Nurturing organisational leadership based on local culture: A comparative study

Leadership is a success or failure factor of an organization. It is also strongly influenced and shaped by the power of culture in the country or region it serves. This study identifies the characteristics of local culture and its leadership influence in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and sub-Saharan Africa and suggests a model of organizational leadership based on the role of local culture. Qualitative method was adopted by analyzing literatures on the local culture of bushido in Japan, hahn in South Korea, siri’ in Indonesia, and ubuntu in sub-Saharan Africa. The study found that there were some similarities of values in all of the four local cultures studied. Based on these common values, an approach of a leadership model based on local cultural values was presented.