Comparative Leadership Styles: Thailand and Australia

We have learnt from this project that organisational culture can be very influential when it comes to leadership styles (or effective leadership styles). Our team gathered data from public sector organisations in Australia and Thailand and analysed the data in 2012. The findings are interesting and are published in the latest issue of Asian Academy of Management Journal.

This is the abstract of the paper:

Leadership is deeply attached to culture. This study compares leadership styles in Thai and Australian public sectors. The data were collected from staff in public sector settings in Australia and Thailand. The results confirm four leadership styles that suit the public sector culture in both countries: communication-oriented, strategic thinking and planning, relationship building, and conflict management. In the Thai public sector system, leadership that focuses on goal orientation is ranked most highly: Australian public sector organisations focus on leadership that fosters equity among organisational members, creates a supportive environment in the workplace, and facilitates participation. It is evident from this study that significant distinctions between the organisational cultures of Thailand and Australia are matched by marked dissimilarities of preferred leadership styles. Thus, an understanding of local organisational culture is important for effective leadership at all levels.

A full version of this paper can be accessed at this link

Reference: Asian Academy of Management Journal, Volume 17, Issue 2. http://web.usm.my/aamj/17.2.2012/AAMJ_17.2.2.pdf