Value Dimensions: Globe Study

Practical Background of the GLOBE Study

Conceived in 1991 by Professor House of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and led by him, the GLOBE Project directly involved 170 country coinvestigators, based in 62 of the world’s societies, as well as a 14-member group of coordinators and research associates. Over 11 years, this international team collected data from 17,300 middle managers in 951 organizations. There were stringent rules regarding which managers and organizations were suitable subjects; for example, multinational corporations were excluded because their managers were likely to be from multiple cultures, rendering their responses unreliable with respect to each manager’s native culture.

The research team employed qualitative methods to inform their development of quantitative instruments. Instruments were developed in consultation with members of each target culture. Instrument translation was done with enormous care. Attention was paid to eliminating the effect of response bias on data gathering and analysis. Relevant previous literature was reviewed and applied. Ultimately, 27 hypotheses were tested.

The 62 societal cultures assessed by GLOBE range from Albania to Zimbabwe and include El Salvador, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Namibia, Qatar, and Zambia; not included were Norway and Saudi Arabia. From a few societies, two cultures were assessed, for example, in Germany: former East and West Germany.

To aid in the interpretation of findings, the researchers grouped the 62 societies into 10 societal clusters, which were finalized before the research was carried out. The 10 clusters, and the number of societies within each, are listed in Table 1.

Source: Summarizes data in House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, and Gupta (2004).

[Page 836]Some observers have questioned the inclusion of Israel in the Latin Europe cluster with France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland (French speaking). The researchers explain that, long ago, some Jews from southern Europe migrated to eastern Europe to avoid religious persecution. They were largely responsible for founding Israel, retaining social and business ties with the Latin European region.

Implicit Leadership Theory and the Team’s Main Objectives

In planning their work, the team applied findings from a respected body of previous research known as implicit leadership theory. This theory holds that, beginning in childhood, people develop a set of beliefs about the behaviors and characteristics of leaders. In most cases, an individual’s belief set (theory) remains implicit (outside conscious awareness).

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