxic leader is someone who has responsibility over a group of people or an organization, and who abuses the relationship with his/her followers, as most of the times leaving the organization in a worse-off condition than when he/she joined it.

In task-oriented leadership style, the leader is focused on the tasks that need to be performed in order to meet a certain goal. Task-oriented leaders are generally more concerned with the implementation of a step-by-step solution for a given problem or goal, by making sure that deadlines are met, as well as results and reaching target outcomes.

CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP HYPOTHESIS

Cross-cultural leadership has developed as a field dedicated to understand leaders who work in the newly globalized market. In this business environment, international organizations require leaders who can adapt quickly to various cultural contexts and work with partners and employees of other cultures. In this cross-cultural environment it cannot be assumed that a manager who is successful in one country will be successful in another (Javidan et al., 2006; Brodbeck et al., 2000).

As people across cultures hold different implicit stereotypes, their consequent underlying beliefs about what is the profile of a good leader differ across cultures (Javidan et al., 2006; Brodbeck et al., 2000).

The Implicit Leadership Theory (ILT) asserts that people’s underlying assumptions, beliefs and schemas may influence perception of a leader to the extent that this might be considered a good leader.

In his studies regarding the dimensions of culture, Hofstede emphasizes the need for understanding the differences in other cultures. Hofstede’s dimensions include: Individualism/Collectivism, Feminine/Masculine, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long Term/ Short Term orientation. (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005)

The five dimensions of culture described by Hofstede referring to similarities and differences across cultures are used not only to compare cultures but also and provide leaders with an instrument helping them to understand and adjust their leadership styles according to the cultural environment.

In the 80’s, this model explaining national cultural differences and their consequences in the business environment came at a time when cultural differences between societies had become increasingly relevant for both economic and political reasons. For this reason many management practitioners at that moment embraced described by Hofstede’s theory.

Despite its popularity, Hofstede's model stirred a huge debate and he was criticized for the high conceptualization of culture and its impact on people's behavior. His critiques induced the idea that his scientific assumptions might be incorrect. The most cited criticism of his work was that of Professor Brendan McSweeney, who argued that Hofstede's theory about the role of national cultural determinism might be too much linked to the fundamental flaws in his methodology. 

According to Bass (1997), leadership is a universal phenomenon and wherever there are people, there are also leaders. People do not doubt that leadership exists across cultures. The doubt comes with the fact that various leadership styles (paternalistic leadership, transformational leadership, transactional leadership) translate across cultures.

Transformational leadership has been described as a charismatic leadership style that gather subordinates around a common goal, by inducing them enthusiasm and support. Transactional leadership is an organizational relationship characterized by the use of rewards and incentives. Bass (1985) introduced these concepts that haver been developed in time in the direction of demonstrating the transferability of these types of leadership styles across cultures. In fact, Bass and Avolio (1994) ventured into suggesting an optimal leadership profile for leaders around the world.

Starting from these concepts introduced by Bass, a study conducted by Shahin and Wright (2004) in an emerging economic environment like in Egypt indicated that only 3 of the 7 factors that were found in the ideal leadership style in Egypt corresponded with the US factors. The other 4 factors were unique to Egypt or perhaps the Middle East in general. These results conducted to the conclusion that it was impossible to assume that transactional and transformational leadership could be successful in non-western cultures.

Similarly it was found that leadership styles may not be universal as previously assumed Hofstede’s theory. Studies demonstrated that transactional and transformational leadership in China and Australia worked differently, thus providing another indication that these theories may not be as universal as formerly supposed.

The literature dedicated to leadership lacks consensus on how to define and refer to cross-cultural leadership. Researchers don’t define cross-cultural leadership specifically. More often it is outlined it in two components: organizational leadership and culture. Organizational leadership is described as “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members”, while culture, even if it cannot be defined in a unique formula globally, was referred to as sharing “motives, values, beliefs, identities, and interpretations or meanings of significant events that result from common experiences of members of collectives and are transmitted across age generations” (House et al., 1995).

Another debate was stirred around the attempt to give a unique definition for a cross-cultural leader, identified most of the times in the person of an international executive. Spreitzer, McCall Jr., and Mahoney (1997) defined the international executive as “an executive who is in a job with some international scope, whether in an expatriate assignment or in a job dealing with international issues more generally”. (Spreitzer, McCall Jr., and Mahoney, 1997, p. 7)

Consequently, global leadership was defined as “a process of influencing the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of a global community to work together synergistically toward a common vision and common goals” (Osland, 2006, p. 204).

LEADING CHANGE IN THE ORGANIZATION

Leadership needs a methodology of change In order to react to opportunities like innovation, culture or technology.

Dr. John Kotter, one of the main researchers in the field of organizational change, has proven in his studies that 70% of all major change efforts in organizations fail, mainly because organizations often do not take the holistic approach required to see the change through.

Organizations can avoid failure and become adapted to change by improving their abilities to meet change and increase their chances of success, while the continuous process of adaptation is seen as the main condition to thrive.

Following all his career in research Dr. Kotter has outlined The 8-Step Process for Leading Change that could help organizations succeed in an ever-changing global environment.

The first step in the process of change is identified by Dr. Kotter in establishing a sense of urgency, by helping the others see the need for change. When they become aware of the need of change, they could be convinced of the importance of acting immediately.

The second step describes the creation of the guiding coalition, in other words the consortium or the group empowered and assembled in order to lead the change process, and encourage the group to work as a team. 

The third step refers to the development of a vision of change. This visualization is necessary in the process of change to substantiate the organizational need for change and develop strategies for achieving that vision. 

The fourth step consists of making sure that as many people as possible understand and accept the vision and the strategy. This step is called by Dr. Kotter Communicating the Vision for Buy-in.

The fifth step is called Empowering Broad-based Action, and it is meant to remove obstacles to change, change systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision, and encourage risk-taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions. 

With the sixth step the organization starts generating short-term wins, while it is further planning for achievements that can easily be made visible, and follow-through with those achievements. This stage also includes recognizing and rewarding the effort of employees who were involved in the process of change.

The seventh step is meant to increas credibility of change systems, structures, and policies that don't fit the vision, also hire, promote, and develop employees who can implement the vision, and finally reinvigorate the process with new projects, themes, and change agents. At this stage it is important Never Letting Up.

The ultimate step in the organizational process of change consists of Incorporating Changes into the Culture by articulating the connections between the new behaviors and organizational success, and by developing the means to ensure leadership development and succession.

The methodology relies on a solid foundation of challenge leadership, including the ability to lead the change, communicate why the change is being made, focus on outcomes and measures of success, create transparency, develop a strategy to lead change, and develop a communication plan to communicate information and milestones. The elements of the change leadership process include: Strategic Planning, Goal Alignment, Process Improvement, and Implementation and Continuous Improvement.(online on https://www.hr.cornell.edu/life/career/leading_change.html)

Experience has emphasized the necessity of the leader and team awareness of best practices in Change Leadership, by putting up a checklist that includes general fact like the necessity that the leader should lead the change by adopting new behaviors that could inspire behavior change in his/her followers, while simultaneously preaching the need for change. In this respect it is necessary to create a clear enough vision to direct the change effort and accordingly to identify and understand the needs and motivations of key stakeholders and create a guiding coalition.

As it can be seen the checklist follows close The 8-Step Process for Leading Change.

Best practices include also a reference to the identification of decision-makers and the necessity to empower them to be responsible and accountable, as well as identifying those who need to be consulted with and informed, as always engaging them at the appropriate moment.

In the process of change it is necessary to make time to develop an early communication plan referring to the utilization of communications of all kinds: electronic, written, face-to-face, group, one-on-one etc. Targeted communications should also be maintained continuously as tailored to different stakeholders.

The vision should further be translated into SMART, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Reasonable, Time-bound) goals.

Leaders should keep focused of empowering the others so these could feel they have the freedom to act on the vision and goals.

In this context, the leadership should develop objectives with concrete deliverables.

Simultaneously, the leader should visibly tackle obstacles to change, whether they are ineffective leadership, poorly allocated resources, “sacred cow” policies and practices, an in parallel to encourage risk-taking and new ideas.

In the process of implementation of change, the leader should constantly track progress, plan for, recognize and reward short-term wins and visible performance improvements, as steps of partial evaluation, which provides the opportunity to further motivate the team.

Where the case, changes should be embedded into a university discourse, mainly referring to leverage improvements, apply learnings to more processes and projects, deepen employee skills.

A final care should be paid to institutionalizing new approaches by communicating connections between new behaviors and successes, by ensuring leadership succession, and setting up systems to capture and share knowledge. (https://www.hr.cornell.edu/life/career/leading_change.html)

DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Even if training is important, only one of the three aspects, expatriate’s personal aptitudes, can be altered by training. Training is meant to enhance abilities that are already there, as leaders come into training courses with abilities of their own and keep open to alteration and growth from the training program.

It is important to make cross-cultural leadership operational or define it in a way that allows its presence or absence to be measured, while it can be reconstructed from a variety of terms.

In time there have been a lot of studies that discussed the knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors generally exhibited by successful cross-cultural leaders.

General intelligence, business knowledge, interpersonal skills, commitment, courage and ease in dealing with cross-cultural issues are traits illustrating a successful international executive. (Spreitzer et al., 1997)

International executive” success cannot be predicted, but research has shown that an open personality, flexibility, and language skills could contribute to a successful international executive.

A specific characteristic has described in regard to multicultural leadership, known as a multicultural perspective taking, and referred to as the ability of leaders to “take the perspective of another [individual] within the cultural context, to apply cultural lenses, and to adapt quickly when encountering individuals or groups from unfamiliar cultures”. (Rentsch, Mot, and Abbe, 2009)

The overall behaviors that a cross-cultural leader should embody make up the cross-cultural organizational behavior (OB). This is defined as consisting of “cross-cultural similarities and differences in processes and behaviors at work, and the dynamics of cross-cultural interfaces in multicultural domestic and international contexts” (Gelfand, Erez, and Aycan, 2007, p. 480)

In organizational behavior includes the concept of cross-cultural competence, which in international business refers to “an individual’s effectiveness in drawing upon a set of knowledge, skills, and personal attributes in order to work successfully with people from different national cultural backgrounds at home or abroad” (Johnson, Lenartowicz, 2006, p. 530)

The focus referring to this term is not on acquiring knowledge, but rather on how the individual uses knowledge already acquired. International business can be tough and very challenging, and this term marks the extent to which a leader can be perseverant and use his/her knowledge that makes him/her successful.

The concept of cross-cultural competence has been referred as 3C, enabling leaders to interact in any culture, as opposed to language and regional knowledge, which only work in specific cultures. The concept of 3C is dynamic and subject to development in time. There have been identified three components of cross-cultural competence, which include knowledge and cognition, cultural awareness, cross-cultural schema and cognitive complexity. A leader is expected to be successful while working in another culture, if personal, work, and interpersonal domains are met. (Abbe et al., 2007)

There are many characteristics and behaviors that can make someone to be an effective cross-cultural leader, but the most important are the cognitive ability, interpersonal skills, cultural awareness, or multicultural perspective taking. Only one of these traits independently does not guarantee someone to be a successful cross-cultural leader. In order to be effective, a cross-cultural leader should have a broad set of skills and understanding of differences that exist among people from different backgrounds.

More recently, international trade has grown due to “the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the creation of a single Europe, the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) …a single European currency…and the emergence of the US from an economic recession”. (Johnson, et al. 2006, p. 525)

Technologies like the Internet and text messaging make the global market available to everyone, while a great variety of developmental organizations extend into multiple regions of the world.

Understanding the cultural differences and predicting an overall impact on leadership is the great challenge of our time. But in understanding the cultural similarities and differences, one needs to understand first one’s own culture so that he/she could relate and compare it to others. At the same time, the larger the gap between cultures, the more difficult it will be for the leader to adapt (Yamazaki & Kayes, 2004)

The world is in need of cross-cultural leaders and this can be seen in the human resource departments within these global organizations. The selection process plays a key role in hiring the people who will be most effective cross-cultural leaders. Dedicated literature presents in detail specific personality traits and individual differences that promote quality cross-cultural leadership for multicultural settings. Prior extensive international experience recommends somebody as cross-cultural leader, but his/her expertise should go beyond vacationing in a given country. (Abbe et al. 2007)

Many studies emphasized the effect of intercultural training on expatriate success, but there are people who disagree and question the effectiveness of training, even if most authors indicate a minor success factor in intercultural training.

Executives achieve their skills through continuous learning, and a large span of differentiated projects and experiences which lead them to acquiring knowledge. At the same time executives learn through experience and note that they get to their level because of those experiences. (Mintzberg and Gosling, 2002)

It is also considered that it would be detrimental to the executives to be taken out from their experiential learning to sit them in a classroom. It seems that effective cross-cultural training provided by many organizations is actually more detrimental than none at all. (Hechanova et al., 2003)

The three most important ingredients to successful work overseas include the aptitudes and motivations of the expatriate and his immediate family, the aptitudes and motivation of the local counterparts and the overall organization of the project (Kealey and Protheroe, 1996, p. 144)

II. RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY

Intro

“An open-ended interview process allowed us to explore our conceptual framework with expatriate leader-managers. Inductive qualitative methodology yields a broader, deeper understanding of cross-cultural leadership effectiveness in contemporary world than would be produced by traditional survey methods. As one interviewee pointed out, ‘‘leadership is a lot about learning by doing’’. Consequently, participant viewpoints and perspectives derived from daily practice are ‘‘unique, valuable, and hard to learn in other ways’’ (Wilson and Dalton, 1998, p. 3).

This research is conducted to supply qualitative data resulted from both primary and secondary research in the context of a case study expected to determine the model of a cross cultural leader, who is a former expatriate from Iraq.

Primary research consists in the implementation of a questionnaire on cross-cultural leadership. Influenced by cross-cultural leadership studies the present research is focused on examining and explaining cultural differences and their influence on leadership effectiveness, and as well on individual orientation and capacities.

THE CHOSEN METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research strategy implemented in order to fulfill the objectives of whole study. As a general studying approach, methodology refers to fundamental and regulative principles that underlie any disciplines (Silverman, Lazar, 2004).

While eliminating from start the possibility of developing a quantitative research for lack of resources, the study is based on qualitative research, which, according to Strauss and Corbin (1998, p. 10), means “any type of research that produces findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or means of quantification”.

Qualitative methods are focused on issues that quantitative research approach does not cover, such as lived experiences, behaviours, emotions, feelings as well as social movements, cultural phenomena, interactions among groups etc. They consist mainly in collecting data both from secondary and primary sources, with the aim of finding out new concepts or relationships and organize them in a framework, model or theory basis. (Rivero, 2009)4page2pagep

In this particular case, in order to address the questions of this study, the methodology involves primary data collection, such as semi-structured interviews, as well as secondary data provided from a selection on the past literature, using books, articles, journals, e-journals videos and websites.

.The research also uses the case study method, which involves an in-depth examination of a single case, as well as qualitative content analysis, mainly used to analyze visual information and interviews. (Rivero, 2009)4pa

Secondary data have been used from the available sources, mainly to understand the topic and to provide a comprehensive background to it, while primary data have been collected through semi-structured interviews in order to verify the data of the secondary sources and provide accurate resources and further findings to the study.

There are advantages and disadvantages in using primary or secondary data. Primary research can be tailored so that the data obtained fit the necessities of the objectives of study. As well, primary data obtained reflect a recent reality and show more particular aspects of the inquiry subject, while secondary data refer to a remote reality that has already been coded by the author and it has already been organized in stereotypes and models. Secondary data have the advantage to offer data that are already conceptualized. A main disadvantage with the primary data is that they are only partially reliable and less organized. They do not always offer the possibility to build them up in a conceptual model.

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Primary research may be in the form of quantitative or qualitative research. It is a two-component research generated mainly by asking questions and collating results:

The quantitative research is used in scientific approach, while it states a hypothesis as the researcher wants to demonstrate that hypothesis.

The qualitative research is focused on opinions and feelings, while the data give details about the total picture rather than the separate components.

Semi-structured interviews – Open-ended questions

A semi-structured interview is a qualitative method of inquiry that combines a pre-determined set of open questions with the opportunity for the interviewer to explore particular themes or responses further. (http://www.arasite.org/jessglas.html)

Open-ended questions suppose a longer answer from the respondent and the answers are more individual, and can hardly be represented graphically. The respondent must provide their own answers and does not receive any possible scenarios.
One of the dangers in framing questions is the chance that the interviewer makes leading questions that are directing a person to a particular response.

Semi-structured interviews can provide reliable, comparable qualitative data, while they are developed in an open conversation framework, where both parts can exchange information in an informal atmosphere.

Semi-structured interviews offer general advantages like the fact that they provide valuable information from context of participants’ experiences, while use of pre-determined questions provides uniformity.

At the same time, there are also disadvantages like the fact that they are time consuming in collecting and analyzing data or that these require some level of training or practice in order to prevent the interviewer from suggesting answers. (http://www.arasite.org/jessglas.html)

There are several general benefits of semi-structured interviews worth mentioning, like the fact that the questions can be prepared ahead of time, allowing the interviewer to think it over and appear competent during the interview. At the same time this type of interviews allows interviewees to express their views freely, in their own terms. 

As any other technique, it has benefits and limitations at the time of applying.

Among the benefits, this method is less intrusive as communication, as it is produced in a double way, from interviewer to interviewee and vice versa, and as well it is a tool not only to confirm what it has already found out in other sources, but an occasion for learning from the other person.

On the other hand, there are limitations to be considered when conducting the interview, like the fact that the interviewer needs skills to develop questions during the interview.

The most common problems in the implementation of an interview are related to the ability of the interviewer to listen closely, and lose focus, by repeating questions that have already been asked, failing to probe when necessary; failure to judge the answers; and asking vague or insensitive questions. (FAO, 1990)

SECONDARY RESEARCH

Secondary research is based on the findings from other people's research. It involves the gathering of the results of other's research from books, reports or the Internet. Selections or summaries are made of the research allowing for evidence to be gathered supporting your conclusions.

In this study, secondary research has been approached in the form of a literature review focused on several concepts that lie at the basis of this research, mainly with the purpose to clarify and give a deeper comprehension to concepts like cross-cultural leadership, leadership behavior, leadership skills etc. All these terms define concepts that were operable during the study. The secondary research, with its deep theoretical orientation, includes studies and articles that update information about the main topic of the study: cross-cultural leadership.

The role of secondary research is to give the theoretical background for the primary research, while as well to be the starting point of the study and stimulate the topic inquiry.

Secondary research is not only conceptual and inspirational, but also complementary to the findings of primary research.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE Questions

The interview is tailored to address a certain person, Zurfat Abdul Kareem, entrepreneur and leader of Eurofashion Company, who is subject to the case study.

Apparently a set of informal questions deriving one from the other, the interview is eliciting gradual information about the leader’s experience as an expatriate entrepreneur in Romania.

Step by step the questions address the main topics of the study, they elicit for the description of the business environment in Romania from the point of view of an expatriate.

There are leading details in previous answers, consisting in key words that generate new questions. In spite of the informal tone of the interview the questions are very precise and address general topics as expected to generate subjective answers, opinions, personal points of view so that the case study may follow in its analysis the importance of emotions, behavior or attitude in shaping the leadership behavior.

Most of the questions are wh-questions, asking for more information, involved in this inquiring process of interview implementation.

There are 14 questions in all covering the beginnings of the entrepreneurship in Romania, the difficulties in managing the cultural differences and communication and the solution of success for the business he runs, while as well noting opinions on customs and business behaviours etc.

The entire questionnaire is made up of opened questions meant to discover his personal way of thinking, the emotions of the interviewee, his behavior and attitudes, meant to reveal his personal profile as a leader, and hypothetically to build up a model for the expatriate leader in Romania as an ultimate purpose of the study.

CASE STUDY

Intro

This is an interpretive study with practical outcomes that analyzes the results of a primary research consisting in the implementation of a questionnaire on cross-cultural leadership.

In cross-cultural contexts, leaders are dealing with a great challenge of comprehension on how people from different cultures understand their own actions and how they interpret the actions of the leader (Yukl, 2002).

Differences of culture have been identified by Miroshnik (2002) as major contributors to problems and failures of business abroad, while Dickson et al. (2003) explained that different cultural environments require different managerial behaviours.

The identification and measurement of cultural dimensions are ways to research the relationship between cultural differences and leadership (Dickson et al., 2003), which have been developed and refined by researchers like Hofstede (1980), who contributed to the clarification of cultural differences at the national level by the identification and measurement of cultural dimensions.

This interview is about an entrepreneur from Iraq who came in Romania in 1994, and started his business in stationeries. His company had eight employees, two Arabs, and six Romanians. After staying in Romania for about 6 years, the entrepreneur had adapted to the business and cultural environment very well whereby he was able to speak Romanian language, and he became familiar to the culture and history of these people, which made him eligible to become a Romanian citizen after 6 years. Later, he expanded into another business venture.

This case study presents the analysis of the questionnaire implementation. This questionnaire includes 14 questions, and it was written and applied by two students interested in expatriate leadership.

The topicality of the questionnaire is disguised under simple informal questions meant to reveal aspects of the experience of an expatriate, who came to Romania some time ago and successfully established his business.

The Leadership Challenge of an Expatriate in Romania

An entrepreneur, Zurfat Abdul Kareem, leader of Euro Fashion Company, explains that his coming to Romania was by chance during the civil war in Iraq, when he visited one of his relatives living in Romania.

He is aware of the differences between the two cultures and he identifies the main differences in the way people dress up, in the language, environment, food and religion.

In spite of these differences he has the courage to start a business venture, while he received support with information about procedure and the business environment in Romania. He also received valuable information about the products and the distribution channel in his field.

The main challenge that he faced when coming in Romania was the language barrier. His employees spoke Romanian, while he spoke Arabic, and he defines the communication process as “complicated”, indicating difficulties and gaps in communication. With much determination he took lessons of Romanian language after work. He developed his language skills by mingling with people, listening and understanding what people were talking about, an within 6 months he could write and speak Romanian language.

The business environment is very different in Romania from Iraq. “There were so many differences”, he appreciates and he emphasizes two aspects that make reference to the cultural behaviours that influence the daily working cycle in Romania.

Zurfat is as well surprised by some aspects of customer behavior, which seem to take opposite approaches in the two countries, as he remarks that Romanian customers seem more engaged and they ask a lot of questions, while:

1) […] in Iraq we normally work the whole week except Fridays, in Romania we work from Monday to Friday and give the employees the weekend as a holyday.

2) […] the costumers in Romania are more engaged in asking you so many questions compared to the costumers in Iraq, who simply buy products without asking any questions. This cultural aspect revealed by Zurfat has deep roots in Oriental thinking.

Asked about the way he managed to solve the cultural differences between him and his employees, Zurfat answers that first, there were some difficulties due to the differences of the language, the currency of the country and certain holidays that the employees needed to take, so he had to be patient and try to learn their behavior, attitude as well as the culture.

Among the positive things met since he came in Romania he mentions: “being able to start my business”. Then, after a few years, he got the Romanian citizenship, and he also brought all his family in Romania, while in his profession, as well as in his private and social life, Romania offered him a place for success. Zurfat is nevertheless one of the few expatriates who got Romanian citizenship and could be considered totally assimilated by the mainstream.

It took him almost 6 years to open his second company. Living in Romania for six years he has adapted to the environment and became able to expand his business. In his quality of a successful entrepreneur and businessman, he contributes not only to his family welfare, but also to that of the country who adopted him.

The impact of becoming a Romanian citizen was huge in his life: since I had the same rights as other citizens, I was able to live as freely as I want without needing a visa to stay here, I was able to travel in and out of Romania this lead to meeting other customers for my company outside Romania, which later led me to expand my business by opening a new company. It took him some time to open a second business, being in this way a dynamic entrepreneur.

Freedom is what he treasures most.

He changed from stationery to clothing by sizing new opportunities because: “since my business was a little bit successful and I had the opportunity to expand my business. The other reason was that since I had all my family here, I had to think away of increasing my income in order to sustain my family.”

One of the questions asks Zurfat if he would do it again, if coming to Romania. “If the time repeats itself, would you move in Romania and make the same decisions and start doing business here or you would choose to stay in Iraq?” “To be honest, I would have started my business here rather than staying in Iraq, which is an unsecure country”, says Zurfat. He is a Romanian citizen of foreign origin, adapted in a great measure to Romanian culture and behaviours. This means that culturally he feels entirely integrated and can find resources here for his development.

Asked to give an advice to non-Romanian citizens, who want to start a business, Zurfat says:

All I can say is that, I would have encouraged everyone from this country, whether being a citizen or not. Everyone needs to understand the environment that is living, engage in all activities that the community around is doing, this will help you to become part of the society.

Zurfat’s answer to the last question is the essence of his leadership thinking, defined in terms of understanding the culture where he lives and works, engage in community life and be part of the community. That’s his credo.

The behavioural component of leadership

More and more scholars focus their research on emotional intelligence (EQ), defined as “people’s ability to deal with emotions”. Salovey developed a definition of emotional intelligence in terms of the following four cognitive components, abilities ‘‘to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth’’ (Salovey and Sluyter, 1997, p. 5).

According to Goleman, emotional intelligence is ‘‘the capacity for recognizing our own feeling and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in relationship’’ (Goleman, 1999, p. 317).

Cherniss and Goleman’s (2001) presented a competency-based model of emotional intelligence focused on leadership effectiveness applications.

Goleman et al. (2002) proposed that emotionally intelligent leadership involves a set of emotional intelligence competencies within the four key domains of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

If we apply this description to the context of the questionnaire and try to define Zurfat’s profile, we discover all these competences as part of his profile. He reveals his self-awareness when he says that he would start again in Romania, he develops self-management in his determination to adapt to the new culture, he has social awareness when he identifies as a solution being engaged in society, and he proves relationship management in dealing with his employees. Scholars largely agree that emotional intelligence is a core factor affecting leader performance.

According to Wong and Law (2002):

[. . .] leadership concerns the interaction of leaders with other individuals. Once social

interactions are involved, emotional awareness and emotional regulation become important

factors affecting the quality of the interactions. (Wong and Law, 2002, p. 244)

According to the descriptions of leadership behaviour, Zurfat proves to be a people oriented leader, by focusing his set of behaviours on ensuring that the inner needs of the people are satisfied. Thus in the interview he appears preoccupied to motivate the staff of his companies by emphasizing the human relations. As a people oriented leader, Zurfat still focuses on the tasks and the results, for achieving it through various means.

Zurfat also shows a high degree of emotional intelligence that helped all his way through adaption to the Romanian culture and social behaviours and also to the Romanian business environment.

3. Leadership effectiveness and individual orientation

Emotional intelligence and transformational leadership have been dedicated in time considerable research, but people still know very little about how individuals might develop their effectiveness as cross-cultural leaders, taking particular account of cognitive intelligence and its interaction with emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. (Deng& Gibson, 2012)

In fact the factors that combine in an effective cross-cultural leadership are not well known and a lot of empirical research is still needed.

The conceptual framework of cross-cultural leadership effectiveness includes: cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. Each of these elements contributes significantly to leadership effectiveness in cross-cultural context, meaning that conversely, cross-cultural leadership effectiveness cannot be achieved if any one of these contributors is missing. (Deng& Gibson, 2012, p.7)

Even if transformational leadership is an effective leadership style for improving interaction between leaders and their followers, it is not yet known whether it is universally effective when expatriate leaders influence local followers. (Deng& Gibson, 2012)

Therefore, as Yukl (1998) urged, more attention must be paid to identifying the facilitating and limiting conditions for transformational leadership, even though the relative importance of different transformational behaviours depends on the situation.

Spreitzer, Perttula and Xin (2005) argued that transformational leadership may not be the best style for cross-cultural use.

In response to questions about the keys to expatriate leadership effectiveness, and in particular about the importance of emotional intelligence, the interview findings indicate that in a cross-cultural environment, both transformational leadership and emotional intelligence contribute to effective leadership, although certain components emerge as dominant. The findings also confirm an overlapping relationship between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence and show that emotional intelligence ability contributes to transformational leadership behaviour and its subsequent performance.

Cognitive intelligence, “a person’s capability for successful adaptation to new cultural settings, is to be attributed to the cultural context.” (Earley and Ang, 2003, p. 9)

The emphasis in this case is on the leader’s capacity to respond appropriately to a culture, rather than his/her knowledge of cultural dimensions and norms. According to Earley and Ang (2003), there are three fundamental interactive components of leadership: cognitive, motivational, and behavioural.

The cognitive component refers to one’s ability to perceive and understand a new culture based on various types of cultural cues. The motivational component refers to one’s self-motivation and commitment to adapt and adjust to a new cultural environment. The behavioural component refers to the capability of a person to generate the behaviours/ actions needed to appropriately reflect cognition and motivation. (Earley and Ang, 2003, p. 123)

This cognitive intelligence model emphasizes the interactive linkage of the three components in order to adapt to a new cultural cross-cultural leadership setting.

Thomas and Inkson (2004) demonstrated that cognitive intelligence involves knowledge, mindfulness and behavioural skills, all needed for building adaptive skills.

Read in this key, Zurfat shows a high rated cognitive intelligence in his adaptation effort and process. He is highly motivated, has good social skills and the endeavour to succeed. It is well known that people with professional or social performances are able to do no-matter how many efforts to reach their goal and that differentiates them from the mass.

Another aspect of leadership reflected in Zurfat’s profile is linked to the influence he has on the others.

Hughes et al. (2002) argue that leaders are more effective when they influence people at both the emotional level and the rational level. Specifically, they propose that ‘‘leadership includes actions and influences based on reason and logic as well as those based on inspiration and passion’.’ (Hughes et al, 2002, p. 8).

Salovey and colleagues later developed the definition of emotional intelligence in terms of the following four cognitive components: the abilities ‘‘to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth’’ (Salovey and Sluyter, 1997, p. 5).

In turn, followers idealize and emulate the behaviours of their trusted leader and are motivated by achievement of a common goal. (Bar-On, 1997)

Finally, the leader who believes in individualized consideration pays attention to the individual needs of followers and thus allows them to develop and self-actualize. Hence, followers’ needs are addressed both individually and equitably. It is the case of Zurfat, who says he has to be patient and obey his employees’ needs of holidays.

The leader provides vision and a sense of mission, energizes followers by presenting an optimistic future, and earns their trust and respect. (Deng& Gibson, 2012)

Brief on Expatriate Leadership Presence

There were two waves of Arab-origin immigrants in Romania. The first was during the communist regime in Romania, in the ’70s -’80s, when several Arab states like Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon and others send their citizens to study in Romania on base of official agreements.

After the fall of the communist regime some of the former students decided to return to Romania and start a business in the newly-democratic state. Between 1992 and 1995 a new, but smaller wave of Arabian citizens came to Romania for business purposes, while in the late ‘90s a significant number of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees reached Romania. (Grosu, 2013)

Arab immigrants in Romania declare to be quite content with their lives here. Most of them are part of mixed families (Romanian wife – Arab husband). Usually, Arabs prefer not to mention the obstacles they hope to overcome by the help of their communities and by personal efforts. This is why they most of the time declare themselves content of the general conditions in Romania, from their position of expatriates.

An occasional survey included in an article mentions the following declarations: “Well, I don’t know yet if I’ll stay forever in Romania. But in my home country there is war”, says an Iraqi father. His wife and two children look at him, talk in Arabic and laugh. The young woman doesn’t understand Romanian very well, yet the 12-years old boy already speaks the new language. “I go to the Iraqi school and it’s ok, I am content”, says the little boy with a determined voice. His younger sister, who wears the hijab, smiles and whispers something to him in Arabic. She seems very amused by the unusual questions made to her brother. ”The children will however go to a Romanian high school”, explains the father. He works in the business sector and is glad that Romania “is a more secure place” than his birth-country. (Grosu, 2013)

This positive attitude towards the adopting country reflects their true thinking and it is at the origin of the high rate of cultural adaptation of this kind of population. (Hamberger, 2013)

Voluntary migrants are economic migrants, mainly businessmen from the family members of already settled immigrants, mainly students. When Romania submitted its application to join the European Union, another group of voluntary migrants entered Romania, who arrived on working visas. The presence of these foreign workers is, according to the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI, 2007), attributed to two causes: Romania’s economic revival, and the opening of the Romanian labour market in the context of the country’s EU accession. (Grosu, 2006)

CONCLUSIONS

The condition of a successful international manager requires strong cross-cultural leader competencies.

The case study analyzed in this paper emphasized the major directions of cross-cultural leadership influence worldwide, and particularly in the case of a businessman of Arab origin that through commitment an endeavor started a successful business in Romania, as he went through a complex process of cultural adaptation to Romanian values and behaviours.

His business disseminated, as he created another business at a larger scale.

Studies have shown that leaders do not necessarily need knowledge to succeed and involve the others by motivation in their excellence, but they have to use a complex set of capacities and skills in order to culturally fit in the culture where they develop their business.

In this respect, it is important that each leader develop a cross cultural mix made up of emotional intelligence, cognitive intelligence and transformational leadership, the form of leadership that generates emulation and triggers success, at the level of the other individuals.

Cultural leadership has a strong component of communication and relationship abilities, made to connect people in an organization, and as well at the informal level.

ANNEX

Cross-Cultural Management

Interview with entrepreneur

Interviewers: Abdi Abdirahman

Zurfat Mustafa

Introduction

This interview is about an entrepreneur from Iraq who came in Romania and started his business in 1994, when he came in Romania he started his own company which provides stationeries. The number of employees working in his company was eight, two Arabs, and six Romanians. After he stayed in Romania for about 6 years, this entrepreneur man had adapted to the environment very well whereby he was able to speak the Romanian language, he was familiar with the culture and the history of these people thus mad him eligible to become Romanian citizen after 6 years. He later expanded his business by starting another bigger company than the previous one. He then invited all his family to Romania where till currently he is living with.

Interview questions and answers

Why did you choose Romania?

– Due to the civil war in my country, one of my relatives who was in Romania invited me to visit him.

How did you found Romania compared to your country?

– A big difference in terms of the dressing of the people, language, environment, food and religion.

Due to those differences that you mentioned how did you start your business?

– The person who invited me in Romania helped me with some information about procedure of opening the company. He also helped me to settle well by giving me further information about the products and the distribution channel.

What was the main challenge that you faced when you started your business?

– The language, the language was the main problem because most of my employees were speaking in Romanian language and I was speaking Arabic, so the communication was complicated.

How did you overcome that challenge?

– I was taking privet lessons every evening after finishing my daily job at the company. And I tried to engage with the Romanian people and that helped me to listen and understand what they were talking about. Within 6 months I could write and speak the language.

What was the difference between doing business in Romania and in Iraq?

– There were so many differences for example: in Iraq we normally work the whole week except Fridays, in Romania we work from Monday to Friday and give the employees the weekend as a holyday.

– The costumers in Romania are more engaged by asking you so many questions compared to the costumers in Iraq they simply buy products without asking you any questions

Since you have a different culture with your employees how did you manage your differences?

– first, there was little bit difficulties due to the differences of the language, the currency of the country and certain holidays that they employees needed , so i had to patient and i tried also learn their behavior, attitude as well as their culture.

What are the most positive things that you got from Romania that helped you?

– Actually, there are a lot of positives things i encountered since i came here. most of those positives were, I was able to start my business, then after few years i obtained the Romania citizenship, and I also brought all my family here in Romania

Becoming a Romanian citizen what impact did it had on you?

– it so many impact, because since and that I had the same rights as other citizens i was able to live as freely as I want without needing a visa to stay here, I was able to travel in and out of Romania this lead to meeting other customers for my company outside Romania which later lead me to expand my business by opening a new company.

Since you arrived in Romania you said that you opened your own business, how long did it took you to open your second company?

– It took me almost 6 years to open my second company. Since that I was now living Romania for six years and I have adapted to the environment so I was able to expand my business

What made you to change from stationary to clothing and textiles?

– This because, since my business was a little bit successful and I had the opportunity to expand my business. The other reason was that since I had all my family here i had to think away of increasing my income in order to sustain my family

If the time repeats it’s self would you move in Romania and make the same decisions and having this business or you would chose to stay in Iraq?

– To be honest, I would have started my business here rather than staying in Iraq which was unsecure country.

What advice would you give the non-Romania citizen who wants to start a business like you?

– All I can say is that, I would have encourage everyone from this country where is a citizen or not. Everyone needs to understand the environment that is living, engage all the activities that the community around is doing, this will help you to become part of the society.

For the long years that you have been in Romania what have you learned from it?

actually I can’t describe it in words but all I can say is that I learnt a lot from here, I become part of these society, I developed into a more mature businessman. I also learned the history and culture, and also the language of this country.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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