Charismatic and Team Leadership in Two Cultures

Global competition continues to stretch the capabilities and resilience of organizations around the world. The global champions of yesterday are the also ran organizations of tomorrow. Yet organizational achievers can be found in every industry and region. The Global powerhouses Wal-Mart Stores, GE, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor Company, Citigroup, Valero Energy, Apple, Oracle, and Cisco Systems are representative of the breadth of success in U.S. business. In the 2007 Fortune Global 500, US Companies occupy 162 of the 500 slots with 34 organizations listed in the top 100 (CNNMoney.com, 2007). Compare that to the Latin American companies that modestly boast 2 organizations in the top 100, and 10 organizations in the Global 500 (CNNMoney.com 2007). While many Latin American companies do extensive business beyond their regions, success on a global level seems elusive for these emerging markets (Haberer and Kohan, 2007).

While cultural differences between Latin America and the U.S. may partially explain the disparity in organizational success, leadership approaches and incentives to develop a global vision may also explain this phenomenon (Haberer and Kohan, 2007). According to McKinsey and Company research, executives in Latin American companies seeking growth abroad cite leadership development as an area for improvement. Conversely, many Charismatic executives have gained superstar status while creating global organizational success. Steve Jobs of Apple, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, Larry Ellison of Oracle and Jack Welch the former C.E.O. of GE have created loyal followers by becoming leaders of change able to articulate a particular vision (Breen, 2007).

These successful change agents have shaped organizations with a global reach. Within the context of organizational leadership, the charismatic leadership of many of these executives is significantly different from the factors necessary to lead successful teams. Many Latin American companies are family owned businesses with cultures that value informal networks and rely on teams to produce results (Haberer and Kohan, 2007). Additionally, many of these Latin American companies promote executives based on the length of their relationship with the family owners and not for any particular leadership behaviors (Haberer and Kohan, 2007). Further the cultural influences of Latin America and the United States shape the effectiveness of various leadership approaches. According to the GLOBE project, both the United States and Latin America place significant emphasis on charismatic leadership attributes, however the United States ranks lower in the relative importance of team leadership attributes than their Latin American neighbors.
Traditional leadership models are based on a dyadic relationship between the leader and follower (Zaccaro, et al, 2001). This dyadic relationship assumes that the leader and a single follower each have specific roles within the relationship. This model breaks down when applied to team based leadership. Team leadership relies on group effectiveness and team effectiveness to create results (Zaccaro, et al, 2001). Charismatic leadership produces results by triggering an emotional connection between the leader’s vision and the follower’s actions. “Charisma resides in the relationship between the leader who has charismatic qualities and those of his or her followers who are open to charisma, within a charisma-conducive environment” (House and Klein, 1995). This emotional connection allows many of these charismatic executives to achieve superstar status. “Some say that we've developed a dangerous infatuation with charismatic leaders. And they're right. But that doesn't mean we were wrong to believe in these people in the first place. You can't put your faith in the institution when it's crumbling” (Breen, 2007). The dyadic nature of this relationship is one of the divergent characteristics separating charismatic leadership and team leadership.
There has been a great deal of research and literature regarding the influence of leadership on organizational performance (Bass, 1990). Further, the proliferation of management and leadership gurus suggests that there is a market for leadership success stories which allows for the proliferation of superstar executives. However, there is little research on how leaders influence team effectiveness and limited research on the impact culture has on leader effectiveness (Yukl, 2006).

Team leadership can be a complex social paradigm with shifting roles and responsibilities. Unlike the dyadic relationship between leaders and followers, team relationships may be fluid and dynamic depending on the context and circumstances under which the team operates. Team members may have unique roles which collectively influence the success of the team. As a result of this interdependence, a high level of coordination and synchronization among team members is necessary to achieve desired outcomes (Zaccaro, et al, 2001). Team leadership and team interaction among high performing teams also maintains a high level of adaptability and flexibility allowing the team to maintain effectiveness despite varying external conditions (Zaccaro, et al, 2001). Team performance may also be influenced by the composition of the team, functional loyalties of team members, resource constraints, and many other factors unrelated to the leader’s ability. (Zaccaro, et al, 2001) While the nature of leadership varies depending on the type of team examined (i.e. self managed teams, cross functional teams, and functional teams) (Yukl, 2006) several leadership functions appear central to the effectiveness of team effectiveness (Zaccaro, et al, 2001).

Central to team leadership is the oversight role of high performing teams. The responsibility of the leader revolves around the leader’s ability to monitor the team and take the necessary actions to ensure the teams effectiveness (Larson and Fasto, 1989). Effective team leaders wield a wide range of skills and socially intelligent behaviors that mitigate negative influences and enable communication and sharing among team members. Leaders read the needs of the team members and adjust the resources to facilitate team effectiveness (Zaccaro, et al, 2001). Effective team leaders exhibit emotional intelligence and empathy to understand the needs of individual team members allowing them to coordinate, and motivate team members without the benefit of formal rewards and punishments (Wolff, et al, 2002).

Team leadership and member participation in high performing teams create shifting patterns of communication that are anticipatory of the actions of the members. These teams share similar mental models that allow them to reduce the processing of information and allow for more immediate collective responses to complex circumstances (Zaccaro, et al, 2001). In addition the leaders of these high performing teams support the continuous growth and development of the team even when the team seems to be at its peak thus providing additional stretch opportunities and challenges. (Zaccaro, et al, 2001).

Team leadership in becomes critical when the team faces challenges and resource constraints. Teams require time to reflect and learn from their collective experiences. To enable team learning, team leadership must be forward facing and not entrenched in organizational minutia or trivia. The team leader’s behavior builds commitment and a common purpose among team members. Unlike charismatic leaders who build commitment to ensure team and organizational alignment to the leader’s vision, team leaders create and embody a shared vision that is mutually beneficial to the team and their shared purpose. The team leader’s effectiveness is partially realized by his or her ability to facilitate a shared understanding of the operating context for the team and the shared responses necessary to achieve desired outcomes (Zaccaro, et al, 2001). This behavior supports the fluid nature of team leadership and the required adaptability of the members of the team in executing their designated roles. The operating context includes the activities of interdependent units inside or outside the organization (Zaccaro, et al, 2001). Leaders of effective teams facilitate a shared understanding of the implications of external influences on the team and their resources (Yukl, 2006). While many of these factors may be outside the direct control of the leader or the team, effective team leaders manage upward to enable team success despite these influences.

Marrying team leadership behaviors and charismatic leadership attributes in the Latin American culture creates and exemplary leader (House, et al, 2004) According to the GLOBE project, the most culturally endorsed implicit leadership theories in the Latin American cluster are Charismatic and Team Oriented Leadership. Given this observation, emphasizing a leader’s ability to articulate a clear and decisive vision for the future along with building collaborative and fluid team effectiveness should enable team and organizational effectiveness. According to Dr. John Clippinger, the exemplar or “alpha member” leadership trait exemplifies the standards and qualities that characterize the best competencies of the peer network and are often the role models other imitate. Within the context of Charismatic and team leadership these roles merge to become the force of the team. However, this duality may result in collective behaviors that support the effectiveness of the team, but may not build the competency needed to create a global giant. Conversely, for the Anglo Cluster which includes the United States, embraces an exemplar leader with high charismatic values along with high levels of participation, but not team leadership. The decided lack of team leadership among the effective traits suggests that the dyadic nature of the relationship among the charismatic leader and the follower in the United States may drive provide insight into the success of the superstar executives leading the charge of some of the largest global enterprises.
References

J.S. Osland, S.D. Franco, A. Osland. Organizational Implications of Latin American Culture: Lessons for the Expatriate Manager. Journal of Management Inquiry, Volume 8, Number 2 (June 1, 1999), pp. 219-234, http://ejournals.ebsco.com.eres.regent.edu:2048/direct.asp?ArticleID=YQEDWFXTJ7KYQQ4T488U

CNNMoney.com. (July 2007). Fortune Global 500 Full List. Retrieved July 18, 2007 from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2007/full_list/index.html
Haberer, H., Kohan, A. (April, 2007). Building Global Champions in Latin America. The McKinsey Quarterly – 2007 Special Edition: Shaping a New Agenda for Latin America, Retrieved April 7, 2007 from http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Globalization/Building_global_champions_in_Latin_America#sidebar1
House, R.J., Hanges, P.J., Javidian, M., Dorfman, P. W., Gupta, V., & Associates. (2004) Leadership, Culture, and Organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Breen, Bill. (September, 2005). The Three Ways of Great Leaders. [Electronic Version]. Fast Company, 98, 50, Retrieved July 15, 2007 from http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/98/open_3ways.html
Ajay Mehra, Brett Smith, Andrea Dixon and Bruce Robertson, Corrigendum to "Distributed leadership in teams: The network of leadership perceptions and team performance" [The Leadership Quarterly, 17 (2006) 232-245], The Leadership Quarterly, Volume 17, Issue 6, The Leadership Quarterly Yearly Review of Leadership, December 2006, Page 681.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W5N-4MC0TF4-4/2/087b34ebaf951bcf5356eee18548f10d) Nathan J. Hiller, David V. Day and Robert J. Vance, Collective enactment of leadership roles and team effectiveness: A field study, The Leadership Quarterly, Volume 17, Issue 4, August 2006, Pages 387-397.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W5N-4K8S5WV-1/2/b7c4adf9eb2ebb74a663b83f30e0ab75)
C. Shawn Burke, Kevin C. Stagl, Cameron Klein, Gerald F. Goodwin, Eduardo Salas and Stanley M. Halpin, What type of leadership behaviors are functional in teams? A meta-analysis, The Leadership Quarterly, Volume 17, Issue 3, Leadership in Team-Based Organizations, June 2006, Pages 288-307.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W5N-4JDN6D4-B/2/99dbbb64f13ef2844df660c28b2871d0) Steven B. Wolff, Anthony T. Pescosolido and Vanessa Urch Druskat, Emotional intelligence as the basis of leadership emergence in self-managing teams, The Leadership Quarterly, Volume 13, Issue 5, October 2002, Pages 505-522.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W5N-46YGP35-5/2/0e2ac9ee24758dbbe213da3d92cfa291) Stephen J. Zaccaro, Andrea L. Rittman and Michelle A. Marks, Team leadership, The Leadership Quarterly, Volume 12, Issue 4, Winter 2001, Pages 451-483.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W5N-4550867-6/2/97fa735db4ddf81fc3eda1a45e684e92) Mark F. Peterson and James G. (Jerry) Hunt, International perspectives on international leadership, The Leadership Quarterly, Volume 8, Issue 3, Autumn 1997, Pages 203-231.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W5N-45FY429-V/2/686b434092913d012a8ecfe252fd75f9)