Managing multi cultural Team and Leading Globally

Managing multi cultural Team and Leading Globally

Leadership Review

-          A leader is’

o   Someone you choose to follow to a place you wouldn’t go by yourself (Joel Barker)

o   “The incremental influence or additional influence that a person has beyond his or her formal authority.

§  Be an effective leader if you know how and be useful in different situation

§  Managers do planning, coordinating

§  They are usually vision builder

·         Culture, personality, norm – affect leader

·         Different things, different leaders

Leadership theories: Cultural constraints

-          McGregor’s theory X (evil) and Y (good)

o   Cultural limitations?

§  Dichotomous view of human nature (MGT’s conception)

§  Y appropriate for low power distance culture

o   Misumi’s PM leadership theory (Japan)

§  P performance + M Maintenance are greater than sum of their parts, and being high on both leads to higher leader effectiveness rating (US, UK, HK support this)

§  But leader behaviours only acquire meaning through context

·         Highly collectivist society – family, company association, Japanese managers will value the most to employees is loyalty to the company

o   Sinha’s NT Leadership theory (India)

§  Indian leaders largely task oriented and direct reports prefer it, but when participative approach succeeds (combined with nurturing simultaneously) overall result is better (in collectivist contexts)

§  Task and nurturing – high power distance culture, most of the organization prefer autocratic leadership and structure

§  Tell people what they want to do, follow MASLOW model as well, have your goals and task for people.

§  Should have a goal setting theory. Have a process support. Suppose to help subordinates to accomplish goal.

o   Transformational Leadership

§  Weber distinguishes charismatic authority from rational and traditional authority, & note that empowerment less likely in high power distance societies

So again, context determines the success/failure of any particular style

§  Encourage them better than what they’re good at

§  Talk about three basic types – create a change in the company – different type of authority

·         Charisma authority – inspire people to do what you want to do. .Use communication skills and influencing skills to transform people. Most people “individualistic society” goes for this approach

·          Traditional authority – Have power, control resource, control people to do what they want you to do. Not all companies do this.

·         Rational authority – you can better transform people and lead people based on rules, facts and knowledge. Have rules and legislation. What is the logic behind these rules also.

Cultural Relativity of Leadership: Managing and Leading in …

In Overseas Chinese cultures:

Much business practice is centred around Confucian social policy:

Leadership makeup includes virtuous behaviour, protection of the weak, harmony, loyalty, moderation, calmness, conflict avoidance, face-saving, consensus

Leadership is expected to demonstrate humanity, patience, integrity, compassion, humility

Authority is sanctioned by becoming worthy of respect and providing a good role model for subordinates

It thus relies on the traditional form of authority

In France:

Individual respect/demand for authority creates tension with strong belief in individualism

High tolerance of blunders on the part of management

Management system is elitist and autocratic, but not familial (there is a merit based element to it)

Organizations are highly centralized and hierarchical with decisions made at the top

Information is not allowed to filter down below certain levels of the organization

The president of a French company is not answerable to anyone and status is attributed on the grounds of family, age, education, and professional qualifications

§  Organized pretty bureaucratic

§  Highly centralize organization

§  Chinese culture – trust is most important thing

§  Chinese leaders do not talk about trusting their subordinates

§  French will accept their false

In the United States:

Efficiency is paramount; American managers are very time conscious and possess a strong work ethic

Managers are competitive, assertive, goal and action oriented, friendly and informal, and value innovation => Status is based on demonstrable achievement

A democratic leadership style prevails within American organizations; Individual freedom is deeply valued – above the welfare of the company

§  Have the ability to discuss strong concern, have a strong direct style.

§  Being deserted means being competitive

§  Most  be action oriented

§  Terms of social skills, most are friendly

§  Informal

§  Talking to your manager openly about issues

§  Individual freedom is an important thing and social value

§  If you want to be a successful leader

·         Have the ability to understand and manage your emotions

·         And manage other emotions

o   Start with self awareness, how much do you know of yourself

o   Self regulation, once you know if you get angry right away or sad, find out how you can regulate your own behaviour

o   Motivate yourself

o   Improve your empathy – put yourself if people’s shoes and see where they are coming from

o   Improve your social skills

The Global Project

-          Multi phase study done, vast area, zillion of studies done

-          150 researchers worldwide

o   Data collected from 15,000 middle managers

§  From 875 organizations

§  3 industries (financial services, food services, and telecommunications)

§  61 nations

o   Identified 6 global leader behaviour dimensions (on next slide) and 9 cultural dimensions (on subsequent page)

o   Found that the 61 countries grouped into 10 clusters, of which 4 (Southern Asia, Anglo, Arabic & Latin European) will be discussed today).

·         Started with 23 different leadership styles

·         After evaluating, narrowed down to six categories

o   All these six different leadership were significant but not exactly successful

o   Nine different dimension where culture were different

o   An extension of Hfestede’s model

o   Analyzed in 10 clustered but look at four

GLOBE LEADERSHIP STUDY

The 6 Global Leader Behaviour Dimensions

Transformational-Charismatic – middle managers say they were more decisive and more firm, achievement oriented, inspiration, visionary, sacrifice for the company. They were successful as a leader.

Team-Oriented – these were good in maintaining interpersonal relationship regarding stakeholder in the company. They were diplomatic in their attitude. More collaborative.

Self-Protective – not all these different types were ideal. All delicate and transformation will not always achieve your goals. Do it my way or the highway. Very procedural and had a very autocratic behavior, controlling, and aggressive. This works in Middle Eastern country and southern eastern Asian culture.

Participative – Democratic style, empowering. Consensus building and lead people effectively and efficiently.

Humane – compassion to lead an manage and had a strong concern to their employees. High on maintenance scale. Wanted a healthly organization.

Autonomous – Independent, Individualistic, Tactic, on the spot decision, unique, achieve whatever goal they have.

GLOBE LEADERSHIP STUDY

The 9 cultural dimensions based on Hofstede’s work:

1.       Uncertainty avoidance – which more strong uncertainty avoidance

2.       Power Distance – power distant scale - different culture and most collective society and low tolerance – can have power. Individualistic society  no certaintly.

3.       Collectivism I: Societal Collectivism – We versus I à more concern for their groups and family only.

4.       Collectivism II: In-Group Collectivism

5.       Gender Egalitarianism – look at the fact with minimizing gender roles. Most of the collective society has a masculine culture on what women and men could do. There are no gender roles. Equal power. Ethics of caring. And a friendly working environment. To

6.       Assertiveness (directness) - what extent where culture were confrontational – south east – not assertive. Most individualists were very assertive and confrontational.

7.       Future Orientation - a lot of culture are past oriented, sticking with historical cultural values. More practical what is now than what you can do because cannot control your own culture. Individualistic – are more future oriented.

8.       Performance Orientation (need for achievement) – People are some of the culture has some need for accomplishment, more competitive and more firm. Japan was high on this.

9.       Humane Orientation  - to what extent should appreciate a gratitude of fair practices and kindness to others.

GLOBE LEADERSHIP STUDY

The Societal Clusters (4 of them)

Southern Asia (India, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Iran) – rates high on human orientation, collective orientation, basically autocratic is significant, strong preference for humane society, visionary, performance oriented, and decisive. And male leaders.

Anglo (England, Australia, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, USA) – mid range in ninth dimension – charismatic leadership style, preference for a collectivist type of organization. One of the implication, 10 or 20 year trend may change.

Arabic (Qatar, Morocco, Turkey, Egypt, Kuwait) – talked about team oriented style, The more you know, the more credible you will be. Senior employee will have a big title too. Low on gender and future oriented and high on everything else. Believes god will control everything. That cluster was at the bottom of the scale. Trust building is the main source for success.

Latin Europe (Israel, Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, French-speaking Switzerland) – team oriented style and charismatic style. You can work well with this culture. High on power distance. Strong group on collectivism. Talk about their concerns to family. Low on gender. Midrange of future oriented.

The 6 other clusters included: Nordic Europe, Germanic Europe, Confucian Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Middle East

GLOBE LEADERSHIP STUDY
(Adapted from Table 4, Javidan et al, 2006)

Universal FACILITATORS of Leadership Effectiveness

 Integrity (being trustworthy, just, & honest)

 Charismatic-visionary (Having foresight/planning ahead)

Charismatic-inspirational (Being positive, dynamic, encouraging, motivating, and building confidence)

Team-Builder (being communicative, informed, a coordinator, and team integrator)

Universal IMPEDIMENTS to Leadership Effectiveness

 Self-Protective (being a loner & asocial) – my way is the only way, will not work in any culture

Malevolent (being non-cooperative & irritable)

Autocratic (being dictatorial)

Culturally-Contingent Leader Attributes

 Autonomous (being individualistic) – based on low project, can be very individualistic and make decision without involving everyone.

 Status-Conscious

 Charismatic III: Self-Sacrificial (being a risk-taker)

Globe Project: Implications

1. When in Rome…don’t just do as they do but also be aware of what they Want to do (how they want to move forward)
2. 2. Universal desire for charismatic/transformational leaders (heroes?). Not easy for many managers.
3. Universal desire for integrity: But ethics has culturally-specific connotations too

3. Most countries scored low on gender egalitarianism

§  Explore what else people want. Don’t say I will do this and I will not do this. Need to explore why and what people want and how do you want to manage people.

§  All the culture have a strong desire for integrity and have a fair system in place.

Managing a multicultural workplace

-          Domestic firms – Canadian company operating in Ottawa, don’t have to go anywhere to experience multiculturalism. Promotion, selection follows you related to how diverse your labor force are. Trying to introduce yourself.

-          Multidomestic firms – find that company find how they can adapt their goals to different local demands where these companies operate, If you operate in beyond Ottawa – ex Toronto, Newfoundland. Only 10% are regulated by federal and 90% are done by provincial.

-          Multinational firms – Enough resource – risk to go beyond your boundary. Focus on cost and pricing.

-          Global firms – More culturally responsive and try to identify with the global system. Look at a specific conduct you’re operation. Try to work with the global system and manage people across the globe. These are different strategy.

Types of diversity in teams & Advantages and disadvantages of multicultural teams

Homogenous teams – cooperate because there is a positive dependence. You’re in a two way communication dialog and trying to talk the same way. Talk about issues, task and accomplish together. All members with similar background, everything the same. All female, all master degrees, all Canadians.

Heterogeneous teams – Culture background is different. When you work of creating a multicultural team, target a homogeneous team of those with similar abilities. Similar education and similar abilities.

Token teams – one member from a different culture. Someone who is a single representative from a single culture. They have to represent an African view point. Try to avoid.

Bicultural teams – where people will be from two culture

Multicultural teams – where people will be from three or more culture, more difficult and challenging. Why do organization need teams, it is to combine talent, and not one person can do everything. Different people will have unique skills . Second reason is to get innovative solution to problems. More creative solution. Third – motivational actions and support. Make more risky decision as a group than an individual. Another element – if you have a group of people talking to you, you will listen to you. If you have one person talking to you, it is less effective. Low stress.

Groupthink and its symptoms:

Illusion of invulnerability – people take more risk and over confidence

Rationalization – prepare counter arguments – and you past to go against your argument

Illusion of morality – because people think alike, then that is a good strategy

Stereotypes of outsiders – group members will have a negative view on outsiders

Pressure for conformity – a person has different opinion, “what the hell is wrong with you”

Self-censorship – another symptom – avoids voicing their concern. People will backfire. Won’t even bother talking.

Illusion of unanimity – assumption that everyone agrees. Everyone will assume everyone agrees. Pressure for comformity.

Mindguards

Effective Team Processes for Global Teams

Basic Elements of Team Dynamics

Task & Social Processes  (goal clarification/alignment; power/value differences) – What exactly people have to work on, and social influence and the quality of relationship. Task and social process needs a balance. Need to have intellectual and physical input that will influence performance. Training and education them and providing them resource to perform well. Have a good relationship with each other to do well. Have norms to regulate. Social will influence outcomes. Relationship will have better quality performance. Need physical ability and social skills for people to accomplish task and perform better.

Emergent States (mutual trust, collective team identity, & confidence in team’s ability to achieve its tasks) – all the shifts that evolve. Trust may be different. Gradually people will work together as differences merge.

Coordinating Mechanisms (meetings: face to face or virtual) – Any formal process – face to face meeting, virtual meeting, what strategy is needed to move ahead. Team process flows is how the process works. It starts with integrating.

Team Process Flows

Differentiating / Integrating – Telling how people are different, and how to work with difference. Know where you’re coming from but we have this responsibilities. Integrate differences to find solution for the task you have. Look at channel and mediums to help. Whether they are lean or rich regarding medium.  Need trust, map differences focus on common goals, to make decision together, fact finding skills, communicating art skills. How to share knowledge.

Face-to-face and virtual

Phases and Transitions

§  Five steps team goes through

·         Forming

·         Storming – expect people are different, conflicts will arise. Leaders responsibility to manage. Create rules and regulation for people to focus on.

·         Norming – Forget individualistic different. Have standards,

·         Performing – Rules and regulation

·         Closure – No longer a need for team members to stay together

Team Process Building Blocks

Building Trust (tricky when geog’lly dispersed, high risk, low interdependence, much cultural difference: create safe boundaries for interaction, and norms re:decision-making/conflict resolution; what does trust mean to you?)

Differentiating -- Map differences; then bridge

Integrating and decision making (trickier to do on-line)

Managing Conflict

Creating/Sharing Knowledge – take things from scientific research. Reflective preference. Model type. Use any scientific model. Reflecting and thinking on different issues. Applied science, reflective and model practice.

Managing culturally diverse teams

Task-related selection

Recognizing differences

Establishing a vision or superordinate goal – facilitate knowledge and power, no assign leaders , for different task or assignment. Why do you want people to work in a team because everyone has something to contribute. Help motivate people. Create mutual respect. This is what you value as an employer and stay connected. Have ongoing feedback. If there are any resource.

Equalizing power

Creating mutual respect

Giving feedback

For more theory and case studies on: http://expertresearchers.blogspot.com/