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the emerging new world of GLOCALISED LEADERSHIP - a report by Reetu Raina
the emerging new world of GLOCALISED LEADERSHIP
- a report by Reetu Raina
Table of Contents
Leadership Challenges
Why Are The Leaders Struggling?
Leadership: A Global Context
Local Culture
Importance of Varied Culture
Impact of Cultural Context on Leadership Styles
Organizational Culture
Impact of Organizational Culture on Leadership Styles
Impact of Industry on Leadership Style
Leadership Based On Organizational Culture
Customer's Culture
Why Do We Need A New Leadership Model?
Glocalised Leadership Model - The Way Forward
Recommendations
References
About the Author
We are seeing a new leadershipmodel, which I have termed as theGlocalised Leadership Model,emerging in the business world. Itamalgamates local culture,organizational culture, and customerculture to give rise to powerful,visionary, and transformationalleaders.
Glocalised Leadership
Today’s organizations are increasingly becoming global. Thisis giving rise to globalized delivery models, unpredictablegrowth, volatile work environments, and constant flux. Add tothis the inflow of disruptive technologies and changingcustomer demands that alter the business equations quitefrequently.
All this is putting pressure on the leaders to perform in aglobal as well as local setting and successfully meet theoverall demands of the organization while operating withinthe bounds of local cultures, regional thought processes,organizational goals, industry best practices, and above all,the customer needs.
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9/10global HR and
business leaderscited leadership as
a top issue.
A new leadership model, termedas Glocalised Leadership, isemerging in the business world.
of companies feel fullyready to address their
leadership issues. 6%10%feel comfortable
with theirsuccessionprogram.
7%have strong
programs to buildMillennial leaders.
87%of organizations cite
culture and engagementas one of their top
challenges.
Source: Human Capital Trends 2015, Deloitte
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“A generic leadership model will not suffice anymore. Businesses need to understand thatleadership should be flexible and be completely based on the context in which it operates.”
Leadership Challenges
Today’s leaders have to effectivelymix the following three cognitivecapabilities to be more effective in theglobal world.
The life of modernday leaders is more demanding than ever. Inside theirorganizations, they need to motivate a diverse group of women and men, workacross organizational boundaries, improve efficiency, and achieve growth.Externally, they face a complex and globalized environment. They have to managethe requirements of the government, keep ahead of competitors, and exceed theexpectations of other stakeholders. And within this global environment, there are many cultural considerationsleaders must navigate to be effective. They must work across cultural boundariesand alongside others who, at times, are very different from them and havedifferent ways of getting work done.
Lead by managingdiversity using
EmotionalQuotient
(EQ)
Lead by managingcomplexity using
IntelligenceQuotient
(IQ)
Lead by managinguncertainty usingSpiritual Quotient
(SQ)
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Emotional Spiritual Intelligence
Where are the leadersstruggling?
37%leading acrosscountries and
cultures.
39%intercultural
communicationwithin international
businessenvironments.
45%integrating oneself
into intercultural orforeign
environments.
T h e l e a s te f f e c t i v e
l e a d e r s h i ps k i l l s a r e >
Source: DDI World Report 5
*Percentage of leaders who
consider themselves highly
effective.
Leadership: A Global ContextLeadership cannot be looked in isolation; there are certainleadership traits which are universal but context plays animportant role. So, the best and most effective way would beto build a hybrid leadership model. And that model wouldcomprise of universal traits of leadership and traitsdemanded by context.
The InfluencingFactors For LeadershipIn A Global Context
LocalCULTURE
CustomerCULTURE
OrganizationCULTURE
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Local CultureCulture plays a vital role in defining and helping theleadership to deliver the desired results. If we study thedifferences between the cultures in the Eastern and Westernworlds, we come across a range of dissimilarities. Just likeculture impacts the leadership styles, it also has a greatimpact on the way customers think, behave, and act.
Due to global nature of the organizations, the leadershipstyles are being determined by the West. They decide thestyles based on “what works” (in the Western context). But,those styles are being implemented in the emerging marketsof the Eastern world, like the APAC region. The context ischanged. And this gap, at times, leads to leadership failure.
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Importance of Varied CultureOne of the important factors that can help us in buildingeffective leadership is deep understanding of cultures.
The Lewis Model is a good first step to get a better perspectiveabout various cultures. The model explains every culture inthe world with great accuracy.
The Lewis Model
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The Lewis Cultural model stratifies the entireglobe into three categories >
They plan, schedule,organize, pursue actionchains, use data, do one
thing at a time.e.g., Swiss, Germans
Task Oriented
Linear-Active
They are talkative,dialogueoriented andcan do many things at
once.e.g., Italians, LatinAmericans, Arabs
People Oriented
Multi-Active
They prioritize courtesyand respect, listening
quietly and calmly andreacting carefully to the
other side's proposals.e.g., Chinese, Japanese
Listening Oriented
Reactive
8A
According toRichard Lewis,the behavior ofpeople fromdifferentcultures doesnot changemuch over timeand hence theirreactions tovarioussituations can bepredicted andmanagedaccordingly.
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2
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Impact of Cultural Contexton Leadership StylesLeaders have their own thoughtprocess, which has a strongconnection with the cultural background they come from.People who are led by these leaders, in turn, have their ownways of thinking and perspectives which are rooted deeply intheir own cultural backgrounds.If we go further in the cultural context based on The LewisModel, we would find that what matters is not the intent butthe behavioral manifestation of intent.
For instance, let’s consider that LinearActive leaders have anexpectation of work being done by MultiActive teammembers. Although the end result or intent for both would bethe same (that is to achieve the organizational goal); thelanguage which LinearActive leader will speak would betaskoriented, and the language which MultiActiveresources will speak would be peopleoriented.
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Knowledge about the cultural context will surely help globalleaders as they may be facing multiple cultures at the sametime.
A typical example to elaborate this point can be taken from ITindustry.
AmericanCustomer
EuropeanHeadquarters
IndianDelivery Arm
For leaders to become truly GLOCALthey must understand the intentbehind the behavioral manifestationof the region they are collaboratingwith.And as leaders, if they are able toconnect to the intent, then theywould be able to understand andrespond in a more relevant andconnected way.
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Vikram PandeyVice President Software Development
AMDOCS
“In today’s contextual world you cannot havegeneric global leadership models.
During product development, you create theprototype for the emerging markets. Whilethe leadership is simply implanted from Westto East. It cannot work that way; leadershipmodels need to be reworked by connecting
the contextual framework.”
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Organizational CultureHaven’t we heard the phrase quite often:
“This is the way things work around here”
This phrase defines an organization’s culture very clearlyand it is something that’s very hard to change. In anorganizational setup there are three important factors thathave a big impact on the leadership style >
Organizational culture has been formally defined as:
“A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the grouplearned as it solved its problems of external adaptation andinternal integration that has worked well enough to beconsidered valid and, therefore, to be taught to newmembers as the correct way you perceive, think, and feel inrelation to those problems.”
Practices
Values
Norms
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Impact of OrganizationalCulture on Leadership Style
Organizational culture has an impact on leadership style and“what works” leadership model. Each organization has acertain set of values, practices and norms that they arecomfortable with and find effective in their industry.
These parameters define the organization and make itunique and hence they determine how leaders shouldfunction in that organization, as, after all, the whole objectiveof effective leadership is to achieve organizational goals.
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Impact of Industry onLeadership Style
Different industries demand varied styles to achieve thebusiness results. If we look at manufacturing industry, theexpectations are different. Long drawn process, detailedsteps, quality assessments, and the precise way in which thebusiness model operates are some of the elements ofmanufacturing industry. These key elements which are coreto the business play a vital role in the way leadership isdecided to be effective. And so, for instance, disruption as aleadership style may not bring as impactful results inmanufacturing as it might in the hitech industry.
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Leadership Based OnOrganizational Culture
Although the leadership stylefollowed by a leader would bebased on the industry ororganization they are in, theyhave the power to change theorganizational culture to someextent with their visionaryleadership skills and thepersuasiveness to mobilizeattention towards a newvision. But on the other hand,sometimes even the mostextraordinary leaders cannotachieve much if the culturedoesn’t allow them toinfluence people to worktowards a common goal. Hence, leadership style mustbe adjusted according to thesituation to ensureorganizational effectiveness.Transformational leaders helpin shaping and maintainingthe desired organizationalculture which has a definitelink to organizationaleffectiveness.
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Dr. Sanjay MuthalExecutive Director
RGF Management Search
“Having worked for 30 + years acrossindustries in global and local organizations,
what I have realized is that eachorganization has its own DNA and a way of
working.
Success of leadership is determined bymatching of leadership skil ls with the
organizational culture.”
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Customer's Culture
“Customer is King”
The statement has manydimensions to it.Customers play a veryimportant role indetermining theorganizational culture, andconsequently the leadershipstyle as well.
Customers are always sacrosanct in organizations as they areultimately the ones who drive the bottom line. Whensomething becomes sacrosanct in an organization it startsdriving behavior in order to meet the needs.
When we look at various case studies where companies have customers from aparticular region we see that there is a significant impact on the organizationalculture and the leadership styles as they strive to match the expectations of thosecustomers. This makes that organization quite different from the peers in thesame industry and it becomes evident that it is the customer who is steering theleadership style.
If we observe the firms in the information technology industry, we realize that thecustomers they serve have a huge impact on their working style. In fact, we evensee various forms of leadership styles being followed in the same organizationwhere leaders of the teams serving different customers or countries have tweakedthe way they lead and motivate their teams.
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Dr. Ora SetterTel Aviv University | Israel
"Crosscultural differences are deepand subtle.
To be effective in the glocal world,two skil ls all leaders need are:listening very carefully and
respectfully to what emerges in eachof different cultures, and the abil ity tochange their behavior accordinglywhile stil l holding to their vision."
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Why Do We Need A NewLeadership Model?
Our business realities are changing today. World is becoming aglobal village and the untouched markets in the world are ready toplay a major role in the growth. With this shift in growth, applyingthe leadership models of the West for the rest of the world andignoring the subculture of region will lead to ambiguity and loss ofleadership effectiveness.
A report by McKinsey on shift in growth by 2025 is a clearindication of this fact:
19Source: McKinsey Global Institute Company
*
*
With saturation of business in developed economies there is shift happeningin the economic growth of the world, and emerging or developing economiesare playing a major role in driving this change.
This economic shift will increase the demand of capable global leaders withlocal contextual understanding. But most organizations today tend to ignorethis and use only one global way of “what works” leadership model. This isleading to a shortage of effective leaders in the emerging world. As a result, wedecide the parameters of success based on the developed economies context.Just to give an example here, a research was conducted by Center for CreativeLeadership (CCL) on APAC leadership. In this research bosses of 1,818 leadersin the APAC region were asked to indicate the eight most critical competenciesfor organizational success and CCL reported on the five most frequentlyidentified competencies:
And further research by CCL on the topicgave the following insights:• Leaders in APAC are very good oncompetencies critical for meeting jobchallenges.• Leaders in APAC are not so good oncompetencies required for leading people.
The determination of conclusion was basedon what is working somewhere else andcompletely ignoring the contextual partbased on local and customer culture.
In a glocalised world, competenciescannot be standardized across the globe.We need to add the element of context,which includes: local culture,organization culture and customerculture, to determine the standards ofeffective leadership.
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Source: Research Report by Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)
Glocalised Leadership Model
In the current scenario, the leadership style whichhas worked in the developed western nations isaccepted as a norm for leadership development inthe emerging nations. But this approach is noteffective and will slowly diminish the quality ofleadership.
The Way Forward
Today’sleaders have
to thinkglobal but
act local!
The NeedIn today’s world when we aretalking about prototyping aproduct before launching itin a specific market, why dowe tend to forget thecontextual realities forleadership effectiveness andhave generic leadershipmodels across the globe?
Just like Glocalized products, thereis a need to create Glocalizedleadership models.
Glocal Leadership Model tries todetermine leadership effectivenessby taking into considerationcontextual realities suiting the localmarket and business environment.
GLOCALISATION
“The creation of products or servicesintended for the global market, butcustomized to suit the localcultures.” Robertson, 1995:28 (Wordspy)
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The current leadership styles are more dependent on customer
cultures or organizational cultures. An ideal gap analysis model looks
like this:
Custom
er Context
Org
aniz
atio
nal
Con
text
Cultural Context
A hybrid leadership model that gives equal weightage to universalleadership traits and the context based traits.
If we keep the leadership competenciesconstant, the influencing factors like industryand region will determine the threshold forsuccessful operation of a leadership style –and that threshold cannot be constantglobally.
When we operate in different geographies,different customers and different industries,the effectiveness of the leadership modelvaries. Let us take an example: if the customeris based out of Asia, the precision with whichthe process is followed gets diluted by therelationship between the customer andservice provider.
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Likewise, if the organization’s culturedemands aggression, leaders may not be ableto be effective even if they have best of allcompetencies but are unable to express theexplicit behavior of aggression. This elementof organizational culture will be pivotal indetermining the threshold of leadershipeffectiveness.
We can drive a conclusion that leadershipstyle must give equal weightage to thecultural, organizational, and customercontexts and only this can propel us into anera of effective Glocalised Leadership.
The Glocalised LeadershipModel
• Define your leadership standards as per your contextualreality of local regional culture, customer culture and theoverarching organizational culture.
• Do not implant the leaders from the West to the East.There is a need to build local leadership as the localleaders are strong in the culture of their regions and alsoknow the customer culture well in case of localcustomers.
• Bridge the gap in organizational culture for the localleaders by mentoring them with senior professionalsfrom headquarters and shadowing them as well.
• To define the Glocal leadership standards we need tomove to the prototyping concept in leadership as we dofor products before we launch them in emergingmarkets.
Recommendations
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• Human Capital Trends 2015 - Deloitte
References
• DDI World Report
• McKinsey Global Institute Company Scope Database
• Research by Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) on APAC leadership
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About The Author
A dynamic and visionary HR professional, Reetu is best known for drivingchange by connecting business realities to strategic HR initiatives. She hasworked in various functions within HR – from a generalist to Learning and
Development head, leading organization development and talentmanagement. Her expertise spans various industries ranging fromTelecom, Banking and Financial Services to IT. This varied industry
exposure is the bedrock of her skills as an HR professional with a wellrounded approach to business and human capital management.
A passionate facilitator and an enthusiastic coach Reetu loves humanpsychology and organizational sociology and is keenly interested in theunique connection that the two disciplines throw to create a plethora of
behavioral patterns in the corporate world. She often uses this perspectivein creating an employeeoriented, highperformance culture that results in
the development of a new breed of the dynamic, multiskilled and motivatedworkforce. Reetu currently leads the leadership development, talent
management and learning at Amdocs (India).
An MBA in Human Resource Management, with Distinction from theUniversity of Pune, Reetu is also the recipient of Women Super Achiever
Award by World HRD Congress in 2012 and is a frequent speaker at variousglobal HR forums.
Reetu RainaGlobal OD Practice Lead
AMDOCS
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