International Workplace Relations - Case Study Example

International Workplace Relations: Definition of Concept of Leadership in an International Context Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Code and Name University Date of Submission Definition of Concept of Leadership in an International Context To well define leadership in an international context, it is important to recognize the role globalization has had on international leadership. Globalization has opened up geographic boundaries, and businesses have opened up operations in every nation. Globalization has created one huge market for companies to exploit. This has been achieved though technological changes that continues to prevail in the planet. This has led to emergence of multinational companies, where a parent company invests into production activity in a variety of nations outside the mother country. These countries have different market structures, customer tastes and preferences, and cultures. Therefore, the multinational companies have a challenge of identifying leaders who have the skills to perform global tasks, and also, influence and motivate people at an international level. Leaders who can respond to different cultures that exist in the multinational’s global operations and induce positive changes though trust in cross cultural interactions (Mendenhall 2011, pp. 113-136). Leadership on an international context not only involves influencing the organization across the geographic borders, but also influencing the culture of the people across the world (Kabaskal & Dastmalchian 2001, pp. 470-488). International leadership involves having certain competencies over and above traditional leadership. These competencies enable a global leader bridge and satisfy the different cultural prospects that exist globally. They enable a global leader to influence the attitudes and behavior at the diverse cultures, to develop an organizational culture that allows every cultural group to be accommodated within the organization, and also, the organization recognizing the diversity. There exist many definitions that relate to international leadership, but the scope of the definitions above relate to multinational companies that have continued to promote global leadership in their operations. Theories about the traits/characteristics of effective global leadership Global leaders need to have universal qualities, which enable them to carry out their responsibilities outside their geographic boundaries. Many researchers have tried to identify competencies that a global leader should have in context to a global environment. On the advent of globalization, focus was on cross-cultural interaction and a global leader had to have traits such as respect for others, openness, tolerance and a communication that was two-sided (Harris & Moran 2004, pp. 226-227). These were traits that played a pivotal role in having effective global leaders as back then emphasis was on expatriate employment. Other literature went ahead identify other competencies, which were expected to address challenges the organizations faced on a global environment as globalization was taking foot. They involved eight global mindset components (Srinivas 1995, pp. 26-49). The leaders were required to be curious about the environment, understand the complexities of global organization, and being sensitive to the diverse cultures from where they operate. The competencies also focused on a leader having a system thing approach as they had confidence in organizational processes. Another author identified six characteristics that lead to global competencies that leaders should have. They included being able to manage competitiveness, managing complexities, having trust in interconnected processes, focusing on managing multicultural teams, managing uncertainty, and managing learning (Rhinesmith 1996, pp. 56-74). The ability of a leader to manage all these was viewed as traits for effective global leadership. The theory on Global Leadership Triad has four competencies a global leader should have to work effectively (Brake 1997, pp. 134-156). The leader should be transformational in nature, able to relate with the others, be able to have insight about the business, and be efficient in their operations to succeed in the global environment. All these theories accept the fact that, the leader is educated, but must have certain characteristics over and above the traditional leadership traits, so as to be effective globally. Global literacies like individual, societal, professional and cultural literacy, are competencies a global leader should possess (Rosen 2000, pp. 46-48). These competencies are a combination of traits and behaviors a leader has to maintain when in a global environment. To better understand traits that are essential to the efficient global leadership, we need to explore the company perspective (Caligiuri & Di Santo 2001, pp. 27-35). This theory identifies eight global leadership programs. A leader should be able to conduct business in any country. This will involve their ability to negotiate and market the company in a particular country. It is their ability to localize the products to attract local customers in order to boost sales. The global leader should have dynamic leadership style whenever he is operating from. Due to cultural diversity, a leader should be able to modify his leadership style based on the current situation. Relating to the worldwide operation of the business, a global leader should be able to be knowledgeable of the organizational structure globally, to aid in control function of management. They should be updated on the global trends and issues affecting the business environment, so as to develop a critical mind. A global leader should strive to drive the company away from being overcomed by the cultural diversity in a particular country. A level of openness and flexibility in operations by a global leader ensures no issues are left unaddressed, and reduces uncertainty. An approach greatly associated with effective global leadership is that of a global mindset. The company must be driven by a global business strategy that gives the direction the company is headed. It gives a company competitive advantage over the others in the industry. However, policies should be local as this leads to customization, and allows for delegation of operations. A global business strategy allows for standardization of the products as a means of remaining cost effective. It enables flexibility of operation from a leader’s point of view as product development and prototyping is done on a local level. The need for global leadership mindset ensures that, the company takes global view of both business and people, and being able to apply the variables mentioned after taking into account of the local culture. Theories about international leadership development Previously, we have explored the traits a global leader needs to possess. The rate of globalization continues to indicate of a need for global leaders to fill international vacancies in multinational companies. However, these leaders are scarce due to a lack of a clear way of instilling global traits to domestic leaders. A lot of challenges have emerged currently due to globalization relating to global leadership. There is also need to continuously training of global leaders to overcome such challenges (Robinson & Harvey 2008, pp. 466-480). Many authors have proposed a multi-dimensional approach to develop efficient global leadership. The development process is a multi-dimensional process that entails creating a global mindset, identifying a self-authored personality, cultural adaptation and psychological capital. Global mindset is a special trait for an individual to have in a global environment. One theory based on organizational level, distinguishes orientations managers use in managing multinational enterprises as ethnocentric, polycentric and geocentric. The wok of a domestic manager on geocentrism is used as the foundation for developing a global mindset (Perlmutter 1969, pp. 9-18). Other theories consider global mindset as individual, and it allows individuals have a broad perspective of the world (Rhinesmith 1996, pp. 56-74). There have been proposals that, nurturing curiosity helps in developing global mindset. Cross-cultural training lacks focus on individual mindset, and thus, have led to undesirable results. All these theories are in agreement that global mindset facilitates the connection between domestic leadership and global leadership. Individuals understanding of the reality develops with time, based on the constructive theory of approach to development of global leadership. The theory proposes that, development in an individual happens in five qualitative shifts in acuity. They individually have rules that direct how a person creates meaning (Kegan 1982, pp. 54-78). The stages of development include; impulsive, instrumental, socialized, self-authorization and self-transformation. The individuals are not aware of this system, and therefore, it occurs sequentially and following a hierarchy. Culture in global leadership generates a lot of discussion as the multinationals operate in areas where culture is diverse. Therefore, when developing global leaders, it I important to place great concern to cross-cultural leadership. Cultural difference also goes through a number of stages which include; denial, defense, minimization, acceptance, adaptation, and integration. The benefits of development in international leadership to multinational enterprises are immense. Development helps the organization assess the effectiveness of the HR function of the organization. An organization is able to maintain a diverse workforce that can succeed in various cultures. They also provide cross-cultural coaching for management and other leaders working in multi-cultural environment. They enable multinationals to have adequate pool of global leaders to choose from in their global operations. This gives them competitive advantage over others in the global market. The management is able to make use of expatriates to aid in international leadership development. This is the case because of their experiences with other cultures. International development sharpens the competencies of global leaders in relation to the changing global environment. These competencies enable the global leaders work effectively regardless of the situation they are in, and also enables them have influence over others. Multinationals are able to continuously focus on the global business strategy courtesy of the development program. The program ensures that the objectives of the company are adhered to, from all the regions where the company operates. The multinationals are also able to expand their operations from this. Challenges of implementing leadership development across different countries An expanding global market has been fronted as a major challenge to implementing leadership development. Competition has been vicious in the global market, and the ability to expand for multinationals has been difficult because; there currently exists a shortfall in global leaders. This has been the case because of development programs that are struggling to identify potential global leaders. There exist a breakdown within the organization between business strategy and talent strategy. This explains the reason why there is a shortage while the business has a global strategy.  A narrow scope of the development strategy of emerging globalization is another challenge in the implementation process. The desire to address the current shortfalls in global leaders is narrow as it should follow the traditional leadership development programs, whose scope includes consistency, balance and retention. Global leaders’ dim view of the development program is a challenge at the implementation process. This is because an attitude is already created by the global leaders about the program. The argument that exist is the intense pressure they face to drive results and execute strategies; the failure to use expatriation as a useful to aid in implementing development programs for global leadership competences; increasing complexity of the global environment has also contributed to difficulty in implementing development global leadership programs. This has been attributed by cultural differences between regions, and existence of a numerous sub-groups. This has led to contradictions in developing global leaders as cultures become too complex to be interpreted. Examples of MNEs that have overcome the Challenges Coca-Cola Company in a drive to push for a development program for its global leaders has employed a think global, act local approach for delivery. Here, a global program is created and made available to all the business units globally. It leaves room for modification to localize the program, therefore, allows for strategic alignment of content. To address the shortfall on the scope of the development program, the multinational has maintained diversity in the recruitment and selection process, so as to make the development process more complex to take into consideration cross-cultural interactions. Cultural assessment for global leaders has been instituted at Coca-Cola, so that, global leaders are accessed on their ability to relate to the cultural diversity at the area they are located. Global leadership development at Pepsi has enabled the multinational boost the global leaders’ pool. This is because the development program identifies the needs for each individual and the talent pool, which the company can leverage across a large employee population. The multinational has also integrated measurement processes that are used to track actual development of the global learning. The Paradox of MNEs not Valuing International Experience amongst their Expatriates When it comes to learning culture, expatriate experiences is very useful. Exposure, which is an approach in global leadership development, means that, having people who have had previous experiences before as reference points, are critical to integrating properly and quickly. Cultural lesson are learned mostly from experience. It is four times simpler for an expatriate to learn a culture, compared to an individual with international experience, and fifteen times more than domestic experience (McCall et al. 2001, pp. 303-307). Domestic leaders may be said to have same competences as expatriates, but it is impossible for them to retain the competences on a global environment. Expatriates have different competences, which were valuable for a global assignment, compared to individuals who had not lived abroad (Segil et al. 2003, pp. 215-250). Expatriates bring experience to the global leadership development an idea that can be used by an organization, to promote early exposure during the development program. Therefore, ignoring international experience from expatriates is to the detriment of the organization as it would find it difficult to implement its global development leadership program. This is because; it would be hard to bridge the cross-cultural diversity that exists in global leadership. Expatriates, also, do not require extensive development programs to shape their global competences. They hold strong traits from international experiences, which are essential for efficient global leadership. List of References Black, JS, Mendenhall, M & Stewart, J 2011. “Effectiveness : Cross-Cultural Training - A Review for Framework Theoretical Future. Management, Vol. 15, No. 1, p. 113-136. Brake, T 1997, The Global Leader. Critical Factors for Creating the World Class Organization, Irwin Profesional Publishing, Chicago, IL. Harris, PR, Moran, RT & Moran, SV 2004, Managing cultural differences-global leadership strategies for the 21st century (6th ed.), Butterworth, Oxford. Kabaskal, H & Dastmalchian, A 2001, “Introduction to the special issue on leadership and culture in the Middle East”, Applied Psychology An International Review, Vol. 50, No. 4, p. 479-488. McCall, MW Jr. & Hollenbeck, GP 2002, Developing global executives: The lessons of international experience, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Perlmutter, HV 1969. “A drama in three acts…The tortuous evolution of the multinational corporation”, Columbia Journal of World Business, No. Jan-Feb, pp. 9-18. Rhinesmith, SH 1996, A Manager’s guide to globalization: Six Skills for Success in a changing World, 2nd ed., The McGraw-Hill Companies, New York, NY. Robinson, DA & Harvey, M 2008, “Global Leadership in a Culturally Diverse World”, Management Decision, Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 466-480. Rosen, RH 2000, “What makes a globally literate leader?” Chief Executive, April, pp. 46-48. Srinivas, KM 1995, Globalization of business and the Third World: Challenge of expanding the mindsets, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 26-49. Srinivas, KM 1995, “Globalization of business and the Third World: Challenge of expanding the mindsets”, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 14, No. 3, p. 26-49. Suutari, V 2002, “Global leader development: An emerging research agenda”, Career Development International, Vol. 7, (4), pp.218-233. Thaler-Certer, RE 2000, “whither global leaders?” HRM Magazine, Vol. 45, No. 5, pp. 82-86. Uzzi, B 1997, “Social structure and competition in interfirm networks: the paradox of embeddedness”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 35-67. Wills, S & Barham, K 1994, “Being an international manager”, European Management Journal, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp .49-58. Read More