CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT STYLES IN NIGERIA AND CHINA

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the leadership and management practices of both Nigeria and China. The paper proves that Nigerian leadership and management practices are far from adopting transformational leadership practices in managing some of their organizations. Predominantly, Nigeria is known for complexity leadership and management style which tends to be highly skilled in various aspects of leadership and management. In addition, the leadership and management practices in Nigeria are multi-layered, shaped by decades of cultural values and historical events that made the leaders to adopt humanistic management styles. The humanistic management style lays emphasis on individualism culture; based on this, leadership and management styles in Nigeria is mostly focused on converting of organizational resources to personal possession at the detriment of the organizations, and compromise. The post-independence leadership and management styles in Nigeria have remained autocratic, dictatorial and most of the leaders in both public and private institutions are incompetent. Most of the Nigerian employees tend to be inspected (closely supervised) rather than expected (motivated). The leadership and management styles of most of the firms in Nigeria have made many employees tend to act with extreme caution while on duty in order to avoid the anger of their managers (superiors) for any mistake that may occur in the course of discharging their duties. The principal functions of the loyal employees in Nigerian organizations are to serve as a buffer for the immediate superior leaders. If anything goes wrong in the course of the leaders performing their duties, the loyal employee must do everything possible to blame other subordinates, including himself whether they are the cause or not, in order to protect their leaders. The adoption of complexity leadership and management theory in Nigeria tend to hinder effective leadership and management styles, thereby constrain creativity and innovation in an organization. Furthermore, this research indicates that some Nigerian executive leaders fail to treat organizational goals with the amount of importance that these defined goals and objectives deserve, and are continuously engage in the search of power and privileges, topically using their positions in their organizations to oppress those employees in their blacklists. The management of some public and organizational properties in Nigeria are treated with indifference and irresponsibility by most employees. This has negatively affected the human capital development and the inability of most organizations in accomplishing their stated objectives in Nigeria, while Chinese leadership and management style is built on the combination of Confucianism and collectivism values that cultivate leadership practices in which the lead maintains a harmonious, and considerate relationship with the subjects. The paper looks at differences in leadership styles between Nigeria and China, and in addition, examines national culture and its impact on leadership and management styles in both countries.

Keywords: National-Culture, Leadership, Management, Styles, Practices, Leaders, Organizations