The rapid growth of global multi-national corporations raises several questions about the Western dominance of the English language in shaping ideas about leadership in international business. It has been noted for some time now[i] that most research and intellectual debate takes place in English, and this often leads to views of leadership that reflect Western assumptions. As organisations face global challenges such as climate change, inequality and political uncertainty, both the practice and the language of leadership need to recognise that it can mean different things in different cultures and languages.
A new research project ‘Leadership Language and Visualisation’ suggests that we cannot assume ideas about leadership will translate easily into other languages and cultures. This has serious implications for leaders in global businesses – particularly when considering core organisational messaging, leadership development and cultural change. This becomes even more important when we consider equality, diversity and inclusion. While ideas such as ‘inclusive leadership’ offer a positive direction, they also have limits. Ideas about inclusive leadership are often shaped by Westernised thinking and the English language, which can narrow how inclusion is understood elsewhere.
The Leadership, Language and Visualisation project responded by exploring how leadership is talked about and how it is visualised across two different cultural and linguistic contexts – the UK and Italy – within a large multi-national media company. Translators played a key role to ensure that the Italian language was represented deeply within data collection and analysis. The key research question was to explore how the concept of ‘inclusive leadership’ travels (or not) across language and cultural boundaries.
This matters because leadership communication does more than describe organisational culture. It helps create it. The words organisations choose and the images they use send messages about what is valued and what success looks like. When ideas are translated from one language and culture to another, we cannot assume meanings will travel too. This can create tension between English or Western narratives and the lived experiences of people working in other cultural settings.
To truly create ‘inclusive leadership’ we need to focus less on the label and more on everyday practices shaped by local context. Ideas that feel natural in an English speaking, UK based setting can take on different meanings elsewhere. In some cultures for example, leadership is understood less as individual action and more as shared way of working.
“When global organisations apply one leadership model everywhere without allowing for local interpretation, they risk flattening difference rather than valuing it.”
One of the most revealing insights from the research is that even the word ‘leader’ has very different meanings and associations in different cultures and practices. In some contexts, it is not always a role people aspire to or find relevant in their daily work. People develop their sense of inclusion and exclusion through small interactions, visual signals and routine practices. These moments are often mundane, yet they carry emotional weight.
For example, this might be about reflecting the religious diversity of an organisation in its own context rather than superimposing religious values shaped by a UK perspective. It might be about recognising the social history of a country and how this shapes ideas about leadership, identity and fairness. Centralised, Western leadership narratives may unintentionally reinforce difference, marginalise others or simply fail to connect with local realities.
This suggests that changing leadership is not only about introducing new language or new policies. It also requires paying attention to the symbolic, cultural and visual dimensions of organisational life. Global leaders might want to consider how a UK or English based strategy can translate to different cultural contexts. This means slowing down and reflecting on how leadership is represented and understood.
Inclusive leadership is not a static ideal that can be rolled out unchanged across contexts. It is a practice that is interpreted, negotiated and translated by people in specific places, using specific languages and drawing on local cultural assumptions.
“…one should discover diversity or show that they understand diversity as naturally as possible … otherwise it is forced” – Italian Participant
If organisations are serious about inclusion, they need to engage with this complexity rather than smoothing it over. That means making space for local voices, questioning familiar images of authority and recognising the power of everyday communication. Leadership does not only live in strategy documents or training programmes. It lives in the stories we tell, the pictures we share and the assumptions we leave unspoken. Until those change, leadership may continue to look much the same, perpetuating a Westernised power dynamic that will never be truly global or inclusive.
Read the full Leadership Language and Visualisation report here:
https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/15432709
[i] See, for example – Working with Language: A Refocused Research Agenda for Cultural Leadership Studies Ways of leading in non-Anglophone contexts: Representing, expressing and enacting authority beyond the English-speaking world The importance of national language as a level of discourse within individuals’ theorising of leadership – A qualitative study of German and English employees Studying leadership at cross-country level: A critical analysis and Leadership, Management and the Welsh Language