Top executives and board members of a large international bank in New York are m
ID: 449774 • Letter: T
Question
Top executives and board members of a large international bank in New York are meeting to consider three finalists for a new position. The winning candidate will be in a high- profile job, taking charge of a group of top loan officers who have recently gotten the bank into some risky financial arrangements in the Middle East. The bank had taken a financial bath when the dollar dove in the past few years especially in their Yemen office because of their risky loans. The board voted to hire someone to directly oversee this group of loan officers and to make sure the necessary due diligence is done on major loans before further commitments are made. Although the bank prefers for decisions to be made as close to the action level as possible, they believe the loan officers have gotten out of hand and need to be reined in. The average age of the all-male group is 39. The effectiveness of the person in this new position is considered to be of utmost importance for the bank’s future. They are also aware that certain cultural differences have made the problem even harder to solve. They need a candidate who will know how to work with the Yemen employees and has some knowledge of the customs and language of the country. After carefully reviewing résumés, the board selected six candidates for the first round of interviews, after which the list of finalists was narrowed to two. Both candidates seem to have the intellect and experience to handle the job. Before the second-round interview, the board has decided to ask you to devise a set of questions that will help to elicit the information as to how familiar the candidates are with handling the cultural diversity issues the job will present. For your information one candidate is female the other male. The male candidate is 34 while the female is 36. Both candidate are attractive and single.
Explanation / Answer
This part focuses on the cultural diversity within an organization set up. In the job applicants, a successful person should be the one who can handle, learn and be ready to accept the new cultural environment within the firm`s working environment. Yemen culture is the one to be considered. Adaptation, learning, and identification all helps in to decode new cultures in the novel as it contributes to developing transformative experience. A leader should develop such skills to assist him in analyzing and learning to acclimatize to new environments and cultures. The use of the multicultural experiences helps in making the world creative, and innovative. Brown, Hallenbeck, Baird, (2009).
Culture plays a vital role in the success of the business. Businesses are always set up in communities with different cultures, and they need the firm to adapt and work towards observing such habits and following the traditions. The leader should now make an effort to learn and appreciate different cultures, and cultural adaptability has become a leadership imperative. For example, one needs to adapt to the world by learning different foreign languages suitable for work performance improvements like Robert McDonald, chief operating officer of the Procter & Gamble Company, who has learned several languages outside America.
Personal adaptability is also crucial in leadership performance. Adaptability is well developed through, considering what mental scripts are, differentiating observations from inferences, doing habitual insist, and analyzing what the successors can do in the industry. The level of adaptability is assessed through, openness to new ideas, adapting a change strategy, specific adaptations, and handling of unexpected demands. Brown, Hallenbeck, Baird, (2009)
It these relations, the questions I may ask the two job applicants are:
1. How many languages do you know and speaks? It will help to understand the level of exposure, interaction, and changes a candidate is exposed.
2. How many places have you ever visited and stayed in your life? It helps to analyze an applicant`s level of socializing and mingling.
3. What do you know about Yemen culture? It contributes to understanding and rate the time span an applicant will take to familiarize with the environment.
4. Now that you are single, how can you manage people from different cultural diversities if you cannot manage a family of your own?
5. Which organizations have you worked in previously? The question assists in understanding the different environment the applicant has been exposed to already and the general performance of those firms.
For an organization to create value, it should be an innovative and leading firm that can adapt to recent changes in the competitive world. Although many companies have an innovation gap. The two key factors that create the innovation gap, the first is knowledge. Many established organizations are not innovative and creative as their leaders do not understand the mechanism to make innovation a systematic process. Secondly, some of the management systems that made organizations successful in the industrial economy are now significant obstacles as they try to become more innovative in the knowledge economy. In the industrial economy, organizations could be efficient if they had well thought-out strategies and strong execution.
Organizations today need to learn quickly and use the learning across all levels I the firm. That agility implies a level of flexibility and adaptability may not be realized in an industrial model organization focused on eliminating variations and ambiguities.
Knowledge management is critical to the success of the business since it helps to create change, innovation, and creativity. In this regard, leaders will be aware of how to apply technology to boost the competitive advantage of the firm.
Sustainability is vital in business development. Business must recognize that for it to perform, it also uses natural and social capital. Natural capital, the environment, climate change if you want, or water stress and other situations, pose significant constraints today on business growth and development. Problems like climate change, resource depletion, and pollution can seem so vast as to be beyond the capacity of any person, or even corporation, to address. It is important as it provides a going concern of the firm that exists to satisfy the needs it is established to provide.
In conclusion, modern organization and their leadership team should develop a concept of change adaptation and be flexible, knowledgeable, culturally adaptive and innovative. It will help towards ensuring that the firm remained flexible and updated to the various changes hence helping in remaining competitive in the operating industry.
References:
Brown, T. J., Hallenbeck, R., Baird, M. E., American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials., National Research Council (U.S.)., & Oasis Consulting Services. (2009). 21st century leadership and management techniques for state DOTs. Washington D.C: AASHTO.
Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. (2013). Leadership for 21st century learning.
Greer, Melvin B., Jr. (2013). 21st Century Leadership: Harnessing Innovation, Accelerating Business Success. iUniverse Inc.
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