Master of International Business Module A

LEADERSHIP AND TEAMBUILDING ESSAY

THE SIG NIF ICA N CE OF ET HNOC E NTR IS M IN L EA DER S HI P

Lecturer: Barbara Gibson

Student: Jessica N.C Tavira

Leadership and ethnocentrism

This essay presents an overview of leadership in a multi-cultural environment and focuses on a collection of related concepts and research regarding the impact of ethnocentrism in leadership roles (Melloweb, 2007; Neuliep, et al., 2005; Northouse, 2011). It will also include discerning insights attained by personal experiences associated with ethnocentric behaviour and cultural awareness while in a leadership position. The essay will conclude by critiquing this form of leadership and its impact on multicultural teams and will suggest that such an approach is having a severe influence on overall productivity within companies. According to Melloweb (2007, p.1), Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhon compiled 164 different definitions of culture and concluded that there is no standard definition of culture, Northouse however considers culture to be shared learned beliefs, rules, norms, symbols that are common to a group of people (2011, p.336). A group that shares common values and ideas often considers that the way in which it conducts itself is the best . For the purpose of this essay, we will consider one facet of this, namely: ethnocentrism The first to examine ethnocentrism as a concept, William G. Sumner, considered this to be the technical name for this view of things in which one s group is the centre of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it (see Innovateus, 2010). In other words, we tend to evaluate different cultures and their individuals by comparing them to our own standards, thus, holding biased attitudes and behaviours in favor of the culture ingroup while competing with the outgroup Ethnocentrism is usually considered as a negative trait, being associated with racist, xenophobic behaviours and even authoritarian personality. Nonetheless, Sharma, Shimp, and Shin stated that ethnocentrism promotes ingroup survival, solidarity, conformity, cooperation, loyalty and effectiveness (Sharma, Shimp, Shin, 1995, cited in Neuliep, et al., 2005, p.2). Accordingly, ethnocentrism can have a positive or negative impact depending on the reaction and response, and that will majorly depend on the individual awareness and perception. The effect of ethnocentrism is global, as indicated by Neulip and his associates, where they

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Leadership and ethnocentrism

argued that everyone is, to some scale, ethnocentric and this should be observed along a continuum (Neuliep, et al. 2005, p.3). Taking all this into consideration, the task of managing diversity in today's ever-changing environment is becoming progressively more demanding. Leaders are required to work with inter-cultural teams and create a unique vision, common objectives and a behaviour pattern that is perceivable in the same way to all employees. Thus I infer that ethnocentrism has a great influence on current corporations strategies, managerial / leadership skills and social integration. Since social influence is a common denominator of good leadership, one of the major effects of ethnocentrism in leadership lies in the perceived credibility of the leader. O'Keefe (1990) sustains that credibility is the perception of a message source held by a receiver and a multi-dimensional construct (see Neuliep, et al., 2005, p. 5), based on expertise / competence and trustworthiness / character. This is because ethnocentric people tend to perceive the ingroup as superior to outgroup , which leads to a misconception that leaders belonging to the outgroup are less competent, not taking into full consideration the actual experience, qualification or intelligence. In addition, Grant and Brown (1995) asserted that ethnocentric people see outgroups as threatening the goals of the ingroup and consequently distrust them (Neuliep, et al., 2005, p. 5). In conclusion, outgroups leaders won t be appreciated as credible if competence and trustworthiness are negatively affected by ethnocentrism. The performance appraisal of subordinates can also be influenced by ethnocentrism, due to the possibility of ethnocentric subordinates lessening the value of any appraisals or recommendations from team leaders because they consider them to be less prominent, skilled or reliable (Neuliep, et al., 2005, pp. 1315) . Aggregated to this effect, ethnocentric subordinates may also be subjected to ethnocentric attributional bias, which is characterized as the tendency to make internal attributions for the positive behaviour of the in-group while making external attributions for its negative behaviour (Neuliep, et al., 2005, p. 13) . The perception of individual accountability and responsibility will, therefore, adjust in the presence of ethnocentric attributional bias.

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Leadership and ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism also affects the leader perception, where ethnocentric leaders may perceive outgroup subordinates as less appealing and / or reliable. Related to this issue is the concept of ethnocentric leadership. Ethnocentric leadership occurs when a leader bears cultural impairment and consider their own perspective of the world to be the best possible. It can also be described as very technical, rational, task orientated and is the most common style of leadership (Maekilouko, 2003). This was proven in a study concerning multicultural project management by Dr. Marko Maekilouko, where he found that 85% of 47 project leaders involved demonstrated ethnocentric leadership style, and it was observed regardless of the company, team, position or culture (Maekilouko, 2003, p. 2). The findings from that research determined that the most common way of working was the two separate teams approach , where leaders considered division according to the nationality. Although this approach demonstrated some effectiveness, it can create project disintegration, due to the absence of a learning curve and reliance on formal negotiation. It also leads, ultimately, to a gradual isolation of the project managers/leaders and minimum implementation of their decisions and ideas, therefore ineffective planning due to poor feedback. In addition, ethnocentric leadership can also create fewer innovations and lack of flexibility. Taking into account the costs of ethnocentric leadership, it has become an important objective of many international companies to identify global leaders , an individual who is a skilled communicator in the global setting. They require cultural awareness and understanding, as well as the motivation to apply their cultural awareness to establish global business relationship. Having experienced a multi-cultural environment in my previous work, as an intern at the European branch of African Investment Bank (BAI) based in Lisbon, I ve witnessed the innovative firm s efforts to improve cultural awareness, discrimination disassociation and cultural skills development in C-level executives and future department leaders. Example of that is the use of the EPG model, where the bank reviewed its strategy annually and pinpointed the corporate position according to three dimensions: Ethnocentric, Polycentric and Geocentric. Each of these dimensions has its costs and benefits, where ethnocentrism is based on
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Leadership and ethnocentrism

ethnicity and it is home country oriented, polycentrism is based on political and host country oriented and Geocentrism is based on geography and global oriented (Rozkwitalska, 2009, pp. 91-97). It was one of the Bank main goals not to stick to traditional ways and adjust to cultural differences. Adding that up, the bank offered leadership workshops in the fast-track program, project managers implemented a didactical leadership, pointing out how issues have been solved in similar situations or in other institutions. Regardless, the inherent social relationships and personality traits it s highly significant for multicultural project management and the choice of leadership style. I was also exposed to many different cultural backgrounds while working and socializing with the external IT Consultants, since they were from a company based in the U.S.A. but specialized in technical support in the EMEA, Europe, the Middle-East and Africa- region, with a branch in Dubai. I consider that this experience, associated with my personal experiences by being a young female Angolan emigrant in Portugal and an Erasmus semester in Salzburg, provided me adaptability and motivation to better understand and be aware of the different cultures. This has now been emphasized with my team work at this Master of International Business, all of them with different nationalities and background. I was forced to adapt, rethink my preconceived notions while solidifying my belief that there is a higher quality in diversity. The team work style did went with Dr. Maekilouko findings, where we implemented task divisions and created smaller groups within the team, but we manage to employ a democratic leadership and ensured that everyone had a final say with the final output. It is impossible for me to escape, to some extent, ethnocentric bias, but I can challenge myself to undermine such tendency in consideration of the trustworthiness, character, empathy and transformational skill of the individual involved. Assuredly, research shows that no model is universally applicable while leading cross-cultural teams. As indicated by Eva Biro and Eva Forsman of Kristianstad University (2003), the research on cross-cultural team leadership has mostly been conducted with an ethnocentric or culturally comparative approach , (Biro & Forsman, 2005, p. 1) since, as discussed previously, every person involved in the research will always bring some ethnocentric bias.
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Leadership and ethnocentrism

In conclusion, there is a growing demand of multicultural leadership and knowledge at international enterprises. It is probable that leadership in

multicultural teams creates more demands than conventional leadership situations, but it also adds more value by improving the problem-solving strategy and expanding perspectives. Most studies indicate that ethnocentric leadership tends to point to a better achievement of company goals in short to medium term while multi-cultural leadership may create greater effectiveness in the long term. The reasons behind this can be related to the fact that ethnocentric bias and behaviour is associated with procedural inflexibility and lack of innovation, consequently not maximizing the true potential and knowledge of the team. Over time, I maintain that the pressure to be less ethnocentric and more culturally polycentric will surely increase.

Bibliography Biro, E. & Forsman, M., 2005. Dissertation. [Online] Available at: hkr.diva-portal.org/smash/get/.../FULLTEXT01 [Accessed 2 NOV 2011]. Innovateus, 2010. Innovateus-What does ethnocentrism mean. [Online] Available at: http://www.innovateus.net/innopedia/what-does-ethnocentrismmean [Accessed 25 NOV 2011]. Maekilouko, M., 2003. Multicultural Project Management. [Online] Available at: http://www.zulanas.lt/images/adm_source/docs/3Marko_Maekilouko_paperENG. pdf [Accessed 2 NOV 2011]. Melloweb, M., 2007. Gesto dos processos em msica - O que cultura. [Online] Available at: http://www.marcelomelloweb.kinghost.net/mmtecnico_gestao_02cultura.pdf [Accessed 22 NOV 2011]. Neuliep, J., Hintz, S. & McCroskey, J., 2005. The influence of Ethnocentrism in organizational contexts: Perceptions of of Interviewee and Managerial Attractiveness, Credibility and effectiveness. [Online] Available at: http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/publications/210.pdf [Accessed 24 NOV 2011].
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Northouse, 2011. Hult Online : Leadership. [Online] Available at: http://online.hult.edu/file.php/2324/Northouse_Ch14__Culture_and_Leadership.pdf [Accessed 15 NOV 2011]. Rozkwitalska, M., 2009. Cultural dilemmas of International Management. [Online] Available at: http://www.joim.pl/pdf/Rozkwitalska.pdf [Accessed 2 NOV 2011]. Umanitoba, 2011. Module I - The culture concept. [Online] Available at: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~anthrop/courses/122/module1/culture.html [Accessed 30 NOV 2011].

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