Cultural Dimensions of Leadership
April 3, 2025
Introduction Leadership in organizations is dictated and determined according to a variety of reasons and factors including personality, cultural, and country and regional aspects. Among the various factors, the cultural dimension of leadership is often not highlighted as it is taken as a given. However, with globalization and the advent of tighter integration and interconnectedness,…
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We often hear the terms scarcity and abundance mindsets of employees and employers in addition to leaders. These terms are used to refer to the mindset of the individuals who think in constrained or scarcity mindsets as opposed to those who think in terms of abundance.
Indeed, even in our daily lives, we make choices between adopting a mindset that thinks in terms of scarce resources and constrained choices as opposed to those who visualize abundance as far as their attitudes are concerned.
These terms have also become more relevant in contemporary times when there are resource shortages which mean that having a scarcity mindset is not always bad. Having said that, considering that technology and innovation have the potential to usher in abundance, it is worth noting that having an abundant mindset is preferable in many situations where leaders have to have the vision to think in terms of growth, prosperity, and affluence for all.
Next, let us examine the differences between leaders who have a scarcity mindset as opposed to those who have an abundant mindset.
Scarcity Mindset leaders and Abundance mindsets differ in the following ways
The point we are trying to make here is that both scarcity and abundance mindsets are present in all leaders and considering that management is situational and leadership is visionary, the outcomes for organizations depends to the extent in which the scarcity managerial model combines with the visionary abundance leadership model in determining the route taken by the organization as well as the culture in such organizations.
Moreover, it needs to be remembered that organizations and business leaders have a social and moral responsibility towards society.
Therefore, when evaluating leaders with either or both of the mindsets, one must take into account how much value they have created for society. In this context, it is worth noting that while the megabanks in the West make more profits and money than many other organizations, leaders of other companies are more respected because their abundance mindsets ensure that they give back to society in the same manner in which society has contributed to their success.
Therefore, in the ultimate analysis, it is the case that what works in one situation might not work in other situations and hence, whichever mindset you are going to adopt would depend on what your inner voice says about competition, collaboration, and coordination as well as moral and social obligations to your peers, families, friends, and colleagues and more importantly, to the wider society to which you belong.
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