Cultural dimensions of Hofstede’s cultural theory
Leadership Style
There are various types of leadership styles which are . There are several types of leadership styles such as transformational, transitional, educational leadership etc. Generally when the leadership is followed in schools, it is educational leadership style.
Bolam in the year 2001, though of educational leadership means taking care of the responsibility of the formulation of the policies where apt transformation of the school and management could be done. They somehow merge in between.
There are a few leadership models which are used in the China HD Beijing schools. They are as follows:
- Instructional leadership which informs that teaching and learning are two focus points of all the leaders in school. Due to this focus, teachers will be able to influence students so that the students could grow(Lam & Higgins, 2013).
- Transformational Leadership style refers to the focus on the shared values and vision that the school has in its goals and pushes the promotion of such values and vision. This helps in gaining the commitment and increases the capacities of the staff so that they can analyze the goals for future(Law, 2012).
- Moral Leadership style tells about the values and the beliefs which the leaders possess. The leaders should focus on creating and implementing the purpose and the visible structure of the school.
- Participative Leadership style spread the leadership in the way that the decision making process is done democratically and the stakeholders are empowered in the huge range.
- Managerial Leadership makes sure that the hierarchy is maintained in the most structured way and the supervision of the functions, tasks and behaviors are done properly(Hdbeijing, 2016).
- Interpersonal Leadership makes sure that the relationship between the students, the teachers and other stakeholders are maintained in healthy manner(Fan, Huang, & Guo, 2008).
- Contingent Leadership takes care of the problem which might occur in schools.
Educational Leadership
This style of leadership is mainly used in the educational institutes in order to serve students with enhanced knowledge. This leadership style consist the steps through which teachers, parents as well as students could be able to attain the common educational aims. With the objective of dealing with the latest educational requirements, educational leadership plays vital role and it helps the educational institutes to design their courses in an appropriate manner. Following are primary insights of the educational leadership style:
- The idea of the educational leadership and the management in education field both are treated in the same way(Lam & Higgins, 2013).
- School leadership means showing the direction for the talents of the people, families, and teachers so that the cliché educational goals are achieved.
- There are three dimensions of educational leadership i.e. vision, influence and values.
- Sometimes educational leadership overlaps with the management. These are though different phenomena but they are such types of processes which cannot stay away from each other(Law, 2012).
Organizational Culture
China is very particular about its culture irrespective of the organizations where it is followed. The cultural dimensions could be studies from the theory of Hofstede’s cultural theory (Hoppe, 2007).
Power Distance: The dimension of power distance suggests that all the individuals are not equal in communities. At the rank of 80, China has the higher rank for power distance. Here inequalities between people are accepted. In HD Beijing School, there are students who have to give respect to the teachers. This makes sense in terms of school. Hence, in terms of schools to, the PDI is higher in China (Li, 2007).
Individualism: This is the dimension in which people’s opinion depends upon how they are saying it in terms of “I” or “We”. With the score of 20, China always will act in the benefit of the group and not just oneself. In HD Beijing School also, the teachers and the trustees want that their students can learn as much as possible in order to survive in the world globally.
Masculinity and femininity: With the score of 66, China is more towards the masculinity dimension which means they are more success driven people. It means that leisure is not that important but schools will make sure that the studies are done strictly (Wang, 2004).
Uncertainty Avoidance: People fear the uncertain threats in case if they come in any type of organization. Chinese people are conformable with the UAI as they follow contingency leadership style so that the threats or problems are avoided (Hout & Michael, 2014).
Management style in HD Beijing School
Long Term Orientation: With the score of 87, China deals with the pragmatic culture. This means that Chinese people believe that the truth depends on the situation and time. In HD Beijing school students are taught to have pragmatic culture (Rinuastuti, Hadiwidjojo, Rohman, & Khusniyah, 2014).
In China, the management style is usually directive style. The seniors give directions or orders to their subordinates and the subordinates have to follow them. Subordinates would not questions the decisions of the seniors as it would be taken as the disrespect of the seniors (Child & Warner, 2003). In is not that the people follow their senior’s instructions forcefully but because they feel that their seniors are father figures and whatever decisions they will take would be positive and better only. In the similar way, the manager has to take good measures for his subordinates. This is basically a two way relationship which is beneficial for both (Chandrasekhar & Kothari, 2011).
The tasks that are done and followed in the HD Beijing School are:
- Planning:Planning of the goals and the objective of the company is done in the planning phase. The vision of the HD Beijing School is to develop its name globally and to introduce the new curriculum for the secondary classes and also for the kindergarten (Hdbeijing, 2016).
- Organizing:This phase includes the organization which has to be done regarding achieving of the goals and objectives. For completing the vision of the HD Beijing School, the managers are creating new curriculum. They search for new books and gather information as to what curriculum is followed in the world and what will be best for the students (Hout & Michael, 2014).
- Staffing:After gathering of all the data, all the employees are given their particular positions for completing the goals. These employees will divide their work in teams and work on getting the objectives done with in a period of time (Rinuastuti, Hadiwidjojo, Rohman, & Khusniyah, 2014).
- Directing:The managers who manage the activities in school etc know how to direct all the students and the employees so that the school’s success is achieved. The results of the students should also be good in order to have a good name of the school. In case of any problems, people can go to the managers for the solution (Wong & Kong, 2014).
- Controlling:This phase means the monitoring and the evaluation is being done every now and then so as to know if the organization is working fine or not. The performance of the students is also monitored as well as the teachers work is also evaluated to know whether they are able to teach nicely to the students or not.
Conclusion:
From the aforesaid information, I learnt that every educational institute is required to adopt appropriate leadership styles so that balance could be maintained amongst education and student’s learning skills. I have observed that educational system is an essential aspect in terms of development of an individual as well as in terms of effective career growth of students. On the basis of my learning skills, I have analyzed that HD Beijing School is one of the reputed and effective schools across the globe as they have adopted educational leadership style in order to perform their operations. The system adopted by HD Beijing School is also efficient in terms of providing knowledge to different types of students with different learning capabilities and different backgrounds and cultures. This helps the students to gain sufficient amount of knowledge as per their capabilities; thus, it becomes effective approach in terms of enhancing growth and development opportunities for the students.
The culture, leadership and the management styles are the three main features on which mainly every organization works. HD Beijing School is one of those schools which aspires its children to become the ideal citizens of the world. This school gives major importance to the culture it follows, the leadership styles and management styles and processes. With the help of Hofstede cultural dimensions, this report informs about the culture that is followed in overall China and as well as in HD Beijing school. It has known that schools follow the school leadership style which is also known as the educational leadership style. This report also focuses on the management approach which the school follows in order to achieve its future vision and goals.
Main tasks at HD Beijing School
HD school in Beijing is a private school. This is known to be as bilingual school which blends the elements of the west and the east in the 21st century. It launches new programs from the classes prep to the third grade in the month of September 2017 and it also plans to launch programs for Kindergarten and secondary classes in future. Since this is a new school, it has integrated curriculum from British and China region. They aspire to get the best education for the students and their value is to provide a detailed education for families who seek international education for the children. This school has a good correlation with the Hurtwood House school which it its partner school in United Kingdom. Hurtwood’s experience and knowledge is also used when it comes to providing the all-round education for the children. Three areas of China will be critically analyzed throughout this essay, leadership, management, communication and negotiation (Hdbeijing, 2016). The market position of this school is fairly new. Hence, its mission is to be known globally in future. The customers are the students who come to study in this school and the stakeholders of the company are faculties, trustees, students etc.
Motto of this school is to understand education so that appropriate and adequate course could be offered to the students. Understanding each student’s learning scope helps the school to design the education courses so that they could easily intake the knowledge. This shows that HD Beijing School follows unique concept. Along with this, all the subjects, education programs, and knowledge are mainly meant for the purpose of development of an individual personal character. In addition to the education courses, HD Beijing School is also known for delivering adequate information amongst the students regarding traditional culture along with various other cultures. HD Beijing School hopes that their students will develop clear goals for their lives and strive to become the best that they can be (Child & Warner, 2003).
Reference:
Chandrasekhar, K., & Kothari, D. (2011). A Study on Chinese Management Style: A Paradigm that can be Emulated by Growing Economies. International Journal of Management & Business Studies, 1(3).
Child, J., & Warner, M. (2003). CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT IN CHINA. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from www.jbs.cam.ac.uk: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/research/workingpapers/wp0303.pdf
Fan, C., Huang, F., & Guo, X. (2008). A Review on Chinese Management Pattern Innovation. International Journal of Business and Management, 3(10).
Hdbeijing. (2016). School Intro. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from https://bj.hdschools.org: https://bj.hdschools.org/school-intro.html
Hoppe, M. H. (2007). Culture and Leader Effectiveness: The GLOBE Study. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from inspireimagineinnovate.com: https://www.inspireimagineinnovate.com/pdf/globesummary-by-michael-h-hoppe.pdf
Hout, T., & Michael, D. (2014). A Chinese Approach to Management. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from https://hbr.org/2014/09/a-chinese-approach-to-management
Lam, C. S., & Higgins, E. O. (2013). Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Styles in China. Asia Pacific Management Review, 18(4), 441-467.
Law. (2012). Educational leadership and culture in China: Dichotomies between Chinese and Anglo-American leadership traditions? International Journal Of Educational Development, 32(2), 273-282. Retrieved from hub.hku.hk: https://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/152902/1/Content.pdf
Li, F. (2007). School Leadership Training in China. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from duo.uio.no: https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/30947/MasterThesis_FuhuiLi.pdf?sequence=2
Rinuastuti, H., Hadiwidjojo, D., Rohman, F., & Khusniyah, N. (2014). Measuring Hofstede?s Five Cultural Dimensions at Individual Level and Its Application to Researchers in Tourists? Behaviors. International Business Research, 7(12).
Wang, T. (2004). Understanding Chinese Educational Leaders Conceptions of Learning and Leadership in an International Education Context. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from canberra.edu.au: https://www.canberra.edu.au/researchrepository/file/e681026a-bb88-9ed1-4340-21dbe9ac7704/1/full_text.pdf
Wong, J., & Kong, S. H. (2014). The Mainland Chinese Managerial Behaviors and Assumptions since the Economic Reform: The Literature Review and Research Proposition. Open Journal of Business and Management, 2, 24-32.
r, K., & Kothari, D. (2011). A Study on Chinese Management Style: A Paradigm that can be Emulated by Growing Economies. International Journal of Management & Business Studies, 1(3).
Child, J., & Warner, M. (2003). CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT IN CHINA. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from www.jbs.cam.ac.uk: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/research/workingpapers/wp0303.pdf
Fan, C., Huang, F., & Guo, X. (2008). A Review on Chinese Management Pattern Innovation. International Journal of Business and Management, 3(10).
Hdbeijing. (2016). School Intro. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from https://bj.hdschools.org: https://bj.hdschools.org/school-intro.html
Hoppe, M. H. (2007). Culture and Leader Effectiveness: The GLOBE Study. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from inspireimagineinnovate.com: https://www.inspireimagineinnovate.com/pdf/globesummary-by-michael-h-hoppe.pdf
Hout, T., & Michael, D. (2014). A Chinese Approach to Management. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from https://hbr.org/2014/09/a-chinese-approach-to-management
Lam, C. S., & Higgins, E. O. (2013). Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Styles in China. Asia Pacific Management Review, 18(4), 441-467.
Law. (2012). Educational leadership and culture in China: Dichotomies between Chinese and Anglo-American leadership traditions? International Journal Of Educational Development, 32(2), 273-282. Retrieved from hub.hku.hk: https://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/152902/1/Content.pdf
Li, F. (2007). School Leadership Training in China. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from duo.uio.no: https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/30947/MasterThesis_FuhuiLi.pdf?sequence=2
Rinuastuti, H., Hadiwidjojo, D., Rohman, F., & Khusniyah, N. (2014). Measuring Hofstede?s Five Cultural Dimensions at Individual Level and Its Application to Researchers in Tourists? Behaviors. International Business Research, 7(12).
Wang, T. (2004). Understanding Chinese Educational Leaders Conceptions of Learning and Leadership in an International Education Context. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from canberra.edu.au: https://www.canberra.edu.au/researchrepository/file/e681026a-bb88-9ed1-4340-21dbe9ac7704/1/full_text.pdf
Wong, J., & Kong, S. H. (2014). The Mainland Chinese Managerial Behaviors and Assumptions since the Economic Reform: The Literature Review and Research Proposition. Open Journal of Business and Management, 2, 24-32.