By Dr. Timothy Merritt June 6, 2021
Helicopters & Hybrid Airships – Part 2
Figure 1: Hybrid Airship St. Paul transporting cargo above Ice Roads
Connect the North Canada, second largest country in the world, has no year-round road over 80% of its territory. Winter “ice roads” are used to transport cargo in and out of remote areas, but warmer temperatures causes the ice roads to melt, making trucking increasingly unsustainable. HAF aims to operate cargo airship lines in these areas servicing a wide variety of industries including mining and oil production operations. For airship operations, Canada can be considered “right next door” with ease of access and tremendous potential for profitability. Based on the work of Professor Geert Hofstede and over 30 years of research with thousands of global companies, Merritt Consultants is able to quickly provide a comparison between the
dimensions of national cultures. This type of comparison can provide us with useful and practical insights into the types of leadership strategies required for different locations. In this chart, we can see that Canada and the United States produce very similar dimensions. Both countries are developed nations, predominantly English speaking, and were once British colonies.
Figure 2: US & Canada Cultural Comparison
Both countries are part of what has been described as the “Anglo Cluster” which is characterized by an individualistic performance orientation. Further, although they value gender equality, the Anglo Cluster countries tend to be male-dominated in practice. Effective leadership in the Anglo cultures is affected by a combination of charismatic inspiration and a participative style. This last point is especially important. We will demonstrate how comparison of cultural dimensions allows us to examine specific leadership styles, and how they can affect leadership performance in other countries.
References: Ashkanasy, N. M., Trevor-Roberts, E., & Earnshaw, L. (2002). The Anglo Cluster: Legacy of the British empire. Journal of World Business, 37(1). doi:10.1016/S1090-9516(01)00072-4 Godsall, J. (2018). Solarship: the Bush Plane with Buoyancy. Airship. The Journal of the Airship Association, 194(Summer). Hofstede, G. (2020) https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/
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