MGT808: Responsible Leadership Report on Barack Obama's Leadership

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Barack Obama's leadership style, examining it through the lenses of transformational and cross-cultural leadership. It explores key aspects such as teamwork, inspiration, guidance, and the importance of a clear vision within the context of transformational leadership. The report also delves into the competitive nature and communication skills associated with cross-cultural leadership. The analysis draws upon various research studies and literature to support its findings, offering insights into how Obama's leadership traits contributed to his success. The conclusion emphasizes the relevance of these leadership styles in contemporary business and global leadership contexts. The report is structured with an executive summary, table of contents, introduction, research overview, detailed analysis, and conclusion, complete with references.

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Executive Summary
The leadership style of Barack Obama is associated with both transformational and cross-cultural
leadership. From the point of view of transformational leadership, team work, inspiration and
guidance and the clear visionary are core characteristics of the leadership style of Obama. On the
other hand, the cross-cultural leadership style symbolises the traits of competitive nature and
competition of Obama’s leadership characteristics. Both the leadership style are very relevant for
the current leadership approaches and enable the leaders to gain attraction of the people.
Therefore, this research aims to analyse the leadership style of Obama on the basis of
transformational and cross-cultural leadership style.

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
2.0 Research overview.....................................................................................................................3
3.0 Analysis of Research.................................................................................................................4
3.1 Transformational leadership style..........................................................................................5
3.1.1 Team work......................................................................................................................5
3.1.2 Inspiration and guidance.................................................................................................6
3.1.3 Clear vision.....................................................................................................................6
3.2 Cross-cultural leadership style...............................................................................................7
3.2.1 Competitive nature..........................................................................................................7
3.2.2 Communication...............................................................................................................7
4.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................8
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9

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1.0 Introduction
One of the popular President in the history of United States, Barack Obama was
considered to be one of the prolific and renowned politician who was holding the office in
consecutive two terms as the 44th President in the country (Kowitt, 2017). There are certainly
some important leadership aspects that made Barack Obama one of the popular and perhaps the
beloved president. This report is going to investigate the leadership style of Barack Obama and
his personal traits and skills that made him so successful even in the crisis situation. The focal
point of the report is only vested on the leadership style and practices of Barack Obama that
elevated him to the epitome of success.
2.0 Research overview
With the advent of globalisation, the concept of leadership in business is changing in a
drastic scale and incorporates a range of new ideas and concepts. Those new ideas and
perceptions develop some new style of leadership that are highly effective in the current business
scenario. There are some factors that play significant role on the backdrop of making the role of
leadership so important even in business. According to the research of Paulienė (2017) it can be
stated that the high competitiveness in the market is one of the most important factors that
enhances the importance of leadership in business. In response to this, the role of the business
leaders is to guide the organisation or to be specific its workforce to gain strategic advantage and
sustainability in the competitive market (Arain et al., 2017). Significantly, the reference of ideal
leadership does not restrict its discussion to the business leaders rather it transcends its

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observation to the global leaders in order to finds out their skills and way of managing people
that can be incorporated in the business as well.
The demand for better leader is associated with the leadership style and the practice that
is reflected to the behaviour and action of every leaders. Therefore, the experts and scholars are
tried to identify some of the traits in order to differentiate different leadership practices and
styles. In this process, leadership styles like the leadership styles like transactional leadership,
cross-cultural leadership, transformational leadership and servant leadership are developed. Each
of those style of leadership has its unique characteristics and values that can be used by the
business organisation in association with its aims and objectives. The use of leadership styles of
the global and political leaders are also come under the investigation in order to understand the
dynamic varieties of leadership styles and create a link between the global leadership styles and
its efficacy into the modern business practices.
The current research is also going to take a deep insights into the leadership style of
Barack Obama and finds out the unique leadership characteristics that he has so that it will be
effective learn about the factors behind his success. The research is very rational and pragmatic
in the current business scenario as it can extract some key points that will be effective for the
future business leaders to develop personal skills and at the same time boost the organisational
progress for sustainable future.
3.0 Analysis of Research
The leadership practice of Barack Obama is associated with two types of leadership
styles, transformational leadership and cross-cultural leadership. As the first Afro-American
President in the history of United States, it is pertinent to analyse the leadership style of Barack

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Obama from a cross-cultural perspective. As per the research of Perry (2018) the cross-cultural
leadership style has a close link with the cross-cultural psychology where people from different
cultures are interacted with each other. In the process of internationalisation, the concept and
paradigm of leadership has also been changed robustly and the current leaders are focusing on
the cross-cultural leadership practice in order to interact with the employees belong to different
cultural background. On the other hand, Buil, Martínez and Matute (2019) advocated that the
transformational leadership style can be defined as a skill that can help the leaders to motivate,
inspire and encourage the employees to foster innovation and change. From the business
perspective, the innovation and change pave the way for future success and sustainability for the
business organisations. Therefore, both the leadership styles are highly relevant in the modern
business orientation.
3.1 Transformational leadership style
3.1.1 Team work
One of the most important feature of the transformation leadership is its team
management practice. The transformational leaders are very much fond of working in a team.
The purpose to develop team is that the transformational leaders believe in collective interests
rather than attaining individual interests (Banks et al., 2016). Therefore, it is obvious that a good
relation between the leader and the team members can be fostered and it will facilitate an
effective working environment. In the speeches of Barack Obama also the same reflection can be
found where he addressed to the audience as we not I (Hargrove et al., 2017). It is important to
note that this practice of Barack Obama helps him to gain high advantages among the people as
the people feel closer and personal to Barack Obama (Paquin, Massie & Beauregard, 2017). In
other words, it can be stated that the team work builds up a good relation between the leader and

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the followers. The transformational leaders are always interested to incorporate people into their
activities so that everyone can meet their objectives. An utilitarian principles provides the
philosophical basis of transformational leadership. In many of the speeches, Barack Obama
claimed that his primary concern is to ensure to meet the interests of all the people. Therefore, it
is a clear identification of transformational leadership that has been followed by Barack Obama.
3.1.2 Inspiration and guidance
The transformational leaders are known for their inspiration and motivation to the
followers. Actually, it is the positive personality of the transformational leaders that attracts
people and inspired by the nature of the leader. Hoch et al. (2018) opined that the
transformational leaders are very lenient in nature but have a strong personality. Therefore, they
are very convincing and approachable. In the context of the leadership style of Barack Obama, it
can be stated that he maintains a positive personality with easily approachable attitude. It means
his leadership quality creates a positive vive among the followers so that they can get inspired by
the leadership trait of Barack Obama. For instance, Barack Obama is always supporting and
promoting peace. This positive vive also helps to get followers who are inspired by his novel
task. Therefore, in 2009 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (Kowitt, 2017). From the
research of Buil, Martínez and Matute (2019) it can be stated that the transformational leaders
guides people to a right track. The activities and achievements of Barack Obama creates an
extraordinary effort to strengthen cooperation between people.
3.1.3 Clear vision
Future vision of the transformational leaders is considered to be a core competency
factor. It is important to note that the role of the transformational leader is to guide the people to
a particular direction for the benefit of the majority (Hoch et al., 2018). Therefore, they set a

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vision that is highly relevant to gain future advantage. The effective visionary of the
transformational leaders will help to pave the way for future benefit and his farsighted visionary
will lead to achieve that mark. For Barack Obama also the same practice had been seen where he
called for peace and tranquillity around the world. It was a crisis time for United States as the
country continued its war against terrorism. Amidst all problems the call of Barack Obama for
peace was really a notion of future orientation and success (Galperin et al., 2017).
3.2 Cross-cultural leadership style
3.2.1 Competitive nature
As far as the cross-cultural leadership style is concerned, it can be stated that the cross-
cultural leaders are highly competitive in nature. It is a survival strategy but not like Darwinism.
It is a healthy competition where the leaders can learn from their own mistakes and educate the
followers accordingly. Khan (2018) identified that in the cross-cultural leadership style the
competition is associated with understanding the cultural difference and make proper steps to
gain achievements. For instance, at the time of his administration, Barack Obama had to face
with enough international pressure and he tried to develop a unilateral, ethnocentric foreign
policy in order to create a better image of United States (Smith, 2016).
3.2.2 Communication
Perry (2018) argued that the cross-cultural leaders are interested to make conversation
with people from different cultures so that their cultural knowledge will be enriched. Obama
travelled the world in the initial days of presidency in order to understand and pa cultural
differences across the world. It is a very positive and bold step for Barack Obama to create
global harmony (Kowitt, 2017).

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4.0 Conclusion
The report clearly discusses the leadership quality of Barack Obama and its resemblance
with the transformational leadership style and cross-cultural leadership style. It is pertinent to
note that both the leadership style have great influence over his personality and attitude.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the leadership style of Barack Obama is a mixture of
transformational and cross-cultural leadership style.

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Reference
Arain, G. A., Sheikh, A., Hameed, I., & Asadullah, M. A. (2017). Do as I do: The effect of
teachers’ ethical leadership on business students’ academic citizenship behaviors. Ethics
& Behavior, 27(8), 665-680.
Banks, G. C., McCauley, K. D., Gardner, W. L., & Guler, C. E. (2016). A meta-analytic review
of authentic and transformational leadership: A test for redundancy. The leadership
quarterly, 27(4), 634-652.
Buil, I., Martínez, E., & Matute, J. (2019). Transformational leadership and employee
performance: The role of identification, engagement and proactive
personality. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, 64-75.
Galperin, B., Melyoki, L., Senaji, T., & Michaud, J. (2017). Attributes of leadership
effectiveness in East Africa. AIB Insights, 17(1), 15-18.
Hargrove, D., Duncan, P. A., Green, M. T., Salter, C., & Trayhan, J. M. (2017). Obama vs.
Clinton: A Study Exploring the Impact of Leadership Language. In Diversity, Conflict,
and Leadership (pp. 95-116). Routledge.
Hoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2018). Do ethical, authentic, and
servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A
meta-analysis. Journal of Management, 44(2), 501-529.

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Khan, M. Y. H. (2018). Cross cultural leadership and the hospitality industry: a leadership style
towards success in organizational goals in France. Hospitality & Tourism Management
International Journal, 1(4), 20-25.
Kowitt, B. (2017). Barack Obama: Lessons on Leadership, Power, and Effecting Change.
Retrieved 2 April 2020, from https://fortune.com/2017/05/10/barack-obama-leadership-
power/
Paquin, J., Massie, J., & Beauregard, P. (2017). Obama’s leadership style: enabling transatlantic
allies in Libya and Mali. Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 15(2), 184-206.
Paulienė, R. (2017). Interaction between managerial competencies and leadership in business
organisations. Regional Formation and Development Studies, 21(1), 97-107.
Perry, M. (2018). How can the life, ministry and teaching of the Apostle Paul, address the
development of cross-cultural leadership practice that is biblically-based, and informed
by relevant secular theory?. Journal of Contemporary Ministry, (4), 102-119.
Smith, E. (2016). Obama's Feminine Discourse: A Rhetorical Necessity of Black Male
Leadership. College Composition and Communication, 67(3), 478-483.