Leadership Power

Title: Leadership differences: Comparison between American and Japanese expatriate managers

Author: Pisal Yooyanyong and Nuttawuth Muenjohn*
Abstract
Investigating the Western and Eastern styles of leadership was a primary interest of the current study. More specifically, it aimed to: a) examine the leadership behaviours of
American and Japanese expatriate managers who were working in Thailand; and b) compare their leadership behaviours to find the similarities and differences.
Twenty-three American and twenty-five Japanese expatriate managers evaluated their leadership behaviors based upon ten leadership factors. T-test results revealed that there were significant differences on four leadership (Decision Making, Visionary Ability, Training
Succession and Supervising) and non-significant differences on six leadership factors
(Communication Skills, Achievement Orientation, Performance Feedback, Motivation,
Leadership Styles and Followers’ Performance) displayed by American and Japanese expatriates. Implications for expatriate managers on leadership behaviors also discussed.

Keywords: Leadership, expatriate management, cultural values

*

Mr. Pisal Yooyanyong
Dr. Nuttawuth Muenjohn
Faculty of Business
Asian University of Science and Technology [e-mail] [e-mail]

Introduction
Increasingly, people interact, negotiate and compromise with people from other cultures. The potential for management frustration, costly misunderstandings and even business failures increases significantly when dealing with people whose value, beliefs, customs are different from each other (Bass: 1990). However, when understood and successfully managed, differences in culture can lead to innovative business practices and sustainable sources of competitive advantage.
Success in an increasingly competitive global market depends on the knowledge and sensitivity of managers to cultural differences in leadership behaviour (Bass: 1990). As we are living in the decade of

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