Arnulf Jan Ketil, Larsen Kai R
Department of Leadership and Organizational Behavior, BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway.
Organizational Leadership and Information Analytics, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States.
Front Psychol. 2020 Feb 18;11:176. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00176. eCollection 2020.
Likert scale surveys are frequently used in cross-cultural studies on leadership. Recent publications using digital text algorithms raise doubt about the source of variation in statistics from such studies to the extent that they are semantically driven. The Semantic Theory of Survey Response (STSR) predicts that in the case of semantically determined answers, the response patterns may also be predictable across languages. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was applied to 11 different ethnic samples in English, Norwegian, German, Urdu and Chinese. Semantic algorithms predicted responses significantly across all conditions, although to varying degree. Comparisons of Norwegian, German, Urdu and Chinese samples in native versus English language versions suggest that observed differences are not culturally dependent but caused by different translations and understanding. The maximum variance attributable to culture was a 5% unique overlap of variation in the two Chinese samples. These findings question the capability of traditional surveys to detect cultural differences. It also indicates that cross-cultural leadership research may risk lack of practical relevance.
李克特量表调查常用于领导力的跨文化研究。近期使用数字文本算法的出版物对这类研究中统计数据的变异来源提出了质疑，因为这些研究在一定程度上是由语义驱动的。调查反应语义理论（STSR）预测，在语义决定答案的情况下，跨语言的反应模式也可能是可预测的。多因素领导力问卷（MLQ）被应用于11个不同的民族样本，这些样本使用英语、挪威语、德语、乌尔都语和中文。语义算法在所有条件下都能显著预测反应，尽管程度不同。对挪威语、德语、乌尔都语和中文样本的母语版本与英语版本的比较表明，观察到的差异并非文化依赖性的，而是由不同的翻译和理解造成的。文化可归因的最大方差是两个中文样本变异的5%独特重叠。这些发现质疑了传统调查检测文化差异的能力。这也表明跨文化领导力研究可能存在缺乏实际相关性的风险。
