Imagine you are an American manager leading a team in Japan, or a Japanese manager leading an American team. On paper, everything looks fine. Your team is capable, experienced, and professional. Yet somehow, certain parts of your leadership approach just do not seem to be landing the way you expected.
Maybe the autonomy you intended as empowerment is being interpreted as lack of support. Maybe your feedback style motivates one team while quietly discouraging another. Maybe the flexibility you offer is appreciated by one group while another begins to feel disconnected from the team.
For many managers leading global teams, this tension appears again and again.
So what exactly are employees expecting from their managers across cultures? Is there a middle ground? And in those areas where expectations do not fully overlap, what kinds of adjustments might help leaders become more effective without abandoning their own leadership identity?
Recently, I came across two workplace studies, one from the United States and one from Japan, that offered an interesting window into these questions. What stood out was not simply how different the expectations were, but how much overlap existed beneath the surface.
Employees in both countries value trust, communication, support, respect, and good leadership. In both surveys, employees responded positively to managers who communicate well, recognize contributions, and create environments where people can do their best work.
But this is where things become interesting.
The American survey placed strong emphasis on flexibility, autonomy, constructive feedback, career growth, and trust-based management. Employees wanted managers who communicate transparently, support development, and give people room to operate independently.
The Japanese survey, meanwhile, emphasized mutual support, team atmosphere, communication quality, fairness, and emotional tone within the workplace. Employees valued managers who encourage cooperation, help maintain positive team relationships, and create environments where people feel supported and comfortable communicating openly.
Neither approach is inherently better. But they may shape what employees expect leadership to look and feel like.
This is where I believe culturally adaptive management becomes increasingly important for leaders operating across borders. Not as a rigid framework or personality shift, but as a practical leadership lens, one that helps managers better understand how the same leadership behavior may land very differently depending on the cultural expectations of the team receiving it.
For example:
| Leadership Behavior | Possible U.S. Interpretation | Possible Japanese Interpretation |
| Minimal supervision | Trust and empowerment | Lack of support or involvement |
| Frequent direct feedback | Helpful coaching | Emotionally discouraging if too blunt |
| Flexible schedules | Respect for autonomy | Potential reduction in team connection |
| Public recognition | Positive motivation | Potential embarrassment depending on the individual |
Again, these are not absolutes. Every team and every individual is different. But understanding these tendencies can help global managers recognize why certain leadership approaches seem highly effective in one environment while creating friction in another.
What I find particularly interesting is that both surveys ultimately point toward the same deeper truth: employees across cultures want good leadership. They want trust, communication, support, recognition, and a sense that their manager understands what helps them succeed.
The difference often lies in how those expectations are expressed, interpreted, and experienced.
Perhaps the question for global managers is no longer simply:
“What is my management style?”
But rather:
“How is my leadership being experienced by the people I lead?”
That shift in perspective may be one of the most important leadership skills global managers can develop moving forward.
Surveys Referenced
- A new beginning: Insights from the KPMG American Worker Survey
KPMG LLP (2024) - Teams Where Members “Help One Another” Are Most Appealing
Japan Management Association (JMA) (2018)