Leadership preferences of German and English managers

Abstract

The Ohio State leader behaviour description questionnaire XII (LBDQ XII) was used to assess the leadership preference opinions of business managers in England and Germany. Significant differences were noted between the two national groups. The most dramatic difference was on the factor production emphasis, defined as “measuring to what degree the manager applies pressure for productive output”, with the English sample indicating a preference for a leader to demonstrate a significantly higher level of production emphasis than the German sample. Large, significant differences were also observed for demand reconciliation, persuasiveness, tolerance of uncertainty, initiation of structure, predictive accuracy, and superior orientation. For English leaders, the followers seem to prefer a more interventionist approach. For German leaders, the imposition of Ordnung (order) is critical.

Citation

Schneider, J. and Littrell, R.F. (2003), "Leadership preferences of German and English managers", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 130-148. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710310459694