Why Cultural Adaptation is an important part of Authentic Leadership?

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. (Earley P. C., 2004)  

Metacognition: Metacognitive CQ is having knowledge about one’s own thinking processes and the structures of one’s mind. Metacognitive CQ encompasses how one understands higher-level cultural constructs and what strategies one can use to understand cultures better. (Vogelgesang, 2009) Authentic leadership focuses on the self and presupposes that doing so is beneficial to others because it provides a genuine example. (Bishop, 2013) The leader I am thinking of is highly self-aware. They continually analyze their thoughts and actions in relation to others and analyze why and how they came to these thoughts and actions. They will discuss misunderstandings or conflicts with others openly and honestly and genuinely welcome and consider feedback. They also walk the talk, they are able to change direction and act in new ways when they see this is the more culturally intelligent strategy.   

Cognition: Cognitive CQ is the ability to acquire and understand information, both about one’s self and about the external environment. Balanced processing of self-relevant information allows leaders to move beyond their ego and misconceptions about themselves and others. (Vogelgesang, 2009) The leader in my organization is very adept at taking on and analyzing new information. They absorb this new information into their own value system and are better able to move beyond cultural biases in order to make more balanced assessments of the varying situations. (Bishop, 2013)

Motivation: Motivational CQ is the ability to persevere to meet expectations and goals, it is related to a high degree of self-efficacy. (Earley, 2004) The leader I am referring to is very motivated, they lead from the front, work hard, take responsibility for their actions, and usually get good results. Bandura, as cited in our course text, asserts that people do things that give them self-satisfaction and a sense of self-worth.  (Saylor, 2012) My leader highly values moral over other values (Bishop, 2013), and is very much motivated by a sense of contributing to a greater good.

Behavior (action): Behavioral CQ is the ability to act in culturally appropriate ways, to be able to present culturally accepted mannerisms for example. (Vogelgesang, 2009) Authentic leadership values openness and truthfulness in one’s actions. Behavioral self-awareness and consistency of your actions with your stated values are a key trait associated with authentic leaders. (Bishop, 2013) The leader I am using as an example, as I have said above, walks the talk. The actions are culturally sensitive and consistent with their stated beliefs and morals.  

Bishop (2103) likens authentic leadership in creating a brand. This is not an analogy I particularly like but I do see the point in that creating a good brand “takes time and requires the right combination of attributes to give it value”. (Bishop, 2013) The leaders brand value is determined and maintained by their behavior over time. Authenticity sells. A genuinely authentic leader can build a powerful brand that will inspire confidence and instill loyalty in those following him/her.

Businesses are increasingly realizing the importance of globalization and adapting to new cultures. The modern global economy necessitates that leaders must learn to go beyond the customs and behavioral norms of the prevailing culture and to be able to understand personal values and beliefs within the context of different cultures. (Vogelgesang, 2009)

Cultural intelligence, an enhanced ability to interact effectively with culturally distinct individuals and to generate appropriate behavior in a new cultural setting, interacts with authentic leadership, allowing the authentic leader to more fully comprehend the differences between the host culture values and his or her own deeply held beliefs. This will strengthen the positive relationship between authentic leadership and morally grounded cultural adaptation. Vogelgesang (2009) specifically cites the shared characteristics of cultural intelligence and authentic leadership (cognition, motivation, and behavior) as being particularly beneficial in strengthening the relationship between authentic leadership and morally grounded cultural adaptation.

Bishop (2013) cites self-awareness, again a common trait of culturally intelligent and authentic leaders, as playing an important role in sensitizing leaders to differences between their personal values and those of the specific (cultural) context.

Vogelgesang (2009) finds that a combination of cultural intelligence and authentic leadership promotes a greater amount of morally grounded cultural adaptation in the cross-cultural context than authentic leadership alone.

 CONCLUSION

One difficulty leaders face in regards to globalization, as highlighted by Vogelgesang (2009) lies in retaining their moral integrity. How do leaders remain authentic to their personal beliefs while being immersed in cultures with differing value systems? Bandura, cited in Vogelgesang (2009), asserts that the external environment influences behaviors when there is a lack of commitment to moral integrity, possibly leading individuals to act differently in diverse contexts. Indeed, culturally intelligent global leaders may be extraordinarily adept at adapting to differing cultural situations, which in the absence of countervailing high internal moral standards, may lead to adaptations that are not morally grounded. (Vogelgesang, 2009) In order to make culturally appropriate and ethically sound adaptions, culturally intelligent leaders must also be ‘the real thing’, be authentic leaders who have and act from a strong internal ethical framework.

References

Bishop, W. H. (2013). Defining the Authenticity in Authentic Leadership. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership: Vol. 6 : Iss. 1 , Article 7, pp. 1-8.

Earley, P. C. (2004, October). Cultural Intelligence. Retrieved from hbr.org: https://hbr.org/2004/10/cultural-intelligence

Krietner, R. &. (2012). International OB: Managing Accross Cultures. In R. &. Krietner, The World of Organizational Behaviour (pp. 84-113). New York: McGraw Hill.

Saylor. (2012). Cultural Intelligence for Leaders. Saylor Academy: Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0.

Schein, E. (1992). Organizational Culture and Leadership: A dynamic view. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Vogelgesang, G. C.-S. (2009). The Role of Authentic Leadership and Cultural Intelligence in Cross-Cultural Contexts: An Objectivist Perspective. International Journal of Leadership Studies, Vol. 5 Iss. 2., pp. 102-117.