Leadership of a Multicultural Workforce in UAE - Essay Example

Leadership of A multi cultural workforce in UAE Introduction Leadership is the ability to lead a group of people or an organization. It is a social influence in which a person enlists the aid and support of other people in the organization in order to accomplish a specific goal (Hofstede, 1993). According to Jim Rohn : “the challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” A multicultural workforce is one where members of different religion, ethnics, racial and gender backgrounds are working in the organization. The corporate executives and business owners of UAE are now aware about the challenges and opportunities that are linked with the cultural diversity of the work force. According to Taylor Cox Jr. “an increase in globalization of business and combination of multi cultural workforce can be a key factor in overall success of the business (Daenzer, 2009). The benefits of this diversity includes a better decision making, high innovation and creativity, more efficiency and success in marketing to minority ethnic communities and foreign markets, and a wide spread distribution of economic opportunity (Muna, 2011). But this multicultural work force has certain disadvantages also which includes increase in costs through increase in turnover rates, communication breakdowns and interpersonal conflict. In order to bring out efficiency amongst the diversity in culture of workforce the leaders should be aware about how to manage and create an effective multicultural workforce (Connerley, 2005). Thus a research in this field is important to analyze the trends of the multicultural workforce in UAE and the leadership style needed to manage this cultural diversity. UAE has more than 200 nationalities working together where implementation of multicultural leadership to bring a change in working environment and even to handle multicultural customers (Edewor, 2007). This research will be useful for all the leaders in organization on how to manage this multicultural workforce. The main audience of the research study will be the small business owners, and also leaders of bigger enterprises, to develop better leadership tools to handle the work force of diverse culture and convert the loop holes of multi cultural workforce into advantage for the business (Livermore, 2010). Statement of the Problem A multicultural workforce contains people coming from different cultural backgrounds and will have different way of dealing with a problem in the workplace. The common barrier in multicultural workforce is communication problem. In this situation to increase productivity it is essential for the leaders to implement diversity training programs amongst the employees which again involve an ongoing cost need, and even the leaders have to be capable enough to resolve the conflict between the company culture and employees. The problem statement will be: “The need for leading the multi cultural workforce efficiently, handling the barriers well amongst the people working from diverse culture to increase the productivity from this workforce without increasing any cost for the company.” The research conducted will be dealing with different multicultural workforce organization and the leadership traits adopted by them and how efficiently these organizations manage the workforce without increasing any cost, this research is also essential in analyzing the leadership styles and to come up with different techniques that can be incorporated in multicultural workforce environment (Bonnici, 2011). Purpose of the study The objective of the research study will be to analyze the different leadership styles adopted so far in multicultural workforce environment and to study whether a multicultural workforce is more beneficial than a non diverse business economy or not. The goal of the study is to come out with the effective leadership styles that can be beneficial for multi culture workforce environment with the least cost possible and what changes are essential in leadership traits already followed by certain multi culture organization in UAE to overcome the challenges these organization are still facing. Literature Review A multicultural workforce is managed by the leaders by incorporating some diversity training at times even hiring experts from outside to impart this training to the employees to bridge the gap between the diverse cultures of the workforce which involves an additional cost and its ongoing need as employees join the organization (Lussier, 2012). In order to avoid any misunderstanding while communicating the leaders often convey through writings, an inclusive leadership trait needs to be followed by the organization to handle all the infractions equal. But still there is a need for reducing discrimination which is common in multicultural workforce, often a multicultural workforce has diverse opinions and ideas which may be beneficial as well as harmful for an organization as it may lead to arguments and conflicts (Halverson, 2008). Some organization in UAE faces this problem and it solely depends on how well the leaders carry out their duties to resolve such problems. Even the customers may not be given proper service if the workers cannot communicate well with the customers (Cox, 2001). Thus increased diversity in culture puts challenges for the leaders to maximize the opportunities and minimize the costs. Hypothesis The null hypothesis for the research project will be: “There is a significant effect of the leadership style on a multi culture workforce in UAE.” Design Approach The qualitative tool used for the study is secondary research through analyzing the different models available on the internet, magazines, journals, about the leadership of multicultural workforce in UAE. The quantitative tool for the study is primary research done through direct interviews with the leaders of multi culture workforce organizations, analyzing the data through various charts to know the growth rate of diverse culture workforce and non diverse culture workforce. These two techniques will help to know the leadership of the multi cultural workforce in UAE, the effect of it on organization, and then drawing the results. Limitations The research has to be undertaken under discussion with the leaders in diverse culture organization at some conditions they may not be available or may not disclose the data of the company. Natural hazards are a limitation for the study and less availability of secondary data regarding the leadership of diverse workforce can be regarded as the second limitation. Final Product The research will reveal the effect of leadership style and how it differs for a diverse culture workforce compared to a non diverse workforce culture in an organization. It will focus on the different leadership styles adopted by different multi culture work force in UAE to improve productivity and lessen the cost and also some new ideas of different leadership traits that can be implemented by this organization. References Connerley, M. L. (2005). Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment. California: Sage. Muna, D. F. (2011). Developing Multicultural leaders. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan Liverore, D. A. (2010). Leading with Cultural Intelligence. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Bonnici, C. A. (2011). Creating a Successful Leadership Style. United Kingdom: R&L Education. Lussier, R. (2012). Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. USA: Cengage Learning. Daenzer, B .E. (2009). Quantitative Correlation of Leadership Styles. USA: Proquest Halverson, C.B. (2008). Effective Multicultural Teams: Theory and Practice. USA : Springer Edewor, Y. A. (2007). Diversity Management, Challenges and Opportunities in Multicultural Organizations. New York: The International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations. Hofstede, G. (1993). Cultural constraints in management theories. United Kingdom: The Academy of Management Perspectives. Cox, T. (2001). Creating the multicultural organization: A strategy for capturing the power of diversity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Read More