Leadership of a Multi-Cultural Workforce in UAE - Research Paper Example

Research Paper on Leadership of A multi cultural workforce in UAE Introduction Leadership deals with leading an organization or a group of people. Itcan be even be defined as a social influence in which a person gains support of other people so as to reach a common goal. Jim Rohn stated that the major challenge of leadership is not to be rude but to be strong, to be bold and not bully or weak, to have humour without folly, and to be proud and humble and not arrogant or timid. Multicultural workforce comprises of people who belong to different racial backgrounds, ethnics, and different religions. Taylor Cox Jr. stated that globalization of business and involvement of multicultural workforce leads to the overall success of the business. The multicultural workforce has the benefits of high creativity, innovation, effective decision making, and efficiency in marketing in foreign markets but there are certain disadvantages even such as increased turnover rates, interpersonal conflicts, and communication breakdown. UAE comprises of 200 nationalities and the more effective leadership style is adopted by an organization the more will be the benefits extracted from the diverse workforce. The research paper helps in identifying the various concepts related to multicultural workforce and some recommendations on the basis of financial analysis of the survey that have been conducted. The idea behind the research topic is to analyze the various workplace practices that the organizations in UAE adopts to handle the diverse workforce. Multicultural workforce helps in smooth functioning of the business operations in different markets. In a multicultural workforce there are people coming from different cultures and hence this diversity amongst them affects the way in dealing with the problems that arise in the workplace. Communication problem is the most common barrier in an organization with multicultural workforce (Hofstede, 1993). In order to deal with this kind of barriers in multicultural workforce it is often essential for the leaders to adopt the best of practices so as to resolve conflicts in such a workplace and even the employees in this type of organization needs to be given the best of training programs so as to reduce the communication gap amongst them. The research study involves the idea to determine a solution for the problem in which the organization can control the cost and increase productivity of its multicultural workforce through adopting various innovative leadership practices. The main goal of the research study is to identify what are the changes that are needed by an UAE organization already dealing with multicultural workforce in relation to the leadership traits and what are the better methods of leadership practices that can be adopted in a multicultural workforce environment so as to reduce the cost and increase the productivity. There are several objectives of the research study such as: To analyze the different leadership traits in the multicultural workforce environment in UAE. To determine whether the benefits of a diverse workforce is more or less in comparison to a non diverse workforce. Adopting various research tools to investigate the problems related to multicultural workforce. To determine leadership styles already implemented in multicultural workforce organization in UAE and simultaneously identifying the loopholes of such an environment and the adopted practice. The basis of the research study would be involving various organizations in UAE with diverse workforce and the methods adopted by these firms to lower down the cost and increase the efficiency level of the workforce. This would in turn help the audience to clearly identify the appropriate leadership traits for a multicultural workforce organization. The study deals with various aspects related to the leaderships style in the multicultural workforce but the main research question would be dealing with the main aim of the research. In multicultural environment the main barrier of communication and the different thinking process of the different employees belonging to different cultural backgrounds. It is often very important for the leaders to handle such a workforce very effectively so that less impact is caused on the organizational success. It is very much beneficial to have a diverse workforce because of the innovation ideas and greater percentage of creativity in the work but at the same time it is even very much essential that they are handled carefully or else even minor disagreements would result into major conflicts. Thus the main research question for this study would be analyzing the impact of the leadership traits on a multicultural workforce. The entire research would be formulated surrounding this question and it will involves several finding such as the traits already followed in UAE organizations, the loopholes and the strengths of the traits, and even finding the best of practices that is suitable in an environment of multicultural workforce. In an organization which comprises of multicultural workforce it is often not possible to identify the opportunity and challenges that are associated with this kind of workforce by the management of bigger enterprise or the small business owners. It is very much significant that the success and growth of an organization depends on its workforce. If the efficiency level of the workers are high than it would have a positive impact on the business operations and in turn increase the profit levels of the firm. On the contrary if the diverse culture employees do not communicate well it leads to more of misunderstandings and hence more of organizational conflict. For an organization to be productive it is very much essential that the working environment is suitable for increasing the performance level of the employees. Often the companies often adopt diverse training programs to increase the efficiency level of multicultural workforce but this in turn adds an ongoing cost to the total operating cost of a business. In this case t is important that the leadership styles are so well designed that it decreases all of the disadvantages associated with multicultural workforce. This study is about determining that appropriate leadership style and to even identify that whether leadership can have any kind of impact on the diverse workforce in organizations in UAE. Literature Review Leaders find it very much difficult to manage diverse workforce. In such a scenario it becomes increasingly important for an organization to adopt the best diversity training programs in order to reduce the gap that exist between the employees who come from different cultural backgrounds. UAE is the most popular of all the countries to have the maximum organizations with multicultural workforce. In order to implement diverse training programs the organization has to undergo an additional cost that is associate with training programs. In most of the organization the leaders who are deal with diverse workforce often communicate through writings so as to avoid any kind of miscommunication that may arise (Cox, 2001). An organization that has such diversity discrimination is very common in such a scenario that further leads to arguments and conflicts within the organization. The diverse opinions and innovative ideas of this kind of workforce are regarded as both beneficial as well as harmful for an organization. There are various kinds of organizations that deal with this kind of issues and need to continuously adopt the best of innovative practices so as to overcome the challenges. This issue can even lead to dissatisfaction amongst the employees as the customer would not be communicate very effectively to the customers. This makes the UAE organizations face a lot of challenges in terms of adopting the best of practices and explore the business opportunities and reduce the cost. Organization behaviour can be defined as the way in which people, group and individuals behave in an organization. The study of organization behaviour states the entire format of the study is very systematic and structured. The relationship that people have with and within an organization is comprised in the study of organizational behaviour. The relationship can be well maintained on the basis of objectives of social, human and organizational (Bertocci, 2009). The organizational base lies on the goals, vision, objectives, and philosophy of the management. It is the management that leads an organization towards the success or the failure. There are various topics that are involved in organizational behaviour such as change, leaderships, teams, and human psychology. It is the group dynamics that shapes the leaderships structure in an organization. The organizational culture helps to determine the essential leadership traits, effective way of communication and the group dynamics that are required within an organization. The idea of multicultural workforce is very common within organization in today’s scenario. In a diverse workforce there are individuals who come from different cultural backgrounds and this cultural diversity has an impact on the way they approach to a common problem. The most vital factor in an organization is the leadership. Leadership is the way in which an individual influences the other group of people with an organization, and provides them support so as to accomplish a common goal. The managerial rank in an organization influences the leadership position and in turn takes decisions for the better results and to increase the efficiency of its fellow employees (Schein, 1992). On the contrary all the managers are not regarded as leaders it depends on the qualities and the characteristics of the individual to acquire the position of a leader (Elmore, 2000). It is the responsibility of the leaders to influence the people not only in the formal structure of the organization but also outside the structure so that they are able to handle the people well and reduce the conflict if it occurs in an organization. The influencing characteristic plays a very significant role in the organization in UAE that have multicultural workforce (Ramakrishnan, 2013). There exist certain specific traits of specific leaders that make them stand different amongst other leaders. There exist various leadership theories that comprises of leadership behaviours, the most effective relationship building between the leader and followers, and the situational impact on leadership. In today’s organizational context the study of leadership is very much beneficial to lead an organization towards the goal and there are several discoveries that are coming up in association to the leadership traits for an ideal work culture (Lambert, 2002). The effective management of the diverse workforce in UAE organization can be achieved through the appropriate adoption of the leadership style. It is often considered that transformational leaders can achieve the maximum efficiency level from a multicultural workforce. There are certain specific characteristics of a transformational leadership such as guiding and motivating the employee base and driving them towards a common goal through clarity in the work roles and the specific tasks. Through this leadership style the followers become more concerned about the organizational goal rather than their self interest (Mintzberg, 1994). This leadership approach is more concerned with the individual development so as to enhance the overall efficiency level. Leaders following this style support their followers to approach any issue very differently. The leaders adopting this style possess the trait of constantly inspiring and motivating their employees and even increasing their excitement level and putting an extra effort so that the organizational goals and objectives are accomplished (Halverson and Tirmizi, 2008). In the multicultural workforce in UAE it is more of a distributed leadership style that is incorporated in these organizations. In a cultural diverse workforce team work is very much essential to overcome much of the issues related to the workforce. It is a common issue of these organizations that the people being a part of them have to possess collective responsibility towards the organization (Edewor, 2007). The leadership style that is adopted by the UAE organizations helps to share the expertise and enhance the capacities, build more of interpersonal capacity, and support collaborative networks and relationships. The model adopt by them facilitates more of expertise sharing, and critical questioning. It is regarded that this kind of approach is not very much beneficial for the UAE organization to achieve its vision. There should be equal responsibility sharing between the management and the employees so as to serve the common goal. The UAE organizations should focus on developing more of a strong base to facilitate the collaborative relationship between the employees (Bonnici, 2011). The values of a distributed leadership style can only be beneficial for an organization to a certain extent. On the contrary the transactional leadership style can play a significant role in resolving the major issues that are related to multicultural workforce, and is even one of the best practices that can be adopted by the organizations in UAE. The leaders following this type of style defines tasks to the individuals and even guides them on the procedure that would be needed to fulfil the assigned tasks. The transactional leadership approach has a lot of clarity in terms of making it very clear to its subordinates about their job roles. Even the reward structure is made very clear t the employees by the transactional leaders. This kind of clarity in work designs reduce much of the complexity and the conflicts that would be resulted otherwise and the employees are always pushed towards a collaborative approach for succeeding towards the organizational goal at a faster pace. This leadership style even encompasses of a formal structure governed by rules and regulations where the workforce is subjected to various punishments if they fail to perform as per the rules. This helps in a structured functioning of the organization. Performance is the basis of this leadership approach, and not only the leaders but also their followers need to show greater degree of performance (Daenzer, 2009). The ownership aspect is one of the most important forms of transactional leadership. The leaders assign specific task to its subordinates and then it is the responsibility of the subordinates to perform the task up to the mark which in turn would be subjected to either rewards or punishment. The ownership factor makes the employees responsible for the task they perform and this significantly facilitates the performance efficiency of the employees. This approach is very much useful in a multicultural workforce because it helps to reduce the factor of different employees belonging to diverse cultural background and having different ways to approach a specific problem (Liverore, 2010). The main reason of conflict in such organization is the presence of diverse opinions and ideas. The transactional leadership comprises of a punishment factor and this in turn makes the employees take the ownership of their respective tasks and reduces much of the conflicts that are related to the multicultural workforce. The adoption of an effective leadership style within an organization in this particular scenario of a multicultural workforce helps to reduce the cost factor and obtain a win-win situation in the organization. It is often beneficial for an organization to constantly adopt the best innovative practices so that their employee base is highly productive and there is no such communication gap within the organization (Kandola and Fullerton, 2000). The culture and values of one country is different in terms of other countries. The diversity in the workplace can be beneficial only to the extent when the workforce is managed effectively by the leaders (Bennis, 2009). If the leaders fail in doing so then it would initiate an increase in turnover rates, more unsatisfied employees which would directly have an impact on their performance level and incur more of cost for the organization. It is the responsibility of the leader to adopt the best of leadership style so that they are able to overcome much of the challenges that are posed in a multicultural workforce. The leaders play the major role in influencing the behaviour of the employees. It is very much important for the UAE organizations to adopt some of the corrective measures so that the main purpose of the organization is not lost and some strict actions and regulations needs to be incorporated to resolve the issues in the minimum time possible. Research Methodology The research study is well structured by an efficient research design. The research methodology adopted for a study starts with a hypothesis selection. The hypothesis is used to determine whether than the outcome of the research analysis would accept the statement of the hypothesis or reject it. The hypothesis of the study is – there is a significant effect on the multicultural workforce in organizations of UAE due to the leadership style. The entire methodology will be designed in relation to the selected hypothesis. For this research topic there is a need for the selection of both the secondary and the primary data. The secondary data would help to lay the foundation of the entire research process. It would help in analyzing the earlier research that have been conducted on the particular topic and lays a firm base on the basis of which further results can be determined. The secondary data helps to achieve the clarity of the topic and implement various practices in the relation to the case. The primary data for the study would be collected on the basis of the survey. The survey results would then be analyzed and appropriate charts incorporated to relate the impact of the leadership on the multicultural workforce. The analysis tool is very important and there should be less of error in the statistical tool as the recommendations would be based on the analysis of the survey results. The confidence level for the study is 95% and the confidence level is of 5%. The confidence level so selected states that if the survey is conducted 100 times than the same result would be obtained for 95 times. The research methodology would focus on the impact of the leadership on the multicultural workforce and the different traits that have been adopted by the UAE organizations to manage the multicultural workforce. There are certain limitations of the research study in the form of natural hazards and the less availability of the secondary data to support the problem identified through the study. The basis of the study is the survey results so if the analysis is not performed accurately than even the recommendation would b affected. There exists a lot of scope for the research on the particular topic this is because leadership style is a concern area for many organizations that are mainly dealing with multicultural workforce. In UAE organization there already exist many problems surrounding the multicultural workforce. The research can be further expanded through involving some of the leaders of the organization of the multicultural workforce so that their input can be effectively incorporated into the research study. The scope is also in terms of analyzing some of the innovative leadership traits that can be recommended to the multicultural workforce organization in UAE to reduce the overall turnover rates and the costs. Data Collection Methodology The secondary data would be obtained mainly from the existing sources in the internet and other journals. The secondary data analysis can be done through some research papers that comprise of the topic related to this particular research topic or some of the leadership related to recent discoveries. Various journals and magazines can be used related to the leadership in multicultural workforce in UAE. The secondary data can also be obtained from some of the official websites of the organizations that states the leadership traits that have been incorporated in their organization so as to overcome the challenges that are posed by a multicultural workforce. Another form of data collection method for this research study is primary data collection. The primary data would be the foundation on which the results and the recommendation of the research study would be obtained. The primary data collection tool for this research would be questionnaire survey. The questionnaire would comprise of various questions based on the various aspects related to the multicultural workforce. The opinions of the respondents would then be plotted in the form of graphs and charts so as to analyze the hypothesis of the research and arrive at a conclusion. The sampling description would comprise of the sample size, the geographical location for the survey, and the kind of sampling method that have been adopted in the research. The geographic location for the survey would be the areas within the borders of UAE. The sample size for the survey would be 100 respondents. The sampling method to be used in the research process would be of random sampling method. The confidence level of the research survey would be 95%, and there would be an expected error of 5%. The sampling element would be chosen from the total population so that they are able to give the best of answers to the survey questions. Questionnaire This report takes a look at the multicultural workforce on any UAE organization. 100 employees who are working in various companies are given five questionnaires each. Each of the employees are sent questionnaire through email. Questionnaires are used to measure the opinions, features and attitudes of the respondents to whom they are sent. Depending on the size and type of the survey it can hope it enables them to make some general statements from the information provided. This process have been used since it is a useful and quick method for finding straightforward data from large number of peoples like here primary data is to be collected from 100 employees. Further such questionnaires are used to found out belief and thoughts of people and hence open ended questions are used here the study the effect. 40 employees are conducted face to face interviews since this tend to have a higher response rate due to the presence of the interviewer. There will be more detailed and in-depth discussion on the subject. Further such method enables the conversation to be tape recorded for future analysis. Telephone surveys are conducted for 30 employees. This is helpful as it is convenient and is cheaper than face to face interview and response rate is higher than postal questionnaires. Remaining 30 employees were sent questionnaire through email and it was done since they were very busy and many couldn’t be contacted by telephones or in person. Findings / analysis and Discussion Introduction paragraph There are many organizations which are operating in a multinational environment and thus they are increasingly getting connected with many countries and hence the cultural differences in diminishing or disappearing. There are many universal leadership principles which are identified as being very effective for multicultural environment. These principles are used to achieve success. The business owners and corporate executives of UAE are nowadays not aware of the opportunities and challenges which are linked with cultural diversity of the workforce. Though multicultural environment enhances the profitability of the company it has many disadvantages like communication breakdowns, interpersonal conflict and turnover rates. In order to bring out efficiency amongst the diversity in culture the leaders must be aware of how to manage and create an effective multicultural workforce. Literature review and analysis findings In today’s workforce leaders have to manage multicultural workforce and hence they need to incorporate some diversity during training and even hiring of experts from outside for training the employees and bridge a gap between the diverse workforce (Fischer, 2010). An inclusive leadership structure is followed by the organization so that they can handle all the infractions equal. But the leadership needs to reduce discrimination among the workforce since such a workforce often has diverse ideas and opinions which can be beneficial at the same time harmful for the organization and thus it leads to arguments and conflicts (Luthans, 2001). Thus leaders in UAE organization face the same problem and it depends on their ability to handle such workforce. Again increased diversity in culture puts challenges for the leaders to maximize the opportunities and minimize the costs (Cox, 2001). Interview survey results and analysis Appendix contains the five questionnaires which are conducted on 100 employees from different UAE organizations. The first question is regarding the culture of the organization. Most employees point out that authoritative culture is mostly followed. The organizations are mostly coercive organizations since the employees are captive for physical or economic reasons and hence must obey rules which are imposed by the authorities. In response to second question, most of the employees claim that they have diverse multicultural workforce and hence they support multicultural environment. There is a positive organizational culture which promotes the diversity and hence takes advantage of the diverse intellectual capital and talent pool. The next question is regarding the satisfaction level of the employees. Few employees feel that the satisfaction is not up to the mark and they are not given adequate authority to carry out their responsibilities. But most of the employees are motivated enough which is an important determinant of productivity. The employees are found to be recognized and appreciated and thus rewards policies are followed for them. The leaders have virtually ultimate power and they have the authority to make the laws, rules and regulations which are developed by those who are in power and like to be in control. They don’t follow democratic change. The leaders like to have outside trainers to assists in workshops for some initial period of time. The cultural diverse teams are consists of one or more outside consultants and internal trainers who are working together and providing them training. Most of the employees are so far satisfied with the leadership style followed. Compare literature results and survey results According to literature review an inclusive leadership structure is followed by the organization so that they can handle all the infractions equal. They have to balance the diverse opinions and singular approach of achieving the goals. It is found that most UAE organizations face the same problem. But in sample results it is found that though organization follows authoritative leadership style still they are better able at controlling the workplace diversity. The leaders brings outside trainers to assists in workshops and the cultural diverse teams consists of one or more outside consultants and internal trainers who are working together and providing them training. Hence the survey results reflect that most UAE organization is managing their workplace diversity but still not all of them have been able to achieve success. Conclusion paragraph The business owners and corporate executives of UAE are nowadays not aware of the opportunities and challenges which are linked with cultural diversity of the workforce. The leadership structure of the company has to maintain a balance between diverse set of opinion and achieving success. The leadership structure of most of the UAE companies is suitable to adapting diverse workplace behaviour. Conclusions / Recommendations Now I am going to do conclusion and recommendations for the entire research. Multicultural workforce is beneficial for an organization in terms of the diverse creativity and innovative ideas. On the contrary it can be very much harmful for an organization in terms of a communication gap, more of misunderstandings, and hence more of organizational conflict. There are often various kinds of approaches that are adopted by an organization that have a multicultural workforce. The most common form of a leadership style that is incorporated in these organizations is the distributive leadership style. This type of style helps in motivating and inspiring the employees but it lacks the collaborative approach that is needed in a diverse workforce. The leaders are the most important factor that can direct the entire the organization towards growth or declining stage. It is essential for the leaders to adopt such practices that can effectively manage the diverse workforce of the organization. Transactional leadership approach has gained a lot of importance in the recent years which not only relates to the motivation of the employees but establishes clarity in the form of the job roles of the employees and the tasks they need to perform. Often this kind of leadership is observed in UAE where there exists more of a formal structure in the organization and a system of rewards and punishment based on the performance level of the employees. There are two types of data incorporated in the research- primary as well as secondary. The secondary data is obtained from the secondary sources such as journals, internet, books etc. The primary data is collected through questionnaire survey with a total of 100 respondents. The findings of the survey states that the line of control is with the leaders in the organizations of UAE, and this has in turn resulted into a one way communication. The turnover rates have increased in the recent years because the diverse workforce finds it difficult to work in a stiff business environment as that in UAE organizations. It is recommended that the organizations in the UAE follow more of a democratic approach in their system which would make the systems more flexible and the hidden issues of the employees which are not solved otherwise can be resolved to a large extent through a two way communication. The leaders needs to be develop an organize structure for the employees but it also needs to involve the employees in the decision making and opinion sharing which would result into a more collaborative relationship between the employees and also with the leaders of the UAE organizations. References Bennis, W. (2009). On Becoming a Leader. New York: Basic Books. Bertocci, D. I., (2009). Leadership in Organizations. Plymouth: University Press of America. Bonnici, C. A. (2011). Creating a Successful Leadership Style. United Kingdom: R&L Education. Cox, T. (2001). Creating the multicultural organization: A strategy for capturing the power of diversity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Cox, T. (2001). Cultural Diversity in Organizations: Theory, Research and Practice. California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Daenzer, B .E. (2009). Quantitative Correlation of Leadership Styles. USA: Proquest Edewor, Y. A. (2007). Diversity Management, Challenges and Opportunities in Multicultural Organizations. New York: The International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations. Elmore, R.F. (2000). Building a new structure for leadership. Washington: The Albert Shanker Institute. Fischer, N. (2010). A Criteria Based Literature Research - Approaches, Achievements and Experiences of the Concept of Cultural Diversity in Multicultural Organizations. New York: Diplomarbeiten Agentur. Halverson, C.B. and Tirmizi, S.A. (2008). Effective Multicultural Teams: Theory and Practice: theory and practice. Stanford: Springer. Hofstede, G. (1993). Cultural constraints in management theories. United Kingdom: The Academy of Management Perspectives. Kandola, R. and Fullerton, J. (2000). Diversity in Action: Managing the Mosaic. London: CIPD Publishing. Lambert, L. (2002). Beyond instructional leadership: A framework for shared leadership. Educational Leadership. Vol. 59(8), pp. 37-40. Liverore, D. A. (2010). Leading with Cultural Intelligence. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Luthans, F. (2001). Organizational Behaviour. London: McGraw-Hill Education Mintzberg, H. (1994). Rethinking Strategic Planning: New Roles for Planners. Long Range Planning. Vol. 27(3), pp. 22-30. Ramakrishnan, K. (2013). Managerial Leadership In Multicultural Organisations. London: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Schein, E. (1992). Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Appendix Questionnaire What is the culture of your organization? Does your organization supports multicultural environment? Are you satisfied with the multicultural environment? How do leaders manage this multicultural environment? Are you satisfied with the leadership style? Read More