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This article examines the distinct “Viking” leadership style of top leaders in the Norwegian industry that has evolved from a harsh and violent history. Earlier studies have reported that Norwegian leaders at the middle manager level rate high in transformational leadership traits due to a strong feminine culture and a low power distance society, yet Norwegians are also highly individualistic which differs significantly from other national cultures with feminine traits and collective societies. This unique cultural combination is becoming a cross-cultural issue as the Norwegian society is becoming more heterogeneous, particularly in work settings. Understanding how this leadership style differs from other cultures, even in Scandinavia, is important to help leaders better understand the effects of their leadership style on performance. In this study, we explored four of the original Hofstede national cultural dimensions, specifically, power distance, femininity–masculinity, individualism–collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance and examined how these are reflected at the top leadership level within the Norwegian industry using a national leadership study of Norwegian top leaders ( N = 917). We also examined how these self-reported leadership styles affected perceived organizational results in the form of innovation and change through organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Our findings suggest that Norwegian top leaders do exhibit transformational leadership traits, and that these traits have a positive influence on OCB, which further had a positive relationship to organizational performance in the form of innovation and change results. We also found that power distance and a collectivistic orientation predicted OCB, while only power distance predicted innovation and change among the Hofstede cultural dimensions. Of the four Hofstede dimensions, only one moderating effect was found for predicting OCB, the link between transformational leadership and power distance, suggesting that leaders with low power distance and high transformational leadership orientation are most connected with OCB.

This article provides insights into the important but relatively unexamined issue of destructive leadership in a non-Western country. Although tentative, the article also provides some guidance for expatriate managers in adapting their own behavior to avoid being categorized as “destructive” by non-Western subordinates. In the following pages, we report the findings of a study of destructive leader behaviors among convenience samples of Australian, American, and Iranian leaders. No differences were found between Australian and American leaders in regard to the nature and frequency of destructive behaviors. As a result, the Australian and American data were combined and compared to a sample of Iranian leaders. Destructive leader behavior was measured using the Destructive Leadership Questionnaire developed by Shaw et al. (2011). Although relatively small in magnitude, results consistently indicated that the worst, middle, and best leaders differed significantly from one another in both samples in terms of the level of destructive leader behavior exhibited. In general, the pattern was similar for both the Australian–American and Iranian samples, although small, consistent differences were observed across the two samples.

This article reports on three studies that used a combination of methods to develop a measure of transformational leadership in India. The grounded theory approach was followed for generating the initial item-pool (n = 250). In the second study (n = 379), an exploratory factor analysis was conducted, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis, which resulted in a six-factor model. The factors show support for both universal as well as unique cultural dimensions. In the third study (n = 202; 101 manager-subordinate dyads) survey data were collected and support was found for sound psychometric properties of the new scale, including incremental, discriminant, convergent, and predictive validity. The new scale explained significant variance over and above the variance explained by the currently existing scale for measuring transformational leadership. KEY WORDSIndian culturescale developmenttransformational leadership

This field study takes interest in subordinates' information seeking from their superiors through inquiry in a complex organizational setting. Information inquiry is investigated via typology, in the context of upward communication, in which organizational hierarchy and corresponding communication rules and procedures play an important role. Data were collected amid high levels of uncertainty, also capturing cultural influences by including in the study multi-country operations of a large, US-based MNC. The countries involved in this study are France, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the USA. Survey data ( N= 2213) show significant influence of perceived transformational leadership style on the frequency of subordinates' information inquiry across all five countries. A series of moderated multiple regressions reveal weak moderating effects of vertical individualism, power distance, tolerance for ambiguity, and an employee's level in the hierarchy on this relationship.

We propose a theoretical model to explain how societal/cultural settings may influence the leadership perception processes of followers and the ways perceived leadership effectiveness can be achieved. We adopt five cultural dimensions - collectivism/individualism (CI), masculinity/femininity (MASC), power distance (PD), uncertainty avoidance (UA) and fatalism (FT), and relate them to two types of leadership perception modes - recognition-based and inference-based processes, and perceived leadership effectiveness. Propositions are developed concerning how these cultural dimensions would be expected to influence leadership perception processes. We also discuss our propositions from a multidimensional perspective. We propose that in some cultural settings, fitting leadership behaviors and traits to leadership prototypes will be more likely to lead to perceived leadership effectiveness. In other cultural settings, more positive group or organizational performance outcomes will be more likely to lead to perceived leadership effectiveness. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these propositions as they are embedded within an organizational context.