ABSTRACT
This chapter explores one particularly interesting aspect of 'culture' at work, namely leadership. It aims to illustrate some of the complexities of leadership in different workplaces in Hong Kong, and to critically discuss the potential role of culture. The chapter tries to overcome the limitations by providing insights into both participants' views and perceptions about leadership and actual leadership practices in situ. It shows that in contrast to the perceptions of many of expatriate participants regarding the crucial role that they consider first-order notions of culture to play in their own leadership experiences, there was very little evidence in the interactional data of the kinds of leadership styles described in the interviews. Co-leadership refers to those constellations where typically two people in hierarchically contiguous positions share the leadership role and collaboratively perform the various leadership activities. The chapter explores the analytical dilemma that researchers often face when trying to better understand the complex relationship between leadership and 'culture'.
