ABSTRACT
One of the major and unique strengths of GLOBE is the combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The quantitative methodology consisted of starting without any preexisting definitions of concepts. All definitions including those of culture and leadership were developed ab initio. All the instruments for measuring these concepts were also developed from first principles starting with item generation and item analysis (across the participating cultures, e.g., by collaborative development of dimensions and respective Q-sorting of items)
followed by comprehensive and rigorous psychometric analyses to establish properties such as reliability, validity, and so forth. Generalizability of the instruments across various cultures and countries was ensured through two pilot studies. The quantitative data were collected through the administration of the standardized questionnaires to middle managers in at least two of three industries per country, food processing, financial services, and telecommunication services. The specification of middle managers and specific industries was done to ensure comparability of the data across countries. The data thus collected from all the participating 61 countries were analyzed through a variety of statistical techniques to test various hypotheses.
