The Manager as Leader: Motivation and Leadership across Cultures
Introduction
Leadership and motivation is an important aspect in defining its relation to achievement of company’s goals. Theories of leadership have clearly evaluated the cultural diversity, and how organizations apply leadership and motivation techniques .Good leadership is effective in meeting job-related demands, commitment, in creating good performing teams, coordination, in enhancing the level of motivation and reducing absence of employees (Daft, 2014).Contributions from a host of authors and scholars reveal that employee motivation and effective leadership is a very crucial field in the continued existence and survival of any industry. The complications in the field rises with cross-cultural considerations. What is considered acceptable in one nation may be legally or socially unacceptable in another nation, and the managers may face dilemmas in adapting different solutions varying in different nations. The profile of dilemmas faced by managers in different national and ethnic cultures is not yet possessed, but the extent of global activities is what makes the role of the leader even more complex.
Aspects of the roles of managers in motivation and leadership across cultures
According to Chhoker, Brodbeck and House (2013), leadership is a characteristic that influences the beliefs, behaviors and feelings of different group members in an intended direction. Influence may be affected without direct interaction between people concerned. The international nature of hospitality and tourism industry outlines the significance of awareness of different issues affecting people and requires managers to have skills necessary to direct and motivate employees across different cultural backgrounds so as to render effective management of a company in a global setting. To manage diversity, leadership may be practiced to give a purpose with a collective effort, and influence willingness that is expended to fulfill that purpose.
It is important for managers to understand things that prompts and influences people to act in certain ways. There are four principles that help understand what motivates people, and they include: people actions are defined by reasons, the goals chosen by people should be treated attainable, goals chosen by people is what they believe to be good for them and conditions of a workplace can affect employee’s perception of their performance and the value of work (Thomas and Peterson, 2014). Employees committed in achieving company’s goals perform better than those who are not dedicated. Rewarding employees by their accomplishment add value to the satisfaction of their job and lifts their self-esteem. Managers have an important role to play in ensuring employees’ work flow swiftly and motivating them in relation with the organizational objectives. The diversity of different cultures that determine what is valuable and rewarding to a person remains to be a complex task to the manager.
Many researchers view impacts of culture to be directly influenced by the style of leadership and argue that cultural traditions, norms, and ideologies are the key differentiating factors compared to the societal structural factors (Moran and Abramson, 2014). Managers are aware of operations in companies in accordance to their local cultures. They understand where authority and power is based, and the main interrelationship within the organization upon which must be considered to achieve success. The experienced global managers also have an understanding of differences in the design of organizations around the world and their influences on success. These differences exist and managers should use them in knowing what to look for in competitors, potential customers, and partners across borders.
Conclusion
Effective leadership being an essential component for competency, having leaders with skills and knowledge essential for helping companies operate and enter new markets is very important. Companies across the globe are investing in programs with goals of developing skills, which will assist organizations to adapt and grow cultural sensitivity to enhance management capability in challenging global environments. Cross cultural managers have no choice other than observing the world changes, and accept them as challenges and opportunities for growth of an organization, and development of individuals.
References
Chhokar, J. S., Brodbeck, F. C., & House, R. J. (Eds.). (2013). Culture and leadership
across the world: The GLOBE book of in-depth studies of 25 societies. Routledge.
Daft, R. (2014). The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural
differences. Routledge.
Thomas, D. C., & Peterson, M. F. (2014). Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts.
Sage Publications.