Exploring the Role of Leaders in Cross-Cultural Contexts in Seventh-Day Adventist Institutions in Malawi

Abstract

The article has a critical impact on SDA institutions with a diverse workforce, therefore, leaders and employees in Adventist institutions must be oriented to cross-culture behaviors, making the organizations achieve its goals. The responsibility of the leaders is to define, teach, measure, and reward the type of culture they want to adopt. Organizations that practice cross-cultural behaviors become accommodative to all cultures, and employees have positive attitudes towards each other and have outstanding performance. The gap of lack of culturally oriented leaders in the institutions must be addressed. Leaders must develop cross-cultural leadership skills to provide cross-cultural competencies. In addition, all leaders must accommodate the change to allow a cross-cultural environment. The conceptual paper explores the different roles that leaders play in Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) organizations. Data was collected through systematic literature review from Africa and beyond. Meanwhile, cross-cultural leaders play significant roles in the success of the organizations. SDA institutions are comprised of people from diverse cultures. As such, leaders must exercise cross-cultural leadership to address cultural conflict. The paper focuses on acquiring cross-cultural leadership skills, the leader’s ability to perform self-awareness in a cross-cultural context, cross-cultural training of employees in SDA institutions and challenges that come along with cross-cultural leadership. The findings of this this literature review identified that cross-cultural leadership is significant and leaders are to be cross-cultural sensitive; and employees must be trained to accommodate a cross-cultural environment for the institutions goal achievement.