Introverted or Extroverted Leader? : The Impact of Culture on Leadership Preference

Abstract

Introverted leaders have received much attention recently, although extroverts are often believed as born leaders. In today’s globalized world, cultural difference plays a huge role in communication and relationship, and that must apply to people’s leadership preference as well. By getting a better understanding of the relationship between culture and leadership style, we can tailor leadership style to match the people that we are working with better. That will contribute to better communication and relationship with subordinates, superiors, and co-workers, and also better leadership performance. This research-based thesis aims to find out the relationship between leaders’ personality type and their leadership styles and the cultural background of other people such as team members and subordinates. This thesis is not commissioned by any party. To collect data, the author conducted quantitative research by surveying the students of Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences about their cultural background, personality and which leadership style, introvert or extrovert, they prefer to work with and why. Based on both qualitative and quantitative research results from the survey, this research suggested a moderate influence that cultural background has on leadership preference and a great influence that the personality of followers has on their leadership preferences. Also, the universally shared belief and perception about successful leadership and leaders affect their leadership preference. Due to the limitation such as a restricted number of respondents, the results of this research are indicative. Therefore, at the end of this thesis, the author proposes further research on this topic with improvements in sampling.