Leading Across Boundaries: A Conversation with Patrick Burns

In an interview, Patrick Burns, director of human resources - Asia Pacific for Rolls-Royce plc, discussed his perspective on the types of leadership practices that are effective in bridging cultural boundaries in diverse and multicultural Asian work contexts. The biggest challenges occur, according...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Leadership in action 2005-11, Vol.25 (5), p.18
Main Author: Jenkins, Joyce
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cultural differences
Leadership
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Teamwork
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In an interview, Patrick Burns, director of human resources - Asia Pacific for Rolls-Royce plc, discussed his perspective on the types of leadership practices that are effective in bridging cultural boundaries in diverse and multicultural Asian work contexts. The biggest challenges occur, according to Burns, when trying to bring together multinational and therefore multicultural project teams for any length of time to work productively toward a common goal. Very specifically, the issues that arise tend to be around misunderstanding, project derailment, and general dysfunctionality as team members with different backgrounds argue to gain dominance, take unnecessary offense at implied criticisms, or procrastinate in order to labor a point of difference. Cross-cultural team-building programs can be effective in bridging these cultural boundaries, Burns said. The simple act of recognizing that there may be problems and preparing team members can be therapeutic.
ISSN:1093-6092
1532-1088