Leadership across cultural borders is the new frontier in leadership studies. Increased globalization means leaders are dealing with a variety of cultures in and out of their own countries. Leaders must be experts in understanding what cultural dimensions mean for being effective outside their own comfort zone. Americans in particular are often ill-equipped to understand the cultural complexities for international leadership.
In Leadership Peruvian Style, author Tim McIntosh addresses how Peruvians define and practice leadership, providing a model to assist the cross-cultural worker in understanding leadership in both the home and host cultures. McIntosh’s findings are based in an empirical study conducted in 2008 that featured focus groups composed of Peruvian citizens.
The study results described in Leadership Peruvian Style are not only important for those working in Peru and other parts of Latin America, but also give insight into how to analyze the leadership profile of a particular culture and, in turn, make adjustments in order to be more effective. Through this analysis, McIntosh, who has spent twenty-seven years in leadership in Peru, has contributed to the raising up of a new generation of effective leaders in Latin America.
