Differences on Organizational Practices between Polish Managers Studied in 1996/1997 and 2008/2009

This paper presents a comparison between Polish managers tested in 1996/1997 and 2008/2009 on their perceptions of organizational culture and their beliefs concerning attributes necessary for leadership effectiveness. As was unexpected, our results show that the Polish managers of 2009 score significantly higher than managers of 1996/1997 on Power Distance, Individualism, Gender Differentiation and significantly lower on Future Orientation and Humane Orientation. Our findings suggest that the more individualistic orientation in Polish organizations is still necessary in order to survive and be effective during the present turbulent and highly uncertain economic and business conditions. In addition, Polish managers of 2008/2009 under current conditions are not prone to be especially considerate toward subordinates. Relatively higher scores on Power Distance and lower scores on Humane Orientation on the part of managers being studied in the year of 2008/2009 are also in line with findings concerned with attributes necessary for leadership effectiveness. Mean comparisons on beliefs concerning attributes necessary for leadership effectiveness show that Polish managers of 2008/2009 believe more strongly than do Polish managers of 1996/1997 that an autocratic style, diplomacy, risk avoidance and administrative skills are more strongly associated with leadership effectiveness. As mentioned earlier, managers of 2008/2009, in comparison with managers of 1996/1997, also describe their organizational cultures as higher on Power Distance, Individualism, and lower on Future and Humane Orientations. Differences on Organizational Practices...