Contemporary Business
Sabby1f0t
assignment_3.docxRunning Head: LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES
LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES 2
MGT 550 - Leadership Strategies
Sabrina Walker
September 4, 2016
Dr. Stephen Hiatt
Recommend whether the friend should insert herself as a coach from the beginning
It is recommendable for the friend to insert herself as a coach from the beginning. Despite the fact one may have skills and specialty required in a given docket, job coaching plays a major role in understanding the kind of environment in which one is working in. Inserting herself as a coach from the beginning has a lot of benefits. First of all, she will be able to learn some of the interpersonal skills in which employees and the community around commonly use. This would be important in order to avoid unintentional communication that may go ahead and hurt the subjects. It is also very important to note that employers will always have different expectations from the people they hire. Being in a middle-management position, it would be very necessary to have a deep understanding of what is being expected of her. Coaching would therefore be necessary to ensure this is done (Phillips, 2013).
Conflicts that could arise due to asking people to work on their religious days and solutions
Generally, it is important to note that conflicts especially in workplaces are inevitable. Despite the fact people may strive to live in peace with every person, conflicts will always arise in one way or another. Religion is a very sensitive and important factor especially to they that believe. People practice different kinds of religions with the most common ones being Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism among others. All these religions have their specific days within the week where the believers gather and fellowship together. In scenarios where employees are denied the right to worship on their specific days, conflicts are usually the end result. One major type of conflict that can therefore arise is values conflict. This is a type of conflict that generally involves incompatibility of people’s principles, beliefs and practices. It is important to note that values and beliefs are usually upheld by people for a long period of time and this become the main reason as to why conflicts erupt when people are denied the right to practice what they have believed for a long period of time.
Power conflict is another major form of conflict that may occur as a result of people being denied their right to fellowship in their selected days based on religion. Generally, an organization or a company cannot have one single leader to handle everything. For instance, we may have a president, who is deputized by a vice president and below them are other leaders important to the organization. All these leaders also have their own beliefs with respect to religion and would also want to practice their faith just like others do. Having these leaders in the workplace on their worship days may thus result into power conflict and may result into impeachment allegations among other types of consequences (Gemzøe Mikkelsen, Hogh & Berg Puggaard, 2011).
These conflicts can be resolved by understanding the types of teams in which one is dealing with. It is good to understand the cultural and religious background of the subjects in order to avoid the above mentioned conflicts. Prior to making decisions, it is also important to involve all stakeholders. It wouldn’t be wise to suddenly state that people should work on their religious days without consulting the workers who will be affected the most. To avoid these conflicts therefore, decision making must involve all people who will be affected in order to reach better decisions that would be suitable to all.
Whether cultural quirks could restrain the foreign manager from expressing her ideas
Culture plays a very crucial role with any organization. Different organizations within different nations will always have varied cultural practices. It is therefore very evident that cultural accidents or quirks could restrain the foreign manager from expressing certain ideas she may have. A good example to describe this is the fact that leaders all over the world are generally expected to have visions for the organizations they are leading. How the vision is displayed will vary from one region to the other. In some regions for instance, a leader is expected to only communicate and leave it up to the subjects to execute the vision. This is so different from other regions whereby a leader is expected to be assertive and work together with the subjects in attaining and achieving vision and goals set. Other managers or leaders are only involved in providing the direction in which the subordinates should take towards achieving goals.
Another example to describe this is through communication skills. Generally, it has been noted that communication skills are very important and crucial for any leader. But again it is very important to note that how communication skills are professed will vary from one culture to another. Negative comments in some regions are usually conveyed to a subordinate directly from the supervisor. This may be seen as being very rude in regions where negative comments are first of all passed to another subordinate who is charged with the responsibility of transferring that message to the recipient. In these two ways, it is therefore very clear that the foreign manager may get it a bit hard to express herself due to cultural quirks (Markus & Conner, 2013).
Two actions to be taken in order to become multicultural leaders and 2 examples
With the current trend in businesses and organizations, multicultural leadership should be the type of leadership being practiced. Many are the actions in which multicultural leaders are supposed to practice but this section will focus upon two of these actions. The first action in which the foreign leader will have to do is to ensure he brings the thought of ‘we’ and ‘I’. Despite the fact people are turning into every man for himself, multicultural leadership is the solution to bring this into an end. The thought of ‘we’ is expected to create an enabling working environment where employees focus on mutuality and not singular advancement. Organizations need unity for the prosperity of everybody. It is from the ‘we’ thought in which a collective culture that is inclusive of all people can be obtained. This can also go hand in hand with diversity in the workplace which has been identified to be very important in today’s leadership within organizations. It is from this type of thought in which harmony, welfare and unity can be obtained. People will always behave in polite manner as well as act in a socially desirable manner whenever they are in unity. A good example to describe this is working to achieve a success or a goal within the organization. The organization becomes more successful if employees work towards group success rather than personal credit. Therefore the foreign leader has to come up with a ‘we’ thought rather than ‘I’ which will ensure there is unity among the employees from different cultures. This will ensure she becomes a successful multicultural leader.
Flattening the leadership structure is another potential action the foreign manager can take towards achieving multicultural leadership. Traditional leadership with respect to corporate America is based upon big salaries, wages and bonuses for people who occupy big offices within an organization. Such people also have the privileges of having special parking lots among other types of privileges offered to them. It is however very important to that this will always lead into a distinction between the employers and the employees. Generally, it brings the feeling of inequality among leaders and their subjects and this may lead into other economic and social rifts. Flattening leadership structure entails having every individual as an equal. As the globe flattens, it is important to note that successful leaders are they that perceive themselves just like any other common person. It makes the employees feel more appreciated and eliminates the rift that may exist between leaders and their subjects. This generally acts as a competitive advantage in the world of business. A good example to describe this are the American Indians whereby every person is a leader based on their communal set-up. This is one of the reasons as to why they live in peace and harmony. The foreign leader should thus consider this action in order to become a multicultural leader (Bordas, 2012).
Conflicts that may arise due to nonverbal communication and 2 actions to be taken in order to diffuse these misunderstandings
Nonverbal communication is a major type of communication as it is commonly used by people even without their knowledge. The way someone dresses for instance is a way of communicating nonverbally. Mini-skirts are commonly worn by ladies. This may however communicate arousal in some cultures thus resulting into conflicts. Conflicts however occur when people misinterpret a nonverbal gesture and this occurs mainly due to culture. Hand gestures may result into conflicts in cases where a particular gesture is associated with two meanings.
In order to avoid such kinds of unintentional communication it is mandatory for someone to understand the various aspects of the culture of people they are dealing with. This will ensure a person avoids the use of gestures that may prove to be annoying to other people. One can also avoid the use of gestures or other non-verbal cues if they have no idea of what they may provoke in the perception of the listeners (Knapp, Hall & Horgan, 2013).
References
Phillips, R. (2013). Coaching for higher performance. Employee Counselling Today.
Markus, H. R., & Conner, A. (2013). Clash! 8 cultural conflicts that make us who we are. Psychological Science, 20, 444-446.
Gemzøe Mikkelsen, E., Hogh, A., & Berg Puggaard, L. (2011). Prevention of bullying and conflicts at work: Process factors influencing the implementation and effects of interventions. International Journal of Workplace Health Management, 4(1), 84-100.
Bordas, J. (2012). Salsa, soul, and spirit: Leadership for a multicultural age. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
