comparative value priorities of chinese and new zealand

Ratner and Hui (2003) analyse and synthesise theoretical and methodological flaws in
cross-cultural behavioural research. These flaws include misunderstanding cultural
issues and the manner in which they bear on psychology; obscuring the relation between
biology, culture, and psychology; inadequately defining and measuring cultural factors
and psychological phenomena; erroneously analysing data and drawing faulty
conclusions about the cultural character of psychology.
Many authors have identified fundamental theoretical and methodological errors that
have appeared in cross-cultural psychological research by prominent researchers.
Hopefully we are progressing and correcting these errors. Insofar as possible given time
and money constraints in data collection, I have attempted to avoid the errors of which I
have been forewarned, or at least to acknowledge and account for them.
THE SURVEY INSTRUMENTS
I selected the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire XII (LBDQXII) as the
survey instrument to assess preferred leader behaviour. The process of selection began
in 1996 when, as Training Manager of the Zhongzhou Guesthouse/Holiday Inn Crowne
Plaza hotel complex in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, China, I began developing
manager training courses for multicultural managers employed there. I located
publications on Chinese social psychology by Prof. Michael Harris Bond of the Chinese
University of Hong Kong, contacted him, and began studying the Hofstede-Bond
paradigm of cultural value dimensions as a basis for the training and development
concerning working with diverse cultures. In 1997, as Deputy Human Resources
Manager for the hotels, I began development of a managerial leadership training
programme for the hotels. I found there was no contemporary research literature
specifically concerning assessment of leadership in Mainland China using a validated
survey instrument. In the search for information I found a reference to an article, Selmer
(1997) “Differences in Leadership Behaviour between Expatriate and Local Bosses as
Perceived by Their Host Country National Subordinates”, published in the Leadership
and Organizational Development Journal. This article employed the Leader Behaviour
Description Questionnaire XII (LBDQXII) in assessing leader behaviour preferences of
working Chinese managers who were graduates of the Hong Kong Baptist University.
The journal was published by the Emerald Library/MCB. As I was working in the
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