comparative value priorities of chinese and new zealand

leadership is critical to the success of international operations, and the globalisation of
industrial organisations presents numerous organisational management and leadership
challenges. The cultural diversity of employees in multinational organisations presents a
substantial challenge with respect to effectively leading them and meeting their different
expectations.
What practical knowledge and advice do the social science and specifically
management and leadership literature provide to assist managerial leaders in adapting to
cultural constraints? House, Wright and Aditya (1997) and House and Aditya (1997)
pointed to large gaps in our cross-cultural research findings and to the need for further
development of cross-cultural managerial leadership theory. Progress has been made but
most of the gaps have not yet been filled. Some researchers, believing what works in
one culture will rarely or never work in the same manner and context in another, debate
whether leadership and management theory can in fact transcend cultures.
Triandis (1993) suggested leadership researchers can enhance theories by investigating
cultural variations as parameters of those theories. Focusing on cross-cultural issues can
help uncover new relationships, as research designs must include a much broader range
of variables that are frequently not considered in single-country theories, variables such
as religion, language, ethnic background, history, or political systems (Dorfman, 1996).
Thus, cross-cultural research can help to develop new theories of leadership processes
and effectiveness, and can strengthen existing theories by incorporating cultural
variables as antecedents, consequences, and moderators within the theoretical
frameworks.
House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman and Gupta (2004) and House, Wright and Aditya
(1997) discuss significant developments of theory in the research literature on crosscultural
leadership during the last 50 years. Others argue that this research has often
been atheoretical, undermined by methodological problems, and fragmented across a
wide variety of publication outlets (Dorfman, 1996). Thus, more questions than answers
still exist on the cultural aspects of leadership. This study contributes both theoretical
support and empirical findings to this knowledge deficiency through investigating
leadership and values independently and linking the two by administering the leadership
and values surveys both to participants in the samples.
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