Leadership and Management Behavior in Multinational Companies

1
14

• Leadership and Management Behavior in
  Multinational Companies

2
Learning Objectives

• Know the characteristics of global business
  leadership
• Understand traditional North American models of
  leadership
• Understand the Japanese performance-maintenance
  model of leadership
• Be able to apply the cultural-contingency model
  of leadership
• Develop sensitivity to national cultural
  differences
• Understand how national culture affects the
  choice of leader influence tactics
• Understand how national culture influences
  subordinates expectations
• Understand the role of transformational
  leadership in multinational settings
• Understand how the national culture affects a
  leaders attributions
• Understand the role of women global leaders for
  multinationals
• Develop the ability to diagnose cultural
  situations and suggest appropriate leadership
  style to fit the situation

3
Leadership

• Leadership process of influencing group members
  to achieve organizational goals
• Excellent leaders motivate their employees to
  achieve more than minimal requirements

4
Global Leadership The New Breed

• Global Leader One who has the skills and
  abilities to interact with and manage people from
  diverse cultural backgrounds
• Characteristics of a global leader Cosmopolitan,
  skilled at intercultural communication,
  culturally sensitive, and capable of rapid
  acculturation
• Global Leader Characteristics
• Knowledgeable about cultural and institutional
  influences on management
• Facilitator of subordinates intercultural
  performance
• A user of cultural synergy
• A promoter and user of the growing world culture
• A commitment to continuous improvement in
  self-awareness and renewal

5
Three Classic Models of Leadership

• Three basic models of leadership
• Leadership traits
• Leadership behavior
• Contingency leadership

6
Leadership Traits

• Are leaders born or made?
• Great-person theory idea that leaders are born
  with unique characteristics that make them quite
  different from ordinary people
• Contemporary views of leadership traits do not
  assume that leaders are born

7
Traits of Successful U.S. Leaders

• Higher intelligence and self-confidence
• More initiative
• More assertiveness and persistence
• Greater desire for responsibility and the
  opportunity to influence others
• A greater awareness of the needs of others

8
Leadership Behaviors

• U.S. perspectives on leadership behaviors
• Two major types of leadership behaviors
• Task-centered leader focus on completing tasks
  by initiating structure
• Gives subordinates specific standards, schedules,
  and tasks
• Person-centered leader focus on meeting the
  social and emotional needs of employees

9
Leader Decision Making Styles

• Autocratic leadership leaders make all major
  decisions themselves
• Democratic leadership leader includes
  subordinates in decision making
• Consultative or participative leadership
  leaders style falls midway between autocratic
  and democratic styles

10
Japanese Perspectives on Leader Behaviors

• Performance-maintenance (PM) theory balancing
  task- and person-centered leader behaviors
• Two dimensions of PM theory
• Performance function (P) similar to
  task-centered leadership
• Two components of performance function
• Planning component the leader works for or with
  subordinates to develop work procedures
• Pressure component the leader then pressures
  employees to put forth more effort and to do good
  work
• Maintenance function (M) similar to
  person-centered. Presents behaviors that promote
  group stability and social interaction
• Difference between the Japanese PM approach and
  the U.S. perspective
• Japanese PM leader focuses on influencing groups
• U.S. approach focuses on influencing individuals

11
Contingency Theory

• Assumption that different styles and different
  leaders are more appropriate for different
  situations
• Two North American contingency theories of
  leadership
• Fiedlers theory of leadership
• Path-goal theory

12
Fiedlers Theory of Leadership

• Proposed that managers tend to be either task- or
  person-centered leaders
• Three successful contingencies of the work
  situation
• Leader and subordinates relationships
• Clearly defined subordinates tasks
• Power of the leader
• Effective leadership occurs when the leadership
  styles match the situation
• Theory suggests that task-centered leadership
  works best when situation is favorable or not
  favorable for leader
• If favorable, subordinates are positive about
  their workneed to be told what to do
• In unfavorable situations, job requirements are
  unclear, leader need to focus on getting things
  done

13
Path-Goal Theory

• Four leadership styles that a manager might
  choose depending on the situation
• Directive
• Supportive
• Participative
• Achievement-oriented
• When subordinates have high achievement needs
  adopt the achievement-oriented style
• Subordinates with high social needsadopt the
  supportive leadership style
• When job is unstructuredadopt a directive style
  or an achievement-oriented style

14
Exhibit 14.3 A Simplified Model of Path-Goal
Theory
15
Traits, Behaviors, and Contingencies

• No consistent leadership trait or behavior that
  works best
• A successful leader must diagnose the situation
  and pick the behaviors and/or develop the
  leadership traits that fits best.

16
National Context as a Contingency for Leadership
Behaviors

• Successful leadership in multinational companies
  requires that managers adjust their leadership
  styles to fit different situations.
• Two steps to adjust a leadership to a multination
• Step 1 understanding what local managers do to
  lead successfully in their own country
• Step 2 using this knowledge to modify ones
  leadership style
• National-context contingency model of leadership
  shows how culture and related social institutions
  affect leadership practices

17
Exhibit 14.5 National-Context Contingency Model
of Leadership
18
The National-Context Contingency Model of
Leadership

• Outlines of how leadership behaviors, traits, and
  contingencies are affected by the national
  context
• Leader behaviors and traits
• Subordinates characteristics
• Work setting

19
Leadership Traits and behaviors in the National
Context

• GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational
  Behavior Effectiveness)
• The very latest research on cross-national
  differences in leadership
• Study contains insights regarding crucial
  leadership styles to navigate successfully
  through a maze of cultural settings

20
GLOBE findings

• Leadership styles vary by countries.
• Team-oriented leaders are preferred in Latin
  European and Southern Asian countries.
• Anglo and Germanic cultures prefer participative
  leaders.
• South Asian cultures prefer humane leader.
• All countries agree that autonomous leaders and
  self-protective leaders universally impeded
  leadership.

21
National Context and Preferred Leader-Influence
Tactics

• Influence tactics tactical behaviors leaders use
  to influence subordinates (Exhibit 14.9)
• U.S managers favor seven influence tactics
• Assertiveness
• Friendliness
• Reasoning
• Bargaining
• Sanctioning
• Appeals to a higher authority
• Coalitions

22
National Context and Subordinates Expectations

• National context affects subordinates
  expectations regarding what leaders should do
  and what they may or may not do
• High power-distance autocratic leadership
• E.g., many of the Latin and Asian countries
• Low power-distance leader be more like them
• E.g., Sweden and Norway
• Strong masculinity norms
• Lead to the acceptance of more authoritarian
  leadership
• Strong uncertainty-avoidance norms
• Subordinates to expect the leader to provide more
  detail in directions

23
Contemporary Leadership Perspectives
Multinational Implications

• Two basic forms of leadership
• Transactional leadership managers use rewards or
  punishments to influence their subordinates
• Most ordinary leaders use transactional
  leadership
• Transformational Leaders (Charismatic) succeed
  because subordinates respond to them with high
  levels of performance, devotion and willingness
  to sacrifice
• Same leadership traits may not lead to
  transformational leadership in all countries

24
Transformational Leadership

• Managers go beyond transactional leadership by
• Articulating a vision
• Breaking from the status quo
• Providing goals and a plan
• Giving meaning or a purpose to goals
• Taking risks
• Being motivated to lead
• Building a power base
• Demonstrating high ethical and moral standards

25
Attributions and Leadership

• Emphasis on what leaders believe causes
  subordinates behaviors
• Two key distinctions in attributions
• External attribution factors outside the person
  and beyond the persons control (e.g., natural
  disasters, illness, faulty equipment, etc.)
• Internal attribution characteristics of the
  person (e.g., personality, motivation, low
  ability, etc.)
• Once leader makes attribution, leader responds to
  subordinate based on that assumption
• Fundamental attribution error assumption by
  managers that people behave in certain ways
  because of internal motivations, rather than
  outside factors
• Successful leaders make the correct attributions.

26
Global Women Leaders The Future?

• Women global leadership spread of traits or
  qualities that are associated with women to the
  process of leading organizations worldwide
• orientation toward more participative,
  interactional, and relational styles of leading
• Women leaders have skills to develop deep
  relationship to understand markets
• More likely to provide unity to accommodate needs
  of various stakeholders
• Better ability to understand diversity at global
  levels

27
Getting the Results Should You Do What Works at
Home?

• Cannot assume that successful home leadership
  styles or traits will result in equally
  successful leadership in a foreign country
• It is nevertheless difficult to adapt.

28
The Cultural Context and Suggested Leadership
Styles

• High power distance behave more autocratically
• High uncertainty cultures remove ambiguity from
  work setting

29
Exhibit 14.13 National Culture and Recommended
Leadership Styles