Report title: Cultural congruence or compensation? A meta-analytic test of transformational and transactional leadership effects across cultures

Time: 14:00-15:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 23

Venue: Tencent Conference 348 269 189

Reporter: Wu Dongyuan, lecturer of Fudan University

Introduction to the keynote speaker: Wu Dongyuan, lecturer of the Department of Business Management, School of Management, Fudan University. He graduated from the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations of Michigan State University. He has published many articles in Journal of International Business Studies, Personal Psychology, Journal of Management, Human Recovery Management Review and other journals, and participated in the Academy of Management and other annual conferences for many times and made reports. Research and academic opinions were reported by domestic and foreign media such as Wen Wei Po and Forbes. Research directions include organizational behavior and human resources, leadership, diversity and inclusiveness, cross-cultural management, part-time workers, etc.

Introduction to the report:

Prior research is equivocal about whether leadership is more effective when it matches typical cultural practices (the cultural congruence argument) or compensates for ‘‘ineffective’’ cultural practices (the cultural compensation argument). We propose that a more nuanced answer to the congruence-versus-compensation debate requires the joint consideration of leadership, culture, and task contexts. A meta-analysis of 460 field samples of transformational leadership (N = 124,646) and 139 field samples of transactional leadership (N = 38,327) across 53 cultures revealed three key results: First, both transformational and transactional leadership universally relate positively to follower performance outcomes. The strength of these relationships ranges between 0.25 and 0.39 for transformational leadership and between 0.12 and 0.24 for transactional leadership. Second, the positive effects of transformational leadership on convergent performance outcomes are more pronounced in cultures characterized by norms of vertical differentiation (including high power distance) and harmony (including collectivism), consistent with the cultural congruence perspective. Third, the positive effects of transactional leadership on divergent performance outcomes are more pronounced in cultures characterized by norms of low performance-focus (including low uncertainty avoidance), consistent with the cultural compensation perspective. We discuss the implications of these findings for transformational and transactional leadership research and practice.

(Organizer: Department of Organization and Human Resources Management, Scientific Research and Academic Exchange Center)