Management Dissertation Topics

Outstanding Management Dissertation Topics

Title: Outstanding Management Dissertation Topics. Many management students studying at university often ask me what constitutes towards a quality management dissertation topic. There are many factors that contribute towards an outstanding management dissertation but it is always advantageous to examine important factors that underpin a dissertation. Firstly, a management dissertation provides the opportunity to research a particular business management topic that is relevant to your studies. Therefore, it is essential to base your management dissertation topic in this field of study. Your business management dissertation involves writing a significant piece of research, and provides hands-on experience in research design, data collection and data analysis all of which will be summarized in a concise conclusion section.

There are two common research approaches you will need to explore when starting your management dissertation. You may wish to undertake a quantitative study that may involve statistical analysis of survey data. You may opt for a qualitative study involving interviews and observation in organisations. Ultimately, you will naturally develop an enhanced understanding of management theory. When you undertake your management dissertation topic you will examine literature in order to identify potential research gaps, evaluate and reflect upon existing research. You will have the opportunity to critique management theory if deemed appropriate. Try to engage your dissertation supervisor and audience by clearly defining the vision, mission, aims and objectives of your management dissertation topic from the outset.

Management Dissertation Ideas

How will you kick start your management dissertation topic? I recommend that you examine previous research you have conducted in this field. Are you specialized in any business management theory? If so, look at expanding on this and incorporating it into your management dissertation topic. You will feel confident and more assured writing a dissertation in an area of research you are familiar with. I have a profound interest in entrepreneurship and submitted a handful of projects and an undergraduate dissertation in this field. When I began my MBA degree, I knew straightaway that I would expand on my knowledge of entrepreneurship and I am likely to submit my MBA management dissertation topic in this field. I must add that it was fulfilling when building upon my existing knowledge and it proved less stressful.

Business Management Dissertation Topics
Business Management Dissertation Topics

Furthermore, you will need to give an explanation of why you chose this particular management dissertation topic? You will need to expand on 2 – 3 research questions within your chosen management dissertation topic. A brief synopsis of approximately 300 words describing your field of study is advisable. It is recommended to include key literature resources used in the dissertation abstract or synopsis section of your management dissertation. Discuss the sample size disposition and a brief explanation of the methodology framework for collecting the data in your management dissertation. These important factors need to be discussed at the beginning of your research and need to be highlighted in your management dissertation topic.

Writing the Perfect Management Dissertation

What will you gain from writing an engaging management dissertation topic? There is no doubt that you will enhance your writing and analytical skills. You will become more critical (within reason) of existing literature and research. You will not take everything you read and hear at face value, you will start to challenge existing knowledge within the business management field and you will become more commercially aware.

It is safe to say that once you have completed your management dissertation topic you will appreciate the range of methodologies in management research. You will demonstrate the ability of identifying, analyzing and integrating an existing body of literature into your management dissertation topic. You will be able to set out the principles of designing a viable research study and apply these in formulating a research study to investigate a management issue. Ultimately, you will demonstrate the ability of writing a quality management dissertation within demanding time constraints.

Sample Business Management Dissertations

Choosing the best management dissertation topic from the outset is important but sometimes a student can experience a writing block or loss of enthusiasm, there are many factors that can cause this. It happens to many writers. It is inevitable and many academic writers struggle with writer’s block at some point. Below is a list of sample management dissertation topics that will inspire you to write your own management dissertation. The sample management dissertations below are supplied as a reference guide and should not be plagiarized. You should not fall into the trap of plagiarism – always refer to your university’s guide on referencing material, I cannot stress this enough. Be mindful that you will fail your degree if you plagiarize material. The management dissertation topics below have been submitted by undergraduate and postgraduate business management students.

Management Dissertation Topics

MBA Dissertation Investigation into Management Control Strategy

Change Management Within The Retail Banking Sector

Is Culture Management A Symbol Of Management Progression Or Merely Another Form Of Management Control? A Case Study Of Retail Bank ‘X’ Versus Investment Bank ‘Y’

A Review into Project Theoretical Concepts and Models in Regards to the Management of Change and Conflict

An Analysis into the Extent of Financial Leverage within the UK Food and Drink Industry – Identifying Potential Communication Problems between Senior Management and Investors

What is the Impact of Innovation and Technology Usage on Business Management?

Whether you choose to write your management dissertation on the topics above or if you developed your own management dissertation topic, you need to ensure that you write your research on something you are interested in and knowledgeable on – do not conduct research in a field you have no genuine interest in. As previously mentioned you can reduce a lot of pressure on yourself when writing research on a field of management you are comfortable and familiar with.

Click Here To View Management Dissertation Topics

Best University Dissertation Examples

I hope you enjoy reading this post and that you have added confidence in wiring your own management dissertation topic. I would be grateful if you could leave a comment below.

Community Leadership Dissertation

Community Leadership

Community leadership is a vital consideration by most organization management. For an organization to survive in today’s ever changing environment, both internally and externally, it has to be ready to respond to these changes appropriately. The module of community leadership focused on leadership theories based on learning efforts to breed leaders who will be responsible in creating, formulating, and making decisions that develop not only the company but also the social well being of the community dwellers.

According to (Stacy, 2011), an organization moves will experience difficulties in its entire operation; production, processing, procurement, supply and sale if its leadership does not incorporate a culture of community leadership in its managing. For example, an organization should make efforts to involve other companies in the industry, its supply chain, its employees behavior both at work and home as well as all its stakeholders towards actions that the planets important resources, improving the surrounding physical state as well as dealing with the  social problems of people living around that environment such as poverty.

According to Stacey (2011), community leadership starts from the down level of micro organizational behavior. It deals with individual employee’s behavior examining what motivates or de motivates him. Micro communities also looks at how an employee’s differences in the ability affects his productivity and how they view their work as well as the effect of the perception of their job on their behavior(Stacey, 2011). She concludes that Different personality features of employees have a significant impact on the organization just the same way different people have on each other.

A leader should also consider the Meso community of the organization.  According to Stacy (2011), meso organizational behavior deals with people’s behavior when working together or general human behavior in groups. She emphasizes that knowledge of meso organisational behavior enables a leader to determine a combination of skills among group, members that raise their performance, what kind of socialization motivates staff as well as how managers can determine the potential leader when dealing with promotion.

Community Leadership
Community Leadership

Macro community is aimed at comprehending an organisational behavior on the entire organization and the effects as well as the relationship between the company and the outside environment, (Schneider & Somers, 2006). They argue that the concept of macro organisational community is based on such disciplines as: sociology, which deals with the structure, organisational relationship as well as the social status; anthropology, which deals the cultural influences of both the organization and outside community as well as symbolism; political science, which deals with theories on power, mediations as well as conflict resolution and; economics, which balances competitiveness and efficiency. They further hypotheses that effective macro organizational practices can enable management to answer questions related to; power distribution in the company and how to maintain it, conflict resolution, strategies that can be used to coordinate work activities, how the company will be structured to control its internal and external environment (Schneider & Somers, 2006).  The indicate that effective macro organisational leadership can be manifested in an organization that has en effective coordination and cooperation in its departments and groups,  the application of both formal and informal ways in interorganizational communication as well as effective relationship between the organization and its specific relation to the environment .

Lichtenstein, B.B. et al. (2006) argues that community leadership should not be based on the view of pure formal organizations or even community organizations but should rather be based on a combination of the two which results to efficient management that balances the two sides, thus enabling organizations to not only achieve their goals but also operate in a sustainable environment. He however notes that community leadership may be hindered by several factors such as: higher resources needed to develop and maintain community projects and programs, especially by small organizations; hindrance by some communities for organizations intended or commences project or service delivery and; displacement of the growth paradigm with globalization paradigm.

Uhl-Bien & Marion (2009) hypothesizes that the culture of an organization is vital when dealing with community leadership. The culture of an organization does not only reflects on attitudes, philosophies and values but also  influences  the manner in which the organization’s staff interact with the management, between themselves and other stakeholders in and out of the organization. Since community leadership has to address this interaction, it is vital for the organization to instill a culture of responsibility to the external factors of the organization on in its staff.

According to Uhl-Bien & McKelvey (2007), in community and leadership, various teams, programs, and projects should be created in order to drive the different agendas of the company to success. Sustainability teams should be created to enhance implementation, execution, and completion of started projects and programs. Creating teams of employees committed to different organisational projects and initiatives is a vital method of creating synergy, speeding implementation, and enhancing team spirit. These sustainability teams represent different organisational departments such as production, sales and marketing, supply chain, as well as customer care thus enabling the organization’s balanced relationship to the external environment.

References

Lichtenstein, B.B. et al. (2006) ‘Complexity leadership theory: an interactive perspective on leading in complex adaptive systems’, Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 8 (4), pp.2-12.

Schneider, M. & Somers, M. (2006) ‘Organizations as complex adaptive systems: implications of complexity theory for leadership research’, The Leadership Quarterly,17 (4), pp.351-365.

Stacey, R.D. (2011) Strategic management and organisational dynamics: the challenge of complexity. 6th ed. Harlow: Pearson

Uhl-Bien, M. & Marion, R. (2009) ‘Complexity leadership in bureaucratic forms of organizing: a meso model’, The Leadership Quarterly, 20 (4), pp.631-650.

Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R. & McKelvey, B. (2007) ‘Complexity leadership theory: shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era’, The Leadership Quarterly, 18 (4), pp.298-318

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I hope you enjoyed reading this post on community leadership. There are many other titles available in the business management dissertation collection that should be of interest to MBA students and academic professionals. There are many dissertation titles that relate to other aspects of business such as strategy, leadership, international business, mergers and acquisitions to name a few. It took a lot of effort to write this post and I would be grateful if you could share this post via Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section. Thank you.

Writing A Quality Business Dissertation

Writing A Quality Business Dissertation

Welcome! Here is a helpful collection of resources to help you Writing A Quality Business Dissertation. This post has been written to provide a general overview to writing business dissertations.

Writing Business Dissertations

Writing an extended piece of research such as a business dissertation can be a challenging but a rewarding process. The tips and techniques included here are designed to enable you to manage the writing process more effectively. This post highlights the importance of writing an inspirational business dissertation. It aims to help you to feel confident in writing your own business dissertation, and to support you in its successful completion.

Although your business dissertation should contain your own dissertation title or topic, you will also want to refer to the ideas of other academics that relate directly to your business dissertation topic. This shows evidence that you have research your business topic thoroughly.

Your business dissertation should critically evaluate existing ideas and identify potential problems that are still prevalent in your specific area of research. Also, do not forget to investigate a particular area of business that has not yet been explored. So many business management students write their business dissertations on over exhausted business fields of research. I have seen so many similar business dissertations written on Linkages between Organisational and Employee Behaviour and Advantages and Disadvantages of Globalisation. No disrespect here, but these business dissertation research topics are not exactly groundbreaking or original.

Business Students
Business Students

For you to handle academic research questions follow these steps;

Step 1 – Understand the question first

It is important to comprehend the requirements and expectations of the issue at hand. Be aware of different business genres that are creative writing, argumentative essays, and dissertation papers among others. Then lay out your ideas as per the requirements.

Step 2 – Manage your time

 Set aside time to deal with the assignment. If possible come up with a timetable that will guide you when handling the assignment. Do not underestimate the time required to handle a given task. Give it the attention it needs for you to submit an outstanding business dissertation.

Step 3 – Identify your audience

You should always consider the person who is going to read or mark your work. If you are aware of their likes, then write about them, and their dislikes avoid them. Moreover, avoid writing using a personal viewpoint (using; I, we or us) unless you have been asked to give your personal views.

Step 4 – Do proper research. Don’t glance over…

In order to submit an high quality business dissertation you must understand the question and then make sure you do good research. Use books, newsletters, journals, and diaries. Google scholar offers help with academic materials such as books and journals articles.

Step 5 – Referencing

You need to be certain you reference and cite all the materials used either in Harvard, APA or MLA style of referencing depending on specifications and university guidelines.

Step 6 – Get advice

Consult teachers, lecturers, and friends for help. It’s not wrong to ask for help and assistance where you do not understand or feel that you’re going off topic.

Step 7 – Check, check and check again.

Once done proofread and edit your work as an assurance you have done the best. Ask others for their views too before presenting your work for marking. Your dissertation supervisor is always looking for a quality business dissertation that clearly shows you applied logic, creative thinking, constructive arguments / critiques, fresh ideas to the research field and appropriate referencing.

Step 8 – Final step

Before you submit your business dissertation ensure the research has the following;

  • The required number of words.
  • Free from plagiarism.
  • The assignment has met your university’s guidelines.
  • Correct dissertation structure – This is very important.

Importance of writing a quality business dissertation

According to a study by Edwards (2010) concepts developed for one assignment can be used for the next assessment. The assignment is a clear indication that you have an excellent connection between the course material and the assignment itself. Studies for instance (Kalogrides, Loeb & Béteille, (2013) claim that assignments assist the learners in developing better skills that make the better responsible in the future. The ability to work on diverse topics indicates that students can cope with for instance managerial task in the future when they get employed. When teachers give assignments, they are using their expertise knowledge of different development levels to accomplish the course objectives. However, accosting to Burman (1992) there are no enough evaluations that are applied in students’ assignment evaluation, and thus students are asked to positively work on the little that the teachers offer as an assignment.

Business Dissertation Topics
Business Dissertation Topics

Business Dissertation Topics

Below is a list of business dissertation topics that you can look into if you are struggling to find a specific topic to research. These business management dissertation topics are current and should help you.

Entrepreneurship / Innovation Dissertation Topics

  • Strategic Analysis of Banks and Small Firms
  • Business Clustering
  • Business Incubators/Business Support
  • Corporate Entrepreneurship
  • Creative Problem Solving and Effective Decision Making
  • Entrepreneurial Environments
  • Entrepreneurial Management of the Innovation Process Discontinuous Innovation
  • Entrepreneurial Orientation
  • Initial Public Offerings
  • Management Buyouts
  • Managing Innovation within the chemical/pharmaceutical industry
  • Organisational Learning, entrepreneurship and innovation
  • Performance Returns of Entrepreneurship Activity
  • Private Equity
  • Social Capital
  • Social Entrepreneurship
  • Strategic Entrepreneurship
  • Technology Transfer and University Spin-Out Businesses
  • The Entrepreneurial Firm
  • The impact of Entrepreneurship education upon new business formation
  • Venture Capital

Business Strategy Dissertation Topics

  • An investigation of how the decision to invest in future strategic high applications is made
  • Applications of the resource-based view of the firm
  • Business failure and its consequences
  • Capital Structure – its impact on firm behaviour and performance [note:  this is intended to be a quantitative dissertation – some data may be available]
  • Corporate Environmental Strategies (such as corporate strategies to react to climate change; organisations and the natural environment, organisations and sustainability issues…)
  • Corporate Environmental Strategies and Sustainable Strategic management (such as corporate strategies to react to climate change; organisations and the natural environment…)
  • Corporate Restructuring – its impact on pay/performance/investment [note:  this is intended to be a quantitative dissertation – some data may be available]
  • Creative industries: challenges and opportunities
  • Diversifying Market Entry as a Search Process
  • Doing business in China and India
  • Entry, Exit and Pricing in Electronic Markets
  • Executive Remuneration [note:  this is intended to be a quantitative dissertation – some data may be available]
  • Far Eastern Business
  • How Climate Change had become a strategic issue for insurers [note: this is intended to be a qualitative research based on articles published in insurance papers]
  • Identifying Core Competences as Predictors of Market Entry/Survival
  • Informational Asymmetry, Player Fitness and the Football Transfer Market
  • Institutional change and reform in public services
  • Insurance markets for terrorism risks
  • International Business Strategy
  • Optimal Model Life for Successful Products
  • Organisational learning and knowledge management
  • Price Discrimination and Academic Journal Publishing
  • Prices and Price Dispersion in Electronic Markets
  • Pricing and Product Characteristics [note:  this is intended to be a quantitative dissertation]
  • Strategic decision making
  • Strategic decision-making processes (investigation of how strategic decisions, such as decision to outsource, to diversify, to create partnerships/alliance, to launch a new business…are made)
  • Strategies for aging populations
  • Strategy and regulation: the case of financial services
  • Strategy in the financial services industry
  • Strategy in the insurance Industry
  • Sustainability and strategic management
  • The economic sociology of strategy
  • The history of strategy
  • The political philosophy of strategic management

Sources

Burman, J. M. (1992). Out-of-Class Assignments as a Method of Teaching and Evaluating Law Students. Journal of Legal Education42(3), 447-457.

Bucak, S. S., Jin, R., & Jain, A. K. (2011, June). Multi-label learning with incomplete class assignments. In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2011 IEEE Conference on (pp. 2801-2808). IEEE.

Edwards, D. (2010). Managing an effective hardware based large class assignment.

Kalogrides, D., Loeb, S., & Béteille, T. (2013). Systematic sorting: Teacher characteristics and class assignments. Sociology of Education86(2), 103-123.

How To Reference A Dissertation

There are many other titles available in the business management and MBA dissertation collection that should be of interest to MBA students and academic professionals. There are many dissertation titles that relate to other aspects of business such as strategy, leadership, international business, mergers and acquisitions to name a few. It took a lot of effort to write this post and I would be grateful if you could share this post via Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section. Thank you.

Leadership Skills Effectiveness

Analysis of the American Meltdown Case in Relation to Leadership Skills and Organization Effectiveness

Leadership Skills – The role of leadership in any business environment is very important in ensuring effectiveness of the organization. In business, a leader is important since they define the purpose of the company or organization and lead it to success (Johansen and Kelly, 359). A valuable leader should be one who successfully makes innovations, ensures healthy competition and solves perplexing problems that may be facing the company. However, if a leader does not have the essential leadership skills, then he or she is bound to drive the organization to a downfall. This paper is an analysis of an American company that was affected by economic meltdown of 2008. The analysis will address specific aspects of leadership such as behavior, team processes and organization effectiveness.

Analysis of the economic meltdown of 2008 and how investment firms were affected

The case documented in the frontline website was a video that discussed about one investment bank named Bear Stearns Company. This company acquired huge exposure in 2008 through its dealings on subprime mortgages and other toxic assets (Frontline, 2014). Bear Stearns Company was also involved in trading of stocks and securities and at the same time was also a brokerage firm. In the year 2008, the company experienced one of the biggest failures that were partly caused poor leadership decisions among the country’s top economic experts (Frontline, 2014). This crisis was mainly caused by the housing sector which had invested a lot of money, amounting to trillions of dollars, in toxic mortgages. Most of the housing and investment firms were located on Wall Street including the investment firm, Bear Stearns Company.

During the same time, the company was facing a looming crisis due to the millions of dollars it had invested in bad mortgages and toxic assets. In addition, the company’s stocks had already dropped drastically from 171 dollars per share to a mere 57 dollars (Frontline, 2014). This made the company come into a state of bankruptcy and something had to be done urgently. The Federal Reserve chairperson, Ben Bernanke made a decision that the current crisis had to be taken care of urgently. In order to stabilize the market, Bernanke proposed a merger between Bear Stearns and another commercial bank JP Morgan (Frontline, 2014).

The American government made the decision that they would use thirty billion dollars to cover up the toxic assets and mortgages that Bear Stearns Company had invested heavily. However, this decision was a very dangerous and precarious one that saw many other companies become affected(Frontline, 2014). The economy faced a major meltdown as other investment firms such as Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac became victims of the collapse of giant mortgage companies. In the next few hours, the stock markets crashed completely and credit markets all over the world became frozen. This entire crisis was caused by terrible leadership decisions that were caused by economic leaders and stock market analysts.

Aspects of leadership skills and behavior as portrayed in the economic meltdown video case

Effective leadership is characterized by knowing the right decisions to make on behalf of the company or organization. A successful leader is one who is able to know which decisions can lead to failure and which ones can lead to success (Duygulu and Çıraklar, 391). Leadership entails keeping decisions compatible in light of the needs of the organization. In this case, the economic leaders made decisions that were disastrous to the investment firms and stoke companies located in Wall Street and all over America.

The secretaries of the national treasuries at that time were Henry Paulson and his partner Ben Bernanke. They were responsible for making decisions that were harmful and biased and were not beneficial to the business and economic industry. These leaders decided to bail out Bear Stearns at the expense of the other ones which were later doomed to fail. In addition, these two leaders made the unanimous decision to nationalize three of the county’s largest companies (Frontline, 2014). Moreover, they threatened senior legislators to release seven hundred million dollars or else they would be held responsible for the failing economy. Such leadership behavior can be termed as unacceptable since these two leaders took advantage of their power to manipulate other people.

A good leader must be able to socially integrate and envision the success of his company even in the wake of a looming crisis. He or she should not allow the prevailing situation to become a tempting factor to make him make an impromptu decision on behalf of the company (Duygulu and Çıraklar, 391). Leadership is much more than just a mere function and requires several positive traits such as competent behavior, self-sacrifice, integrity and performance oriented. These skills are crucial in ensuring that the organization runs effectively and that each member of the team is able to fulfill their obligations (Duygulu and Çıraklar, 391). When these traits are demonstrated and portrayed the daily business scenario, then success is bound to follow.

Leadership Skills
Leadership Skills

An efficient leader is one who is able to create a following that will listen and emulate them without any obligation at all. In this case, there was an economic meltdown that began by affecting the housing industry where people who had taken mortgages were at the highest risk. After rumors were released into the public that even investment firms and banks would be affected next, people decided to withdraw their stock shares from whichever companies they had invested (Frontline, 2014).

The leaders of the banks and investment firms had made wrong decisions that resulted in the collapse of their businesses. These leaders went ahead to make investment decisions that they knew would seriously affect the performance of the business. It is true to state that these leaders did not have the sufficient personal competence or attributes to make wise decisions on behalf of the company. The style of leadership must match the expectations and number of followers (Johansen and Kelly, 361). This means that leadership is not only a function of the leader but also of the people who are being led.

The economic leaders, bank managers and heads of the investment firms were responsible of leading a very large number of people (Johansen and Kelly, 361). This people looked up to them to make informed decisions that would be profitable and beneficial at the same time. It is dangerous when a leader does not put into consideration the plight of the people that he is leading. It is important that leaders should prioritize the concerns of the greater public before they make the final decision (Johansen and Kelly, 361).

The decision that was made by the top economist of the country Paul Krugman was responsible for the destruction of the entire country (Frontline, 2014). The decision that he made was an utter nightmare that any economic or policy maker could not agree to. The leadership skills and behaviors discussed in the documentary were directly related to the effectiveness of the organizations that were affected. Organizational effectiveness is very crucial to the success of the economy of every country or state. This term is used to refer to the strategies and initiatives that promote and encourage the company to realize its full potential. Organizational effectiveness ensures that the company or organization is able to make positive and lasting contributions that primarily target the development of the business (Hirsova et al, 102). Such effectiveness can only be achieved when the overall leaders are strong willed, hardworking and uphold a high level of integrity. To create organization effectiveness, business leaders are advised to focus on engaging and aligning other people into forming a workable team (Hirsova et al, 102). Each person in the company performs a unique role in ensuring that the company achieves its ultimate goal. Therefore, it is the duty of the leader to unite and cluster the employees into strong teams that will deliver success on behalf of the company (Schaubroeck, 1053).

The people’s management systems, their structure and capability must be included in the efforts of ensuring that effectiveness is achieved by the organization. The leaders of Bear Stearns Company did not exhibit any strategic planning in ensuring that the company did not run at a loss. Instead, these leaders chose to invest in a risky business venture that led to serious and damaging consequences. The company invested in mortgage and housing that later became toxic assets to them. In order for the company to be rescued from this hole, the leaders and top managers accepted the offer that the commercial bank JPMorgan was proposing for them. The latter company proposed to merge with them so as to lift them up from the imminent status of bankruptcy that as staring them in the face. Such a decision could be termed as being selfish and imprudent since these leaders were only concerned with what would happen to their lives in case the companies collapsed (Hirsova et al, 102).

These leaders did not put into consideration or think about the consequences that would follow after they made such a hasty decision. The merger of these two companies happened at the expense of the nation’s economy since it required additional funding from the treasury. A leader who has been chosen to serve at the national level is supposed to exhibit strong and robust behavior that is worth emulation since many people look up to him (Hirsova et al, 102). In addition, such leaders are expected to be completely selfless and serve the interest of the people to their complete satisfaction. The frontline documentary was able to show that the leaders in this case were selfish and made hurried decisions that were not beneficial for the company and country’s future at large. They did not exhibit any positive aspects of leadership such as being steady decision makers. Instead, they fall prey to the pressures of the failing company performance that was followed by a much larger disaster of economic meltdown.

These leaders should consider employing some modifications in their leadership skills and behavior that can help them in correcting the mistakes that they had already committed. First, these leaders should try to encompass the leadership qualities that are crucial for every person with the mandate to lead (Hirsova et al, 102). They should realize that being a good leader involves having high integrity, being hardworking and able to make informed decisions. A good leader is also one who studies the prevailing situation whenever a problem arises and sits down to plan the next forward move to make. Furthermore, effective leadership is one where the leader is able to incorporate the needs of employers and members of the organization so that everybody’s needs are met (Hirsova et al, 102).

In conclusion, the frontline documentary was able to highlight the dangers of what can occur when leadership is not effective. This documentary showed the case of what happened when economic and investment leaders made disastrous decisions when they were faced by an economic meltdown. The leaders of Bear Stearns Company decided to merge with JP Morgan Company even when they knew that such a move was terribly wrong. In the end, this decision resulted in a financial crisis where companies collapsed and others became bankrupt. To date, people still refer to this case study in order to learn useful tips on leadership and organizational effectiveness.

Works Cited

Johansen, Morgen, and Kelly LeRoux. “Managerial Networking In Nonprofit Organizations: The Impact Of Networking On Organizational And Advocacy Effectiveness.” Public Administration Review 73.2 (2013): 355-363. Business Leadership Skills Source Complete

Schaubroeck, John M., “Embedding Ethical Leadership Skills Within And Across Organization Levels.” Academy Of Management Journal 55.5 (2012): 1053-1078 Business Source Complete

Duygulu, Ethem, and Nurcan Çıraklar. “Effects Of Leadership Roles On Team Effectiveness Leadership Skills.” Ege Academic Review 9.2 (2009): 389-400

Hirsova, M. Zelena, V., Vachova, L., & Novak, M. (2013) Effective Leadership Skills – can Soft Skills Contribute to the Effectiveness of an Organization? Proceedings of the European Conference on Management, Leadership & Governance, 100-104

Frontline (2014) The Deal to Save Bear Stearns

Click Here To View Management Dissertation Topics

Multicultural Diversity

Effects of Multicultural Diversity Organizational Processes

Managing a multinational corporation requires one to understand different cultures that comprise the subordinate staff. This is because different cultural backgrounds promote different social communication skills that define personal relationship amongst members of a certain workgroup. Thus, Members in a heterogeneous group consisting of employees sourced from different cultural backgrounds have the ability to generate diverse ideas that can help streamline organizational strategies. This benefits the organization by improving and enhancing communication links within organizations. Information is thus shared freely amongst the subordinate staff of the organization. Predominantly male or female oriented workgroups suffer from intra-gender conflicts as competition for supremacy in the group disrupts communications within the entire organization. This because power and role struggles dominates relationships between employees as they seek favors from their senior managers hoping to be rewarded with promotions or pay rises. This presents barriers to effective communication hindering the flow of the necessary organization processes pivotal to the business as a separate entity.

According to Hofstede, a manager in charge of such an organization should strive to understand how the subordinates relate to each other culturally before grouping them together to perform a certain task. In addition, it is important for a manager to understand how cultural beliefs affect employee’s judgment towards organizational issues to align the organization goals focused on meeting their personal needs. Thus, the paper will focus on how multicultural diversity affects organizational processes in a Multinational Corporation such as Euro Disney Land.

Multicultural diversity is appreciating and accepting the existence of multiple cultures as related to the demographic make-up of a certain group of individuals. It affects relationships within a group depending on the level of acceptance of different cultures comprising the group. In an organization, it describes the demographic make-up at the organizational level aimed at harnessing benefits of different cultures both from major and minority identity groups. Proponents for embracing multicultural diversity in an organization suggest that increasing the number of minority groups improves cohesion within the organization’s management structure. For example, increasing the number of women in an organization to match the number of the male counterparts, improves contact between them. This in turn it reduces the overlap between sex roles and work roles that hinder proper information flow within the organization’s structure. The overall organizational effectiveness is enhanced by increasing the role of traditionally underrepresented groups within an organization. Multicultural diversity influences both positively and negatively the overall organizational effectiveness of a multinational corporation.

Effects of Group Composition

Demographic diversity increases the pool of human resources that can assist an organization to achieve its set organizational goals and objectives. These may include styles, perspectives, insights related to solving complex organizations needs or problems. For centuries, women and people of color have suffered immense discrimination both at social gatherings and at work places (House, Hanges, Ruiz-Quintanilla, Dorfman, & Javidan, 2010). The cultural perspectives and styles of these marginalized groups are valuable assets that managers of organizations can exploit to improve the overall organization effectiveness other than relying solely on the role played by the majority groups.

In essence, multicultural diversity in managerial ranks of an organization serves the needs of an organization better as compared to reliance on dominant cultures only. Proponents for multicultural diversity further argue that cultural values dominant among black people such as forthrightness, assertiveness, verbal inventiveness, and good will can be beneficial in stimulating organizational interactions among the subordinate (Moon, March 1997). This is a positive representation of how odd deficiencies in a race can contribute to the overall integration of organizational values along ethnic lines. It is important to remember how each race contributes positively towards organizational effectiveness to meet the needs of each employee successfully. It is important for a manager to understand how cultural beliefs affect employee’s judgment towards organizational issues to align the organization goals focused on meeting their personal needs.

Employees feel confident and secure in their jobs whenever they see efforts being made to allow cultural integration within the organization. For example, being a manager of an organization located in the Middle East requires one to embrace the Muslim culture such allowing women to wear veils in the office. This may seem odd in western countries but in culturally controlled civilization such as the Middle East, they demand respect for their culture. Therefore, the manager has no option but to be flexible enough to meet employee’s personal satisfaction in their work. Members in a heterogeneous group consisting of employees sourced from different cultural backgrounds have the ability to generate diverse ideas that can help streamline organizational strategies (Cox, 1994). This in turn provides an opportunity for the manager to improve on the quality of decisions made by incorporating ideas sourced from different employees. In a study carried out at Apple.inc on May 3, 2008, mixed-sex groups performed better in organization processes than single-sex groups. This was an indication of how useful multicultural diversity is towards mobilizing human resources to achieve set organizational goals.

Diversity and Workgroup Functioning

Even though increasing the number of traditionally underrepresented groups yield more success to the organization, it does require power relations balance between the dominant and subdominant groups in the company. On gender representation, empirical values favor men more than women skewing the trend towards male dominated leadership. Some cultures prohibit women from desiring to compete equally to men for leadership but should rather concentrate on family matters (Kundu, July – December 2001). This favors men over women increasing the gender disparity in Multinational Corporation to less than 30% of the total number of employees. Allowing employees to express their individual perspectives at the place of work may fetch in both rewards and disaster for the organization. First, benefits because the organization has a large pool of human resources committed to meet the set organizational goals and objectives. On the contrary, they may express their newfound freedom to indulge even in matters not concerning them.

Diversity Perspective

Integration and Learning

In a heterogeneous group, decision-making takes long as everyone’s opinion must be put into account complicating the organizational process that is simple when attempted by a homogeneous group. Thus, the manager should play the role of integrating cultural diversity in a workgroup to ensure all the functions of the organization are in harmony with the subordinate’s views (Cox, 1994). Training programs offer employees a chance to understand the role they play in an organization minimizing conflicts commonly associated with managing a heterogeneous group.

Access and Legitimacy

Unlocking the potential of a business or an organization requires communicating the organizational goals to all the members of the subordinate. Therefore, managing an international corporation requires giving every subordinate access to the information more so that relating to their field of operation (Cox, 1994). To control information shared within an organizational process; employees can be issued with different access codes limiting the information they retrieve.

Diversity Climate Factors

In a group, personal affiliations with people of different cultures affect the overall organizational behavior in a multinational corporation. Therefore, a manager in charge of such an organization should strive to understand how the subordinates relate to each other culturally before grouping them together to perform a certain task. This because employees define their values and principles based on their group affiliations. Most employees feel confident to work when coupled with subordinates they share a cultural background with since personal affiliations boost their self-esteem. Being a member of a certain tribe or race attracts several stereotypes that may irritate the subject of ridicule. For instance, a Black American would feel uncomfortable working with a white colleague because of the dark past between the two races (Kundu, July – December 2001). Muslims are falsely mistaken to be terrorists just because of their choice of religion. Other races seem to view them with suspicion thus weakening trust among subordinates. This eventually affects the overall performance of the group and may stall organizational processes due to differences in personal beliefs and affiliation.

Therefore, to rally such a group requires first understanding their personal relations in order maximize their output by utilizing their individual relationships. Personal affiliations are a key source of motivation that is cost-free to the organization. In this, the manager needs only to group the subordinates according to their personal affiliations to trigger personal motivation amongst the employees as they seek to impress their colleagues.

According to a research carried out by Ijzendoorn, a Dutch researcher in 2005 revealed that some persons affiliated to certain cultural groups suffer discrimination and prejudice for simply being members of the minority group. Authoritarian personalities present in dominant races seem less tolerant towards subordinates who are members of underrepresented minority groups (Guidroz, Kotrba, & Denison, 2009). This causes tension between how the two groups relate towards the chain of authority in an organization. For instance, the three major sources of prejudice namely communication proficiency, physical attractiveness, and legal issues such immigration affect relations among individuals in a multicultural group created to achieve a certain objective.

Irrespective of an employee’s educational status and academic achievements, physical attractiveness rooted in their DNA plays a major role when a manager is choosing the subordinates to work with. In addition, their communication attitude attributed to their upbringing and cultural backgrounds determines how an employee responds to others working in the same unit or group (Rao, 2006). In the current business world, English language is a prerequisite for every employee seeking to work for a multinational corporation. Thus, if someone is not proficient enough in the language they are viewed as not intelligent enough.

Stereotyping

In an organization, the root cause of power struggles is because of stereotyping among the subordinates. For example, hiring a woman as the senior manager in organization causes a status of rebellion among male compatriots. This role-playing struggle affects the flow of information throughout the organization’s management structure. Those against the proposed power-sharing status in the organization present hurdles aimed at discouraging all her managerial efforts and strategies.

Stereotypes that exist within a working organization may affect the establishment of productive relationships across the subordinate staff as people relate to different cultural identities differently. If the divide is too wide between the two groups involved in the power struggle, the manager should intervene to arrest the situation before it evolves into a managerial crisis that may halt vital organizational process (Appelbaum, 2002). Personal relationships among employees working for an international corporation determine the level of trust bonding them together to achieve the set goals and objectives efficiently.

Informal Integration

In an organization, informal groups define themselves along factors such as common language, ethnocentrism, and social similarities among the subordinates. These social networks play a very vital role in enabling efficient communications within an international corporation. Differences in races and cultural backgrounds determine the dominant social networking skills possessed by different employees (Ely & Thomas, June, 2001). Therefore, the senior manager of a Multinational Corporation should be accommodative enough to understand how well to communicate to each group of employees formed along certain social networking skills. People prefer to associate themselves more with those who share a common cultural background, as they feel closer to them due the common features they share culturally.

Multicultural Diversity and Management

The basic attitudes and values shared by individuals of a certain cultural group affect their response to managerial attitudes and ideologies. Moreover, since culture affects how people think and act, it can affect positively or negatively government-business relations (Lott, 2010). In some cultures or societies, a few top managers are charged with the responsibility of making important decisions related to the organizations they lead in complete disregard of the opinions expressed by the subordinate.

In a country such as Japan, employees relate more close to an organization’s management as compared to their American counterparts who do not care about the welfare of the organization they are working as long as they get their pay. This shows that if one has to manage an organization that is based in these two countries, they must be ready to vary their managerial strategies to suit the two situations (Lott, 2010). In communist and socialist economies, cooperation is encouraged among people while in Capitalist economies competition is seen as the only way to achieve success. Therefore, the type of eco-cultural ideologies embraced by a society determines the type of organizational strategies used to implement the company’s missions on a foreign territory.

Diversity Management

According to Hofstede, being the senior major of a multinational corporation requires understanding the different cultural divides that exist in a common work group. This is because an international corporation does business in different countries sourcing their human resource from the native population. This brings in the factor of cultural disparities as people relate differently to foreign authority. In some case, an international corporation doing business in a foreign territory may be seen as an extension of neo-colonialism especially in communist and nationalist societies. This presents barriers to effective communication hindering the flow of the necessary organization processes pivotal to the business as a separate entity (Bhattacharyya, 2010). A variety of opinions generated by cultural differences assist to improve the quality of decisions made as well as the emergence of unique behavioral styles of leadership. For decades, gender disparity affects the communication behaviors exhibited by individuals within a workgroup as they relate uniquely to each other based on their different cultural affiliation. Thus, it is crucial for a manager to create and develop workgroups that reflect gender balance based on cultural motivation to self-motivate the subordinates to remain loyal to their duties and responsibilities.

Multicultural Diversity
Multicultural Diversity

Predominantly male or female oriented workgroups suffer from intra-gender conflicts as competition for supremacy in the group disrupts communications within the entire organization. In male dominated, money and power are the main causes of conflict as each member of the group wants to be regarded as the most influential due to the great power and respect they command in the entire organization. Chauvinistic male senior managers tend to prey on women for sexual favors in exchange for work-related appointments that promise money and power to women victims (Kochan, Bezrukova, Ely, & Jackson, November, 2002). This stems from the way culture has conditioned men that a woman is barely a sexual object that can be bought at a cost. Due to the harsh economic conditions being experienced worldwide, women tend to give in to these temptations to gain financially even though they have to compromise their morals upheld by their cultures.

Influence on Group process and Group Outcomes

Positive communications links bonding the members of a workgroup together help to reduce conflicts as well as improve cooperation among the group members. Efficient problem-solving strategies coupled with concise communications links improve the overall performance of the workgroup. For a group of subordinates to achieve success in completing a task delegated to them by the senior manager, they must be willing to communicate ideas, collaborate as well as compromise their views and opinions to increase the overall performance of the group (Guidroz, Kotrba, & Denison, 2009). Therefore, the senior manager should give the group the freedom to be creative by allowing them to utilize their cultural affiliations to improve their daily outcome delivery frequency. Thus, effective communication skills sourced from employees sharing different cultural backgrounds reduce the degree of organization conflicts as well as establish positive influence on the overall workgroup outcomes.

Cultural and Gender Diversity and Group Outcomes

Multicultural diversity increases a groups critical thinking base as personal relations amongst the members of the group generate alternative viewpoints to an issue requiring consultations before a decision is made about the overall group process. This redefines the clarity of decisions of individual workgroups in an organization improving the overall organizational outcomes. If cultural diversities within an organization promote negative effects such as racism, tribalism, gender disparity and discrimination, then the ripple effect will cause a negative process outcome affecting other group processes such as communication (Bhattacharyya, 2010). Thus, the manager of such an organization should try to attain equitable balance between the effects of culture and gender diversity in order to focus the energy and resources of the entire workgroup towards achieving set goals and objectives. It is hard but with proper training and experience one can absorb cultural differences prominent in a group and promote unity and accountability within the organization.

Even though gender equity promotes balance and cohesion within a workgroup, empirical figures fail to support this phenomenon in a normal working place as men usually outweigh the number of female colleagues by far. This is because most cultures do not allow women to pursue their careers reducing their chances of entering the corporate level of business management (Ely & Thomas, October 2000). For instance, in countries such as Germany, France, UK, U.S, and Eastern European countries, good governance and leadership is viewed as the central keys pillars that support democracy and fairness within an organization. In an organization, the founders tend to determine the behavior of their subordinate leaders by ensuring they use management selection criterions that favor members of a certain culture as their preferred employees. Furthermore, the societal and cultural norms endorsed by the founders of an organization induce global leadership practices desired by the owners. In turn, the subordinate managers have the responsibility to enforce the norms throughout the organization.

Once the founders of the organization establish the initial organizational culture, subsequent leaders and their subordinates have a responsibility of upholding the practices irrespective of their cultural backgrounds. However, as the leadership of the organization is handed down to different generational leaders, dominant organizational cultures are usually altered to favor the dominant races or genders within the organization. This is usually unfair to the minority-underrepresented groups, as they have to tone down their cultural beliefs to accommodate the overall organizational cultural norms dominant in each workgroup they join (Moon, March 1997). Organizational contingencies force managers of international organization to adopt new leadership attributes aimed at fostering the desired communication behavior within the organization.

A Case Study on How Multicultural Diversity Affects International Corporations

Euro Disney Cultural Problems in France

According to Hofstede’s cultural dimension on power distance index, Euro Disney Park under the management of Ron miller failed to understand the acceptance levels of power and authority among the French population that they expected to be their customers. Since France has a high Power Distance Index of 69 out of 100 on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, it therefore means that the French population is more assertive to infringement on their individual privacy by the government or any powerful institution such as Euro Disney S.C.A (Keegan & Green, 2002). It was a failure by the management of Euro Disney to start requiring French citizens working for them and those visiting the park to speak in English at all meetings inside the park.

Trompenaars’ Research on Organizational Culture

According to Hofstede’s cultural dimension on Uncertainty Avoidance Index, France has a high score of 86/100. This means that the French population was not tolerant to trends of uncertainty and ambiguity that Euro Disney management were trying to introduce to the rigid French culture.  Euro Disney management disregard for the French culture was the beginning of the company’s problems in its operations in France. In addition, they required all the employees working for them to maintain a strict Disney’s appearance code for members of staff. This appearance code for members of staff required every one working at Euro Disney to use no make-up, facial hair, tattoos nor any type of jewelry while working for the company.

Trompenaars’ research on organizational culture helps to explain the cultural differences between the United States and France by highlighting how the management of Euro Disney developed a pattern of assumptions that eventually led to its slow growth in Paris France. The Managers at Euro Disney made so many assumptions about how they expected the French population to accept their American culture. What they failed to understand is that the French citizens loved their personal space and individual rights protected by the French law and any attempt to infringe on was met with numerous lawsuits that destabilized the operations of the company (Keegan & Green, 2002). The most appropriate way that the company would have to gain popularity between the French population, would have been to embrace the French language and culture as proposed to them by the French government. This would have attracted even those natives of France who did not speak English fluently as they would be allowed to converse in French whist in the park.

Mistakes That the Company Made In Managing Euro Disneyland

The three major mistakes that the company made in managing Euro Disneyland are as follows. The first major mistake that the company made when they set ground in France was requiring English to be spoken at all meetings inside the park. Many throughout France criticized this ignorant stand on language (Goodman, 1999). One very vocal journalist wrote in a French paper Le Figaro that he wished with all his heart that the rebels would set Euro Disneyland on fire for the lack of respect for the indigenous French culture. Many protesters viewed this restriction on language use in the park as new age colonialism. It was not fair for the managing director of Euro Disneyland to restrict speaking in French in the park since it is the national language of France and his target market is the French population (Ely & Thomas, June, 2001). Some people refused to visit the park not because they were not interested but it was because they considered language restrictions in the park as a form of cultural imperialism that the Americans were trying to introduce to France.

Therefore, the company failed to attract the population it was targeting to capitalize on leading to the company making huge losses within its first year in operation. The second mistake that the company made was imposing dressing code regulations to all its employees. This regulation required all the employees of the company to limit their use of make-up, facial hair, tattoos and jewelry. The company did not take a proper dress code survey before they imposed this regulation (Keegan & Green, 2002). This is because if they did they would have learnt of the rich fashion culture that blooms in France and by imposing this regulation; they were insulting the fashion culture in France as a national heritage. The third major mistake that the company made in its operations in France was that they created small pathways like those in their main branch in California.

Conclusion

In summary, multicultural diversity affects the overall organizational culture that is dominant within workgroups comprising the organizational process. In addition, gender equity a key component of cultural relativity at work reduces conflicts within an organization improving the effectiveness of each organization process. In addition, personal affiliations with people of different cultures affect both positively and negatively the overall organizational behavior in a multinational corporation. Therefore, a manager in charge of such an organization should strive to understand how the subordinates relate to each other culturally before grouping them together to perform a certain task. Lastly, members in a heterogeneous group consisting of employees sourced from different cultural backgrounds have the ability to generate diverse ideas that can help streamline organizational strategies. This in turn provides an opportunity for the manager to improve on the quality of decisions made by incorporating ideas sourced from different employees.

References

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