Multinational organizations face a lot of challenges in its operational leadership style in motivating and harnessing potentials in multi-cultural workplace.
Patterson, Dannhauser, and Stone (2007) have publicized the need for global leadership: according to them, a global leader is "[o]pen to other cultures and flexible; [a]ware of verbal and non-verbal differences in communication with person from [other] culture[s]; [a]ware that management practices developed in one culture may not be easily transferred to another; [a]ware of … cultural influences on behavior; [a]daptive; [l]oyal, honest, and ethical; [and] [endowed with] multidisciplinary perspectives, [all] needed for problem solving (Patterson, Dannhauser, & Stone, 2007, p. 9). But, are the ingredients of global leadership so readily identifiable? Should leaders now familiarize themselves pell-mell with the anthropological, geographical, geopolitical, physiological, psychological, and sociological effects of globalization? More pertinently, perhaps, should we not ponder whether styles of leadership are continuingly relevant in the 21st century and, instead, consider modes of leadership (i.e., administrative/operational, adaptive/entrepreneurial, and enabling) per complexity leadership theory?
Reference
Patterson, K., Dannhauser, Z., & Stone, A. (2007, August). From noble to global: The attributes of global leadership. Servant Leadership Research Roundtable Proceedings, School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.
Professor Marius Ungerer, myself and Anton Schlechter did some research using case studies of companies (many multi-national) throughout Africa and came to some interesting conclusions about appropriate leadership practices (the so-called Teal leadership - where leadership is based on worker autonomy and peer relationships). The book is called Afro-global Management Innovation Practices (Re-imagining work and workplaces).