Leadership and Stress Orientation of Japanese and Russian Working Adults

This cross-cultural study utilized the full range leadership framework developed by Hofstede’s model of culture, and compared leadership styles and cultural values of 461 managerial and non-managerial employees in government and business organizations in Russia and Japan. In this article, we examine the stress, task and relationship orientations of people in Russia and in Japan. As a result of the analysis of 461 responses, some significant differences were found between the two samples. It appears that Russian respondents have higher scores on task (initiating structure) and relationship (consideration style) orientations than Japanese respondents. While gender is a significant factor in task orientation, results did not demonstrate any differences in the relationship orientations and stress perceptions of these respondents. In this article, literature on Japan and Russian cultures is presented along with practical application, suggestions and implications for future studies. The projected results of this study include better cross-cultural understanding, comparison and assessment of Japanese and Russian leadership by foreign and local organizational members.