Culture and Leadership
Culture is a cognitive element in a business organization since it is part of the macro-environment having a strategic impact on the direction of the business. Business culture entails understanding and conceptualization of the people’s norms, values, and their acceptable traditional behaviors. However, it doesn’t only incorporate national culture but also business culture inclusive of giving directions on handling social media, internships, meetings and also formalities. Being brought up in a state in the United States where diversification of culture was rare, I grew up understanding only a single culture which may be a challenge in dealing with the other cultures of the globe.
Leading a group full of diversity of culture is accompanied by a lot of dilemmas due to lack of knowledge on interaction with individuals from different cultures. Leaders should always cross-cultural type of leadership to help them sort the issues of the cross-cultural environment. Moreover, abolishment of ethnocentrism should be exercised to combat the dilemma since it will assist in equalizing all the cultures. Also, a leader should understand the cultural values of their subordinates in order to interact freely with them due to dynamics of the social lives including beliefs, religion, and politics. Understanding of communication styles will be of great help in dealing with the dilemma since different culture have different styles like high context and low context communication styles.
Culture is significant since it influences how professional, social and societal behaviors are interpreted. The beliefs, norms, language, religious practices, and social habits should be in the first line of consideration a leader should prioritize on the cultures of the people working in any organization. A good leader should be flexible and should not be bound only by the mandated by what is entailed in the employees’ handbook because it is not always inclusive of all the factors which need to be considered.