Navigating Leadership Challenges in the Globalized and Remote Work Environment

Introduction

Leadership and management control the groups of people in the entities in order to accomplish the company’s goal. The leadership refers to the individual’s ability to influence, motivate and enable the employees and other workers in the workplace to make positive contribution towards the organisational success. Inspiring and influencing the followers are the major aim here the leaders try to develop good strategic planning and create corporate governance for leading the employees successfully (Grasser, Loufrani-Fedida and Oiry, 2021). In the recent era of globalisation, there are several challenges faced by the leaders and the managers at the workplace, who face difficulties to handle the huge numbers of employees overseas. additionally, in the recent pandemic situation due to COVID 19, the workers are allowed to work remotely and the managers face problems in managing them without having one to one conversation, group working activities and cooperative decision making practice at the workplace.

The study aims at addressing the workplace challenges related to human resource and organisational behaviour, where the leaders and managers face problems in managing the employees and leading them towards achieving the future company’s success. Through this study, it is possible to review the theories related to leadership and management in order to identify the current challenges faced by the organisation and exploring alternative solutions for mitigating the challenges. Wal-Mart being a famous organisation is facing several issues related to organisational behaviour and human resource behaviour, and this study provides a scope to identify the challenges faced by Wal-Mart and evaluate it by applying the leadership and management theories. The recommendations will also be provide after critical evaluation of the existing challenges at Wal-Mart, so that the company can mitigate the issues and manage the workers achieving the future organisational success.

Leadership and Management Challenges within Current Business Environment

The leadership and management are effective for the multinational corporations, in order to develop effective strategic panning and lead the employees in order to maximise their contribution in the workplace. It is the role of the leaders to develop effective organisational culture with harmony and freedom to work, managing transparency and accountability and engaging the workers so that it would be possible for the leaders to achieve future success cooperatively. The most important qualities of a good leader include integrity, accountability, empathy, humility, resilience, vision, influence, and positivity. The leaders try to influence and motivate the employees by providing monetary and non-monetary incentives so that they can work with their full capabilities and by utilising the organisational resources. the transparency and accountability management as well as engagement with the staff further help the leader to develop good corporate governance in the workplace, where the leaders aim a creating values for all the employees, engaged with the business, corporate vision and empathy for others, respecting others and develop good corporate relationship are also beneficial for the leaders to manage the workers and lead them successfully (Holland, 2019). The managers on the other hand, develop suitable panning, organising the tasks and ensuring good staffing by controlling and coordinating. There is effective recruitment and selection process along with good human resource management principles, through which the management team try to handle the workers. It is the role of the managers to lead the employee through controlling and coordinating, where they ensure good working practice, ethical employment rules and sharing the job responsibilities. Hence, both the leadership and management are important in order to handle the employees and lea them strategically.

The major challenges faced by then leaders and managers in the current business environment are such as,

Non-cooperation

Non-cooperation is one of the major issue in the recent years where the employees are not feeling engaged with the working activities and they do not feel valued at the workplace. Due to poor leadership and managerial style, the workers are not coordinated with the workplace activities and also they are not engaged with the leaders. There is lack of trust and bonding among the employees and the leaders, which raise misunderstanding and non-cooperation in the workplace. The workers cannot trust the leaders and this further leads to lack of engagement that raises the challenges during strategic changes at the workplace (Grima, Özen and Boz, 2020). The leaders and managers face issues in handling the workers in the recent pandemic situation, where most of the workers are working from home and remote working practice further raise the issue of non-cooperation and lack of engagement of the staff in the workplace activities.

Poor communication

Poor communication is another major challenge in the current business environment, for which the leaders and managers face difficulties to tackle the workers. Though there is presence of Information and communication Technology, the leaders and managers fail to enhance internal and external communication. Internal and external communication is important to interact with the workers, staff members, suppliers, managers and distributor. Remote working practice in the recent pandemic era further raises the issue of poor communication, where the workers fail to conduct one to one interaction with the management team and leader of the organisation. The group discussion, shared working process and partnership working practice in the workplace are hampered in such remote working practice for which the employee management become problematic for the managers (Tomislav, 2018).

Lack of suitable corporate culture

Poor corporate culture is another major challenge faced by the corporate leader, which leads to poor employee management, lack of employment contract and unethical behaviour as well as mismanagement. The leaders and managers face the issue due to poor transparency and accountability at the workplace, lack of health and safety management as well as lack of ethical code of conduct.

Cultural diversity and internal conflicts

Cultural diversity is one of the major challenges faced by the organisations where the leaders and managers face difficulties in managing diversity in terms of gender, race and ethnicity. In the recent era of globalisation, there are diverse workers from different culture, who are working cooperatively in the multinational corporations. It becomes difficult for the management team to understand the perceptions of each staff and manage cultural diversity (Shet, 2020). Due to existing cultural diversity, the issue of internal conflicts and resistance to change are increasing day by day where the staff members do not trust the leader and managers towards adopting new strategies to achieve the future organisational success.

Poor motivational practice

Continuous motivation and influential practice at the workplace are mandatory to lead the employees towards achieving the organisational aim and in this regard the leaders and managers face issues in motivating the people. There are no such structured monetary incentives which deteriorate employee’s values. Additionally there is lack of induction process and no such effective training and developmental programs, for which the leaders face issues in encouraging the workers to work efficiently and contribute positively (Grasser, Loufrani-Fedida and Oiry, 2021).

In order to manage the above mentioned issues in the recent business environment, the leaders and managers try to develop good corporate culture and create values for the employees. The leadership style must be improved where the leaders and managers are cooperating with each other to lead the employees successfully. The transformational leadership style is one of the effective ways to lead the employees with continuous motivation and employee values creation. As per the transformational leadership style, the leaders focus on encouraging, inspiring and motivating employees to innovate and create change. Through idealised influence, inspirational motivation as well as intellectual stimulation and individualised considerations, the leaders try to lead the workers with trust and proper guidance (Vrontis and Christofi, 2020). It further helps to engage the employees and create good corporate relationship with the leaders. The leader continuously shares the information with the employees and manages strategic changes for further corporate innovation through continuous communication and partnership working practice in the workplace. The employees are supported efficiently and guide with organisational resource where their personal knowledge and skill are enhanced though training programs and the leaders try to encourage them with monetary and non-monetary incentives. Hereby, the transformational leadership style is effective for the organisations to manage the workers and create values for them. For mitigating the existing challenges in current business environment, the leaders also adopt situational leadership with coaching practice where continuous support and direction to the workers are ensured (Amadi-Echendu, 2021).

As per Herzberg’s two factor theory, there are motivational factors and the influential factors, through which the leaders can meet the employee’s requirements and create values for them in the workplace. The motivational factors are such as continuous achievements at the workplace, recognition and fulfilling own responsibilities with getting proper support, working process and advancement as well as personal growth. Increasing motivational factors are effective to ensure job satisfaction and the leaders also can handle the existing challenges to tackle the employees in long run. The hygienic factors are such as working condition, co-worker’s relationship, supervision quality, policies and practice as well as vase wage and salary. It is the responsibility of the leader and managers to motivate the employees through structured salary, incentives and performance related pay so that they are encouraged to show their creativity and perform with their full potential (Martin, Veiga and Galhera, 2021). Additionally, for mitigating the existing challenges, the leaders need to improve working condition with harmony to work and freedom as well as ensuring work life balance, enhancing communication and supervision quality, so that the employees can get continuous support and be encouraged to work proficiently. Through creating good corporate governance along with corporate structure by maintaining seniority, the leaders can tackle the employees and there is necessity of the Information and Communication Technology, so that internal and external communication can be improved (Caraway, 2018). The leaders also need to arrange technical training and skill enhancement programs for the employees to provide team the scope of personal and professional growth and it is considered as other motivational factors for the staff to work hard and improve their capabilities in long run. The engagement of the staff with the organisational decision making practice and employee empowerment are also beneficial to mitigate the challenges and lead the employees efficiently during the strategic changes.

Case Study Analysis

Wal-Mart is an American retail company that operates through chain of hypermarkets, discounted departmental stores and grocery stores across the world. The company is famous for its quality products and affordable price ranges where the customers and make effective purchase decision. Wal-Mart is efficient to maintain its financial stability and expand their business operations through more than 10566 stores worldwide. The revenue in this year 2021 is US $ 559.2 billion and the company is also successful to generate operating income more than US $ 22.55 billion in this year, which indicates that the customer’s base of Wal-Mart is strong and the suppliers and employees are working collaboratively to serve the customers worldwide. There are more than 2300,000 employees worldwide, who are proficient to contribute in the firm’s success (Wal-Mart, 2021a). However, due to this pandemic era, it becomes difficult for the corporate leader and managers of Wal-Mart to manage the huge numbers of workers across the international countries, which rise difficulties in meeting the company’s mission which is “to save people money so they can live better.” The major challenges faced by the organisation are such as,

Poor training and developmental programs

Wal-Mart face difficulties in managing the knowledge and skill set of the workers due to lack of suitable training programs. There is poor induction process for the new employees and also lack of technical training and skill enhancement programs further deteriorate the employee’s ability. The workers are feeling encouraged to show their creativity and there is lack of personal and professional growth in the workplace. The managers also fail to maximise the employees; performance in such critical phase due to poor training and induction process (Wal-Mart, 2021b).

Poor wage structure

The wage and salary structure is defined efficiently as per the contribution and the working hours of the employees. The employees raise their voice against such wage structure and poor salary practice, where they cannot meet their basic needs. The corporate leader and managers face difficulties to encourage the workers due to lack of incentives and compensation as well as unstructured salary practice of the employees. The wage per hours is also low for which the employees in China and California and other international countries raise their voice against insufficient compensation benefits in the workplace. The corporate leader of Wal-Mart hereby fails to meet the employees. Basic needs and preferences as well as lack of meeting self-actualisation and self-esteem needs further de-motivate the workers in the workplace (Wal-Mart, 2021c).

Lack of health and safety of the worker

There is lack of health and safety management in the workplace of Wal-Mart, for which the employees are not feeling safe and valued in working with the senior management team. The working conditions are not upgraded and there is lack of supervision quality and poor internal infrastructure which raise difficulties for the workers to work in such a critical situation. In 2011, Wal-Mart stopped providing health insurance for part-time employees working under 24 hours per week and also in October 2014; Wal-Mart announced that they were cutting benefits for all associates working under 30 hours a week, which deteriorates employee satisfaction. The health care plan and health insurance are not effective for the staff of Wal-Mart which becomes a serious challenge for the workers to continuous with such critical working condition (Wal-Mart, 2021d).

Poor leadership and management in the workplace

The corporate leader and the senior management team of Wal-Mart face the challenges in managing the huge numbers of employee overseas. Additionally, in the recent pandemic era, the workers are requested to work remotely which raise the difficulties for the managers to handle the workers and enhance communication with them. Due to remote working practice, there is no such employee engagement and the leader and management team try to make own decision without employee empowerment. This rise problems for the staff to concept the new strategic changes new instructions. Due to lack of trust and misunderstanding, the employees cannot rely on the leaders commitment towards them, as they are not feeling valued in the workplace. The employees are not getting continuous support from the senior team and there is lack of transparency and accountability management. These are the major issues for which the managers face problems in handing the huge numbers of workers in Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart, 2021e).

Poor communication and lack of cooperation

Due to poor working practice and lack of management in the workplace, the major workplace issues are poor communication and non-cooperation, where the management team at Wal-Mart cannot enhance interaction with the workers. There is no such shared work system and lack of group discussion, poor partnership working practice and lack of conferences in the recent business environment further raise problem or the management team to handle the workers and lead them strategically. During the strategic changes, one to one interaction cannot be developed and along with this, the workers are not able to participate in the workplace activities which develop mistrust and lack of commitment in the workplace (Wal-Mart, 2021e).

Internal conflicts and cultural diversity

There is cultural diversity in the workplace due to presence of huge numbers of employees from different demographic background and it is difficult for the mangers to tackle them. Language gap and differences in personal opinion further increase problems for the corporate leader of Wal-Mart to tackle huge employee base. Non-cooperation and poor communication among the managers and employees further creates difficulties to lead the strategic changes and there are internal conflicts and resistance to change among the staff. The workers are not satisfied with the changed decision of the leader where they are not cooperating with the senior managers due to having doubts in the organisational decision (Wal-Mart, 2021e).

Hereby, the mangers and leaders are facing several issues in tackling such huge employee base worldwide where the major issue are such as lack of communication and non-cooperation, lack of health and safety if the workers, poor managerial style and internal conflicts (Li and Liu, 2018). It is important or the corporate leader of Wal-Mart to tackle such issues by adopting good leadership style and develop human resource management practice so that the management team can lead the employees efficiently towards achieving the brand success.

Conclusion and Recommendations

It can be concluded that, the organisations in the recent business environment are facing challenges related to managing their human resource due to poor leadership and management. The major existing issues faced by the famous retail organisation Wal-Mart are poor communication and non-cooperation, lack of employee management, lack of health and safety for the workers at the workplace as well as poor leadership and managerial style which deteriorate the value of corporate employees in long run. It is difficult for Wal-Mart to manage such a huge employee base and thus in order to maximise the performance of the firm and gain high competitive advantage, it is mandatory to implement effective solutions so that Wal-Mart can mitigate the existing challenge and develop good leadership style.

It is essential for the corporate leader of Wal-Mart to design incentive structure and provide performance related pay to the workers. This system, further motivate the employees across the international markets, where Wal-Mart can provide a percentage of profit to the workers as a performance related payment. The early compensation and insurance are also deigned effectively so that they can feel safe and secure to work in the workplace. The transformation leadership style must be developed well in the workplace, so that the leader of Wal-Mart can manage the workers worldwide with continuous motivation and support. Sharing vision, providing appropriate job roles and guiding the staff with effective training and development programs are essential to lead the employees towards achieving the organisational success. Wal-Mart also needs to arrange induction process along with improve supervisions quality so that the worker can perform under continuous monitoring and encouraged to show their creativity in maximising the overall performance of the brand.

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