Discuss About The Multilevel Models In International Business.

Issues in global leadership and communication

Discuss About The Multilevel Models In International Business.

The purpose of the following essay is to demonstrate the various issues in the global leadership and communication. The journal that has been provided here will have to be reviewed. The global leadership has been a very major issue in the modern business environment. The cross-cultural management has been identified by the experts as a very significant aspect in the business industries. Some of the important themes that will be discussed and highlighted in this discussion are the global management in the modern competitive business environment and the organizational behavior i.e. well associated with it. The psychology of the employees has to be understood so the managers can utilize their emotions and efforts for the organizational profits. The cultural backgrounds of the employees might vary from one another and this has to be dealt with the managers very strictly indeed. This paper will highlight on the several issues that arise within the organizational environment for the cultural differences among the employees. Thus it will be very much useful for the organizations to value this fact of cross cultural management and make relevant arguments on the different facts.

This article named ‘From cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and adaptation’ is written by Allan Bird and Mark. E. Mendenhall. This article was published in the year 2016 (Bird and Mendenhall 2016). The main issues that have been discussed in this article are the cross cultural management and global leadership issues. The global leadership has been a very arguable issue for over the years. This global leadership can be seen from the sections like the political leadership in different countries and the business leadership (Bird and Mendenhall 2016) The modern business environment is very much competitive indeed. This is why the organizations will need to go through a lot of different issues to understand the key to sustainable development. The organizational managers will always play a very key role in determining the upcoming challenges and issues they will face in the industry they are operating industry. The leaders and managers of the business industries have to be very resilient and tolerant about the cross-cultural issues in the organizations. This is why they will look to train their employees to be cooperative with others belonging to the different cultural backgrounds (Sultana et al. 2013). It can be argued that it is indeed very difficult to work with the employees who belong to the other cultures or completely the different cultures. It is because their mindset will be completely different and their decision making will not be the same as well. This is the reason these people do not want to work together since there is a huge chance of clashes between them. In order to avoid these clashes between the employees, some managers take the safe side and do not mix these employees.

Cross-cultural management in modern business environment

However, this is not the best thing to be done at all. The previous argument can be countered by saying that when an organizations sets to expand in different continents they have to face these difficulties severely. They just cannot escape this fact because they will have to recruit the local people in those areas since they have to reduce the labor and production costs. This is why they must develop some strategies by which they can confront these issues properly. The organizational development is completely a product of the joint exercise of all the employees together. The aspect of cross-cultural management will have to be given special focus so the managers can take the proper measures in this scenario (Cavusgil et al. 2014). The higher managers from the headquarters might have to arrange for the training sessions that will educate them on the ways of how to confront with these several issues that arise because of the cross cultural managers. The business firms wanted to expand into new countries just to increase their sales and revenues and enter the foreign markets. The business organizations had to confront with several difficulties like the political and legal issues in the business markets. This would definitely help them to mitigate the challenges relating to the cross cultural issues (Cavusgil et al. 2014).

The primary responsibility of the organizational managers was to discuss and evaluate the cultural differences between the home country and host country in which they were to operate. This is why the managers needed to have a good idea and market research on the different aspects of the host country in which they were to expand. The two distinct features of the cultural factors in the organization are individualism and collectivism. An example can be given in this context if an organization based on any Asian country like Japan or Thailand wants to expand into the foreign markets of Europe and United States of America, they will face this issue. The people of the Asian countries believe in the collectivism and the people of the European countries believe in individualism (Triandis 2018).  This is why the cross-cultural issues can arise in big time for the organizations. The important organizational structures that were reflected in this scenario were ‘international division’ and ‘foreign subsidiary’ (Bird and Mendenhall 2016) The adjustment between the cultures evolved as one of the biggest issues in the organizations. The focus if the managers had turned into that only.

Importance of organizational behavior in cross-cultural management

The impact of World War II had completely destroyed some parts of Europe and Asia. Japan was almost demolished by the atomic bombing of USA. Japan had firmly been established as the major exporters of goods all around the world and they had begun to have a strong presence in the business environment. The multinational companies began to emerge in the ending period of the 20^th century indeed (Peterson, Arregle and Martin 2012). This is why the organizational culture was identified to be one of the biggest aspects in the growth and building of a good brand reputation. The organizations needed to practice a good culture so they could participate in CSR activities. Some of the major organizational structures that were significant during this time were the ‘multi-domestic’, ‘regional’ and ‘matrix’ organizational structures. The managers had to give the training to their employees to increase their skills and knowledge (Gorodnichenko and Roland 2012).

The impact of the globalization had been increasing very much in the organization. The employees had to adjust with several types of working conditions so they contribute positively towards achieving the organizational objectives. The full control of the managers in the undertaking of work allocations were beginning to lose and the organizations began to run on the shared values of both the employees and managers (Kotabe and Helsen 2014). The global managers need to be aware of the facts that disturb the work process and they needed to confront with them since they had to lead the employees to create a better working environment. The cultural systems in the organizations had to be controlled so the leaders could present a very safe environment from the perspective of the customers. The transition in the management leadership will have to be redesigned as the experts suggest. The various global business industry leaders had suggested practicing the matter of the shared values in the organizations (French 2015).

In the 21^st century, the global management and leadership began to change its course and the responsibility of leading the global teams fell on the organizational leaders. This is why the experts have argued that it is not possible for a leader to interfere and resolve all the issues in the organizations (Caligiuri and Tarique 2012). Especially, the cross cultural management issues will have to be dealt and resolved by the employees only. They have to learn the art of working together and solve their disputes (Anitha 2014). The organizations should make the effective cross-cultural research and distribute the works according to their skills. The emerging cultures should be managed in the organizations following the trends of the new systems. This will assimilate the understanding of the leaders in the positive manner. The global leaders might have to indulge in the global spanning that will execute the best organizational objectives as well.

Cultural differences among employees in organizations

Some important approaches have been discovered after the cross cultural management research in the last few decades. These types or categories are unicultural, comparative, intercultural and global (Bird and Mendenhall 2016) The unicultural leadership approach in the organizations reflects on the country-specific and culture-specific leadership styles. The leaders in the organizations should always thrive to resolve all the disputes between the employees and motivate them to work together in harmony (Nahavandi et al. 2013). The second type of global leadership is the comparative leadership. In this kind of leadership psychological and sociological perspectives of the organizations are kept in the primary focus. This is almost synonymous to the fact of cross cultural management in the global perspectives (MEndEnhALL 2013).

The general leadership of the leaders and the cross-cultural leadership among the leaders is quite different indeed. The leaders who deal with the aspects of cross-cultural management across the globe must be able to see the wider perspectives from the global scenario. The third form of the cross cultural management is the intercultural approach. The people who belong to the different cultural backgrounds should be able to erase the cultural gap and work together with the common goal of achieving the organizational objectives. This can be practiced by the proper management and the leadership programs. The fourth aspect of the cross cultural management approach is the global cross cultural approach (Bird and Mendenhall 2016) Apart from the employees of the organizations; they have to deal with the stakeholders and the suppliers, logistics managers and the supply chains of the organizations. They might belong to the different cultures so they will have to adjust with them in order to get the orders and deliver them to the customers within the proper time. The experts have argued about the importance of coordination between the members of the supply chain team and the managers to provide the customers with the best services within the business industries.

Organizational leaders should always thrive to discuss the matters of cross-cultural conflicts from the global perspectives (Mendenhall et al. 2012). It can be argued whether the human resource managers should give much importance to the cross-cultural issues or not (Dorfman et al. 2012). The organizational managers should always provide the employees with the scope to collaborate and resolve the conflicts that occur between them. The organizational managers should be able to motivate the employees to set up a proper working ambience within the organization and please the customers. The communication issues can be resolved if the employees really want to come to a proper conclusion (Youssef and Luthans 2012). It might happen that the employees or one country might be sent to another for better opportunities.

Strategies to confront cross-cultural issues

The impact of the cross-cultural conflicts can arise there as well. Some important processes should be followed like the selection and adjustment over the new host country. The people who have less issues with the cross-cultural differences should be sent there. They should be able to adjust in those countries and work just as effectively as he used to do in the home country (Steers, Sanchez-Runde and Nardon 2012). They should assimilate themselves in those countries and this is very important for them to thrive successfully in those countries. The intercultural leadership is a very interesting aspect in the global leadership management. The managers have to focus on the global management and this should be highly effective for managing the employees of different countries. It has to be argued that the skills do not depend on the ethnicity or cultural backgrounds of the employees. So, the global managers must learn to bring out the best efforts from the employees.

Conclusion

This paper can be concluded by saying that global management and leadership has been one of the most important issues in the contemporary business management. The journal has been reviewed properly by discussing about the several issues in it. The employees belong to the different cultures and the global leaders have to take the necessary steps to confront the cross-cultural management issues. If the leaders are not able to handle these issues, it is inevitable that the organizations will suffer the most. This is why the global leaders should take up the initiatives to bridge the cultural gaps and provide a better working environment for the employees.

References

Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. International journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), p.308.

Bird, A. and Mendenhall, M.E., 2016. From cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.115-126.

Caligiuri, P. and Tarique, I., 2012. Dynamic cross-cultural competencies and global leadership effectiveness. Journal of World Business, 47(4), pp.612-622.

Cavusgil, S.T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J.R., Rammal, H.G. and Rose, E.L., 2014. International business. Pearson Australia.

Dorfman, P., Javidan, M., Hanges, P., Dastmalchian, A. and House, R., 2012. GLOBE: A twenty year journey into the intriguing world of culture and leadership. Journal of World Business, 47(4), pp.504-518.

French, R., 2015. Cross-cultural management in work organisations. Kogan Page Publishers.

Gorodnichenko, Y. and Roland, G., 2012. Understanding the individualism-collectivism cleavage and its effects: Lessons from cultural psychology. In Institutions and comparative economic development (pp. 213-236). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Kotabe, M. and Helsen, K., 2014. Global marketing management.

MEndEnhALL, M.E., 2013. Leadership and the birth of global leadership. Global leadership, 2, pp.1-20.

Mendenhall, M.E., Reiche, B.S., Bird, A. and Osland, J.S., 2012. Defining the “global” in global leadership. Journal of World Business, 47(4), pp.493-503.

Nahavandi, A., Denhardt, R.B., Denhardt, J.V. and Aristigueta, M.P., 2013. Organizational behavior. Sage Publications.

Peterson, M.F., Arregle, J.L. and Martin, X., 2012. Multilevel models in international business research. Journal of International Business Studies, 43(5), pp.451-457.

Steers, R.M., Sanchez-Runde, C. and Nardon, L., 2012. Leadership in a global context: New directions in research and theory development. Journal of World Business, 47(4), pp.479-482.

Sultana, M., Rashid, M., Mohiuddin, M. and Mazumder, M., 2013. Cross-cultural management and organizational performance: A content analysis perspective.

Triandis, H.C., 2018. Individualism and collectivism. Routledge.

Youssef, C.M. and Luthans, F., 2012. Positive global leadership. Journal of World Business, 47(4), pp.539-547.