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Top1. Introduction
Despite the increasing participation of Chinese immigrant professionals (CIPs) in Australian workplaces, they are still considered a minority in the host culture and their perspectives have been overlooked in management and leadership research. O’Leary and Tilly (2014) reported that, in practice, immigrant professionals of Asian background—Chinese in particular—find it hard to advance to senior leadership positions as they undergo the acculturation process in Australia. Hence, this study centers the voices of CIPs, and explores how their acculturation experiences in Australia may have shaped their perceptions of leadership. Ultimately, this study aims to generate knowledge for cross-cultural leadership competencies training and international talent management from an often-neglected group of workers at the intersections of race, culture, and immigration (Ahluwalia & Merhi, 2020; Alismaili et al., 2020).
Research on acculturation has established that the experience of migrating to a new country typically involves a change of immigrants’ behavior, identity, cultural values, and attitudes (e.g., Guan & Dodder, 2001; Schwartz & Montgomery, 2002). While these studies have uncovered the multifaceted outcomes of acculturation within the boundaries of personal identity, family, and cultural values, the effect of acculturation on an individual’s professional domain remains understudied despite emerging scholarly attention to acculturation and workplace outcomes (e.g., Jian, 2012; Leong, 2001; Lu et al., 2011, 2013). Further, while it has long been established that leadership is evaluated and attributed as “effective” or “ineffective” by followers (Epitropaki et al., 2013), and studying followers’ perceptions has a direct, significant impact on workplace relationships and leadership outcomes (Lord et al., 1984), most of the leadership studies still privilege leaders’ perceptions, behaviors, and values at the cost of the followers’ perspectives. As a result, the leadership field has been criticized as having “idealized heroic performances, impoverished theories & oversimplified templates” (Sinclair & Lips-Wiersma, 2008, p. 211). Problems often occur “where a leader is too attached to a vision, and in its pursuit shows inadequate flexibility, humility and respect for followers” (Sinclair, 2007, p. 20). These problems are magnified in cross-cultural leadership situations (e.g., Suutari et al., 2002) when leadership in developed economies is exercised upon and evaluated by a growing number of international migrants as they undergo acculturation experiences in host countries. This study set out to understand how acculturation experiences might change CIPs’ perceptions of leadership-related issues in the organizational context, such as their perceptions of leadership ethics, authority, and decision-making. An enhanced understanding of CIPs’ perceptions of key issues pertaining to leadership in light of their acculturation experiences will not only bring into leadership “a heightened awareness of subordinate experiences, needs, and values, the role of followers’ perception, attribution, and evaluation of leadership behaviours” (Chen & Van Velsor, 1996, p. 289) to enable better leadership outcomes, but also generate knowledge for better talent management outcomes and inclusion of minority employees in diverse workplaces. Drawing on different strands of literature, the researchers operationalize CIPs’ leadership perceptions in relation to three proxies, namely, leadership ethics (Gao et al., 2011; Ling, 1989; Ling et al., 2000), respect for leader authority (Farh & Cheng, 2000; Farh et al., 2006), and participative decision-making (House et al., 2004; Miao et al., 2013).