Ask the SMU prof: A matter of style

SMU Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources Thomas Menkhoff commented on the difference between Asian and Western leadership styles. He said that it would be misleading to compare between the Asian and Western approach, and raised six types of leadership styles that bosses of Singapore SMEs could consider. He also highlighted a leadership survey of Singapore SMEs conducted by SMU, which found that a very large number of the respondents (70.3 per cent) used collaborative-consultative leadership modes, contrary to the initial proposition that directive-coercive modes of change would still prevail among most Singaporean SME owner-managers. From the results, it can be observed that there is perhaps a convergence of Asian and Western leadership styles.