Management and Word-Action Consistency - Assignment Example

Article Analysis Assignment Student’s Name Course Name Institutional Affiliation Question 1 The article noes that the respondents from most of the societies indicated that simply possessing guiding principles or even moral convictions that are characterised by ;’Guided by Strong Personal Moral Code/Values’ was indeed not significant enough to be perceived as a leader with integrity. Within this cross-cultural environment, it is ascertained that leaders should decisively act in accordance with their respective values and moral convictions that is focused on Value-Behaviour Consistency (Audi & Murphy, 2006). In essence, the overall emphasis that is focused on possessing and acting in accordance with internalised personal values is especially deemed to be stronger within the Anglo and Germanic societies and far less crucial in China (PRC). It should be noted that the value-behaviour consistency is one of the themes that is significantly ascertained by respondents in both the US, Ireland and Germany being societies with the most central to leading with aspect of integrity. Question 2 There is a different degree of comprehension of the term a leader of integrity by people or rather managers situated in different societies. First, it is noted that attributes related to honesty; trustworthiness and follow-through have always been attributed to leader integrity however; the breadth for which these attributes and behaviours are a deemed a representation of leader integrity across different cultures remains unclear (Cooper, Scandura & Schriesheim, 2005). There is a significant set of differences in cultural variations that relates to what is really meant by a leader of integrity. Despite there being a universal perception that fosters effective leadership, a significant degree of variations is present in how people endorse it across the different set of cultures. Secondly, it can be successfully argued that managers across will definitely engage specific cultural norms and values in order to avail a platform for making social judgements hence there is a clear need to comprehend specific behaviours and attributes that are deemed to be of fundamental importance in establishing the meaning of leader integrity in both within and across cultural boundaries (Martin et al, 2013). Question 3 A transactional leader can be seen to portray the attributes related to ‘Word-Action Consistency’- an attribute that indicates a leader of integrity should be able to keep their promises; talk and behave in a certain way. In relation to this attribute, a transactional leader can be seen to be keeping their promises in regards to rewarding bonuses to employees that have performed well and accomplish their respective pre-set goals and objectives (Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, & Van Engen, 2003). They also tend to portray a sense of responsibility for/towards others. This can be manifested in their ability to set the interests of the organisation before others since they will engage in rectifying the results of the employees to fit in with expectations of the organisation. A transformational leader portrays ability for consideration and respect for others. They are kind and sympathetic especially since they always focus on the bigger picture hence engages in delegating relatively smaller tasks to an existing team for purposes of accomplishing goals and objectives (Emery & Barker, 2007). They also adhere to the rules of fairness and justice. This is perceived whenever they treat all employees equally and motivate them to accomplish their personal goals for the greater purpose of the organisation. Question 4 In Anglo cluster, the theme related to ‘Fair and Just’ does not appear to be predominant in contributing to a leader of integrity since; first, they are run on an individualistic culture setting when compared to other sectors of the world. In these regions, there is a great tendency to perceive leadership as an attribute of individuals and that these individual leaders are perceived as being heroes that are somehow different from others (Martin et al, 2013). Secondly, in the Chinese society, the theme of fair and just is upheld in high regards since there are a higher level underlying cultural value of in-group collectivism within the overall Chinese society and the Confucian Asia societies as a whole. It is crucial to note that cultures, which are a characteristic collectivist orientation, will tend to focus on emphasising on a given set of procedural justice given that they form a fundamental platform for harmonious relationships. In essence, in China, the essence of ‘Fair and Just’ is entirely focused on reflecting intense level of competition for a limited set of resources while still depending on the ‘rule of man’ over the ‘rule of law’ for many of the organisations in the Confucian Asia societies (Lind & Tyler, 1988). Question 5 Even in realigning the attributes into personal and relational factors, it can be ascertained that new approach would still achieve a well-focused comprehension of a leader of integrity as a multi-faced development. Despite the fact that these new rearrangements will result to similar attributes and behaviours needed to convey lots of leader integrity across a specific set of societies, the emphasis that should be directed towards personal and relational factors will still portray a culture-specific interpretation of behaviours or even attributes that established within the theme (Martin et al, 2013). In this regards, the country-specific examination provides a well-developed comprehension of the nature of overall leader of integrity within a particular set of culture while still reinforcing cultural-based descriptions for both similarities and differences at both the society and cluster-level. Attributed themes of Fair and Just, Consideration and Respect for Others as well as Honesty are aligned to substantial virtues that relate to moderate and proximal indicators of leader of integrity given that they will most definitely convey morally perfect conduct and intentions. These relational factors avail a stronger foundation for portraying substantive leader integrity features. The personal factors that relates to the ‘Honest; Value-behaviour Consistency; Guided by strong personal values, Word-action Consistency and Openness and Transparency’ ascertain that leaders that act in accordance with their values will most likely pass the aspect of integrity to others in comparison to those leaders that merely seem to possess defined set of values or even moral principles (Martin et al, 2013). The ability to be a leader of integrity clearly involves being able to show one’s true characters and values in both private and public platforms and constantly demonstrate these set of both factors in their immediate set of actions. These factors postulate a word-deed arrangement for the underlying leaders for purposes of gaining credibility and thereafter, enhance the activities related to ethical accountability. In this regards, there is a likelihood that there will be a major set of differences that exists in regards to ethics-related attitudes and behaviours within the different set of cultures. Factors that relate to both personal and relational factors will likely result to a moral maturation as well as a distinctive set of value-based frameworks, which ascertains to issues of moral complexity or even moral identity (Martin et al, 2013). All of these factors will be able to enhance the degree of moral courage or efficacy that sets to interact with individual people and characters. Question 6 Gender; refers to the notion of being either male or female. Research has indicated that gender is a demographic factor that has been used to determine differences that exists within a particular set of sample population (Martin et al, 2013). In this regards, there is a possibility that female managers will have shown that a leader of integrity is one that is honest, has a sense of responsibility for/towards owing to the fact that women operate on a material attribute and, also be selfless in their doings. Generation/Age; is a demographic factor that is attribute to the levels of experiences of people positioned different age-sets and, their priorities in life. There is a higher level of chance that the older and millennial will have a different understanding of being a leader of integrity especially in regards to their priorities in life and experiences. For this reason, the millennial will tend to be individualistic in nature and so, exhibit such themes as Value-Behaviour Consistency, Honest, Word-Action Consistency and Fair and Just as being the most fundamental aspect of becoming a leader (Martin et al, 2013). On the contrary, the older generation’s priorities are focused on helping others as they try to achieve and sustain the higher hierarchical needs of self-actualisation. In this regards, the older generation will perceive a leader of integrity as the one who will are; ‘Guided by Strong Personal Moral Code/Values’, Openness and Transparency and adhere to the themes of Consideration and Respect for Others’. Education; is a demographic characteristic that is focused on determining how a set of people will react to a specific research question in relation to their immediate level of learning and knowledge (Lambert, Lambert, and Ito, 2004). It is important to note that educated sample population will be focused on explaining a leader of integrity as one that is able to encompass all of the above themes being; ‘value-behaviour consistency; honest; word-action consistency; consideration and respect for others; openness and transparency as well as ability to be fair and just’. Marital Status; is another demographic factor that can effectively be used to distinguish the level of outcomes within a given level of study. Married people are certainly expected to define integrity in different set of ways that will definitely include; consideration and respect for others; openness and transparency as well as the ability to honest in one’s undertaking. These differences in definition amongst the married people will entirely rely upon their understanding of integrity in relation to how people relate and communicate to one other (Chang, 2006). It focuses more on relational as opposed to personal factors. Question 7 Leader integrity is indeed more of a local concept as opposed to being a universally-accepted phenomenon. Different regions have shown to define and portray the aspect of being a leader in a different form of view. For instance, in the United States of America and Ireland or rather the Anglo Clusters, the aspect of integrity is more personal and individualistic in nature (Martin et al, 2013). The notion portrays an alignment between the leader’s overall actions and personal values. A leader of integrity is just perceived to be more of possessing greater strong moral values as opposed to it being relied on ethical principles. For Germans, the notion is directly associated with the concept of social responsibility towards employees; stakeholders and the overall organisation as a whole hence leaders demonstrate integrity as way of showing a sense of responsibility for/towards others. In the Confucian Asia regions, the concept of leader of integrity is highly attributed to being fair and just. This is attributed to the fact that the societies have a collectivist orientation that seeks to emphasise on procedural justice as they seen to be platform for harmonious relationship (Martin et al, 2013). To be specific, in Hong Kong, the society ascertains that traditional values will likely direct behaviours amongst leaders. There is a strong set of interdependence between leaders and their immediate followers and peers that associates with the societal collectivism. This is level of integrity is perceived as a way of sustaining notable harmony as it focuses on benefitting the underlying leaders to their subordinates completely. Question 8 Probable Title; ‘The different Perceptions of a Leader of Integrity across Different Cultures of the World’ The current title is inappropriate because it restricts the definition and perception of a leader of integrity to certain regions while in the real sense; there is no way for which the concept can be defined in a single manner. Different cultures adhere to different concepts and notions while addressing the perspective of a leader of integrity. The title, in this case, will be appropriate and proper because it captures the notion that integrity is indeed universal in nature and can be defined in distinctive ways depending on what a given culture perceives to be of integral importance (Martin et al, 2013). The article has been successful in analysing the concept in far wide ways but within a predetermined scenario and hence there is a need to conduct research that does not limit it to a specific region but rather examine it under a universal approach. References List Audi, R., & Murphy, P. E. 2006. The many faces of integrity. Business Ethics Quarterly, 16, 3–21 Cooper, C. D., Scandura, T. A., & Schriesheim, C. A. 2005. Looking forward but learning from our past: Potential challenges to developing authentic leadership theory and authentic leaders. The Leadership Quarterly, 16, 475–493 Chang, E.M., Daly, J.W., Hancock, K.M., Bidewell, J., Johnson, A., Lambert, V.A. and Lambert, C.E., 2006. The relationships among workplace stressors, coping methods, demographic characteristics, and health in Australian nurses. Journal of professional nursing, 22(1), pp.30-38. Eagly, A.H., Johannesen-Schmidt, M.C. & Van Engen, M.L., 2003. Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: a meta-analysis comparing women and men. Emery, C.R. & Barker, K.J., 2007. The effect of transactional and transformational leadership styles on the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of customer contact personnel. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communication and Conflict, 11(1), p.77 Lind, E. A., & Tyler, T. R. 1988. The social psychology of procedural justice. New York: Plenum Press Lambert, V.A., Lambert, C.E. & Ito, M., 2004. Workplace stressors, ways of coping and demographic characteristics as predictors of physical and mental health of Japanese hospital nurses. International journal of nursing studies, 41(1), pp.85-97. Martin, GS, et al. 2013. ‘The meaning of a leader integrity; A comparative study across Anglo, Asian and Germanic Cultures, The Leadership Quarterly, 2, 445-461 Read More