Report: Managing International Business, Leadership and Motivation

This report examines the complexities of managing international business, focusing on leadership styles, motivation, and the challenges of cross-cultural teamwork. The report begins with a reflection on personal experiences in group work, highlighting communication issues, cultural differences, conflict resolution, and time management. It then delves into the importance of effective leadership, exploring various leadership styles and motivational factors. The author assesses their own leadership style, identifying strengths in decision-making and weaknesses in building relationships. The report emphasizes the need for motivational strategies, particularly Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and advocates for a democratic leadership style to foster innovation and employee engagement. Finally, an action plan is presented, outlining steps to improve leadership skills, including leadership style learning, motivational skill development, interpersonal skill enhancement, and cross-cultural training. The report concludes with references to relevant literature.

Running Head: MANAGING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 0
MANAGING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
student name
4/22/2019

MANAGING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 1
Contents
Assessment A...................................................................................................................................3
Assessment B...................................................................................................................................5
Assessment C: Action plan.............................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11
Appendix 1: Maslow’s motivational hierarchy.............................................................................13

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Assessment A
From the experience of individual group work, there were various challenges faced by me and at
the same time there were various positive aspects of the experience that have resulted in major
learning’s.
Before the experience, I was not sure if I would be able to complete the task on time, and what
who would be part of my group. As the experience begins, the team was formed, the members
were from different cultures and everyone was introduced to each other. After the team was
formed the work was assigned to each member of the team, a small argument initiated but it was
resolved with negotiation (Dosser & Nicol, 2016).
Major challenges from the experience included
 Communication – It was observed that the flow of communication in the team was not
effective which led mistake for a team member in its task. The information was not
reached to him effectively, which led to wrong interpretation and result in a major
mistake in the project. This aspect was majorly an issue due to cultural difference as well.
 Cultural issue – Since the people of the team were from different cultures, the issue arises
while understanding one another and coordinating among the team. The poor
coordination was major issues due to cultural perspective. This led to a difference in
thought process and presentation of the findings (Jing, 2016).
The major learning from the experience included
 Conflict resolution – It was found that the conflicts must be resolved with time using
various strategies like competing, collaborating, avoiding, accommodating, and

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compromising. This was helpful to maintain harmony among the group and avoidance of
accomplishment of task on time.
 Time management – This was major learning that will help the group to complete the
task on time. This included prioritizing the task as per their relevance so that the major
portion of the task is not ignored and due to schedule the project would be completed on
time.
 Presentation – The relevance of the presentation and the major presentation skills were
learned through this experience. It was understood that there is no use of knowledge, or
findings without effective presentation that will make the result clear (Manning & Curtis ,
2015).
In case this situation would occur again the different things I would use include:
 Cultural training – This would include a program in the beginning of the project in order
to understand the culture of all the team members and integrate the cultural diversity.
This would help in reducing the communication gap among the team member.
 Coordination – The coordination would be implemented through effective leadership
from the beginning through providing clearly defined job roles and reporting personnel.
This would help to integrate the work of everyone and enhance coordination among the
team.

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Assessment B
I would prefer to be an effective international business manager. The two major skills that I
would evaluate to develop personally include leadership styles and motivation. The major
strengths and weakness that I observe to be found in myself include decision-making ability,
innovative ideas, analytical skills, and creative skills as my major strengths. Moreover, in the
ability to build relationships with employees, and trust in employees are some of the weaknesses
that I identify in myself (Hebert, 2015).
Leadership styles are the general traits or style that is adopted by a leader while leading a team,
and there are various styles that are adopted by leaders and imply in every day management. For
instance in making decisions, or solving problems among the team. Moreover, the flow of
communication is influenced by the leadership style adopted. Another aspect is motivation,
which is found to be very effective in making teamwork effectively and efficiently. Moreover, it
is one of the greatest traits of a leader to motivate his or her team members to accomplish the
objective (Miner, 2015).
To assess my leadership style and motivational quality, and to analyse the scope of improvement
can be done through assessing my previous experience. In my previous experience, I was
assigned as an international project manager, I was introduced to my team and orientation was
taken by me to make them understand the relevance of the project and major objective for which
the team has to perform together. The session was kind of orientation training. From the
experience, I observed that the leadership skills that I considered to apply for the team were
autocratic style. The project included an increase in the sale of the product in the foreign market
for which I prefer to make my own decisions and the team members in the form of performance

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applied those. The reason for this was to have coordination among the team, and timely
completion of the project. However, the major challenges through the experience included lack
of innovation, lack of motivation among the team members and dissatisfaction among team
members. However, there were various positive aspects from the experience as if the project was
completed on time, and there were no conflicts arise in the team as the task was assigned them
separately and I was maintaining the coordination among the team (Fook, 2018).
The major learning from the task or skills I needed to improve include
1. Implement motivational factors
The major challenge was dissatisfied employees, this was due to lack of motivation
among the employees. Through this, I have to learn motivational theory by Maslow’s
that I Believe that would have implemented by me in previous experience. It includes
five levels of needs of an individual that would act as motivational factors for the
individual to perform better as presented in appendix 1. According to this theory, a
leader needs to understand the need level of their team members and motivate as per
their needs (Jesus, 2015).
The motivational factors can be bifurcated into financial and non-financial factors. For
instance, the financial factor that could have implemented by me includes an incentive
system that is the better an individual perform, better money he or she can earn. In my
situation sales was included that makes the incentive system more relevant as the results
of an individual can be measured through sales figure. Some of the non-financial
incentives included recognition achievement that is recognizing a good performer of the
team to appreciate them. Providing them a ticket to movie or vouchers for some

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entertainment goods or services could be another step to motivate them and create a
competitive spirit among the team members.
2. Leadership style – The Leadership style I adopted was the autocratic leadership style,
which I believed was not an appropriate style as per the requirement. There was a need
for innovation in the project and the motivation level was low due to this style. The
preferable style would have been a democratic leadership style in this case. According to
democratic leadership style, a leader considers everyone’s point of view while making a
decision, this is helpful in enhancing the motivational level among the team members, as
they believe that they are part of the project and their point of view is important in the
project implementation. Moreover, through democratic leadership style I would have
increased the innovative ideas that is I would have to get innovative ideas from the team
and decide which one can be implemented in the project.
As per the traditional theories like great man theory, it was believed that “leaders are born
not made.” On the contrary, there were some modern theories opposing the great man
theory. According to those, the leaders can enhance their leadership skills to appropriate
training and practices, one such theory is a behavioural theory of leadership (Miner,
2015). Contingency theory of leadership believed that specific variable related to the
external environment that can assess which style is most appropriate in the situation.
They believe that no single leadership style is good in all situations. This was the major
aspect of learning in my case; I applied the autocratic leadership style, which was not
appropriate in this situation. There are various leadership styles as per the situation and
purpose of the project. For instance, democratic leadership style, transformational

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leadership style, transactional leadership style are some of the common styles of
leadership (Li, 2018).
Moreover, another relevant theory of leadership that must have considered by me while
performing leader in a team is participative theory, according to this theory ideal
leadership is considered to take inputs from the team members into account. This aspect
includes the participation of team members and contribution by them in project planning
and implementation. This will make employees more committed and the decision would
become more reliable while reducing the risk of wrong decision-making.
3. Relationship building – This is one of the aspects that must have been done by me to
enhance the working environment for the employees. Since I adopted Autocratic
leadership style, I was unable to build friendly or good relations with the employee,
which should be done to improve employee’s involvement in the project and make them
feel comfortable while working with a team (Som & Aguenza, 2018).
In case this situation occurs, again I would prefer to apply the leadership style as per the situation
and considered participative leadership theory to keep employees engaged in project planning
and implementation decision. Moreover, I would be motivating employees using various factors
like awards for the best performer, incentives for excellent performers (Lazaroiu, 2015).

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Assessment C: Action plan
Development
Area
Actions Support
Resources
Timescale to be
achieved
Leadership
Style
 Leadership style learning
 Attend a leadership
training workshop
 Role playing and case
studies activities for
practice (Peters & Ryan,
2015)
 Reading
material
(Jacobsen,
2015)
 Training
resources like
a trainer,
workshop area
 May 19
 June 19
 June 19
Motivational
skills
 Learning motivational
factors
 On the job training
 Learning
material
(Lazaroiu,
2015)
 Coaching and
mentor
 July 20
 Dec 20
Interpersonal
skills
 Learning communication
skills (Williamson, 2016)
 Online
learning
sources like
 May 19
 May 20

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 Caring skills learning
 Active listening practice
you tube
 Workshops
area (Schon,
2017)
 June 20
Socializing
skills
 Social skills understanding
 Practice behavioral theories
 Interacting with teams
members on a daily basis
 Social media
platforms
 Interacting
sessions
(Fattore &
Vittandi,
2018)
 Jan 20
 March 20
 April 20
Cross cultural
training
 Language training
 Cultural understanding
 Orientation training
 Reading
material and
tutor
 Cultural
information
through online
sources
 On the job
assistance
 March 19
 Jan 20

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References
Dosser, I. & Nicol, J., 2016. Understanding reflective practice. Nursing Standard, 30(36).
Fattore, M. & Vittandi, G., 2018. A least squares approach to latent variables extraction in
formative–reflective models. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 120, p.84.
Fook, J., 2018. REFLECTIVE MODELS AND FRAMEWORKS IN PRACTICE.
Methodologies for Practice Research: Approaches for Professional Doctorates, 1, p.57.
Hebert, c., 2015. Knowing and/or experiencing: a critical examination of the reflective models of
John Dewey and Donald Schön. Reflective Practice, 16(3), p.361.
Jacobsen, C.B., 2015. Is leadership in the eye of the beholder? A study of intended and perceived
leadership practices and organizational performance. Public Administration Review, 75(6),
pp.829-41.
Jesus, D., 2015. "The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in knowledge management practices
and innovation." Journal of Business Research, 68(2), pp.360-70.
Jing, F.F., 2016. Missing links in understanding the relationship between leadership and
organizational performance. The International Business & Economics Research Journal, 15(3),
p.107.
Lazaroiu, G., 2015. Work motivation and organizational behavior. Contemporary Readings in
Law and Social Justice, p.66.
Li, G., 2018. Directive versus participative leadership: Dispositional antecedents and team
consequences.. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 91(3), pp.654-64.

MANAGING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 11
Manning, G. & Curtis , K., 2015. The Art of Leadership 5th ed.. Sydney: McGraw Hill.
Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership.
London: Routledge.
Peters, K. & Ryan, M.K., 2015. The motivational theory of role modeling: How role models
influence role aspirants’ goals. Review of General Psychology, p.465.
Schon, D., 2017. The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. London:
Routledge.
Som, A. & Aguenza, B., 2018. Motivational factors of employee retention and engagement in
organizations. IJAME, p.1.
Williamson, L.B., 2016. Communication Through Eye Contact: Personal Reflections of the
Human Life Cycle Using “I” Statements. Academic Psychiatry, 40(1), pp.186-87.

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Appendix 1: Maslow’s motivational hierarchy
Figure 1: (Source: (Miner, 2015)