Motivating and Leading Across Borders †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Motivating and Leading Across Borders. Answer: Introduction Traditional boundaries are disappearing and competition in business now springs from any corner of the world thus businesses have to become more global to take advantage of international markets. While this brings with it opportunities, it also presents some complexities which require new ways of thinking and managing (Beechler andJavidan, 2007).In todays global business environment, it is crucial that all leaders understand how to manage across different cultures. Different cultures determine the way of managing and of doing business. There is no one best way of managing and sometimes, the best universal management practices have failed (Trompenaars andHampden-Turner, 1997 p3). International managers have challenges operating on different premises from their own culture of origin, to the culture of the place they are working and also the organization culture where they are working. They must learn to adapt the organization to manage working in diverse multicultural groups. Leadershi p and culture are interconnected and leaders are in fact the main influencers of culture (Schein, 2010 p1). This paper will discuss leading and motivating diverse people across borders in global organizations. Diversity can be viewed as recognizing, acknowledging, accepting and appreciating the differences that are there between people and then accept value and celebrate them. These differences may relate to gender, age, race, gender, class, sexual orientation, religious practice, culture, physical abilities or disabilities and others (Bedi, Lakra, Gupta, 2014 p103). Diversity is a challenge in modern day work places and this means all employees must be equipped with necessary skills needed to work in a cultural diverse work place. The managers have a more difficult task of appreciating and valuing multicultural differences in the people they manage and other stake holders and ensure everybody is treated with dignity. They therefore must be culturally competent in order to manage the challenges of diversity well and make the best out of diverse cultures. Diversity is increasing becoming an important factor in businesses as companies become more global and employees more diverse. Organizations that are more inclusive are likely to benefit more from diverse ideas and creativity from different people thus gain a competitive advantage (Pitts Recascino, 2010 p45). Managing diversity is an important skill in people management and it helps increase employee productivity (Bedi et al., 2014 p104). Diversity therefore has to be properly managed if any organization is to enjoy its benefits. Managing Diversity Management of diversity is a challenging task yet very important especially for companies that have operations across borders (Bartlett and Paul, 2011 p3). Some changes may have to be effected in order to accommodate the needs of different people for them to contribute to the best of their potential for the benefit of an organization in the global business set up. Organizations must formulate strategies and practices that accommodate diverse people to be well positioned to meet the demands of the global workplace. Effective leaders need to start to align the culture of the organization with the diverse cultures of people in the organization. By use of good management practices, organizations will be in a position to reap maximum benefits that accrue from diversity. They need to value all employees so that they feel free to contribute to the achievement of company goals. Globalization means that all managers must learn how to manage diversity as it will only continue to increase at the work place in the future (Okoro Washington, 2012 p57). Peoples differences in the world today are reflected in the global work place today. Managing this diverse work force then becomes a critical component of human resource management. Managers must therefore possess these skills and be culturally competent in order to be tolerant of individual uniqueness and take advantage of these differences for productivity and unique solutions to business problems. Organizations need to invest in the training of all employees and managers for them to be culturally competent. This equips them with necessary skills that help them function properly in a diverse work environment (Mujtaba, 2007 p210). Motivating and Leading across Borders While domestic leaders deal with individual employees from the domestic country, the global leaders have to deal with employees from different countries (Hollenbeck, 2001 p16). The global leader needs to have more skills than what is familiar in the home country. The leader must be able to overcome the national differences and be able to embrace best practice from all over the globe. Businesses therefore need a model that can integrate national schemes and that is crucial for the recruitment and training of effective global leaders and their retention (Morrison, 2000 p120). There is increased challenges in global leadership and thus need to have leaders who are culturally understanding. The background characteristics of an individual and organization including identity, behavior, perceptions and attitudes all have an influence on business success. Conflicts arising out of the differences may stop an organization from operating efficiently (Egan Bendick, 2008 p389). The leader needs to have more knowledge across national and organization boundaries. The leader also has to consider the many stakeholders while making business decisions (Bird Osland, 2004 p4). Bingham, Felin, Black (2000) provide some characteristics of a global leader as suggested by the former CEO of Procter Gamble, John Pepper. These include ability to deal with uncertainty, to know the customers, have a good balance between being effective globally and having proper local responsiveness and being able to respond to diversity. Mendenhall Oslands (2002) in their survey classified the main competencies of a global leader in to six which included cross-cultural skills, business expertise, organizing expertise, vision, cognitive and traits and values. These skills are summarized in the table below. Goldsmith, Greenberg, Robertson Hu-Chan (2003) in their survey of 28 CEOs classified global leadership competencies in to 12 dimensions which included appreciating diversity, empowerment and developing people among others. Most of the literature in books identifies team leadership and management of diversity as key competencies of an effective global leader today. It is thus clear that leaders have to show interest and respect other peoples culture and their different views, show genuine interest in and enjoy the way they live and do things and get along well with them. Various studies on organizations show that they have there are two cultures within every organization, the first being the culture of the system and the second being the organization culture (Berrell, Gloet Wright, 2001 p84). National culture also impacts on the management of organizations in international markets. Leaders need to know of the impact the national culture has on their management behavior as it greatly affects the way they lead. Although intangible, culture greatly influences the management practices and processes in organizations. Global leaders can no longer ignore the global complexities and replace it with assumed universalism and assume only one best way to manage (Adler Gundersen, 2007 p3). Culture influences the way a leader relates with the followers (Yukl, 2006 p11). Culture may be defined as the way the mind programmed which differentiates between members of one community from another (Hofstede, 1994 p1). There may exist universal management principles but each different culture has a different management style that is influenced by the culture. The culture and values of a certain country will determine the expected leadership characteristics for that particular country. Successful leaders need to act in culturally acceptable ways to be accpted (Javidan Carl, 2004 p667). Global leaders agree that effective management of human resources is important for business success (Adler Gundersen, 2007 p11). They also agree that they will have to generate employment opportunities and business revenues from other markets outside of their organizations home countries. To be successful, they must develop global strategies for managing and motivating the human resources and thus business success and profits. An evolution of global human resources management has therefore evolved recently. Global strategies of managing people and culture helps in understanding how national and ethnic cultures influence the way organizations function. The impact of culture on organizations has led to evolution of organizations and different approaches in managing people as shown in the figure below. There is rise in demand for culturally sensitive managers and practices within organizations. Successful global companies consider nationality and ethnicity as critical components of segmentation. Culture differences in this case become one of the critical factors of competitive advantage. The products and services in a global company must be delivered in a culturally sensitive manner to each of the diverse customers across the world. The ability to effectively manage cross-cultural interactions and multi-national teams is crucial for overall organization success. Global human resource management strategies that are effective are now very important for global companies survival and success (Adler Gundersen, 2007 p13). World business continues to demand for mangers who can work with people from different countries other than where they come from. Cross cultural management shows how people work in those originations that have employees and customers from diverse parts of the world and different cultures. This management seeks to improve the interactions of the mangers, the employees, the customers, the suppliers and all other stakeholders from other countries and cultures across the world. Individuals are challenges to recognize and appreciate other peoples ways of working as ignoring could lead to serious consequences (Adler Gundersen, 2007 p14). Globalization requires that the human resource function in any organization has to respond to the changing organization needs with strategies that add greater value. It is important for multicultural organizations to have knowledge on the global business trends, culture sensitivity, and local employment policies among other areas. Effective global HRM policies are increasing becoming important (Friedman, 2007 p 158). Best practices sometimes do not yield results in some other cultures (Graham and Trevor 2000 p137). There are several theories of motivation that have been developed over time. These theories portray the cultural environment in which they were formulated and may to some extent not apply to other countries. Some of the theories of motivation include Maslows, McClelland, Herzberg and Vroom. These theories need to be looked at from a culture-conscious perspective to evaluate which ones work for which cultures. The result is that some theories seem to be more applicable in some cultures more than others (Hofstede, 1980). Global leaders have to consider the differences in the people they are managing if they are to motivate them. They cannot use knowledge from traditionally applicable theories in organizations but must continue to question this knowledge and its current application in global companies. Only when they do this will they gain the highest benefits of a motivated diverse team leading to the success of their firms. Conclusion Globalization has brought with it business opportunities at the same time challenges. The opportunities include new markets for the firms and thus new customers and profits. Some of the challenges include being able to handle the diversity of people from different backgrounds and cultures. If handled well, diversity can bring advantages to a firm by bringing in new and innovative ways of solving organization problems thus success. If not well handled, it could lead to misunderstandings and conflict. Organizations are thus demanding that global leaders have a global mindset and that they possess key competencies in being able to effectively handle diversity from employees, customers and other stakeholders. These leaders must have the ability to acknowledge and appreciate differences in people and have genuine interest in valuing these differences. This ensures that diversity becomes an asset to organizations and they can get the maximum benefits that arise from a diverse ideas and bus iness solutions. 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