Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios
Date of Award
7-2007
Document Type
Dissertation
Granting Institution
Lynn University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD)
Degree Program
Global Leadership - with a specialization in Corporate and Organizational Management
Department
College of Business and Management
First Advisor
Joan Scialli
Second Advisor
John Cipolla
Third Advisor
Eldon Bernstein
Abstract
During Taiwan's modem surge in economic development, family businesses became one of the most important organizational units in the society. Taiwanese family operated enterprises combine traditional values with Japanese and Western business practices; this influences organizational leadership styles. Most leadership theories focus on leader development; however, the relationship between supervisor-leaders and subordinate-managers is important in the leadership process. To be competitive, multinational enterprises are challenged to develop effective global management and leadership relationships and practices when conducting operations between headquarters and subsidiaries that extend across nations and cultures.
The purpose of this explanatory (correlational) and exploratory (comparative) research survey was to test a hypothesized model regarding characteristics of managers, headquarters and subsidiary characteristics, leadership style of executives, leader-member exchange, and performance of headquarters or subsidiaries of managers in one family-run Taiwanese MNE. All 182 managers of one family-run MNE located in Taiwan, Mainland China, Thailand, the United States, and Canada were invited to participate -resulting in a valid sample of 126 responses. The LEAD-Other was modified to obtain a collective assessment of executive leadership of the MNE. The survey was translated into Traditional and Simple Chinese, English, and Thai. Independent f-tests and ANOVA were used to answer the exploratory (comparative) research questions. Hierarchical (forward) linear regression analyses tested explanatory hypotheses. Finally, all scales were examined for reliability and construct validity.
Findings indicated that (a) Leadership Style of executives was a significant explanatory variable of the quality of the Leader-Member Exchange; (b) Country of Origin (Thailand and Taiwan), Race (inverse for Asian), Location in Taiwan (inverse), Hofstede's cultural dimension of Masculinity (inverse), frequency of Delegating (inverse) of executives, and Leader-Member Exchange explained 22.1% to 26.5% of the variation in organizational performance; (c) the modified LEAD-Other had weak construct validity and reliability; and, (d) the new Organizational Performance Scale had high reliability and construct validity was established. Future research can explore relationships among leadership style, leader-member exchange, and performance in different industries, countries, or several family-run Taiwanese MNEs, and further examine the construct validity of the modified LEAD-Other and the Organizational Performance scale in different business environments.
Recommended Citation
Huang, Y. (2007). Leadership Style, Leader-Member Exchange, and Performance for a Family-Run Taiwanese Multinational Enterprise [Doctoral dissertation, Lynn University]. SPIRAL. https://spiral.lynn.edu/etds/236
