Cross-culture management: An empirical examination on task and relationship orientations of German and Omani

In today’s global economy, understanding the leadership behavior of employees in cross-cultural context is strategically important as the workforce has become highly culturally diverse. This paper investigates the leadership orientations of people in the culture of Germany and Oman. Using univariate analysis of variance (two-way ANOVA) to analyze 420 responses (232 from Germany and 188 from Oman), it appears that Omani working adults are significantly more task-oriented than their German counterparts. However, both Omani and German working adults demonstrate a high orientation toward the relationship behavior. Gender is not a significant factor even though male respondents seem to be more task-oriented than female respondents. Finally, both males and females show similar preferences on relationshiporiented behavior. Further discussion on the results, managerial implications and limitations are also presented in this paper.