Leadership and Cultures in Organizational Contexts Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and its interplay with organizational culture. It begins by defining leadership and its role in shaping organizational goals, emphasizing the importance of motivation, conflict resolution, and employee engagement. The report then explores the concept of organizational culture, highlighting its impact on job satisfaction and the influence of national culture on leadership practices. It delves into the micro and macro challenges faced by organizations, including competition, change management, innovation, communication, and internal conflicts. The report further examines the dimensions of ethics, values, character, and beliefs within an organization, emphasizing the qualities of a successful leader. Finally, it presents relevant leadership theories, such as transformational leadership, and discusses their application in contemporary organizational settings, including talent management and employee engagement. The report underscores the significance of effective leadership for long-term organizational success, offering insights into how leaders can navigate challenges and foster a positive work environment.

Leadership and culteres in organisational
contexts
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Concept of Leadership and different culture in organisation.....................................................1
Micro and Macro Challenges faced by organisations................................................................2
Conception of ethics, value, character and belief dimensions in an organisation..................3
Some of the leadership theories that is relevant for an organisation......................................3
Theories of Motivation and employee engagement...............................................................5
Belbin Team Roles for Hard and Soft Management..............................................................5
Training and Talent management and leadership...................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The report carries a detail discussion about the concept of leadership in an organisation and
the challenges that are faced. The challenges are classified into micro and macro. The success
of an organisation is dependent on leadership and effectiveness for long term success. The
role played by leaders in an organisation is very crucial and used for determining the progress
of an organisation. Leadership is a process that takes actions for the betterment of
organisational goals. It works is a direction to improve the productivity and effectiveness.
There are many challenges that are faced by the organisation in terms of different parameters.
In this report various leadership theories are discussed that are widely used in the modern
culture (Bolman and Deal, 2017). The last section of this report covers the role of leaders in
the execution of talent management.
Concept of Leadership and different culture in organisation
Leadership plays a significant role in shaping the actions and planning in a direction so that
success is achieved. The goal of a leader is to motivate others and make sure that the
objective and goals are achieved. Motivation to achieve the goals in an organisation is
exercised through counselling and training that gives a proper guidance so that goals are
achieved (Bolman and Deal, 2017). The work role of a leader is to boost up the confidence
and lead employees about the direction. Leadership also helps in resolving the conflicts
between the employees by resolving all the queries. Apart from that, other goals of leadership
are to coordinate and support the engagement of employees so that performance can be
increased (Landy and Conte, 2016). Leaders understand the work flow and guide the
employees so that conflicts in an organisation are eliminated.

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The concept of leadership is linked with the culture of organisation as well national culture.
The organisation culture covers the value, beliefs and rules that are followed in an
organisation from a long run (Landy and Conte, 2016). The culture of an organisation is
made up by the employees as it completely depends upon the attitude and behaviour of the
employees. The culture of an organisation should be user friendly and it should have a
positive environment. The job satisfaction of an organisation is related to the culture. The
culture of an organisation is created by members and their interaction among them
(Masa'deh, Obeidat and Tarhini, 2016). The culture of an organisation supports the
employees in understanding that is acceptable and what is not acceptable in an organisation.
Positive organisational culture automatically enhances the work processes. The national
culture is also reflected by the leadership practices. National culture coves the set of rules,
language, beliefs and customs. There exists a culture difference between nations in terms of
culture, beliefs and practises followed (Masa'deh, Obeidat and Tarhini, 2016). Due to
different cultural practises an individual face difficultly while communicating with other
employees of different custom.
Thus, for these issues the concept of cross cultural leadership is used it states that employees
should be give training so that they can easily adapt different culture in the market. Leader
should design plans so that cultural differences can be eliminates this could be done by
offering training and conducting programs so that employee to employee interaction gets
improved (Burke and Noumair, 2015). It is true that national cultural of one country is
entirely different from other this different leadership practices and theories should be
implemented. Thus, it can be said that leadership practices play a very important role in
organisational as well as national culture.

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Micro and Macro Challenges faced by organisations
Leadership plays an important role in contributing the overall effectiveness of the
organisation. Apart from that, there are various challenges linked with cultural differences on
an organisation (Higgs and Dulewicz, 2016). Some of the general challenges that are faced in
an organisation are lack of communication, lack of vision and mission, lack of accountability.
Other challenges that are faced in an organisation are due to adapting the change, removing
discrimination, discouragement in attaining success. There are various challenges that are
faced in an organisation at micro and macro level (Van Wormer and Besthorn, 2017). Now,
we will discuss one by one by focusing on the leadership parameters. Macro level defines the
organisational vision by planning the strategies of future so that conflicts could be resolved.
The challenges of micro level cover the activities of an organisation (Van Wormer and
Besthorn, 2017). The challenges at macro level affect the performance of an organisation
directly.
Challenges at macro level- These challenges affect the growth of an organisation and arise
due when an organisation expands in different geographical area. It arises due to globalisation
as it has the impact of world’s economy that is linked with the trade activities undertaken
with the organisation (Balcells and Justino, 2014). Some of the macro level challenges that
are faced by an organisation are:
 Managing the competition-While working in the market the major challenges for any
organisation are its competitors or industry in the market (Paul, Parthasarathy and
Gupta, 2017). The strategies adopted by the competitors need to be understood so that
sustainable growth is achieved.
 Managing the change and uncertainty- It is true that organisation work in a dynamic
background in which changes are uncertainty. Thus, it is important to manage the
changes in an efficient way so that conflicts due not occur (Paul, Parthasarathy and

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Gupta, 2017). At time of change employees become unsatisfied thus proper training
should be offered so that change is adapted easily.
 Challenges of innovation- It is important to adapt to innovation so that operations are
completed automatically. Innovation is hard to adapt for this training need to be
offered so that employees gets use of innovation and learns how to use them. Thus,
the organisation that drives for effective leadership practices in the organisation must
practice innovative business practices (Hislop, Bosua and Helms, 2018).Due to this
survival in the market leadership acts as the catalyst in introducing new products and
services which would lead to higher customer satisfaction.
Challenges at micro level: Micro level challenges arise due to conflicts between the
employees and within the team.
 It is difficult to maintain peace at the workplace as employees belong to different
culture and background. As while work together in a team to attain goal they face
various issues (Lu, Chang and Chang, 2015). This gives chances of conflict as
they disagree on various terms. This disturbs the harmony of the work place; this
is a problematic situation for leaders.
 Communication is the other issue at micro level that an organisation faces.
Leaders assure that an effective communication is used so that goal and objective
of an organisation is achieved (Lamm, Tosti-Kharas and King, 2015). It allow
employee to share ideas and work in a collaborated effort.
 Training and Development- Leaders should ensure that training in an organisation
takes place regularly. Training helps in developing skills and conduct business
activities in an effective manner (Lamm, Tosti-Kharas and King, 2015).
Conducting training at the workplace is difficult for the leaders.

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 Managing the change- Change is important for the success of an organisation as it
increases the productivity and supports in beating the competitors (Lawton and
Páez, 2015). This act as a challenging thing for leaders as employees might not
react in a positive way after the change. Thus to increase the productivity change
is must.
 Leaders also face issue in managing the concerns and work flow. It is important to
resolve the issue faced at time of mobilizing and implementing change (Lawton
and Páez, 2015) .
 Managing internal conflicts- There are various conflicts that take place between
employees due to discrimination at the work place. Thus, these issues can be
resolved by maintaining same policy for all the employees and handling the
politics at the workplace (Ogunfowora, 2014). It also includes the aspects of
managing relationship between the higher authorities and subordinates, and within
the employees in the organisation, in getting support from other individuals
groups or firms in the industry
Conception of ethics, value, character and belief dimensions in an organisation
In an organisation leadership is considered as an important aspect that assures that goal and
objective are attained. A leader is someone who can guide and show the direction to many
employees and is confident and have high self-confidence(Anderson, Baur, Griffith and
Buckley, 2017) . Value based leadership is used to balance and attain the objective by
practising. A successful leader should present him by being confident and non-biased. He/she
should take decisions that are favourable for all the employees and an organisation. The
quality of leadership is being honest and responsible so that people are treated equally and
fair decisions are taken(Latham, 2014) . These values prove to be a successful leader and
assure that organisational goal is achieved. Beliefs on the other hand are considered another

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important trait of a good leader, as the beliefs of a leader shapes the direction of organisation
for future goals(Landis, Hill and Harvey, 2014) .
The belief of leaders motivates employees to work in a direction so that goal can be achieved.
Thus leadership practices play an important role in the success of an organisation. Leaders
should follow all the values and should work in a direction to achieve organisational goals.
Considering the ethics, beliefs and values leader should have all the qualities to maintain a
positive work place (Landis, Hill and Harvey, 2014) . Leader should have a passion towards a
work and should be highly dedicated to attain the objectives and goal. They should encourage
employees to take effective decisions for the betterment of an organisation.
Some of the leadership theories that is relevant for an organisation
The culture of an organisation is related to the concept of leadership and the practices that are
undertaken by leaders for improvement. Corporate culture is related to the values and the
principals that are followed in an organisation (Amanchukwu,Stanley and Ololube, 2015).
Thus corporate cultures have a positive influence on the leadership practices that are followed
in an organisation (Scott, Jiang, Wildman and Griffith, 2018). Some of the theories that can
be used in contemporary organisation are discussed below:
 Transformational theory of leadership- As the name suggests this theory of leadership
is used to make a change in the social system or among an individual related to the
organisation. The change that is made is beneficial for the entire organisation as it
aims to attain the organisational goal and objective. This approach is efficient for
every employee working in an organisation along with the leaders so it supports in
managing all the resource efficiently (Scott, Jiang, Wildman and Griffith, 2018). It is
considered as one of the most effective leadership style especially in the healthcare
sector. Considering an example, this kind of leadership approach is followed in

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healthcare as well as nursing sector. In this leaders motivate the employee to work in
a direction so that organisational goals are achieved (Bullough and de Luque, 2015).
Transformational leadership has four components that are individualized
consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized
influence. The aim of this theory is to develop positive workplace and a healthy
environment so that employees work efficiently without any chances of conflicts.
Considering a real life example of transformational leadership is Nelson Mandela, Steve
Jobs, Bill Gates are considered as successful transformational leaders and many others.
From corporate sector many industries have adopted transformational leadership like
Microsoft, apple, IBM and Intel (Bullough and de Luque, 2015).
 Fiedler’s contingency and Situational model of leadership- This theory is widely
used as in these decisions are taken according to the situations. Leaders have right to
change the decisions according to the situation. It can be said as an adaptive
leadership style as decisions are taken according to the situation (Chow, Salleh and
Ismail, 2017). It resolves all the chances of conflicts and work in a direction to
achieve the organisational goal. It highlights on the growth of people and the
workgroups in the organisation (Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe, 2014). Thus, it can be
stated that this method is not based on the skills of employees, and applied according
to the needs of the organisation
 Trait Theory- This theory of leadership is derived from the traits of an individual.
Trait theory states that to be a successful leaders their should be six common qualities
to be a good leader like intelligence, adjustment, extraversion, conscientious,
openness, and the efficacy of an individual. This theory states that leaders are not born
but they are made by some efforts (Ma and Tsui, 2015). Leaders learn can grow, there
are basic qualities that should be acquired so that successful decisions are taken. This

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theory is very rarely implemented as there are chances of criticism (Delmas, 2017).
The criticism included that it failed to take account of other factors, such as situational
and environmental factors. Transactional theory of leadership- This theory of leadership monitors the
organisational processes and work in a direction to improve the performance and
organisational supervision. In this style of leadership take strict actions against the
wrong work and on the other hand promote employees for their good work by rewards
and incentives. This theory is more focused in improving the performance on daily
basis and maintains the brand image (Smit 2018). There exist a difference between
transformational as well as transactional leadership theory, as in case of transactional
leadership theory efforts are putted to enhance the motivation externally and in case
of transformational theory leaders focus to improve internal motivation. Distributive or Participative leadership- In this theory employees of an organisation
participate in decision making. In this the input are taken from the employees so that
decisions could be taken in their favour (Smit 2018). This is said as a distributive style
of leadership and works in a direction that positive outcomes are achieved. In this
employees are asked to participate in all the events internally or externally so that
transparency is maintained (Khan, 2017). All the above mentioned theories are
applicable in an organisation and are used so that higher success and enhanced
performance is achieved.
Theories of Motivation and employee engagement
The most commonly used theory of motivation at the workplace is Maslow’s theory. This
theory defines the need of an organisation step by step and then working in a direction that
organisational needs are fulfilled (Caetano, Ferreira, Camilo and Ullmann, 2015). They make
sure that employees are motivated and work in a direction to attain business objective. The

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need of motivation is to achieve powerful and affiliated goal. Maslow’s theory of motivation
is used to satisfy the clients and fulfilling the needs from lower level to higher level (Al Ariss,
Cascio and Paauwe, 2014).
The theory of motivation is highly related to the theory of leadership and works in a direction
so that employee performance is improved. It contributes for better organisational
performance by resolving all the conflicts and bugs (Flores-Parra, Castañón-Puga, Evans,
Rosales-Cisneros and Gaxiola-Pacheco, 2018). The performance of an organisation can be
improved by improving the employee engagement.
Belbin Team Roles for Hard and Soft Management
This technique has nine roles that support higher success for an organisation. This theory is
used so that an individual understands their own strength and weaknesses so that actions
could be taken to improve it (Satiani, Sena, Ruberg and Ellison, 2014). By understanding the
team roles help in working effectively. Roles consist of coordinator, plant, monitor evaluator,
specialist, shaper, resource investigator, team-worker, implementer, and completer/finisher.
For an example, a specialist in a government under these varied roles performs the role of
incorporating in individual’s in-depth information of a key area to the members of a team
(Festing and Schäfer, 2014).
Training and Talent management and leadership
Training is a concept in which plans are designed to improve the overall performance.
Training should be offered regularly at fixed interval of time to improve the communication
and leadership skills. Leaders act as a coach for the entire team as they provide employees
with the guidance so that organisational goals are attained (Flores-Parra, Castañón-Puga,
Evans, Rosales-Cisneros and Gaxiola-Pacheco, 2018). The concepts of modernism refers to
the philosophical movement in the groups occur along with the cultural trends, and defines

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about those activities, and creations of those people who felt that the mores, norms, art,
literature and the religious faith will affect their tasks, and becoming obsolete or irrelevant to
the rapidly changing industrial surroundings (Festing and Schäfer, 2014). Training and
growth is also linked to effective management in the organisation as imparting teaching to the
employees in the organisation helps in growing their knowledge and skills required to
perform the job. Thus, it is related to the positive consequence of effective leadership or
successful leaders in the organisation (Kulkarni and Scullion, 2015). Hard management is the
exercise wherein managers make plans and measure employee enactment. On the other hand
soft management suggests about a friendly environment which is based on the emotions.
Reconsidering or rethinking International management is a miracle where practices are
undertaken considering the interest, cultural background of the people working in the
organisation (Meyers and Van Woerkom, 2014). Contrarily critical management describes
about applying new ways and management or leadership theories in the organisation, to
compete with the dynamic environment and changing needs of the customers in the market.