Inclusive Leadership
In 2007, the New York Times published an article titled, CEO Evolution Phase 3, where Schwartz (2007) explained that CEOs needed to create teams based on collaboration and cooperation. With the emphasis of collaboration and cooperation, leaders in global organization are utilizing inclusive leadership as a model to develop and lead diverse teams (Magnusson, Peterson, & Westjohn, 2014). Thus, the intent of this blog post is to assess the role of inclusive leadership in strengthening the organizational culture of a multinational organization. To accomplish this task, the I will analyze inclusive leadership traits, introduce key leadership skills that help create an inclusive organizational culture, assess the leadership characteristics that will help create an inclusive organizational culture, and lastly, a discussion of how inclusive leadership can be utilized with workers from Greece, Germany, Iran, Singapore, and the United States.
Inclusive Leadership Traits
Inclusive leadership focuses on the relationship between leaders and followers. More specifically, Hollander (2009) explained that inclusive leadership is a two-way leadership model where a leader and follower base their interactions on respect, recognition, responsiveness, and responsibility. Hollander further discovered inclusive leadership is a participative process built on competition and cooperation. Similarly, Riggio, Chaleff, and Lipman-Blumen (2008) explained that the inclusive leadership model is the interactions between leaders and followers where the atmosphere is centered on fairness of input and outputs: a two-way exchange of ideas to improve decision-making and achieving organizational goals. Horwitz and Horwitz (2007) stated, “an inclusive leader is one who also understand that the new paradigm is less about the leader as the hero and more about the leader as an agent who develops, inspires and enables others” (p. 988). Homan, Hollenbeck, Humphrey, Van Knippenberg, Ilgen, and Van Kleef (2008) reported that an inclusive leader is one who is aware of conscious and unconscious biases and open to understanding of various perspectives to help a team face challenges. Thus, the traits of inclusive leadership include interactions based on respect, recognition, responsiveness, responsibility, participative competition, and cooperation. In addition, an inclusive leader values fairness of input and output, is an agent who develops, inspires, and enables others, and a person who is aware of the conscious and unconscious biases that exist within a workplace.Very good info. on inclusiveness.
Inclusive Organizational Culture
Inclusive leadership is a model that can help create an organizational culture based on cooperation, collaboration, and competition. However, in order for the model to be effective, a leader has to utilize certain leadership skills. Thus, Hollander (2009) discovered the following traits are essential to create an inclusive organizational culture: listening respectfully, sharing of power and decision-making, moral and ethical conduct, insight into power and politics with the organization, cooperation, influence and enable followers to participate in achieving goals. These leadership traits help create and support an organizational culture that incorporates diverse people within the organization. When evaluating the GLOBE Society Practices (House, Javidan, & Dorfman, 2001), followers from Greece, Singapore, Germany, Iran, and the United States would all favor an organizational culture where their opinions are heard in a respectful manner and the leader incorporates their knowledge and expertise into the decision-making process. In addition, all five cultures would benefit from a leader who would incorporate each of their preferences into the development of what was morally and ethically acceptable, so no conflicts of power occur and organizational politics do not impact productivity. Followers from the five diverse countries could either be influenced or enabled to participate in setting and attaining organizational goals. The essential leadership skills required to establish an inclusive culture will depend on the two-way interaction between leader and follower, but is dependent on the leader setting the tone. Excellent job of discussing culture.
Influential Leadership Characteristics
There are certain leadership characteristics that are conducive to creating an inclusive organizational culture among the group of five countries. For example, Repecklene, Kvedaraite, and Jankauskiene (2011) explained that an inclusive leader has the ability to interpret, relate, and adapt to situations and information. Repecklene et al. further reported that influencing a diverse group begins by understanding, respecting, and valuing individual differences while incorporating their input into the decision-making process. Cite;.Enabling followers to voice their views openly shows a commitment to collaboration and cooperation. Utilizing information from followers to make decisions indicates a commitment to remaining competitive in the global environment. For the organizational climate to change, a leader needs to be aware of situations or how group diversity will impact the organization (Schien, 1985). Another characteristic will be a leader’s understanding that his/her role is not to be a hero but to enable an encourage followers. A leader needs to shift their thinking and behaviors to value and incorporate followers understanding of the organization, creating a two-way flow of ideas and information with business outcomes in mind (Joplin & Daus, 1997). In essence, the most influential characteristic is encouraging and allowing followers to participate in the decision-making process, where followers’ ideas and knowledge are validated and utilized to help improve the organization. Good general info. Needed more discussions on the impact on inclusiveness.
Application of Inclusive Leadership
In order for an inclusive leader to be effective, they need to understand that German, Greek, Singaporean, and U. S. divisions value assertiveness, which indicates a leader will need to focus on influencing these divisions with competition (House, Javidan, & Dorfman, 2001). An inclusive leader would need to enable the German, Singaporean, and U.S. divisions because they are intrinsically motivated (House, Javidan, & Dorfman, 2001), while the Greek and Iranian workforces needs to be encouraged to participate in the decision-making process. Considering gender egalitarianism, a leader would need to listen to the individual needs of their workers, and balance between male and female input (House, Javidan, & Dorfman, 2001). The challenge with a diverse group would be the based on the humane orientationaspect. More specifically, when the German, Greek, Singaporean, and U. S. divisions work collaboratively, they may not support each other when challenged with a situation (House, Javidan, & Dorfman, 2001). Another possible challenge would occur because the German, Greek, and Iranian divisions value individualism (House, Javidan, & Dorfman, 2001), so a leader would need to work with these divisions to buy into the collaborative concept. The power distanceindicator might be a challenge because the German, Greek, and Iranian divisions might be apprehensive to being part of the decision-making process because of the amount of information that might be communicate to the staff (House, Javidan, & Dorfman, 2001). Overall, the inclusive leadership model can be applied to the five divisions, however, a leader needs to balance the needs of the group while understanding that each group will need to collaborate to be competitive. Excellent job of discussing differences among countries.
Conclusion
In sum, an inclusive leader will help create an organizational culture based on collaboration, cooperation, and competition. An inclusive leader will need to utilize the following traits: interactions based on respect, recognition, responsiveness, responsibility, participative competition, and cooperation, fairness of input and output, an agent who develops, inspires, and enables others. To establish an inclusive culture, a leader will need to develop two-way interaction between leader and follower, but it is essentially dependent on the leader setting the tone for collaboration. Again, the most influential characteristic is a leader who encourages followers to participate in the decision-making process to help improve organizational outcomes. Lastly, the challenges of establishing an inclusive culture will depend on a leader’s ability to balance the needs of the group and understand that each group will need to participate in the collaboration process to be competitive globally.
References
House, R., Javidan, M., & Dorfman, P. (2001). Project GLOBE: An Introduction. Applied Psychology: An InternationalReview, 50(4), 489-505.
Hollander, E. (2009). Inclusive leadership: The essential leader-follower relationship. CRC Press.
Homan, A. C., Hollenbeck, J. R., Humphrey, S. E., Van Knippenberg, D., Ilgen, D. R., & Van Kleef, G. A. (2008). Facing differences with an open mind: Openness to experience, salience of intragroup differences, and performance of diverse work groups. Academy of Management Journal, 51(6), 1204-1222.
Horwitz, S., & Horwitz, I. (2007). The effects of team diversity on the team outcomes: A meta-analysis review of team demography. Journal of Management, 33(6), 987-1015.
Joplin, J. R. W., & Daus, C. R. (1997). Challenges of leading a diverse workforce. Academy of Management Executive, 11(3), 32-34.
Magnusson, P., Peterson, R., & Westjohn, S. A. (2014). The influence of national cultural valueson the use of rewards alignment to improve sales collaboration. International Marketing Review, 31(1), 3-3.
Repecklene, A., Kvedaraite, N., & Jankauskiene, V. (2011). Intercultural competence as precondition for cultural diversity management. Economics and Management, 16, 882-891.
Riggio, R. E., Chaleff, I., & Lipman-Blumen, J. (Eds.). (2008). The art of followership: How great followers create great leaders and organizations(Vol. 146). Wiley.com.
Schein, E. H. (1985). Defining organizational culture. Classics of organization theory, 3, 490-502.
Schwartz, N. (2007). CEO evolution phase 3. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/business/10leaders.html?_r=0