POSITIVE CORNER #22: More in common than we think: What leadership research reveals about universal values and the "ω dimension"
Respecting diversity, or rather individual and cultural differences, is a key element for fulfilling coexistence and collaboration among people worldwide. In our now "global village," this topic has recently and rightly received considerable attention. Perhaps it wasn't quite so pressing in times when globalization was still in its infancy. It has always been important, though.
For some time now, however, the discourse surrounding our differences has been almost omnipresent. We are intensively examining the differences between generations, countries, cultures, and individuals with their worldviews, lifestyles, and much more. We are also witnessing the effort to reconcile all these differences – and how difficult that seems!
It is often overlooked that there is a surprisingly stable core of universal human values and preferences. This is of central importance, especially for organizational leadership and successful diversity management. Science has recognized this and gathered remarkable evidence to support it.
One of the most comprehensive studies on this topic is the GLOBE project: In the late 1990s, 170 researchers began surveying approximately 17,000 leaders across 61 cultures about their value orientations, organizational practices, and conceptions of "exceptionally good leadership." They wanted to know: What is perceived as good leadership worldwide – and where do cultures actually differ?
The results are remarkable: GLOBE identified 21 leadership attributes that are considered positive worldwide , including trustworthiness, honesty, fairness, foresight, encouragement, communication, team orientation, and a drive for excellence. At the same time, the researchers found eight traits that are almost universally seen as detrimental to leadership, such as antisocial behavior, uncooperativeness, egocentricity and ruthlessness.
(ref. House, RJ, Hanges, PJ, Ruiz-Quintanilla, SA, Dorfman, PW, Falkus, SA, and Ashkanasy, NM (1999). Cultural influences on leadership and organizations: Project Globe. Advances in Global Leadership. Edited by WH Mobley, MJ Gessner, and V. Arnold. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.171-233.
In other words, people worldwide desire leadership that is honest, fair, reliable, inspiring, and team-oriented, and reject leadership that is egocentric, exclusionary, and authoritarian. The 21 universally positive leadership attributes from GLOBE also correspond very well with what we know in modern approaches to Positive Psychology as empirically researched, universal human virtues: wisdom, humanity, justice, temperance, courage, and transcendence.
(ref. Dahlsgaard, K., Peterson, C., & Seligman, ME (2005). Shared virtue: The convergence of valued human strengths across culture and history. Review of general psychology , 9 (3), 203-213, https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/strengthsacrosshistory.pdf )
The proximity to the great philosophical schools of world history and their diverse similarities with regard to human values and virtues is not accidental.
Of course, there are also cultural nuances. GLOBE clearly shows that certain characteristics, such as risk-taking or autonomy, are viewed positively in some cultures and more critically in others. But these variations are built on a strong common foundation. The core question remains central to the ω dimension of leadership: How can we practice trustworthy, fair, caring, and competent leadership, whether in Zurich, São Paulo, or Jakarta?
For organizations that want to leverage their diversity effectively, considering this aspect within the ω-dimension of leadership is crucial. It's not enough to simply emphasize differences. At least equally important is making universal human values concretely visible and tangible: integrity, respect, responsibility, cooperation, and a learning orientation. This is what the ω-dimension of leadership represents. Based on this foundation, diversity ceases to be a complex challenge and instead becomes part of the diverse expressions of universal humanity.
ω -Question: What other forms of expression of universal humanity exist and how do we make them accessible?
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