Due to the constantly changing environment contemporary organizations need to redefine the roles of their managers and highlight the significance of certain competencies. They are primarily required to attract, maintain and develop the most competent people, keep a high efficiency, stimulate innovation, adjust mutual visions, strategies and conduct and provide a work-life balance. Still, they cannot forget about other important issues, such as swift operation in a multicultural environment, preparedness for lifelong learning, high standards of conduct, creativity and flexibility as well as aptitude to take risks. Hence, apart from performing standard leadership activities that include planning, organizations, controlling, and motivation boosting, leaders of multicultural teams must possess a certain set of attributes in that respect. These are: being tolerant, respectful, empathetic, open to change and goal-oriented. Also, leaders need to know the merits and needs of their subordinates, attempt to create a cooperative atmosphere as well as target culturally conditioned issues, and overcome their own cultural stereotypes. Therefore, the authors of this article aim to diagnose different perceptions of leadership in multicultural teams, as provided by survey participants from Poland and Romania. The study was conducted with the use of a diagnostic survey based on the CAWI technique. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to perform a statistical analysis of 2,240 correctly filled questionnaires, , 1,183 from Bialystok University of Technology (Poland) and 1,036 from the Babes-Bolyai University (Romania). The outcomes show that effortless communication is not equally shared among leaders, though it is highly needed. To be a leader in a multicultural team, one needs to possess not only knowledge and competence, but also cultural intelligence. These findings may provide a basis for some more comprehensive research and analyses, offer important information for those willing to create teams comprised of Polish and Romanian representatives, as well as be useful in choosing the scope of training for such formed groups.
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