Globe Model: Universally Desirable and Undesirable Leadership Attributes

The essence of global leadership is the ability to influence people who are not like the leader and come from different cultural backgrounds. To succeed, global leaders need to have a global mindset tolerate high levels of ambiguity, and show cultural adaptability and flexibility. Based on the Implicit Leadership Theory (Lord & Maher, 1991) according to this theory individuals have implicit theories (beliefs, convictions, and assumptions) about the attributes and behaviors that distinguish leaders from others, effective leaders from ineffective ones, and moral leaders from evil ones. Implicit leadership theories influence the values that individuals place on selected leader behaviors and attributes, and their motives relevant to acceptance and enactment of leader behavior. The following propositions express the major assertions of implicit leadership theory.

Leadership qualities are attributed to individuals, and those persons are accepted as leaders, on the basis of the degree of fit, or congruence, between the leader behaviors they enact and the implicit leadership theory held by the attributers.
Implicit leadership theories constrain, moderate, and guide the exercise of leadership, the acceptance of leaders, the perception of leaders as influential, acceptable, and effective, and the degree to which leaders are granted status and privileges. There is substantial experimental evidence in support of this theory. (Malaysians expect their leaders to behave in a manner that is humble, modest, and dignified).

Leadership effectiveness perceptions derive from Culturally-implicit Leadership Theories (CLTs) that are, in turn, based on the cultural values and practices extant in each society. The leadership attributes of Charisma and Self- Protective are universally endorsed across the 62 national nations in the GLOBE study: Charisma is positively endorsed, and Self-Protective is negatively endorsed.There was remarkable agreement also in respect of Team-orientated, Humane, and Autonomous leadership; with Team-orientated and Humane positively endorsed in all three clusters, and Autonomous negatively endorsed. Only one of the leadership dimensions was found to be substantially different across the clusters.

This was Participative leadership. While this dimension was not negatively endorsed in any of the cultures in the way that, for instance, Self-Protective leadership was, the Anglo cultures cluster endorsed Participative more positively than either of the other two clusters.

Furthermore, Participative leadership in GLOBE is defined in terms of subordinates actively participating with the leader in the tasks that the group is undertaking. The Southern Asia cluster is characterized in practice by high power distance and in-group loyalty and humanity. In this circumstance, leaders are representatives of the higher classes of society who are charged with looking after the interests of their (lower caste) subordinates. Confucian Asia values power distance and practices relatively high levels of societal collectivism. In this culture, a leader is trusted to get on with the job on behalf of (usually) his subordinates. By contrast, in Anglo cultures, where individualism is strongly valued, subordinates are more valued for their contributions at every level in society, and therefore are expected to take a more active role in leadership.

Based on the list of endorsed attributes, a portrait can be drawn of aleader whom almost everyone would see as exceptional. That portrait is of a leader who is high in integrity, is charismatic/value-based, and has interpersonal skills.

The GLOBE project also identified a list of leadership attributes that were universally viewed as obstacles to effective leadership. These characteristics suggest that the portrait of an ineffective leader is someone who is asocial, malevolent, and self-focused. Clearly, people from all cultures find these characteristics to hinder effective leadership.

Key Leadership Attributes

Competencies alone are not indicators of a leader’s success. These human or “emotional” attributes have been shown to be prime indicators of good leaders.

Adaptability and Flexibility

Handles day-to-day work challenges confidently
Adjusts to multiple demands, shifting priorities, ambiguity, and rapid change
Shows resilience in the face of constraints, frustrations, or adversity

Integrity

Demonstrates principled leadership and sound business ethics
Shows consistency among principles, values and behaviors
Builds trust with others through own authenticity and follow-through on commitments
Demonstrates honesty

Intellectual Versatility

Recognizes, explores, and uses a broad range of ideas and practices
Thinks logically and creatively without undue influence from personal biases

Objectivity

Upholds a bias-free approach to situations and people

Organizational Savvy

Develops effective give-and-take relationships with others
Understands the agendas and perspectives of others
Recognizes and effectively balances the interests and needs of one’s own group with those of the broader organization
Knows which battles to fight

Self-Awareness

Learns from personal experience
Actively pursues learning and self-development
Seeks feedback and welcomes unsolicited feedback
Modifies behavior in light of feedback
Knows one’s personal values, needs, interests, style, and competencies and their effect on

Self-Confidence

Manages own performance in an effective, assertive manner when placed in a new and/or Challenging situation

Self-Motivated/Positive Attitude toward Others and Work

Sets high standards of performance
Pursues aggressive goals and works hard to achieve them

Tolerance of Ambiguity

Demonstrates comfort in situations where the goals and/or processes to achieve goals is unclear and difficult to determine

Quality and effective leadership attributes is important criteria that can influence change. Quality leadership is visualized through effective results while effective leadership is segregated in group or individual traits. Group traits include teamwork, similar objective, dissimilarity, employee dissemination and a knowledge environment while individual traits include independent knowledge, honesty, dedication, compassion of others, and proficiency. Effective leadership is bringing out innovation several leader attributes that might be related to innovation including practical skills, important assessment, inspiring others, and independency, indicated that effective leadership must own social appraisal skills or social intelligence.

The Leadership Competency Model includes both group and individual attributes of leaders. This model contains 27 leaders’ attributes that was clustered into five dimensions; leading change, leading people, results driven, business acumen and building coalitions. This model was widely used as a research-based model and was applicable to a variety of organizational settings and has been tested in International Journal different culture context .

Leadership Competencies model

5 Dimensions	27 Leaders’ Attributes
Leading Change	Continual Learning, Creativity and Innovation, Resilience, Service Motivation, Strategic Thinking, Vision.
Leading People	Conflict Management, Leveraging Diversity, Integrity/Honesty, Team Building.
Results Driven	Accountability, Customer Service, Decisiveness, Entrepreneurship, Problem Solving, Technical Credibility.
Business Acumen	Financial Management, Human Resources Management, Technology Management.
Building Coalitions/ Communication	Influencing/Negotiating, Interpersonal Skills, Oral Communication, Partnering, Political Savvy, Written Communication.