Topic: Impact of leadership approach in improving organizational performance in the international markets

1. Statement of research question

The leadership roles vary within different individuals and situations. The organizational performance in the global markets is optimized through the approach and role that is played by the leader. In this connection, the current research will identify the value of the leadership approach or role in improving the organizational performance in the international markets.  Therefore, the different challenges that are encountered by the global leaders and the manner in which the international operations of an organization are managed will be discussed as a part of the research.

2. Project goal and objectives

2.1 The goal

The goal of undertaking the research will be to make the business leaders aware of the required skills and knowledge that might shape their approach of management while operating in globalized markets  

2.2 The objectives

The objective of undertaking the research will be make the leaders aware of the different roles and responsibilities that they are expected to perform in the global market environments and thereby develop their professional attributes within the span of 6 months for coping with the changing global business environment.

3. Background

Leadership and governance plays an important role in maintaining the effectiveness of the business operations. According to Para-González, Jiménez-Jiménez and Martínez-Lorente  (2018), the changing global business environment requires continuous change in the leadership approach and the decisions that are made by the managers. In this connection, the incapability of the managers or the business leaders in adapting themselves to the global scenario might affect the overall performance of the organization. In most of situations, it has been observed that the insufficient knowledge and skills of the managers or the leaders have affected the capability of the organizations in undertaking the modifications while operating in the international markets. Moreover, Rao-Nicholson et al. (2016) opined that the communication skills of the leader is an important criteria that might be considered in the global scenario.  In a global business, the cross- cultural communication, diversity- inclusions are the major aspects that might be considered by a leader. The lack of efficient communication might affect the capability of the leader in developing cognition on the different concerns that are being encountered by the employees in the global context, affecting the overall firm performance. Islam et al. (2019) stated that the leaders take the initiative of communicating with the workforce while identifying and mitigating the concerns or conflicts for the uninterrupted functioning of the different processes in a business context.  Therefore, the communication skills and knowledge on dealing with cross- cultural conflicts is an important consideration that might be made by the business leaders while operating in the international markets.

The decision making capabilities and the long term vision of the business leaders permits the same in improving the overall business performance. Shanker et al. (2017) opined that the long term vision of the leaders and the decisions that are taken by the same supports in guiding the direction of operations for a firm. The knowledge on the changing business environment and their adaptability to the changing roles is again an important point of consideration that might be made by the leader. It has been observed that the decision making activities of a leader are considered to be the most important aspect of leadership while improving the performance of an organization in the international context. The leaders having an increased market knowledge and grip over the strategic discourses empowers promising performance of the business. According to Yunis, Tarhini  and Kassar (2018), the decisions made by the leaders in the international contexts support an organization in empowering its sustenance in intensely competitive situations. The aspects of corporate governance in the international context are specifically grounded on knowledge and skills of managing different contingent situations through innovative strategies. In this connection, the proficiency of the leaders in adapting themselves to the global scenario is a important consideration towards the improved performance of an organization.

Human resource management skills of a leader might be considered as one of the most important skills of a leader while driving the performance of an organization in the international context. According to Abubakar et al. (2019), the effective management of the human resources supports an organization in improving the  performance while adhering to the common objectives of the venture. In this connection, the leaders motivate and empower the activities of the workforce with the purpose of increasing the productivity of the organization. However, the absence of effective HR management skills and inadequacy of communication between the leader and the employees might affect the capability of the organization in increasing their performance.  Choi, Kim  and Kang (2017) stated that the increased power distance between the employees and the managers or the business leaders affect the  effectiveness of the overall operations. In this connection, the absence of adequate LMX (Leader Member Exchange) incapacitates the organizational leader in figuring out the concerns that are being faced by the employees while operating as per the common goals of the organization.

According to Alrowwad and Abualoush (2020), the active involvement of the leader with the workforce through interaction sessions supports an organization in improving the overall capability of improving the performance of the organization. Again, Al-Henzab, Tarhini and Obeidat (2018) opined that job satisfaction among the employees might be considered as one of the major aspects that is influenced by the efficiency of the leadership roles. Job satisfaction, commitment and trust of the workforce on their leader specifically contributes to their efforts while ensuring the increase in business productivity and performance. However, the incapability of the leader in motivating, empowering the employees or resolving the concerns might affect the overall performance of the business. According to Beneke et al. (2016), networking and retaining healthy relation with the different groups of stakeholders is an important responsibility that a leader is expected to perform for supporting the performance related needs of an enterprise. However, the incapability of the leader in identifying the interests of the international stakeholders might result to incapability of the organization in improving the overall business performance.    

However, in recent times, the intensification of competition in the international markets, the volatility of the market structure and the emergence of new leadership roles through innovativeness has diversified the constrained learning of leadership roles. It has been observed that most of the business leaders are facing concerns with the fast changing global business environment. According to Obeidat (2016), the reason for the incompetence of the new era of leaders is specifically due to the absence of continuous learning attributes. Again, Mishra et al. (2018) noted that the lack of adaptability of the leaders in the fast changing business environments have affected the business performance. It has been observed that most of the leaders face significant concerns in coping themselves with the changing business environment which might reduce the organizational performance. Therefore, the research will support in making the business leaders aware of the respective roles that the same are required to play while optimizing the performance of their organization in the global scenario.  

Project design

The research will be conducted through the utilization of qualitative interviews. In this connection, after concluding with the review of different existing literature on the changing leadership roles in the global context, a qualitative interview session would be held with the managers from three different international organizations. The managers who would be interviewed for the research would be selected on a convenient sampling method and will be contacted while presenting them with the rationale for the research and the interview session. The consent of the managers or the leaders would be taken before conducting the interview session. The consent of the respondents is a crucial step that might be considered as a part of the data collection program with the purpose of conducting the study on ethical grounds. A semi structured set of open ended questions would be posed to the managers with the purpose of gathering their feedbacks or responses on the different concerns that are being faced by the same while operating in the global market scenario. The interview process would specifically identify the different concerns that are being faced by the international managers or the leaders while operating in the fast changing and volatile market environment. The interviews enable in developing in- depth knowledge on the subject area. Therefore, the conduction of the open ended interview session with the managers of the organizations would  specifically support in deriving the concerns that are being encountered by the same while operating in the changing global business environment. The responses that would be gathered from the interview would specifically be analyzed through open coding technique where the most used keywords from the responses would be converted into codes and their frequency of use would be measured while correlating with the literature review. The analysis of the different responses that are provided by the leaders or the managers would guide the current study towards conclusion, discussion and recommendations. The recommendations would be enumerated on the basis of the concerns that are being encountered by the leaders or the managers.

Activities	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7
Confirmation on the topic
Setting objectives and research question
Searching literature
Undertaking the literature review
Devising the methodology
Developing the semi-structured set of open ended questions
Contacting the managers and leaders from 3 companies
Conducting the interview
Gathering Data
Analysis and interpretation of responses
Devising a discussion on the analyzed data
Conclusion and recommendation
Submission of paper

Ethical considerations

The data will be collected after taking consent from the respondents and their anonymity would be retained in this connection. According to Pietilä et al. (2020), the informed consent of the respondents and maintaining the anonymity of the same during the course of the research are important considerations that might be made with the purpose of safeguarding the interests of the vulnerable population.  Therefore, the respondents would be made aware of the rationale for undertaking the research and thereby their voluntary participation in the research process would be encouraged. No forced consent would be undertaken while collecting data. Moreover, data will not be manipulated during the analysis for supporting personal biases with the purpose of retaining the authenticity and unbiased outcome of the study. Therefore, the ethical constructs would be maintained while conducting the study.

Anticipated results

The study might produce an outcome that the effectiveness of the leadership roles in influencing the performance of the organizations in the global context. In this connection, the different challenges that might be faced by the leaders in the global context might be outlined with the purpose of developing   cognition on the restricting forces. After analyzing the responses from the study the study might identify the chief roles and challenges that are being faced by the managers and their perspective towards the role of leaders in improving the overall organizational performance.

References

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Al-Henzab, J., Tarhini, A. and Obeidat, B.Y., 2018. The associations among market orientation, technology orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and organizational performance. Benchmarking: An International Journal.

Alrowwad, A.A. and Abualoush, S.H., 2020. Innovation and intellectual capital as intermediary variables among transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and organizational performance. Journal of Management Development.

Beneke, J., Blampied, S., Dewar, N. and Soriano, L., 2016. The impact of market orientation and learning orientation on organisational performance. Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship.

Choi, S.B., Kim, K. and Kang, S.W., 2017. Effects of transformational and shared leadership styles on employees’ perception of team effectiveness. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 45(3), pp.377-386.

Islam, R., Osman, N., Othman, M.F. and Raihan, M.A., 2019. Impact Of Global Leadership Behaviors On Performance Of Multinational Companies. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, 7(3), pp.661-670.

Mishra, D., Luo, Z., Hazen, B., Hassini, E. and Foropon, C., 2018. Organizational capabilities that enable big data and predictive analytics diffusion and organizational performance. Management Decision.

Obeidat, B.Y., 2016. The effect of strategic orientation on organizational performance: The mediating role of innovation. International Journal of Communications, Network and System Sciences, 9(11), pp.478-505.

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Pietilä, A.M., Nurmi, S.M., Halkoaho, A. and Kyngäs, H., 2020. Qualitative Research: Ethical Considerations. In The Application of Content Analysis in Nursing Science Research (pp. 49-69). Springer, Cham.

Rafiq, M., Haris, M., Anwar, M.J. and Majeed, K.B., 2017. The Impact Of Leadership Behavior On The Business Growth Through The Organizational Innovation And Managerial Practices. Archives of Business Research, 5(3).

Rao-Nicholson, R., Khan, Z., Akhtar, P. and Merchant, H., 2016. The impact of leadership on organizational ambidexterity and employee psychological safety in the global acquisitions of emerging market multinationals. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(20), pp.2461-2487.

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