A Different approach to Leading: What we can learn about leadership from in-migrant Chinese women in the UK

Throughout the leadership literature there is robust evidence that both gender and culture can have a profound effect on how leadership should be understood and perceived. Studies of in-migration and studies of gender and leadership rarely overlap though, instead often conflating the experiences of all migrants as if culture was not experienced or expressed differently between genders. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the experiences of leadership simultaneously through the lenses of both gender and natal culture.Using a qualitative methodology with a sample of 20 ex-patriate Chinese women leaders in the UK, the study finds highly effective leadership practice, but also several challenges. Notable amongst these is that while the gendered and culturally-informed tendencies to modesty, humility and passivity serve to support performance in the teams these women lead, they also seem to disadvantage the career progression of the women themselves in the UK work context. The paper argues that organisations have much to learn from the person-based approaches to leadership these women exhibit, but that to optimise the advantage of this and to fully realise the potentials for organisational performance, organisations need to challenge their own understanding of leadership to acknowledge and learn from the contributions of people with diverse approaches.