A Shift in Employees’ Perception towards Leadership Practice: An Egyptian Case Study under Cross-Cultural Settings

Abstract

Employees’ work related values change as their cultural values change over time, specially as their societies experience unusual social changes. Changes in employees work related values may increase the need for remarkable modifications in companies’ leadership practices and approaches. This research takes Egypt as an example of a host-country that is undergoing unusual social changes. The study aims to explore the impact of changes on employees’ perception towards best leadership practices, in cross-cultural settings. Two case studies were conducted with replication logic. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with Egyptian employees working in two multinational companies, operating in Egypt. The study findings regarding best leadership styles and practices contradict with literature’s classification for Egypt as high power distance and masculinity culture. This indicates that companies should reconsider employees’ cultural values that impact workplace. However, further researches should be conducted on such cultural aspects to reach more generalizable findings. This paper is among the few studies that tackled Egypt business environment from a cross-cultural perspective. Egypt presents a good example for cultural changes, since it has undergone major social changes since the year 2011. The research not only presents the recommended leadership practices but also emphasizes on their managerial implications. Further, the research is among the few studies that addressed the impact of national culture on leadership with reference to other contextual factor.

Keywords: leadership, national culture, Egypt, power distance, masculinity, contextual factors