Due to the advent of globalisation, the companies have started to expand their operations in foreign countries. Liberalisation policies adapted by most of the governments have further eased the global expansion of the firms. However, due to this expansion of business, the competition in the global market place has also increased significantly. In this context, the global corporations have started to develop strategies that for obtaining the competitive advantage over the rivals. In this regards, Ragins (2007) mentioned that the success of the organisation primarily depends on the commitment level of the employees. Therefore, it has become important to direct and motivate the workforces of the firms in an effective manner. In this circumstance, the role of leaders has become essential for the corporations. A lot of researches have been conducted over the years to identify the role of effectual leadership for the success of an organisation.
On the other hand, with the globalisation, the employees have also started to move from their native places. As a result of that after globalisation, the percentage of diversified workforces in the global firms has hiked drastically (Prasad and Mills, 2009). Although, the diversified workforces have improved the overall performances for the organisation, managing these workforces have become a challenging tasks for the leaders or managers. This research intends to identify the importance of proper leaders in the organisations. In addition, the research will also assess the role of leaders in managing the diversity in the multicultural firms.
The aim of the research is to identify the role of leadership in relation to the diversity management in the global multicultural organisations.
The objectives of the research are as follows:
For sustaining in the competitive business market place, the companies are required to improve the skills of their staff. In addition, it is also crucial for the management of the corporations to motivate their workforces. In this context, the leaders play a vital role to boost up the commitment level of the employees. The leaders also direct the employees towards right direction to achieve the goals. Therefore, it is important for the global firms to assess the role of their leaders. On the other hand, due to the different background, perceptions, attitude and behaviour of the staff, the performances of the multicultural global firms has been impacted. Hence, an effective diversity management skill is required to handle the situation. Most importantly, the leaders are required to take initiatives for managing the diversity and ensuring sound business performances. This research has evaluated the role of leaders in managing the diversified staff in the organisations. The recommendations of the research may help the management of multinational firms to improve their performance through better diversity management techniques.
In this chapter, the theories related to the concerned topic have been critically analysed. Hence, it can be considered that the chapter serves the purpose of highlighting the concepts behind leadership and diversity management. Most importantly, the chapter also plays a crucial part in selecting the research methods and conducting data analysis and findings. Therefore, literature review acts as a bridge between research methodologies and data analysis portion of the study.
The definition of effective leaders and their traits in the organisations have been discussed in the below section.
In the starting of the discussion, it is important to define the effective leaders. As mentioned by Kirkpatick and Locke (2011), an effective leader contain two important components such as the traits of a leader and the skills of efficiency. In order to become a leader, strong personality and the ability to read people is required. On the other hand, an effective leader combines all these skills along with the smart business practices and intelligent crafting of the infrastructure (Limon and La France, 2009).
The traits of leaders have been discussed as under:
Initiation of action: One of the most important roles of the leaders is that they initiate the actions (Jerabek and Day Jr, 2009). Leaders start the project by stating the policies and preparing a plan for achieving the targets. Most importantly, during the initial stages, the leaders communicate with the sub-ordinates regarding the strategies that can provide competitive advantages to the firms.
Motivation: The leaders play an important role to motivate the employees of the organisation. According to Kirkpatick and Locke (2011), the performance of the global corporations, mainly depends on the level of commitment of their staff. The effective leaders have the power to motivate the workforce through economic or non-economic benefits.
Guidance: The leaders guide the sub-ordinates in a proper way for achieving the business objectives. In this regards, Kornør and Nordvik (2010) mentioned that without appropriate guidance and supervision of the leaders, it may not be possible for the staff to execute a sound performance.
Building confidence among the staff: Leaders stimulate the confidence level of the employees. In this context, Limon and La France (2009) cited that building self-confidence of the employees is the key to success for the organisations.
