Question:
Give a review on the literature considering the management and leadership styles required in national culture in contrast to other cultures?
Answer:
Avolio et al. (2009, p.423) stated that there are several factors that are taken into account in order to be good international managers and efficient leader. However, in order to understand the international management or managers, it is necessary to understand the global market scenario. After the globalization of the business world, it has been necessary for the business organization to appoint managers who have the ability to manage and carries the leadership styles required on a global basis. Elci et al. (2012, p.290) mentioned that the most crucial factor that that influences an international manager is the cultural factor.
In order to make growth and development of the business, most of the organizations are performing international business to capture the international market (Dale (2009, p.759). These organizations require selecting the appropriate person who is capable of managing every person irrespective of their national culture and background. On the other hand, as commented by Kim & Brymer (2011, p.1021), most of the stakeholders of an organization belongs from international states.
Here, in this case, I being the international manager of an organization require focusing on the cultural aspects of the people who are appointed by me. Names (2010, p.65) pointed that in order to be a good international manager it is necessary to have adequate knowledge on the complex aspects of culture. In my team, I was given the responsibility of managing two persons from Nigeria and Britain. I am a Romanian. Managing these people is possible only if I have enough knowledge of their cultural background. This is possible only when the various attributes of an international manager is taken into account.
In order to be a good international manager and leader, it is very important on my part to have good communication skill. I need to examine that whether I have the ability to communicate with people belonging to a different culture. I am appointed as the international manager of the organization with team members from varied culture. I always had a communication skill and I had the ability to communicate thing in simple forms to others. Thus, the communication was not a big issue in my context. On meeting the Nigerian and the British person, I communicated firmly and exchanged our thoughts.
Apart from the communication skill, the requirement of good organizational skill is also necessary. Yan (2011, p.394) mentioned that organizational skills help a person to plan and schedule for the proper management of the organization. On completing the proper communication with the team members, I explained and discussed the organizational cultures with the persons. Apart from the good communication and organizational discussion, I discussed with them about my team-building plans. The team building capability is also a crucial factor required by a manager. I have enough expertise in developing and managing the team as I had already worked as a team leader for my previous organization. However, in my new organization, I require to manage people from various cultural backgrounds and to develop a team with them.
As mentioned by Zehir and Erdogan (2011, p.1391), the leadership and management styles move side by side while managing a team member. In this context, I am going to reflect my experience in managing the Nigerian and British person appointed under me. As I belong from the Romania, it is not easy for me to understand the cultural background of the Britain and the Nigeria. However, I do not have enough idea about the cultural background of the Nigeria and Britain. I only have some academic knowledge on the cultures of the mentioned people and had never interacted with them.
In order to manage the Nigerian and British person, it is important for me to understand their cultural background. Brown et al. (2008, p.118) mentioned that the people belonging from Nigeria have their own heritage and language background, which is different from others. There is a vast difference between the Nigerian Culture and British Culture. As Nigeria is large African nation, which is mostly covered by forest area have a limited access to literature and education. Only a few people belong from that nation have good qualification background. Thus, it is quite important for me to understand their culture.
I also need to study their cultural background so that I can understand their background. In the case of Nigeria, people belong to high-class society are mainly the politicians and businessmen. My new team member belongs from a business background and is quite fluent in English. However, as per my Romanian culture, there is high aristocracy in the language and style of living. It is quite tough for me to cope up with his culture. The people belonging from Nigeria do not like to engage themselves with other in most of the cases. However, this leadership and managerial skills can help me a lot in managing the person.
Apart from the Nigerian person, I also do not have a cultural idea about the British person. As per my knowledge on British Culture, the people belonging to Britain are more collectivist in nature compared to the individualistic nature of the British people. As mentioned by Vecchio et al. (2008, p.73), these people have a nature of being collective with other people. This is quite beneficial in this context as there is very less effort is required to handle this person.
However, I do not have any knowledge whether these people can socially interact with other people belonging to other cultures. In order to match to their culture, I changed myself from individualistic culture to collective culture. This helped me a lot in interacting with the British and Nigerian person.
As pointed by Edd (2011, p.565), the British management style depends highly on individualism, these people are highly self-dependant and confident. They have the quality to manage people and handle them easily. As like the other British managers, I also have generalist outlook in every aspect of a job. Thus, my cultural background along with my managerial skills helped me greatly in managing the two different people from two different cultural backgrounds.
As mentioned by Gardner (2009, p.78), the management theory like Classical Management Theory, Human Relation Theory and Neo-Human Relations Theory are mostly taken into account for consideration. As per the classical management theory, the main focus is given on the structure of the management and the way it should operate. The definition for the word management was first given by Henry Fayol, which includes the planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling the staffs within the business. I strictly follow this theory while managing my team. I make quite easy for me to manage the persons from other culture.
The other theories related to human relation are also used while managing these people. The human relation theory requires making high social research. It clearly states that individuals cannot work under isolation rather they teams and groups to function properly. Thus, this particular theory is closely linked with my team development skills. I received a huge benefit from this theory.
Nevertheless, the neo-human relationship theory is closely linked with the Maslow’s Hierarchy theory. This is quite important on my part because I need to take care of the needs and wants of my team members. As per my team, the Nigerian person has some different aspirations compared to the aspirations of the British person. As mentioned by Adair (2010, p.63), a good manager needs to take into account every desire of his subordinate. This greatly helps in running the team in a proper manner. On proper interaction with my team members, I generated some amount of idea about their needs and wants. This helps me in framing and assigning specific jobs to them as per their capabilities.
Apart from the management skills, leadership skills are also necessary for running the team. There is leadership that is in practice by most of the managers in the business world. These theories mainly include Behavioural Theory, Trait Theory, Contingency Theory and Transformational Theory.
The behavioural theory as mentioned by Bass (2010, p.112) puts stress on the behaviour of the leader and his attitude over his subordinate. Under this form of behavioural theory, the Autocratic leaders, Democratic leader, and Laissez-faire leaders are taken into consideration. I manage my team by following the Democratic Leadership. The simple reason behind this is that I always like to involve all my team members in the decision-making process. Moreover, the trait theory as commented by Conger and Riggio (2012, p.967), identifies the quality and personality that are required by a person who is different non-leaders.
This is judgment, which is required to be made by the team members. As per my team, the members are quite satisfied with my leading style and they perform as per my needs. As mentioned by Hughes and Beatty (2011, p.45), the contingency theory is also practiced by most of the leaders. As per this theory, the emphasis is given to both the personality as well as the situation in which the larger is performing. This theory is also quite applicable in my context. Both the British and the Nigerian person support me greatly while I manage my team. As per the trait theory in my case, my team members support my personality and on the contrary, the contingency theory of leadership is fulfilled by my team members.
Nevertheless, I also prefer the transformational theory greatly. As mentioned by Allen (2009, p.102), the transformational theory puts stress on the improvement of motivation and morality of the team members. In the international business scenario, I have trained my team members in such a way that they always support each other and improve the motivational level of each other.
In my team, the Nigerian and the British person not only support me but they also support each other in many respects. In my earlier organization, I was mainly involved with people belonging to my own culture. This used to create a thought within me, whether I have the skill in managing the people from other cultural backgrounds. On the studying the different theories in relation to leadership, I developed my skill and experience in managing people from different cultures.
I have gained many new experiences while working with my culturally diverse team. This not only improved my interacting skills with other people but also helped me in learning new traits from a different culture. I have also tried to learn their local languages to some extent. I have gained enormous knowledge on the various aspects of management and leadership that widen my scope in working in the international business scenario. This created an ability to work in any kind of cultural environment around the globe.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the essay that the cultures of different places vary from each other. However, it is the duty of the managers to manage any kind employees irrespective of their cultural background. In the essay detail, discussion on the diverse cultures between the Nigerian and the British culture is done, which is linked with the current trends of international management. Moreover, the essay also reflected the theories of management that are necessary for managing a team. Apart from this, the uses of the different leadership theories are also done in relation to leadership skills required for managing in the international market.
Reference Lists
Books
Adair, J. (2010) Strategic Leadership: How to Think and Plan Strategically and Provide Direction, 3rd ed. London: Kogan Page
Allen, D. (2009) Leadership and Teamwork Essays. 6th ed. London: McGraw-Hill Education.
Bass, B. (2010) The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Conger, J. A. and Riggio, R. E. (2012) The Practice of Leadership: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders, 2nd ed. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Dale, M., (2009). Manager’s guide to recruitment and selection. 4th ed. New York: Nova Publication.
Edd, J. K. (2011) Strategic Leadership: Leading Change in a New Age, 3rd ed. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Gardner, R. (2009) Games for Business and Economics, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley
Hughes, R. L. and Beatty, K. M. (2011) Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization’s Enduring Success, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Journals
Avolio, B. J., Walumbwa, F. O. and Weber, T. J., (2009). “Leadership: Current theories, research and future directions”, Annual Review of Psychology, 2(4), pp.421-449.
Baker, M. and Desjardins, C. (2013). “The Leadership Task Model”, Journal of Applied Leadership and Management, 2(3), pp.17-32
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Elçi, M., Şener, İ., Aksoy, S., and Alpkan, L. (2012). “The Impact of Ethical Leadership and Leadership Effectiveness on Employees’ Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Work Related Stress”, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5(8), pp.289–297
Kim, W. G., & Brymer, R. A. (2011). “The effects of ethical leadership on manager job satisfaction, commitment, behavioral outcomes, and firm performance”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30(4), pp.1020–1026.
Niemes, J. (2010). “Discovering the value of executive coaching as a business transformation tool”, Journal of Organizational Excellence, 21(4), pp.61–69.
Vecchio, R. P., Justin, J. E., and Pearce, C. L. (2008). “The utility of transactional and transformational leadership for predicting performance and satisfaction within a path‐ goal theory framework”, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 81(1), pp.71–82.
Yan, J. (2011). “An Empirical Examination of the Interactive Effects of Goal Orientation, Participative Leadership and Task Conflict on Innovation in Small Business”, Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 16(3), pp.393–408
Zehir, C., and Erdogan, E. (2011). “The Association between Organizational Silence and Ethical Leadership through Employee Performance”, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(4), pp.1389–1404.
