Leadership Style Application the Leadership Style Adopted

Leadership Style Application

The leadership style adopted by different companies and how these companies motivate their employees should be that which can work in multicultural context. This can enhance employee productivity and job satisfaction. Cross-cultural motivation is imperative in a person's work and personal life. People work for various reasons. Some work so that they can access economic necessities like food, housing, and clothing. Some are motivated by what work provides other than money like achievement, honor, and social contacts (Bedrow & Lane, 2003). Others work because they have some emotional attachment to work. Studies have shown that the higher the mean-work centrality score, the more motivated and committed the workers would be. Maslow's upper level needs are very important at managerial levels. Work related values and needs are similar across nationalities. Maslow and Herzberg motivational categories also apply universally. In fact, there are common clusters of goals and needs across nationalities. The clusters include job goals like working area, work time, physical working conditions, fringe benefits and job security, relationship with co-workers and supervisors, and work challenges and opportunities for using skills.

Companies operating in other countries have had to contend with challenges of having to attend to the needs of the local employees and how they expect work to be recognized. This is a challenge that Mazda of Japan faced in its Michigan Plant (Timmons & McLean, 2006). Japanese firms confer recognition in the form of plaque, attention, and applause. Japanese workers are more likely to be insulted by material incentives because such rewards imply that they would work harder to achieve them than they would otherwise. Japanese firms therefore focus on group-wide or company-wide goals, compared with the American emphasis on individual goals of achievement and rewards. Echoing Maslow theory universality, the needs are not in question but the ordering of the needs in the hierarchy. A hierarchy reflecting Chinese needs would comprise four levels namely belonging, physiological needs, safety, and self-actualization in the service of the society. It is difficult to measure the individual needs of a Chinese because most of them are intertwined with those of the society.

Leadership of any organization should strive to help employees realize their highest potential in the workplace. Leaders must always strive to achieve their organization's objectives while also achieving the objectives of specific employees. Global managers must be open to change and to re-think their old, culturally conditioned modes of leadership. Effective leadership is one that inspires the thinking, attitudes, and behavior of a people (Vernon-Wortzel & Wortzel, 1997). Effects of weak leadership definitely have negative impacts on the ability of the organization to meet its objectives. Four personal development strategies namely travel; teamwork, training, and transfers can be used to meet requirements for effective global leadership in a multicultural environment (Danis, 2003). Global leaders can maximize their leadership effectiveness by juggling several important and sometimes conflicting roles as a representative of the parent firm or even the manager of a local firm. A leader's role should involve interaction of two variables: content and context of leadership. Content of leadership has much to do with the attitude of the leader and the decisions to be made. The context of leadership comprises all variables related to a particular situation. The prevailing political, economic, and cultural situations call upon global managers to exercise astute leadership. Leadership is a universal phenomenon and effective leadership varies across cultures. No single leadership style can work well in all situations. There has to be cultural contingency in leadership. Participative management approaches can be counterproductive in certain situations.