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The impact of culture on preferred leadership attributes : a Ugandan perspective

The relative political stability in Uganda resulted In increased Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) and growth in several national/multi-national organisations.
Furthermore, business leadership in Uganda has experienced change as the older
generation hand over the reins to the younger generation of business leaders who are
relatively more exposed to the Mrican management philosophy and leadership
models which are congruent with African culture and contextual issues. This study
investigated within a Ugandan context, leadership attributes that are perceived as
contributors to or inhibitors of outstanding leadership. It then determine whether,
when analysed by ethnicity (i.e. Bantu speaking versus non-Bantu speaking), the
researcher could identify meaningful differences in the culturally endorsed leadership
profiles; and link societal cultural attlibutes to preferred leadership attributes.
A triangulation method was used to conduct this cross-cultural research, which
combined archival data, a quantitative survey and personal interviews. The sample
comprised of 163 junior, middle and senior managers from over 15 organisations
within Uganda.
An adapted version of Project GLOBE questionnaire was used for the quantitative
survey, and results showed that out of the nine societal cultural dimensions, only
Power Distance and Institutional Collectivism cultural dimensions indicate significant
differences between Bantu speaking as compared to non-Bantu speaking managers.
Furthermore, out of the six leadership dimensions only Humane Orientation and
Charismatic / Value Based leadership dimensions, indicated significant differences
between the above mentioned. However, these results contrasted some avers of the
personal interviews.
The study concludes that societal cultural differences do exist between the Bantu
speaking and non-Bantu speaking managers and this may require some marginal
differences In the leadership attributes that a leader portrays. Nevertheless,
irrespective of ethnicity, the most preferred leaders' attributes in Uganda are
Decisiveness, Performance Oriented and Charisma 2: Inspirational; whilst the least
preferred leaders' attributes were Face-Saver, Self Centred and Malevolent. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D. Econ. (Business Leadership)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/3334
Date11 1900
CreatorsMukasa, Geoffrey Sebuyika
ContributorsBooysen, Lize
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format1 online resource (xxiv, 343 leaves)

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