Appropriate Leadership Styles, Essay Example

Introduction 

The European Union (EU) comprises a diverse range of countries, cultures and languages. Certain of the Eastern European countries emerged from the Cold War era and had been under dictatorial state control for many years.  Defining a single style of leadership that would embrace all of the political, cultural, economic and social ideologies for all of these countries would create a significant challenge.  Leadership must be placed into context here and would be defined as a singular approach to providing dominance over the collective countries in order to influence and exert control over these countries. Britain for example is a constitutional monarchy that is led by an elected Government or Parliament. This Government abides by EEC directives but still retains a degree of sovereignty over its internal affairs. The prime example being that of Defence and the nuclear deterrent. (Deresky, H. 2008)

Leadership Traits

A study conducted by MRG[1] examined leadership styles in eight European Countries[2] they found three common leadership traits: (1) They were not generally oriented towards detail in the leadership style (2) They are not big risk takers and look for win-win solutions (3) They work hard but not in search of excellence.  (Taleghani, G.S.  1010).  Sweden for example consider themselves a nation of creative and innovative people, they have a very hands on approach and would actively compare to a leadership style of Steve Jobs the CEO at Apple.  Germany prides themselves as being an industrial powerhouse with specific expertise in engineering and responds more to the transformational leadership role.  France is predominately concerned with agriculture, Spain with tourism, UK with Financial Services and the Netherlands with Banking and Diamonds.  Hence leadership has different values and meanings within different cultural concepts for each country.

Conclusion

The European model of leadership is less likely to emulate and work in the same degree of Federal Government leadership like the USA. It has to accommodate a more diverse range of opinion and political circumstances. There is also less allegiance to Europe from its host countries as all states have to the United States of America.

Works Cited

Deresky, H. (2008). International Management: Managing across borders and cultures. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall.

Taleghani, G. S. (1010). Survey of Leadership Roles in different cultures. International Journal of Management, Vol 3 No 3, 91-11.

[1] Management Research Group (MRG) conduct leadership surveys on European Union Countries

[2] Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK.