Selfishness of Employees There Are a Number

Selfishness of Employees

There are a number of problems that need to be addressed by the company, and to do this will require decisive leadership. That leadership must combine a common strategic vision with the ability to transfer ideas between cultures. This paper will explain this concept of leadership as it pertains to running a global organization that faces some difficulties.

There are a number of different communications issues that have lead to the current situation. The employees around the world are not working to a common objective. Additionally, they each have a differing view on moral and ethical issues, and how to manage the company. There are also issues with employee fit, where some employees do not properly fit with their roles within the company. This leads to reductions in workplace satisfaction and other problems.

There are a number of different leadership theories that are applicable in this circumstance. Servant leadership is based on the idea that the leader acts to meet the needs of the team members (Greenleaf.org, 2008). This is not applicable in this situation because the different team members differ significantly with respect to organizational culture. Thus, the leader cannot easily serve the disparate units under his or her control.

Another leadership style is for command-and-control, or autocratic leadership (Cherry, 2010), a highly centralized structure in which the leader dictates to the different units and employees what their roles are and what is expected of them. While this style is out of fashion in many parts of the West, it is still common in other cultures where the power distance is relatively high. This leadership style works in a multicultural setting, however, because there are a number of different outcomes that emerge from that setting and it is difficult for firms to overcome the multicultural setting and guide the organization to profitable outcomes.

Human resources plays an important role in addressing this problem. Ultimately, the staff must be equipped with the tools and/or mindset to solve the problem, and this simply is not the case at the company. The problem that this company faces in part is that the workers do not have any clear guidance as to their ultimate objectives. As such, the employees have no concept of how to work with each other and the result is conflict and strife within the organization. To remedy this, leadership is needed in the cities where the leaders grasp the concept of people from different cultures working together for a common objective. London, Toronto, Chicago and Seattle should therefore take the lead in developing communications and motivation strategies for the entire team. This is not to downplay the importance of the other groups on a technical level, but it does downplay the value of those groups in solving intercultural problems, in relation to the above-mentioned world cities.

From a leadership perspective the command-and-control model is ideal because it helps to dictate the terms on which the communication between groups will take place. For the manager, it is important to understand that one is capable of having significant influence on the entire group. This global group may be disparate in terms of culture, but each member of the group understands the value of multicultural interaction. It is important, however for the company to emphasize the value of this type of interaction. Many managers may not truly understand the value to the company's objectives of global multicultural interaction, so it is important to utilize the company's communications capacity to promote these values.

There are also differences within this group with respect to the technological environment. While most members of the group are equipped with the latest in high technology, the full capabilities of the technology have yet to be unleashed. This relative lack of communication ultimately diminishes the ability of management to reconcile the intercultural element of communication internally.

In order to correct the behavior at this firm, some behavioral approaches must be understood. For example, the employees in this company are only motivated by their pay packet. What would serve the company better is that the employees have some form of intrinsic motivation with respect to working together and building energy to achieve outcomes on a common basis (Thomas, 2000). The opportunity for employees to work in dynamic cities such as Toronto, London or Tokyo should be used as extrinsic motivation as well, so that all employees not only want to excel and work together to solve problems but that all employees also feel as though they will benefit from such tactics over the long run perspective.

With respect to languages, all communication should be in English. This should be absolute throughout the organization -- if one cannot communicate in proper English then broken English will do. Employees in the multicultural cities are accustomed to imperfect English. With respect to politics, that is a subject that should be forbidden in the company. The cultures will be different, but it is worth considering that the different cultures should receive training on cultural differences from country to country. It should not be believed that cultural understanding exists, even between Toronto and London, much less Tokyo and Mumbai. Thus, cultural packets should be included in the training programs to help employees deal with their counterparts overseas.

Technology should also be standardized the world over. While there are a number of different technology options, only global providers should be selected, so that there is perfect compatibility. So for example, the company should adopt Windows computers globally, or Blackberries, or all Apple products, in order to ensure that everybody is dealing with the same technology. A significant portion of miscommunication occurs simply because there are differences in the technology. While a city like Mumbai may have a proprietary technology provider, for example, that provider does not comprise a benefit to the company if communication between Mumbai and other units does not function properly.