International Research Journal of Management & Social Sciences

Volume (1) Issue (4) Year (2016)

ISSN: 2455-4553

THE BEST LEADERSHIP STYLE FOR A

CULTURALLY DIVERSE
ORGANIZATION
Deepti Madan Shrivastava and Dave Hinkes*
Sullivan University (Louisville, KY)

ABSTRACT
Cultural diversity certainly play a major role for global organizations. Many
organizations are trying to adopt cultural diversity as it offers a marketing advantage,
develops and retains talented people, it’s cost effective, and enhances innovation and
best solutions. Diversity is also described as “double-edged sword”, i.e., it’s certainly
beneficial for the organization if managed properly. However, if it’s not managed
properly, it can be harmful for the organization and can cause less employee
satisfaction, increase turnovers, etc. Hence, management must take necessary steps to
manage the diversity in the best effective way. Leaders should follow the leadership
style that will encourage a diverse team to share the ideas. This paper discusses
which leadership style works best for a culturally diverse team.

Keywords: leadership, cultural diversity, style, workplace, relationship, impact,

organization, corporate culture, women

Received: 06 Apr. 2016 Accepted: 13 Apr. 2016 Published: 30 Apr. 2016

Corresponding author:
D. M. Shrivastava & D. Hinkes 2

1. INTRODUCTION
According to Lussier & Achua (2010), “Leadership is the influencing process of
leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change.” (p.6). But
it’s really important to implement the correct leadership style in different situations to get
the best results. There are many leadership models and theories available that help in
understanding which leadership style will work best in which situation. With the increase
of globalization, the workforce in the organizations is diverse, not just in terms of region
and culture, but also in terms of education, thinking, understanding etc. In a diverse
team, people are from different parts, different age group, different race, gender, sexual
orientation. Hence, it’s challenging for leaders to implement the best leadership style that
works best for everyone. It’s critical to lead the diverse team in the best possible way to
achieve the organizational objective. After all, diverse work environment is the best
platform to promote diversity in terms of diverse marketplace. Different people have
different skills, perspective, knowledge, information, expertise. If all of these are
combined in the form of a team, best innovations and solutions can be seen. According to
Livermore (2015), “The task of managing a diversified and dispersed workforce at home
and internationally is … major demand facing today’s global leaders” (Chapter 1).

2. COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF THE SCHOLARLY

LITERATURE
Diversity is certainly one of the major factors that results in the successful
globalization and maintaining relationships with diverse customers. Cultural diversity is
considered as a “social glue” or “Shared mental model” that is beneficial to an
organization by holding all the staff together. Organizations’ values, beliefs, and norms
are considered as the building blocks of culture. Culture brings two important functions
in an organization, internal unity and external adaptation. Further, culture can be of two
categories, low performance and high performance cultures. In low performance culture,
there is lack of agreement for organizations’ values, beliefs and norms. On the other
hand, in high performance culture, there is a strong agreement on organizations’ values,
beliefs, and norms. This helps in getting the things done in the right way. Stronger
culture and high performance are directly proportional (Lussier & Achua, 2010).
Cultural diversity certainly plays a major role in higher performance and
productivity. Hence, the success of an organization, but alignment of culture is the most
challenging role that needs to be handled by the leaders or higher management. There
must be clear vision, mission and cultural statements for the staff to follow. Both
symbolic and substantive actions are needed by the leaders or the management (Lussier
& Achua, 2010).

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D. M. Shrivastava & D. Hinkes 3

A leader certainly plays a major role in imposing good culture in an organization.

A leader should be proactive and take substantive actions in a culturally diverse
organization. If the leader is not leading a culturally diverse team in the best possible
way, the end result can never be achieved. As Lussier and Achua (2010) also shared,
“Despite its benefits, diversity can also bring about negative outcomes if not effectively
managed. Research suggests that, left unmanaged, workforce diversity is more likely to
damage morale, increase turnover, and cause communication difficulties and ultimately
conflict” (p.397). Hence the existence of a great leader and best leadership style are
really important for success of a global organization. Actions that a leader can employ to
influence culture include aligning culture to HR policies and practices, strategy, and
structure; matching rewards/incentives to the culture outcomes; and designing physical
work environments that match espoused cultural norms (Lussier&Achua, 2010). Diverse
companies certainly have benefits, but if the leader is not doing their tasks correctly, this
may sometimes cause problems. Glass ceiling has been observed in many organizations
where women and minorities are separated from the leadership roles. According to
Lussier and Achua, (2010), “The glass ceiling is defined as an invisible barrier that
separates women and minorities from top leadership positions” (p. 360). By creating this
barrier, the women and minorities are discouraged. By doing this, organizations are
blocking their opportunities to succeed. There are many women leaders doing great and
helping the organization succeed. Mrs. Indira Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo is one of the
strongest examples that proves that women can be a great leader. She is consistently
ranked among the world’s 100 most powerful women and doing great as CEO of
PepsiCo. There are many other such examples that prove that existence of glass ceiling is
not a good thing in organizations’ culture (Lussier&Achua, 2010).
With a culturally diverse team, there are high chances of conflicts. Along with
creating and managing the team in an effective manner, a leader must also be able to
handle any conflict, should be able to motivate the team members,should be a role
model, and should be goal-and-task-oriented. Path-Goal leadership theory is the best to
manage a culturally diverse team, where the focus is organizations’ goal-oriented.
Leaders who follow Path-Goal theory are supportive and flexible, provide direction, and
reward the followers. Hence, the team members are more productive, focused,
cooperative and encouraged. Leaders should also create structures and strategies that best
fit the team as well as help in meeting the organizations’ long and short term goals. They
help in removing the impediments and motivate the team members constantly. This
results in increasing group effectiveness, work effectiveness and work satisfaction. All
these things are very important for a culturally diverse team. According to Dixon & Hart
(2010) also, “…Path-Goal leadership styles had statistically significant, positive
relationships with diverse work group effectiveness, with Instrumental leadership
demonstrating the strongest correlation” (p. 62). Hence, Path-Goal leadership theory
works best for a culturally diverse team.

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A leader can follow different leadership styles for different teams, different
countries, different objectives etc. With diverse work environment and diverse team, all
the employees get a wonderful platform to learn different culture, different perspective,
and a lot of knowledge. Hence, diversity is good for employees as well as organizations.
It also lowers the cost. If leaders are able to handle the team effectively, nothing can stop
the team in meeting the goals (Lussier & Achua, 2010).
Though it is said that diverse teams perform better it is not certain that all the
diverse teams will perform best every time. It completely depends on the way the team is
managed. If the management style is not correct, team performance will not be good, but
if the team is managed in a correct way, the team will be performing great. As Lussier &
Achura, (2010) also mentioned, “Teams that do not manage diversity well may suffer
from intra-team conflicts, stalemate, lack of communication, an absence of collegiality,
and ultimately lack of any team spirit” (p.289). Hence, it’s really important for the
leaders to identify what is the best way to manage and lead a diverse team that will take
the team to a high success rate. After all, one of the main objectives of the leader is to
complete the work in the most effective way. Drucker (2002) also said that, “The
effective work is actually done in and by teams of people of diverse knowledges and
skills” (p.68). This clearly tells that to get the work effectively done a leader needs not
only a diverse team but also the best way to manage this diverse team (Lussier & Achua,
2010).

3. PERSONAL VIEW OF THE SCHOLARLY LITERATURE

We strongly believe that cultural diversity in the organization environment is a

strong success factor, provided it is formed and managed in the correct way. But, this is
not easy at all and needs a lot of work and patience. There are many factors that come
into consideration to create and manage an effective diverse team. Some of them are:
Managers must know an effective way to create/select the right teams members, effective
communication and good understanding within these diverse team members, a healthy
work environment for the team to work, good HR policies and practices need to be setup,
and leaders must be capable of managing this culturally diverse team(Lussier & Achua,
2010).
Team selection and creation is a very crucial part. The interview panel should be
aware of all the factors that need to be considered while selecting persons to form an
effective culturally diverse team. So, the panel must be well trained with all the diversity
factors to make the correct decisions while selecting the team. Once the right candidates
are selected, good HR policies and practices must be setup to accommodate diversity. If
the team is not capable of managing the diversity there is a high risk of conflict
occurrence. Hence, team members must also be trained about diversity importance and
its values in meeting the organizations’ objectives. Along with that, good conflict

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resolution strategies also need to be setup. Lussier and Achura (2010) also mentioned
that, “Successful teams are both proactive in anticipating the need for conflict resolution
and pluralistic in developing conflict resolution strategies that apply to all team
members” (p.289).
We personally believe that the most difficult factor of a culturally diverse team is
effective communication. Culturally diverse team members certainly have different
perspective and knowledge, but this perspective and knowledge also need to be delivered
and received in an effective manner. If the communication is not good, misunderstanding
and conflict will increase within the team and hence team effectiveness will be reduced.
On the other hand, if the communication is good, team members will have higher
understanding, mutual respect and acceptance, which will certainly contribute in creating
a healthy work environment for the team. Along with that, the team will be more
productive and effective. Hence, all the team members must accept the team diversity.
New team members should feel welcomed by the team. Both followers and leaders must
accept cultural diversity in order to meet organizations’ objectives. According to
Paulienė (2012), “Openness towards cultural sensitivities that may be radically different
from personal values and beliefs is a crucial point of the new paradigm of leadership
effectiveness” (p.105). Hence, mutual understanding, respect and acceptance is also
required from leaders as well as all the team members to form an effective cultural
diverse team (Lussier & Achua, 2010).

4. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH TOPIC AREA

We have worked in various organizations. All of them had clear vision, mission
and values and were culturally diverse. We feel fortunate to work with the organizations
and teams that were cooperative, enthusiastic and hardworking. The leaders were also
good, cooperative, flexible and never believed in micro-management. Our current team
members are from different countries like, India, Nepal, America, etc. Everyone in our
team is very excited to learn about each others’ cultures. Our current leader is perfect for
a culturally diverse organization. She is always very proactive, encouraging team
members to share their ideas, a very good listener, and acts as a role model for the whole
team. She has a lot of patience. She respects the values and culture of the team members.
According to Stewart, Wilson, and Miles, “Leaders must develop increased
capacities of perception, discernment, and moral reasoning to negotiate the complex
ethical and economic challenges that emerge from the crossing of cultural and political
boundaries” (p.115). As most of the team members are from different countries, they
plan to visit their countries every year and our leader is very supportive. She approves
the leaves and manages the vacations very well. She plans for timely rotation of the
members, plans frequent knowledge sharing sessions and hence tries to be ready for any
unexpected and sudden leave plans as well. This way, everyone in the team is able to

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learn a lot of things and provide support in case of someone’s absence. Our leader
encourages us and all the team members are also responsible and supportive. We have
not observed her behaving differently with some team members. Her relation with the
team members is task-and-goal-oriented, not relationship-focused.
It’s not just our leader who respects other cultures, our organization also respects
the other cultures. All the major festivals are celebrated in our organization. Whether it
be a Diwali celebration, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese New Year and many other
festivals. All the occasions are celebrated in an authentic way. They also celebrate India
Day every year. Everyone wears Indian attire, dances and performs Indian music and
songs, and enjoys Indian food. Also, in our organization gender, religion, sexual
orientation of any other kind is tolerated. They plan for frequent mandatory trainings for
all the employees.
Our leader is a woman and there are many other women leaders in our
organization. This proves that there is nothing called glass ceiling in our organizations.
The HR policies and practices are also in alignment with the culture and diversity.
Performance evaluation, promotions and salary hikes are also purely performance based,
and not on the basis of race, gender, age, social strata or nationality of the employee. We
totally admire to work in such a great organization and I know that oursuccess
completely depends on our performance and no one can stop us to become successful
individuals. We feel lucky to be part of such an organization.

5. SUMMARY

Most organizations are now trying to adopt globalization by incorporating

culturally diverse employees. With the culturally diverse organizations, it’s important for
the leader to identify the right strategy that will increase teams’ productivity. The
relationship must be task-oriented, the leaders should follow Path-Goal theory. Everyone
in the organization should value and respect the cultural differences and learn from each
other, adapt to the diverse team members and contribute their best to meet the
organization’s objectives. According to Drucker (2002), “To tolerate diversity,
relationships must be task-focused rather than personality-focused. Achievement must be
measured against objective criteria of contribution and performance” (p.80).
Also, to improve organization culture there may be a need for new leaders and
employees who bring new perspectives. Proper HR policies and practices should be
aligned. The organization should define its vision, mission, and strategic objective.

Why this Research is Important:

This research discussed the benefits reaped and challenges faced by a culturally
diverse organization. This paper also advises management, leaders and team members

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about the importance of being a culturally diverse organization and the role that
leadership plays are really critical to the success of a culturally diverse organization.
Leaders can also benefit from this paper as it imparts the best leadership style and theory
that fits best for a culturally diverse organization. According to Moran, Harris, and
Moran (2011), “Certainly, the exhaustive list of situations that influence a project's
effectiveness points up the need for strategies to manage the many cultural differences
existing between and among professionals attempting to work together” (Chapter9).
Leaders should be open to communication, understanding, task-oriented, and
cooperative support. Also, there is a need to setup good policies and practices in the
organization that support the cultural diversity. Mandatory trainings need to be setup for
team members as well as leaders to share the importance of culture and diversity. All the
employees accept cultural diversity, the differences among the employees should be
considered as a strength of the organization. Openness to change is required among all
the employees, whether it be higher management, leadership, or team members. Once all
the employees are ready to accept the change, the organization can achieve its goals
quickly. Hence, both the organization as well as employees will be successful and it will
be a great and healthy work environment for everyone.

REFERENCES
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Drucker, F. P. (2002). The effective executive. New York: Harper Collins Publication
Inc.Livermore, D. (2015). Leading with cultural intelligence: the real secret to
success, second edition. Retrieved from Books24x7.
Lussier, R.N.,&Achua, C.F. (2010). Leadership: Theory, application, &skill
development. Mason, OH: South-Western.
Moran, R. T., Harris, P. R., & Moran, S V. (2011). Managing cultural differences:
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Paulienė, R. (2012). Transforming leadership styles and knowledge sharing in a
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Stewart, A. C., Wilson, C. E., & Miles, A. K. (2014). Developing Ethically & Culturally-
Intelligent Leaders Through International Service Experiences. Journal of
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