MGE Papers

People seek out a stamp, certificate of authenticity, or at least one of the advertisement words: “genuine”, “original”, “pure” “quality”, or “authentic” when buying a product (Beattie, 2014). They want the same qualities in companies and people they work with. It would be so much easier if leaders’ foreheads were just stamped, “authentic”.  Earning such a certification would mean leaders are cognizant about their morals and values, standing by them, even under adversity (Bishop, 2013). Cultural intelligence (CQ), combined with the self-efficacy of authentic leadership, fosters a personal identification that gives employees confidence, which positively impacts an organization’s identity (Fallatah, Laschinger, and Read, 2017).  Cultural intelligence is the mechanism by which the integrity of authentic leadership serves to accept differences and integrate personal cultural beliefs with unfamiliar cultural attributes.  CQ components influence leadership style and direc...

Leadership is both a process, whereby an individual influences others, and a behavior, whereby an individual guides others activities and effort. (Bishop, 2013) Authenticity connotes genuineness, realness, legitimacy, a sense of truth. In terms of leaders, authenticity implies self-awareness and acting in accordance with your inner beliefs, thoughts and feelings. “Therefore, being an authentic leader is …… little more than being true to oneself or being who you profess to be.” (Bishop, 2013, p.3) Authentic leadership conveys to the follower that the leader is the real thing as compared to others. (Bishop, 2013, p.2) Cultural intelligence is our ability to successfully adapt to unfamiliar cultural settings, our ability to cope with culturally unfamiliar situations, being skilled in understanding any culture. (Saylor, 2012) Cultural intelligence is an outsider’s seemingly natural ability to interpret someone’s unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures the way that person’s compatriots would....

          Because managers are always saddled with the responsibility of how their employees perform in the workplace, it then becomes an enormous task for them to balance the organizational goals using whatever resources at their disposal (Barrass, 2014). In doing this, they would have to manage both their own duties and personal targets, as well as those of their employees, which sometimes might be different from theirs and could create situations that might affect their relationship with their subordinates (Barrass, 2014). In other words, the cultural intelligent features work together by making sure that for an authentic leader to create the enabling working environment, he must exhibit leadership acumen that will bring their employees together under one goal.  What this means is that the cultural intelligence feature helps leaders to develop a trustworthy relationship among his staff, between their colleagues and the firm (Barrass, 2014).  ...

Although a consensus definition of authentic leadership is hard to pin down, the underpinning of the concept can be summarized as a leadership approach that focuses on consistent alignment between what leaders think/believe, what they say and what they do. Bishop (2013) rightly adds an ethical dimension to this construct, pointing to the need for this alignment to be on the side of moral standards. In other words, authentic leadership, particularly in the context of cultural intelligence, must necessarily be an exercise of leadership where the leader maintain congruence between her thoughts/beliefs, words and actions,  and  which results in a greater good for everyone involved. Without this ethical dimension, authentic leadership, or, for that matter, any other kind of leadership, is pointless. Metacognitive CQ is how much we know about our own approach to thinking and learning and the structures that exist in our mind that guide and support our learning process. In other ...

Cultural intelligence is the ability to work effectively across different cultures. For instance, how to work and motivate peers from Mexico and France given that both countries come from different cultures. In 1986 Sternberg elaborated a framework to understand the capabilities that enable cultural intelligence. Sternberg, (1986) found that cultural intelligence contains four specific features: metacognitive and cognitive CQ (cognition), motivational CQ (motivation), and behavioral CQ (action). "Metacognition and cognition represent your ability to think, learn, and strategize. In CI, the principle of motivation refers to your self- efficacy and confidence, your ability to be persistent, and the alignment to your values. Behavior, in CI, is about your ability to have a repertoire of skills and your ability to adapt your behavior" (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). Indirectly, cultural intelligence allows a person to be more open to others opinions and belief. Cu...

 As we learned this week, authentic leadership rests on similar dimensions as cultural intelligence. They share cognitive, motivational and behavioral components (Vogelgesang Lester, Clapp-Smith, & Palmer, 2009). These components work together in conjunction with Authentic Leadership as they “emphasize the importance of consistency in a leader’s words, actions, and values” (Yukl, 2013, p. 351). An example of the interaction between the metacognitive and cognitive feature of CQ and the balanced processing of Authentic Leadership in my organization is in the fact that the Regional Sales Managers include Sales Reps in the critical decisions in budget allocation for clients, rather than autonomously making the decision. Doing so, managers demonstrate to be aware of their biases. An example of the interaction between the motivational feature of CQ and the moral perspective of Authentic Leadership in my organization can be represented by strong adherence of the leadership to the...

Authentic leadership  refers the management style in which leaders exhibit their real, genuine and sincere way of management that is true as who they are as individuals (TechTarget, 2018) In the authentic leadership theory, this leadership style consists of four specific features such as self-awareness, balanced processing, relational transparency, and an internalized moral/ethical perspective. According to the research by Vogelgesang, Clapp-Smith, and Palmer in 2009, these 4 elements should be studied respectively on metacognitive and cognitive CQ (cognition), motivational CQ (motivation), and behavioral CQ (action) (p. 106) Cognitive process  or  self-awareness  in authentic leadership does not conclude trust built by motives, feelings, desires of the people in the surrounding but it also help leaders recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, thereby catching outward the ego and misconceptions thanks to the process of metacognition to become more sensit...

Being involved in the global economy puts managers at a unique challenge of catering to multiple cultures. As a manager, one must be able to equally motivate suppliers from China and Mexico while keeping in mind the cultural differences between the two. What has grown in popularity for leadership style is authentic leadership. Being an authentic leader involves being true to one’s self and realizing one’s morals and values as it relates to others. One of the challenges that an authentic leader has to face when dealing with different cultures is the conflict of staying true to their personal values while at the same time catering to the values of the differing cultures.  According to William Bishop, authentic leaders continue to evolve with their interactions with different people (2013). Naturally, authentic leaders will have high cultural intelligence because of their ability to adapt. So the question is: Can an authentic leader remain true to themselves and while being cultu...

Authentic leadership as described in Bishop’s article “Defining the Authenticity in Authentic Leadership” (2013), is an interplay of perceptions both from the leader and its followers. To be truly authentic, there must be harmony in both perceptions in the aspect of integrity, ethics, morals, values, self, relationships, and learning (Duignan & Bhindi, 1997 in Bishop, 2013). Furthermore, authentic leadership involves the discovery of one’s identity with respect to its moral, ethical, values, and behavioral stance as it relates to its environment. If we analyzed the connection between authentic leadership and cultural intelligence, we can easily establish that both are means for leaders to relate and adapt to its environment – the followers, its organization, and the external environment.  In the aspect of cognition, culturally intelligent leaders will think, learn, and strategize from cultural situations that he/she encountered. Similarly, authentic leaders will try to unders...

This is a case study of jack, a 36 years old professional who works with a large hospital. Jack is a team leader and he considers himself a good leader who motivates and inspires his team members positively.  He is conscious of his health hence he is actively involved with recreational activities, exercise  and eating healthy. However, for over a year he is not able to maintain this lifestyle because of his hectic career responsibilities. A follow-up visit to his doctor revealed his cholesterol level is high as such he would require a long-term treatment because of the nature of the ailment. Jack was speechless and refused to accept his diagnosis while the doctor gave him details of his condition and the side effects. The doctor gave some prescriptions which Jack tore and trashed because he still couldn’t believe his diagnosis. Jack is convinced this is happening to him because he hasn’t paid enough attention to his health lately, as well as his genealogy. Jack is determi...

: This paper analyzes Jack’s behavior after being diagnosed with a chronic disease, identifies his potential causes of disturbance of self-concept, and offers recommendations for Jack to follow in order to accept his new lifestyle, and stop being in denial, plus analyzing how the behavior of self-disclosure and time can help in accepting his new lifestyle. Major Case Issues: The case explains a 36-year-old Jack who is a professional leader in a hospital, he is supportive to his team and focuses on eating healthy, exercising regularly and playing on his church’s basketball team. However, his focus on healthy living declined due to focus on professional responsibilities for over a year, on his regular medical check-ups, he was diagnosed with a chronic disease, however, his reaction has been a denial of the diagnosis and a self-prescription of continued healthy living although he is aware of his family health history. (Self-concept case, 2010). Why Jack’s self-esteem may be negat...