Student Responses
Original Question
Global and cross-cultural leaders face increased interdependence within and across organizations. Are the potential effects of increasing interdependence more likely to be positive or negative? Support your view with relevant examples and research.
STUDENT ONE- MURPH
Interdependence happens in everyday life on a personal, organizational, and global level. Interdependence occurs In our relationships with others. Interdependence with others can lead to cooperation and everyone working together to achieve a common goal or state of being. Many feel their daily interactions mainly involve corresponding interests and shared power (Columbus et al., 2021). Social exchange theories focus on interactions and how each consists in putting in and gaining. We measure interactions in this transactional manner and want to put in the same or less that we get out.
People tend to feel guilty when they receive too much from a particular relationship or interaction without putting in the same or close to the same amount. Interdependence occurs when these relationships and interactions are needed to progress forward. Interdependence can help individuals or groups work toward their self-interest (Stafford and Kuiper, 2022). Today, organizations and individuals work with high interdependence and need one another to thrive. This can be beneficial when all are working towards the same goal, but interdependence could allow some to not put in enough to the relationship and coast on others’ inputs.
References
Columbus, S., Molho, C., Righetti, F., &Balliet, D. (2021). Interdependence and cooperation in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(3), 626–650. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000253
STUDENT TWO- SYLVI
According to Chai et al. (2019) interdependence positively affects interfirm competition and relationships that depend on the co-occurrence of opportunism, behavioral conditioning and technological uncertainty in the context space. In particular, highly dependent firms are more likely to be involved in competitive relationships when both opportunism and technological uncertainty are high. Interestingly, the data suggest that opportunism or technological uncertainty alone may not be sufficient to mitigate interdependence and competition. Chai et al. (2019) also suggest that interdependence is a possible antecedent of interfirm competition, that it improves our understanding of the behavioral and contextual conditions that facilitate the emergence of competitive relationships by examining the moderating role of opportunism and technological uncertainty in the relationship between interdependence and interfirm competition (Chai et al., 2019).
Homan (2019) argues that focusing on the effects of diversity in organizational work groups with a common goal is characterized by high interdependence and working on tasks that require problem solving, creativity and the collaboration decision making in organizations (Homan, 2019).
Chai, L., Li, J., Clauss, T., &Tangpong, C. (2019). The influences of interdependence, opportunism and technology uncertainty on interfirm coopetition. The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 34(5), 948-964. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-07-2018-0208
STUDENT THREE- Interdependence within and across organizations is now more common place than ever in our globalized society. Leaders must learn to embrace that interdependence while also allowing themselves to be prepared should this increased interdependence create conflict in the work place. I believe that the potential effects of increasing interdependence are more likely to be positive if leaders are effectively trained. As more organizations globalize and interdependence becomes a necessity it is important that leaders become more aware of not only cross-cultural interactions but of the different cultures that are being represented in order to better and more effectively manage their employees (Goryunova et al., 2020). If leaders take this step to ensure inclusivity within their organization it can help to lead to outcomes that are more likely to be positive as they would be creating and inclusive environment. I do feel that ensuring the positive potential effects of interdependence rests a lot with organizational leaders as an inclusive and effective leaders are more likely to be able create an environment where all feel welcomed and heard and feedback, in all forms, is treated with openness and respect (Guo et al., 2023). If leaders are ill prepared to handle the demands of interdependence then conflicts are more likely to arise that are going to be difficult to address leading to more problems amongst employees within and across organizations.
References
Goryunova, E. (2020). Metacognitive strategies for effective interaction across cultures: Global leaders perspective. Journal of Business Diversity, 20(1), 28-45. https://10.33423/jbd.v20i1.2705
