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Foundation of leadership in Asia: Leader characteristics and leadership styles review and research agenda

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Abstract

Leader characteristics influence leadership styles, which cascade down through the management to the entire firm, affecting organizational and strategic outcomes. Asia’s unique socio-cultural contexts and philosophies breed indigenous leadership styles in the region, yet context-specific research on leader characteristics and leadership styles in Asia has been sparse. Our review answers the call to identify the distinct Asian context that has distinguished the leadership research in Asia from that of other regions. We identify power distance orientation and collectivist culture as the two of the most prominent contextual factors to consider in examining the role of leadership in Asia. Through this review, we aim to further our understanding of the current state of extant literature on leader characteristics and leadership styles and to suggest new avenues for scholars in Asia to advance existing theories of leadership research in the arena of organizational behavior and strategy.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Senior Editor Rico Lam and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions throughout the review process. This study was supported by the Institute of Management Research at Seoul National University.

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  1. University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Haeyoung Koo

  2. Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    Choelsoon Park

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Koo, H., Park, C. Foundation of leadership in Asia: Leader characteristics and leadership styles review and research agenda. Asia Pac J Manag 35, 697–718 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-017-9548-6

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