National culture, leadership and citizenship: Implications for cross-cultural management

Continued globalization is raising the level of diversity within hospitality organizations as well as the likelihood that leaders will manage those from varying national cultures. Previous research has found that cultural congruence between leaders and stakeholders (i.e., from the same or different national cultures) impacts a variety of variables including perceived leadership style, satisfaction and trust. This study extends this line of research by investigating the relationship between cultural congruence, perceived leadership style, leader–member exchange (LMX) and employee citizenship behaviors. Using a highly diverse sample of 520 members of congruent and incongruent dyads from 66 countries working for 2 large cruise lines and 2 subsidiaries, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test the relationships. It was determined that cultural similarity impacted employee perceptions of LMX relations and organization citizenship behaviors, but not leadership style. The results of the study provide strategies for cross-cultural management in the hospitality industry.