A cross-cultural study of personality and leadership

Previous studies have indicated differences in managerial characteristics between supervisors from different nationalities and cultures. A compar-ison of the personalities of Turkish and American first-line supervisors and their attitudes toward participative, considerate, and directive lead-ership, and a comparison of the perceived leadership behavior of their superiors showed that the Turks were more authoritarian than the Americans and that the Americans had a slightly higher need for inde-pendence than the Turks. The American managers (superiors), as per-ceived by their subordinates, appeared to exercise more participative and considerate leadership than did the Turkish managers. The American supervisors demonstrated higher satisfaction with participative, consid-erate, and directive superiors than did the Turks. The difference between the two groups with respect to satisfaction with participative and consid-erate superiors can be explained partially by a difference in authoritar-ianism and other cultural values. Recently there has been a growing interest in the question of whether the attitudes, behavior, motivation, and personality of manag-ers and employees differ from country to country. This interest was induced, to a great extent, by the growth of multinational corporations. After the Second World War, many American corporations extended their operations by engaging in the production and sale of goods and services all over the world. Consequently, the American managers running those operations faced the problem of working with managers and employees of different national and cultural backgrounds in a superior-subordinate or peer relationship. This experience raised the question of whether American management know-how could be trans