Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of Organizations
The essay brings about the discussion on the key themes in the strategic business and management within the context of international business. Literature review on the topic “Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organisations” will be described in this assignment from the multiple perspectives. Leadership in organisations or organisational leadership refers to the approach of the management through which the leaders facilitate setting strategic goals for the organisation, and motivating the employees to show their commitment towards attainment of the goals. Leadership has been considered significant to the organisational success and higher performance especially in the dynamic nature of business environment in the 21st century. Thus, essay in the later part will demonstrate the key concepts, including summary, classification, comparison, and contrast between the aspects of the selected topic. In this way, readers will acquire a critical understanding of the concept of leadership and development in the organisations.
Leadership refers to the process of influencing behaviours of the people or a group’s activities towards the attainment of particular goals and objectives. In other words, it is defined as an interpersonal influence exercised in context to a situation is directed to the individuals through communication process leading to achieved organisational objectives. Thus, a critical analysis will be done in respect to the theme of the essay which will help in drawing conclusions from studying different perspectives of the authors (Dong et al., 2017).
In context to the selected topic in this essay, leadership in the 21st century refers to a multidimensional and integrated approach of leadership which is based on the relationships within organisation. 21st century leadership aims to respond and manage to the various challenges or issues and the available opportunities in the business environment. With the beginning of the 21st century, the concept of leadership has been changed a little, as the organisations are now focused towards implementing new theories of leadership or management approach in their operations which lead to strategic development of the organisations in the long run. A paradigm shift has been observed in the leadership models or styles such as command or control over employees towards flexible, nurturing, and collaborative style in the 21st century. It has been also found that the leadership in 21st century states about acquiring new management skills of leaders to cope with the new and imperative challenges of increasing global competition in the industry (Sen and Eren, 2012).
According to Dike, Odiwe & Ehujor (2015) it has been stated that to operate and function effectively or successfully in the dynamic business environment, organisations must ensure that the leaders or managers possess competent skills. The authors have demonstrated that the concept of leadership and management in today’s organisations belonging to 21st century has changed dramatically. In addition, to the other forces uncertainty in organisations is considered as another aspect or challenge to the organisations, which put pressure on the organisations to change their approach and adopt comprehensive leadership style. Comprehensive leadership requires efficient qualities or skills to become leader (Chiu, Balkundi and Weinberg, 2017).
Skills required to become effective transformational leader
These are the skills which one requires to become effective transformational or democratic leader in the today’s contemporary organisations. Skills include serving others, courage, thinking in terms of building relationships, creating value, entertaining new ideas of the employees or followers in the organisation, and the necessary skill of adaptability. For an example, it can be stated that the role of transformational leaders has been important and commonly found in the modern organisations. Thus a transformational leader must instil the quality of rewarding employees for their effective performance in the organisation (Rae et al., 2016).
Belias (2014) was of the view that leadership in the 21st century has been positive to the organisation’s strategic development of the organisations. The author has stated that the strategic leadership should be transformational as the aim is to serve the organisation. Organisations face the issues in the changing business environment, which requires managers or leaders to take initiatives in changing their cultural aspects or management style, which is facilitated by leadership in the organisation. Thus, leadership is associated with the corporate culture of the organisations, which also supports the process of articulating a vision and coordinating with the expectations from the organisational members. A leader with the sufficient qualities and skills is able to manage change in the organisation leading to enhanced performance of the organisation (Marques, 2015).
Leadership has three essential components which include the ability to influence, common goal and the employees who are willing to work and commit themselves towards the vision. A leader, who accomplishes these components in the organisation, is able to develop strategic vision and lead employees towards strategic development of the organisation. In addition, it has been also analysed as per the perspective of Kim and Yoon (2015) who exclaimed that the authentic leadership style which has been contributing to the organisational development has been found as transformational leadership. The reason behind the author’s perspective towards this leadership approach is that it has been considered that transformational leaders are found to be hopeful, optimistic, development-oriented, and represent an important attribute of high-moral character. Hence, transformational leaders in the 21st century organisation act as motivating force towards ensuring growth and development of the organisation (Jaques, 2017).
The comparison has been found in the perceptions of the authors in the above discussion through their conceptual leadership in the 21st century leading to strategic development of the organisations. They have stated about the role and importance of transformational leadership. There were some studies in addition to the mentioned above which expressed the benefit of transformational leaders. Globalisation has been introduced in the economy, due to which multinational operate on a wider scale, and bring changes in the management style or culture of the organisation. This is the reason transformational leadership has been recognised as relevant and significant in managing changes and strengthening development of the organisations. Thus, both the authors in their study have revealed the positive influence of transformational leaders in the organisation describing the similar concept (Ahmad, 2017).
The above discussion has stated about the significance of transformational leadership in the 21st century, as it helps in managing and leading change in the organisational settings which leads to development of the organisations. However, there have been some conceptual findings based on the literature as discussed by Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube (2015) stating that autocratic leadership can still be implemented in the 21st century organisations. Autocratic leadership is considered vital in many of the organisations (Opoku, Ahmed and Cruickshank, 2015).
Transformational leadership in the 21st century
The autocratic style of leadership is most commonly applied to those organisations who expect error-free outcomes of their managerial practices and the processes implemented within organisations. Autocratic leadership has been a common and popular style of leadership practices in the organisations, and led to organisational growth over a period. In this leadership approach, in the organisations subordinates are dependent on the decisions of their superiors or managers in the organisation. The authors were of the view that autocratic leadership is the extreme form of transactional leadership where in the leaders has complete power over their staff. Decisions are made quick which leads to timely completion to their set targets and objectives, leading to strategic achievement and development of the organisation. Thus, according to the author, autocratic leadership is more beneficial in the 21st century, for the development of both organisations and individuals (Nawaz and Khan, 2016).
The contrast can be highlighted in a way that some leader’s stated transformational leadership is more significant more to the present-day organisations rather autocratic leadership for the organisational development. Thus, these authors had different viewpoints on the leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of the organisations (Wang et al., 2016).
Leadership in the 21st century applied in the organisations faced some challenges which affected the organisations development and performance in the long-run. These challenges included an apparent gap in the skill levels. Managers faced problems in the handling of tasks or practices with the use of technologies due to the shortage of skills of the employees in the organisations, which can be mended through the use of conceptual models (Gilpin, 2018). The conceptual model in case of the organisations, in the 21st century includes some elements for the leadership development of the management practices. These consists of capacity/competence, program target, area served, program content, training level, content of the program, learning approach and the implementation methods. These were the essential components of the leadership programs which were used in the organisations to assess their growth and performance in context to the leadership practices relevant to 21st century. Thus, these were the essential components of the conceptual model which were applied to the management practices in 21st century leading to the strategic development of organisations (Redmond, S. and Dolan, 2016).
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that leadership has been a wider and popular concept in the modern organisations. Leadership process or practices in the contemporary organisations has undergone changes in the recent years which state about the need of leadership skills and qualities. The essay has described well about the perspectives on the leadership in 21st century and the leading strategic development of the organisations using multiple viewpoints of different authors. Hence, leaders must recognise the value and importance of effective leadership practices in the organisations to enhance the development of the individuals and organisations.
References
Ahmad, H.H. (2017) Implementation of Strategic Education Policy plan at Micro-level Contexts: Management and Leadership Challenges. MOJEM: Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Management, 2(2), pp.1-21.
Amanchukwu, R.N., Stanley, G.J. and Ololube, N.P. (2015) A review of leadership theories, principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1), pp. 6-14.
Belias, D. and Koustelios, A. (2014) The impact of Leadership and Change management strategy on Organisational Culture. [online] Available from: file:///C:/Users/System04101/Downloads/2996-8812-1-PB.pdf [Accessed 10/12/18].
Celik, A., Akgemci, T. and Akyazi, T.E. (2016) A comparison between the styles of transformational leaders and authentic leaders in crisis management. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 6(2), pp. 183-196.
Chiu, C.Y.C., Balkundi, P. and Weinberg, F.J. (2017) When managers become leaders: The role of manager network centralities, social power, and followers’ perception of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(2), pp.334-348.
Dike, V.E. (2015) Leadership, and management in the 21st century organizations: A practical approach. World Journal of Social Science Research, 2(2), p.139.
Dong, Y., Bartol, K.M., Zhang, Z.X. and Li, C., 2017. Enhancing employee creativity via individual skill development and team knowledge sharing: Influences of dual?focused transformational leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(3), pp.439-458.
Gilpin, R. (2018) The challenge of global capitalism: The world economy in the 21st century. United States: Princeton University Press.
Jaques, E. (2017) Requisite organization: A total system for effective managerial organization and managerial leadership for the 21st century. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Marques, J. (2015) The changed leadership landscape: what matters today. Journal of Management Development, 34(10), pp. 1310-1322.
Nawaz, Z.A.K.D.A. and Khan (2016) Leadership theories and styles: A literature review. Leadership, 16, pp. 1-7.
Opoku, A., Ahmed, V. and Cruickshank, H. (2015) Leadership style of sustainability professionals in the UK construction industry. Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 5(2), pp. 184-201.
Rae, R., Jones, M., Handal, A.J., Bluehorse-Anderson, M., Frazier, S., Maltrud, K., Percy, C., Tso, T., Varela, F. and Wallerstein, N. (2016) Healthy Native Community Fellowship: An Indigenous Leadership Program to Enhance Community Wellness. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 7(4), p. 2.
Redmond, S. and Dolan, P. (2016) Towards a conceptual model of youth leadership development. Child & Family Social Work, 21(3), pp. 261-271.
Sen, A. and Eren, E. (2012) Innovative leadership for the Twenty-first century. Procedia -Social and Behavioural Sciences, 41, pp. 1-14.
Wang, B., Qian, J., Ou, R., Huang, C., Xu, B. and Xia, Y. (2016) Transformational leadership and employees’ feedback seeking: The mediating role of trust in leader. Social Behaviour and Personality: an international journal, 44(7), pp.1201-1208
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