LATIN AMERICA CLUSTER
The Latin America cluster in the GLOBE Research Program consisted of the largest number of countries in any one cluster; namely, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela. Three of these countries, Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico, are included in this volume.
The Latin America cluster scored high on only the In-Group Collectivism dimension of societal culture. It was in the midrange for Assertiveness, Gender Egalitarianism, Human Orientation, and Power Distance. It scored low on Future Orientation, Institutional Collectivism, Performance Orientation, and Uncertainty Avoidance (House et al., 2004).
Outstanding leaders in Latin America are expected to be Charismatic/Value Based and Team Oriented. Participative leadership and Humane Oriented leadership are also positively endorsed. Between-country variation is high for Participative leadership and low for Humane Oriented leadership. The range of variation of endorsement for Autonomous leadership is fairly wide from negative in Colombia, neutral in Mexico, and positive in Argentina, for example. Self-Protective leadership is generally tolerated but not positively endorsed.
The most common feature running through the countries of this cluster is that of languages: Spanish and Portuguese. The cluster is also generally known for personalism, particularism, and paternalism (Osland, De Franco, & Osland, 1999). Rule of law is often moderated by personal connections. The concepts of in-group and out-group are quite strong.
REFERENCES
House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W., Gupta, V., & GLOBE Associates. (2004). Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Osland, J. S., De Franco, S., & Osland, A. (1999). Organizational implications of Latin American culture: Lessons for the expatriate manager. Journal of Management Inquiry, 8(2), 219–234.