Culture, leadership and motivation in two Commonwealth Caribbean countries: One look at the African Diaspora

• Published date: 01 December 2014
• Author: Nicole Knight,Reccia Charles,Khaleid Holder,Betty Jane Punnett
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1297
• Date: 01 December 2014

Culture, leadership and motivation in two

Commonwealth Caribbean countries: One look at

the African Diaspora

Khaleid Holder

University of the West Indies

Nicole Knight

University of the West Indies

Betty Jane Punnett*

University of the West Indies

Reccia Charles

St. George’s University

Abstract

Little is known of Caribbean people’s views on their culture

or of their beliefs regarding leadership and motivation. This

study reports the results of a Delphi Technique with people

in leadership positions and focus groups. Across groups, re-

sponses were relatively consistent: ethnicity and culture are

described as inf‌luenced by religion, and Christianity in par-

ticular; African roots and country of origin are important;

effective leaders are charismatic, visionary, results oriented,

and they motivate others, lead by example, and develop vi-

sion and goals. Leaders believe motivation comes from mak-

ing a difference for others. Nonleaders believe leaders are

inf‌luenced by f‌inancial rewards and self-fulf‌ilment;

nonleaders are motivated primarily by f‌inancial rewards.

The results are generally similar to Western beliefs, but

some interesting differences are identif‌ied. Copyright ©

2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: leadership, motivation, cross-culture, Africa,

African Diaspora, Caribbean, Delphi Technique, LEAD

Résumé

Les opinions que les Caribéens ont de leur culture ou les

croyances qu’ils ont à l’égard du leadership et de la motiva-

tion demeurent peu connues. La présente étude rend compte

des résultatsd’une méthode Delphi appliquée à des personnes

occupants despostes de leaders (et à des groupes de consulta-

tion. D’un groupe à l’autre, les réponses sont relativement

identiques : l’ethnicité et la culture sont présentées comme

des entités inf‌luencées par la religion, notamment le

christianisme; les racines africaines et le pays d’origine sont

importants; les leaders eff‌icaces sont charism atiques et

visionnaires; ils privilégient les résultats, motivent les autres,

prêchent par l’exemple et mettent sur pied une vision et des

objectifs. Pour les leaders, la motivation naîtde leur capacité

à faire bouger les choses pour le bien des autres. Les non-

leaders se disent motivés principalement par les récompenses

f‌inancières et estiment que les leaders sontinf‌luencés à l a fois

par les récompenses f‌inancières et l’accomplissement de soi.

Les résultats sont globalement identiques aux croyances qui

ont cours en occident,même si quelques différences émergent.

Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés : leadership, motivation, transculture, Diaspora

africaine, Caribéen, méthode Delphi, LEAD

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the

results of a study on leadership and motivation in the

Commonwealth C aribbean. The cur rent study is part of

the larger project on effective leadership and motivation in

Africa and the diaspora (LEAD). We explore the Common-

wealth Caribbean context and how this context relates to the

results of the current study. We report on the results of the

Delphi Technique with participants from Barbados, St. Vincent

and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago, and the focus

groups conducted in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

Many scholars have called for more management re-

search in underresearched countries (Lituchy, Ford, &

Punnett, 2013) and the Caribbean is noticeably absent from

the extant management research literature (Nurse & Punnett,

2002; Punnett, Dick-Forde, & Robinson, 2006). Little is

known of Caribbean people’s views on their own culture,

or of their beliefs regarding effective leadership and motiva-

tion. Overall, the Caribbean comprises 26 states, including

independent countries and British, Dutch, French, and US

dependencies, with a population of about 41.6 million in

2010 (ILO, 2011; United Nations, 2010). The Common-

wealth Caribbean refers to the English-speaking islands in

the Caribbean and the mainland nations of Belize (formerly

British Honduras) and Guyana (formerly British Guiana)

*Please address correspondence to: Betty Jane Punnett, Department of Man-

agement Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados.

Email: eureka@caribsurf.com

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

31: 245–256 (2014)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1297

Can J Adm Sci

31(4), 245–256 (2014)Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 245