leadership and culture

According to recent surveys, the two main cultural tenets that the majority of nations in the globe tend to practice are collectivism and individualism. Japan, China, and Korea are major proponents of the collectivist culture, while the United Kingdom, the United States, and the majority of Western Europe are major proponents of the individualism culture. Hofstede (1980) asserts that the individualism culture favors rewarding those accomplishments accomplished on a personal level, such as humanitarian accomplishments, innovations, fundamental discoveries, and those behaviors that set an individual apart from others, as social status. This culture supports the idea of people or nations working at a personal level rather than a group towards the achievement of the set goals. In contrast, the collectivism culture actively advocates for the embeddedness and working together of people or countries in a larger group towards the achievement of various goals and objectives.

United Kingdom’s Individualistic Culture

Over the years, United Kingdom has been supporting the “I” rather than the “We” perspective of dealing with issues that it faces. There are numerous past events in which the United Kingdom has been involved in that portray its individualistic nature. For instance, in 1992, it opted out of the agreement regarding making Euro the common currency that all the European countries would use to conduct business transactions (Hofstede, 1980). Great Britain argued that it was economically more developed than its counterparts in the European region hence accepting Euro as a common currency to be used would drastically and negatively affect its economic performance. Moreover, the current Prime Minister of United Kingdom together with the supporters of Conservative Party in June of 2016 spearheaded the vote by the United Kingdom to exit the European Union hence further deteriorating its present relationship with this union. Today, United Kingdom is engaging in talks with the various members of the European Union which are aimed at preparing the successful withdraw of the United Kingdom from this union. The United Kingdom has in the past few months being reducing its monthly contributions to the European Union as one of its strategies of showing how determined it is to secede from this union. Moreover, United Kingdom is looking forward to resuming its vote and seat at the World Trade Organizations. These facts confirm the argument that the United Kingdom practices more of an individualistic rather than the collectivistic culture (Hofstede, 1980).

Summary and Analysis of Brexit Wars Rage On

Brexit is known as the continued determination of the United Kingdom to withdraw from the current customs and the single market of European Union. Brexit was undoubtedly inevitable following the referendum that was held in June 2016. The two reluctant remainders, Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May who were Britain’s most senior supporters of the European Union ultimately accepted the “leave vote.” Theresa May who took over from David Cameroon was granted the power to trigger the Article 50 of the European Union’s constitution through the 498 to 114 votes of the Members of Parliament on 1st February of 2017 (Parker & Barker, 2016). The prime minister then formally initiated the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. That action made her drastically lose her power, and the conservatives lost their majority position in the parliament after the general elections that were held in June of last year. May ended up weakening rather than strengthening her hand in the Brexit negotiations. The Brexit vote disrupted the British house, and it was the first time in the history of Great Britain that a national referendum had rejected a status quo and most of the remainder rejected the results of this poll (Eaton, 2017). The numerous past events in which the United Kingdom has been putting its interest as an individual state over those of the other member states of European Union portray how it highly practices individualism culture. That individualistic nature of the United Kingdom played an enormous role in influencing the Brexit vote.

Achievement of Desired Goals

Theresa May who is the current Prime Minister is being forced to accept the fact that a transition period which is not expected to be less than two years will be needed before the United Kingdom can leave the union by March of 2019. However, there are the possibilities that Brexit may be halted with most of the member states of the European Union continuing to show their interest in the staying of the United Kingdom as a member of this union. There are numerous concerns that the government of Britain may end up collapsing due to its conservativeness and the individualistic nature. Currently, the United Kingdom is no longer the fastest growing member of the G7 economy due to its attempts to withdraw from the European Union hence raising numerous concerns over the leadership qualities of Theresa May who is one of the greatest supporters of Brexit (Eaton, 2017).

The best way that this Prime Minister could have used to communicate and lead the United Kingdom towards the achievement of her goals and objectives would be writing a letter to the executive of the European Union in which she would state that her intentions were the United Kingdom to be allowed to practice “soft Brexit.” Moreover, Theresa May could also have advocated for a second referendum as a way of achieving her personal goals. That move would see the United Kingdom have a better chance to send its representatives back to the negotiation table that would help eradicate the chance of a “no deal” outcome happening (Eaton, 2017). Based on the individualistic culture of United Kingdom, the use of “soft Brexit” would see the nation remain in the single market of the European Union hence achieving its economic self-interests though it would be forced to leave the political institutions of this union.

Studies indicate that majority of the group commitments that the United Kingdom tends to engage itself in are characterized by its motive of gaining self-benefit and most of its individualistic interests always trump over those of the group. Both the collectivists and individualists view conflict differently. The collectivists consider battle as a symbol of social failure while the individualists see it as an unavoidable part of life and that no one should be ashamed of it. Outstanding leadership skills are required to solve personal and group conflicts (Koçyiğit, 2015). There are various ways that leaders can use to assist the members of a given group or team to transcend their ordinary selves such as envisioning, setting standards to be followed by all, developing the self-leadership of the individuals within the group, coaching and guiding the ongoing assessment. There is the need for applying competent leadership skills and styles in solving the numerous challenges that are emerging in the European Union.

References

Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in wWork-Related Values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage

Eaton, G. (2017). The Brexit wars rage on. Why Remainers Believe that the Sheer Complexity of Leaving the EU Will Stop it from Happening, 2(1), 23-25. Retrieved January 4, 2017.

Parker, G., & Barker, A. (2016). How Brexit Spelled the End to Cameron’s Career. FT.Com, Retrieved from http://lib.kaplan.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1806384284?accountid=34544

Koçyiğit, M. (2015). The Effect of Leadership Leadership on Organizational Culture Culture. Leadership and Organizational Outcomes, 5(4), 111-122. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-14908-0_7