Leadership and Motivation in Global Organizations

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Background

Leadership and motivation have been areas of interest to many researchers on management. The likely reason for the highly interest is the conviction that leadership and motivation have high impact on performance of an organization. Leadership style adopted in an organization is believed to have high implication to an organization’s ability to achieve its goals and objectives.

On the other hand, level of motivation in an organization is a major factor to sustainable performance. An organization that has poor leadership and low motivation is unlikely to be competitive. In today’s high competitive global business environment, an organization has to do everything possible to be competitive (Wild, Wild, Han and Ramal 2007).

Therefore, global organizations have to adopt competitive management practices that can enable them to have competitive edge over other equally able organizations (Root and Visudtibhan 1992).

Researchers and practitioners in management propose that effective leadership and motivation can help an organization to address challenges that it come across in its operations. Therefore, good leadership and motivation can be very important in improving performance and gaining competitive edge in the global business environment.

Globalization and technological advancement have led to competitive and highly sophisticated business environments. Contemporary global organizations have to keep abreast with modern trends in market, consumer needs and taste, technology, production, and human resource management. Failure to embrace the necessary changes can have high implications to a global organization (Schmidheiny 1992).

Leadership and motivation are some of challenging issues in global business scenario. Contemporary global organizations have establishments in different parts of the world and have diverse employees (House 2004). Exercising leadership and motivation in such situations can be challenging. In the research study, I want to address issues in leadership and motivation in global business scenario.

Purpose

In contemporary global business environment, organizations are forced to adopt management practices that are in line with demands from the business scenario. Leaders in modern global organizations have to provide leadership in highly distributed and complex environments. On the other hand, highly diverse workforce characterizes modern organizations.

The purpose of the research study therefore is to explore leadership and motivation in organizations in the global business setting. The main issue that the research study will try to address is the current leadership and motivation practices in contemporary international organizations. The core aim of the study is to show the relationship between effective leadership and motivation practices and culture and cultural knowledge.

Research Questions

To achieve the above stated purpose, the research study will try to answer the following questions:

What are leadership and motivation implications in global business environment?
Does leadership style have impact on level of motivation in global organizations?
What is the role of culture in leadership and motivation in international organizations?
Does cultural knowledge impact on leadership competence in international organizations?

Rationale/Justification

Success in global business environment depends on many factors including innovation and ability to adopt change. Leadership and motivation can therefore have great influence on success of an organization in the global business scenario.

Although there are many research studies addressing leadership and motivation, few address their implication in global business scenario. The research study will not only add to the wealth of knowledge in global business management but also be of importance to organization conducting business globally.

Research Methodology

Research methods adopted for this study are review of literature and case study analysis. A case study of China will be used for this study. China is chosen as a case study because of its significance in the global economy (Nolan, 2001). In addition, western organizations doing business in China often experience cultural related challenges.

There are wealth of literature addressing leadership and motivation and therefore review of literature is considered an appropriate method for the study. Secondary qualitative data is appropriate for the study and will be used. For analysis, qualitative analysis in form of discussion will be applied.

Preliminary literature review

Leadership and motivation are important factors to success of an organization. An organization that embraces effective leadership and motivates its workers has high likelihood to be successful. In the literature review, a few of literatures addressing leadership and motivation are explored.

Pertinent Theories of leadership and motivation

Transformational and transactional theories are the common theories of leadership. Transactional or management theory of leadership defines task oriented leadership style. Transactional leaders are interested more on the tasks that they want to be done rather than individuals performing the tasks. Transaction leaders tend to use operations and supervision to achieve well defined goals (Somech 2006).

To achieve the definite goals, transactional leadership make use of reward and punishment system; followers are reward for achieving goals and punished for failing to do so. Although there are various criticisms to transactional leadership style, many scholars advocate for integration of the style with transformational leadership.

Transformational or relationship leadership theory is based on strong bond connecting leaders and followers. Unlike transactional leadership, transformational leadership builds upon ability of a leader to influence the followers (Hitt, Keats and Yucel 2003). Transformational leaders motivate and stimulate their followers toward the desired state.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the common theory of motivation. The theory identifies five levels of needs that form the foundation for motivating an individual. The levels include “Physiological, safety, love and belongingness, esteem and self-actualization needs” (Maslow 1943). According to Maslow, the factors that motivate individuals vary depending on their position in the hierarchy (Maslow 1943, pp394-395).

Another important theory of motivation is expectancy theory. This theory relates motivation and reward. Accordingly, the theory explains level of motivation and decisions by employees based on rewards such as promotion, salaries and benefits. Expectancy model has three main assumptions: expectancy, valence and instrumentality.

Issue Affecting Leadership Decisions

The major role of leaders is to make decisions. Leaders are expected to make good decisions that can help their organizations to address challenges facing them. In addition to making decisions, leaders have the responsibility of ensuring that their decisions are implemented and lead to desired results (Somech 2006).

Factors affecting how leaders make decisions include the leader’s personality, the culture that the leader is part of, and expectations of people around the leader. Other factors that can affect how a leader makes decision include nature of followership, leadership style and perception of power (Gandossy and Sonnenfeld 2004, p. 65).

Leadership in the Global Economy

Leadership within the context of global business environment is sophisticated. According to Gandossy and Effron (2004), the complex global business environment calls for leaders that are knowledgeable, able to make shift decision and forge collaboration. Considering global nature, leadership control has to widen across cultural and geographical boundaries.

Conclusion

The competitive and complex nature of global business environment calls for effective leadership and motivation. Ability of a leader to integrate effective leadership and motivation practices has significance impact on success of an organization. In context of global business, the issues of culture and geographic distribution may call for high leadership and motivation competence.

Reference List

Gandossy, R. and Effron, M. 2004. Leading the way: the truths from the top companies for leaders. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Gandossy, R. and Sonnenfeld, J. 2004. Leadership and governance from the inside out. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Maslow, A. 1943. A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review Vol. 50, pp. 370-396.

House, R. 2004. Culture, leadership, and organizations: the GLOBE study of 62 societies. New York: SAGE.

Root, F. and Visudtibhan, K. 1992. International strategic management: challenges and opportunities. Melbourne: Taylor & Francis.

Nolan, P. 2001. China and the global business revolution. Cambridge Journal of Economics Vol. 26 No.1, pp. 119-137.

Schmidheiny, S. 1992. Changing course: a global business perspective on development and the environment. New York: MIT Press.

Hitt, M., Keats, B. and Yucel, E. 2003. Strategic leadership in global business organizations: Building trust and social capital. Advances in Global Leadership Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 9-35

Wild, J., Wild, K., Han, J. and Ramal, H. 2007. International Business: The Challenges of Globalization. Sydney: Pearson Education Australia

Somech, A. 2006. The Effects of Leadership Styles and Team Process on Performance and Innovation in Functionally Heterogeneous Teams. Journal of Management Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 132-157.

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