Leadership & team management

1. Week 9
International & Culturally
Diverse Aspects of
Leadership

2. Work Force Trends
• Work forces are becoming more diverse and cultures of
inclusion are becoming more common.
• Globalization is compelling businesses to send more workers
to other countries.
• Leaders are traveling and working abroad in greater
numbers.
• Workers with international experience and skills are
increasingly more sought-after in the workplace.

3. Diversity
•Human characteristics that make people
different from one another.
•Leaders should be the champions for valuing
the inclusion of these differences.

4. Understanding the “Differences”
• The sources of our individual variations are complex, but are
generally grouped into two categories:
• Those over which we have little or no control
• Biologically determined – race, sex, age, certain physical
attributes, the family and society we are born into
• Those over which we have some control
• Through our conscious choices and deliberate efforts
• Work, background, income, marital status, military experience,
political beliefs, geographic location, education

5. Advantages of Managing Diversity
• Reduction of turnover and absenteeism costs
• Managing diversity well offers a marketing advantage
• Companies with a favorable record in managing diversity are
at a distinct advantage in recruiting and retaining talented
people.
• Heterogeneity in the work force may offer the company a
creativity advantage, as well as improve its problem-solving
and decision-making capability.
• Diversity and inclusion programs help local economies
thereby boosting social responsibility.

6. Cultural Factors Influencing
Leadership Practice
• Multicultural leaders have skills and attitudes to relate
effectively to and motivate people across race, gender, age,
social attitudes, and lifestyles.
• One way to understand how national cultures differ is to examine their
values or cultural dimensions.
• The values embedded in a culture influence the behavior of leaders and
managers as well as the behavior of other workers.
• Relationships between people in a society are affected by the values
programmed in the minds of these people.

7. European Styles of Management
•French managers – who work in a strong culture of
class - tend to behave in a superior, authoritarian,
and bureaucratic manner.
•German managers tend to avoid uncertainty, and
are dispassionate, assertive, straightforward, and
stern.

8. Malaysian Managers
•Culture emphasizes collectivism and is human-
oriented.
•Culture discourages aggressive, confrontational
behavior, preferring harmonious relationships.
•Managers show compassion but are more
autocratic than participative.
•Managers act logically, decisively, and remain
resolute.
•Managers adopt a more formal, diplomatic style to
avoid conflict and show consideration of others.

9. Northern US vs. Southern US
Managers
•Southern managers are low key and people-
oriented.
•Northern managers are more brusque, efficient,
and task-oriented.
•Culturally-based differences in leadership style are
not as important as practices that work in every
culture, for all businesses.

10. Cultural Sensitivity and Cultural
Intelligence
•Cultural Sensitivity is an awareness of and a
willingness to investigate the reasons why people of
another culture act as they do.
•Cultural Intelligence is an outsider’s ability to
interpret someone’s unfamiliar and ambiguous
gestures the way that person’s compatriots would.

11. Global Leadership Skills
• Refer to the ability to exercise effective leadership in a
variety of countries.
• The essence of global leadership is the ability to influence
people who are dissimilar to the leader and stem from
different cultural backgrounds.
• Excellent global leaders have a leadership style that
generates superior corporate performance in terms of:
• Profitability and productivity
• Continuity and efficiency
• Commitment and morale
• Adaptability and innovation

12. Leadership Initiatives for Achieving
Cultural Diversity
• Hold managers accountable for achieving diversity
• Establish minority recruitment, retention, and mentoring
programs
• Conduct diversity training
• Conduct cross-cultural training
• Encourage the development of employee networks
• Avoid group characteristics when hiring for person-
organization fit
• Modify products and services for targeted demographic
groups
• Attain diversity among organizational leaders

13. Summary
• The modern leader must be multicultural.
• Managing for diversity brings a competitive advantage to the firm.
• The leader must be aware of overt and subtle cultural differences to
influence, motivate, and inspire culturally diverse people.
• Differences in cultural values help explain differences among people.
• Cultural values influence leadership style as well as the behavior of other
workers.
• Cultural sensitivity is essential for inspiring people from different
countries.
• Global leadership skills help improve a company’s reputation and
contribute to a sustainable competitive advantage.
• Top management commitment to valuing diversity is clearest when
valuing diversity is embedded in organizational strategy.