REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

(Chris Devlin) #1

270 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP


All of these many differences mean that Europeans have vastly
diverse organizational experiences, starting in the very fi rst form of
organization we all experience — the family — through school, military
training, university, entering employment, etc. These different experi-
ences mean that people develop different kinds of behavior — and they
bring these into their organizations. Early family experiences and infl u-
ences also create dissimilar organizational leaders and followers, and
different expectations about them. A successful leader in, say, the Neth-
erlands would not be guaranteed the same level of success in Portugal,
Hungary, or Europe at large.
(Of course, even within the same national culture we witness con-
siderable differences in perceptions of leadership — infl uenced by every
individual ’ s experience of parental authority or their relationship with a
primary caregiver.)
Obviously diversity, when managed properly, enables major break-
throughs in creativity, competitiveness, and fl exibility. However, tolerat-
ing and valuing diversity does not come naturally to human beings. The
unknown always causes discomfort. Not understanding what signifi ers
sig n if y is associated w ith a g reat dea l of an x iet y. People have to overcome
this anxiety, learn to accept differences in relationship patterns, learn to
value them, and learn to work with different styles. New European
leaders have a responsibility to help their people cope with this process:
they have to encourage their employees to use diversity to its maximum
potential.

Internal and external competition


‘ Time - warped proletariat ’ is clearly not a complimentary phrase, but it
does raise an interesting point. Many European workers, when faced
with the need to accept diversity, do not fully understand why they
should bother with it. Nearly everyone is aware that, as an economy,
Europe faces strong pressures from global competitors. The US or Asian
economies are probably the fi rst to come to mind when we talk about
Europe ’ s competitors. However, a development less visible to non -
Europeans, but nevertheless an extremely hot issue for the workforce
inside Europe, is the internal competition from organizations in other
European member - states or from their domestic economies at large.
Blue - collar jobs, call centers, and some white - collar activities such
as back - offi ce support, fi nancial data - processing, programming, and
even research jobs have been drifting from Europe to Asia for some
time — but a similar phenomenon is occurring within Europe. Activities
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