Leadership and Cultural Differences in Pakistan - Case of Unilever Food Solution Pakistan - Dissertation Example

In this thesis, this gap of not looking into leadership in Eastern countries has been addressed. Leadership characteristics of a multinational company in Pakistan in terms of transactional and transformational leadership have been explored and their relationship with cultural dimensions has also been analyzed.

Questionnaires were prepared on the basis of a literature search on Leadership (Transformational and Transactional) and Culture. The data was collected from both primary and secondary sources and used to evaluate the transformational and transactional leadership attributes of leaders in a multinational company in Pakistan and also to identify the relationship between cultural dimensions and leadership attributes.

Findings show that there are both transactional and transformational leadership exist in Unilever Food Solution (UFS) Pakistan however Transformational leadership is more than transactional leadership in UFS Pakistan and it was observed that cultural specific attributes also impact leadership behaviors, although UFS successfully managed to overcome few cultural specific limitations through its own organizational culture. Moreover, Correlation results show that a significant relationship exists between leadership style (Transformational or Transactional) and some cultural dimensions.

Our thesis will have implications on establishing an organizational culture conducive to transformational leadership and our thesis could be helpful and beneficial for most of the companies working in Pakistan to follow the best leadership practices and overcoming certain cultural limitations to some extent. Our thesis will also be helpful for further research on leadership and its relationship with cultural dimensions in Pakistan.
Pakistan was part of the Indian colony which was part of the British Empire until the Subcontinent gained independence in 1947 and was partitioned into a Hindustani nation and an Islamic nation, Pakistan (Malik, 2006). As the process suggests, Pakistan is an Islamic nation and the Pakistani government is structured on the basis of an Islamic theocracy. As a principle, every Pakistani head of state swears by the Quaran before taking office.
Historically, Pakistan has gone through a period of political instability. A wave of military coup d'etats commenced in 1958 when the country's military suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament (Black, 2010). This led to a period of political unrest which led to the creation of a militaristic society for almost half a century.