Successful Leadership in a Multi-Cultural Influenced Organization

Haci H. Polat 
(MENDEL University)

Abstract: “The increasing globalization of business has heightened the importance of understanding national cultural influences in interorganizational relationships from both a cross-cultural and an intercultural perspective.” Institutional, cultural, economic and organizational factors have led to a demographic shift across all organizational levels. Often, leadership within a multi-cultural organization is characterized by diversity in top management teams and multi-cultural working teams. Hawely (1968) noticed that “the diversity of organizational forms is isomorphic to the diversity environments. “With the industrial environment being affected by turbulences, industrial characteristics, and environmental factors. Moreover, group composition factors, such as team size, terms of team members or diversity and demographic factors are influencing behaviors and team decision-makings. Conventional leadership methods are unable to manage all the complexities and therefore, successful leadership in multi-culturally influenced organizations demands new leadership approaches.

Key words: leadership; multi-cultural; organization; culture

JEL codes: F23, F53, M16