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Transformational Leadership of Expatriates and Home Country National Managers: A comparison in the context of Bhutan

Khandu, Yeshey (2010) Transformational Leadership of Expatriates and Home Country National Managers: A comparison in the context of Bhutan.

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Abstract:As globalization (Budhwar, Woldu & Ogbonna, 2008; Deller, 2006) continues to dissolve market boundaries across the world, the highly competitive international environment makes demands of employees: working outside their country of origin and, most importantly, working with employees of other countries. A successful performance by these employees working as managers is important for an organization to succeed. This requires a successful manager to provide leadership (Bhaskar-Shrinivas, Harrison, Shaffer, & Luk, 2005) and literature has it that transformational leadership behaviors‟ are valued behaviors (Bass & Riggio, 2006) that are positively related to organizational performance. Given the importance of managers, either local or expatriate, to the successful performance of any organization (Harvey & Moeller, 2009), this study explores the transformational leadership behaviors of managers based on the full range leadership model (Bass & Riggio, 2006). Fourteen managers (7 expatriate and 7 local managers) of the hospitality sector in Bhutan were interviewed, using a questionnaire with open questions related to transformational leadership. Their subordinates were also asked to rate their leadership behaviors. The triangulation of the findings from the managers and the subordinates showed that the managers (expatriates and locals) displayed transformational as well as transactional behaviors, but differed in how they applied them with respect to the dimensions of the full range leadership model. It supports literature that transformational leadership augments the positive effects of rewarding behaviors in the transactional mode (Bass, 1985; Boehnke et al, 2003). Experience of the managers, organizational culture, home country and host country culture were also found to be influential in how transformational the managers were. Moreover, individualized consideration behaviors were the most widely and commonly used by the managers. The study supports that managers adapt their behaviors in response to situational demands based on context (Osborn & Marion, 2009; Purvanova & Bono, 2009) and that leadership approach should vary with organizational circumstances and problems faced by the leader (Currie & Lockett, 2007). Some theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60191
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