Asian leadership: foundations, diversity and challenges

Asia has seen unprecedented economic growth in the last two decades. The East is now considered a more dynamic growth hub than the ‘slow’ West. Despite this, Asian leaders have often been underrepresented on global platforms. Moreover, the Asian region, with its distinctive sociocultural attributes, is usually not acknowledged at international forums or in Western models of leadership. To better understand Asia globally and sustain its future growth, Asian leaders must grow to prominence. Hence, this chapter has two main objectives. First, the authors review the inherent strengths and common and unique leadership attributes and how they differ from those of the West. Numerous studies on organisational leadership consider Asia as one region, but Asia is diverse, with significantly different cultures and environments. For example, leaders from this multiverse, India, China and Singapore, come from different political and sociocultural backgrounds and differ considerably in their management practices and leadership orientation. Minimal literature has compared these Asian countries. This chapter therefore reviews the existing literature and presents an in-depth review of the critical challenges holding Asian leaders back. In this review, the authors aim to present the attributes and practices needed for the development of Asian leaders in the global context.