Global expansion of business is constantly changing as organizations are increasingly participating in international markets. A new leadership approach may be necessary as the globalized market demands are increasingly difficult to adapt and sustain profitability: HR lies at the heart of such leadership.
The emergence of global business environments drives companies to become world-class. Leaders within companies can play a crucial role in achieving a high level of effectiveness and world-class efficiency and effectiveness. Today’s globalized nature of competitiveness is placing more pressure on organizations to employ effective leaders who are capable to develop a global vision for organizations. Leaders need to think globally yet act locally because local strategies need to be realigned with the global economic integration and for individual countries. Leadership plays a critical role and is a strategic prerequisite for business success in global markets. There a global need to investigate transformational leadership style to accomplish sustainable competitiveness in global markets.
Effective leaders in world-class organizations are highly characterized by enablers of organizational commitment, flexibility, and innovation. The global markets represent cross cultural settings and require top management executives who can adapt to various environments successfully. A cross-cultural setting can enhance the employee’s organizational commitment through empowering human assets and developing an inspiring vision for future.
The major tasks of leaders in global organizations are: empowering employees, generating a shared vision and creating fundamental changes at the organizational level. Furthermore, sustained performance in global markets is dependent on continuous learning. Transformational leaders may be able to build a learning climate through identifying intellectual capital and empowering them.
Transformational leaders are possibly the most qualified leaders that may be able to enhance organization performance in global markets through empowering human resources and enabling change. One way that transformational leadership may be a valuable leadership style in foreign markets is because transformational leadership style sheds light on the critical role of employee’s attitudes and values in implementing change. This leadership style features effective organizational change as a by-product of developing relationships with subordinates.
Transformational leadership is one leadership style that should be embraced at the senior level of organizations to enable performance in globalized markets through implementing organizational change and developing a shared vision for future expansion into global markets. Success in today’s global business environment can be more effective when transformational leadership is applied to change attitudes and assumptions at the individual level and creating collective-interests for cultural adaptation. When leaders can generate a shared and inspiring vision for the future expansion into global markets, they will secure a foothold in the ever-expansive global marketplace.
Mostafa Sayyadi, CAHRI, AFAIM, CPMgr, works with senior business leaders to effectively develop innovation in companies, and helps companies—from start-ups to the Fortune 100—succeed by improving the effectiveness of their leaders. He is a business book author and a long-time contributor to HR.com and Consulting Magazine and his work has been featured in these top-flight business publications.
