Organizational leaders should apply appropriate styles to guide, empower, and mentor their followers. With the current wave of diversity, it appropriate for managers to consider the best approaches to address emerging differences and challenges. This paper begins by outlining and describing six global behaviors that are critical for leaders in different cultures. The next part gives a detailed analysis of the similarities and differences in leadership behaviors in these two cultural backgrounds: Anglo and Saudi Arabia. The final part describes how a manager with an Anglo employee in a Saudi Arabian culture can change his or her leadership style.
Description of Outlined Terms
Charismatic or value-based is a concept that describes the adoption of compelling charm or attractiveness to inspire others and encourage them to focus on the outlined values. A leader who purses this behavior will engage others and focus on the wider picture (Stephan & Pathak, 2016).
Team-oriented is a model whereby a manager remains involved and willing to collaborate with his or her followers to deliver positive results. Participative leadership is an evidence-based behavior whereby managers allow workers to make timely decisions and dictate the next course of action. Human-oriented is a critical term that is applied in the field of management whereby leaders focus on the best approaches to develop sustainable relationships with their employees. Positive work culture is usually pursued by those who focus on this behavior.
Autonomous is a concept whereby leaders encourage their followers to work independently and focus on the best approaches to pursue their objectives in the targeted organization (Beugelsdijk & Welzel, 2018). Self or group-protective is a notion whereby some supervisors tend to be self-protective while group-protective. The first category means that such leaders promote procedures and remain self-centered. The second one indicates that the leaders will promote group enhancement, thereby ensuring that desirable results are recorded promptly.
Anglo vs. Saudi Arabia
People from different regions exhibit unique leadership styles and behaviors that tend to support their goals. In the Anglo population or culture, managers pursue specific attributes and behaviors that resonate with the expectations of their respective followers. Firstly, members of this background are usually visionary and embrace the most appropriate strategies to motivate others. They consider their followers’ demands and remain less autocratic.
According to Hofstede’s Six Dimensions model, the level of individualism remains low since they promote collectivism (Eringa, Caudron, Rieck, & Gerhardt, 2017). Those with an Anglo background or have an English ancestry will exhibit low power distance indexes and tend to prefer the concept of indulgence. Secondly, they are usually participative and implement charismatic leadership styles in their respective fields. These initiatives make it easier for them to solve emerging problems and focus on the anticipated goals.
Thirdly, they tend to be humane-oriented and autonomous. These attributes explain why they believe in their followers’ abilities and present adequate resources to deliver positive results promptly. Those who embrace or follow these leadership attributes and behaviors realize their goals much faster (Stephan & Pathak, 2016). Members of this culture tend to pursue short-term goals by Hofstede’s model. The majority of them pursue activities that can deliver timely results. These attributes guide leaders from this culture to implement diverse strategies that can eventually transform organizational performance.
Leadership in Saudi Arabia differs significantly from the practices associated with the Anglo culture. Due to the existing ideologies and social values, managers tend to guide their organizations using hierarchical styles. This means that most of the managers from the Saudi Arabian culture tend to be instructional and autocratic when guiding others (Algarni, & Patrick, Ahmed, & Hamad, 2018).
Followers or subordinates expect the person in charge to make decisions that can take the targeted company to the next level. Members of staff will then follow orders without question. Those in top leadership will pursue specific choices and ensure that positive results are recorded. Due to the nature of this autocratic behavior, followers expect that the presented guidelines or instructions are complete and clear.
From this analysis, it is evident that Saudi Arabians will tend to display high levels of individualism. Leaders are the ones who provide instructions without engaging in teams. These attributes will be missing in many organizations in this culture: participation, involvement, teamwork, and charisma (Algarni et al., 2018). Leaders in such a country understand that people avoid risks and prefer long-term results or goals. Consequently, they should design appropriate models that will ensure that positive results are recorded. A person from a different culture will find it hard to achieve his or her goals or emerge successfully.
A New Leadership Approach
Leaders are expected to take their organizations from point A to B and maximize profits. This means that they should be aware of the diversities in different departments or units and apply evidence-based competencies to drive performance. When having an employee from an Anglo culture in a Saudi Arabian setting, it is appropriate to consider a mix of charismatic and hierarchical leadership models (Eringa et al., 2017). This approach will ensure that appropriate guidelines and instructions are available to the greatest majority from the Saudi Arabian culture. The manager will also guide the identified worker to remain involved and focus on the evidence-based approaches to deliver positive results.
According to organizational theory, leadership should consider the six cultural dimensions and transform their managerial approaches by their followers’ needs. When these aspects are taken seriously, chances are high that the workers will become more involved and willing to pursue the outlined aims. The levels of opposition to changes and procedures will reduce significantly. The leader will go further to embrace the concept of cultural diversity and implement evidence-based initiatives that have the potential to overcome such differences (Beugelsdijk & Welzel, 2018).
The targeted employee with an Anglo background will receive additional instructions that can guide and empower him or her to function effectively in this diverse environment. The decision to force the employee to change his or her behaviors to work successfully within the Saudi Arabian culture is capable of disorienting performance. This is the case since it is the sole responsibility of the leader to ensure that positive results are recorded in the targeted company.
Conclusion
The above discussion has revealed that the cultural background of every employee is something critical in a given organization. Since managers might have diverse philosophies, they must apply befitting styles that resonate with the expectations and needs of the followers. Leadership behaviors will also vary significantly between Anglo and Saudi Arabian cultures. Any manager guiding workers from these cultures should transform his or her philosophy accordingly to minimize tensions and support the targeted organization to realize its business objectives.
References
Algarni, N. A., & Patrick, M., Ahmed, A., & Hamad, R. (2018). Identifying factors influencing the leadership performance of Saudi’s healthcare sector. The Journal of Organizational Management Studies, 2018, Article ID 683208. Web.
Beugelsdijk, S., & Welzel, C. (2018). Dimensions and dynamics of national culture: Synthesizing Hofstede with Inglehart. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(10), 1469-1505. Web.
Eringa, K., Caudron, L. N., Rieck, K., & Gerhardt, T. (2017). How relevant are Hofstede’s dimensions for inter-cultural studies? A replication of Hofstede’s research among current international business students. Research in Hospitality Management, 5(2), 187-198. Web.
Stephan, U., & Pathak, S. (2016). Beyond cultural values? Cultural leadership ideals and entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 31(5), 505-523. Web.