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A study on the leadership style in managing a diverse team

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 9th International HR E-Conference on “Talent management and Leadership challenges in the new normal
business - 16-17 December 2021

A study on the leadership style in managing a diverse team

Uma Madhusudhan
Scholar,3rd Sem, PHD
Christ University, Bangalore
Email : uma.madhusudhan@res.christuniversity.in

Dr. Leena James

Associate Professor
School of Business and Management
Christ University, Bangalore
Email : leena.james@christuniversity.in

Abstract
Due to globalization, barriers and boundaries are conquered and organizations are now maintaining a
heterogeneous group of employees. In a multicultural environment, interactions can be complex and
mono-cultural management styles can promote conflict. The proximity of individuals from diverse cultures
raises consciousness of difference; therefore, leaders must be able to deal with the reactions of those
with different backgrounds. Managing a diverse team and influencing subordinates to meet their personal
growth and professional goals is a crucial task for a leader.
There has been an immense development during the past forty years in the middle East primarily in the
oil and Gas sector of Oman. The prosperity of an organisation depends on the skilled and talented
workforce, which adds value to organisations’ operations and structure. Oman is currently experiencing
the fastest population growth with a growth rate of more than 9% per year. This has been due to huge
influx of immigrants. Most of these expatriates are from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines and other
neighbouring countries like Egypt,Jordan,Lebanon,Sudan ,Nigeria etc. There has been an increase in mega
infrastructure projects happening within Oman that require huge amounts of manpower. In Oman,
foreign workers are hired both in high-status jobs as professional employees and in low-status jobs, while
in Western Europe, foreign workers are acquired mainly for low-status jobs.
The challenge for a leader handling such a diverse team are far too many. Ting-Toomey and Chung (2005)
stated that leaders need to close individual gaps, create self-awareness, create similarities and avoid
stereotyping among individuals to manage the diversity. Global leaders must have multi-cultural
leadership skills to run a workplace. For performance efficiency, significant global leadership skills need
to be identified by the leaders in diverse management (Shen, Chanda, et al., 2009).
The main objective of the study is to examine the most appropriate leadership style to enhance individual
performance and leverage the potential benefits of diversity at work place in Oman.

Introduction
Leadership and global diversity are connected in two complementary ways. First, although some
dimensions of organizational leadership are universal, others are culture specific (Dorfman et al., 2012).
Given the trends for a more diverse and global workforce, the ability of leaders to manage a diverse

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 9th International HR E-Conference on “Talent management and Leadership challenges in the new normal
business - 16-17 December 2021

workforce and to bridge cross-cultural differences will become central for their ability to perform their
jobs effectively.
Second, leaders have an important role in inspiring organizations to become more inclusive and in creating
an organizational culture of inclusion. For organizations to become truly inclusive, it is not enough that
they have policies and guidelines in place; there needs to be a deep conviction in the importance of
inclusion. This level of commitment to diversity and inclusion can only come from the very top of the
organizations. Rather than ignoring differences between individuals and among groups in the
organization, leaders can embrace diversity by implementing a diversity and inclusion strategy, such as
the IBM example (Thomas, 2004) and use it as a tool to enhance their business. The connection between
diversity and leadership is exemplified by J. T. Childs Jr. (2005), IBM’s former vice president for global
workforce diversity: In today’s global business world, a leader has to understand cultural similarities and
differences in order to communicate effectively across cultures. Leadership in this global environment
depends to a great extent on a deep understanding of the contextual culture that provides meaning to
verbal and nonverbal communication.
In order to provide vision and inspire their organizations, effective leaders need to understand the
multiplicity of values, perspectives, and worldviews that individuals and groups may hold dear and use
their cultural intelligence in different settings to create an inclusive and effective work environment. An
effective leader must be able to cope with contrasting economic, political, and cultural practices in both
the national and international contexts (Rockstuhl et al., 2011).
The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) project, investigated the
complex relationship between societal culture and organizational behavior with a focus on leadership
(Dorfman, Javidan, Hanges, Dastmalchian, & House, 2012). The data generated by this large-scale study
was the result of collaboration between more than 200 researchers from multiple academic disciplines
located across all parts of the globe for more than two decades and is highly relevant for understanding
global leadership in the context of diversity. The research team, led by Robert House as the principal
investigator along with multiple coordinating teams, defined leadership as “the ability of an individual to
influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the
organizations of which they are members” (House, Hangers, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004, p. 15).
The GLOBE study found that some leadership behaviors are universally effective such as
charismatic/value-based leadership—broadly defined as the “to inspire, motivate, and to expect high
performance outcomes from others based on firmly ability held core values” (Dorfman et al., 2012, p. 3).

Literature Review
Basil John Thomas (2020) makes an attempt to investigate the leadership style eventually practiced in the
organisations and its impact on the perpetual development of the employee performance particularly
considering the Oil and Gas Industry of Oman. The study eventually has found that it is the responsibility
of the leaders who can motivate the workforce to move in a right direction to achieve the destined goals.
The study has also found that in the current scenario where the Western world is trying to establish their
entity in the oil and gas business, if an organisation is not guided properly by a leader, chances of
crumbling down before the intense pressure is quite common. The study has also essentially found that
autocratic leadership style is quite effective in the short term while the democratic leadership style
is useful for all time. The study recommends that a leader should be proactive in nature and must
be capable of understanding the internal and external scenario that the organisation is currently

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business - 16-17 December 2021

facing or would have to face in the coming days. It would help the leader guide the workforce
through the proper channel and attain the predestined objectives set beforehand.
The findings of the study highlights that democratic and transformational leadership style are mostly
followed in most of the oil and gas organisations in Oman, followed by the laissez faire. For the overall
development of the employees and motivating them to perform well, engagement of the leaders
with their subordinates is literally essential. It is quite evident from the responses of the employees that
they get the leaders of their organisation by their side when they are in trouble. Besides, the leadership
approach in this regard is quite effective in the development of organisational ethics. Transactional
leadership style has been effectively found to be correlated with the performance of the employees and
thereby helps in overall performance development of the organisation. But in no way there has been any
plot open for authoritative leadership style. In most of the cases authoritative leaders do not look for the
development of the other people rather concentrates on personal development.
The study has also researched it out that employee performance is directly related to that of the
leadership strategy. This is because a leader motivates the employees circumnavigate through the
serious challenges. The study witnesses that an employee can present its best skill for the development
of the organisation if he or she is guided in a proper way. At the same time, it helps the employee to
attain the mental satisfaction which in the long run again ascertains the prosthetic development
as a whole.
Mishra, Donald Grunewald & Neelufer (2016) have highlighted on the numerous challenges’ FMCG firms
in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman face. External factors like the unstable world and national economy and
internal conditions like human resource mismanagement, diverse workforce with different cultures and
unsatisfied customers risk the overall operations of the firm. The success or failure of a firm depends
largely on how the senior and middle level managers shape and execute the organization’s strategies.
This study identified the leadership styles of senior and middle level managers of selected FMCG firms in
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. From the results of the study, it can be concluded that the managers of
successful firms use transformational leadership style. Managers of Mediocre firms adopted Transactional
style where as low performers had bureaucratic and autocratic leaders. Results of t–test proved that there
is no significant difference in the leadership styles of senior and middle level managers. Results also prove
that leadership style has a significant correlation with firm performance. Transformational leadership style
is positively co related to performance whereas autocratic style is negatively co related. By changing the
values, beliefs and needs of the followers, transformational leaders can achieve performance beyond
expectations.
Based on the findings, the authors conclude that leadership styles have a positive and negative
relationship with firm performance. As transformational, paternalistic and democratic leadership style are
strongly positively correlated to firm performance, managers of low performing firms should be advised
and trained to use these preferred styles. Usage of these leadership styles may help these firm to improve
their performance and among the high performer firms groups.
Ramo Palalic &Azra Bico (2019) in their case study of public firms in Oman ,have analysed the effect of
leadership (transactional and transformational) in leading diverse workforce. Results showed that
transformational, transactional and internal environment significantly affect organizational commitment
in a public service organisation in Sultanate of Oman. Moreover, transformational leadership has even
stronger significant effect on organizational commitment in comparison to transactional one. The study
was conducted using a self-administered survey for all employees who wanted to participate in the study.

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business - 16-17 December 2021

Out of 412 participants, 262 was effective sample size for this study. Other interesting results were
discussed along with limitations and future works.
The study indicated that there is a positive mediating role of transformational leadership, transactional
leadership, and internal business environment regarding the organisational commitment.
Transformational leadership positively and significantly impacts organisational commitment in
organisations. This is confirmation of the power of transformational leadership that can positively
influence organisational commitment (Meyer and Allen, 1990) as argued by many authors earlier (House,
1974; Burns, 1978; Bennis and Nanus, 1985; Bass, 1985; Waldman and Yammarino,1999; Buss and Avolio,
1992: Bass and Riggio, 2006). Transactional leadership positively and significantly influences
organisational commitment in organisations. This result shows that transactional leadership, although
different from the transformational style, is still an exemplary role in mediating the organisational
commitment of employees (House, 1971; House, 1977; Burns, 1978). Internal business environment
positively and significantly leverages organisational commitment in organisations.
Along with leadership, internal business environment (Palalic et al., 2016; Palalić et al., 2017) plays a good
role in creating a good organisational commitment through many ways among which is teamwork, for
instance (Fletcher, 1999). All predictors included in this analysis play an important aspect in leveraging a
positive organisational commitment, which can be reflected in a greater business performance. It is
because all variables in this study, are featured characters that have a powerful influence to make a
smooth, positive, and flowering working atmosphere in organisations.
Aya Shaban (2017) in her article on Managing and Leading a Diverse Workforce: One of the Main
Challenges in Management has indicated that In the recent years, there has been an increasing trend in
organizations to give teams more responsibility to work on major tasks. The increasing number of
mergers, joint ventures and strategic alliances is bringing people from distinct cultures and types of
organizations together. As a result, in the twenty first century managers have become more concerned
with managing diversity in organizations. This research explains how managers can lead and manage
diverse teams.
Diverse teams could be effectively managed and supported by the leaders through applying the leader-
member exchange theory (LMX). This theory is different from other leadership theories, as most of the
researchers of the other theories assumed that leadership style is supposed to be the same for all
subordinates. Therefore, this assumption implied that leaders should treat followers in a collective way,
as a group through the use of an average leadership style. However, the LMX theory was able to challenge
this assumption, since it directed the attention of the researchers to the differences that might be existing
between each of the leader’s followers and the leader (Northouse, 2012). Therefore, leaders could
manage diverse teams more effectively through applying the LMX theory. This is due to the fact that in
diverse teams, members are not similar, so selecting only one single leadership style to lead the team may
not be effective, as the leadership style that may fit one member, may not suit another member. The LMX
theory is concerned with what is known by the dyad, which is the relationship between the leader and
each subordinate independently rather than the relationship between the leader and the whole team
(Lunenburg, 2010). The LMX highlights the importance to recognize the existence of in-groups and out-
groups in a team. In-group members are considered to include the members who have high exchange
relationship with the leader (Northouse, 2012).

Research Methodology
The study was conducted through ‘secondary data ‘which was collected from different websites and
research articles.

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Objectives of the study

To study various leadership styles of team leaders while handling a diverse team.
To analyse if the leadership styles of the managers have a significant relationship with organizational
performance.
To Explore the requisite tools for effectively leading a diverse team.

Data Collection & Analysis

The findings of the study highlight that democratic and transformational leadership style are mostly
followed in most of the organisations in Oman, followed by the laissez faire. For the overall development
of the employees and motivating them to perform well, engagement of the leaders with their
subordinates is literally essential. Transactional leadership style has been effectively found to be
correlated with the performance of the employees and thereby helps in overall performance
development of the organisation. But in no way there has been any plot open for authoritative leadership
style. In most of the cases authoritative leaders do not look for the development of the other people
rather concentrates on personal development.
The study has observed that transformational and democratic leadership approach normally leads to
attain higher employee performance. It is always recommended that a leader or supervisor should always
be innovative in his approaches and must be able to encourage the followers to enable them seek for
more opportunities and possibilities. Naturally, the perimeter of a leader is needed to be expanded.
Although it seems to be quite easy for an experienced leader however it is quite difficult to understand
and implement for a new leader.

Transactional Leadership • Transparency in

Operation
• Communication
Transformational Organization • Rewards
Leadership Success • Cultural Integrity
• Organization
Laissez- faire Leadership Ethics
• Leaders’
Personality
• Knowledge

Fig 1-Conceptual Research Framework

It is quite evidently mentioned in the context of the study that organisations in Oman are needed to
comply with democratic leadership strategy as it has a long-term impact on the development of the
organisation as a whole. The study has also denoted that the leaders in this context must not only
understand the situation but should be capable of taking the rightful decisions. The study has also

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 9th International HR E-Conference on “Talent management and Leadership challenges in the new normal
business - 16-17 December 2021

highlighted that most of the employees working in different organisation in Oman do not feel motivated
with their leader’s attitude. So, the leader must be capable of handling the workforce along with the other
significant resources.
The study has observed that leadership exists in all layers of the organisation, however, the
necessity of the leaders is felt only when there is a necessity to motivate the others and take the
appropriate decisions. Overall accomplishment of the system or the organisation is the primary
necessity engaged with leadership. The study has effectively observed that after recognizing
leadership a system or an approach, it is particularly essential to understand the relationship
between the leaders and their constituents.
Besides, the leadership approach transparency in the operations, providing rewards, cultural
integrity and other significant factors are proven to be quite motivating for the employees.
Freedom of the employees eventually help the organisation to develop in its course and also
ensures that the employees are provided the free-thinking facilities. It is evident from the
respondents’ response that the organisational integrity can be attained with a responsible team
with skilled and responsible employees deploying their best for the perpetual development of the
organisation.
Conclusion and Recommendation
In keeping with the company’s philosophy and tradition of working with culturally diverse teams,
managers are required to possess the knowledge of how to effectively handle these teams for optimal
performance and productivity. Any manager leading culturally diverse teams must clearly take into
account the members’ cultural disposition in order to establish an effective mechanism through which all
members can participate in achieving the goals and objectives set by the company (Foldy, 2004).
A multiplicity of empirical studies has demonstrated that in the presence of effective integration
processes, culturally diverse teams perform at least as well, occasionally even better than homogenous
teams (Pitts & Jarry, 2009).
Other studies have demonstrated that business productivity yields superior outcomes when management
practices are congruent with national culture, and when meaningful participation is promoted (Gwynne,
2009).
Managers must realize that when members of diverse national or ethnic groups come together for work-
related purposes, their basic templates for conducting co-dependent actions diverge greatly.
These differences have the capacity to damage business relationships, communication processes,
coordination and cohesion, as one person interprets another’s actions or behaviors in a manner which
was not originally intended, and more important, neither person have prior knowledge that the
misunderstanding has occurred (Pitts & Jarry, 2009). Such a scenario limits the team’s capacity to perform
up to its potential.
literatures on diversity effects demonstrates that engaging in faulty work processes will ultimately lead to
a negative relationship between diversity and organizational performance by virtue of the fact that
members in a team will find it difficult to work well together (Pitts & Jarry, 2009).
This process-oriented challenge prevent the team from generating outcomes that are equal or better to
those generated by a team that did not undergo a similar procedural challenge.

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Overall, it is a well-known fact that “…managers set up their teams to fail because they themselves fail to
help the team anticipate cultural differences and so see conflict in cultural, as opposed to personal or
organizational, terms and fail to set norms for dealing with cultural differences” (Gwynne, 2009, p. 69).
It is therefore recommended that managers leading culturally diverse teams should spend adequate time
acquainting themselves with how to effectively manage these teams so as to trigger productivity and
performance, and to ensure that goals and objectives of the company are adequately met despite varying
cultural orientations.
To further promote trust and cordial working relations among team members, managers should embark
on developing strategies and mechanisms through which face-to-face, synchronous communication is
enhanced (Von Glinow et al., 2004).
Lastly, managers must always possess the knowledge to select the right kind of communication tool so as
not to occasion disdain, low morale, or trigger half-baked responses among the team members (Tim-
Toomey & Oetzel, 2009). Clarity, precision, elimination of ambiguity, and respect of cultural-specific verbal
and non-verbal cues is therefore of immense importance.

Limitations
Time Constraint

References
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