Crises are becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s world. Their increased frequency and interconnectedness pose challenges, especially to multinational organizations characterized by diverse cultures among their employees or subsidiaries. This makes it surprising how little attention has been paid to the influence of culture on crisis leadership. To reduce this gap, this qualitative study investigates the influence of culture on crisis leadership and its effectiveness, focusing on the relationship between organizational leaders and followers during a crisis. We furthermore investigate to what extent leaders consider cultural influences in their internal communication and decision-making approaches during a crisis. Semi-structured interviews with 11 renowned crisis management consultants were conducted, focusing on their real-world observations about the influence of culture on crisis leadership. The results reveal that cultural factors significantly influence crisis leadership effectiveness. Both leaders' backgrounds and followers' cultural expectations play crucial roles. However, there is only limited consideration for culture during a crisis, and leaders typically do not adjust their communication and decision-making approaches to reduce negative cultural effects. Under high-stress and time-sensitive conditions, leaders tend to face cultural biases and revert to a narrower worldview, focusing on immediate crisis resolution. Therefore, cultural sensitivity among crisis leaders remains a rarity, reducing their understanding of the risks associated with diverse cultures during crises. As crisis theory and practice often do not align, this study is a relevant first step for organizations to understand the issues of cultural bias and narrow world views during crises, encouraging deeper dialogue on this topic and inclusion of it in crisis training and preparation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-129720 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Kleiser, Marius, Lüdemann, Rebecca |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för management (MAN) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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