Leadership Trust conference looks at cross-cultural leadership

Keywords: National cultures, Organizational culture, Management, Human resource management

The Leadership Trust's second annual conference, Leadership sans FrontiÉres,was held in Herefordshire on 1-2 February. It considered issues associated with leadership in different international, regional and organizational cultures.

The conference was attended by a mixture of human resource professionals,senior managers and directors from the private and public sectors. The six speakers were drawn from a wide range of backgrounds, including utilities,retail, transport and academia.

Gary Griffiths, who is Director of Group Organisation, Executive Resourcing and Development at BT, spoke about the difficulties encountered during merger discussions with MCI and, more recently, ATT. Crucial to any successful merger was the need to understand the personalities and motivations of the people at the head of the organizations involved, he said.

Chief executive of Stagecoach Holdings plc, Mike Kinski, spoke about his experience in company take-overs, particularly during his time at Scottish Power(which acquired Manweb and Southern Water during his period of office). One of his recommendations was that, on acquiring the new organization, the incoming management should take steps to implant its own culture into the newly- acquired company as quickly as possible.

Professor Peter Smith, organizational psychologist at the University of Sussex, spoke regarding his recent research into cross-cultural leadership. He pointed to some real differences found between the way managers in different cultures behaved, and the implications this had for cross-cultural leadership.

Sue Knight, consultant in NLP (neuro-linguistic programming), took an individualistic perspective when considering the issue of cross-cultural leadership. Only when we know and are "in rapport" with ourselves, she said, can we lead other people, from whatever culture, effectively.

Chairman and chief executive of Blacks Leisure Group plc, Simon Bentley,provided an insight into leadership in the retail sector, and international consultant, Eliza Quek, rounded off the two-day conference with a summary of the key cross-cultural issues facing leaders today.

Professor Roger Gill, director of the Research Centre for Leadership Studies at The Leadership Trust Foundation, commented after the conference: "There is a need for leaders to think globally, understand locally and behave flexibly. Only when they do this can they hope to achieve effective relationships in whichever culture they lead."

For further information about the conference, or for details of The Leadership Trust's millennium conference, please contact The Research Centre for Leadership Studies, The Leadership Trust Foundation, Weston-under Penyard,Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire HR9 7YH. Tel: 01989 767667; Fax: 01989 768133;E-mail: lt.rescen@dial.pipex.com