From East-West to North-South: scientometric analysis and an emergent model and evidence of achievement-compassion leadership

Abstract

Cross-cultural leadership research has predominantly focused on the East-West divide, emphasizing cultural values such as individualism and collectivism (Den Hartog & De Hoogh, 2024). However, scholars need to shift their attention to the North-South divide, which highlights economic disparities between developed and developing nations (Markus & Conner, 2014). While non-Western emic leadership studies have gained momentum over the past decade (Galperin et al., 2022), limited research explores how these leadership practices are shaped by economic environments. Understanding this dynamic is essential for addressing leadership challenges in the Global South, which is home to 83% of the world's population (United Nations, 2022). In response to this gap, my thesis, consisting of three essays, employed a mixed method approach to explore indigenous leadership behaviors in low munificence environments. The first essay employs scientometric analyses to examine the intellectual foundations and research fronts in the leadership and culture field. This study filtered 12,773 records from the Web of Science database, narrowing it to 1,017 primary documents and 46,845 citations. Despite a few well-established emic leadership constructs, such as paternalistic leadership, the results highlight the dominance of Western leadership constructs and Hofstede’s cultural values, underscoring the pressing need to study emic leadership practices in developing countries. The second essay employed a qualitative study method, interviewing 74 nonprofit leaders from 26 countries across six Global South regions. The study explored how leaders in resource-scarce environments balance alleviating followers' suffering with driving performance, leading to the development of the paradoxical 'achievement-compassion' leadership construct. In the third essay, I operationalized the achievement-compassion leadership model, reflecting its dualistic nature. Using structural equation modeling, I analyzed survey data from 140 leaders and 303 followers across 45 countries to test the dual-path mediation mechanisms of liking and leader insights between achievement-compassion leadership and perceived leadership effectiveness. In uncovering and validating the achievement-compassion leadership construct, my thesis contributes to the leadership and culture field by enriching our understanding of emic leadership behaviors in low-munificence environments – a cultural context that has been under-examined. I also discussed the implications of the findings for future research and practice.