Leadership Orientation of Afghan and Japanese Respondents: A Study of “Guzaara” or Getting Along in Asia

  • Bahaudin G. Mujtaba Nova Southeastern University, College of Business and Entrepreneurship, USA
Keywords: Afghan leadership orientation; Japan cultural orientations; Guzaara; Edaara; Rahbariat; Ba; relationship-orientation; task-orientation

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the leadership tendencies of Afghan and Japanese
respondents by exploring their task and relationship orientations. While there are many published studies on
the Japanese work culture and leadership practices, research about Afghan working adults is limited. Using
the Style Questionnaire, this research collected and compared the leadership orientations of 400 respondents
from each country based on national culture on the task and relationship-orientation continuums. To deepen
the understanding of Afghan leadership tendencies, we explore their culture of “guzaara†(getting along)
practices. Similarly, we discuss the Japanese concept of “ba†(interactive knowledge creation) as one example
of a best practice that can be benchmarked by others in society. Both Afghanistan and Japan are high-context
cultures; therefore, people are expected to be more relationship-oriented. While respondents from both
countries do have a stronger focus on their relationships, data shows that Afghans have a significantly higher
score on both the task-orientation as well as relationship-orientation continuums, compared to their Japanese
counterparts. Implications, recommendations and limitations of the study are provided. The findings that
Japanese and Afghan employees are indeed focused on their relationships, and that they have a moderately
high task orientation scores, are useful for managers and expatriates working in these two Asian countries.

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Published
2019-06-15
How to Cite
Mujtaba, B. G. (2019). Leadership Orientation of Afghan and Japanese Respondents: A Study of “Guzaara” or Getting Along in Asia. Information Management and Business Review, 11(1), 24-39. https://doi.org/10.22610/imbr.v11i1.2845
Section
Research Paper