Centre for Cross Cultural Comparisons
A voluntary association of cross cultural researchers

The Centre for Cross Cultural Comparisons, established in 1997, is an international voluntary association of researchers, students and practitioners interested in the study of preferred leader behaviour across cultures. The CCCC manages research projects, publishes books and academic journal articles, and organises international conferences. The CCCC is a not-for-profit, non-government education and research institution. Our current major project:

OVERVIEW – PREFERRED LEADER BEHAVIOUR AND CULTURAL VALUES PROJECT

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Co-Principal Investigators:

Romie Frederick Littrell, Director, Centre for Cross Cultural Comparisons, Professor, Department of Management, National Research University-Higher School of Economics, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
Email: crossculturalcentre@yahoo.com

Assoc.Prof. Gillian Warner-Søderholm: BI Norwegian Business School, Email:  gillian.warner.soderholm@bi.no

Assoc.Prof. Inga Minelgaite, School of Business, University of Iceland, Email: inm@hi.is 

Andy Bertsch, Professor of International Business, Minot State University, Minot, North Dakota, USA
Minot State University, Minot, North Dakota, USA, 
Email: andy.bertsch@minotstateu.edu

Preferred Leader Behaviour and Cultural Values global project: We can plan and arrange caucuses of participants and interested parties at the academic conferences at the request of participants. 

The project involves national and sub-national surveys of employed businesspeople using Hofstede, Hofstede, Vinken & Minkov’s Values Survey Module (VSM) 08, assessing seven dimensions of national cultural values, and the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire XII (LBDQXII). A new, shorter (50 items) version of the 12-dimension model operationalization has been developed.
Projects using the LBDQ50 are being managed by Prof. Inga Minelgaité at email inm@hi.is

By joining the project all researchers explicitly agree that all raw data from all studies will be available
to all collaborators. IN ORDER TO ENSURE COMPATIBILITY OF DATA AND RESULTS, CLOSE 
COORDINATION BETWEEN RESEARCHERS AND FACILITATORS MUST BE MAINTAINED AT ALL TIMES.

Joint Authorship of Publications
Order and inclusion of co-authors of publications from the project will be by agreement amongst all involved in each sub-project. Generally the local country collaborator will be an author unless the contribution is minimal. We anticipate all publications having multiple authors.

Population
The target population from which to draw samples is employed business people within a country, region, or city. The economic center of the country is the preferred domain if a country-wide sample is not feasible. If possible we need the geographic location (city name, state or province, etc., postal code is the best indicator). The sampling will depend on the resources of the local collaborator.  Again, at a minimum, the economic center(s) of the country/region will be included in the sample.  If resources allow, multiple cities in a country should be sampled. Additionally, single organization/enterprise studies can be accommodated.

It is not necessary to target any specific industry or sector unless this is of interest to the collaborator. We do have a fairly large sample of hotel and casino workers in China to date.  The minimum requirement for the sampling frame is employed businesspeople within the targeted country/region. We prefer samples from all employee levels of organizations unless there is some valid reason to focus on a particular level.

Sampling & Sample Size
The minimum sample size is 400. Due to the length of the survey data checking and cleaning can lead to a rejection of up to 20% of the surveys, so we need to try to collect at least 450.  This will allow for a minimum respondent-to-survey item ratio of 3:1 which is the absolute minimum for a reliable factor analysis. Any sample size less than 300 will likely not be publishable in higher level journals.  A preferred sample size would be 500 and would allow for more credible analysis. The principle investigators intend to use confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), which necessarily requires larger sample sizes for goodness of fit tests. Smaller samples can be utilized, but will yield less reliable and valid results. 

Translation Projects
NOTICE TO POTENTIAL COLLABORATORS; THE SURVEY MUST BE ADMINISTERED IN THE FIRST LANGUAGE OF THOSE FROM WHOM DATA ARE BEING COLLECTED. Translations will be made freely available to not-for-profit researchers. Any translation projects will require at least two initial translators fluent in English and the local language; preferably at least one with English as a first language and one with the local language as first. Their translations should be carried out independently of one another. Ideally two new translators will translate the local language version back to English; at a minimum the two original translators can swap versions. The translators will then work out a consensus version. A pilot test of the translation is required with 10 or so participants. Ideally after completing the pilot administration, the participants should discuss their understandings of the meaning of the items with the translators in a focus group. The requirement is equivalent meaning, not verbatim conversion of words. The LBDQXII has several items that are U.S. English idioms, be careful with these. For example, item 17, “Does little things to make it pleasant to be a member of the group”, can be very difficult to translate in some languages. We prefer to use a single translated survey for each language to insure compatibility of data. Any suggested revisions in our standard versions must be thoroughly vetted with all involved participants and the project managers.

Data Transcription
Where paper surveys are employed for data collection, transcription of the data from the survey form to an SPSS SAV or Excel file can be carried out by the local collaborator or the forms mailed to the USA. Checking and cleaning of the data must be carried out by Romie Littrell in the USA.

The project is self funded by all collaborators, with the exception that the project will fund data transcription of paper surveys sent via post to the USA. We may be able to provide support for data collection in some projects. Ethical approval must be obtained either through your home university or CCCC.


Preferred Leader Behaviour & Values consortium members from Russia, Turkey, and the USA, including Zeynep Aksehirli, Gonca Gunay, Kelly Fisher, Irina Volkova, Valentina Koskova, and Romie Littrell in Istanbul, 2013 
Briefing Geert Hofstede on the project, Istanbul, 2013, Romie Littrell, Kelly Fisher, Texas A&M University Kingsville, & Monika
Hudson, San Francisco State University.
Review of Leadership
and Values project with Geert & Gert Jan Hofstede, and Romie Littrell  in Arnhem, The Netherlands, July 2015.
 -- we also support collaborators using, preferably the PVQ, and the SVS. SHALOM SCHWARTZ' VALUES STUDIES as an auxillary project:

Prior to selecting one of Prof. Schwartz' survey instruments, please read:

Schwartz, Shalom H.; Cieciuch, Jan; Vecchione, Michele; Davidov, Eldad; Fischer, Ronald; Beierlein, Constanze; Ramos, Alice; Verkasalo, Markku; Lonnqvist, Jan-Erik; Demirutku, Kursad; Dirilen-Gumus, Ozlem; Konty, Mark. 
Title:Refining the Theory of Basic Individual Values.[Article]
Source:Journal of Personality & Social Psychology. 103(4):663-688, October 2012.

Abstract:We propose a refined theory of basic individual values intended to provide greater heuristic and explanatory power than the original theory of 10 values ( Schwartz, 1992). The refined theory more accurately expresses the central assumption of the original theory that research has largely ignored: Values form a circular motivational continuum. The theory defines and orders 19 values on the continuum based on their compatible and conflicting motivations, expression of self-protection versus growth, and personal versus social focus. We assess the theory with a new instrument in 15 samples from 10 countries (N = 6,059). Confirmatory factor and multidimensional scaling analyses support discrimination of the 19 values, confirming the refined theory. Multidimensional scaling analyses largely support the predicted motivational order of the values. Analyses of predictive validity demonstrate that the refined values theory provides greater and more precise insight into the value underpinnings of beliefs. Each value correlates uniquely with external variables.

(C) 2012 by the American Psychological Association

Note that the Schwartz Values Survey 56 was found deficient and replaced in the 1990s by the SVS 57, with a "Face" item added to the SVS 58 in 2004. The SVS series has been replaced by the Portrait of Values Questionnaire (PVQ) series, see:

Schwartz, Shalom H.; Melech, Gila; Lehmann, Arielle; Burgess, Steven; Harris, Mari & Owens, Vicki. (2001). Extending the Cross-Cultural Validity of the Theory of Basic Human Values with a Different Method of Measurement, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 32 (September), no. 5, pp. 519-542.

Check for latest version of the draft users' manual and translations of the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) are available by contacting the centre at crossculturalcentre@yahoo.com 








CCCC planning session at EURAM 2018, Reykjavik, Iceland: Inga Minelgaite, University of Iceland,  Gillian Warner-Søderholm, BI Norwegian University, Romie Littrell, NRU-HSE, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation