The Impact of Globalisation on Leader-Follower Relationship in China - Term Paper Example

The Impact of Globalisation on Leader-Follower Relationship in China ID Number) (Unit (Unit Submitted) Background The topic of the study is ‘the impacts of globalisation on leader-follower relationship in China’. This study focuses on how globalisation has changed the relationship in the work places. The project is very important as it will help to know how far globalisation has an effect on the leader-follower relationship. The reason for choosing the topic would be to learn more about the impacts of globalisation in industry relations and especially among the leaders and the subordinates and leadership in general. The study is to be carried out on the Sinopec industry in China. Sinopec industry is one of the largest industries that deal with petrochemical and petroleum. Knowing that globalisation has made these relationships to be effective and how important it is to have effective relationship between the two, the study aims at investigating the effects in Sinopec industrial relations including both the advantages and disadvantages. Aims To determine the effect of globalisation on the relationship between the leaders and the followers in Sinopec industry. To analyse the leader-follower relationship To investigate the leadership qualities To understand more about the globalisation and its impact on the that relationship Objectives To develop and justify a suitable technique or methodology that will be used for the research To gather suitable information from the research To analyse the data collected and compare it with the present findings To thoroughly review on literature To develop suitable recommendations that would improve the management practice in Sinopec industry Preliminary literature review Stubblefield states that leader-follower relationship is the connection that exists between the leaders and the subordinates. The nature of the relationship affects the quality of their performance. A good relationship focuses on empowering the followers and encouraging them to come up with strategic plan which is a way of involving them in the decision making. It also increases the effectiveness of the leadership. It increases the commitment of the entire team and the productivity of the organization. It also increases the trust in the leaders. To have an effective leader-follower relationship, there should be relationship building and effective links of communication (Stubblefield, 2010). Fujita, Aji and Kyaw argue that the relationship between leaders and followers can be affected by culture. They explain that it is also affected by the leadership pattern. Leadership entails having a leader who is able to engage the followers toward the goal, advocating the changes and coping with challenges. Leadership that is follower centered is increasing and it involves empowering the employees which promotes independent thinking and the degree of activeness among the followers. Globalisation has contributed to the follower-centered type of leadership (Fujita, Aji, & Kyaw, 2009). Globalisation has changed the form of leadership in China which was paternalistic leadership. This includes authoritarian leadership which gives the leader all the control over the follower. In this case he is a dictator and demands total obedience from the followers as the leadership entails authority and discipline. This affected the organisational commitment, the trust in the leaders and the satisfaction of the employees. It affected and the dignity and personality of the followers and it made them fear their leaders. The leaders made the decisions all by themselves. This shows that the relationship between the leader and the follower was very poor. This leadership transformed to being focused on the employees and the task due to globalisation. The leaders became less harsh on the followers (Chou & Cheng, 2006). There is different leadership styles practiced in different organisations in different countries such as transactional and transformational leadership that is being practiced in the organisations in China. The transformational leadership is more effective that transactional leadership. The transformational leadership helps to increase the efficiency of the employees. They leaders pose as the models to help the employees to be more productive. The leaders set the standards for the organisation that is expected to be achieved by all the workers. The followers or the workers are expected to perform very well and this influences the performance and the attitude of the followers (Goethals, Sorenson, & Burns, 2004). The leaders have adopted transformational leadership that gives freedom to employees to interact more with the leaders. Leaders are more concerned about the performance of the employees and their well being. It gives them a chance to participate in the decision making of the organisation. This also increases the performance of both the leaders and the followers and this increases the productivity of the organisation due to good interaction and communication among themselves. It has made the leader-follower relationship very effective (Gao & Bai, 2011). Globalisation has changed the compensation packages. It has also brought benefits on the job opportunities. In China there has been a high rate of globalisation that has been experienced and the compensation package has also increased. However, some scholars argue that the social safety net is at risk as it is being misused (Zhou, 2010). China has earned a lot as a result of globalisation. It has increased employment in the country and the workers have their wages raised. They are now at a higher rate than before. This is really good for all the workers as they get to be positively affected by globalisation (Van Dijk, 2006). China is among the developing countries that have had its enterprises improve performance due to effective industrial relations as a result of globalisation. The leadership in china is making sure that the industrial relations are flexible for both the employees and the leaders. Employees now have job security and they are being appreciated and rewarded in many ways. Leaders are now focused on the creativity and innovation. Globalisation has also increased the development of skills and management of cross culture in the industrial relations. It has made the leaders to take interest in increasing the employees’ compensation. Globalisation has increased the stability of leader-follower relationship (Macdonald 1997). Elias argues that due to globalisation and the arrival of multinational companies (MNCs) has improved the lives of the employees. All respondents agreed to that statement. The MNC is popularly known to create jobs and offer better pay. The companies also value good working conditions and they have been implemented so that workers can work with minimal interruptions. They have an increased competitive advantage due to the strategic plan that enhances the performance of the workers by making them feel comfortable. The firms attract and train local labour and later they are upgraded. They make use of good training programs that have been copied and adopted by their competitors to improve their employment practices. The multinational companies focus on quality labour standards making them to be very responsible and ethical towards their followers (Elias, 2004). The cross cultural leaders of Multinational Companies will succeed in dealing with employees who have local cultural issues. This is due to the reason that the cross culture has an influence on the leadership behaviour. The cultural values tend to enhance management practices (Muenjohn & Armstrong, 2007). This shows that they would be willing to handle local cultural issues among the employees making them to interact more. The effective relationship leads to prosperity of an organisation by increasing its productivity and achieving the organisational goals. The relationship promotes the worth and usefulness of both the leaders and followers. This ensures effectiveness of the whole group. Sour relationship between the leaders and the followers may cause the whole group at large to collapse. Some of the factors that may show breakdown in the organisation are absenteeism, low performance and stress. When a follower decides to follow the leader it creates a positive relationship. This creates motivation and a good working environment (Thinking Bookworm, 2012). Advantages of globalization Globalisation has a number of impacts in a number of ways. The effects are; rate of transfer of international employees, increase in customer base and market, more opportunities and high competition. To make a leader successful and competitive globally one has to have courage, integrity, business and cultural knowledge. Globalisation affects both management and leadership in a number of ways. The challenges that organisations and managers face today are cultural compliance and transformation. In transformation there is adoption of the new technology and change of economy. Cultural compliance involves adapting to different cultures by embracing other people’s religion and language (Teune, 2011). Globalisation has created opportunities such as creating jobs because the opportunities in the business field are still increasing. Therefore it would put the employees to know that they can keep their jobs or move to a different one. The globalisation has improved the activities in companies and made them more specialized. This reduces the work force by he employees. It also makes it easy for the leaders to manage the organisation thus enhancing the relationship between them and the followers. The work organisations have been improved to better forms. These forms are non-standard and they make the employees to be flexible in their employment. They now have a chance to work part-time if they have other commitments such as family or advancing their learning. This also increases the moral of the workers and they become more productive. The globalisation has also led to the advancements of technology. This has resulted to an increase in interactions and communication in general. The advanced technology reduced the work of the employers and employees. This has enhanced the performance and productivity of the organisation (Habeeb, 2009). Disadvantages of globalisation Globalisation also has some disadvantages. One of the challenges that tend to affect the employees is when the company is relocated to someplace else in search of cheap labour. This results to unemployment leaving many people desperate. They are also retrenched when the companies adopt advanced technology thus reducing labour. It has simplified things in businesses therefore they reduce the number of workers in the firm (Naji Meidani & Zabihi, 2012). Globalisation may make the cultural barriers to break. It may also interfere with the good governance and cultural dialogues. This would affect the leadership and management practices (Zayani, 2011). Globalisation causes financial crisis and the poor countries will become poorer. This is due to the fact that there is a large population and most of the people are not educated and are not aware of the advanced technology. Research strategy and methodology The proposed method that would be used to obtain qualitative and primary data is the use of printed and electronic mailed questionnaires. The questionnaires are a good and effective way of collecting primary data because they give first-hand information. They also save on time and the researcher is able to collect information from a large number of employees. The questionnaire reduces discrimination between the respondent and the researcher (Handlechner, 2008). The secondary data was collected from the internet. These sources are relevant to the topic and the advantage of using the secondary data is that they are much faster and cheaper to access. They save time and give a broader understanding of the topic (Maxfield & Babbie, 2011). The instruments that will be used to collect data are computers and printed questionnaire and they should be readily available. The data collected will be from the employees and it would help to identify the leadership qualities and relationship between the leaders and the followers. It will be the best way to investigate the way performance of the fellow employees and the managers and the relationship between them. This would help know the intensity of the relationship between the leaders and followers. It would also help answer some of the questions like the impact of factors such as globalisation on the relationship Limitation of the study Use of questionnaires has some limitations such as the researcher does not get to know the degree of the respondent’s literacy skills (Houser, 2011). Collection of secondary data has disadvantages such as being outdated. It is also hard to know their accuracy and they might not suit the specific topic (Maxfield & Babbie, 2011). Time schedule The time between the commencement and the end of the research should be 8 days. The time scheduled for each stage is a maximum of three days each. Conclusion A good leader-follower relationship is very essential for the success of the organisation. Transformational leadership is a good example of leadership that positively impacts the followers. The leaders take the role of showing the followers how to perform effectively. Globalisation has helped to increase the productivity of organisations by enhancing the effectiveness of the leader-follower relationship. It has made the leaders to be more considerate of their subordinates and this has resulted to an increase in the rate of their performance and efficiency in businesses. The leadership qualities and pattern has greatly improved in china due to globalisation. This means that the results of the findings on the Sinopec industry are expected to be positive. List of references Elias, J. (2004). Fashioning Inequality:The Multinational Company and Gendered Employment in a Globalizing World. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. Fujita, K., Aji, L. W., & Kyaw, W. A. (2009, February ). Primary Study of Leader and Follower Relationship in Asia: Empirical Study on Managers at AEON in Asian Countries. Retrieved May 30, 2012, from http://www.iuj.ac.jp/im-info/Publications/pdf/IM-2009-04.pdf Gao, F. Y., & Bai, S. (2011). The effects of transformational leadership on organizational commitment of family employees in Chinese family business. Retrieved May 21, 2012, from http://www.ipedr.com/vol7/106-D00030.pdf Goethals, G. R., Sorenson, G. J., & Burns, J. M. (2004). Encyclopedia of Leadership, Volume 1. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Habeeb, F. (2009, Aug 31). Globalisation Challenges and Its Advantages. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from http://www.slideshare.net/fathima_sy/globalisation-its-challenges-and-advantages Handlechner, M. (2008). An Investigation Into Seasonality - How to Increase Overnight Stays in the Shoulder Season:A Case Study in Australia. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. Houser, J. (2011). Nursing Research: Reading, Using, and Creating Evidence. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Macdonald, D. (1997, May). Industrial Relations and Globalization: Challenges for Employers and Their Organization. Retrieved May 29, 2012, from http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/actemp/downloads/publications/dmirglob.pdf Maxfield, M. G., & Babbie, E. R. (2011). Basics of Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Muenjohn, N., & Armstrong, A. (2007). Transformational Leadership: The Influence of Culture on the Leadership Behaviours of Expatriate Managers. International Journal of Business and Information , 2 (2), 265-283. Naji Meidani, A. A., & Zabihi, M. (2012). The Dynamic Effect of Globalization on Unemployment Rate in Iran: A Co-integration Analysis. International Business Research , 5 (1), 120-126. Stubblefield, M. J. (2010, Jan ). Leader-Follower Theory: Meaning and Impact,. Retrieved May 27, 2012, from http://leadmcg.com/success/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=133:leader-follower-theory&catid=49:lead-publications&Itemid=103 Teune., H. (2011, April 7). LEADERSHIP IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE. Retrieved May 21, 2012, from http://www.youngleadersforum.org/Leadership%20in%20the%20Global%20Village.pdf Thinking Bookworm. (2012, April 18). Leader and Follower . Retrieved May 21, 2012, from http://thinkingbookworm.typepad.com/blog/2012/04/leader-and-follower.html Van Dijk, M. P. (2006). DIFFERENT EFFECTS OF GLOBALISATION FOR WORKERS AND the POOR IN CHINA AND INDIA, COMPARING COUNTRIES, CITIES AND ICT CLUSTERS. Journal of Economic & Social Geography , 97 (5), 503-514. Zayani, M. (2011). Media, cultural diversity and globalization: challenges and opportunities. Journal Of Cultural Diversity , 18 (2), 48-54. Zhou, Q. (2010). Globalization without Compensation:Politics of China’s embedded liberalism. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from http://home.uchicago.edu/~qiang/Research_files/China_ILM_Mar10_all.pdf Chou, L. F., & Cheng, B.-S. (2006, June 22). Does Globalization Matter: The Change of Power Distance and Its Effects on the Authoritarian Leadership in Chinese Organization. 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