International Business and Leadership Studies

The provided document is a collection of research papers, articles, and book references related to international business, leadership studies, and strategic management. It includes works from authors such as J. Brannen, R.L. Tung, S.T. Cavusgil, M.A. Hitt, and others. The documents cover topics like global marketing strategies, talent management, distributed leadership, and organizational culture. The references are a mix of academic journals, books, and online resources. This collection is useful for students and researchers looking for information on international business and leadership studies.

STRATEGIC
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

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Over the years, ways of doing business have changed and so are the methods that
leaders adopt for managing their operations (Ball, et. al, 2012). With the changing global
business needs and environment, it has become essential for the leaders to adopt
methodologies that are more flexible. The competition in the market is increasing at a much
faster rate and hence leaders need to adopt strategies that give them strategic edge over the
others firms. Communication within the company plays a very crucial role in managing
operations (Wheelen and Hunger, 2011). It helps to maintain the smoothness in the working
process as well as making sure that every information reaches to the beneficiaries. Effective
communication system helps in construction of positive environment within the
organisations. Most of the leaders in the firms have accepted open culture which helps them
in bringing new ideas for solving issues that arise in daily operations of the firm. Style of
leadership plays an essential role in managing any changes in the operational procedures.
Later part of this essay highlights the ways in which MNEs are changing and the leadership
challenges that is present in front of them. It also illustrates about the style of leadership that
needs to be followed as well as the factors that is hindering development of open culture.
Ways of doing business is changing at much faster rate. It is due to the fact that there
is large change in the environment from the past. Environment in the business have become
more sensitive and have become variable in nature (Scullion and Collings, 2011). This has
brought challenges for the firms as they have to make continuous change in its operational
style so as to make sure that there is less chance of business failures.
Multinational enterprises are operational in many parts of the world and hence they are more
sensitive towards change in the global environment. Internal and external factors are making
huge impact on the operational procedures of the company (Alkhafaji, 2011). The changing
global scenario needs to be evaluated in a better way by understanding each and every aspect
of the variables that is making impact on the business of the firms. With the globalisation
multinational enterprises have emerged in many parts of the world which has benefitted many
people.
There are several ways in which multinational organisations are changing. In the past
companies were more dependent on the human capital for their operations but the amount of
people that are working within a firm have reduced. Automatic and smart machines have
replaced people and have enhanced the efficiency of the firm (Crawford, 2012). It has
reduced the number of errors occurring while performing any task. MNEs were only

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concerned about their growth and profits that they can make through their business. But now
they also have to think about the sustainability of the society and their business.
Sustainability has become a major concern for such firms and they have to take care of the
issues related to the sustainability (Lee and Carter, 2011).
In previous times, multinational firms have been concerned about making their business more
profitable irrespective of the impact it is posing to the environment. But now companies have
been forced by the governments to operate their business in such a manner that it puts lesser
burden on the environment and the resources available with the company. It is also essential
that companies take care of the CSR activities along with their business. Companies need to
take care of all the ethics while managing their operations and need to make policies that
benefit their stakeholders (David, 2011). Companies need to invest a whole lot of their money
in the welfare of the society.
There have been a lot of changes noticed in the organisational structure of the companies
over the years. They have developed their organisational structure in a way that senior level
employees can interact with their juniors. More parallel structures have been promoted in the
companies. Companies are giving most of their jobs on contracts. This helps company in
cutting their cost that they would have invest on the welfare of their employees (Bolden,
2011). Most of their jobs are given to the smaller or local companies who have their own
employees and are very much capable to finish the task. It is one of the cost cutting measures
that companies have adopted over the years.
There are many leadership challenges that are faced by the MNEs. These challenges have to
be removed in order to ensure the long term growth of the company. There is a huge amount
of competition that is present in the market and it has become a challenge for the leadership
to maintain its growth rate. For surviving in the competition leaders needs to make strategies
that are unique and differentiates their firm from that of others (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson,
2012). This has also brought challenges for the leaders as they have to manage their business
in such a manner that they can achieve higher profits. For doing this they usually adopt cost
cutting measures.
In the changing global workforce the demands of the employees have also changed.
Companies also have to fulfil their demands so as to make sure that the employees remain
loyal to the firm (Spillane, 2012). Managing healthy employee relations is essential for the
firm’s production as it directly affects performance of the employees. A satisfied employee

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always adds value to the product and services of the company which is necessary for
maintaining the standards of the products.
In present business there are large amount of situations and issues that company faces and it
is essential for the leaders to make sure that they have an effective decision making system.
This can only be possible if they involve large number of employees in their decision making
process (Birkinshaw, Brannen and Tung, 2011). Any discrepancies in the decision making
can lead to failure in the market which is not good for the image of the company.
As it can be seen that there are many challenges that is faced by the leaders at higher
levels of hierarchy. The way in which operations is managed within the company always
depends on the style of leadership being followed within an organisation (Cavusgil, et. al.,
2014). In the past it can be seen that most of the leaders were following autocratic style of
leadership. It was beneficial at that time but in the current business environment it is essential
that a manager listens to its employees and become more democratic in nature. In order to
reduce the difficulties in business, leaders need to apply effective strategies that will able to
solve the problem.
Developing a culture within an organisation is necessary. This helps to bind the whole
workforce in a single thread. Open culture is something that is the demand of the workplace.
Open culture has become the key for modern day business. In the multinational firms there
are many employees working. They all come from different cultural backgrounds and hence a
common culture must be applied within an organisation. This brings uniformity in the
working procedures as well as it helps in maintaining the positive environment at the
workplace. In the past top leadership finds developing a culture within an organisation to be
waste of valuable time. Even till today most of the leadership in an organisation understand it
to be the work of the HR department (Reiche, et. al., 2016). According to Edgar Schein there
is indirect and direct mechanism within a firm and organisational culture is directly affected
by direct mechanism. Open culture is also understood to be as the responsibility of collective
responsibility and collective creativity. In such type of culture every employee works as a
team to achieve common goals with having mutual respect for each other’s idea.
It is necessary in the modern day business to retain old employees, attract new talents and
inspire them all to work for the organisation. Embedding an open culture within an
organisation can provide it with the same. It acts a protective shield at the time when firm
faces challenges or is going through tough times.

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It is the role of the leader to pay attention to the culture in which employee live or work (Doz,
2011). Developing a culture within an organisation is important because a competitors can
copy anything product, services or prices but to imitate a culture takes a whole lot of time,
energy and commitment.
It always depends on the leaders way of leading their organisation that how organisation can
adopt open culture. This can be understood with the example of Volkswagen where their top
leadership failed to incorporate a culture that made them once “the people’s car”. Many of the
leaders are adopting a democratic as it is a facilitator of the open culture. This is the reason
why most of the firms are removing decision making hierarchy which was strangling
creativity and talent (Czinkota, Ronkainen and Moffett, 2011). By adopting openness
companies makes all their procedures in front of the employees. This is also important for the
morale of the employees as they understand themselves as an essential part of the company.
Since the global environment for business is changing at much faster rate. The changes are
frequent and hence companies also need to adjust their strategies accordingly so as to
eliminate probability of any loss due to these changes. In order to manage these changes and
adjusting according to the environment leaders needs to adopt transformational leadership
style (Padmanaban, 2016). This is a leadership in which leadership adopt their style of
leading as per the arisen situation.
Schein’s organisational culture model also provides points of reference to create changes in
culture. According to Edgar Schein, it is good to have discussion with as many workers as
possible. It helps to discover underlying aspects of organisational culture. In his views
leadership is understood to be as the ability to step outside the culture that made the leader
and to adopt more revolutionary changes processes that are more adaptive (Meissner, 2012).
Open culture in an organisation is like the positive attitude to an individual. Open culture is
an abstraction but its attitudinal and behavioural consequences are very concrete indeed.
Impact of leadership style on open culture can also be understood by the fact that if there is
no flexibility in the leadership style then it is threatening for its survival (Rentfrow, 2018).
According to him leaders need to provide a framework for the open culture to be adopted
inside the company so that there is no chaos in the functioning of organisation.
It is not difficult to understand that why culture is important within an organisation.
But there are many factors present inside the organisation that hinders the development of

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open culture inside the firm. These factors need to be evaluated in a proper manner so as to
make sure that the hindrance can be eliminated.
Leader plays an essential role in development of open culture. They have the role to develop,
nourish and promote such kind of culture within an organisation. Success of implementation
of organisational culture depends on the style of leadership being followed by them (Hagen,
et. al., 2012). Open culture is always impacted by the shadow of the leader. Multinational
organisations are bigger in size and hence it is always difficult to embed open culture within
the organisation. People in MNE are coming from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds
and hence bringing them under the same cultural values is a difficult task. It is also difficult
for managers to implement a culture within such a large firm and manage it carefully.
The way in which an open culture is fostered inside the organisation depends on the skills
that leaders pose (Rothaermel, 2015). One of the most essential skills that are required in this
regard is motivational skill. This skill helps leaders in motivating their employees about
benefits of adopting open culture within the organisation. His personal behaviour and
communication skills help in promoting such culture. If these two skills are not utilised by the
managers in a better way then there is sure chance of failure.
Organisational practices, policies and structure is another aspect that hinders the promotion of
organisational culture. There must be flexibility in the organisational policies so as to adopt
these changes. Apart from this if hierarchal organisational structure is present within the firm
then there is less chance of success for such open culture. For the development of open
culture within the organisation, it is essential that an effective communication background is
present within the firm. Better the communication channels and mechanism inside the firm
better is the chances of development of open culture within the organisation.
They are the most important part of any organisation (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). Without
their support it is impossible to adopt any culture. Usually employees always support open
culture but if they react negatively after adopting open culture then it can hinder the growth
of such culture. It depends on the market or industry of the organisation that whether
adopting open culture will be beneficial. It’s the nature of the work that decides how much
influence a manager must have in the working of the lower level of work. If the operations
within the industry or demand of the market does not support open culture then it may hinder
the development of open culture.

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On the other hand factors related to the external environment always affect the culture inside
the organisation. If these factors have negative impact on the working culture of an
organisation then there is always a chance that development of open culture will be hindered.
Attitude of the firm refers to the type of outlook an organisation possess i.e. whether they are
risk taking organisation or innovative. If the organisation has a risk taking or innovation
friendly attitude then it is probably a higher chance that company may succeed in the
development of open culture within an organisation.
It also depends on the sector in which a firm is working that how much successful it will be
in developing open culture within an organisation. If the organisation is in service sector
there is always a chance that more challenges will come to the company in adopting open
culture. In manufacturing sector it is rather simpler process.
As adopting open culture also invites for more distributed form of leadership. There is
chance that in the future more distributed form of leadership will emerge. Distributed
leadership is a conceptual and analytical method to understand the complex nature of an
organisation. Apart from this distributed leadership foregrounds the way in which actors
engage in an operation that is distributed or stretched across the organisation. Distributed
leadership throws light on shared purpose, recognition and responsibility of leadership
irrespective of position or role they have within the firm.
If in future such type of leadership is promoted within the organisation then sharing of
knowledge is promoted. This kind of leadership promotes trust among each other which is
beneficial for bringing positivity at the workplace (Cadogan, 2012). It also promotes creation
of a culture that is learning friendly. This culture stops the practice of making decisions
behind the doors and facilitates employees with the power of making decisions.
This kind of leadership always supports sharing and dissemination of information which
cannot be possible without having effective communication mechanism. This kind of
leadership always helps in creating widespread strategic changes. This also helps in bringing
new leaders into the workforce as many people get the chance to participate in the important
operations of the firm.
Distributed forms of leadership always promotes organisational learning which is necessary
for the growth of firm as well as developing individual capabilities. This helps firms to solve
problems that arise in their daily operations.

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If in future more distributed form of leadership were to emerge then companies have to be
ready with their culture that is able to sustain this change. More distributed for of leadership
will bring more people under the main stream of the organisation. It will also enable people
in sharing what they have learned through their experience. In such forms of leadership
develops then there can be chances that there are many leaders emerging within an
organisation and hence companies needs to balance between the powers. It is essential for the
growth of the company while ensuring that there is no tussle for the power. There are many
people that are coming to the firm from different cultural backgrounds and hence in
multinational firm managing distributed form of leadership can be a complex thing (Lasserre,
2017). Behaviour of senior managers at this will become more essential at this time.
If distributed form of leadership arises then there is always a chance that there can be
miscommunication which has a negative effect on the operations of the firm (Gimenez-Espin,
Jiménez-Jiménez and Martínez-Costa, 2013). In order to reduce this problem a more
formalised medium of communication channels is required within the organisation.
On the concluding note it can be said that there are larger numbers of changes that are going
on inside the firm. There are many people working in an organisation and they come from
different cultural backgrounds. In MNEs a whole lot of internal and external factors are
responsible for making these changes. Along with these changes there are many new
leadership challenges have also emerged. In recent years in most of the organisations open
culture has been promoted. Open culture always helps in the growth of the company as well
as assist in building leadership skills in the individuals. There are many factors along with the
style of leadership that effects the growth of the open culture within an organisation. In future
more distributed for of leadership is expected to emerge. It is beneficial for the development
of the company as well as promoting organisational learning. Effective communication
channel and the behaviour of leadership play an essential role in managing these changes.

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