Leading and Managing People: Creating a Shared Vision and Support

This essay addresses the challenges in creating a shared vision for a changed organization, considering the varying needs of business units in different countries and the rapidly changing business environment. It also examines internal and external environmental factors that influence multicult...Read More

Name 1
Leading and Managing People
Student’s Name
University
Instructor’s Name
Course
Date

Name 2
Leading and Managing People
Question one: Challenges to anticipate in creating a shared vision for this changed
organization?
One challenge that the manager will face is integrating the varying needs of business
units in different countries to a shared vision. The units exist in different countries with varying
business environment and cultures that may be challenging to integrate into one since it is
difficult to capture the collective mind and will. Further, Senge (1990, p. 10) adds that the
environment may offer different rapid changes that may threaten to craft the vision to pull
business needs towards the required organizational vision. The strategy may cause different
creative organizational tensions that may require different levels of energy to harness them
which may take longer or require more resources to achieve the intended outcome. Management
will be forced to develop ways of meeting the varying needs of the business units and align them
to the required goals.
Question two: Internal and external environmental factors to consider in carving
out a multicultural leadership path that will support success of the organization
Internal environment factors are systems, people, structures and conditions inside an
organization that are controlled by the company. These factors are associated with the
organizational culture and management style that may influence the leadership path to be taken
by the organization to achieve the intended outcome. On the other hand, external environmental
factors occur outside the organization may cause change since they are not under leadership
control (Shieh & Wang 2010, p. 299). These include economic forces, competition, customers,
political and social conditions. These factors affect growth and long-term sustainability thus the

Name 3
need to monitor them and develop strategies to adapt to the external environment through a
reactive approach. Leaders need to scan the environment through monitoring the above factors
and develop strategies to accommodate opportunities and resolve threats through adjusting the
system to adapt. SWOT and PESTEL analysis are the two tools used to appraise the organization
and change for the environment.
Question three: How to work differently to cultivate organizational support within
the different business units that is necessary to ensure the success of the
multicultural leadership effort
Cultivating organizational support requires working with the company to develop new
abilities through developing strategic thinking in leaders. Learning systems are characterized by
system thinking, mental models, shared visions, team learning, and personal mastery (Senge, et
al. 1999, p. 11). Informed learning organization leaders will then work effortlessly to align the
organization’s culture to its teams. This new culture will form the basis organizational change to
adapt to the environment. Strategic leaders work on business changes that exist in the
environment through developing their internal abilities to strategic thinking to meet the changing
needs. This strategy will help people work together to achieve the business goal despite coming
from different units and backgrounds.
Further, flattening the leadership structure to create a balance between different units will
lead to reduced elitism and focus on business processes (Erbe, 2014). Salaries and
responsibilities need to be balanced across the board to create a business environment that meets
the needs of the organization rather than the individual. Leaders need to be trained on how to
align human resources towards the business strategy at all times to develop business
competitiveness.

Name 4
Lastly, motivation can be used to achieve support from different entities within the
organization. Since leadership focusses on achieving desired outcomes through providing
direction, motivation can be used to elicit certain behaviors in the organization that lead to
achieving your multicultural leadership effort. Organizations should strive to meet employee
needs for them to fulfill their requirements in the social contract that they have with the business
(D'Souza & Gurin 2016, p. 8). Different strategies like use of stimulus, employee training, work-
life balance and organizational support can be used to create the desired outcomes.

Name 5
References
D'Souza, J. & Gurin, M., 2016. The universal significance of Maslow's concept of self-
actualization. The Humanistic Psychologist, 44(2).
Erbe, N., 2014. Approaches to Managing Organizational Diversity and Innovation. Chocolate
Avenue: IGI Global Book Series.
Senge, P., 1990. The Leader's New Work: Building Learning Organizations. Sloan Management
Review, pp. 7-21.
Senge, P. et al., 1999. The Dance of Change. NewYork: Currency Doubleday.
Shieh, C. & Wang, I., 2010. A study of the relationships between corporate core competence
management innovation and corporate culture. International Journal of Organiational
Innovation, 2(3), pp. 395-411.