This Bachelor Thesis identifies and analyzes the impact of the basic cultural differences in the application of the five leadership practices of J. Kouzes and B. Posner at my clients company.

Hereby, the influence of geographical and organizational cultural differences in general, in communication and in perception on leadership will be x-rayed through a literature review. Furthermore, the five leadership practices of exemplary leadership of “The Leadership Challenge” written by J. Kouzes and B. Posner, will not only be quickly summarized but also compared with further literature from other leadership methods used at UBS as those presented in Simon Sinek’s book “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” and Jim Collins’s book “Good to Great: Why some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don’t”. Additionally, the main answers from the survey conducted at UBS with about 220 participants, from which 79 responses are usable, will be presented and analyzed. Those participants are supervisors as well as employees and are located in different countries, mostly Switzerland and Asia, and different regions, mostly Berne and Zurich as well as Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as from different divisions such as Wealth Management, Private Banking and Corporate and Institutional Clients. Finally, the main responses and findings will be analyzed with further extant literature to show to what extend those answers and findings either reinforce or challenge the findings of the existing literature.

Evaluation of the findings identified that, on the one hand most supervisors and employees do have a good basic knowledge about geographical and organizational culture and the fact that differences exist in regards to communication and perception. On the other hand, the five leadership practices are neither really familiar among the participating supervisors nor familiar at all among the participating employees. The supervisors however argued that they make use of them but not of all of them together and / or not on a daily basis. The employees though never experienced a supervisor exemplifying them, but then they would love to work for a company where the five leadership practices would not only be used but also internalized. Hence, after analyzing and identifying the results of the survey, I came to the conclusion and recommend herewith, that due to the unexpected supervisors poor knowledge and employees stating never to experience the use of the five leadership practices, that UBS should elaborate trainings and online courses about the five leadership practices and make them accessible for each and every person working at UBS so as to improve the degree of awareness and foster the use of the leadership methods of the five leadership practices of J. Kouzes and B. Posner.