Business Environment Is Changing So Fast due to Globalization and Technology - Coursework Example

Organizational Behavior and Design Name Course Tutor Date There is no one effective leadership style that should be used by a leader(s) in today’s organizations. In the recent years, leadership has become a very important theme among business managers. The main area has been how to be an effective leader amid the rapid changes taking place in the business environment. In a nutshell, leadership style has changed a great deal and rigid form of leadership used before 21st century has no place in current arrangements. Globalization and technology are completely changing the style of management and people who left management in the 20th century would get a rude shock how the world has changed (Pease, 2008). The change is taking place so fast that different strategies and approaches are required to sustain change. Therefore, this essay will argue that there is no one effective leadership style that should be used by a leader (s) in today’s organizations. To put this context in perspective, the essay will analyze two theories of leadership consisting of contingency and situational theories. The essay will use Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Airline to provide illustration. According to Daft (2005), existence of up to 350 definitions of leadership itself is a culmination that there is no one effective leadership style that should be used by a leader(s) in today’s organizations. However, there is one universally accepted definition of leadership. It refers leadership as social influences a person has over the other which include support and aid to realize a common goal (Daft, 2005). Over the past, business managers have tried to use various theories of leadership to gain competitive advantage and improve share of the market. In most cases, these managers have used one of the existing theories including; great man theory, behavioral theory, and management theory, situational and contingency. Since the business world has been changing so fast, they have been compelled to drop the current theory for another in seeking for success. The process of changing one theory for another is not just frustrating, but also greatly affects internal factors of an organization. Therefore, management experts currently advise leadership to embrace contingency and situational theories of management. According to Nohria & Khurana (2010), contingency theory holds that no style of leadership is appropriate on its own. Theorists in this school of thought contend that in this leadership style, it is the contingent like situation and quality of the followers which determines which style to adopt (Daft 2005). In a nutshell, the theory hypothesizes that there no one suitable method of leading since the internal and external forces needs a leader who can settle in different situation. In this research carried out in Ohio State University, effective leaders who use contingency, they are considered leaders who have interpersonal skills and create good rapport demonstrating concern and support for subordinates (Nohria & Khurana, 2010). On the other hand, effective leaders create organizational structure leadership that states roles and assignment to make sure tasks are completed within the set time. Kerno (2008) pines that at present, numerous business owners pay less focus on the business leaders who create rigid hierarchical structures. Other factors of contingency that a leader needs to consider include technology, suppliers, customers and competitors and consumer preferences. For instance, technology is very dynamic and changes every time. Hence, while still holding in old forms of strategy, they should also think of new technology and how it can improve their work. For instance, Virgin Airline Company still uses ticketing; they have also implemented online booking to make reservations for their customers. Also, they have fliers and billboard where customers can get information about flights; the same information can be acquired when one browses through their website. On the other hand, the fundamental foundation of situational theory of leadership holds there is no "best" leadership style (Lussier & Achua, 2010). The owners of this theory maintain that effective leadership must be relevant with the task. The theory argues that successful leaders today are ones who align their style of leadership to set goals and willing to assume responsibility over a task. One of the leaders who has changed his form of leadership style is one Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group. Branson remains an iconic figure in the business circles. According to Specter (2007, p.115), his high risk taking tactics, charismatic persona, amazing business acumen and other traits and skills have seen Virgin become one of the respected brands today. His cultural intelligence, adoption of technology and outstanding communication skills have made him adopt different leadership styles including participative, transformational, self-leadership and a transactional leadership. No any single styles of leadership mentioned here is perfect because they have various weaknesses. A leader can create and communicate a vision based on the internal strength of the company. In participative leadership, he involves his staff in some decision making to make them feel valued (Kerno, 2008). He contends that employees are part of the organization and every aspect of it affects them both directly and indirectly. Contrary, if high decisions are left to left to the employees, there can be no clear direction. As a transformational leader, Sir Richard Branson has adopted team setting and created change in Virgin Airlines. His spectacular transformational leadership has led the company to be a strong brand worldwide (Specter, 2007, p.115). However, teamwork is not accepted in all societies like in the US, they believe it slows projects. Management has changed over time and global managers need to have a global mindset and cultural intelligence because they deal with workforce from different cultural background. Paul (2006) asserts that firms and employees are advised to shed or hide their cultural roots aspects in order to be global citizens. Increase in number of businesses in domestic market have significantly lead to stiff competition. Therefore, expansion into new and potential market has become a norm in the 21st century. Even though in some cases Virgin has been successful, on the other end, it has failed due to exposure to high risk levels related to economic, political, social environments in these countries. Experts recommend that companies intending to get into new markets to assess the economic, social and political factors of that nation (Paul, 2006). Cultural diversity has been a major factor in targeting new markets. Different companies have opted to employ local talents in these markets to help them understand the need of the people. In such case, global managers find themselves dealing with people of varying cultural diversity hence an acceptable act in one country may not be acceptable in another. For instance, the name of Coca-Cola in Chinese was initially referred to as “Kekoukela”, implying “female horse overfed with the wax”. However, after contest with Chinese women, the company renamed the product “kokoukole”, meaning “happiness in the mouth” (Blanding, 2010). There is no one form of leadership because while some situation needs teamwork, others encourage individualism. Fischer (2009, p.32) affirms that a leader must understand that while in some culture, employees favor individualism others favor collectivism. Some employees prefer being close to power, whereas others do not mind being far away from power. In such situation, a leader should be able to create an organizational structure which favors power distance orientation. For example, comparing China and the US in terms of individualism, China stands at the score of 20 while the US stand at 91 (Fischer, 2009, p.31). This is a proof that US managers who have employees from China must create a platform of collectivism to accommodate such employees. Fischer (2009, p.27) states that China is a country with a higher rate of collectivism culture and its nationals work while observing the interests of the group as opposed to individual. If individualism is left to prevail, Chinese working as expatriates would regard their reception as cold hence lowering their morale. As such, leaders must create a team environment which would make everybody feel accepted (Pless, 2007). Virgin Airlines also flies to China and the US, so they are influenced by cultural diversities of these countries. Difference of cultures is a situational aspect and hence managers adopt a situational theory to deal with such. While Virgin has formed teams in China to work on various departments including marketing, it has offered individual projects to its US employees. Also, they must be technology savvy to handle changing face of technology. In the past, leaders only had the option of holding meeting quite often to influence his staff to a certain objective. Even though, contemporary managers still have that option, technology has influenced leadership, and they do not need to hold such meeting in this century. Specter (2007, p.120) postulates that some have criticized Branson for his leadership style. In most cases, he does not hold regular board meetings (Specter, 2007, p.121). What they do not understand is that Branson is trying to embrace change. The presence of email, intranet and other communication tools like phones has greatly made it easy for leaders to communicate. The era of travelling frequently is long gone due to advancement in technology. Leaders can cut cost of operation and use it in other projects. In business context, experts rank communication as one major requirement for effective leader (Johansson, Miller & Hamrin, 2014, p.147). Business leaders like Sir Richard Branson who operates globally interact on a daily basis with other business leaders and employees from different nations in their firms or with other corporations abroad. Specter (2007, p.119) contends that Branson has mastered the heart of communication and today he is frequently being called to give speechs about leadership. In doing that, he also markets Virgin Group as a strong brand. This is the insight given by Hofstede's model about other cultures. It points out that cross-cultural communication needs being conscious of cultural diversities since what could be regarded as absolutely natural and acceptable in one nation, could be mystifying or offensive to another culture (Paul, 2006). Every communication level is influenced by dimensions of culture including verbal, non-verbal and etiquette. Etiquette here comprise of types of acceptable gift-giving, dressing, customs, protocol and dining (Johansson, Miller& Hamrin, 2014, p.154). Communication skills are very important to a leader in terms of articulating goals and negotiating deals and partnerships. Barrett (2006, p.386) said that in global negotiations, communication goal, expectation, style and issues ranking often change on the basis of nation of origin. If used appropriately, the familiarity with cultural dimensions ought to increase effectiveness in negotiations. For instance, in the negotiation between a Canadian and a Chinese, negotiator from Canada would require signing a contract, while Chinese national would want to have more time engaging in non-business functions, hospitality and have small talk so as to first create a strong relationship (Barrett, 2006, p.387). In conclusion, the research has established that business environment is changing so fast due to globalization and technology. This is an indication that modern leaders can never depend on one old style of leadership but must also complement with others to ensure effectiveness. As change takes place, using one leadership style can never guarantee success and survival in the market. Hence, this research concludes that leaders must stay informed and know which leadership style they can use in every situation. Leaders ought to also create Code switching of culture to enable employees to adjust behavior and tolerate diverse cultural values. References Barrett, D.J. (2006). Strong communication skills a must for today’s leaders. Handbook of Business Strategy, 7(1), 385–390. Daft, R. (2005). The Leadership Experience. Toronto: Southwestern. Fischer, R. (2009). Where is Culture in Cross-Cultural Research? An Outline of a Multilevel Research Process for Measuring Culture as a Shared Meaning System. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 9, 25-48. Johansson, C., Miller, V.D., & Hamrin, S. (2014). Conceptualizing communicative leadership: A framework for analyzing and developing leaders’ communication competence. An International Journal of Corporate Communications, 19(2), 147 – 165. Kerno, S.J. (2008). 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