Georgianna, Sibylle

Dr. Sibylle Georgianna is a Researcher and Strategic Planner at Irvine Valley College, Irvine, California. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. Dr. Georgianna is author of Intercultural Features of Self-Leadership (Shaker Press, 2005).

Self-Leadership and Goal Striving Across Cultures

2007 0-7734-5397-0
This study considers the goals which people from different cultures set for themselves and the strategies they employ in order to attain these objectives. Thirty-six American undergraduates and thirty-six undergraduates from the People’s Republic of China set for themselves individual professional goals. These students then elaborated what they associated with attaining their chosen objectives. The American group tended to imagine career advancement as the outcome of their self-set goal; in contrast, the Chinese group imagined acquisition of knowledge as their main objective. Concerning the attainment of their goals, the American students did not specify which strategies they would use to attain their goals, but thought that the existence of abilities and resources, such as money, determined whether or not they would be successful; in contrast, the Asian students imagined hard work, diligence and personal effort to be necessary. This book provides crucial insights into cross-cultural differences in people’s self-guided goal striving behavior, knowledge which is important to those who support individuals across the world in their goal setting and goal attainment behavior.