International Business Communication: Impact of Power Distance on Leadership Styles and Communication in Multinational Companies

This reflective report discusses power distance in the communication and leadership style. It examines different leadership styles and their impact on organizational culture and productivity. The report highlights the challenges of cross-cultural communication and provides insights into effective leadership practices.

Running Head: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
This reflective report discusses power distance in the communication and leadership style.
The leadership style could support to examine personality of the employee. It also
demonstrates different kinds of leadership styles such as transactional, transformational,
Laissez-faire, charismatic and an autocratic leadership style. The transformational leadership
style supports the organization to improve their existing performance. It also discusses the
issues of cross culture in the organization.
Impact of Power distance on leadership styles and communication in multinational
companies Woolworth, Wesfarmers
I understood that the cultural differences could directly impact on the leadership style.
Moreover, the cultural misunderstanding could create the possibilities of business failure. I
also observed that cultural problems are associated with the leadership. In addition, it is also
evaluated that the leader of organization could be capable to perform many activities like
recruitment and retention, making policy and regulation (Zhang, Ahammad, Tarba, Cooper,
Glaister, and Wang, 2015). The leader could also deal with the cultural issues in the
marketplace. When I was worked in Wesfarmers, I also observed that company face problem
at the time of developing trust among employees. I also learned that the elimination of
communication barrier could be a complicated task for the leader due to the lack of
understanding about appropriate technique. It is also evaluated that lack of trust among
diverse culture of employees towards their leader could also be complicated to attain the goal
of company (Northouse, 2018). Hence, I gained my understanding about the employees and
organizational culture to complete organizational task in the least time. It is found that the
leadership theories and practices could support me for effectively implement the leadership
style in the workplace and obtain a reliable outcome (Lee, 2016). I gained my understanding
about certain components like compensation and employee training as it would be effective

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for eliminating cultural and communication issues from the working place. Hence, I used
many approaches to lead diverse culture of employees and eliminating these issues.
Moreover, I realized that self-efficacy technique is effective for improving my existing skills
as it support to enhance my efficiency. Further, it is evaluated that self- efficacy is
determined as the appropriate behaviour of a leader with respect to the accomplishment of the
specified goal (Kahai, Avolio, and Sosik, 2017).The leadership self-efficacy demonstrates
challenges that could be faced by the leader and how they resolve their issues. Through this
technique, I was capable to evaluate different culture of employees activities as it support to
accomplish specified task of company and make reliable decision. I also observed that power
distance supports to determine the power equality and or inequality among top to bottom-
ranked employees. I also observed that the power distance is a fundamental aspect of the
organization because it enables to critically analysis the power of employee for effectively
operates the business. From the analysis of Hofstead model, I analysed that a higher power
distance demonstrates the inequalities of wealth and power. It will directly influence the
growth of society (Berson, Halevy, Shamir, and Erez, 2015). In addition, it is also found that
the inequality and hierarchy are the important factors for the culture. I also observed that the
culture of an organization is relied on their leader, managers, and leaders of the organization.
The managers of high power distance cultures could prefer to implement the authoritarian
management style. I observed that if the power distance is higher in any multinational
company, which means the leader of company want to earn by higher power. The higher
power could enable the leader to force their subordinates for accomplishing the task. In this,
employees are depended on their managers for accomplishing the organizational task. When I
worked in Woolworth then I used Hofstede model to evaluate the power distance in
Australia. I observed that the obtained value of power distance is 36 that means employees
are not depended on their manager. For dealing with different culture of Woolworths

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employees, I used autocratic leadership style for accomplishing the organizational task but I
was failed for long-term success. Through this leadership style, I forced to the employee for
accomplishing their task that create the higher chance of employee’s turnover. Through this
leadership style, I never considered to the employees in the decision making as it enhanced
stress level among employee that negative impact on the performance of workforce. Thus, I
pointed that autocratic leadership was not effective for Wesfarmers because it gives higher
power to the leader that negatively influence their growth. After that, I used laissez-faire
leadership style in the Wesfarmers, Australia. Through laissez-faire leadership style, I gave
freedom to employee and different culture team members for completing their task in their
own style. This leadership style is based on “let them do” (Raina and Roebuck, 2016).
Hence, it can be said that this leadership style effective for that employee who does not like
to any interference in their work while this method could be ineffective for those who are
fresher (Engelen, Flatten, Thalmann, and Brettel, 2014). I realized that this leadership style
was also not effective to retain the employee in the working place and obtain reliable
outcome. Moreover, I observed that my lack of understanding about the power distance and
appropriate leadership style could negatively influence growth of organization. Hence, I
gained my understanding towards certain leadership styles such as transactional,
transformational, laissez-fair, charismatic, and autocratic leadership. In this way, I also
observed that the leadership style could directly influence the productivity of employees and
organization (Tong, Tak, and Wong, 2015). I pointed that transformational leadership is a
method that could equal to the leader and employee at the time of working in the team. I used
the transformational leadership in Wesfarmers that enable me to works with subordinates to
determine the needed changes in the organization as it would be supportive to make an
effective decision. I analyzed that the transformational leadership enable me enhance the
motivation level, moral, and job performance of different culture of employees by creating

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their interest in their specified work. I determine strengths and weakness of employee for
improving their productivity. Through this leadership style, I obtained favourable outcome by
different culture of employees.
When I worked in the Woolsworth, Australia, I used the servant leadership style to obtain
positive result from different culture of employees. Through this method, leader improves
and boosts the morale of employee for accomplishing their task. This leadership style enables
to prioritize needs of my team and encourage them to make a collective decision (Vidyarthi,
Anand, and Liden, 2014). (Bedi, and Alpaslan, Green, 2016). But, at the same time, I also
analysed that I failed to attain higher profit by using this leadership style among different
culture of employees. Hence, I gained my understanding about the transactional leadership
style that support to make chain process at the working place. I observed that this leadership
style is based on carrot-and-stick approach to managing activities of different culture of
employees. I learned that transactional leadership facilitates to use the reward and
punishment structure wherein leader punish those employees who perform less than
satisfactory while awarding those employees who perform better at the working place
(Sarooghi, Libaers, and Burkemper, 2015). It would support to make a positive atmosphere at
the working place by inspiring the employee towards their work. The employee of the
workplace could be inspired to work hard and obtain a feasible result. I realized that the
transformational leadership style could not be effective to deal with different culture of
employees. Hence, I used transformational leadership style as compared to another leadership
style. It is evaluated that transformational leadership enable employees to follow their leader
with enthusiasm and energy that inspires them for accomplishing their job. Moreover, when I
was working in Woolworths then I applied transformational leadership as it supports me to
consider motivation, innovation, and individual concern in order to communicate with
different culture of employees (Daniels and Greguras, 2014). The transformational leadership

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style enables me to prefer organization culture for obtaining a favourable outcome. I also
learned about the characteristics of transformational leadership style that consider many
factors like environment sensitivity, vision and articulation, performing the unconventional
behavior, and sensitivity to employee needs. The transformational leadership supports me to
influence diverse culture of employee’s values. The transformational leadership occurs when
one and more people are engaging in the same activity for accomplishing their task (Graham,
Ziegert, and Capitano, 2015). Though this leadership style, my team member encourage me
and each other to attain the same goal. It supports me to obtain feasible outcome by
accomplishing the organizational task. In this way, I considered four factors for dealing with
diverse culture of individuals at the same place like inspirational motivation, individualized
consideration, intellectual stimulation, and idealized influence. Though this leadership style,
diverse culture of employee respect each other to attain the organizational aim (Bouncken,
Brem, and Kraus, 2016). Through these factors, I was capable to easily inspire followers and
make reliable relationship with them. Moreover, it is also evaluated that intellectual
stimulation is determined as a transformational leader who demonstrates their intellectual
capacity by inspiring their followers and innovative ideas (Appelbaum, Degbe, MacDonald,
and Nguyen-Quang, 2015). Though this leadership style, I used innovative and creative idea,
reframing problems, and questioning assumptions as it support me to effectively dealing with
diverse culture of Woolworths employees in Australia. I also analyzed that this leadership
style aid me and employees of Woolworths to obtain their aim in a reliable manner. Through
this leadership style, both leader and team members are mutually working on the same goal
that support to make effective relationship. But at the same time, I gained my understanding
about many activates that could create an issue in the cross culture. These are inadequate
trust, perception, inaccurate biases, and false communication. I also analyzed that team
members of Woolworths have different religion and they make a community with same

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religion and use the different language as it create cultural issue at the working place (Owens,
Wallace, and Waldman, 2015). In addition, it is also evaluated that perception of employees
could create a cultural issue at the working place. The people who belong from the developed
country and employee who belongs from developing country could create conflict at the
working place. I also observed that biases could also create the cultural issues at the working
palace (Naseer, Raja, Syed, Donia, and Darr, 2016). Hence, by using the transformational
leadership style I resolved challenges, which are faced by me for dealing with diverse culture
of employees. In addition, it is also found that the false communication could also create the
cultural issue at the working place (Sousa, and van Dierendonck, 2017). I gained my
understanding of leadership style and power distance that could a major element of the
organization. This learning directly impacts on my professional and personal skills. This
understanding is effective for me because I want to make my career in the human resource
management team.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can also be summarized that the power distance could direct
impact on the performance of the organization. It can also be concluded that the power
distance has a positive impact on the communication and leadership style. It can also be
illustrated that the power distance could be used to determine the equality and inequality of
power between the top and bottom ranked employee. It can also be examined that an
organization might be aware of the power distance due to developing a favorable
environment at the workplace and obtain a reliable result. It can also be summarized that
appropriate leadership style could direct impact on the productivity of the organization by
gaining their interest in the assigned work. In last, it can also be addressed that the cultural
values could occur for many reasons like language, perception, lack of trust, and working
environment. It could influence the performance of the organization.

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