A 2014 study by Grant Thornton found that business leaders in South‐East Asian countries place a greater emphasis on creativity and innovation than leaders in New Zealand.28 While 90 per cent of leaders in South‐East Asia responded that creativity is important and 85 per cent recognised the importance of intuition, only 62 per cent of New Zealand leaders valued creativity and 66 per cent valued intuition. The National Managing Partner at Grant Thornton New Zealand, Tim Downes, explains that this survey reveals how South‐East Asian leaders take a ‘modernist’ approach that emphasises creativity and intuition in the coaching of team members, compared to the ‘traditionalist’ management philosophy of more developed economies. Although Quinn Mills from Harvard Business School has predicted that emerging economies will become more like developed countries as they mature, Downes believes that leaders in South‐East Asia will develop responsive solutions relevant to local markets.

Shedding more light as to how the future of Asian leadership may look, another Grant Thornton study of Chinese leaders suggests that although analytics has become more prominent, the role of intuition will still have a role to play in a new ‘Chinese way’ of leadership.

Certainly, in a swiftly changing and digital world, creativity and intuition will play an important role in leveraging innovation as a competitive market tool. This view of the future of Asian leadership styles is supported by recent research findings that show that intuition has a role to play in strategic decisionmaking, positively affecting organisational performance. Furthermore, a study of Singaporean and Malaysian companies demonstrates that intuition plays a significant role when making decisions in uncertain environments.

QUESTION

What are the advantages and disadvantages of introducing Eastern ‘modernist’ styles into contemporary Western management practices?