Leadership and culture: Work-related values and leadership styles among one company's U.S. and German telecommunication employees

This survey-based study examines differences in leadership styles and work-related values among managers, engineers, and production employees of one company's U.S. and German telecommunication employees. Using Bass and Avolio's Full-Range Leadership theory and Hofstede's theory of culture, the results reveal lower levels of transformational leadership styles among German employees, but no differences in leadership styles among different job categories in either country. There were country-level differences in culture that explained a portion of the variance in leadership scores. Job category also had a main effect on cultural values. The study points to patterns of work-related values different from those predicted in earlier research, and to the need for further refinement of research in leadership theory and our understanding of culture.