A leader needs to be able to manage across culture to understand the needs of those he or she serves. Leader who understand different cultures can shape the culture of an organization to address changing needs (Steers & Osland, 2019). Employees who serve the organization have been brought up in different cultures. A good leader should be able to respond to different cultures of employees. Another importance of a leader to be to manage across culture is that organization is no longer confined by location. Nowadays, workforce is made up of made up of many diverse groups and is important to know how to interact with people from all walks of life to avoid making anybody feel uncomfortable. For example, flight attendants make sure people from different parts of the world are respected and treated equally. Workforce needs cultural diversity which can inspire creativity and drive innovation. People from different cultures have diversity of thoughts that lead to creativity and drive innovation (Schein, 2016). This will help in solving problems and meet customers wants. For instance, cosmetic industry has produced different hair chemicals which can be used by people from various cultures. When a leader understand employees can treat them as a person not a group. I agree with this statement, ” Leaders who cannot understand cultural differences in people cannot lead or manage them”. A leader should be open to understand cultural differences in a working environment. If a leader does not understand different cultures then will end up offending some employees (Steers & Osland, 2019). Also, leaders should watch what they say because some words have different meanings in different cultures and may easily offend workers.
References
Schein, E. H. (2016). Organizational culture and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Steers, R. M., & Osland, J. S. (2019). Management across cultures: Challenges, strategies, and skills. Cambridge University Press.