Global Leadership Paper

MGMT 605

November 28, 2015

Global Leadership

The High Noon at Alpha Mills case study written Arif Hassan and Velayutham depicts a story of cross-cultural leadership problems in which a new appointed manager from different country was tasked to run operations in culture and industry that he did not understand or tried to get to know before. The end result was employees without their senior production supervisor, whom they heavily relied on, a deteriorating team performance, loss of morale, and a new manager scratching his head trying to figure out what went wrong. Cross-cultural leaderships should involve managers understanding, learning, and respecting the culture and leadership style of the host country in which they will reside or lead. This will allow cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, clearly communication which will help to result in productivity efficiency and alignment with the team.
Alpha Plantations, a Malaysian based crude palm oil manufacturing plant, has a deep engraved organization culture of militant leaders and loyal employees. The driving force to ensure smooth daily operations was Ang Lee, the senior production supervisor. His long career at the mill earned him the respect as the “gatekeeper” to the mill manager and lead problem solver on the floor. When the market began to decline a new mill leader, Ian Davidson was appointment to change the plant in a positive direction. Ian, who had an Ivy League MBA, was new to the country and culture. Immediately, he set in motion a plan to return the plant back into a profitable state. That is when Ang’s behavior began to change along with the productivity of the production force. This made Ang no longer the go-to-guy, but more of a facilitator as production floor was now tasked form teams and fix their own problems. Ian became so focused on the new initiatives and