Leadership and Organizatioinal Change - Research Proposal Example

Background to the Study Leaders are critical in change process given the role they play in the entire process. Leaders, for example, develop vision and strategy for the organization, create the need for change, identify new approaches to adopt, and even empower employees to take part in change process (Seidman and McCauley, 2011, p.47). As a result, leaders are critical to the success of change process. However, modern organizations due to internationalization and globalization have people from different cultures, backgrounds, ethnics, and so on.

Given that, these people have to work together and help organizations achieve their goals, best ways have to be found on how well such people from diverse cultures can work together for the good of the organization. This therefore requires leadership teams of organizations to identify and implement the best strategies in order to establish cross-cultural teams that help organization achieve its goals. Although there is growing literature concerning the positive role cross cultural teams plays in enabling organizations realize goals (Voutsas, 2011, pp. 116-117) there is little literature concerning how leadership teams can participate in establishing the most effective cross-cultural teams.

Statement of the Problem Due to numerous dynamics in the environment, business managers and leaders have found change to be inevitable. Organizations have found out that having a heterogeneous workforce in globalized world is unavoidable. As a result, more and more people from different cultures are likely to work together in one organization. Due to this, organizations’ leadership has to find the best ways of establishing and managing effective cross-cultural teams in order to achieve objectives of the organization.

Purpose of the Study The aim of this study is to establish the appropriate ways organizational leadership can take part in establishing effective cross-cultural teams in an organization. This will be achieved through analyzing a number of international firms that have heterogeneous workforce. Objectives The objective of the study is to identify and analyze strategies used buy firms to establish effective cross-cultural teams. The understanding is that organizational change can effectively be carried out through the input of cross-cultural teams.

Research Questions This study will be guided by the following research questions: What strategic role can cross-cultural teams play in change management of an organization? How can organizational leadership create and sustain effective cross-cultural teams? Hypothesis Effective cross-cultural teams should promote good: communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, interpersonal relationships, leadership, and collaboration, which in turn are likely to results into effective organizational change. a) Independent variable The independent variable to be studied includes the function of cross-cultural teams in an organization. b) Dependent variable The dependent variables to be studied include skills with regard to communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, interpersonal relationship, leadership, and