Change in Leadership within the Context of a Globalized Environment - Coursework Example

Change in Leadership Name Institution Change in Leadership Introduction Long before, leadership was looked upon as an entity that was to be played by politicians in specific countries. The traditional way of thinking was due to the fact that leadership was for politicians who could air the grievances of people or society. Individual politicians in different countries had for a long time been left with the task of ensuring that its people and supporters are heard by the international community or by the ruling government (Martin, 2007). This means that politics was a common link between human life and leadership. Even though there were other positions in industries, schools, colleges, factories, departments, and in airports, politicians were looked upon as leaders and as the core influencing community within the jurisdiction of the governmental and communal practices. During this time, a leader was looked upon as somebody who could speak well and move masses of people to agree on some issues (International Business Leaders Forum 2012). The most leaders were thought of being articulate and fluent in speaking the local language of a specific country (International Business Leaders Forum 2012). A leader was not to be a shy, silent, dormant, less visionary, and easily influenced person with reference to politics, and community leadership demand. Famous politicians were the key economic drivers of nations, democratic practices, and planning policies (Martin, 2007). No beneficial and working policies were passed in the parliament before the political leaders were consulted for evaluations. There were fewer guidelines that restricted politicians from vying for leadership positions in many countries of the world or nations and this happened for along time before such guidelines and frameworks were put into place. Ministerial seats and occupancy was open to any politician and it was upon the president or his deputy to decide on who should be in a certain positions with further consultancy and evaluation of the relevancy (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). Paying a close scrutiny to leadership trends outlines that, there are many more leadership positions than in the past because of some reasons that have been only understood in the recent decade. It is either the current positions were not recognized in the past by the world community or they have created or modified over the past decades. Leadership is everywhere and its practices as well as benefits cuts across families, schools, hospitals, economic stability of nations, and the health sector of the local and international community (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). Till now, there are leaders in some countries and run companies on ethnic grounds. The same has left in management of resources of nations with little understanding that the effects are many and fatal to the entire regional and international community. Critically, the face of leadership in the current world has changed considerably and the trend is plummeting positively as time goes by. Leadership Challenges in the Past For along time, leadership was looked upon as an independent entity that required individualistic and more serious personnel. Most companies that performed well in the world had adopted a unique leadership models that defined the role of directors, managers and that of other leadership positions. Many businesses and organization did the same and at the end, every operational organization or business had acquired a total different model that could not easily be modified or reframed by external factors. Through this, the leaders were unable to induce new innovative strategies or even transform the working conditions of their workers without having consulted the stakeholders for discussions. Challenges increased with increases in the size of organizations, firms, and multinational companies (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). The ranking system of the past indentified the efforts of international and multi owned companies while it failed to rank small scale and medium sized companies. This approach affected the performance of small companies because of failure by the governments to recognize their efforts. This also means that, most of the small scale companies and medium sized organizations were at some point denied licenses of opening up more branches or service outlets within their operational regions (International Business Leaders Forum 2012). If not, they were restricted to perform within identified frameworks without diversification. A chain of restrictions hinders one company from being able to operate well and meet the global competitive demands (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). The other challenge that has affected the leadership frameworks is wanting to do a dependent work by the stakeholders or leaders (Oppel, 2007). Many companies have or did record low returns from their businesses because of the past belief that the directors and other senior officials could make viable decisions by their own. This approach is costly because no single human being can accomplish critical tasks by his or her own efforts. Similarly, operations of organizations require an integrated approach from all participants in order for the whole company to meet their targets as well as achieve their goals. Individualism is one of the aspects that hindered many companies from performing. The more the company increases in size, the more complex it becomes to manage or lead. Depending with the core values of the company, a company can perform well regionally and fail to perform well globally. Population increase in the world is one of the challenges that have affected leadership of many organizations. This is because, the more the population, the more the skills of management are needed. Failure of which may result in conflicts because different individuals have different tests and preferences (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). For example, if an organization is a food producing company, any failures recorded by leaders may lower the performance of the company which at the end may result in unnecessary loss making. Leaders in such companies failed to carry out researches to determine the preferences and tests of individuals. Failure to do so made leaders to make decisions using the past records or perceptions that did not work to some extend. This is because preferences and values of people keeps on shifting from one level to the other while the market demand changes. Through this, the capabilities of people to adopt profitable strategies failed because of the failure to establish a firm platform (Oppel, 2007). Shifting the reward system also proofed to be a big challenge to many organizations and business firms. It is clear that many organizations initiated a program of rewarding teamwork and did away with the rewarding of hardworking individuals (Oppel, 2007). The shifting left dedicated workers demoralized because their efforts were no longer again recognized by the leadership or managing team. Performance in organizations can be fuelled by recognition and reward in a good and fair manner. This is a failure and a deep rooted strategy that left most companies bare and unable to perform to meet the global requirements and standards. Failure of giving out rewards by leaders left most of the skilled personnel idle and underutilized and as a result, the overall performance index of the company failed. With regard to the present trends, the value of leadership in the past was not collective and streamlined because the boss had the final word (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). If the leader was unbiased, the errors infiltrated the whole working system making the overall outcome to amount to huge losses that can not be contained. Employment of new workers and staff members was solely handled by the leader. Vulnerability to making of errors was high and the time for error analysis was minimized to a greater extend. Furthermore, there were regional restrictions that restrained companies and leaders from interacting with the other world leaders that worked as commissioners or stakeholders. An evaluation of the past outlines that, the value of relying on role models ended up making many leaders to be reluctant at practicing what they knew most. Due to this, many leaders ended up being unreliable for lack of self-interest, motivation and indecisive (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). As far as models are good and of benefit, over relying on them may lead to brainwashing which may easily result into collapse of the working system. In addition, many organizations failed to note that leadership is a continuous process that requires consultations and harmonization of other workers’ ideas. Technology has developed from one stage to the other and if the trend will positively correlate, then the future will hold much for all sectors of development. Financial management and manufacturing trends in the past times was not based on financial models and forecasting models. Failure to use the models resulted in many financial errors and mistakes that went on undetected for along time (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). The long term approach of using manual calculations left many flaws in the supply chain management of resources at different production levels. In the long run, the leaders could not determine where exactly the company or organization succumbed into the financial crisis. Production levels could not be accurately and precisely determined as per the objectives of the company because there were less networked co-ordination between the senior officials of the organization. Educationally, the radio stations and social Medias that were available in one region could not be accessed in other different parts of the world because of the distance or time (Oppel, 2007). Bearing in mind that communication is the only way to interchange ideas among individuals; the available social media was limited of ideologies and approaches (Martin, 2007). As such, the leaders learned a few tips from the pre-existing literature or they utilized what they had learned in colleges and vocational training centres. Education is dynamic and lack of acquiring new ideas may lead to delays and unnecessary downfalls especially when. The consequences resulted in the failing of many corporations to compete with other leaders or t managers in many promising companies or organizations (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). Competition is a tool that keeps companies focused and directive and incase it is not felt, the normal practices becomes redundant. Stagnation in management and leadership generates loopholes through which other consequences can germinate (International Business Leaders Forum 2012). Many analysts have evaluated that having a good leader does not necessarily mean that the company will transform. It may perform well in comparison to other companies but may fail to be transformative in some way. Being innovative and critical requires that the specific objectives are outlined in a formal way and the strategies to achieve them must be outlined precisely to enable other participants to work towards its achievement (Martin, 2007). The same happened with the leadership of the past because most of the leaders in charge of many organizations were conservative instead of being innovative and dynamic. The political system of the world has been evolving from one level to the other and while it does this, many politicians in different parts of the world are pushing for new global laws and political policies to be enacted. Characteristics of politicians in the past have changed because earlier on, there were no transformative channel through they could exercise their full influence when conducting rallies or managing departments or organizations (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). Reasons that have Brought about the Leadership Changes The modern world has a lot to be admired if not praised because of what has happened in the whole world (Oppel, 2007). Every phase of leadership has received a new look and the trend is positively correlated and plummeting every day. In the present world, many organizations and businesses firms are in the forefront of adopting and using new approaches as well as strategies to see that their businesses are performing and competing well in the job market. While doing this, technologists and business scientist are working tirelessly to ensure that there are many soft wares and models that guide businesses firms in forecasting for the future. Companies involved in making social media work for the best are making efforts of enabling the society transform on the global scale (Martin, 2007). With the information of the internet networks, many leaders as well as workers can view what the other leaders are looking at (Oppel, 2007). This can be done through facebook in which a leader can log into an account and connect with other managers, directors, and or other individuals that work in different capacities. Through this, leaders have been able to reflect back their performance track. It is enjoyable by many that at least one can reflect and see what happened or may have caused them to loose the track. Social media websites have pages reserved for writing reviews on what one has learned especially after reading an online article. Reading and commenting is the best tool that enables people to evaluate their companies while putting into place some benchmarks for reference (Carnegie Bosch Institute, 2012). Twitter has many professionals that give ideas and their views for free. This has lowered expenses of one searching for the best literature to study because sometimes, the available books and magazines are expensive. Even if available, the overall time for studying them and writing reviews is long and tedious. Due to this, online social media has secured some pages on which they can write articles and keep them for some time or by making them readily available from their archives (International Business Leaders Forum 2012). Many television broadcasting corporations have continually initiated programs that give advice and way forward for stagnated leaders or those who have failed to follow the right leadership tracks. In addition, they show images of products or books that can be bought at any shop or online for refreshing. This advertisements and approaches are unique and directly points to what is needed or required at specific times. Knowledge is dynamic and it is the reason why many practitioners have dedicated their time in ensuring that everything works better for all workers and leaders (Oppel, 2007). It is of great advantage to note that there are avenues through which leaders can hold online meetings and exchange ideas with reference to what they are managing at their companies or organizations. The online chart rooms or call inbox enables one to follow up on issues and see if they were answered considerably and precisely. Academically, many leadership universities and other learning institutions have launched many online learning universities and universities to enable workers and many other individuals to study as they work. Every individual learning online is assigned two or more professors for consultancy and for guidance. Projects done at the end of the course are evaluated and accurately scrutinized to see that it meets the international standards and regulations. Through these programs, many leaders have added many titles to the curriculum vitae and while doing this, the organizations and companies that they manage or lead are performing very well (Carnegie Bosch Institute, 2012). Online financial gazettes and leadership magazines are continuously being launched on the internet and websites to increase accessibility of learning materials to the entire global community. No single company or organization can perform well if the political stability is jeopardized to some extend. As a result, an integrative approach that involves virtual guidance by other performing organizations has been taken into account by young leaders or managers. Virtual leadership and management can effectively be done by implementing what the chief executive directors and officers are emphasizing about. While this may proof to be a complex aspect, there are probabilities that the ideas generated can give rise to benefits that can oversee an organization to the next stage without fatal drawbacks being experienced (Oppel, 2007). Drawbacks are costly when the overall management is considered as the platform for performance. However, many companies have external stakeholders that are contacted when there is a crisis in order for them to give out their expertise knowledge. Good choosing of leaders and managers enables to leaders to operate within the frameworks of success and while this happens, they can get advice from other executives operating the same businesses (International Business Leaders Forum 2012). Politically, leadership has changed and is continuously changing towards acquiring the internationally accepted standards. Democracy is much impressed today than it used to be before because of the policies and frameworks that have been put into place by regional governments and the continental communities. Policies and laws have outlined paths through which politics must be practiced by those that are motivated to become leaders in specific countries or nations (Oppel, 2007). The democratic outlines and regulations are much available on the internet and government archives. International human rights have also been outlined on the internet and they seek to see that every politician is disciplined and motivated to protect people’s lives and welfares. Currently other leaders are easily spotted for their brutality and misconduct. Once such messages are out, they are posted out immediately on social media for criticisms and corrections. As a result, many leaders have feared to rule or lead people in a way that can feature their name to the international community. Formation of the international police is an entity that has left many leaders mouths open because their enrollment as members calls for punishment incase they misbehave or violet human rights of people (Carnegie Bosch Institute, 2012). The international criminal court is in the forefront of ensuring that individuals who violet human rights of their citizens and neighbors are prosecuted and put into custody for punishment. Through this efforts the political leadership system has changed to a greater extend and it will continually change as long as their will be committees and policies that govern the same. Innovation is a drive that propels companies and organizations towards performing better in the global arena. The current innovation trend has foreseen organization in implementing their objectives and leadership forecasts. Instead of someone to travel long distance to attend interviews at diversified locations, leaders can now interview candidates from wherever they are through Skype, online conference rooms, and chart rooms (Meyer & Kirby, 2012). Through this, leaders serving in different capacities are able to evaluate characteristics of potential interviews and at the same time, they can undertake other activities for the benefit of the whole global community. Use of symbols in leadership of organizations is currently classified as a direct way of defining objectives and focus by different companies if not mission. The symbols define specific vision and mission statements of different organizations and business firms (Oppel, 2007).The rewarding system that the leadership world has availed is straight forward and encouraging. Leaders are motivated and encouraged if their efforts are recognized and appreciated by the controlling bodies or agents. There has a tendency that has left most leaders motivated because of taking them back to colleges and universities for further education and studies. The increased knowledge is then safeguarded by adding them some amount on top of their salaries. Taking leaders for a refreshing course keeps them on track and on the right route of delivering good services to the entire world community. Conclusion The major aspects that are motivating are the fact that technology is changing the face of leadership in all sectors of development. Economically it is continually enabling people to have a good look at issues that proof to be of great benefit to human life. The integrated framework in management that has been adopted by many companies and organizations is appealing because it offers a free platform through which people can air their views, suggestions, and ideologies for the benefit of developing the communities. Innovation in the development of the world is a promising factor that eyes for new opportunities to develop under the name of good leadership. Organizational structures and leadership models can be downloaded at anytime and from anywhere. This phenomenon will continual to enable individuals in leadership positions to moderate their approaches and practices. Leadership is an entity that has kept on changing and camouflaging in the face of the entire world community. Contributing positively and timely towards serving people is the major driving force that has enabled people and leaders in different capacities to exercise good patriotism and be able to adopt the right core values that can be utilized at their workplaces. The trend in leadership innovation and change is promising and demanding because it keeps the leadership entity live while making it look as a great achievement of the current decade and for the future. The current position and stage of leadership development is strategically placed at a point whereby if leaders will utilize new skills and technological innovations, the rate of production and performance in all sectors of development will increase. References Carnegie Bosch Institute. (2012). Leadership and change management in a multicultural context. International Business Leaders Forum (2012). Leadership in a rapidly changing world: How business leaders are reframing success. Martin, A. (2007). The changing nature of leadership Meyer, C. & Kirby, J. (2012). Runway capitalism’ Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 2012. Oppel, W. (2007). The global leadership challenge. Regent Global Business Review. Read More