MODULE TITLE: Organizational Leadership
MODULE CODE: UU-PSY-703
ESSAY TITLE: Evaluation of the impact of Leadership and Culture on the
Sustainable Development of the 21st Century Organizations.
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ABTRACT
The interdependence of leadership and culture is central to the sustainable
development of 21st century organizations especially in the face of global competition
and this has called for further investigation. Various researches have established
relationship between leadership and culture as well as its influences this on the
success and prosperity of the organisations. The extent and the direction of
interconnectivity of these two factors and how this determines the leadership
competencies in Africa are examined in this research. The perceptions of
dependence were tested on the research variables namely: leadership competence,
culture and organisational sustainable development. This research used various
methods of data collection such as questionnaire, personal interview and data
retrieval from archive. Conclusions will be drawn from the results of various
quantitative statistical analyses of data.
Introduction/Background of the Study
The goal of any company is not only to survive but to perform better for the
organisation’s sustainable future. Organisations are compelled by growing
competition to continuously improve performance (Grant, 2012). The impact of
globalization coupled with cultural complexity has given rise to cross cultural
research interest to investigate the role of leaders in organizational sustainable
development. Tsui, Zhang, Wang, Xin, and Wu (2006), in their investigation into
connectivity between behaviour of CEO and organisational culture, concluded that
the role of leaders is central to cultivation of organisational culture.
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The term sustainability has been defined severally in literature with different viewpoint. The World
Commission on Environment and development has given most commonly used definition as
“development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987). The objectives of the commission were clearly
expressed to include: to revive growth; to change growth quality; to ensure sustainable population level;
to meet need for job, food, water, energy and sanitation; to enhance and conserve resource base;
technology reorientation and risk management; to integrate environment with economics in decision
making; international economics relations reorientation (WCED, 1987).
Despite the contribution of the above definition to sustainable growth, it is limited in some respects
(Banerjee, 2003; Escobar, 1995; Redclift, 1987). Such as its failure to clearly reconcile economic
growth with environment and not developing basis for resolving organisations economic need and
organisation’s social responsibilities to the environment where it’s operate. However, it has created a
clear roadmap for organisation to be sustainable both culturally and environmentally in the 21 st century.
Leadership thought build on sustainability brings about innovation and discoveries which can
rejuvenate organisations, communities and the world at large. It is therefore required of a leader to
strike the balance among the competing social, economic and environmental sustainable solutions to
remain competitive in the 21 century. Thus, there is pressure on the 21 century organisations leaders to
foster sustainable development and ensure that the long-term strategies of the organisation meet the
demand of the sustainability (Hall & Vredenburg, 2003).
Essentially, Leadership and culture help to keep organisation going from one cultural and ideological
era to another within the community. People of labour age migrate from home country to another
country in search of good life. Occurrence of this leaves organisations in the home country with the
issue of brain drain which is the case of Africa (Okoli,2013). On the other hand, the host countries will
face the issue of discrimination and inequality (Snaebjournsson, Edvardsson, zydziunaite & Vaiman,
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2015). As people from various cultural backgrounds migrate to the host countries, the organisational
culture in the host country will be affected thereby paving way for cultural mix. The leadership in the
receiving organisation will gradually learn adapt to new emerging cultures.
From the foregoing, attention could be drawn to the UN adoption of sustainable development goal for
poverty alleviation on September 25, 2015. This has the focus of protecting and reassuring the earth
and ensuring prosperity with the time frame of 15 years. This is attached to leadership and culture with
huge impact on organisational sustainability. The 17 goals of United Nation General Assembly (UNGA,
2015) concerned with the operations of organisations, the 8th to 13th goals are concerned with
understanding of the role of leadership and culture in sustainability of 21 st century organisation. With
this, no organisation is permited to operate outside these set goals and any organisation that operates
otherwise will be seen as breaking the law. While it is the duty of the organisation to determine and
drive the vision of the organisation (Kotter, 1990) and set the direction, culture equally determine the
strategic path for day to day operations for the achievement of set goals (Schein, 2004).
Accordingly, the declaration of UNGA (2015) mandate organisation in goal 8 to be productive, fair and
accommodating to its employees, in goal 9 to build infrastructure that allow inclusiveness, sustainable
growth and innovation. Goal 11 focus on fair reward system among employees while judging cultural
equity with their countries. Goal 12 is concerned with sustainability of production pattern while goal13
safeguard climate and environment by ensuring that activities of the organisation does not have
negative impacts. Therefore, these rules determine culture and stand as laws by which organisations in
a multi-cultural environment operate.
Essentially, globalisation plays major role in sustainable development of the organisation. In the word of
Hall, Daneke, & Lenox,( 2010), organisational sustainable development requires long time to attain the
level of fairness and equity in economic resources allocation. Product marketing and staff recruitment
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are done globally in the 21st century organisations. Worth of investigation is the effects of equitable
wealth distribution on organisational sustainability, most importantly, when it has to do with equal
employment regardless of staff cultural background. Due to globalisation, many 21st century
organisations operate internationally. Most organisations choose to site their business in countries with
less hash environmental law (Henisz & Zelner, 2010). International organisation will have to obey the
employment law of host countries that restrict them from bringing all the staff from the home country but
to recruit locally (Henisz & Zelner, 2010). This brings about differences in remuneration thereby causing
cultural class within the organisation.
Significantly, to understand the challenges of the global leadership in the face of cultural integration
occasioned by globalisation, classification of various employees has been made in term of generation
they belong. X, Y and Z generation of work force, being the most studied grouping, will be represented
at the same time in the working place in the future time (Bresma & Rao, 2017). Generation X are
people born before 1980, generation Y are the ones born between 1984 and 1996, while generation Z
are the people born after 1997. Bresma & Rao (2017) believe that generation X and Y workforce prefer
mentoring and on the job training, while generation Z appreciate leadership role, freedom and higher
responsibilities. The essence of this classification of workforce generation is not to spark any debate but
to appreciate organisation as a sustainable entity and demonstrate interaction of leadership and culture
in a culturally diverse global organisation to attain sustainable development of 21st century organisation.
In order to strike the balance between growth and sustainability, global leaders have to make some
sacrificial choice to ensure reasonable result (Host & Saki, 2012).
Hence, the word ‘sustainability’ connotes continuous existence of the organisation in a culturally diverse
external environment and internal interaction among employees with divergence cultural background
(Colbert & Freeman 2003). The presence of organisational culture, though often unnoticed, is crucial in
determining conduct of leaders and followers within the organisation. Culture of an organisation is first
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created by pioneer leaders of an organisation and later modified by subsequent leaders of the
organisation (Spector, 2012). Organisational culture is built around leaders who influence organisation
who determine the subordinates’ perception of motivation, commitment, satisfaction and morale
(Harris& Mossholder, 1996). Leaders focus on influencing the perceptions of the followers. Also,
customer is another architect of culture that has potential to change how business is done in an
organisation.
Additionally, effective organisational communication is another factor that determines leadership
effectiveness. Organisational communication in turn is the function of communication skills of both the
leaders and the subordinates. Communication gap is related to cultural differences (Mclean & Momen,
2012). This shows that a leader who aimed to be sustainable in his initiative in term of productivity,
growth, interdependence and sustainable development has to be abreast of diverse culture within the
organisation. This means that proper understanding of cultural concept would enhance understanding
of leadership drive within an organisation as well as the pathway to sustainable development of an
organisation. The above assertion is in agreement with Schein (2004) that adaptation of leaders to
cultures within an organisation brings effective leadership.
Hypothesis and Main Objectives.
The bases for this research are to establish why leaders are effective under some cultural do well under
the practices and why some organisations close in some parts of the planet. This study is expected to
add the exiting bulk of knowledge base on the above namely: interdependence between culture and
leadership and how this could be harnessed to ensure sustainable development of organisation in the
21st century. Based on the above, this study will answer two research questions, firstly, is the
dependence of effective leadership on culture high in 21st century organisation? Secondly, are
leadership initiatives and cultural imperatives agreed for organisation’s sustainable development in 21 st
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century? Organisational culture, in this proposal, is used to mean creation of an environment that, drive
and stimulate growth among employees and synchronising this to the mission of organisations leaders.
Literature Review:
Series if literatures exist on leadership, culture and sustainability. Among many is the research project
on Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE). In this, nine dimensions of
leadership that relate to cross cultural leadership were identified. These are: assertiveness, human
orientation, future orientation, performance orientation, institutional collectivism, in-group collectivism,
uncertainty avoidance, gender egalitarianism and power distance (Dorfman, Javidan, Hanges,
Dastmalchian & House, 2012). GLOBE study provided an insight to the need to have knowledge of
national culture so as to determine idea within the national culture. Though the research effort is
elaborate, there is need to incorporate sustainability of organisations issues of sustainable development
arising from UNGA (2015) as it relates to developing countries. This will lead to transfer of knowledge
from developed countries to the issues of cultural differences of the developing countries.
The study further focuses multinational organisations survival in developing countries such as Nigeria
with high level of poverty, frequent communal clash, terrorism, militancy, high level of corruption and
low standard of living (Achumba, Ighomereho, & Akpor-Robaro, 2013; Emori, Obim, Eba, & Emefiele,
2017).
Research Methodology,
This study will investigate two hypotheses. The first investigates dependability of effective leadership on
healthy cultural in a 21st century organisations. Effective leadership is the measure of how the path
taken by organisational leaders is efficiently communicated to subordinates (Scisco, Biech, &
Halienbeck, 2017). There are several healthy cultural practices that are directly connected to leadership
initiative and organisational goal like: communication culture, employees’ aggression culture,
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employment culture, diversity and inclusiveness culture and employee retention culture, et cetera.
These enhance organisational sustainability. In the word of Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL,
2017), defining leadership strategy require culture. The question that comes to mind is to what extent is
the leadership strategy influenced by exiting culture in the organisation. This question will be answered
in this research.
The second area of the research proposal bothers on if leadership capability be in agreement with
cultural practices for sustainability of organisation in the 21 century. Organisational sustainability is the
function of organisational leadership initiative and that leadership initiatives hinge on the importance of
organisational culture. This explain the failure of Barclays Bank of Britain to grow in Africa compare to
other indigenous Banks such as GT bank and Eco Bank that have showed consistent growth in the
face of challenging African culture. The inability of Barclays Bank to survive in signifies high risk of
business in Africa and low prospect for growth.
Nikolovski, Radevska and Petkovska (2016) opined that the reason why businesses owned by family
have grown and sustained across generation is good communication and separation of difference and
diversity from the goal of organisation. The findings of the report also revealed that those who inherited
such successful business are skilful and qualified and that their selection is not burn out of favouritism.
Taken this to a multinational organisation, people with leadership capacity, qualifications and skills
should be given leadership role and that all communication should be directed towards the goal of the
organisation. However, in the case of multicultural organisation, social tension and cultural conflict do
exist (Hannum, Gentry & Weber, 2010). The question now is how a will a leader unify employees with
varied traditional culture within an organisation toward a common goal of the organisation? There is
need for well-defined cultures that brought about leadership competencies to prevent a situation where
some employees will feel being discriminated against. This can result in demotivation and burnout
leading to low productivity and declining organisational growth (Spector, 2012). One will agree to the
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fact that the goals of globalisation is in consonance with the goals of sustainable development couple
with the ability to effectively manage multicultural ideas to boost performance growth and sustainability
is a good path toward organisational sustainability.
In this research work will be carried out with acknowledgement of the fact that in multicultural survey,
some irregularities in cultural variables can affect gathering and interpretation of data. These include
cultural bias (Spector, Liu, and Sanchez 2015). While treating two dependent variables namely
leadership and sustainability as unique entities, cultural group will be compared in the research design.
In addition, the cultural value adopted by organisation will be classified as fixed variables. The sampling
method chosen will address disparity that confuses cultural variables with other features of acquired
sample (Spector, Liu, and Sanchez, 2015). According to Spector, Liu, and Sanchez (2015), when
carrying out studies that cut across linguistic boundaries, translation and back translation are equally
important.
In view of the above, multidimensional research designs that support data gathering through
questionnaire, interpersonal interview and archival data will be employed. Use of questionnaire is a
survey will be able to capture large qualitative and quantitative data (Spector, 2012). However, Sullivan
(2011) raised concern as to the validity and reliability of data from the survey and conclusion drawn
may be misleading should the question in the survey instrument not properly worded, designed with
confusing layout and inappropriate response options. Also, interpersonal interview will be used for
despondence that cannot read and understand as this guarantees immediate feedback by interpreting
respondents’ body language (Spector, 2012). Archival data will be sourced from the website of World
Bank Group, American Psychological Association (APA), United Nations, and US Bureau of Labour
Statistics, etc. Websites of specific country government will be visited for specific culture.
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The data gathering pathway above will help in evaluation of different organisational culture, identify
cultural variance among organisation and explain the reason for differences. For better results,
quantitative method will be matched with qualitative data. This study will test the influence of culture on
the transformational theory of leadership. Transformational theory was chosen due to the flexible nature
of 21st century organisation which is expected to adjust swiftly to cultural and technological changes in
the organisation.
In this study, participant shall be drawn from multinational companied most importantly, leaders who
have worked within and outside the home country’s office of their organisations. This is to harness the
wealth of their intercultural experience. Participant will equally be drawn from local employees of the
multinational organisation and their preference for either foreign leaders or home-grown leaders will be
tested. This is to test if leaders can adjust easily to local cultural needs.
Apart from direct administration of questionnaire, some of the questionnaire will be administer through
linkedlh especially to some leaders and employees with marching profiles. This will assist in a situation
where physical access to some leaders and employees is not achievable. Goniu, Moreno, and Diekema
(2013) perceived the possibility of breaching respondents’ and their employers’ right by collecting data
through social medial. In order not to be found wanting of the ethical issue, the identity and privacy of
respondents will be protected in accordance with appropriate laws of the chosen country. To set the
path for the survey questionnaires, preliminary interviews will be conducted for people of diverse
culture. This will help in setting framework for data set consisting of three scenarios as: leadership
initiatives, cultural imperatives and lastly, sustainable development.
Under leadership initiatives scenarios, questionnaire will focus on areas as remuneration,
transformation, performance appraisal, employment strategies, coaching and mentoring, etc.
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Questionnaire on cultural imperative will concentrate on religion, sport, gender orientation, leadership
styles, social orientation, leadership traits, race, and many more. Sustainable development likewise will
focus on questions that connect leadership initiatives in their various organisations with goals put
forward by United Nations in UNGA (2015). Response on each scenario will be tested on three levels to
determine the degree of relationships between variables. These are high, medium and low.
This research is said to be completed within six months which include field sampling, data gathering,
organisation of data in accordance with developed scenarios, analysis of data and interpretation of
results. As soon as the questionnaires return, response will be collated, recorded, sorted into two
research questions and this will be analysed. More so, analysis of data will be done using simple
statistical tools of mean, median, mode, variance and standard deviation.
Analysis of data
According to the methodology and in line with Spector, Liu and Sanchez (2015), item response theory
or confirmatory analysis will be used to assess measurements that estimate multicultural response for
equivalence or variance so as to minimise biases. Also, the use of metal analytic technique was
recommended by One, et al (2012) in order to assist in cross examine the extent to which cross cultural
relationships can be generalised. This will help to identify cultural strength, build bond and create
organisational identity among the work force.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the research proposal would have demonstrated the actual interconnection and
interdependence between leadership, culture and sustainable development of 21 st century organisation.
Recommendation would be made based on the level of relationship and dependence on the path to
sustainable development survival of organisation in the 21 st century. This proposal is hereby
recommended for management approval as it has guaranteed rich knowledge to the pool of knowledge.
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