Multicultural Leadership in the Fast-Paced

Multicultural Leadership

In the fast-paced and increasingly internationalized world of business that exists today, the number of multicultural interactions that take place between companies and even within the same company and office is reaching ever higher. There are enormous intrinsic benefits to this increased cultural exposure; learning new perspectives as well as new customers and beliefs is rewarding in and of itself. There are also practical benefits that businesses and offices can achieve from properly approaching and handling situations of multicultural interaction, and significant detriments to operations as well as team and individual efficacy if these situations and relationships are not properly approached. This paper will examine some brief strategies and perspectives that can be employed to manage multicultural relationships and interactions in an effective manner that is beneficial for all parties.

Before any effective solution can be implemented, the specific issues that are being faced must be identified. There are situations when members of a team are already willing to try to learn about each others' cultures, but don't know where to begin, and there are also situations where the problems have not been identified as cultural, and so are misinterpreted as problems involving incompetence, lack of discipline, or a lack of respect instead (Brett et al. 2007). Understanding where the problems are originating and how they are forming is essential to dealing with these issues, as a more foundational approach will of course be necessary in the second scenario (Brett et al. 2007; Platow et al. 2009). Structuring specific interventions for specific issues will lead to more effective multicultural relationships.

The style of leadership that is employed in multicultural teams and organizations is also highly important in determining how effectively these teams and organizations will operate, and the degree of mutual satisfaction that will be derived form such interactions by those involved in them (Platow et al. 2009). A number of studies have shown that the way in which the leader presents her- or himself in relation to the individual group members and their beliefs, values, and attitudes is very influential in how well this leader will be accepted, and the degree to which they will be able to form cohesive and well-functioning teams (Platow et al. 2009). Specifically, those leaders that are perceived as being a part of the "in" group, with shared views and attitudes, are more likely to be perceived as effective and charismatic leaders regardless of other traits or circumstances (Platow et al. 2009). This can be difficult to achieve with multicultural teams, but finding a common ground on which the build a leadership image and strategy could be effective in such situations (Platow et al. 2009; Brett et al. 2007).