Leadership Strategies for Multicultural Teams môn Principle of Management | Trường Đại học Quốc tế, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh

III. Leadership strategies:
[After exploring the cultural differences and communication challenges of the Unilever’s
multicultural team, let me share you my group’s leadership strategies that ưe have developed to
effectively lead the team across cultures while ensuring the HR and ethical practices]
1) Using leadership styles in managing:
a) Transformational leadership: -
Influence the members by the leader’s behaviors. -
Focus on vision, innovation and encourage personal and professional growth.
[The Unilever company have adopted the transformational leadership style, whereas the leader’s
behaviors will influence the team members, inspiring them to perform beyond their capabilities
while still being able to focus on the vision and innovation of the company and encouraging the
employees’ personal and professional growth.]
https://www.untitledleader.com/lessons-in-leadership/paul-polman-a-sustainable-leadership-
model-for-todays-business-landscape/ b) Moral leadership:
[The Unilever company have adopted the transformational leadership style, whereas the leader’s
behaviors will influence the team members, inspiring them to perform beyond their capabilities
in order to actively addess. The we need to establish clear expectations. What we would do in
here is to clarify goals and expectations to set guidelines for the whole processes in
coommunication and to choose the suitable channels to make sure that the team members feel
accessible, reliable, and secure for the channels. Like Email, Microsoft Teams, or LinkedIn]
Unilever Future Leaders Programme (UFLP)
Business Integrity Program
Unilever diversity programs like “Unstereotype” or internal DEI training a) Adaptative Leadership:
-Flexible Management Styles: suit the cultural contexts of team members => balance
the directive and practicipative styles as appropriate.
-Responsive Decision-making: prepare to adjust decisions and strategies.
[Leader should be able to adapt to the new ones, we should be reminded that people from
different cultures can have different expectations from the leaders. So what we need to be is to be
flexible in managing to pick and adapt the leadership styles that can balance the directive and
participative styles in a team that makes the leader and the members to feel comfortable and
helps them show their best works. And also, sometimes, we cannot always predict the suitable
strategies for our team so we must be aware to adjust decisions and strategies in response the
members’ insights and feedback] In the process:
a) Facilitating Mutual Understandi ng:
-Cultural Acknowledgement: provide opportunities for the members to buil empathy and reduce misunderstandings.
-Team-building Activities: promote collaboration and understanding among team
members from different backgrounds.
[Within the process, as a leader, we should be able to tell, to encourage the members to
acknowledge the cultural differences in order to build empathy and reduce misunderstandings
among them. It’s also very crucial to create the space for the team members to collab or
understand about each other’s cultures. These can be done through informal sharing, team-
building sessions, or some short cultural sharing modules.] b)
Leveraging Cultural Diversity through Inclusive Structure:
-Recognize and integrate cultural strengths and perspectives
-Design inclusive team strutures and use strutual interventions
[The third step in here is to leveraging the cultural diversity in the team, and my group will use
the Inclusive Struture to accomplish this. We must be able to recognize and integrate the cultural
diveristy by valuing different strengths and perspectives of each cultures in the team. And after
identifying those, we will design the inclusive team structures by rotating the compositions or
balancing influence to organize the team in ways that reduce cultural friction and foster collaboration] c) Last Resort: Exit
-Used when collaboration becomes unsalvageable
-Formal request or voluntary decision to remove a team member
[When we have already done all of the strategies above but the team is still conflicting or the
relationships are too damaged beyond repair, we will use the last resort is the exit. It means that
we will remove individuals of the teams to resolve the problems. Like when a disagreement from
two members from the multicutural team couldn’t be resolved, one of them could possibly leave
the team or as a leader, we can formally request the individual to leave] Leading with Ethical Values:
-Fostering mutual respect and fairness
-Leading with accountability, intergrity, and transparency
-Cultivating a sense of service and community
[In a business, as a leader of a multicultural team, we are supposed to understand the ethical
values in leading. Firstly, it’s important to foster mutual respect and fairness at all levels of the
team and also the organization. Secondly, we need to be clear and responsible for all of the
actions. Lastly, it’s also important to cultivate a sense of service and community within the workplace.] Reference:
https://hbr.org/2006/11/managing-multicultural-teams
https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-do-you-establish-clear-consistent
https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-ethical-leadership-and-why-is-it-important/
#The-6-Main-Principles-of-Ethical-Leadership
https://www.peptalk.com/post/improve-team-performance-with-these-6-leadership-
strategies#:~:text=Leadership%20strategies%20and%20tactics%20are,approaches%20for %20the%20best%20results
Team Structure: with 8 members from 4 cultures: Vietnamese, American, Filipino, and Japanese
[The roles are aligned with each member’s potential strengths. The American will have high
creativity and storytelling, Vietnamese are adaptable and communicative, Filipino are naturally
empathic and great at reading tone, suitable for the social media. And the Japanese are very
precision and excellent at planning]
Case Study: Unilever (global company operating in 190 countries with a highly diverse workforce)
Their strategies in managing a multicultural operation:
-Unilever employs a transformational leadership style combined with inclusive leadership strategies
-Cultural Intelligence (Leaders are trained to understand and adapt to different
cultural norms and communication styles)
-Open Communication (Team members are encouraged to express ideas openly,
regardless of hierarchy or cultural background)
-Global Leadership Programs (Initiatives like the “Unilever Future Leaders
Program” prepare individuals to lead international teams)
Help Unilever to maintain high employee satisfaction and reduce conflicts in cross- border team.
https://www.runjournalofmanagement.com/index.php/runjm/article/download/135/63 IV. Conclusion:
-A multicultural team can bring both challenges and valuable opportunities.
-An effective leadership requires empathy, adaptability, and cultural respect.
-Inclusive strategies help build trust and collaboration.
-Accepting and embracing diversity can lead to innovation and team success.