Multicultural Leadership Styles - Case Study Example

Helping International Friend Develop Business Skills of the of the No. Answer The paper sheds light ona case, where the researcher works in an American multinational company. A foreign friend of the researcher is recruited as the middle management official in the same organization. Since the researcher lived in the country for a long period of time, this friend of his had requested him for guidance, in terms of cultural nuances and religious customers of the company. This friend, who is recruited as the middle management officer, should not act as a coach in the beginning of his working life. This is because, before starting his term in the organization, he must understand the various cultural nuances and religious custom related problems, which might arise in an organization. At the same time, he should also be aware of the means through which such problems can be easily eradicated from the system. In general, similar to other American companies, the company where the friend is recruited will experience conservationists in workplace, which can generate several problems. Moreover, as a middle management officer, the person would also face certain complications in making his subordinates work efficiently. For instance, if necessary tasks are to be executed in days of religious occasions, then it might create conflicts among subordinates in the workplace. If the method of non-verbal communication followed by the middle management officer is not appropriate, then it would cause several difficulties in the workplace. The officer, firstly, needs to be aware of workplace culture and acquire appropriate multicultural leadership styles, before playing a coach in the workplace (ADL, 2012). Therefore, the researcher’s friend should not assert himself right away as a coach, while beginning her tenure. Answer 2 American workforce has started to experience Pluralistic Religious Societies, as degrees of diversity among workers are significantly increasing with time. So, management of religion related issues in workplaces of America has turned out to be extensively complicated for both employees and employers. With introduction of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), number of religion related lawsuits in American companies have substantially increased. It is true that employees in an organization must not mix up issues relating to their religious beliefs and professional activities. If workers in an American company are forced to work on days of religious significance, then they might generate multiple conflicts in the workplace, such as: They might not complete the task allotted to them in an efficient and adequate manner. Only during emergencies, workers are forced to work on religious days. If the worker does not accomplish important tasks correctly, then it would hamper the entire organizational system. The scopes of alternative jobs available to employees in America are large, provided the employees are skillful. If a company forces its employees to work on days of religious significance, job attrition rate in the concerned company would substantially rise as under such circumstances, motivation of workers in the workplace falls. Nevertheless, there are ways through which the above problems can be resolved. The company can offer special monetary incentives to employees who work on days of religious significance. The company can also introduce unique opportunities of promotions for employees, who would responsibly work on days of occasions. The abovementioned motivational instruments will be able to interest workers into working efficiently, even on occasions and attrition rate of the company would become low (Quazi, 2001). Answer 3 It is true that cultural oddities would bring forth substantial problems for this friend of the researcher, in the American company, where the researcher works. Though concepts of ‘religious or cultural accommodations’ largely exist in workplaces of America; in reality, their validity might be low in these organizations. Cultural quirks in the organization do not follow general principals of logic, consistence and comprehensiveness. As the new manager will be appointed in a middle management level, he will be subjected to the decisions of several superiors in the organization. If cultural traits of the organization work against interests of the manager, then his innovative ideas in business would not be encouraged. Rather, American Conservationism is quite prevalent in workplaces of the country. Republicanism is widely believed by majority of the employees and employers in companies of America. Such practices make employees in the organization highly biased against individuals, who do not belong to Christianity. Even famous personalities like, Abraham Lincoln, had failed to rectify such cultural discrepancies in the nation. Thus, from the above discussion, it can be claimed that nearly all respondents working in the researcher’s company would possess cultural quirks against the new manager, as his native culture and religion is different from that in America. It is possible that that they would not easily entertain views and concepts of the new middle management officer, initially (Spich, 1995). Answer 4 In the contemporary world, most organizations in an economy, like, America, are Multicultural organizations. The general theories of leadership are highly applicable for organizations, which are Monolithic and Plural in nature. If the researcher and his friend intend to become multicultural leaders in workplace, then they need to introduce Transformational and Discursive Leadership styles (Tashakkori & Creswell, 2007). Firstly, they must acquire the skill of forecasting future changes in business as well as among agents and communicate the same to other agents. Secondly, they must adopt the skills of discursive leadership style. In this case, they would adopt the capability to conduct discursive acts, vocabulary and symbols within the workplace among all its employees (Svensson, 2005). By following the above two actions, the researcher and his friend would be able to turn out as multicultural leaders in workplace. For example, famous multinational companies, like, Microsoft, IMB and Google, enjoy excellent competency in the market due to skills of their multicultural leaders, who forecast upcoming risks in business. Rather, these companies employ professional analysts, who forecast these future business prospects as multicultural leaders in workplaces. At the same time, unique discursive leadership attributes render the companies, like, Procter and Gamble, successful in the highly competitive market (Popper, 2003). Answer 5 Non-Verbal Communication is the method of communication in which valuable information is transmitted between individuals through non-verbal communication means. In modern days, the number of workers in multinational companies is large and hence, the network of workplace operations are primarily executed through non-verbal communication means, like, e-mails. However, presence of general non-verbal communication methods is also extensive in organizations. Signs, hand gestures and visual contacts are such means; but, information conveyed often gets misinterpreted through such means. Such misinterpretations portray a poor image about the communicator in the workplace (Pasmore, 2009). The two major types of conflicts, which might arise in workplaces, due to non-verbal communication misunderstandings are as follows; Such communication might create wrong impressions regarding emotional and mental status of an individual in the workplace. Wrong information communicated through inappropriate non-verbal actions may generate serious confusion between workers in the organization. Under such conditions, harmony of the workplace would be significantly affected and would surely decline productivity of the employees. Such internal conflicts within an organization might establish high sense of hostility among workers and would finally detriment the brand image of the company in the market (Bigler, 2001). If inappropriateness of non-verbal communication hampers personal beliefs, regarding religion or culture, of certain workers in the workplace, then this might turn out to be very costly for the organization. Lengthy and expensive lawsuits and infringements are filed against the company or the communicator (Hotho & Dowling, 2010). Therefore, from the above two cases, it can be stated that conflicts arising from misinterpretations, occurring through non-verbal communication, cause serious negativities in goodwill and financial status of an organization. Even so, the researcher has provided two action approaches to his friend (the new manager) through which he can effortlessly diffuse severe negativities, caused by misunderstandings in non-verbal communication. These ways are: The professionals in an organization must acquire skills of good negotiation and assertiveness in workplace. These professionals must present their statements or opinions to others in an assertive pattern, instead of aggressively expressing his or her personal views. Non-verbal communication explained through such ways can surely help in communicating worthwhile information to others as well as assist the communicator to understand the views of listeners on the provided opinion (Andersen, 2000). Non-verbal communication misconceptions can be cleared if the communicator attentively recollects feedback of the listeners and analyzes effectiveness of the communication process, after the communication. In certain situations, misunderstandings can easily be cleared if the communicator justifies and rectifies the process of communication; and specifically, states his or her own point of view, thereby clearing the confusion (Kiger, 2010). It is, therefore, assumed that after gaining awareness regarding problems that can be faced in the new workplace as well as realizing related solutions, the new work culture in the American company would become easy to adopt for the middle management officer (Blain, 2012). References ADL. (2012). Religious accommodation in the workplace: Your rights and obligations. ADL Retrieved from http://www.adl.org/assets/pdf/civil-rights/religiousfreedom/religfreeres/ReligAccommodWPlace-docx.pdf. Andersen, J.A. (2000). Leadership and leadership research. Current Issues in Business Disciplines, 5, 267-87. Bigler, W.R. (2001). The new science of strategy execution: how incumbents become fast, sleek wealth creators. Strategy and Leadership, 29(3), 29-34. Blain, J. (2012). Developing multicultural leadership and management skills in today’s increasingly globalised workplace. CEGOS. 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