Homework Clinic
Social Science Clinic => Business => Management => Topic started by: ssal on Jul 7, 2018
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In a short essay, describe the methods often used by senior corporate managers to develop collaborative relationships with local managers.
What will be an ideal response?
Question 2
In a short essay, describe four traits that characterize visionary leaders, and explain why these traits are especially necessary for a firm that operates within a global matrix structure.
What will be an ideal response?
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Answer to Question 1
Senior corporate managers should employ various strategies to encourage positive, open-minded, collaborative relationships with the country managers. These strategies include encouraging local managers to identify with broad, corporate objectives and make their best efforts. Representatives from corporate headquarters should also visit subsidiaries to instill corporate values and priorities. It is also helpful to rotate employees within the corporate network to develop multiple perspectives. Encouraging country managers to interact and share experiences with each other through regional meetings should be a priority for corporate managers. Finally, offering financial incentives and penalties to promote compliance with headquarters goals is a useful strategy in developing collaborative relationships with local managers.
Answer to Question 2
Visionary leaders are characterized by four major traits:
a. International mind-set and cosmopolitan values. Visionary leadership requires managers to acquire an international mind-setan openness to and awareness of diversity across cultures. Those who lack this mind-set are likely to fail.
b. Willingness to commit resources. Visionary leaders commit to international ventures and unswervingly believe the firm will eventually succeed. Commitment drives them to develop the financial, human, and other resources their firms need to achieve their international goals.
c. Strategic vision. Visionary leaders articulate a strategic visionwhat the firm wants to be in the future and how it will get there. This vision is a central rallying point for all plans, employees, and employee actions.
d. Willingness to invest in human assets. Visionary leaders must nurture the most critical asset of any organizationhuman capital. In global firms, senior leaders adopt such human resource practices as hiring foreign nationals, promoting multicountry careers, and providing cross-cultural and language training to develop international supermanagers.
These leadership traits are especially necessary for a firm operating in a global matrix structure. The global matrix structure is an arrangement that seeks to leverage the benefits of global strategy and responsiveness to local needs. Specifically, the global matrix structure is a combination of the geographic area, product, and functional structures. It aims to reap the advantages of each while minimizing their disadvantages. To make it work, headquarters management should simultaneously: 1. coordinate and control international operations; 2. respond to needs in individual countries; and 3. maximize interorganizational learning and knowledge sharing among the firm's units worldwide. These tasks can be more easily carried out if managers exhibit the traits of visionary leaders.