Leadership Knowledge of Local and Expatriate Afghans : Are They Leaning More Toward Tasks or Relationships?

During the last three decades, due to widespread conflicts and wars, many people in Afghanistan have become internally displaced refugees or international immigrants. However, one commonality is that Afghans living locally and internationally have all been exposed to the traditional cultural norms of Afghanistan. As such, their task and relationship styles might be very similar. To explore the orientation of Afghans, this paper focuses on the differences of 106 local and 219 expatriate Afghans. Both groups of Afghans have significantly higher scores on the relationship orientation. These results can be helpful in the management training of employees working with local and multinational firms. Realities of the conflicts that Afghan people face are discussed and suggestions are presented