Title: Cultural based Chinese leadership styles in a globalised market

Authors: Rainer Busch; Alexander Unger; Robert McMahon; Christian May; Ya Cheng Wang

Addresses: University of Applied Sciences Ludwigshafen, Ernst-Böhe-Str 4, 67059 Ludwigshafen, Germany ' University of Applied Sciences Ludwigshafen, Ernst-Böhe-Str 4, 67059 Ludwigshafen, Germany ' Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Dublin, Ireland ' University of Applied Sciences Ludwigshafen, Ernst-Böhe-Str 4, 67059 Ludwigshafen, Germany ' KPMG Advisory (China) Limited, Xiamen Office, China

Abstract: A major premise of this paper is that any kind of 'etic' approach towards global leadership only partially explains contemporary leadership in China. Rather an 'emic' perspective has to be complemented. This study deals with the leadership behaviour of Chinese managers. Unfamiliar with the Chinese culture and their ways of doing business foreign managers will encounter differences. The objectives are to examine the fundamentals of Chinese culture with respect to leadership, identify the most popular leadership mechanisms and outline basic business implications. A questionnaire was designed for testing which leadership style can be identified in China.

Keywords: culture based leadership; leadership styles; Chinese managers; cross-cultural management; cross-cultural leadership; internationalisation; emic approach; etic approach; China; globalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCCM.2013.055422

International Journal of Chinese Culture and Management, 2013 Vol.3 No.3, pp.303 - 322

Received: 11 Apr 2012
Accepted: 07 Aug 2012

Published online: 18 Sep 2014 *

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