Cross-cultural Management Assignment Sample

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Introduction - Cross-Cultural Management and Leadership Challenges

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Cross-cultural management in organisations present management of behaviour, identity and relationship issues and challenges (Smith and Peterson, 2017). These issues need proper and effective intercultural competence and also culturally diverse leadership practices for managing employees within the workplace and to develop a healthy culturally diverse workplace. The cross-cultural issues and challenges involve various problems that the employees from different cultural backgrounds face include language problems, cultural diversity, different beliefs, morals, values. Cross-cultural leadership, therefore, refers to the management of differences in intercultural aspects in the international environment with the help of cultural awareness and skill development training intercultural competency (Brisling et al., 1973).

Summary of the article

The leaders of MNCs in Thailand are employing leaders from North America, European countries. The leaders from the different countries need to understand the cultural differences of the work environment of Thailand and the cultures of America and European countries. For Operating business services in the international market, while entering a new marketplace, the leaders need to modify their behaviours, make adjustments in their attitudes. By understanding Nicholson’s WRT theory, the leaders can change their attitudes as per their job roles. The leaders need to improve their knowledge and cultural diversity which can help them in linking between the goal achievement of the organization as well as the cultural diversity (Kamales and Knorr, 2019). With the help of knowledge in cultural diversity and the need of adjustments, the leaders can easily adjust to the new business environment (Ahmad and Saidalavi2019). The article focuses on the adjustments the leaders do for developing a good work environment which is culturally sound.

The work role transition theory is analysed in the article that helps the leaders in managing cultural differences. The culturally diverse leaders also enable the organization's detection of various challenges and learn how they can overcome the challenges by adjusting with the new circumstances changing their behaviours and attitudes (Kamales and Knorr, 2019). With the help of their intercultural competence, the leaders identify the similarities and dissimilarities between the cultures of different work cultures. And thus, they can change their perspectives and work contents as per the requirements of the new workplace (Ahmad and Saidalavi2019). They make new decisions and strategies that help the leaders adjust to the new work environment and overcome cultural differences. Thereby, it helps the leaders operate their business across various cultural market (Kamales and Knorr, 2019).

All persons involved in cross-cultural relationships and organizations require intercultural knowledge. The situational leaders and the cross-cultural adjustment leaders modify their behaviour for meeting their personal and job development (Smith and Peterson, 2017). The leaders canestablishtraining courses andprograms to nurture the communication to minimize intercultural environment issues (Baporikar, 2020). The management needs competency necessitating cross-cultural management by using adjustment theory to enable leadership adjustments.

Structure of the article

The article follows the description of the cross-cultural leadership and how it can be implemented in the diverse work culture.

The structure of the article follows methods in which research design and participants have been included. The data collection follows pilot interviews, online qualitative survey, data analysis, and research findings. The findings show Thai employee characteristics, inexpressiveness, non-confrontationality, ineffective teamwork, modes of cultural leadership and adjustments have also been included in the.

Qualitative methodology processes have been used for the research design. A semi-structured interview and qualitative online surveys have been involved to gather relevant information for the research.

In the data collection process, the pilot interview in terms of face-to-face semi- structured interview has been conducted which allows the interviewees to collect information about the views and opinions of the employees, their business culture and system and their leadership approaches.

Apart from that, an online qualitative survey has also been conducted which consisted of three sets of open-ended questions. The questions aim to gather information about the leaders' viewpoints and their experiences and how they used the modes of adjustments for adjusting in different cultural work environments.

In the data analysis process inductive and deductive processes have been used for analysing the data.

Critical Evaluation of Leadership and Nicholson’s Theory Of Work Role Transition

LEADERSHIP

The Cross-cultural adjustment leaders have a huge and significant role in maintaining cultures and cross-cultural dimensions within an organization (Joseph, and Chin, 2019). The leaders can only implement effective strategies for overcoming cultural differences and diversity within the workplace. The leaders need to understand how their employees or organizational members can interact freely within the work environment without facing any challenges due to diversity and differentiation in culture (Joseph, and Chin, 2019).

The situational leaders develop a rich understanding to make adjustments for working in a culturally different work environment. The leaders use their capabilities to motivate and influence the attitude, and behaviour of the people in the international place for helping them reach a common goal and objective of the organization. They also modify their behaviour, contents of tasks, attitudes to adjust in the new environment. Cross-cultural leadership skills are very important for operating a business on an international or global level (Baporikar, 2020). International marketplaces and workplaces face various cultural differences. By understanding the cross-cultural differences the leaders try to motivate people. The leaders also use various training and educational programs on cultural differences and diversity to try to help the employees become empowered with the cultural diversities (Brisling et al.,. 1973).

The leaders possess various traits and skills for managing cross-cultural diversities. Using skills in various languages the leaders try to understand the language of the employees. They also help the employees in providing training in different languages for overcoming cultural issues (Kamales and Knorr, 2019).

Communication skills are the most important skills for overcoming cross-cultural differences (Adler and Aycan, 2018). This is how the Situational and Cross-cultural adjustment leaders play a crucial role in managing a healthy cultural environment in an organization. Developing a team or regular interaction with the new employees or the employees with different cultural backgrounds can help in building a robust communication system within the organization (Ilie, 2019). Providing education about different cultures and increasing cultural awareness among employees can help in building a robust culture within the workplace. Skills in interpersonal behaviour and activities of the leaders are a very crucial part of understanding cultural differences. The leaders need to try to understand the feelings and emotions of the employees. The employees can increase their faith in the leaders, and thus a cultural atmosphere is built (Smith and Peterson, 2017).

Culture and leadership

Intercultural competence which is the most required for the leaders refers to the capability and ability of the leaders to operate in different cultures. It is also an ability to act and think effectively, communicate with a different and diverse cultural background, and also work with various people from diverse cultural backgrounds (Arasaratnam-Smith, 2017). Intercultural competence is the most important and required skill for any leader or employee of an organization. It helps in dealing with different cultures. It is also valuable protection and well asset used in a globalized work atmosphere for interacting with various people belonging from different nations (Matveev, 2017). With this skill, the leaders can understand the values, cultures, morals, beliefs, and behaviours of different cultured people. There are various components of intercultural competencies including knowledge, skills, and behaviour. Intercultural competence can help leaders in managing different cultural backgrounds (Arasaratnam-Smith, 2017)

Work Role Transition (WRT) theory of Nicholson

In the article, the models of culture have been broadly described with the help of the theory of Nicholson described in the form of modes of adjustments. The modes of adjustment engage some patterns that the individuals follow to adjust the work rule changes (Tsai et al., 2019). When the status of the work role changes, the person or individual also faces some changes in the work culture. The transition of work roles also happens because of certain reasons including domestic job transfer, a new job, transfer to international workplace, and company reorganization.

As per the WRT theory of Nicholson, the business of organizational leaders adjust the leadership approaches because of the changes due to International transfer. Depending on their roles in the organisations in the international background, they have to change their behaviour and subordinates (Tsai et al., 2019). The changes happened in the two aspects of role development and personal development. Due to changes in the work environment in the new organisations and individuals also need to change their behaviour, working pattern, and attitudes which is referred to as a personal development. The individuals also change their skills, leadership approaches, values, and identity as per the changes they meet for environmental requirements (Tsai et al., 2019).

On the other hand, role development includes the necessary changes in the roles of the individual for meeting their abilities, needs, and identity. For meeting their role requirements they also change their working methods, objectives and goals, their subordinates, interpersonal skills, and scheduling. The expatriate business leaders try to change the host country's subordinates (Tsai et al., 2019). They also try to change the working methods in which the people perform their work to meet their personal requirements.

Four modes of adjustments have been described by Nicholson by combining the two dimensions including personal development and role development.

Replication

In this mode of adjustment the personal development as well as the role development is low. The leaders make several changes in their behaviour and working methods. They also try to meet in their existing personal behaviour attributes and organisational schedule (Tsai et al., 2019). In this article replication is expressed when the leaders from International organisation make some adjustments in their leadership approaches and also implement some changes on their subordinates.

Absorption

It includes high personal development as well as low role development. The leaders change their behaviour and attitudes but they also make some changes in the contents of their tasks. It is expressed when the expatriate leaders change their leadership approaches but also bring some changes on their subordinates (Tsai et al., 2019).

Determination

It includes low personal development and high rural development. The leaders change the contents of their task actively. They also bring some changes in their behaviour by making some adjustments. The expatriate leaders change their subordinates actively at the same time they also bring a little adjustment in their leadership approaches (Tsai et al., 2019).

Exploration

It includes high road development and high personal development. In this mode of adjustment the individuals bring changes to both themselves and their contents of tasks. The expatriate leaders changed their subordinates as well as their leadership techniques and styles (Tsai et al., 2019).

These four adjustment modes are described in the WRT theory can help in dealing with different cultural backgrounds for cross cultural environments.

In this theory Nicholson has suggested that the four modes of adjustments can be predicted using two aspects of work role requirements. These too excess pics include the Novelty of job demands and role discretion (Tsai et al., 2019).

In this respect to the leaders use their prior information skills and knowledge and also their habits for meeting the requirements of their roles. Using their prior knowledge and skills they try to adjust with the demands of the job. When the Novelty is high the similarity between the previous and the new roles is low (Tsai et al., 2019). When the Novelty is high the individual or the leaders feel great pressure for bringing changes in their personal attributes or behaviours. It also suggests that high Novelty can bring exploration or absorption modes of adjustments and the low Novelty brings determination and replication modes of adjustments. The Novelty of job demands therefore is related to the personal changes or the leadership adjustments (Tsai et al., 2019).

Role discretion involves the capacity of an individual to bring changes in their management practices, work objectives and interpersonal communication skills. This theory also suggests that high discretion roles provide the individual with major opportunities to change their task contents. It involves determination or exploration modes of adjustments. And when there is a low discretion role, it brings replication or absorption modes of adjustments among the individuals. Therefore role discretion is actively related to the task content change or subordinate change (Tsai et al., 2019).

Prediction of modes of Cross-cultural leadership

WRT theory suggests that the expatriate managers who are working in Thailand can implement high levels of adjustments in leadership approaches as well as high levels of subordinate changes. The leaders can change their leadership approaches and try to modify their subordinates for meeting the local situation and also the personal requirements.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that organizational leaders need to understand the cultural differences. Leadership is a very significant role in managing cultural diversity within the workplace. Using the intercultural competencies the leaders can provide necessary training and programs for developing knowledge in different cultures among the employees. It can help them motivate the employees and eliminate all the cultural boundaries, language barriers, and conflicts caused due to cultural diversity.