Management, Leadership Philosophy and Leaders in the 20th and 21st Centuries - Coursework Example

Leadership Differences between 20th and 21st Centuries Introduction The leadership philosophy of the past (20th century) is no longer adequate in handling the complex problems inherent in the business organizations of today. This implicit leadership theory assumes that leadership lies in individuals’ ability to influencing and inspiring others to solve business problems to achieve organizational objectives. The 21st century brings many new challenges in the business world for both the leaders and workers. In a fast moving and interconnected global business, leaders need to learn stress tolerance, divergent thinking, and cognitive flexibility. New leadership theories attach emphasis on the importance of trust, honesty and long-term partnerships in conducting and running organizations. The 21st century presents a competitive business world and, therefore, needs leaders with novel ideas and that are willing to inspire and motivate others to take risks as well as being able to build new strategic relationships to address the emerging challenges brought about by globalization (Richard Daft, 2010). Management and Leadership in the 20th and 21st Centuries In the 20th century, leadership was about obtaining a finite objective or goal that is, delivering goods and services with a sole aim of making profits; dominance and the exercise of market power. However, in the 21st century, leadership is about an infinite objective or goal of satisfying customers; cognitive flexibility, vision and mission, authenticity, and the creation of strategic relationships. Organizations in this century make profits by creating value and quality products to customers and not through the solely delivering goods and services to the customers like in the 20th century. For this reason, scholars argue that “the finite objective of the 20st century about delivering goods and services to make profit was dispiriting and annoying because the goal demotivated and dispirited the workers, in addition to, acting as a source of frustration for the customers since the objective was unsustainable as it ignored quality and value addition” (Denning, 2010). The infinite goal of the 21st century, on the other hand, is naturally inspiring and aims at satisfying customers and workers, thus considered sustainable. Conversely, the 20th century business landscape was characterized by linear objectives, which organizations would obtain with ease through internal advantages such as economies of progressively because the organizations were in charge and controlled the consumers. The organizations, thus never minded much about quality and the need to provide innovative and quality products to the consumers as they easily manipulated them to their advantage. Moreover, businesses created processes, hierarchical structures, rules and procedures and eliminated mistakes when they happened by blaming, punishing, suspending, and even firing the workers (Denning, 2010). Conversely, the past century systems considered consumers as objects for manipulation rather than critical elements organizations needed to develop relationships with to enable them consume their products. Similarly, the systems perceived their human resources as objects for exploitation, which they would use and discard at any moment (Denning, 2010). Innovation and creativity were not considered as essential components to creating competitive advantage and quality products for consumers. In the 21st century, however, many factors have shifted and the customer is now in charge or the “customer is the king” (Moreno, 2012). For this reason, the business are also changing with these trends and are focusing more on ensuring the consumer is satisfied through the provision of a continuous stream of innovative, quality and value-added products and services to retain them and increase their market shares. This is a radical shift that is posing challenges to firms and business leaders and management; hence, necessitating them to take radical measures and strategies, in addition to, adopting the right leadership traits to run successful organizations. Therefore, the objective of the firm is no longer simple, linear and finite. The goal of the business is now difficult, complex, and infinite. Relentless innovation has become an integral requirement demanding management and leaders to embrace R&D to develop quality and better products to satisfy the consumers’ needs (Kuratko, 2007). Unlike the 20th century, mistakes are now an essential element of the learning process. Thus, instead of them being punished, they are now welcome as opportunities for learning. Workers in the firms are now focusing on new measures, strategies, and processes that add value to products and consumers (Denning, 2010). The economies of scale are now being perceived to be hiding the exact cost of value addition to products. The hierarchical structures, procedures, processes, and rules are now being formulated to reinforce and enable creativity and innovativeness in the business environment to enable the firms develop better and quality products (Judge, 2002). In this 21st century, employees and customers are not treated as objects to be manipulated, or ordered around anymore by management; they are being recognized as critical elements with whom the firm has an adult-to-adult relationship, with conversations engagement (Drucker, 2007). Everyone in the firm is responsible for innovations and discovering new ways of adding value to products to satisfy, delight and create value for the customers. The firm is not an end in itself but rather it now focused on meeting the needs of clients and stakeholders. Conversely, the 21st century firm has processes and structures that create space to liberate energies and talents of the workers (Drucker, 2007). The structures and processes are designed with the customer in focus to delight and satisfy them. However, it is unfortunate that organizations have started engaging in unethical business practices with the motives of increasing their revenues using similar revenue models of the past century, which are destroying their capacity to create competitive advantages in the market. For in instance, the rate of return on assets of firms in United States is already one-quarter of what was in 1965. The life expectancy of a company has declined from around half a century to 15 years. It is anticipated that this likely to fall further to 5 years. These dynamics are calling for sober, better and result oriented leadership to manage these emerging trends in the 21st century (Grenville, 2005). Some of the desired qualities of leaders are as outlined below. Qualities of a 20th and 21st Century Leaders Good leadership qualities are an essential component of a 21st century leadership. In a constantly changing business environment management and leaders cannot rely on or model themselves from the leadership archetypes of the 20th century because the marketing and workplace have significantly changed and leaders and management are facing a new set of emerging business challenges. For instance, the 20th century leaders concentrated on maintaining power without little or no delegation, the 21st century leaders must recognize that delegation is a critical component of a successful organization in the current business environment. In essence, the 20th century leadership qualities centered on power and dominance. Leaders and managers only focused on exercising their power and retaining it within the higher hierarchies of the organization. For this reason, the leaders and managers made decisions without involving workers and often fired them at the slightest mistakes. Employee involvement and engagement were not recognized as leaders considered themselves as superiors and the subordinates as the juniors only meant to undertake and follow instructions, procedures and policies without making any contribution to organizational decision-making. For this reason, the type of communication in the organization was more vertically and horizontally inclined as the leaders and top management exercised power and dominance over the lower level managers and workers. However, the 21st century leaders unlike their 20th century counterparts emphasize on the need of being insightful, decisive, and challenging to company conventions to generate new ideas to be able to keep up with the changing and emerging trends such as technology, competition, and among other factors. Thus, the new elements are demanding for innovative and creative leaders that are ready to take risks to seize opportunities in the market (Jr., 2013). Some of the essential qualities and skills of the 21st century leaders include the following. Relentless Innovativeness and Creativity The 21st century leaders embrace relentless innovation and creativity because of the increased competition and changing consumer tastes and preferences. Leaders in this century have recognized that innovative and superior products that are differentiated from those of the competitors create a competitive advantage in the market because consumers value products that can give them value for their money. Moreover, the leaders and managers have realized that continuous innovation in all aspects of the organizations including processes and life cycles of products are also essential and thus are engaging in relentless innovation (Yeramyan, 2014). Adaptability Leaders is in the 21st century must embrace change and be able to adapt to the changing business environment. Rather than focusing on one main goals and vision, leaders in the 21st century have recognized the need to adapt to a shifting environment characterized by intense competition and are often modifying their organizational visions and objectives from time to time to give their organizations a direction by having a strong vision at given particular time (Tice, 2007). Decisiveness Unlike in the past century, the 21st century leaders have realized the time for holding long meetings are over and have taken the initiative and risk to make decisions in a prompt manner because of the pace at which changes are taking place in the business environment (Tice, 2007). Ability to Delegate and Inspire The 21st century leaders have realized the importance of inspiration and delegation in the organization (Prive, 2012). The leaders have the initiative to ‘walk the talk’ to motivate their workers to improve their productivity. For instance, they have realized how critical organizational human resources are and have started programs aimed at motivating and retaining the workers through e.g. motivation programs such as offering bonuses to workers for better performance and achievement. In addition, the leaders engage their workers in decision-making and delegate duties to allow employees perform their work efficiently (Prive, 2012). This, for instance, has boosted the levels of innovation and creativity in the organization. Collaboration Unlike in the past century, leaders of the 21st century have recognized the need for collaborative skills. For this reason, leaders are from different departments of the organization are exchanging ideas on the best decisions and strategies to initiate to be able to create competitive advantages in the market (Tice, 2007). Conclusion It is evident from that the leadership skills and business landscapes of the 20th century are different from the models of the 21st century. Whereas the 20th century leadership was characterized by power and dominance, the 21st century approach is insightful and decisive in characteristics, and is inclined to the 21st century skills of leadership and management such as innovativeness, creativity, decisiveness, collaboration, and adaptability. Ultimately, it is imperative that the 21st century management and leaders embrace these skills to cope with the changing business environment and emerging trends. References Denning, S. (2010). The Leaders Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century. John Wiley & Sons. Grenville, J. A. (2005). A History of the World from the 20th to the 21st Century. Psychology Press. Prive, T. (2012). Top 10 Qualities That Make A Great Leader. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/12/19/top-10-qualities-that-make-a-great-leader/ Tice, P. (2007). Building the 21st Century Leader. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/173522 Jr., M. B. (2013). 21st Century Leadership. iUniverse. Richard Daft, D. M. (2010). Understanding Management. Cengage Learning. Moreno, K., 2012. The Customer Is King. How Do You Talk to the King? Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2012/06/25/the-customer-is-king-how-do-you-talk-to-the-king/ Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, M. W. (2002). Personality and leadership: a qualitative and quantitative review. Journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 765. Drucker, P. F. (2007). Management challenges for the 21st century. Routledge. Kuratko, D. F. (2007). Entrepreneurial leadership in the 21st century. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 13(4), 1. Yeramyan, P. (2014, March 9). The Six Defining Traits Of The Successful 21st Century Organization. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/gapinternational/2014/09/03/the-six-defining-traits-of-the-successful-21st-century-organization/ Read More