8

Leadership and Culture in Switzerland—
Theoretical and Empirical Findings¹

Jürgen Weibler
University of Hagen (FernUniversität in Hagen),
Chair of Business Administration,
Leadership and Organization, Germany

Rolf Wunderer
University of St. Gallen,
Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management,
Switzerland

In the following chapter, we seek a closer look at the understanding of leadership and how this understanding relates back to the specific culture in Switzerland. Because being Swiss does not mean to belong to a special ethnic group that has a distinct religion or language and because Switzerland is—under a historical perspective—a multicultural gathering of people from its neighboring countries with the will to form an own nation (“a nation of will”) as the only common grounds,² we concentrate our analysis especially for the empirical findings on the German-speaking area of Switzerland, which accounts for nearly two thirds of the population.³ This allows us to focus our statements on a comparatively cohesive part of the Swiss population. Although we are aware that every country conceives leadership in many different ways, we are trying to illustrate the core elements. The objective of our reflections is to discover what characterizes an outstanding leader in Switzerland and what, in particular, might be the cultural reason for this. The answer to this question is based on two assumptions: (a) Leadership is an attribution process that itself depends on implicit theories about leadership in the mind of the observer, and (b) These so-called “leadership prototypes” and manifestations do not occur in a vacuum but are developed and shown in a broader cultural context.

These assumptions, which are dominating features of the GLOBE study (for details, House, Hanges, & Ruiz-Quintanilla, 1997; House et al., 1999; Lord & Emrich, 2001), are based on research findings by Shaw (1990) and Lord and Maher (1991). Their theoretical work suggests that individuals have implicit theories of leadership in their minds. Experimental evidence in various settings has shown that these implicit leadership theories (which culminate in the picture of an outstanding leader) guide the construction and evaluation (attributes and behavior) that define an outstanding leader. They define the path on which varying forms of leadership can be accepted and tolerated, and moderate relationships between leadership attributes, behaviors, and effectiveness. The more a leader appears and acts in congruence with the expectations of the attributing observer, the more the observer is willing to recognize his or her leadership. Although it cannot be assumed that national culture alone has an influence on leadership (e.g., Bass, 1990; Dorfman & Howell, 1988; Haire, Ghiselli & Porter, 1966; House, Wright, & Aditya, 1997; Reber & Jago, 1997; Smith & Peterson, 1988), various authors demonstrate impressively that implicit theories of leadership are culturally endorsed (House et al., 1999) and we know “that even very subtle differences can complicate a cross-cultural encounter” (Szabo, Reber, Weibler, Brodbeck, & Wunderer, 2001, p. 241). Therefore, as leadership researchers we need to set out for a better understanding of culturally specific implicit leadership theories, in our case, Switzerland.

The cultural context in which leaders operate can be described both by shared values (Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck, 1961), measured by indicators assessing what “Should Be,” and by observed perceptions of modal practices, measured by indicators assessing “what is” or “what are” (“As Is”) common behaviors, prescriptions, and institutional practices inside a nation. In sum, we call this “national culture.” So, “Should Be” and “As Is” data on culture both may be helpful in interpreting this ideal leadership construction.

Despite the demonstrated effect of national culture on the perception of outstanding leadership, it is unclear to what extent culture affects the impact of certain leadership behaviors/attributes on performance and to what extent it is the outcome of other factors such as organizational culture, task environment, and market situation.⁴ However, we mainly focus our study on the level of national culture because research has been widely neglected in this field. Where it seems necessary, we add other factors.

The chapter is divided into four principal sections. After the presentation of some interesting and useful facts about Switzerland, we start on our tour to explore the concept of leadership in Switzerland with a brief introduction to the long history of this country, then add some general economic and political information, thereby providing a context in which to present the GLOBE study. The second section informs about the methodology of GLOBE research in Switzerland. Section 3 investigates its societal culture on the basis of GLOBE's findings. We then concentrate on specifically the Swiss attributes and behaviors of outstanding leaders with reference to the empirical research conducted within the framework of GLOBE. Conclusions are presented in the final section.

2.  EVOLUTION AND SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SWISS NATION

Geography/Demography

Switzerland is a country of about 41,300 square kilometers in the center of Europe, surrounded by Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and Liechtenstein. The country consists of three geographical areas: the Alps (60%), the Midlands (30%) and the Western Jura region (10%); the two big chains of mountains account for more than half of the country's surface. There are four different linguistic areas in Switzerland (German, French, Italian, and Rhaeto-Romanic): In 1990, 63.6% of the population had German as their main language, 19.2% French, 7.6% Italian, and 0.6% Rhaeto-Romanic (other languages: 8.9%). Switzerland is divided into 26 autonomous states—so-called cantons. Its capital is Bern. At the end of 2000,⁵ Switzerland had 7,204,100 inhabitants (women: 51%, men: 49%), among them 1,424,370 foreigners (19.8%), which in comparison with the international average is quite a high proportion, but is in part due to very strict laws for gaining citizenship. Being born in Switzerland does not lead to Swiss citizenship, a fact that led to a growing second and third generation of foreign residents. The average age in 1996 was 39 years. The average household consisted of just under 2.5 persons. As far as the religious denominations are concerned, 46.1% of the 1990 population belonged to the Roman Catholic Church and 40.0% were Protestants (nondenominational part of the population: 7.4%; other religions: 5.0%; no response: 1.5%; (Bundesamt für Statistik, 1998).

History

The earliest signs of human activities in Switzerland can be traced back to the Old Stone Age (cf. Fahrni, 1988; Im Hof 1991a, 1991b). Until the Romans expanded their empire to the north, the areas of present-day Switzerland were inhabited by different Celtic tribes. The most important among them were the Helvetians, who lived in the Midlands, and the Rhaetians, who lived in the Grisons. After their defeat by Julius Caesar in the battle of Bibracte (58 BC), the Celtic areas came under Roman rule. About 400–600 AD, Germanic tribes conquered the western part of the Roman Empire. The southern part of Switzerland was inhabited by Lombardian tribes, the Langobards. In contrast to the Burgundians and the Langobards, who adopted Christianity and the Roman language, Latin, the Alemanns, who made up the largest part of the immigrants, retained their culture and language. However, they did not succeed in conquering Rhaetia; the Roman Rhaetians who were resident there successfully resisted them. Over time, they withdrew into the high alpine valleys of the Grisons, where they could live without any great outside interference. Thus the foundations of Switzerland's multilingualism were laid.

In the Middle Ages, Switzerland became part of the Holy Roman Empire. Assisted by the decline of the Emperor's power, some Swiss dynasties succeeded in taking larger areas and acting as sovereigns up to the 13th century. The founding of cities was an important instrument of aristocratic territorial policy. Though trade and craft in the cities provided the cities’ rulers with new sources of revenue, the cities also served as garrisons and places of jurisdiction. Acquiring more economic power, the cities succeeded in becoming more and more independent, and finally, they attained the position of free imperial cities.

The small and remote valleys in the Alps had always been autonomous and free. This situation seemed to be endangered when the Austrian Hapsburgs started appointing governors in order to collect their revenues and secure their rights. So, as the story goes, three representatives of the so-called Waldstätte, the original “forest cantons” around Lake Lucerne (Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden), gathered on August 1st, 1291, in a field called Rütli to enter into a mutual assistance pact against imposed administration. This pact is regarded as the birth of the Eidgenossenschaft or Confederation. August 1st later became a Swiss national holiday and the Rütli has often served as a place for important national ceremonies.

In the course of the 14th century, some city-states (Lucerne, Glarus, Zug, and Bern) joined the Waldstätte pact in order to free themselves of the cities’ sovereigns. Niklaus von Flüe (1417–1487), one of the most prominent figures of the epoch, unified litigant cantons and is therefore associated with the further enlargement of the Confæderatio Helvetica (see Box 8.1). As a consequence, a state with a certain degree of independence emerged within the Holy Roman Empire. Having driven out the Hapsburgs and weakened the local nobility, a civilian society arose. The power and the land were passed over to cities, guilds, and rural villages.

After its military successes, the Confederation sought to expand its territories. Initially successful, the Confederates were defeated in 1515 by French and Venetian troops in the battle of Marignano. As a result of this, they retreated from the international scene, withdrawing their expansionist policies and declaring their neutrality, something that has been practiced up to the present day (as it was during the two world wars).

At about the same time one of the most famous Swiss precursors of the Reformation in Europe lived in Switzerland: Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531). In 1525, the Grand Council of Zurich adopted Zwingli's demands for a reform of the church, as well as his demands for political and economic change, particularly the secularization of monasteries, and the reform of the interest system and land utilization rights. Another remarkable fighter for religious reformation was Jean (John) Calvin (1509–1564). His ideas influenced the economic development of the Confederation in the centuries that were to follow insofar as he explicitly related personal success in life to a positive selection by God. Among other things, this belief led to a very ascetic lifestyle in a large part of the country where investment was valued more highly than consumption. Despite the fact that the Reformation split Switzerland into two camps, it had an important positive outcome for the identity of Switzerland as a nation as it also promoted a gradual separation of the Confederation from the German Empire. After the Thirty Years’ War, which was caused by religious conflicts, the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) made Switzerland “de jure” independent.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the political activities in the cantons of the “Old Confederation” became more and more ossified. The government was led by a few clans. The referenda (electoral devices that enables voters to express their opinion directly on an issue), which were often conducted at the time of the Reformation, totally disappeared. In the social and economic sectors, however, far-reaching changes occurred. The population quadrupled (from 400,000 to 1.6 million between 1700 and 1800) and the first industries developed (textiles, and watch and clock making). Switzerland was the most industrialized country in Europe (second only to England). Above and beyond this, scientists generated an intellectual upswing in Switzerland, among them Johann Bernoulli, Leonhard Euler, Albrecht von Haller, and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.

After the country was occupied by Napoleon in 1798, Switzerland entered a state of crisis that was to last 50 years. This was the starting point of a long and arduous development toward the foundation of a federal state in 1848. The Constitution, which came along with the changes in the political system during that time, introduced a number of new rights: the right to choose one's domicile freely, the freedom of association, the principle of equality in law, and the rights of minorities. The rights of the people were increasingly strengthened, albeit with differences from canton to canton. In 1874, the Constitution of 1848 was amended. Since then it remained largely unchanged until recently. A review process was started to modernize the Swiss Constitution. There was one peculiarity in this process of democratization, which was also accompanied by many improvements in the sociopolitical sector: Only in 1973, 123 years after the introduction of universal and equal suffrage for men, was female suffrage introduced at national level. In 1981, equal rights for both men and women were guaranteed by the Constitution. As far as its commitment to international relations was concerned, Switzerland remained largely inactive. Switzerland did not join the United Nations for a long time (2002), yet it has played an active role in UN organizations (e.g., the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization (WTO), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Organizzazione per la Cooperazione Economicae Per lo Sviluppo (OSCE), and the Partnership for Peace) and currently holds 14th place as a financial contributor to the United Nations (Edgenössisches Department für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten [ETA], 2005).

Efforts toward Switzerland's European integration were not approved by the people, consequently it did not participate in the founding of the European Council in 1949. It also rejected membership in the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957. However, in 1959, Switzerland, together with other non-EEC states, set up the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), whose purely economic objectives did not clash with Switzerland's policy of neutrality. Switzerland has also actively cooperated in different development aid programs since the early 1950s. In 1986, the bid to join the UN was narrowly defeated in a referendum. In 1992, the referendum on the membership of the European Economic Area was also narrowly rejected. But in 2002, the bid to join the UN was accepted by the Swiss people and Switzerland finally became a member. Despite its partial reluctance to formally join international associations, Switzerland is actually among those 10 countries in the world that most extended their memberships of international organizations between 1980 and 1990 (Schneider, 1998, p. 14). In 1995, Switzerland was a member of 64 intergovernmental organizations, which gives the country a leading position in the list of OECD states. Switzerland has sometimes mediated in international conflicts. In addition, it is a member of more than 2,600 international nongovernmental organizations (Schneider, 1998). It also claims the seat of the International Committee of the Red Cross, founded by the Swiss Henri Dunant in 1863, which is independent of the government. Its executive members are exclusively recruited from Swiss citizens, which illustrates its typical conflict between detachment and cooperation. According to Schneider, this was a natural consequence of its geography. South and North European traders often had to cross the Alps and were dependent on the help of the people living there. A flourishing barter system developed. This cooperation and the extensive interaction with many cultures resulted in the desire among the natives to retain their own identity, which simultaneously promoted a degree of detachment. Also, observers should not forget that Switzerland found—while practicing such an ambiguous behavior—a way to get the needed protection from the German Empire without being a part of it. Not without reason did the development of alpine passes give rise to the first myths about the origins of Switzerland (Schneider, 1998, p. 20).

The Current Situation

A detailed characterization of present-day Switzerland is beyond the scope of this chapter, but we try to go beyond the picture-postcard view, which is influenced by tourists and largely constitutes Switzerland's international image.⁶ More specifically, we concentrate on the political and the economic systems.

The Political System

The Swiss Confederation—Switzerland's official name—has been a federal republic since 1848 (cf. earlier discussion). The basic political values of present-day Switzerland, which according to Riklin and Möckli (1983, pp. 18, 116) can be characterized in more detail by the key words security, democracy, rule of law, and welfare state, are already discernible in their historical genesis. According to those authors, security—a very old Swiss basic value—is explained as follows: “The alliances of the old federation were mainly held together by the idea of internal and external security.” The “ancient Swiss freedom” meant the independence of the collective from the “outside” (Riklin & Möckli, 1983, p. 116). Neutrality was one of the key instruments supporting the maintenance of independence from the outside (Riklin & Möckli, 1983, p. 22). On the inside, this meant, at the same time, avoiding extreme positions, in particular, and an awareness of the fragility of this polyglot country: “The practice of moderation between the extremes, which came to be vital under the Swiss conditions of natural and historical diversity and difference, can be seen as the central and most general Swiss trait” (Weiss, 1946, p. 364; cited in Riklin & Möckli, 1983, p. 96, footnote 434, translated). From this, it is also possible to deduce the necessity of a development that has, at least, not maximized an orientation toward the individual; rather, “moderation” and “avoidance of extreme positions” seem more compatible with a collective orientation. Thus “moderation” suddenly becomes a noble virtue (Bader, 1998, p. 3), nowadays unfortunately an often forgotten insight (remember the Assertiveness scale), which was already in high esteem in the ancient world. Switzerland is one of the last countries in the world that has substantial elements of direct democracy. According to the political scientists Riklin and Möckli “Switzerland is considered worldwide to be the country with the most extended, differentiated and traditional institutional structure of direct democracy” (p. 39). Combined with the federal principle, this underlines the Swiss aversion to central authorities and indirectly accentuates the autonomy of its citizens. Together with the personal, not only institutional, disapproval of power relations that are not voluntarily accepted, a strong aversion to power that is not legitimized by qualifications (power by privileges, e.g.) or reason can be noted. The principle of subsidiary is well established: “Only what the individual family cannot do, the community should do; only what the community cannot do, the canton should do; only what the canton cannot do, the Federal State should do” (Hilb & Wittmann, 1992, p. 526). Apart from elections, there are two possibilities for the Swiss population to exert influence on political decision making: the “initiative” and the “referendum.” The initiative denotes the right of the people—providing that the necessary number of signatures has been collected to put forward proposals on governmental enactments and to cause the relevant institutions to vote on these proposals.⁷ The referendum is a direct vote by all eligible citizens (plebiscite) on governmental enactments such as amendments to the Constitution, and laws or issues relating to financial policy.⁸ Both lead to continual votes by Swiss citizens on many political issues. These mechanisms provide a relatively high degree of self-determination in political and societal issues (for further details; see Neidhart, 1970).

A brief characterization of the political institutions suffices for our purposes. The Bundesversammlung or Federal Assembly consists of two chambers: the Nationalrat or National Council, whose members represent the population, and the Ständerat or Council of States, whose members represent the cantons. Decisions by the Bundesversammlung become law only if both chambers have passed them. The Bundesrat or Federal Council constitutes the government. Its seven members are representatives of the four biggest political parties. The Bundesrat is elected every 4 years by the Bundesversammlung immediately after the elections for the Nationalrat. An unwritten law demands that the linguistic minorities of Western Switzerland and of the Ticino are always represented. The Bundesrat is a so-called collegial authority, which means that all important decisions are made by the Bundesrat as a whole, and that there is no actual head of government in Switzerland. Rather, the president of the Confederation or Bundespräsident, who is elected from among the members of the government for a term of just 1 year (after which another member will accede to this office), is not a head of state but a primus inter pares. Switzerland is the only country in the world where a collegial authority serves as the head of state, as head of the government, and as the government itself. This approach toward an uncharismatic leadership in governance is very characteristic of Switzerland's leadership culture. The seat of the Bundesrat is Bern.

The Economic System: General Information

Switzerland had 312,449 privately owned companies in 1998; 99.7% were so-called small and medium-size enterprises with fewer than 250 full-time employees. Nearly 69% of all employees worked there. However, some of the biggest companies worldwide are Swiss.

In terms of per capita gross national product (GNP), Switzerland is among the world's wealthiest nations. In 1998 (2003), the per capita GNP amounted to $39,980 (39.880) which is much higher than the average of the rest of the world. According to a 1997 World Bank report (Finfacts, 2005; “Schweiz,” 1998, p.19), Switzerland had even the absolutely highest per capita gross income in the world ($44,320 as compared with $28,747 in the United States). In terms of the indicator of “quality of life,” which transcends the one-sided economic orientation of international comparisons, Switzerland regularly leads the world ratings, too.

Apart from water, Switzerland does not possess any considerable raw materials. For economic reasons alone, Switzerland maintains numerous foreign trade relations. Its import and export quota are among the highest in the world. The lion's share of cross-border trade is accounted for by the OECD countries. In 1996, 90% of all imports originated from OECD countries, and 79% of all exports were sent there. The most important export goods are machines, electronics, chemicals, precision instruments, watches and clocks, and jewelry. Tourism is another very important industry in terms of foreign trade. It produces about 8% of export revenues, thus occupying third place behind mechanical engineering and chemicals. A look at the financial volume for 1993 illustrates the importance of trade (import and export): Amounting to CHF 14,000 (= $9,500) per capita, it was by far higher than in countries like the United States or Japan (both less than CHF 5,000 = $3,400). The strong international commitment of Swiss industry can also be observed in foreign direct investments. Switzerland is one of the key actors (Schneider, 1998). For instance, it maintains above-average commitments in the new German Länder (former East Germany).

Yet another typical feature is the fact that many industries successfully managed to cut themselves off from competition for a long time (cartels, subsidies, etc.). This has led to the problem that a lot of firms in these sections got into serious difficulties when they were forced by legislation directly (law) or indirectly (globalization) to open the market. These processes of adaptation are still going on.

In 2000, an average of 3,879,000 people were employed in Switzerland: 1,707,000 women (44%) and 2,172,000 men (56%); 908,000 (23.4%) of them had only part-time jobs. This corresponds to an employment rate of 53%. Foreigners employed were 25.1% and employment in the so-called third sector, that is, trade and services, was 69.1%. Industry accounted for 26.4%, and only 4.5% worked in agriculture. Average working hours per week were 41.8 hours in 2000. This is above average compared to most other European states. In 2000, 106,000 people were registered as unemployed. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 2.7%. After this brief overview of the economic situation in Switzerland, we now pay more detailed attention to the three industries surveyed in the GLOBE study: financial services, telecommunications, and food processing.

The Economic System: Specific Information (GLOBE Industries)

Financial Services. The financial services is one of the most important industries in the Swiss economy. In 2000, there were 375 banks in Switzerland: 24 Cantonal Banks, 3 “big” banks, 103 regional and savings banks, 17 privately owned banks, 23 affiliates of foreign financial institutions and, finally, 205 other banks (Schweizerische Nationalbank, 1997, p. 22). The major banking centers are Zurich, Basel, and Geneva. All in all, Switzerland is considered to be “overbanked” (one important reason is the bank secret, i.e., no information about accounts are released; another reason until recently is the cartelization of this industry), which will lead to a massive increase in competition and concentration in the years to come, particularly with foreign banks. Since then mergers have happened and in combination with a more restricted law the process of consolidation has started.

The employment rate has risen above the average in the last few decades. Between 1960 and 1994, there was an increase of 398% in the number of people employed in banks, compared to an increase of 39% in the entire Swiss working population. An unfavorable economic situation, increased competition, and various mergers of enterprises, however, has caused the employment rate to fall in the last few years. Thus in 1996, the number of employees fell to 119,771 people (cf. Schweizerische Nationalbank, 1997, p. 49). The biggest employers in the financial services are UBS and Credit Suisse, which both have their head office in Zurich.

The banking sector's share of Switzerland's GNP is relatively high. Between 1988 and 1993, it amounted to an average of 8.6%, whereas in other European countries it amounted to only 3% to 4%. Only in Luxembourg does the financial sector have an even larger share of the GNP, namely 33% (Gratzl & Kaufmann, 1996; quoted in Schweizerische Bankiervereinigung, 1996, p. 12). Of the Swiss working population 3.8% were employed in the banking sector in 1995 and thus twice as many as that, for example, in Italy, France, and Great Britain, or around one third higher than in Germany and in Austria (Schweizerische Bankiervereinigung, 1996, p. 12). The importance of the banking system for foreign trade cannot be estimated directly because the relevant values are not listed separately in the figures of the national accounting. But according to reliable estimates, the banks may well contribute half of the amount of Switzerland's foreign trade (Schweizerische ankiervereinigung, 1996, p. 12).

Telecommunications. Switzerland has one of the world's most efficient infrastructures in telecommunications. Private users and enterprises have access to the most modern communication systems. Like many other European countries, Switzerland's telecommunications sector is at the moment characterized by deregulation. The years 1992 and 1993 marked the definite end of the Swiss Radio and Television Company's (Schweizerische Radio-und Fernsehgesellschaft [SRG] monopoly; SRG, 1994, p. 8). On July 1, 1995, another step toward liberalization was taken; since then private suppliers and foreign companies have been allowed to offer telephone services by renting public wires. Finally, on January 1, 1998, the telecommunications market was liberalized at a European level.

Swisscom is the market leader in the telecommunications industry. The company has an annual turnover of around 11 billion Swiss Francs and employs 21,000 people (2002). The formerly public-sector company was transformed into a joint-stock company under special law on January 1, 1998—just in time with regard to the total liberalization of the telecommunications industry. The company went public in 1998. Swisscom is the only full-service supplier present in all parts of Switzerland. It is at the same time one of the country's biggest employers. In 1998, however, two large private competitors (orange, diAX) entered the market (see, for further details, Swiss Federal Office of Communication, 2002).

Food Processing. The Swiss food-processing industry developed out of small trade at the end of the 19th century. Some enterprises—with Nestlé at the top—have grown considerably since. Numerous small enterprises survived by pursuing a specific policy of “market gaps.” In the last few decades, the food-processing industry has developed continuously within a framework of stable and predictable conditions in Switzerland. The high quality of the products offered by the Swiss food-processing industry was a very central strategic success factor for international growth (Hodler, 1994, p. 8).

The food-processing industry is primarily oriented toward the home market. In the last few years, however, there has been a clearly recognizable trend toward growing exports. Nevertheless, its export share exceeds 50% only in some areas such as soups and sauces, cheese spreads, and candies (cf. Hodler, 1994, p. 5). The food retail market, to give an enriched description, constitutes a typically Swiss and unique duopolistic situation that reduces the possibilities in an already small home market.

With about 70,000 employees, the food-processing industry comes fourth among the secondary-sector industries (after mechanical engineering, electronics, and the chemical industry). Some 100,000 jobs in agriculture, packaging, and transportation are indirectly dependent on the food-processing industry. The biggest food producers are: Migros (head office: Zurich), the Coop Group (head office: Basel), the Nestlé combine (head office: Vevey), and Toni Lait (head office: Winterthur) (HandelsZeitung, 1995, p. 3).

3.  THE METHODOLOGY OF GLOBE RESEARCH IN SWITZERLAND

The GLOBE research for the understanding of leadership and culture in Switzerland was based on, and inspired by, the conceptual and methodological framework of the GLOBE study as a whole (for details, se’ House, Hanges et al., 1997; House, Wright et al., 1997; House et al., 1999, 2004; Javidan & House, 2001; Szabo et al., 2002; see also chap. 1, this volume).

In the GLOBE study, several methods were combined to describe and analyze societal (and organizational) culture and leadership prototypes. In this respect, we followed Hofstede (1980), who stressed that every method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and therefore a multimethod approach was employed in order to gain valid insights into culture and leadership. Specifically, it consisted of a literature analysis, a questionnaire-based data collection, focus groups, semistructured interviews, ethnographic interviews, and unobtrusive participant observations. For all the methods and instruments, we relied on the previous work done by the project as a whole (e.g., an international validation of the questionnaire, ideas and rules for conducting interviews, etc.; House, Hanges et al., 1997; House, Wright et al., 1997; House et al., 1999).

The questionnaire-based data included the three standardized GLOBE questionnaires for the three levels under study: societal culture (“Should Be” and “As Is”), organizational culture (“Should Be” and “As Is”), and leadership attributes/behaviors (“Should Be”).⁹ For the societal and organizational level, GLOBE refers to value-belief theories of culture (Hofstede, 1980; Triandis, 1995), which suggest that the commonly shared values and beliefs held by members of a collective (e.g., a nation) influence the behavior of individuals and other entities (groups and institutions). They also influence the degree to which an observed behavior is viewed as legitimate. To describe the culture of a nation, GLOBE investigates the cultural dimensions in accordance with Hofstede's work: Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Stratification, Collectivism; two scales are used, the Collectivism scale from Triandis (1995), and Gender Egalitarianism and Assertiveness (both replaced the former Hofstede scale of Masculinity). In addition to these six scales, two dimensions derive from McClelland's (1961, 1985) theories of implicit human motivation and economic development: Humane Orientation and Performance Orientation. Finally, the dimension of Future Orientation was included, originating from the work of F. R. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961). The 21 leadership scales, which were made up of 112 leadership items, ultimately derive from an intercultural factor analysis.¹⁰

Three hundred and twenty-one Swiss middle managers¹¹ completed the questionnaire (societal culture items: 159; organizational culture items: 162; leadership items: 112). The middle managers worked in 19 organizations in three different industries (financial services: 26.5%; food processing: 32.4%; telecommunications: 41.1%). The respondents’ sex was predominantly masculine (91.3% men, 8.7% women), and their age was between 27 and 65 years (average age: 44.48 years). On average, they had held managerial positions for 12.89 years (range between 1–35), and had an average of 6.23 subordinates reporting to them.

Three focus groups ¹² and several interviews were mainly created to evaluate expectations about unusually effective leaders versus normally effective managers. Heterogeneity among respondents, for example, in organizational background (rank, experiences in different industries) and age (mid-20s to 60s), was maximized deliberately (Agar, 1980). These data-collecting processes on the occasion of post-graduate seminars (focus groups) and specially made contacts (interviews) were carried out at the beginning of our project and followed GLOBE guidelines.

The three 1-hour focus group discussions were taped, and all the relevant statements and examples were subsequently listed. During the group session, the 12 female and male participants, who were doing this postgraduate course in general management at the University of St. Gallen, were asked to rank their own answers on special topics on a group consensus basis: definition of leadership and management, the possible difference between these two constructs, and examples of outstanding leadership.

Nine semistructured interviews were conducted with middle managers in different industries (e.g., insurance companies, financial services, and publishers). The interviews were taped, and the interviewees were asked about their understanding of management and leadership in a way similar to that used in the focus groups. The average duration of these interviews was 45 minutes.

Three ethnographic interviews were conducted at a later stage of the project in the three GLOBE branches. They were based on a qualitative research manual prepared for GLOBE by Michael Agar. Written protocols from the taped 60-minute interviews were analyzed and interpreted by two people, both experienced in interview analysis. The aim was to identify and categorize attributes and behaviors that were characteristic of leadership and management, to learn about the interviewees’ experiences of successful and unsuccessful leadership, and to gain insights into their hidden basic assumptions about leadership. Stories and illustrative examples were very helpful in this respect. The categories that were found were not predefined but emerged from the analyzing process. Thus we wanted to check if any aspect of the leadership phenomenon was mentioned that we were not aware of, while gaining a deeper insight into the possible variance of leadership prototypes. In a follow-up interview, all interviewees were asked if they were able to “recognize” themselves in our analysis. With the exception of very minor changes, the interview partners were satisfied with our interpretation.

The GLOBE researchers’ very soundly reasoned assumption has been to combine quantitative and qualitative data. Only this offers the possibility for a holistic interpretation of culture and leadership. To intensify the culture research and to obtain a more in-depth picture of the leadership ideal in Switzerland, we also collected information by means of unobtrusive measurement techniques (e.g., House, Hanges et al., 1997; Webb, Campbell, Schwartz, & Sechresl, 1999). These measures do not rely on people to report data (as do interviews, e.g.) and are nonreactive to this extent. We decided to concentrate our analysis here mainly on two unobtrusive measures: street names and statues and legends/myths. However, other forms of research are shortly mentioned to illustrate the full range of our data collection.

Typically, in street names or in statues, persons are honored who were considered to be exceptional or outstanding for a society. Thus it might be interesting to see what kind of persons were honored in Switzerland. If one knows more about such people’ thoughts and actions, then one can get—or so we assumed—more information on the valued aspects with regard to outstanding leaders in this culture. In addition, this method assumes that the central aspects of a current culture have developed over centuries or decades. This leads to the final underlying assumption that knowing more about the past will enable us to gain more insights into the present. The five biggest (German-speaking) Swiss cities were included in this analysis. The research was done on the basis of street-name registers and travel guides (statues¹³).

Another research method was used to assess the impact of culture on leadership: myths and legends.¹⁴ Those standards still hold their own in today's value structure. “Legends” means oral tales that sometimes refer to historical events, which were passed on orally in former days, and are meant to explain, remind, and advise. This points to the significance of the values and standards presented in those legends, which are preferably packaged in impressive images. Legends are only worth telling if taboos are broken. Such an instance of taboo breaking can easily accommodate a moral lesson, and comprehensive ethical values can be identified. This makes legends suitable for the identification of culturally rooted leadership ideals.

Also a media study was conducted. The objective of the media study was to find information that would help us to continue to build our leadership frame.¹⁵ Thus we were interested in repeated patterns of leadership. The underlying assumption here is that the media very prominently represent the values of a kind of leadership that is honored in a society, at least from the viewpoint of people who work in this media industry; however, it may be assumed that these persons also try to articulate the opinion of other people in society, possibly even the majority. The analysis focused on three print media (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Weltwoche,and Blick). They were selected because of their range with respect to readers and their particular variety of clients.

Additionally, participant observation—following GLOBE guidelines—was carried out on the basis of a fully structured questionnaire. First, three persons completed the instrument by themselves, asking experts for further information, if and when necessary. Afterward, a consensual agreement was made between these persons in respect of the items contained in the questionnaire so that at the end one version existed. Literature analysis in different fields completed our efforts to describe and interpret Swiss culture and outstanding leadership during the whole project.¹⁶

4.  FINDINGS

After providing a first impression of the Swiss peculiarities and a comprehensive survey of the methodological basis of our study, we now turn to the findings of our analysis. This section is structured according to the two main levels under scrutiny: societal (national) culture and leadership. In each subsection, the results of the questionnaire-based data collection are presented first. In the Leadership subsection, we integrate qualitative results additionally.

Societal Culture

Table 8.1 presents the findings in respect of Swiss societal culture in terms of (a) absolute mean scores on a 7-point Likert-type scale, (b) an indication of country membership clusters for each country dimension, (means: relative position out of a maximum five distinct country clusters A > B > C > D > E), and (c) the rank order on each dimension compared to the other 60 participating countries. An absolute score indicating the difference between the two societal culture measures is provided: “Should Be,” the espoused value placed on how the participants would like it to be, and “As Is,” observations of practices on how it is at present. The analysis of the statistical significance of the difference is also shown in Table 8.1.

TABLE 8.1
Societal Culture of Switzerland: “Should Be” and “As Is” Scores

Note. Score: Country mean for Switzerland on the basis of aggregated scale scores. Band: Letters A to D indicate the country band Switzerland belongs to (A > B > C > D). Countries from different Bands are considered to differ significantly from each other (GLOBE test banding procedure; cf. Hanges, Dickson, & Sipe, 2004). Rank: Switzerland's position relative to the 61 countries in the GLOBE study; Rank 1 = highest; Rank 61 = lowest score. Difference: The difference was computed by subtracting “As Is” scores from the respective “Should Be” scores. A positive difference indicates that the society wishes to have more of a particular attribute or dimension whereas a negative score indicates the opposite.
* p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001, ns. = nonsignificant.

According to F. R. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's (1961) value classification system, we grouped the nine societal culture scales loosely under four prominent headlines for easier access (Szabo & Reber, chap. 5, this volume): time, human–environment, relational, and activity orientation (see also Szabo et al., 2002). Using this classification, we followed a suggestion made by our Austrian GLOBE colleagues. Time Orientation describes the way in which a society uses time, and whether a society is oriented toward the past, present, or future. Human–Environment Orientation describes people's relationship with the world. Relational Orientation describes the way in which people in a society define themselves and others. Activity Orientation describes, among other things, the way people try to force things or influence life (e.g., doing vs. being).

Time Orientation

Future Orientation (similar to the Confucian Dynamism dimension by Hofstede & Bond, 1988) measures the degree to which a society encourages and rewards future-oriented behaviors (for all the scale definitions, House et al., 1999). The “As Is” score for Future Orientation stands at a very remarkable 4.73, ranking the Swiss in second position among all of the countries participating (2/61). The “Should Be” value for Future Orientation does not differ significantly (Mean [M] = 4.79,) but the comparative rank drops to 59/61, suggesting that many other countries are also, and much more concerned about, becoming stronger in future oriented. With respect to the high level of economic development (which also means planning, investing, and saving), the predominant educational standards (which also means delayed material gratification) and the religious roots of a partly Calvinist society (which also means hard work and less fun in the present), it was to be expected that Switzerland should have fairly high results here. The “Should Be” data, which could be interpreted as medium to high, meets this expectation to a considerable extent. However, at first sight, we would have assumed a higher score. This is reinforced by the fact that the worldwide ranking is extremely low (see previous discussion). But in contrast to many other countries, the perceived (“As Is”) orientation to the future is on the same level as the expectation expressed. This result reflects our theoretical considerations (Wunderer & Weibler, 2002). The expression of the Swiss's orientation toward the future includes their outstanding thrift. Their saving rate is among the worlds highest. Money is invested in long-term objects rather than spent on short-term amusement: “rather on house and a car than for dinner, rather on streets and buildings than on personal staff” (Bergmann, 1990, p. 364, translated). The Future Orientation manifests also in investments for education, which have increased to $16.1 billion (Swiss Federal Statistical Office, 2003).

The reason for the discrepancy of 57 positions between the “Should Be” versus “As Is” global ranking can mainly be seen in a nonexisting need for a more extreme position on this dimension. Because every dimension also symbolizes a function for the survival and progress of society, one has to realize that this problem-solving attitude works pretty well. So why change it?

Human–Environment Orientation

Uncertainty Avoidance measures the degree to which a society strives to avoid uncertainty by norms, rules, rituals, plans, bureaucratic practices, and so on. Uncertainty Avoidance in Switzerland reaches a level of 5.37, the highest of all the “As Is” values worldwide. The “Should Be” value is much smaller, with a mean of 3.16; no other country has a lower value. A paradox? Not at all.

On the one hand, the explanation for this finding is that the contemporary willingness to take risks is rather low (see also Wunderer & Weibler, 2002). One's own actions are guided by rules, given structures, and so forth. Hofstede's work (1980) revealed a comparable result, although not as pronounced. The reason might be that Hofstede uses a slightly different operationalization of this dimension. The Swiss work ethic and Swiss values even reinforce this tendency. For instance, insurance policies for every possible event in life are widely offered and taken out; a great many laws regulate nearly every sphere of life. If something is not regulated, regulations will almost certainly be called for as soon as they are required. This instance, too, is due to historical circumstances: “Switzerland was a poor country for a long time; today, it is a small country surrounded by big neighbors. Accordingly, one is used to preventing, neutralizing and avoiding risks” (Bergmann, 1990, p. 364, translated). Owing to political and economic reasons, Switzerland faced the necessity of making the environment more predictable and more controllable for centuries. This led to numerous precautions, norms, and rules, which has obviously had a bearing on the fact that present-day societal culture is perceived as extremely uncertainty avoiding. This underlying basic position is reflected in business politics. Swiss companies are commonly less eager to conquer new markets than they are to enforce quality standards by continuous improvement and thereby maintaining their hold on the market by means of the “Swiss Quality” label (cf. Bergmann, 1990).

On the other hand, it can be observed that people want to change this risk-averse orientation. This can be explained by the fact that for a long period of time, unpleasant “side effects” (such as inflexibility, the obstruction and delay of innovation) of these Uncertainty Avoidance strategies occurred to an increasing extent. Switzerland is seen to be inadequately experimental and innovative, although it holds the highest rate of patents (Bundesamt für Statistik [BFS], 2005), as well as the highest number of Nobel Prize winners per capita (Kanton Zurich, 2005) which contrasts sharply with the preceding sentence at a first glance. The point is obviously that the connection of thinking (inventing) and the acting (implementing) is insufficient. For instance, too few people try to set up their own businesses. The mental constitution for risk taking is lacking and the excessively regulated environment is a significant barrier. The impressive wish for a reduction of these constraints is a clear indication of a perceived need for fundamental change. This change can mainly be achieved through improved background conditions at the societal and economic-political levels. A possible starting point might be a reduction in unnecessary regulations, the enforcement of self-responsibility, ideological support for encouraging the willingness to run risks, a reduction in nonfunctional power in favor of fluctuating hierarchies, and favorable attitude toward training the critical faculty in good time (Weibler, 1999).

Relational Orientation

The dimensions of Power Distance, Gender Egalitarianism, Humane Orientation, and Collectivism (subscales: Institutional Collectivism = Collectivism I/In-Group Collectivism = Collectivism II) belong to this category. They all describe different qualities of social relations, whether with respect to the relations between those who have or do not have power, between the sexes, between people in general, or between a single person and a group. To summarize, the Swiss people prefer a more democratic, humane, and group-oriented society where men and women play an equal part than that which is perceived right now. In detail:

Power Distance. Power Distance measures the degree to which a society expects and agrees that power Should Be unequally shared (or distributed.) The Swiss respondents express the view that their society has quite a high level of Power Distance (4.90) “As Is” and that it needs much less, 2.44 “Should Be.” This leads to a difference of nearly 2.5 points. However, this discrepancy is on average virtually identical in all the other countries so we must not detect any special cultural reasons that are responsible for it. To us, this represents a reference to worldwide power stratification where individual wants and societal practices are at odds. But we are able to add some insights that will nevertheless reveal some cultural aspects. Because democracy, freedom, and self-determination are known to have been basic and stable cornerstones of the Swiss national consciousness for centuries, it is explicable that Power Distance—just like in Hofstede's research (1980)—achieved a low grade on the “Should Be” scales. This fits clearly with the historical development of Switzerland. Typically, the best-known Swiss stories—the legends of William Tell and the Foundation of Switzerland—have as protagonists individuals (like William Tell) or groups (the representatives of the cantons Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden) who successfully revolted against authority and the abuse of power. In 1998, the political commentator Höpli stated, “If we are proud of anything at all, then it still tends to be the descent from an alpine herdsman and farmer culture whose leaders knew how to defend themselves successfully in their valleys against the yoke of foreign lords and judges” (p. 2, translated)—as opposed to the constitution or a republican myth¹⁷ (Weibler & Wunderer, 1997). Even today, an emphasis on power differentials—for example, status symbols—is felt to be annoying in many places (Müller, 1990, p. 374). Accordingly, a leader's authority is accepted as long as he or she displays competence and honorable behavior. This presupposes that leaders “have to work as long and as hard as their employees; they are not supposed to see themselves as more valuable than others because of their position … they Should Be there for their employees at all times, they should not ask for any privileges and deference … and they have to be willing and able to help out if necessary” (Bergmann, 1990, p. 368, translated).

Gender Egalitarianism. Gender Egalitarianism measures the degree to which a society minimizes gender role differences (a medium score means that masculine and feminine roles are recognized to the same extent; i.e., differences are minimized). The respondents recognize a high level of emphasis on the male role “As Is” (M = 2.97), ranked 54/61, but would like to see significantly more emphasis on gender equality (M = 4.92), ranked 13/61. This reveals that in fact men still dominate and gain more attention. This was already noted by Hofstede (1980). This current desire for greater egalitarianism, even slightly preferring feminity, reflects a shift that can be observed in many GLOBE countries. It fits with basic Swiss values like autonomy, equality, and loyalty. Yet it must be noted that in the past few decades, a convergence toward equal rights has been taking place in almost all of Western society. Thanks to this development, more importance has been accorded to women's concerns. So far, it is virtually impossible to point out which results can be traced back to cultural influences or cross-national trends in the evolution of values.

However, until now basic Swiss values such as self-determination and loyalty have little influence on an equal gender distribution of important positions in society. Indicators for this include the extremely late introduction of women's rights to vote (cf. The discussion in Section 2) and women's underrepresentation in public offices. At the Parliamentary elections in 1995, the proportion of women among the Nationalräte rose to 21.5% (Bundesamt für Statistik, 1998). However, participant observation confirms that currently, a great number of discussions and attempts to secure equal opportunities for women are going on; in 1995, an Equality Act was passed. This Equality Act supports the implementation of constitutional equal rights designed to protect women against discrimination, mainly in economic life (Segesser, Sonderegger, & Stampfli, 1996). However, an enormous number of discussions and publications on the subject of equal rights are concurrent with a recognizably smaller number of specific actions (Wunderer & Dick, 1997). The central obstacle in the way of equal rights is an inadequate infrastructure, which if removed would enable the unity of family and work. The supply of places in kindergarten and day nurseries in Switzerland is clearly below that of many other European countries. In addition, there is nothing like a legally guaranteed maternity leave (i.e., vacations for looking after a child during the first months), and working mothers thus still have to face prejudices (such as being called a “bad mother”) although this issue has been of public concern for at least two decades. Switzerland's position with respect to Gender Egalitarianism is still on a low level. In this regard, Switzerland, which is otherwise highly developed, has remained an underdeveloped country (cf. Hollstein, 1989).

Humane Orientation. Humane Orientation measures the degree to which a society encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, friendly, caring, and compassionate. The “As Is” score for Humane Orientation stands at a moderate low 3.60, ranking Switzerland at the absolute lowest quartile of GLOBE countries. The “Should Be” value for Humane Orientation records a significantly higher 5.54 and the comparative rank rises to 22/61, suggesting that “softer” and “fuller” thinking and behavior might be an asset for this country. The expressed values in this dimension are closely related to an element of its national identity: Solidarity, whose importance can be deduced directly from Swiss history.¹⁸ This was for example, demonstrated in Swiss people's great helpfulness during and especially after the two world wars (Im Hof, 1991a, p. 268), although as we know today, the solidarity of some parts of the population during the two world wars was only one side of the medal (the other side stands for economic interest). Today, tolerance and responsibility are the central educational goals in Switzerland (Pagnossin Aligisakis, 1991, p. 108)—two virtues that refer to the constructs of Humane Orientation and solidarity in functional relationships.

However, it is completely unclear if the values for politeness, generosity, and tolerance will have a chance to develop at a more intensive quality. We can speculate wildly about the discrepancy between the “As Is” and “Should Be” scores. Presumably, one major instance is the high score of Performance Orientation for Switzerland, which would be partly opposed to Humane Orientation although many substantial reforms originated in Switzerland, for example, the maintenance of industrial health and safety.¹⁹ To make matters worse, the common concentration on individual achievement supports competition rather than cooperation and solidarity. The tense economic situation and increasingly fierce competition (the increase in job performance assessment in companies being a case in point) intensify this fundamental problem even more. In addition, the high degree of institutional Humane Orientation (public welfare) intensifies an individual's feeling that the responsibility for any social problem can be passed on to one of the many public institutions. The attributes of willingness to help, empathy, friendliness, tolerance, and generosity are obviously more easily propagated than practiced—worldwide. This doubt is supported by the results from a study by Berthouzoz (1991, p. 162), who showed that 52% noticed a decrease in people's willingness to help in Switzerland. Increasing individualism, materialism, loss of guiding ethical values—which are shared unquestioned by the vast majority—a domination of economic thinking, also in matters that are not economic in origin, indubitably erodes the foundations of solidarity. The fact that, as repeatedly reported in the media, it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill honorary offices, points in the same direction. From a foreign affairs point of view, it is remarkable that as in other Western European countries, some people display resentment toward persons entering the country without official documents. Changes in legislation have made it more difficult for refugees to be granted asylum in the last few years. However, one should not forget that Switzerland has the highest rate of foreigners in the whole of Europe (which is partly forced by the restricted law to get the Swiss nationality) and is currently very helpful in giving refugees a temporary safe haven.

In-Group Collectivism and Institutional Collectivism. In-Group Collectivism denotes the degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations, work groups, or families. Institutional Collectivism refers to the extent to which social institutions or institutional practices encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and collective action. A mean “As Is” score of 4.06 (Institutional Collectivism) and 3.97 (In-Group Collectivism) suggests that Switzerland is neither on the collectivistic nor on the individualistic side. In contrast, the In-Group-Collectivism score for Switzerland ranks low (56). This expresses a comparably stable focus on individuality, which German-speaking Switzerland has in common with its direct neighbors Germany and Austria as well as with some Northern European and Anglo-American nations. Therefore, we interpret Switzerland's score to be rooted in religious, political, and industrial characteristics that are shared with several nations from these country clusters. The respective states are all well known for more or less appreciating rights of the single person with respect to intended influences from the state. Nonetheless—and despite some method differences in the scale compositions (House et al., 2004, p. 461ff), the “As Is” and “Should Be” scores for Collectivism indicate that the participants of the GLOBE survey wish to enhance the collectivistic values from a nearly balanced score to higher levels (Institutional Collectivism: 4.69, Rank 33; In-Group Collectivism: 4.94, Rank 61), though this raise is undoubtedly not very strong based on the international average. It appears that Swiss people feel quite comfortable being integrated within groups of manageable size, yet they also seem unwilling to give up their identity in this “collectivistic” constellation. This fits in quite well with tendencies that we identified in our historical analysis: the principle of emotionally favoring affairs that are close at hand, not excessive in size, and understandable (first the community, then the canton, then the Confederation). In summary, Swiss people seem to have a clear imagination about being embodied in social entities and society as a whole while maintaining their own individuality and respecting autonomy and freedom. The societal cultural practices do not differ from the respective societal cultural values as much as they do in other nations.

Activity Orientation

Performance Orientation. Performance Orientation measures the degree to which a society encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence. The “As Is” score for Performance Orientation stands at a high 4.94, ranking Switzerland at the absolute top position of GLOBE countries (1/61). The “Should Be” value for Performance Orientation records a significantly higher 5.82, but the comparative rank drops to 39/61, suggesting that many other countries are also concerned about becoming more performance-oriented. After all that we have learned about Switzerland's historical and religious roots, this high Performance Orientation cannot be surprising.

An important explanation for the high degree of Performance Orientation can be seen in the traditionally strong work motivation, which is presumably mainly rooted in Protestant Calvinism:

To this extent, Calvinism was one of the major driving forces behind the distinct Swiss work ethic (see also Weber, 1972a, 1922/1972b) and we cannot conceive the modern Switzerland without the immigration of the “huguenotian” watch makers in the 17th century.²⁰

Like scientific research, daily observation also reveals even today that work is valued highly within Swiss society. “The Swiss are plain, thrifty and have an obsession with work” (Riklin & Möckli, 1983, p. 95, footnote 432, translated). In a representative survey, 87% out of 1,400 people stated that work was a very important or quite important part of their lives (Melich, 1991, p. 6). An initiative to reduce working hours failed in a plebiscite in December 1988 (Pagnossin Aligisakis, 1991, p. 116). These findings alone suggest that Performance Orientation ranks highly in Swiss society. The distribution of answers to the question “Should better performance at work command higher pay?” in the aforementioned survey shows this even more clearly: 72% of the men and 65% of the women interviewed answered in the affirmative. Agreement is particularly high among the German-Swiss (men: 77%; women: 71%) (Pagnossin Aligisakis, 1991, p. 110). Outside the working sphere, Performance Orientation manifests itself in the great importance ascribed to primary and secondary education. In 1984, a total of 84% of the interviewed parents regarded performance motivation as an important or very important educational goal (Sieber, 1984). The level of education in Switzerland is correspondingly high: four out of five 25- to 64-year-olds continued their education beyond the compulsory number of years; however, only 10% have a university degree (Bundesamt für Statistik, 1998, p. 417). The importance of education in Switzerland however might not be reflected in the percentage of university degrees obtained (which actually is quite low as compared to other developed countries). Far more typical is a broadly supported apprenticeship where Swiss teenagers learn to value professional achievements.²¹

The high priority given to work by the Swiss can also be traced back to Switzerland's particular history. As a poor, barren, and mountainous country, the Swiss had to show a great deal of effort and skill in their struggle with nature. Like many other countries, Switzerland had its own special problems with the economic situation and with poverty at the beginning of the century. In the reconstruction period after the First World War, hard work and an understructured industry seemed to be the main driving force behind economic upswing. The Swiss Farmers’ Newspaper announced in January 1924: “Abroad, daily working hours grew longer to overcome the post-war crisis. Switzerland, with a lack of coal and other raw materials, had to follow this example to survive the pressure exerted by competition on foreign and Swiss markets. Prosperity of the people through work!” (quoted after Lalive d'Epinay, 1991, p. 18, translated).

During the Second World War, an additional predicament occurred: Surrounded by the Axis powers, the Swiss workforce became a major source of independence to the Swiss people. In 1940, the head of the federal office in charge of food logistics in times of war, Friedrich Wahlen, worked out a survival plan with the goal of “achieve the greatest possible autonomy in the supply of the country through a gigantic national effort in rational use and … widely improved management of all reserves and deposits of raw materials and a strict employment organization, and he went so far as to convert public parks and gardens into arable land” (cf. Lalive d'Epinay, 1991, p. 40).

Swiss efficiency, always in close connection with security, order, and seriousness in life's affairs, comes through in our research. But what might be the reason for the fact that Performance Orientation tends to be high, but lags behind its own claims (“As Is” vs. “Should Be”)? If we want to explain the results, we have to examine the operationalization of this dimension. The actual result of Performance Orientation is measured (a) by the extent to which rewards are based on performance and other factors, and (b) by the extent to which innovative actions that aim to improve performance are rewarded. Several things have to be mentioned: Performance is becoming decidedly an important basis for rewards in Switzerland, but it is not the only one. Informal relationships, for instance, play a major role, as does—or rather did—military rank. Innovative behavior that aims at performance improvement, and is always also linked with a certain risk, is definitely not invariably rewarded by the Swiss, who tend to be rather careful (cf. Uncertainty Avoidance). In addition, existing structures in many places obstruct innovative behavior rather than supporting it (Wunderer & Weibler, 2002).

A glance at the international “Should Be” ranking with regard to Performance Orientation reveals that the highest ranks/top positions are occupied by many countries, such as El Salvador, Zimbabwe, Slovenia, and Venezuela, which rank far behind Switzerland in terms of economic development and in which a great deal of development work remains to be done. This is exactly a matter that is bound to require a high level of Performance Orientation. The need for Performance Orientation is much higher in those countries than in more highly developed countries with comparatively stable economies like Switzerland. Almost half of the Swiss interviewees stated that they wished work would become a less important part of their lives. In particular, the younger generation—the economic beneficiaries of their parents’ hard work—are less ready to make sacrifices for the benefit of work (Ulrich, Probst, & Studer, 1985; Widmaier, 1991).

However, observers might ask how a balanced, egalitarian ideal can cohabit with the high rewards for performance that leads to social and economic differences inevitably? One explanation could be that Swiss people perceive higher monetary rewards not as an implement to buy more hierarchical power but as a substitute for it. For instance, Frey and Kucher (2001) demonstrated that Swiss state employees are better paid in cantons with more direct democracy and therefore less individual discretionary power. We need more kinds of such approaches to understand paradoxes in societal culture dimensions. We are just at the beginning.

Assertiveness. Assertiveness measures the degree to which individuals in society are allowed to be dominant, aggressive, and confrontational in social relationships. The Swiss respondents express the view that their society has just a slightly high level of Assertiveness (4.51 “As Is”) and that it needs much less, 3.21 “Should Be.” This shift mirrors a tendency in the international comparison, although the comparative rank of the “Should Be” score at 54/61 suggests that other countries are more focused on the reduction of Assertiveness at this point in time. We think that the wish to reduce assertive behavior is more related to face-to-face relationships (e.g., leadership relations) than to structural forces that coregulate a working community. For this face-to-face relationship a lower score, as it is intended for Switzerland, seems to be the most advantageous in this respect: In a strongly federalist country with largely autonomous cantons, diverse ethical groups, and different languages and religions, it is always necessary to weigh up the various interests, to find compromises, to keep the balance between adaptation and steamrolling. This is the only way a pluralist society made up of several autonomous entities is able to continue existence peacefully. On the other side, it is evident that on a more abstract level this kind of cooperation might be forced by structures to protect it from the unpredictable movements of fate. Swiss people call this “forced consensus.”²² The need to build bridges and to smooth the edges is omnipresent in Swiss society. Only a few, but remarkable examples of this Swiss way are selected: a multilinguistic school system where every Swiss learns at least one of the other national languages; a military service where every young Swiss man learns to overcome ethnic, religious, and especially social barriers and to tie an informal network; an institutionalized social dialogue between managers, politicians, and workforce unions that Swiss call “work peace” (for the last point, see Hilb & Wittmann, 1992); a collective “bottom-up” decision making in political institutions (which Swiss call “principle of collegiality”). Here, the Swiss quest for a balance culminates into a regulative called “magic formula,” which enables most ethnic, religious, geographical, and political fractions to be represented (Wunderer & Weibler, 2002). This in turn is a very Swiss paradox: Though all major fractions take part in the decision, each one is a minority by itself.

However, this cooperative behavior is easier to realize in the political section than in the economical one where competition in and between organizations is still the leading principle. So you cannot be astonished that the respondents experience Assertiveness in their daily occupational life, primarily on the personal face-to-face basis, as we assume. A shift according to the value numbers of the “Should Be” dimension seems to be more realistic when more cooperative behaviors are practiced on the economic structural level, for example, between firms and when success of this behavior is seen. The current discussion in management about “co-opetition” (Brandenburger & Nalebuff, 1996) or “interorganizational cooperation” (Buckley, 2000) or “networks” (Provan & Milward, 1995) leads to this direction.

So far, we have had an intensive look at societal culture in Switzerland as presented by the findings of our survey, and discovered a clear relationship between these findings and the historical cultural development in Switzerland. After this inevitably extensive description and analysis of the basis of Swiss societal culture, we would like to turn the focus on to the kind of Swiss leadership that is regarded as outstanding.

Leadership

The challenge of this chapter is to outline a picture of an insight into outstanding leadership in Switzerland in terms of the interpretations of societal culture laid down previously. As we said in the introduction, we rely on the implicit leadership approach (Lord & Emrich, 2001; Lord & Maher, 1991; Shaw, 1990). This theoretical work suggests that individuals have implicit theories of leadership in their minds that distinguish leaders from nonleaders, effective leaders from noneffective ones, and so on.

Results of the Quantitative Study

As mentioned earlier, the middle managers who formed part of the Swiss sample were asked to rate various leadership items on a scale between 1 (greatly inhibits a person from being an outstanding leader) and 7 (greatly contributes to a person being an outstanding leader). The items were internationally grouped into 21 leadership scales (cf. House et al., 2004).

Figure 8.1 gives an overview of the 21 leadership scales used in our study, which enables us to have a deeper look at expected leadership attributes and behavior. To begin with, we would like to note that the vast majority of these leadership scales are not statistically influenced by industry, age, or sex (N = 321).²³

Figure 8.1 Values and positions of leadership scales in Switzerland (prototypes)

Contributing factors: The characteristics of leaders that are deemed by the respondents to contribute to outstanding leadership are seen as a mixture of personality traits (e.g., performance orientation, decisive, administratively competent, modesty, autonomous, and integrity) and attributes and behaviors that are only or mainly relevant in interpersonal relationships (inspirational, visionary, diplomatic, self-sacrificial, humane, team integrator, and collaborative team orientation). In this regard, Switzerland does not hold any clearly special position worldwide, particularly if we take a look at the absolute distinction. One might even say that the attributes regarded as a characteristic of outstanding leadership in Switzerland are (on average) compatible with most other countries, especially as there are no extremes to identify (see Table 8.2). As Weibler et al., (2000) have shown, this does not mean automatically that the meaning of scales is identical for each culture. However, further research is needed to clarify this point.

Inhibiting factors: At the end of the rating scale, we find self-protective, autocratic, inconsiderate, lone wolf/unsociable, and anti-innovation attributes and behaviors. They are partly also judged negatively in an international comparison. Autocratic and nonparticipative behavior in particular prevents leaders from being acknowledged in Switzerland to an extreme extent. This is in line with our description of Swiss culture, which was generally characterized by the negative classification of this element.

TABLE 8.2
Values of Leadership Scales in Switzerland

Leadership Dimensions	Score	Rank	Band
Integrity	6.36	13	B
Inspirational	6.25	26	B
Visionary	6.12	30	B
Performance Orientation	6.08	31	B
Decisive	5.86	30	A
Team Integrator	5.59	50	B
Administratively Competent	5.51	49	C
Diplomatic	5.27	46	A
Collaborative Team Oriented	5.25	49	B
Modesty	4.88	38	B
Self-Sacrificial	4.88	39	B
Humane	4.65	38	B
Autonomous	4.13	16	A
Status-Conscious	3.81	46	C
Conflict Inducer	3.36	54	C
Procedural	3.00	57	D
Face Saver	2.46	49	C
Nonparticipative	2.20	54	C
Self-Centered	2.00	39	C
Autocratic	1.91	59	D
Malevolent	1.60	46	D

Note. Score: Country mean for Switzerland on the basis of aggregated scale scores. Band: Letters A to D indicate the country band Switzerland belongs to (A > B > C > D). Countries from different Bands are considered to differ significantly from each other (GLOBE test banding procedure; cf. Hanges, Dickson, & Sipe, 2004). Rank: Switzerland's position relative to the 61 countries in the GLOBE study; Rank 1 = highest; Rank 61 = lowest score. Difference: The difference was computed by subtracting “As Is” scores from the respective “Should Be” scores. A positive difference indicates that the society wishes to have more of a particular attribute or dimension whereas a negative score indicates the opposite.
Scale ranging from 1 = greatly inhibits a person from being an outstanding leader, to 4 = has no impact on whether a person is an outstanding leader, to 7 = contributes greatly to a person being an outstanding leader (for a detailed description of the scales, cf. House, Hanges et al., 1997; House et al., 1999, 2004)

As in the GLOBE analysis of all the countries (House et al., 1999), our analysis also revealed some statistically meaningful interrelationships among the 21 leadership scales, hence the need to create a second-order factor structure. The second-order solution by House et al., revealed four factors for the present (1999, p. 210):

The aim was to find out if the worldwide second-order factor solution was also valid for Switzerland or if we could discover some Swiss specialties. So the question was if there are significant differences, and how could it be interpreted in this case?

We therefore conducted a maximum likelihood exploratory factor analysis with a varimax rotation (cf. Appendix A).²⁴ The second-order factor analysis produced four factors that were completely identical with the worldwide factor solution before House et al. (1999) decided to split two factors to preserve conceptual clarity. However, we did not see this necessity for our data set, but we preferred to use a different labeling ²⁵ from that employed by House et al., (1999, 2004). We focused more strongly on the leader type (cf. later discussion). The single scales differed slightly in going into one factor or another. The four second-order factors that were identified explained a total of 56.9% of the variance of the former leadership scales.²⁶ However, we were not satisfied with the semantic consistence of the fourth factor. First, the autonomous subscale had almost the same high loading—or rather, an equally low loading— on Factor 1, and the other subscale, self-sacrificial, also had a loading below <.50. Thus we came to the conclusion that we should enforce a factor solution with only three factors. This led to a more stable result with respect to our second-order solution (cf. Appendix C). In total, 51.07% of the variance was explained after this revision.²⁷

We labeled the three second-order factors as follows:

• Great Leader ²⁸ (visionary, inspirational, self-sacrificial, performance orientation, decisive, diplomatic, administratively competent, and team integrator)
• Human Leader (integrity, humane, collaborative team oriented, modesty)
• Ego Boss (autonomous, autocratic, malevolent, nonparticipative, procedural, self-centered, status conscious, face saver, conflict inducer).²⁹

The first two factors contribute towards being an outstanding leader in Switzerland; the third is a rather powerful inhibiting factor in this respect. With regard to one theoretical assumption of GLOBE (culture fit and success), one might call him or her a “Failure Generating Leader.” To us, this factor solution appropriately reflects two main streams in leadership research. First, we can see support for the often replicated OHIO dimensions (e.g., Hemphill & Coons, 1957) when we consider the Performance Orientation subscale in the first second-order factor and the Humane Orientation second-order factor (of course, in a somewhat more modern version). Second, the whole charismatic leadership discussion, restarted after Weber (1922/1972b) by House (1977) up to Bass (1985), fits in with the results quite well. Value, performance, and people orientation (fair, competent, and team oriented) may be the shortest description for an outstanding leader on the basis of these results. At the same time, outstanding leaders have to avoid everything which puts them in the center of attention or leads to solitary decision making, possibly justified only by formal power sources.³⁰

After analyzing the quantitative part of our study, we now want to look into our qualitative findings. This is done as briefly as possible. In particular, we are interested in seeing the extent to which we are able to corroborate our findings and, possibly, add new knowledge.

Results of the Qualitative Study

Focus Groups, Semistructured and Ethnographic Interviews. On the basis of the focus group research and the content analysis of the semistructured and ethnographic interviews, several findings are presented in respect of leadership characteristics in Switzerland. To get a more comprehensive picture of the results we decided to present the findings not separated by method; also because no significant differences in the perception of leadership could be revealed between methods. At best supplements could be found. The views expressed in focus groups and interviews correlated broadly.

The opening question for us to answer was if a difference between leaders and managers is perceived, like it is often mentioned in leadership literature. For example, Zalesnik (1990, pp. 14, 22) wrote on this topic:

Indeed, our empirical findings caused us to conclude that the vast majority of people almost unanimously consider leadership and management to be different, too. When people think about outstanding leadership, they usually associate leadership with the top of a corporation or of a political or military organization.³¹ If you compare an outstanding leader with a manager, the first is spontaneously given a higher rating. Nevertheless, finding examples and situations of outstanding leadership was generally difficult. The interviewees were of the opinion that leadership is something more complex and more difficult. Leadership deals with formulating and achieving goals with people—particularly through the creation of meaning (sense), whereas management has something to do with shaping frames, resources, and processes for efficient goal achievement—particularly in the long run. Leaders, in this view, have a direct impact on followers, whereas managers need not necessarily. A manager's position is more closely associated with goal achievement, technical competence (e.g., problem-solving skills), and the ability to make decisions and enforce problem solutions. Thus the main difference between leadership and management is the orientation of leadership toward people and ideas, whereas the orientation of management is toward objects, processes, and systems. The essence is that both aspects are included in every organizational position, but the importance of the aspects changes: With every step up the hierarchical ladder, leadership becomes more important. However, it seems that this distinction is not always manifest in the participants’ consciousness. Once people reflect on this issue, however, they often arrive at a specific distinction between the two terms.

Other questions and emerging topics dealt with attributes and behaviors of outstanding or worse leaders. It was mentioned consensually that leaders Should Be able to inspire people (Bass, 1985), act as role models, and possess credibility. Also, they should have a fair amount of social competence, particularly the ability to communicate, combined with the readiness to listen to followers. Communication is seen as a duty to inform followers but also as a duty for followers to inform the leader; it is thus never a one-way system. Another important dimension of social competence is the ability to work in a team. This means two things: First, leaders must themselves be able to work in a team; keywords in this respect are cooperation, delegation, and coordination (Humane Orientation and Collectivism; see also Wunderer, 1995; Wunderer & Kuhn, 1992). Second, they Should Be sensitive to team creation, team development, and team maintenance (Margerison & McCann, 1985).³² This point is quite interesting because it highlights other descriptions whereby outstanding leadership is not a “one-man show” (Collectivism). Moreover, leaders are straight (constant over time, direct in the things they want to communicate) and fair. Important tasks are the motivation of people, human resource development, and the establishment and maintenance of a culture. Leaders who do not mainly act in this way will face different problems such as frustration, resignation, demotivation, and rejection of suggestions, and they will have to cope with declining acceptance. Such leaders are unable to persuade followers and to produce the feeling that leader and followers can reach a goal together. They are unable to convey the ideal fact that everyone is crucial to success and to imbue the follower's position with meaning.

The same phenomenon—fascination and mistrust—applies to what is often called a “charismatic leader.” When we asked people about the attributes of an outstanding leader, very often “charisma” was a typical answer. Presenting a vision, optimism, and perspectives evokes admiration but must always be combined with specific goals and steps (Future Orientation). Then again, people are afraid that charismatic leaders will be too dominating and lose contact with their followers after some time, or—even worse—try to manipulate them (Power Distance). This consideration is also reflected, among other things, in the fact that the head of Switzerland's federal government changes every year, by the job rotation of the seven members of the government (this position packs much less power than a “presidency,” it is more that of a spokesperson and representative of the government).

When we asked for prominent outstanding leaders, they were often labeled as people “who master the art of playing to the gallery,” get something moving, and demonstrate independence. Conversely, the followers are afraid that these people may forget their roots and concern for others (Humane Orientation). For this reason, charisma is also viewed in negative terms in Switzerland, presumably much more so than in other countries.³³

The interview results confirm the recent findings whereby integrity (the leader as a symbol; Weibler, 1995), credibility (being a good role model), or general social competencies rank high. Ideally, leaders Should Be able to demonstrate occasionally what they require from others in person; this will earn them a great deal of recognition. Three impressive examples are given next:

During a military ops exercise, the weather changed, and the question arose whether to leave or to stay. The leader decided to leave and drove the truck through a very muddy and dangerous terrain himself. In another case, a company's purchasing department was not very effective. The CEO then assumed the controlling functions in person and bought goods himself. In a very short time, he was able to sharpen employee consciousness in the direction of effectiveness and demonstrate the importance of their department to the whole company. In a final example, a leader in a company also worked at weekends because he had also expected the same of his or her followers for a certain period of time.

Additionally, it is very important that leaders speak the language of their followers and act in accordance with the situation. Followers in Switzerland are often quite skeptical when a leader is very eloquent, which may be fascinating but also produces mistrust. The reason seems to be that a leader who speaks very eloquently tends to be removed from his or her followers (Power Distance).

As we have seen, there is a close link between the leader and the led. Outstanding leaders function as role models. Leaders do not ideally make a distinction between their own person and their followers. No demonstrative privileges are accepted (Müller, 1990, and his empirical findings for leadership in Switzerland). A demonstration of power, such as a new leader moving his or her deputy into a smaller office, would be received very negatively. This result may be valid independently of rank, function, age, or sex, as Reber and his colleagues found, relying on a revised Vroom–Yetton model in a different leadership study that also included Swiss managers. Their empirical findings provide an impressive corroboration of the nonauthoritarian and participative style of Swiss leadership (see also Reber, Jago, Auer-Rizzi & Szabo, 2000; Szabo, Reber, Weibler, & Wunderer, 2001). They found that more than 70% of the variance could be explained by societal culture factors. However, in contrast to GLOBE, they did not differentiate between these societal culture factors but treated them as an amorphous category (Reber, Jago, 1998; Reber, Jago, & Bönisch, 1993).³⁴ Bad leaders lead based on their position or formal power, and this form deserves the label of “headship” (Gibb, 1965) at best.³⁵

Leadership as a social function is generally accepted. It seemed to be clear to our interviewees that someone has to coordinate things and to bear the responsibility for them. Yet they expected leaders to inform their followers in good time, to ensure that communication is open, and to take the group's or the followers’ opinions into consideration and—if there is time— to discuss them. The aim of the discussion process is to find a consensus. However, it is evident in all the interviews that ultimately there must be economic success (“when all is said and done, we want to earn money.”). Anything else is a means of reaching this end. Ethic considerations (Kuhn & Weibler, 2003; Weibler, 2001, pp. 395–460) were not mentioned. The best strategy for leaders and followers is therefore the rational discussion on the basis of facts and figures, as Wunderer and Weibler (1992) found out in another leadership study with Swiss managers. This will also enable followers to execute certain leadership functions (“managing the boss”; Kipnis, Schmidt & Wilkinson, 1980; Yukl & Falbe, 1990; Wunderer, 1992). If this is possible, a leader may expect acceptance and support.

Leaders can gain additional credit by following the opinion of the group, participants said. This applies when the group is greatly interested in an objective and has very good arguments for pursuing a different course (e.g., problem solving). In such a situation, where they follow the opinion of the group, leaders can gain a great deal of respect for the future. The same holds true for leaders who are able to change their minds after obtaining better information than they had previously; an illustrative example (military) was provided by an interviewee:

Consensus is a highly valued maxim and was mentioned fairly frequently. Only when a leader is unable to accept such a compromise, that is, a different opinion regarding the right way to proceed, or when a decision has to be made under pressure of time, will assertive behavior be accepted. But this leader will be expected to explain the reasons afterward. This is another good example where the history of a country can influence present conceptions: Consensus was always a necessity for good and sustained cooperation between the relatively high-autonomous but small states (cantons) of the Swiss Confederation (Collectivism). One is able to underpin this assessment with a slightly different remarkable point. To criticize someone in public—especially in a destructive manner—is not liked (face saving). This also seems to be true at times after someone has left a position. For instance, a former member of the government was criticized from different quarters because he officially expressed an opinion that ran counter to that of the current holder of his office.³⁶ Open communication is often required between the leader and the led, but Should Be restricted to the people who are actually involved. Once a decision has been made, the result should no longer be commented on in public.

Generally speaking, outstanding leaders are expected to think along entrepreneurial lines and in terms of alternative worlds and scenarios. They Should Be ready to put up with inconveniences and be capable of overcoming obstacles on the way toward realizing their ideas. We were told repeatedly that outstanding leaders should have unambiguous opinions. Outstanding leaders should also react fast and flexibly. They are task oriented (Performance Orientation), open-minded (Uncertainty Avoidance), and promote innovation (Performance Orientation). They are expected to bear responsibility, have a clear point of view, be able to make decisions, and have a modicum of technical competence (more so in lower management positions). It is regarded as particularly important that leaders should have a clear point of view. Leaders who are swayed by every idea, act without thinking, change their minds too often, are judged to be bad leaders. In situations where making a decisions is difficult, leaders are expected to run only moderate risks. We have heard many times that Swiss people— as mentioned before—are very cautious and have a high need for security (Uncertainty Avoidance).

Unobtrusive Measures. As mentioned in our methodological discussion earlier, we decided to concentrate our activities here mainly on two aspects: street names and statues, and legends/myths.³⁷ Both possess symbolic significance and bear witness to the importance and appreciation of lead figures and their behavior in and for Switzerland.

The five most prominent leaders (all men) who are immortalized in street names in at least four of the five cities are the following:

• Henri Dufour (1787–1875, general, politician, engineer, geographer).
• William Tell (legendary figure who refused to salute the hat put up for this purpose by one Gessler, a Hapsburg governor. A salute would have been a symbol of personal humiliation or acceptance of this authority by arms. He fought this foreign authority without fear).
• Arnold Winkelried (died ca. 1386, legendary figure who died for his country by sacrificing himself in a dramatic act, thus enabling the troops of the original Swiss Waldstätte to defeat a Hapsburg army).
• Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827, educationalist, humanist).
• Werner Stauffacher (ca. 1291, legendary figure, one of the three persons who swore the original oath binding the first three cantons in faith, truth, and life to driving out foreign authorities; this oath is regarded as the very beginning of the Swiss state).

If we take a closer look at their biographies, we can conclude that these men stand for the following attributes: They are willing to make personal sacrifices for others; they are oriented toward other people; they fight against the abuse of power; they serve the community; they show integrity and are willing to improve the prevailing situation. This also applies to those who were next on the list: First, General Henri Guisan, who was the great national integration figure and symbol of resistance in the Second World War and who formulated the strategy of defending Switzerland, should the need arise, against its enemies from Switzerland's historical core territory, which he termed the réduit; Second, Henri Dunant, who fought for humanity and institutionalized the world's best-known charitable organization, the International Red Cross. Our first two second-order leadership factors can easily be recognized (great leader and human leader). This also means that some of the societal culture dimensions discussed earlier (e.g., Humane Orientation, Power Distance) can be observed in the way we analyzed before.

In conclusion, the profile of societal leadership that emerges from the quantitative study (questionnaire) strongly echoes many of the results identified within the qualitative study. We found a lot of indicators that forced our consideration that societal culture has an influence both on single leadership scales and on all of the three leadership second-order factors that were distilled by factor analysis, namely the Great Leader, the Human Leader, and the Ego Boss.

Fortunately, other researchers commendably examined parts of the Swiss leadership culture in the recent past ( Bergmann, 1986, 1990; Dachler & Dyllik, 1988; Krulis-Randa, 1984; Müller, 1988, 1990; Wunderer, 1990; Wunderer, 2006; Wunderer & Dick, 2006; Wunderer & Kuhn, 1992). Their findings are usually a perfect fit for our empirical results. We frequently integrated their ideas in our reflections. This is not retraced or described in detail here. Besides, we already expressed our appreciation of their contributions before (Weibler & Wunderer, 1997).

5.  CONCLUDING COMMENTS

We have tried to draw a picture of the specific Swiss understanding of outstanding and successful leadership, and have made use of several sources and perspectives. Some findings result in quite distinct silhouettes, which have been yielded independently by other researchers in the same way. There is clear evidence for an influence of culture, particularly concerning how leadership and its context are understood.

Switzerland's strategic situation in the heart of Europe has always catapulted this country into a socioeconomical role that usually only big countries can play. Therefore, Switzerland has always needed to find ways to deal with powerful nations without having the means to defend itself.

The ideal Swiss culture is characterized by a strong orientation toward performance and people. Behavior Should Be clearly orientated toward the needs of the group without, however, surrendering individuality in favor of the collective. It is a culture in which, ideally, living and thinking are orientated toward a planned future. This includes the willingness to abstain from short-term hedonistic desires. In this ideal culture, stereotype male and female patterns of thought and behavior both tend to play an important part. The Swiss desire a culture that does not overweight the importance of assertiveness. They like a culture that is not drowned by excessive formalism, rules, and regulations and in which ostentation and the exertion of illegitimate power is not highly appreciated. By an international comparison, in particular, perceived reality in Switzerland reveals serious differences in interpersonal relations that are experienced as an excessive power distance, an overly masculine orientation of society as a whole and, above all, a perception of society as being dramatically overregulated. The latter one is concomitant with distinctive safeguarding behavior (Uncertainty Avoidance). This gap between aspired and actual culture shows a potential conflict that will enhance the probability for changes in Swiss society in the future.

Practical Implications

Whether modifications in the leadership behavior are likewise probable cannot be illuminated by our study. We were interested in the expectations middle managers have about outstanding leaders and how these relate to the cultural peculiarities in Switzerland. Knowledge about similarities and differences to other cultures “can help the parties at ease” (Javidan, Stahl, Brodbeck, & Wilderom, 2005, p. 72). Swiss leaders as well as expatriates can play a proactive and constructive role in shaping a leadership relation.

Outstanding leadership can be characterized by three second-order factors, which are labeled as leader types: the Great Leader (particularly charismatic/value-based leadership, including Performance Orientation), the Human Leader (particularly integrity, team orientation), and the Ego Boss (nonparticipative/narcissistic leadership, as an inhibiting factor). From this, behaviors can be derived, that Should Be considered by managers in Swiss enterprises:

Hierarchy as a concept of control is recognized and obeyed, if it is connected to a humane role taking, minor claim for authority, and very low formal distance. An Ego-Boss is not favored. In contrast, transformational leadership in terms of Bass and Steidlmeier (1999) is highly favored, whereby the component of charisma is to be classified ambiguously. Instead, the new discussion about authentic leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005) leads to a more appropriate description. Outstanding leadership is accepted only if it is connected with high ability for consent and modest manners. Furthermore, an efficiency-oriented pragmatism is expected. Leaders as positive “learning models” are appreciated.

A close link between the leader and the led is preferred, where leaders do not forget their roots and where leaders are striking for goals and decisions, which are accepted by the followers. Therefore, harmonizing, ideally consensus, is valued often.

An “alpha leadership” (i.e., dominant “headman”) comprehension, as can be observed in some cultures, contradicts the general understanding and nature of the Swiss Constitution (here particularly: direct democracy). Therefore “leadership by delegation” is strongly preferred but seldom practiced (cf. Weibler & Wunderer, 1997). Ideas of democratic leadership (Weibler, 2004a), for example, avoiding a know-it-all attitude, information sharing, or discussions without coercion (Weibler, 2004b; Wunderer 2006) are a good path to take in Switzerland.

It is not a contradiction, rather, one of the existing paradoxes in Swiss leadership (at first glance), that hierarchy as an accepted control concept is vivid, too and supported by a social network formation. The small territory of Switzerland, the multiple commitments of the citizens in clubs, training seminars, and so on, as well as the regional roots of citizens, promotes remarkable social networking. In such networks, one learns quickly of the possibilities of multiple encounters in life. Those who are not merged into networks are often isolated. Also in companies, this leads to the creation of visible and reliable connections. Here expectation exists that clear and long-term regulations guarantee equal treatment, justice, and fairness. For this reason, conflicts are carried out rarely in the open. Leaders are well advised to act considerately, not too formally and respectfully.

Limitations

There are certain limitations to generalize our findings. First of all, we cannot speak of Switzerland as a whole, but only for its German-speaking part (which makes up, however, 63.6% of the population, and 71.7% of the resident population). Also, we must concede that the quantitative data comes from the (dominantly male) middle management (maximal 3% to 5% of the workforce) of medium-size and big enterprises in three industries, whereas typical for Switzerland are small-scale companies with a share of over 99%. Except for the banking sector, the investigated industries are not as typical as, for example, insurances, chemistry, and mechanical engineering.

So, our discussion mainly dealt with economic leadership. Even so, we do not think that our interpretation has been merely selective. On the one hand, our reflecting remarks on history, which were used to corroborate the findings, are universally applicable. This is also true for the evaluation of the two realized unobtrusive measurements. Findings by other researchers who conducted surveys involving different types of subjects in the economy are not at variance with our arguments. Even Hofstede's (1980) study, which was carried out more than 30 years ago and was based on data mostly, acquired from employees of one company (IBM) and not from executives, is supported partially by our research (Hofstede, 2001). On the other hand, there are propositions about the values and views of the Swiss population that have been put forward by researchers in other disciplines and go beyond the economic sector, thus providing our results with a wider basis than a mere first impression would suggest. In our opinion, we have therefore offered a well-founded interpretation, which can be examined and put in a more concrete form by other researchers.

Future Research

The objective of the analysis of outstanding leadership was twofold: to acquire scientific knowledge and to determine the importance of leadership prototypes in order to enable people to lead effectively in a country. With this the question arises another: whether leaders who conform to cultural values and standards are able to change factors of successful leadership, such as performance, satisfaction, loyalty, and motivation; and if they are, to what extent (Wunderer, 2006). This also concerns the evaluation of the relative importance of societal culture compared to other variables. The GLOBE study will hopefully present further insights on this in the near future.

We further recognize that there are conceptual schemas of leadership (House et al., 1999, 2004), which do not differ very much anywhere in the world. This means that the idea of a Global Leader acquires a “gestalt.” This is a very interesting result regarding the globalization of the economy. And Switzerland has much to say on this point. Following a recent survey on this field it ranks worldwide 2 (after Singapore) in globalization, measured by four hard facts ( e.g. economic integration via trading or direct investments; Schwarz 2007). Thus, it is evident that special traits and behaviors will produce acceptance and possibly success in many other countries. However, as “prototypes are seldom found in purity” (Brodbeck, Frese, & Javidan, 2002, p. 26) leader behaviors and followers reaction will differ from the ideal in reality. So, leaders will always face uncertainty.

GLOBE was able to answer the “what” questions (integrity, inspirational, performance orientation, etc.). The question as to “how” remains open. Here, we can assume that there are significant differences between countries (how to build trust—e.g., Weibler, 1997b); how to inspire people, how to show Performance Orientation, etc.). However, because we know now what matters most, we are able to evaluate and integrate the rich literature on intercultural communication in a much more focused manner. Likewise, it is now possible to select international leaders based on relevant traits and behaviors, for example, in the course of an assessment center (with respect to more general training efforts; e.g., Kammel & Teichelmann, 1994; Sciuchetti, 1994; Stahl, 1998; Dorfman, Hanges, & Brodbeck, 2004). The following consideration would appear to be very important in this context: Global leadership skills may hardly be acquired by means of training, or only in parts (the global “what” aspect). However, for persons who possess these skills, leadership-training courses make sense because intercultural transfer is then—besides, for instance, empathy and willingness—mainly a cognitive problem that can be solved comparatively easily (the local “how” aspect). Thus, if both these requirements are met successfully and transferred into practice, we can speak of a Global [sic!] Leader.

Certainly, after answering the “what” and the “how” questions, one is inclined to inquire about the “why” in even more detail. What are the reasons for the emergence of a specific culture? Here, joint efforts with exponents of other disciplines, such as ethnologists, philosophers, or historians, are necessary to support the answers found so far, to make them more precise, or to revise them.

The philosopher Kohler (University of Zurich, 1996), for instance, regards the Swiss national identity as based on neither ethnic nor linguistic features, but on the will to political unity. The jurist Schindler (University of Zurich, 1995) underlines this by resorting to the shared fundamental political beliefs, which led to the Confederation and are responsible for its durability. According to Kohler, this gave rise to a fundamental susceptibility to interference, which calls for caution and consideration. According to Schindler, the Confederates therefore developed early mechanisms for settling disputes between the cantons. Is this the root of the request for consensus (for ironing things out, finding a compromise) in leadership, too? And is people's traditional participation in the decision making of political leaders in Switzerland's direct democracy, which is unique in Europe (Neidhart, 1995), also the cause for their request for participation in leadership decision making that directly affects the individual? Are the mental reservations about strong leadership, about leadership concentrated in one single person, rooted in history, as we tried to show? Schindler reminds us that the cantons became Confederates to maintain their independence and not to subjugate themselves to a larger unit. Is this an explanation for the reservations about strong leaders, which can also be seen in the rotating position of the president of the Confederation, who has no institutional influence above and beyond that of his or her colleagues and whose period of office is very short? The “cantonal clause”³⁹ is another example from a different context, namely the idea of federalism, of the limitation of power, which once again symbolizes the virtue of considerateness. Concentration of power in the field of leadership evokes similar reservations, although reality is somewhat different, but the cultural conceptions of what Should Be point in a clear direction.

We are aware that such a macroscopic view cannot embrace all of the details. In case the view becomes more microscopic, increased inconsistencies and paradoxes occur. These inconsistencies and paradoxes led Switzerland during the world exhibition in Sevilla 1992 to present itself under the slogan “La Suisse n'existe pas” (Switzerland doesn't exist) (Altwegg, 2002, p. 41). If this may be a manifestation of an identity crisis on the level of national culture, for the “leadership landscape” of Switzerland this means that general estimations can have their perfidies.

However, the actual function of contributions such as this one is to trigger fundamental reflections, which necessarily cannot measure up to the complexity involved. When all is said and done, we are forced to think our own thoughts and find our own way.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank Dr. Petra Dick for her contributions to this study, particularly for her comments on the historical part and her support for the statistical analysis. We also acknowledge our appreciation to Dr. Wendelin Küpers for his comments on an earlier version of this work. Two anonymous reviewers are thanked for their helpful comments.

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Appendix A

Factor Analysis Based on 21 Leadership Scales

Initial Eigenvalue	Factor 1	Factor 2	Factor 3	Factor 4
Total	5.657	3.332	1.736	1.235
% of Variance	26.94	15.87	8.27	5.88
Rotated Component Matrix
	Factor 1	Factor 2	Factor 3	Factor 4
Administratively Competent	.297	.217	.417	−.132
Autocratic	−.349	.747	.040	.208
Autonomous	−.011	.222	.165	.296
Charismatic II: Inspirational	.274	−.240	.644	.048
Charismatic III: Self−sacrificial	.114	.040	.169	.373
Charismatic I: Visionary	.163	−.265	.717	.101
Conflict Inducer	.027	.580	.07	.065
Decisive	.126	−.005	.698	.179
Diplomatic	.156	.173	.505	.067
Face Saver	.007	.508	−.153	.054
Humane	.754	−.078	.060	.316
Integrity	.541	−.455	.222	−.057
Malevolent	−.401	.647	−.291	.161
Modesty	.561	−.117	.166	−.030
Nonparticipative	−.283	.665	−.104	.108
Performance Orientation	−.065	−.040	.642	.103
Procedural	.245	.707	−.046	−.185
Self−centered	−.112	.716	−.129	.163
Status−conscious	−.104	.477	.115	−.225
Team I: Collaborative Team−oriented	.661	−.082	.310	.085
Team II: Team Integrator	.191	−.172	.636	.053

Note. Maximum likelihood, Kaiser rotation.

Appendix B

Reliabilities of the Leadership Scales (Switzerland)

Appendix C

Forced Three-Factor Solution Based on 21 Leadership Scales

Initial Eigenvalues	Factor 1	Factor 2	Factor 3
Total	5.657	3.332	1.736
% of Variance	28.94	15.87	8.27
Rotated Component Matrix
Leadership Scales	Factor 1	Factor 2	Factor 3
Administratively Competent	.295	.161	.381
Autocratic	–.325	.780	.081
Autonomous	.008	.263	.210
Charismatic II: Inspirational	.276	–.257	.639
Charismatic III: Self-sacrificial	.130	.093	.225
Charismatic I: Visionary	.152	–.277	.727
Conflict Inducer	–.006	.583	.083
Decisive	.130	–.003	.717
Diplomatic	.170	.164	.506
Face Saver	.025	.516	–.138
Humane	.700	–.063	.124
Integrity	.541	–.479	.199
Malevolent	–.374	.688	–.253
Modesty	.565	–.140	.152
Nonparticipative	–.256	.688	–.080
Performance Orientation	–.076	–.047	.657
Procedural	.228	.633	–.067
Self-centered	.082	.743	–.096
Status-conscious	–.088	.427	.070
Team I: Collaborative Team-oriented	.677	–.092	.313
Team II: Team Integrator	.197	–.186	.631

Note: Maximum likelihood, Kaiser rotation.

Commonalities

_______________

¹We concentrate our analysis on the German-speaking area of Switzerland.

²This later discussed fact had already been meritoriously emphasized by a reviewer.

³1990: 63.6% (Bundesamt fü Statistik, 1998) and 1997: 71.7% of the resident population (oral information obtained from the Bundesamt für Statistik in 1998). Also 73.26% of the national income for 1995 can be ascribed to the German-speaking area (authors’ own calculation after consultation with the Bundesamt für Statistik). Cantons were classed according to the linguistic majority. Thus any statements and comments are valid only for this part of the country and do not apply to the three other language areas (French, Italian, and Rhaeto-Romanic).

⁴For example, compare House, Hanges et al. (1997), Weibler (1996, 2001), Wunderer and Grunwald (1980), and Wunderer (2001, 2006).

⁵If possible up-to-date data are used. Deviations are due to delay of publication.

⁶In a representative survey, 80% of interviewees declared that Switzerland is first of all a long of mountains, watches, and chocolate; cf. Stamm, Arend, and Lamprecht (1997, p. 17).

⁷Having collected 100,000 signatures, Swiss citizens are able to demand a total or partial revision of the constitution at national level withing 18 months. In order to carry out such a revision, there has to be an approving majority in both chambers of Parliament. At the cantonal and local levels, there are possibilities for further initiative rights, particularly the possibility to initiate laws (cf. Huber, 1988, p. 131).

⁸There are two types of referenda at the national level: (a) an obligatory referendum (compulsory in certain situations) and (b) and optional referendum (takes place if more than 50,000 citizens’ signatures are collected of if eight cantons demand this within the so-called “referendum term,” i.e., within 90 days after a law has been published in the Federal Official Journal).

⁹No “As Is” evaluations were collected in our context.

¹⁰The 21 leadership scales are presented later.

¹¹Middle managers in this study are defined as being at least one hierarchical level below the top hierarchical level and at least on hierarchical level above the first hierarchical level.

¹²Focus groups are moderated discussion groups where the participants (experts, representatives of the object in focus, here managers) talked about and reflected on — in this case — various management and leadership phenomena.

¹³This was done in a research seminar at the Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Following the GLOBE framework, we conceptualized the procedure in more detail. The work was done by a student (Roth, 1996). Statues were found in the city guides. Street names were gleaned from either special registers or telephone directories (for this, cf. Cavalli 1995, p. 20). More detailed analyses were conducted for the cities of Bern, St. Gallen, and Zurich.

¹⁴This was done in a research seminar at the Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Following the GLOBE framework, we conceptualized the procedure in more detail. The work was done by a student (Jäger, 1996) A very good overview of Swiss legends is given in Keckeis (1995).

¹⁵This was done in a research seminar at the Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Following the GLOBE framework, we conceptualized the procedure in more detail. The work was done by a student (Jüstrich, 1996). No separate analysis is given here.

¹⁶No separate analysis is given here. Selected points are integrated into the text as and when useful.

¹⁷The nonemotional relationship with the Constitution fits in quite well with the emotional distance many German-speaking Swiss seem to have toward their national anthem (Sauser, 1998, p. 5).

¹⁸Through mutual solidarity and reciprocal support, the old Confederates often achieved major victories against supremacy and repression (cf. the subsection History).

¹⁹One of Switzerland's pioneering works wast eh Federal Law on Factories passed on March 23, 1877, which contained regulations on working hours. In the area of international industrial health and safety standards, Switzerland was also the first to take different initiatives, such as the initiative for the first International Labor Convention (1891) and the proposal for the creation of an international authority for industrial security and health standards (1896); Switzerland was also a cofounder of the International Association of Industrial Security and Health Standards (1900). Another pioneering work was collective labor agreements protected by law (cf. Riklin & Möckli, 1983, p. 84).

²⁰This was stressed by a reviewer.

²¹This was especially mentioned by a reviewer.

²²This very helpful example was formulated by a reviewer and partly elaborated independently in a separate publication by the authors.

²³In terms of the comparison of industries, it is worth mentioning that in telecommunications, an outstanding leader scored lower on the leadership scales of conflict inducer, procedural, and status consciousness. The financial service industry's “performance orientation” achieved the highest score in both absolute and relative terms. Women are seen to be significantly more administratively competent, more inspirational, diplomatic, and modest, and less autocratic.

²⁴For the complete 21-scale solution, cf. Appendix A. The main point of this analysis is that the fourth second-order factor found in the worldwide rating was partly corroborated. The other very remarkable point is that the solution is very much in line with worldwide findings in general. Note that the GLOBE scales were designed to measure organizational or societal level variability (Hanges & Dickson, 2004). The scales were not intended to meaningfully differentiate among individuals within a particular society. However, even though the scales were not constructed to provide such information, in some cases it is interesting to assess whether similar factors differentiate individuals within a society. Country-specific factor analysis is intended as an exploration of the themes captured by GLOBE in a new domain, that is, individual differences within a society. It should be noted that, because of the within-society restriction of the GLOBE scales true-score variability (which was based on between-society differences), the loadings of the GLOBE scale's items on within-society factors should be lower than between societies (cf. Hanges & Dickson, 2004). Furthermore, one should not interpret the within-society factor analyses as replications of the GLOBE factor structure. And the absence of a GLOBE factor within a society should not be automatically interpreted as the factor being irrelevant to the people in that country. Rather, a factor may fail to emerge within a society even when that theme is extremely critical because there was no variability in how the individuals from a single society rated the items (e.g., they all rated the items a 7). Factor analysis requires variability and so a factor could fail the emerge because it is extremely critical or completely irrelevant to the people within a society.

²⁵At least for the time being.

²⁶The commonalities are unsatisfactorily weak in part (cf. Appendix A).

²⁷It is important to stress that these three factors have quite satisfactory reliabilities. To calculate these reliabilities for the second-order factors (the partly insufficient ones for the original scales are shown in Appendix B; here we have to remember that their well-documented strength is tested on an aggregated international level), we used the following formula (thanks to Paul Hanges for his support!): reliability = 1 – (a–b)/sigma^2, where a = sum of the first-order scales variances multiplied by their weight squared (here: 1.0), and where b = sum of the first-order scales variances multiplied by their weight squared (here: 1.0) and by their reliability, and where sigma^2 = variance of the second-order factor. Thus the reliabilities are: Factor 1= .72, Factor 2 = .74, and Factor 3 = .83.

²⁸This labeling is somewhat different in substance from the “Great Leader” by Bales and Slater (1955).

²⁹The suggestion by House et al. (1999) to divide the “nonleadership” second-order factor into narcissistic and participative leadership (the scores for the latter had been reversed before) and to split the team-oriented parts from the charismatic-value-based leadership in order to obtain a separate scale to preserve conceptual clarity and fit in better with existing leadership theories, is not discussed here.

³⁰However, we have to refer to two remarkable differences with regard to the worldwide solution in this second-order factor composition. First, “integrity” is classed with the second-order factor, Humane Leader, instead of with the Value-Based leadership factor. Second, “collaborative team oriented” (group oriented, loyal, consultative) and “team integrator” (clear, informed, coordinator, etc.) is statistically distinguishable. Thus at least for Switzerland, this constellation requires further investigation.

³¹It is interesting that as regards the Armed Forces, interviewees adduced examples that referred to their immediate superiors, whereas in the working context, they usually mentioned higher positions such as their or another company's CEOs.

³² See the significance of Team Orientation on the political level by Bütler (1997), who vehemently supports the “collegial principle” and explains its function, for example, within Switzerland's direct democratic tradition.

³³The area of conflict concerning charismatic leadership has been discussed intensively in the literature; compare, for instance, Weibler (1997a) and Steyrer (1999).

³⁴Please note that this result is also valid in a longitudinal view.

³⁵This is the reason why in Switzerland's most famous legend, the hero, William Tell, fought against what the authorities had imposed on him and his compatriots, which involved having to do something that made no sense but required formal obedience only.

³⁶Compare, for instance, the leader in the newspaper, Tagblatt (1998), regarding a financial problem.

³⁷This was done in a research seminar at the Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Following the GLOBE framework, we conceptualized the procedure in more detail. The work was done by students (Jäger, 1996; Roth, 1996).

³⁸Compare also our findings from the interviews and the questionnaire data mentioned earlier.

³⁹The “cantonal clause” of the Federal Constitution provides that only one member of the Bundesrat, the federal government, may be elected from any one canton.