Content area
Abstract
The issue of the universality of leadership attributes across different cultures is of importance to researchers and global managers, however, the literature on this topic seems rather limited and inconclusive. This article reports on a study of Canadian and Taiwanese upper middle managers to examine their similarities and differences in terms of their leadership styles. The two groups showed similarities on such leadership attributes as visionary, symbolizer, auditor and self-sacrifice. Charismatic leadership, along with ambassador and auditor roles are also common between the two samples, but consist of somewhat different items. There are also culturally specific leadership attributes unique to each group. The article provides a theoretical framework for understanding the impact of culture on leadership. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]