Moroccan Companies Need Visionary Leadership to be More Effective

Rabat – Developing employees’ skills is a core piece of achieving organizational effectiveness, and Moroccan businesses would be more successful if they adopted a new leadership strategy to accomplish that development.

The main problem in some Moroccan companies is that most work processes are centralized, which can weaken the overall performance, innovation, and career development of employees. According to Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions, Moroccan companies tend to have a high level of “power distance:” Centralization is popular, and there is a big gap between managers and their subordinates.

Moroccan firms should instead adopt a corporate culture based on visionary leadership and a flexible management style.

Managers with high levels of visionary leadership have more effective organizations. Many management experts have said that people with good leadership skills facilitated the greatest organizational effectiveness by inspiring their colleagues to perform better and reach their company’s objectives.

A visionary leader is a strategic planner who inspires other people, who makes decisions with good communication, who takes risks, and who actively listens to other people’s views regarding those decisions.

The “power distance” cultural dimension, as discussed by Hofstede, is very high within Moroccan firms. Employees in such businesses feel very limited in how they can innovate and inhibited in discussing their ideas with their managers.

Rather than centralization, Moroccan businesses should build a strong corporate culture based on good communication across departments, weekly meetings to discuss the current problems and suggest realistic solutions, and monthly “visionary leader” rewards for the best performing and most creative individuals.

I believe that a business strategy based on strategic leadership would bring many benefits to Moroccan firms. It would allow every person within the organization to develop their skills in different areas such as communication, leadership, and teamwork.

I hope that one day we will see more Moroccan organizations taking visionary leadership into account in their internal procedures and management. This kind of leadership would contribute to organizational effectiveness by making employees feel more valued, motivated, and therefore ready to achieve a high level of performance.

Making employees feel valued would create a stronger workplace culture in Morocco based on respect, open communication, meeting deadlines, and being more productive in daily tasks. A good example of visionary leadership is Apple’s Steve Jobs, who had a clear vision and passion for the company, allowing employees to innovate and be creative even with a culture of strict accountability.

The idea is not to follow another company’s strategy but to have a unique vision based on open communication and innovation.

In order for Moroccan firms to succeed in implementing an effective management style based on a visionary style, the corporate culture and its global vision should be clearly designed around three areas: Creativity, communication, and leadership. Executive training and development programs should also be a priority in the companies’ short-term strategic goals as this will allow managers to develop their leadership and communication skills.

Managers should also be aware of the importance of conveying the company’s vision, their departments’ goals, and their management style, as everyone within the company should feel valued and share his thoughts, suggestions, and ideas freely.

As Robert S. Kaplan, the American accounting academic from Harvard Business School, said, “Without strong visionary leadership, no strategy will be executed effectively.”

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial views.

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