A cross-national study of leadership: participation as a function of problem structure and leader power

This study explores the effects of task structure and leader power on participative leadership across Australian, African, Papua‐New Guinea and Pacific Island managers. Managers in all national groups are more participative in situations of low structure and low power than for high structure and high power, respectively. Participation in situations of low structure and low power declines in the order: Australia, Africa, Papua‐New Guinea, Pacific Islands. It is argued that this effect is an instrumental effect of managerial education, rather than being culturally determined. the Vroom‐Yetton leadership methodology is used to measure participation levels. Subjects are a total of 150 middle‐level managers attending management education courses.