REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

272 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

likely to be ‘ no. ’ The second question would be better phrased as: ‘ Can

European organizations afford not to have some form of European

leadership? ’ Can an organization remain Belgian, or Polish, or Italian

and not include a toolset of European capabilities?

While a US company with US leadership can, in principle, remain

American and still succeed, this is not an option for European compa-

nies. The free movement of goods and human capital, and the many

policy synchronization processes taking place at the European level,

mean that most medium - sized and large companies will simply not have

the option of remaining purely national. If they do, they will lose out

in the European and global marketplaces. Their leaders have no choice

but to become more European and to acquire some common elements

in their styles that will allow them to face the new challenges.

This brief exploration of differences in Europe and European organ-

izations should have made it obvious that with so much diversity, and

the pressures of both external and internal competition, it will be diffi -

cult to apply a standard set of universal approaches to leaders and leader-

ship in European organizations. But a parochial, single - nation - based

approach would not work either. We have to look for another way.

A middle path

Humans have a basic need to feel at home in a crowd, yet simultaneously

to stand out from it. All of us are engaged in this delicate balancing act,

wanting to belong to something bigger than ourselves while retaining

our individuality — the characteristics that make us unique. The ‘ some-

thing bigger ’ is our social identity; retaining our individuality is about

keeping and valuing our personal identity. Globalization can thus be

challenging and overwhelming for each of us because, subjectively, it

leaves less room for individual differences and idiosyncrasies. Complete

individuality, however, may also be unrealistic; as social animals we are

made isolated and highly vulnerable by singularity.

Globalization

Europe as an economic entity may be in a very promising position to

deal with this paradox. Being a member of a European entity can

strengthen our social identity: we are more than a representative of a

particular nation or an employee of a specifi c organization. At the same

time, each of us will be trying to maintain our more individual national