Relationship Between Cultural Values and the Perceived Effectiveness of Authentic Leadership

The current study investigated how individual level cultural values (horizontal individualism, horizontal collectivism, vertical individualism, vertical collectivism, power distance, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long/short term orientation) relate to the perceived effectiveness of authentic leadership. To ensure cultural diversity, data was collected from participants via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk).The participant pool included 184 participants from the United States, India, and 10 other countries around the world. Of these, 68 (37%) participants identified themselves as female and 116 (63%) identified themselves as male. In order to provide a sample that is more representative of a working population, all participants were employed for an average of at least 20 hours a week in a workplace outside of the home. Data was collected using an online survey. Participants completed measures for individual level cultural values (Horizontal and Vertical Individualism and Collectivism Scale, and Individual Cultural Value Scale), the perceived effectiveness of authentic leadership (modified Authentic Leadership Questionnaire), and demographics. Participants were compensated $0.65 on average for completing the survey.The perceived effectiveness of authentic leadership was found to have significant positive correlations with horizontal individualism, horizontal collectivism, and long/short term orientation and a negative correlation with power distance and masculinity. In a final hierarchical regression model, age, power distance, long term orientation, and horizontal individualism were found to significantly predict 34% of the variance in perceived effectiveness of authentic leadership. The results help to provide a better understanding of hierarchy perceptions in the workplace. They suggest that individuals who value self-expression, less status differences between leaders and follower, and internal perseverance are more likely to endorse an authentic leadership style as being effective in the workplace. These results imply that congruence between employee and supervisor values may be an important factor in determining whether or not authentic leadership is perceived as being effective in the workplace. Further, managers and organizations may want to consider hiring individuals with cultural values that best fit their own values and leadership style. In the future researchers could investigate individual level cultural values as moderators between leadership and workplace outcomes, such as job satisfaction