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journal of economics business and management vol 7 no 1 february 2019 leadership for multicultural teams the challenges in managing cross cultural conflicts afzalur rahman accountability is encouraged abstract globalization ...

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                                         Journal of Economics, Business and Management, Vol. 7, No. 1, February 2019
                       Leadership for Multicultural Teams: The Challenges in 
                                               Managing Cross-cultural Conflicts 
                                                                             Afzalur Rahman 
                                                                                         accountability is encouraged. 
                 Abstract—Globalization  opened  many  opportunities  for                    People  in  long-term  oriented  culture  do  not  expect 
              multinational  companies  but  it  also  created  some  major               immediate result while in short-term oriented culture instant 
              challenges  for  global  leaders.  While  in  Chinese  culture              outcome  is  a  major  concern  [2].  From  a  leadership 
              gift-giving is a popular approach to build strong relationship              perspective, understanding this dimension is critical dealing 
              between businesses and government, in the United States it is               with time-sensitive projects. 
              seen as a corrupt and morally repugnant way of doing business.                 Moreover, it is important to recognize how much a society 
              Additionally, conflict may rise due to negative stereotyping such 
              as ethnocentrism that causes cross-cultural conflict because it             values  traditional  male  and  female  roles.  According  to 
              encourages  promoting  inequality  within  an  organization.                Hofstede [1], in Italy it is preferable to appoint a male as a 
              Leaders of  multicultural teams need to understand different                team leader; however, in the Netherlands male and female 
              cultural  values,  behavioral  attributes,  and  organizational             should be treated equally. 
              dynamics which are essential to succeed in global marketplaces. 
                                                                                               
                 Index  Terms—Global  leadership,  international  human 
              resource  management,  cultural  dimensions,  cross-cultural                           II.  CULTURALLY SENSITIVE LEADERSHIP 
              management.                                                                    Strong  culturally  sensitive  leadership  can  accelerate  an 
               
                                                                                          organization  towards  diversity  where  all  employees  are 
                  I.  INTRODUCING HOFSTEDE’S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS                          respected and valued regardless of their age, ethnicity, gender, 
                 Understanding the cultural dimensions of Hofstede [1], [2]               race, or other dimensions [4]. This requires the ability to be 
              is  helpful to precisely address critical cross-cultural issues             open  to  others’  ideas  and  opinions  [5].  To  handle  the 
              and  collaborate  with  employees  from  different  cultural                challenges  of  global  diversity,  leaders  need  to  develop 
              backgrounds.  Hofstede  identified  five  cultural  dimensions              cultural intelligence as well. Cultural intelligence refers to “a 
              such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism                person’s ability to use reasoning and observation skills to 
              and     collectivism,     masculinity       and    femininity,      and     interpret  unfamiliar  gestures  and  situations  and  devise 
              long/short-term orientation.                                                appropriate  behavioral  response”  [4].  A  successful  global 
                 Multicultural  leaders  must  realize  that  in  a  high  power          leader  must  believe  in  his  or  her  ability  to  understand 
              distance society such as Malaysia, people accept inequality in              different cultures. 
              power among individuals [1]. While in a low power distance                       
              society such as Denmark, people expect equality in power. 
              Understanding  the  power  distance  of  different  cultures  is                           III.  GLOBAL LEADERS’ BEHAVIOR 
              imperative for leaders to consider diverse work practices. In a                House et al. [6] identified six global leader behaviors such 
              study, Chand [3] found that Indian software workers accept                  as  value-based  leadership  which  inspires  and  motives 
              the  decision  of  the  superiors,  even  an  autocratic  one.              employees  for  high  performance  outcome,  team-oriented 
              However, in the United States employees are encouraged for                  leadership  which  emphasizes  on  effective  team  building, 
              brainstorming and constructive criticisms [1].                              participative  leadership  that  reflects  the  degree  to  which 
                 Leaders  should  also  understand  uncertainty  avoidance                managers        involve      others     in     making       decisions, 
              which refers how the members of a culture feel threatened by                humane-oriented leadership which includes compassion and 
              uncertain situations [1]. Employees from one culture such as                generosity,  autonomous leadership  which refers  to  unique 
              Singapore (8) may be willing to take risks while Portuguese                 leadership  attributes,  and  self-protective  leadership  which 
              (104) are risk-avoiders.                                                    focuses on the safety and security of the employees. 
                 According to Hofstede [1], high context culture which is 
              based on collectivism prefers to establish relationship in a                  A. Participatory Leadership 
              workplace for mutual trust. Individualist culture, on the other                Participatory leadership is helpful to make sound decision 
              hand,  focuses  on  task  orientation  rather  than  relationship           because  everybody’s  opinion  is  counted  [7].  Participatory 
              building.  Global  leaders  must  identify  this  difference  to            leaders  also  make  sure  that  their  workforce  is  adequately 
              develop      organizational      strategic    objectives     and     its    trained cross-culturally. This style is democratic, appreciate 
              implementation.  For  example,  in  Japan  team  makes                      diversity,  and  culturally  sensitive  –  building  blocks  for 
              important decision whereas in the United States individual                  leaders of multicultural teams. 
                                                                                            B. Global Perspective 
                 Manuscript received October 29, 2018; revised January 12, 2019.             Leaders  in  MNCs  need  to  understand  the  worldwide 
                 Afzalur Rahman is with the Douglas College, British Columbia, Canada     business  environment  from  a  global,  rather  than  a 
              (e-mail: rahmana2@douglascollege.ca).  
               doi: 10.18178/joebm.2019.7.1.578                                        41
                                                                                                                                             
                                    Journal of Economics, Business and Management, Vol. 7, No. 1, February 2019
             country-specific,   perspective  [8].  They  should  hold            Leader’s ability to forming a strong team is vital to meet 
             knowledge about diverse cultures, languages, economic and         organizational  goal.  A  successful  team  can  be  created  by 
             political systems, tastes, trends, technologies, and approaches   “instilling  teamwork  values,  establishing  clear  goals, 
             to conducting businesses globally.                                selecting the right team players, developing key skills, and 
              C. Transformational and Transactional Leadership                 developing team process” [19]. 
               Transformational Leadership style is also appropriate for          The    participative   and    transformational    leadership 
             global leaders which is not only based on “pure economic and      encourage  team  members  to  involve  in  decision  making 
             social exchange” [9], but also admiration [9], trust [10], high   process  which  makes  them  feel  important.  However,  the 
             level  of  effort  [11]  and  satisfaction  [9],  personalized    leaders must realize that employees from some cultures such 
             relationship [12], emotional attachment [6], loyalty [12], and    Japanese do not mind being directed and monitored while the 
             respect [13].                                                     Americans do not expect a lot of direction and monitoring 
               Furthermore, Transformational leaders are charismatic and       [20]. 
             possess a strong sense of moral and ethical principles [9],          Leadership  competencies  have  critical  impact  on  team 
             [14].  These  characteristics  and  skills  of  Transformational  performance.     Successful    multicultural    team    leaders 
             leadership  are  strongly  related  to  successful  maneuver  of  persistently monitor environmental conditions, provide clear 
             multicultural teams [7].                                          direction, anticipate problems, maximize information flow, 
               Transactional Leadership may also be implemented where          develop  interpersonal  relationships  with  team  members, 
             employees can be motivated through the system of reward           encourage feedbacks, and modify changes if required. The 
             and punishment [12].                                              challenges of a global team can also be addressed by effective 
                                                                               and  efficient  use  of  advanced  technology  for  virtual 
                                                                               collaboration  such  worldwide  web,  company  intranet, 
                                                                               audio-visual  conference,  and  internet  and  intranet  relay 
                  IV.  OTHER IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES AND SKILLS                   communications [21]. 
               Yong and Ready [15] identified important attributes and             
             skills  needed  in  cross-cultural  leadership:  articulating  a 
             tangible  vision,  creating  strategic  and  cultural  change,        VI.  MITIGATING THE CAUSES BEFORE THE CONFLICTS 
             empowering subordinates, and managing strategy to action.                                     OCCUR 
             Moreover, global leaders are required to have cross-cultural         There are other steps which can be helpful dealing with a 
             skills  such  as  communicating with employees of different       foreign  culture  such  as  pre-departure  training  for  home 
             cultural backgrounds, motivating and rewarding, managing          country  employees  to  understand  the  culture  of  the  host 
             in structure, and resolving and negotiating disputes [16]. The    country  [22].  They  should  be  provided  with  enough 
             preferred type of leadership, however, depends on specific        information about the assignment well before their departure. 
             circumstance and cultural situation [5].                          Even in pre-departure training, the family members of the 
                                                                               employees should be included because as mentioned before 
                                                                               staying  away  from  family  is  a  major  cause  of  stress  for 
                      V.  GOOD LEADERS CREATE GOOD TEAMS                       expatriate employees. The employees of host country should 
               The above-mentioned attributes, behaviors, characteristics      also  be  trained  to  avoid  possible  conflicts  with  the  home 
             and skills are desirable to make a good leader in multicultural   country employees. 
             environment. A good leader tends to create an organizational         Some  companies  select  expatriate  employees  based  on 
             culture   which  is  positive,     optimistic,   constructive,    professional and technical skills while ignoring cross-cultural 
             encouraging, caring, courteous, and cooperative [7]. These        issues [22]. They failed to provide adequate pre-departure 
             elements  are  necessary  for  a  multicultural  team  to  build  training. Companies should not only focus on cultural issues 
             strong relationship between members. With team spirit, they       but also local values and norms for developing interpersonal 
             also motivate and inspire each other to meet personal and         relationships  with  local  employees.  Conflicts  may  also  be 
             organizational   objectives.   Moreover,  employing  full         pre-resolved  by  selecting  expatriate  employees  with  high 
             diversity is beneficial for a multicultural team which brings     emotional  and  cultural  intelligence  [22].  Additionally, 
             trust. If there is a trust, communication becomes simple and      sending employees on pre-sojourn visits may also be helpful 
             easy  [17].  Lussier  and  Achua  [18]  identified  three         to  familiarize  the  culture  of  the  host  country  and  the 
             requirements to achieve full diversity level in an organization.  organization. 
             They are: removing obstacles to achieving diversity, creating         
             a culture that supports diversity, and engaging employees in 
             diversity awareness training.                                     VII.  CONSEQUENCES OF CROSS-CULTURAL CONFLICTS ON A 
               Cross-cultural  training  is  helpful  to  better  manage  a                       GLOBAL ORGANIZATION 
             diverse workforce [18]. It is also useful to develop trust and       Failure to adapting a foreign culture may result early return 
             relationship  between  employees  from  different  cultural       of an expatriate employee which can cause lowered return on 
             backgrounds. The intention of cross-cultural training is to       investment for the organization and lowered self-esteem and 
             improve the interpersonal relationships between employees         career growth for the employee [22]. Conflicts may have an 
             so that they respect and value each other’s opinions. Training    effect  on  a  global  organization’s  strategic  objective  and 
             is  designed to improve awareness and empathy for people          implementation as well. Without building trust, collaboration, 
             from diverse groups.                                              and  relationship  between  members  from  different  cultural 
                                                                            42
                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                Journal of Economics, Business and Management, Vol. 7, No. 1, February 2019
                 backgrounds, it will be impossible for a global company as                               against ethnocentric behavior. Understanding local culture is 
                 well as its employees to meet their respective goals.                                    beneficent to precisely address critical issues and collaborate 
                    Continuous  conflicts  create  unfriendly  and  unhealthy                             with diverse colleagues. It may be advantageous for global 
                 working environment which leads to unproductive output.                                  leaders to follow the famous phrase “when in Rome, do as do 
                 For a global virtual team, in addition to cultural differences,                          the Romans” to address country-specific elements which are 
                 little  or  on  face-to-face  interaction  and  lack  of  on-site                        more reactive to local flavors. 
                 monitoring  make  it  harder  to  build  team  identify  and 
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                 Besides, they need to develop cross-cultural literacy to guard                            
                                                                                                      43
                                                                                                                                                                             
                                            Journal of Economics, Business and Management, Vol. 7, No. 1, February 2019
                                  Afzalur  Rahman  is  a  full-time  faculty  member  at         management,  business  strategy,  and  global  entrepreneurship.  Afzalur 
                                  Douglas College, British Columbia, Canada. Previously          completed his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) in international 
                                  he  has  worked  at  Thompson  Rivers  University,  The        business from Argosy University-Tampa in Florida, United States. He also 
                                  University of British Columbia, Okanagan College, and          completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from North 
                                  Shanghai Institute of Technology. Dr. Rahman’s research        South University and a B.Comm. (Honors Business Administration) degree 
                                  has  focused  primarily  on  the  areas  of  international     from University of Windsor. 
                                  business,  international  marketing,  human  resource 
                
                                                                                              44
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...Journal of economics business and management vol no february leadership for multicultural teams the challenges in managing cross cultural conflicts afzalur rahman accountability is encouraged abstract globalization opened many opportunities people long term oriented culture do not expect multinational companies but it also created some major immediate result while short instant global leaders chinese outcome a concern from gift giving popular approach to build strong relationship perspective understanding this dimension critical dealing between businesses government united states with time sensitive projects seen as corrupt morally repugnant way doing moreover important recognize how much society additionally conflict may rise due negative stereotyping such ethnocentrism that causes because values traditional male female roles according encourages promoting inequality within an organization hofstede italy preferable appoint need understand different team leader however netherlands beha...

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