Self-Audit for Leadership Enhancement in International Business

Introduction

The attributes and activities of a global manager enable an organization in gaining a competitive edge over the other players in the international markets. It has been observed that adaptability skills and cross cultural knowledge of the global managers support towards ensuring the continuity of the business operations in the international markets. In this connection, the aim of conducting the report is to assess the major traits like the appraisal of international culture, ethics and value-based considerations and thereby conducting a self audit for better understanding on the different capabilities and competencies of global managerial leadership (Jackson 2018). The report would gather insights from a case study organization, conduct a literature review on the global managerial traits and develop a clear self assessment with the purpose of developing an understanding on the traits that supports global managers in improving their leadership quotient.

2. Critical literature review about international culture, ethics, and values-based considerations

The global managers take the initiative of encouraging the workforce from the different nations to operate as per the strategic goals and requirements of the organizations. According to Martínez, Skeet and Sasia (2021), the leadership traits and the cultural or ethical values of the managers tend to create an impact on the degree of operations and participation of the employees in the different areas of operation in a business. In this connection, the inclusionary approach and the implementation of the ethical values while making decisions is an important aspect that might be considered by the global managers in order to ensure the continuity of the business operations as per the strategic needs and requirements.

Kadriye and Kumkale (2020) observed that the nature of change in an organizational operation is guided through the active participation of the workforce. The proactive participation of the workforce is ensured by the global managers through the utilization of inclusionary activities. On the contrary, Mackay (2019) stated that most of the global managers fail to identify the cultural trends and ethical considerations that are followed by the economies which creates a diversion from the path of productivity. Likewise, Pasricha, Singh and Verma (2018)stated that language and cultural barriers act as an important source of creating disruptions in the international workplace. From several cases, it has been observed that as companies expand they recruit people from diverse cultures and backgrounds in order to maintain continuity of operations and innovativeness. However, in certain situations, it has been observed that the global managers fail to integrate the diverse workforce towards achieving the common strategic goals of an organization due to their inability to respect the customs, traditions, cultural affinities and ethical considerations.

The inability of a global manager towards respecting the cultural affinities, the interest of the people and their mindset might affect the inclusionary activities, while limiting the scope of the businesses to make progress as per the strategic objectives. According to Rendtorff (2017), inclusionary activities include motivating the workforce and encouraging their voluntary participation in the different areas of operations while addressing the strategic will of businesses. However, the incapability of a global manager in relating to the customs, cultural affinities, or ethical considerations might create distrust and limit the commitment of the diverse workforce.

The factors of lower commitment of the workforce or the insufficiency of motivation might affect the capability of an organization in empowering their activities abroad. In this connection, the global managers are required to respect the mentalities and cultural affinities of the people in order to ensure their proactive participation and improvement in their degree of commitment while adhering to the organizational objectives. A well knit knowledge on the cross cultural context and the emotional intelligence are some of the major attributes that might be reflected by the global managers in order to understand the expectations or the needs of the people while keeping the same motivated. Smimou (2020)opined that the identification of the specific needs of the employees and delivering the needed aspects as per their expectations supports a global manager in ensuring the proactive engagement of the workforce towards meeting the organizational needs.

On the other hand, Forrest (2021) observed that adaptability of the global managers is an important criteria that defines the success factors of the same while operating in the cross cultural international contexts. In this connection, adaptability of the global managers and respect for individual cultural attributes while operating in distinct economies support an organization in maintaining the continuity of business operations while addressing the strategic needs. On the other hand, Camfield and Franco (2019) stated that the cultural biases and preferences of a global manager might significantly affect the capability of a workforce to obtain satisfactory outcomes. It has been observed that is more than 47% of the MNCs the biased attitude of the managers in the different economies and their preferences towards their own culture rather than the culture, background or interests of the people in the particular economy largely impacts on the operational capability of the workforce (Bridges 2018).

Biases in the diverse workforce might result to cross cultural clashes and thereby affect the capability of a global manager in ensuring that the operations are undertaken on a continuous basis. Businesses conduct change processes with the purpose of ensuring the sustenance and growth of the same in the international markets. In this connection, it has been observed that the lower involvement of the diverse workforce in the organizational operations might limit the scope of the business operations in a change project while affecting the growth prospects. Therefore, the global managers mus6t take the initiative of respecting and considering the emotions and cultural affinities of the diverse people and reduce the implementation of biased decisions that are guided by personal preferences towards a culture in order to ensure the continuity of business operations and growth.

The collaborative mentality of the global managers is important traits that might be considered while operating in the international context. The managers must take the initiative of collaborating with the people, identifying their concerns and resolving their conflicts with the purpose of improving the prospects of organizational growth. It has been observed that in many instances the biased attitude of the global managers towards supporting their own race and people belonging to their own culture has drastically affected the growth of businesses in the international markets. In this connection, Artelle et al. (2018) observed that the biased behavior of a global manager might result to increased dissatisfaction among the employees with increase in the turnover rates, gravely impacting on the organizational performance. The inclusionary attitude of the global managers requires the same to maintain a collaborative mentality while resolving the conflicts in the workforce in order to ensure the continuity of the business processes as per the strategic growth needs. The global managers develop policies and strategies in order to ensure the safety and continuity of the operational aspects of a business in the international markets.

The decisions on the policies and procedures are often taken by the global; managers based on their knowledge, without witnessing the different areas of concerns that might be encountered by the people. Gaur, Ghosh and Zheng (2019) stated that the insufficiency of communication and networking between the global managers and the diverse workforce in the international markets might limit the scope of the decisions or policies. On the other hand, Lumpkin and Achen (2018) observed in a research study that the insufficiency of consultation with the stakeholders on the policies and decisions that are taken by the global managers might limit the scope of proactive participation of the diverse workforce. Consultation requires extensive communication skills of the global managers. However, in critical situations, differences in language and perceptions might create barriers for a global manager while negotiating on the terms of the policies and decisions with the relevant stakeholders.

The insufficiency of communication might result to misunderstanding in the workforce and conflicts which is capable of totally disrupting the overall flow of operations of an organization in the international markets. Informed consent of the stakeholders is an important aspect in the decision making aspects that might be considered by the global managers. Therefore, the global managers must take the initiative of consulting with the stakeholders while upholding the values of transparent communication and ethical decision making along with respecting the culture, customs and interests of the people in order to ensure inclusionary practices while operating in international economies.

3. A case study about a business: Ebay’s operations in China

The concerned organization EBay was established in the year 1995 and focused towards creating an open online marketplace where trade can be empowered through direct communication between the buyer and the seller. In the year 2003, the organization moved towards making an international expanson while acquiring Chinese most dominant auction service providing organization, EachNet at a value of $180 million. It was observed that there were 2 million users in the marketplace, and the organization begun to thrive with their extensive range of service propositions. However, it was observed that Ebay’s CEO Meg Whitman took the decision of exiting the Chinese markets within two years of their entry. It was presumed that TaoBao and Alibaba affected the business of the concerned organization in China. However, later it was analyzed that the concerned organization had lower level of planning before making the acquisition.

The major concerns that were faced by the organization were specifically based on the HR management. Ebay sent a group of expatriates to work in the Chinese markets, without sufficient training being provided on the differences in the cultural contexts. Language and culture acted as barriers towards the growth of the organization in Chinese markets. The global managers reported that they were incapable of adapting to the complex organizational structure and the differences between the workplace cultures in US and China. Wooi, Salleh and Ismail (2017)opined that the differences in the cultural aspects between two economies are specifically reliant on the differences in the perception and beliefs of the people. In this connection, it was observed that the organization’s global managers faced significant concerns in meeting the requirements related to the increased power distance gaps.

The Chinese organization and government legislations mostly forced the organization to recruit some of the Chinese managers of the existing organization. The clash of interests between the Chinese managers and the expatriates mostly affected the decision making process of Ebay in China. Again, the increase in the power distance gaps affected the capability of expatriates in identifying the concerns in the workplace through efficient communication, which limited the scope of continuous operations. Sarfraz (2017) stated that language barriers create misunderstanding and conflicts in a workplace which might result to discontinuity of the business operations while addressing the strategic needs and requirements of the businesses. The insufficiency of cross cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence among the global managers of the chosen organization also limited the scope of growth of business operations in China.

Moreover, it was observed that the Chinese workforce was restrained which again incapacitated the global managers of the chosen organization in encouraging their active participation in the different areas of change based operations, while addressing the strategic needs and requirements. Grow and AM (2017) stated that the insufficient of understanding the cultural aspects restricts the growth of an organization in the global context. In this connection, it has been observed from the case of Ebay’s failure that limited planning and inefficient training being provided to the global managers affected the capability of the organization in sustaining the changing expectations of the people in the Chinese markets. Huge differences exist between the culture of US and China in relation to the workplace attributes. The insufficiency of adaptation among the global expatriate managers of Ebay disabled the organization in developing an efficient position in the Chinese markets.

According to Van Dierendonck et al. (2017), understanding the expectations and the interests of the stakeholders supports a leader in keeping the same motivated and focused towards establishing their own set of operations. However, in the case of the concerned organization, the global managers failed to identify the different expectations of the Chinese workforce and keep them motivated, being limited by the barriers to communication. According to Koch et al. (2019), communication plays a major role in developing an idea on the ongoing concerns in the workplace and resolves the same in order to maintain the continuity of operations. However, the managers of the chosen organization acknowledged that they were unable to understand the Chinese emotions or the language clearly which limited their capability of understanding workplace related concerns. It has been observed that the Chinese workforce are guided by pessimism and a behavior that supports inequalities among people, which largely contradicted with the ideologies or the perceptions of the US based global managers that were sent by the concerned organization in China.

The differences in the perception of the people also created significant challenges for the US based managers to develop integrated process designs. Moreover, the managers also stated that the Chinese workforce resisted over taking instructions from the US based expatriate managers which significantly resulted to complications in the workforce management activities. Bridges (2018) stated that the inadequacy of collaboration between the workforce and the managers in an organization significantly disrupts the outcomes. In this connection, it has been observed that the Chinese workforce instructions to follow the orders that were made by the Chinese managers and officials in the organization rather than obeying the decisions that were made by the US based expatriates of the organization.

The conflicts in interests and the affinity or preference of the Chinese workforce towards taking instructions from their own people rather than the expatriates incapacitated the business in establishing an efficient workforce in the Chinese markets, leading to their failure. The key aspects that might be identified in the connection is based on the lack of cross cultural knowledge among the global managers and insufficiency of plans and training being provided to the same limited the capability of the organization in making a successful expansion to the Chinese markets. Therefore, it might be stated that cross cultural knowledge and intelligence among the managers influence empathy towards ascertaining or identifying situations and act accordingly. On the other hand, businesses must take the initiative of developing efficient understanding on the different areas culture, ethics and values before making decisions to expand in economies.

The self audit helped in identifying the core areas where I should concentrate with the purpose of improving my scope of operations as a global manager. After evaluation of the self audit, I realized that I am required to improve my communication skills along with my knowledge on cross cultural aspects. I also realized that the improvement in my communication skills would allow me in collaborating with people and holding consultation with stakeholders before making decisions. I observed in the research made by Rendtorff (2017) that communication skills supports a manager or an organizational leader in efficiently delegating tasks and collaborating with team members which improves the outcome.

Moreover, I also realized that the essence of consultation based decision making is specifically based on transparent communication which would assist me in involving the stakeholders in the different areas of operations while addressing the organizational requirements. On the other hand, the improvements in the cross cultural aspects would allow in improving my empathy towards identifying and resolving the workplace conflicts and challenges in order to ensure continuity of business operations. Forrest (2021) stated that the improvements in the cross cultural knowledge or intelligence supports a manager or a leader in developing an insight on the different probable challenges and cultural contexts that might be encountered by the same while operating from global markets. Therefore, I believe that some planning and activities must be undertaken with the purpose of improving my skills and attributes as a global manager operating in cross cultural contexts.

5. Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion and research it might be concluded that international culture, ethics, and values-based considerations are important aspects that must be addressed by a global manager in order to ensure the continuity of business operations and its growth in the international markets. The report identified the factors that determine the elements of international culture, ethics, and values-based considerations while evaluating a case organization, Ebay, in order to establish the importance of the context. Lastly, the research devised a self audit for developing insight on the competencies and attributes, followed by a personal growth plan where a set of goals, activities and timeframes are recognized.

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