Public administration management has been grappling with a variety of challenges related to diversity in the work environment. As various cultural groups may react differently in regards to types of leadership based on their ethnicity, race, age, gender, disability, and other variables, public managers and leaders must be aware of how their leadership and management style is perceived and received by a diverse work force.
While leadership and leadership traits were once considered to be ‘universal”, that is, consistent across the world, research has shown that these traits are now thought to be culturally contingent, varying across cultures (Bass, 1997). For example, some cultural groups prefer direct communication and top-down decisions while other cultural groups value indirect communication and greater participation in decision-making. As a result, cross-cultural communications between peers as well as between leaders and those they lead can be fraught with misunderstandings for global managers and a global workforce team.
Researchers have used a model of relationship competence that can define the ability of a person or organization to effectively manage relationships among diverse settings (Clark & Matze, 1999). Building upon a model of relational competence and adding the variable of emotional intelligence, we designed a study to measure relational and cultural competence in communication and leadership styles in cross-cultural contexts. In this study, MPA students answered a series of questions designed to measure emotional intelligence and relational competence after viewing short video vignettes illustrating different kinds of cultural leadership communication. Subjects will receive a cultural competence score and an emotional intelligence score based on the accuracy of their responses understanding leadership and communications within a cultural context. It is hypothesized that those students who have strong relational competence and emotional intelligence scores will be stronger leaders and communicators; while those with lower scores will have difficulties understanding leadership requests and in-group communication. The analysis of the data will be both quantitative, using ANOVAs to evaluate variables and interaction effects; and qualitative, drawing upon themes in the questionnaire results. The results will enable us to develop tools for teaching cultural competence and sharpening emotional intelligence among MPA students.
References:
Bass, B.M. (1997). Does the transactional-transformational leadership paradigm transcend organizational and national boundaries? American Psychologist, 52(2), 130-139.
Clark, B.D., & Matze, M.G. (1999). A core of global leadership: Relational competence. In W.H. Mobley (Ed.), Advances in global leadership, vol. 1 (pp. 127-161). Stamford, CT: JAI Press.
