Leadership in Multinational Firms and After an Earthquake

This article discusses the different leadership styles and qualities required in the context of a multinational firm and after an earthquake. It highlights the importance of global mindset, cross-cultural relationship skills, and adaptability in leadership. It also emphasizes the need for coordination, trust-building, and communication skills in disaster management. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of situational analysis in appointing a leader.

LEADERSHIP 1
Introduction
Leadership refers to the ability to establish the challenging goals, take decisive action,
and overall guiding and inspiring others to outperform the competition. It is significant to
note that the different environmental factors demand the different leadership style, depending
upon the contextual framework. It must be noted that over the years too
much emphasis has been placed on the individual capabilities for the
leadership, as compared to the situational context. Nevertheless, there is
a long list of one successful CEO leader who has failed in a new setting.
There are various leadership styles that can be adopted by the leaders
such as the transactional leadership, participative leadership, autocratic
leadership and others. Therefore, a leader must possess the contextual
intelligence or the ability to adapt to the opportunities and threats and
should also possess the necessary personal characteristics to lead the
people in a particular situation. The following work highlights the
leadership in two key contexts as follows.
Topic 1) Leadership by the CEO of a multinational firm
In the organisational context, the leaders can adopt either the charismatic leadership
style like that of Steve Jobs or transactional leadership style to guide the subordinates. With
the rise in the globalisation, the leadership functions in the multinational organisations have
grown complex and the challenges faced by such leaders are qualitatively different from as
those faced by the leaders of old times (Zander, Mockaitis & Butler, 2012). Some of the
important aspects of the leadership to be exercised by the CEO of a multinational firm are as
stated as follows. One of the chief quality that such leaders that need to develop are the global
mindset. It is an ability to scan the environment of the enterprise form a broad perspective,
which includes the evaluation of the unexpected trends and opportunities while thriving to
achieve the professional or the organisational objectives. In terms of visioning, a global
leader must articulate the vision, mission, and objectives of the entity to the employees in
light of the environmental scan. It is essential for leaders to act as a catalyst for strategic
change. A leader must be capable enough to articulate the company values in the strategies or
the policies of the entity (Young & Ghoshal, 2016). The CEO must further be capable of
devising a tangible strategy and segregating into the departmental goals and communicating
to the departmental leaders. In terms of cognitive orientation, it is significant for the leaders

LEADERSHIP 2
to have an open mind and agile thinking capability, in order to perceive the change in the
environment of the company. The same must be backed by the flexibility in the behaviour
and receptive to the uncertainties in the internal framework of the enterprise.
Yet another set of the prime trait in the global leaders is that they must possess and
exercise the cross-cultural relationship skills. The CEO of a multinational firm must be
culturally sensitive, must appreciate the diversity among the employees, and have
constructive dialogues with the varied range of stakeholders of the enterprise (Cullen &
Parboteeah, 2013). The CEO can do this by being socially and culturally literate in terms of
the cultures and customs in the locations of the enterprise. The CEO must further be capable
of sharing the leadership among the others and empowering the subordinates towards the
achievement of the personal goals and the professional goals. It is essential for the
shareholders to develop collaboration activities and to enable the members of the organisation
to appreciate diversity and cultural sensitivity. The CEO must ensure to motivate the
employees by rewarding and recognising them and to facilitate them to make them feel part
of the organisation (Clinebell, Skudiene, Trijonyte & Reardon, 2013). Further, in terms of the
global business context, it is essential for the leader or the CEO to be technologically
perceptive; customer oriented and must possess the business literacy in terms of current
trends in the industry. Further, they must ensure to maintain a competitive edge by building
meaningful partnerships with the stakeholders.
In terms of the leadership, it is essential to note for the leaders that the human
resources are the prime assets of an entity. Therefore, on a personal level, it is essential for
the leaders to have a high score in terms of emotional intelligence and resilience towards the
stress, in addition, to be optimistic and energetic. They must possess the character of integrity
and must be receptive enough to acknowledge the aspirations of the stakeholders and to
address the same in the light of the organisational strategy and available resources
(Schaubroeck et. al, 2012). In addition to the all of the above, it is significant to possess a
great set of the communication skills that would not only aid in the communication of goals,
motivating the employees, interacting with the stakeholders and take the feedback.
Topic 2) Leadership after an earthquake
The natural calamities such as that of the earthquake not only test the firmness of a
town's building structures and planning, a town’s preparedness to cope with a large-scale
disaster; but also the moral values and the leadership capabilities of the leaders of the town.

LEADERSHIP 3
During the situations of disaster as mentioned above, the first and prime need for the leaders
at the individual level is to have extensive knowledge and understanding the international,
national, and local principles of disaster management arrangements in place and the practice
of disaster management (Demiroz & Kapucu, 2012). The comprehensive set of knowledge
includes familiarity with the disaster management policy and planning frameworks, refugee
and humanitarian issues, the health response management, legal and ethical aspects, business
continuity and others.
A participative leadership style suits the context of disaster management, where a
leader leads being a part of the team. For the leaders, it is essential to have a proper set of
coordination between the regional leaders and the national leaders. In the event of utter chaos
where the ultimate aim of everyone is to help others, there are massive organizational
challenges to sort through.
While after an earthquake, there are hundreds of people and organisations with their
organizational egos and biases, and their corresponding personalities from all over the world,
who were engaged in responding with the gears and supplies, there is generally no one in
charge. Nevertheless, while everyone is desiring to help, there is friction among the varied
groups such as the volunteers, NGOs, regional political persons, and others (Boin, Kuipers &
Overdijk, 2013). Therefore, primarily it is important for a leader in such a scenario to build a
common purpose. The common purpose can be such as to provide earthquake relief, to
support the regional government and to advance the relationships between various
stakeholders. However, it is important for the leaders to acknowledge that the each of the
entity involved in the relief efforts has a unique role to play and the abilities of each of the
entity are distinct and non-negotiable. The challenge for the leaders while building the
common purpose is to inculcate the strengths and resources of each of the organisation into
the mission, encourage cooperation and to harness the contribution of all the entities. Another
major challenge faced is to keep aside the individual organisational goals and to focus
towards the building the team of the teams to accomplish the mission of rehabilitation in a
systematic manner.
One of the prime traits that the leaders must possess is that the leaders must have the
ability to establish trust and supporting relationships. When an entity is supposed to work in
an unfamiliar environment while coordinating with a number of agencies, the top priority for
the leader is to be culturally responsive (Ride & Bretherton, 2011). It is significant for the

LEADERSHIP 4
leaders to understand the culture, perspectives of the agencies with which to work and of the
victims or the stakeholders. This will enable to build a supporting relationship. This trait is
followed by the creation of efficient information sharing systems with both internal
governments and the host nation and partners. The leaders must thus be possessing effective
communication skills to collaborate with various agencies. In addition to the above, the
leaders must be adaptive to new cultures, scenario, changing personal behaviours, processes,
and strategies. Further, such leaders must possess integrity and professionalism while dealing
with the governmental bureaucracies in relation to the handling of the funds.
Further, with the increased use of the information and communication technologies, it
is important for the leaders to be able to use the social media as a catalyst for initiating
volunteering, and contribution of resources and efforts after an earthquake (Paton, Johal &
Johnston, 2014). In terms of the fieldwork, it is vital for the leaders to possess the emotional
intelligence and crisis leadership skills in terms of the safety and support, staff fatigue, needs
of families and volunteers.
Conclusion
As per the discussions conducted in the previous parts, it can be stated that leadership
has a powerful role in society and the same influences a number of societal aspects, and thus
is rightly called all pervasive. Apart from the basic leadership qualities of the dominant
personality, communication skills, emotional and social intelligence, task-related knowledge
and ability to induce coordination, each situation demands a different set of leadership
abilities for the maximum results. As discussed above, there is a range of similarities and
differences in the leadership styles, characteristics and activities in the above two scenarios.
Thus, it is essential to conduct a situational analysis before the appointment of a leader.

LEADERSHIP 5
References
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assessment. International Review of Public Administration, 18(1), 79-91.
Clinebell, S., Skudiene, V., Trijonyte, R., & Reardon, J. (2013). Impact of leadership styles
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Cullen, J. B., & Parboteeah, K. P. (2013). Multinational management. United States:
Cengage Learning.
Demiroz, F., & Kapucu, N. (2012). The Role of Leadership in Managing Emergencies and
Disasters. European Journal of Economic & Political Studies, 5(1).
Paton, D., Johal, S., & Johnston, D. (2014). Community recovery following earthquake
disasters. Encyclopedia of Earthquake Engineering, 1-8.
Ride, A., & Bretherton, D. (2011). Community resilience in natural disasters. UK: Palgrave
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Schaubroeck, J. M., Hannah, S. T., Avolio, B. J., Kozlowski, S. W., Lord, R. G., Treviño, L.
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across organization levels. Academy of Management Journal, 55(5), 1053-1078.
Young, C., & Ghoshal, S. (2016). Organization theory and the multinational corporation.
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