¿How does organizational leaders should behave in cross cultural environments?
Leaders working in cross cultural environments, need to have a clear and deep understanding of the concept of culture, with its multiple, fluid and dynamic elements, in order to develop cross-cultural skills and create an ability to work with diversity.
They also should construct a leadership based in cooperation, instead in competition, in this way it would create an environment in which everyone can accept their cultural differences as an advantage, in which diversity favors creativity for the consecution of the common goal of the organization.
They should create a level of cultural sensitiveness that help the to develop understanding and intercultural communication.
Leaders are also required to become transformative agents, inspiring and motivating others to higher levels of performance.
They have a duty to mediate between groups, to help them discern their differences and be proactive in the creation of new cultural solutions that engage diversity and readdress motivation.
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| Diversity. Retrieved on March 2011 from: http://www.hrvoice.org/ |
One model that gather the previous characteristics in a simple and effective way is the XLQ model. The XLQ model present an effective model to understand the main dimensions which, leaders working in cross cultural environments, should develop in order to be successful.The theory is based in seven attributes, a weakness in some of them will result in a reduction of the leader’s effectiveness: Trust, transformation, communication, power, empathy, culture and conflict management.
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"The hub of the steering wheel is trust, without it, leadership cannot function. The spokes of the wheel are transformation, communication, power, and empathy. The wheel itself is culture for without the effective use and coordination with the other aspects, the wheel would in fact not be a wheel, and would be ineffective. The lubricant for the wheel is conflict management. Conflict can be used to stimulate creativity, but if not managed can cause enough friction so that the wheel cannot turn. The wheel also assumes that the leader has knowledge of each component of the wheel, and of the destination or goal of the drive"1.
REFERENCES
1.Grisham, T. & Walker, D. (2008) Cross-cultural leadership. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 1 Iss: 3, pp.439 – 445. Online publication March 4. DOI : 10.1108/17538370810883873
Collard, J. (2007) Constructing theory for leadership in intercultural contexts. Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 45 Iss: 6, pp.740 – 755. Online publication March 4. DOI : 10.1108/09578230710829919
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