Analysis of Strategic Leadership in the Contemporary Working Environment - Coursework Example

Heading: Analysis of strategic leadership in the contemporary working environment Your name Course name Professors’ name Date: Section 1 Introduction In order to fully comprehend the meaning of strategic leadership, it is worth providing different definitions of leadership and its difference from corporate management. Corporate management according to Albert (2008) is more biased towards administration and probably allocation of resources responsible for productivity in the organization (pp.122). In essence a manager will oversee the financial provisions of a company or an organization in question. On the other hand, a leader can perform the functions of the manager but incorporate further responsibilities related to the overall productivity of the company. A leader is responsible for the by and large goal achievement in the organization through the ability to integrate the human resource of the company into one production and singular goal oriented group. According to Bruce (2005), strategic leadership is a form of leadership with intent of a goal. In most cases, this form of leadership is basically made as a result of the needs because of the ever dynamic and changing market needs. There is need to change in order to meet the expectation of the market, this is imperative in remaining relevant and even gaining more competitive advantage. Strategic leadership will thus involve the ability not only to envision but also foresee the need to change while maintaining steady and flexible requirements of achieving the organization’s vision. The strategic leader should also be in the center to motivate other people involved in process of achieving the goal. Naturally, there are challenges and complexities associated with strategic leadership because it involves the use of other people to achieve organizational goals. It is always not easy to positively involve every person in the organization to work towards achieving a particular goal. This is because of the difference in personality which then translates to functionality (Richard, 2007). In strategic leadership, the success is essentially the ability to successfully assemble these different people within an organization towards a certain set goal. In a contemporary working environment, there are various provisions that a leader can incorporate into their leadership in order to achieve their ultimate goal. According to Lamb (2003) there are two dimensions that a leader can take in order to achieve a certain objective. These two dimensions are human oriented and analytical basis. Human oriented dimension is more sensitive towards assembling all the participants involved in achieving the organizational goal in a more human and tactical approaches that will make the participants feel as part of the organization’s goal. On the other hand, the analytical approach is more theoretical in nature, based on the perceived facts of superiority and maneuvering ability. It emphasized on a more human-distant approach of assembling factors responsible for achieving the objectives and using the leadership position or rather power to makes things happen. These two approaches proposed by Lamb (2003) can work in achieving changes within an organization. The prevailing conditions will determine their effectiveness and ability to make a successful transition to the desired goal. It is however worth noting that the ultimate success will not always be based on the implementation of one these proposed dimensions; this is because of the dynamic nature of the market place which forces the organization to change. Change is the key issue here; change means flexibility of varying the initial strategies based on the current prevailing condition. Changing the initial plan or rather incorporating changes does not necessarily mean the failure of strategies that had been used; to a strategic leader it means a better alternative of reaching the desired goals of the organization (Richard, 2007). Primarily therefore, integration of both the human oriented approach with the analytical approach will yield more substantial results when implemented tactfully by a strategic leader. A strategic leader is therefore an individual with the capacity and knowledge to integrate these two somewhat different approaches to achieve the organizational goal. To fully comprehend the needs and the requirements of a strategic leader, the success of an organization could be a chief determinant of how strategic and skilful the leader of the organization with regard to leadership. There are numerous challenges that a leader has to face on a daily basis while in the course of achieving the goals of an organization. In essence, a leader is mandated with the task of evaluating the internal and the external factors that affects the organization productivity, these factors can be macro or micro environmental factors contributed by the entire human resource within the organization and also the challenges resulting from the external market shifts and changes that may occasionally occur. Strategic leadership skills will therefore demand being at the right place at the right time with the right tools in order to achieve the desired goals. A strategic leader in this context will for sure understand that every individual in the organization plays a pivotal role in ensuring success of the organization. Getting these people work as a team towards a particular goal is the task of the strategic leadership of an organization. In essence, the use of different talents within the organization is a key to achieving the goals of the organization within a given framework of time (Richard, 2010). As clearly explained, individual talent and strong points will yield positive results to a company. When individual skills are then assembled and geared towards a particular goal, there will be a significant success for the company in general. It is thus imperative to understand the provisions of the strategic leadership and its complexities with reference to the contemporary working environment in order to understand the requirements of a leader who is vision and mission oriented, strategic leader in simple terms. Section 2 Ethical consideration and implication for strategic leadership Ethical consideration and also the values associated with an organization have been on the rise in the recent years. Since the inception of consumer behavior and the consequent need to study the behavior of consumers with regard to their wants and the ever changing needs, there has been a parallel growth of the need to promote and enhance ethics in an organization in order to achieve the primary goal of not only attracting a potential customer but also maintaining the customer (Sydney, 1996). Values of an organization are normally embedded on its mission and visions; they show to the public what the organization is especially with regard to humanity. Values form the core consideration for the success of an organization in business. On the other hand ethics generally means what is perceived to be right or wrong by the outside world or even within the organization. This is very important especially considering that there are some actions that may be deemed wrong in one place and right in the other depending on the culture, religion and other prevailing moral conditions of a particular place. It is important to consider the consequence and the significance of ethics to an organization, there is need for the organization to put into consideration the prevailing conditions in the region in question in order to introduce values and ethics that will not contradict the prevailing culture and religion (Michael, 2008). Ethics and strategic leadership go hand in hand; this means that in order for the leadership to live up to its expectations, there is needed to incorporate ethics to leadership (Bruce, 2007). There are several ways in which leadership and ethics can be enhanced within an organization. These ways are as discussed below; The initial step in enhancing corporate or organizational ethics is through the actions of the top management of an organization. If the management of an organization is unethical, this will lead to unethical organization since the junior and subordinate members of the organization will follow the footsteps of the management. It is therefore important for the management and the leaders of an organization to practice sound ethics in order to pass the virtue to the junior members of an organization. The organization’s strategic leadership should also incorporate explicit rules and policies related to ethics. Seriousness of the need to practice ethics within an organization will be clearly articulated by the outlined policies that gives substantial guidance. Policies related to ethics should also go beyond the policies of the organization to the missions and the visions of the organization. After the strategic leadership of an organization has incorporated policies relating to ethics in an organization, it is their responsibility to create awareness of the need and the consequences of adhering to the outlined ethics within the organization. Another important requirement for the management or the leadership of an organization to consider is offering occasional training of how to deal with ethical dilemmas within the organization and even in the outside world. The management of the organization can organize seminars for these employees to attend and consequently get further education on ethics. Such trainings offer guidance, importance, implications and even the consequences of unethical behaviors in the business world. The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) of the year 2002 was enacted and passed through presidential signing because of the consequence of ethical failure in accounting which led to the presentation of wrong accounting report to the public a factor that contributed to them being miss-informed on investments decision making course. The enactment of the act was therefore meant to improve on accounting responsibility. A strategic leadership of an organization can take advantage of this act and incorporate it to the organizations core principles to increase on the efficiency and ethics at the same time. The information system is one of the most vital tool an organization can take advantage to implement ethical related principles. Information ethics includes the entire control system of an organization and its external environment. This attribute of information system makes it imperative in the creation of ethical environment within and without the organization. The management should ensure that all the concerns and breach of ethics is addressed with the seriousness that it deserve in order to warn the employees of an organization against acting unethically. If unethical behaviors are allowed to pass without significant concern, the results will lead to increase in unethical behaviors in the organization (McDaniel, 2004). Corporate social responsibility is one of the major issues of concern in improving the organizational ethics. Corporate social responsibility means that the organization responds to the needs and the wants of the surrounding environment. The major cause of the current global warming due to increase of carbon emission to the skies is essentially because of the decreased ethics and social responsibility in the countries and manufacturing companies responsible for the emission of these harmful gases to the environment. From the definitions of ethics, anything that is deemed wrong by the organization or even outside the organization is bound to be unethical. Increased carbon emission in the name of industrialization is completely unethical despite the rigid stands taken by the world leaders with regard to the issue. The provisions of Kyoto protocol was supposed to be succeeded by a more effective approach of fighting increased carbon emission but as the entire world witnessed, there was no significant ethical decision that was made. Leading by example in this case was out of the window, every country leading in carbon release tried to defend their unethical and irresponsible contribution to global warming. The issue of global warming is a good example of how strategic leadership is supposed to spearhead reform related to ethics. If the top management fails to make significant impact on the need to enhance ethics, the results will be increased unethical behavior and general decrease in values and morals. The consequences of failed ethics and moral values reduce by a significant margin the importance and the need for human nature and understanding. Organizational culture is another imperative consideration when incorporating ethics to the organization. The virtues of ethics will be more relevant if the environment is conducive and able to sustain it. It is the work of the organizational leadership to ensure that ethics are slowly incorporated into the organizational culture. If there is a successful incorporation of ethics into the organization culture, the new entrants into the organization will respond positively to the prevailing conditions of the organization and hence the sustainability of ethics in an organization (McDaniel, 2004). From this ethical discussion, it is evident that the leadership of an organization determines the extent of ethical behavior in the organization. Ethical leaders lead to ethical behaviors in the organization and vice versa. The organizational culture is another imperative consideration when referring to ethics in an organization. It is of essence to ensure that the organization slowly incorporates ethics into its culture; this will lead to a more sustainable approach towards ethical behavior given the positive impact of ethics in the organization. The information system should also be used to enhance ethics in an organization by incorporation of ethics within the controls systems of the organization. Stating ethical policies and implementing measures that will ensure ethics is highly regarded in the organization will help in fighting unethical vices within the organization. Section 3 Link between this critical evaluation and my organization The provision of this analysis has revealed two important and critical issues, the importance and the relevance of a strong leadership which is strategic and the significance of ethics in an organization. These two issues are critical for the company to remain relevant in the current dynamic market place that essentially demands constant change with the changes in the need of the consumers. If a company fails to change as the changes of the market takes place, there is a great possibility of the organization to be irrelevant. The cut throat competition present currently has greatly influenced the way in which company’s relate internally and externally to market factors that have a direct or indirect influence to the performance of the company. In any organization including the organization that I have worked for in my country, there is a great need to have a strategic leader with vision and tactics of collection the responsibilities of every individual in the organization to achieve a desired set goal. Such a leader should be able to take responsibility for any negative performance of the organization and not blame the employees of the organization for the failure. In my organization’s leadership, there has been a significant reluctance of the management and the entire leadership to constructively utilize the human resource of the organization in order to achieve a common goal because of the approach that they use to lead in the organization (Jeffrey 2005, pp.101). There is need to train leaders not only in my organization but also other firms in my country how to effectively deliver goals of an organization as a leader and especially as a strategic leader. Leaders should be trained on how to utilize the human resource in the company by making every individual feel as a part of the organization’s strategy and know that they are responsible for the success and the failure of the organization. This feeling of belonging can only be enhanced by a strong leadership that focuses on the employees to the lowest level. Leaders should be made to clearly understand that the collective contribution of every member of the organization will aid the organization to achieve its goal of re-aligning to meet the changes in the market. Another important consideration in organization is the emphasis of ethics and corporate social responsibility that follows good ethics and values. It is the duty of the organization leadership to ensure that good ethics prevail in the organization. Leaders should therefore lead by example while instituting strong ethical policies to the organization that they manage. It is of essence to note that unethical companies and organization have a very limited life span in the sensitive market that they serve. This is clearly shown by the SOX enactment after a significant failure of accounting responsibility among companies like Enron and WorldCom among others. As per the knowledge gained in this strategic and ethical leadership gained, their relevance to the organization cannot be over-emphasized. Section 4 Recommendation and implementation plan for my organization Given the positive contributions of strategic leadership and ethics in an organization, incorporating these positive strategies to my organization will be of great essence. I will therefore recommend the following measures for my organization to adopt in order to remain relevant in the ever changing market needs. The initial step is to encourage the leadership of the organization to adopt the qualities of a strategic leader. The leaders in my organization ought to embrace the provisions of the human oriented approach which incorporates analytical approach in their organizational leadership. In using this approach, the leadership of the organization will be able to significantly motivate the employees of the company in order to achieve the desired goals. A strategic leader in this case should be able to change and incorporate extra strategies in the current strategy with an aim of diversifying the chances of achieving the organizational goal. The rate of organizational change is dependent entire on the leadership of the organization. There is need for my organization leadership to clearly adopt both the humanistic and analytical approach in dealing with the daily challenges that the organization meets in striving to achieve its missions and visions. The combination of these features will make the leadership more envisioned, practical and goal oriented (Bruce, 2005). In addition to the leadership strategies, ethics is another imperative factor to be considered while managing leadership. Ethical polices thus needs to be incorporated into the company’s visions and missions core principles. I will recommend that the entire leadership of the organization embrace the values of ethics and corporate social responsibility. There is need for my organization to incorporate strong ethical policies in order that run down the backbone of the organization in order to ensure that the organization remains relevant to its market. The implementation plan that I will recommend for my organization is the smooth transition of leadership strategies to a more informed, envisioned and motivating leadership. This implementation is thus supposed to be done steadily in order to avoid a sudden change which may prove to be undesirable in the end. Just like any other transition, smooth integration and awareness spearheaded by intensive training of the management is necessary at this stage. On the other hand, the integration of ethics into the culture of the organization should be done in a tactful manner in order to ensure that the entire human resource of the company is included in the process. If the process is done in a rush, there is a likelihood of experiencing substantial resistance from the employees who may be reluctant to sudden change in the organizational culture. Once my organization has learnt how to smoothly embrace changes, the organization’s performance will be greatly boosted by the results of strong ethical and strategic leadership. Read More