21st Century Leadership - Essay Example

21st –century leadership By Introduction Organizations have faced a lot of challenges in the current and continue to face the challenges despite the efforts to eliminate the challenges. Technology has been the main challenge. Technology has affected organizations and their leadership in many ways. In many of the organization, technology has led to the advancement in the economy though the developments come with some challenges. The technology has led to the production of many unwanted products leading to high rate of pollution. The leadership has to decide on the correct disposal of the wastes which may be costly. Organization leadership has the problem of presenting the change of technology to the staff. Technology has been improving daily and adapting to the challenge takes time (Goddard & Molyneux, 2001). The challenge of technology toward the banking industry Banking industry is one of the industries in the world that has faced challenges that has targeted its leadership style. The emergence of the new and sophisticated technology has led to new innovations that have been applied in the banking industry. Apple pay for example has been launched by the apple company (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009). The system provides a payment system that is touchless targeting I phones. The emergence of non bank entities has been known to replace the activities done by the bank. People are no longer queuing at the bank to make the transactions as it was previously done in the many banking industry. Mobile phones technology for example has replaced most of the banking activities and people currently are doing their transactions by utilizing technology in provided by the phones. It is no secret that technology is changing the leadership and the operation of the banking industry. Mobile banking is on the rise to help keep up with the current generation made up of so many young members being optimistic about the future of their finances (North house, 2013). Technology has been it even easier for the people in developed countries since most of the people are no longer going to the bank but are using the current technology to deal with their transaction from the comfort of their home or even the office. Technological change has forced the leadership of the banking industries to place their bet on applications and optimistic that the next generation will follow suit. The leadership of the industry should therefore be updated with the emerging innovation in order to stay relevant and serve more and more people. Venmo is among such application that has made it possible to receive and sent money, rent payment, splitting of checks and debts collection among friends. New comer coin, another application that works likes a debit card and stores all transactional information of the individual. The applications outlined are less among the many innovations in the world today that have continued to impact on the banking industry. It therefore calls for the leadership of the industry to re strategize their leadership in order to move with technology. As of December 2013 half of smart phone users in the United States of America had utilized their phones to do their banking transactions. In the United Kingdom on the other hand, mobile banking utilization double each year (Goddard & Molyneux, 2001). Leadership theories and its application toward the challenges facing the banking industry With technological impact and evolution of the industry to meet customers’ demand the banking industry require instinctive decision makers and strong leadership to be able to deal with the changes. Leaders from the industry require leadership skills that are vital and which will spur the organization to the next level. Such leadership can only be achieved through continuous training. Situational leadership theory is among the leadership that helps to manage the people practically and comprehensively (Bass & Bass, 2008). Situational leadership is a set of tool and a model for opening up communications between the top leadership the employees and the customers. The style bases on mentoring the subordinates and updates them on the current changes. The top management ensures that the maturity level of the employees or the subordinates is brought up to be at par with their leadership. Change in the technology in an organization enables the leadership of the organization to carry out well the activities in a smooth way with reduction in time needed for activities. The time depends on the way the leadership will present the technology to the staff. (Chiesa, 2001) The time that is needed to adapt to a new technology by the staff is much. (West, 2000) The staff’s work speed reduces as they adapt to the new technology. Some find adapting to the technology taking more time than they expected and hence they may decide to quit the organization due to the introduced technology. (Reina and Reina, 2006) This brings the leadership another challenge of trying to keep the workers even when they are not able to adapt to the technology. Change in technology poses the leadership a challenge on the decision on the efficiency of the change in relation to the objectives and the planning of the activities of the business. (McLoughlin, 1999) When the new technology is brought in the organization, the leadership might be forced to use different strategies in their operation to put up with the technology. The efficiency may not pick up well immediately and before the change becomes perfect there might be a change again in technology. The model focuses on continuous communication among the top leadership in the organization with an intention of imparting commitment, competence and talent. With the emerging tents of technological challenges, the banking industry will require competent and skilled employees to be able to deal with the changes. The model permit the top leadership to adopt the appropriate leadership to enable them takes care of the various challenges they face. It also enables them come up with coaching styles to help the subordinate to deal with the issue too (Bass & Bass, 2009). The model can be applied in training of the people to enable them handle the various challenges that the organization is facing. The leadership style encourages flexibility among the leaders in preparing them to face the future challenges. The management of the banking industry has to come up with the effective ways of handling challenges by applying the style. Transformational leadership theory is applied in the banking industry to help develop individual purpose and social values. It possesses a philosophy that is coherent in underpinning the current nature of leadership. It focuses on the organization achievement of the ultimate goal of leadership. With the challenges facing the banking industry a more skilled and goal oriented leadership have to be put in place to provide opinion and decisions that will enable the industry deal with challenges (Casolaro & Gobbi, 2004). The theory focuses on values and motivation in evaluating the approach of leaders toward power. Banking industries which subscribes to this kind of leadership style, advocate for collaborative working and not individualism. Technological challenge that face the banking industry advocate for the top management to work together with other subordinates to ensure vital opinions and decisions are brought up to deal with the issue. According to Burn, transformational leadership entails the management leadership working with the subordinate in a mutual process to elevate them to greater level of motivation and morality. Banking industry’s leaders who are transformational advocate and appeal for values and high ideals of the subordinates. They employ the use of charismatic methods and values to help attract the value of the subordinate (Morse, 2007). Transformational leadership is better than transactional leadership which focuses mainly on concerns that are considered selfish. Transformational leadership is therefore important in the banking leadership since it advocates for collaborati0on among the leadership and the subordinates. The challenges that the banking industries are dynamic and calls for generation of ideas to spur it to the next level. More skilled subordinate and the top management are required to collaborate with and generate decision to help mitigate the challenges and make the industry relevant in the future. The industry has to carry out research on the customers and the technological innovation to find out the changes and raise opinions to help deal with. Technological assessment has to be done in the industry to help find out how well they are ready to adapt to the global changes and challenges. It only calls for the collaboration to effectively deal with these changes (Botelho, 2010). The theory advocates that leaders are able to motivate the employees by applying spiritual and social values. The approach enables the subordinate and the managers to be well connected and collaborate for the general purpose of ensuring the industry is able to deal with technological challenges. In order for the subordinate to pay attention to higher industrial concerns, less concerns such as their safety health and security should be taken care of by the industries as explained by the Maslow’s hierarchy. Technology can disrupt the value of the banking industry if appropriate measures are not put in place. The leaders in the industry should be able to use current forms of leadership styles such transformational leadership style to empower the information technology. Most banks are doing well and have ensured appropriate and current technological advances are installed in the banking industry. Most companies are believed to be reluctant to apply new innovation in their industry compared to other industries that are not related to banking. The utilization of transformational leadership will help empower the informational technology department and give them a chance to respond to the changes and challenges facing them. The leadership will make it easier to transform and digitize the banking industry. It will also ensure effectiveness and efficiency of process and the top managers have to press for experimentation and innovation to help take the banking industry to the next level. Motivated subordinates will create better relationships with the consumers (Bass & Riggio, 2006). Banking industries should take part in the innovation in order to make the services faster and to reach more people. The application of social media will promote two way communications between the consumers and the employees working in a certain company. The industry should utilize the relevant leadership style to help motivate the employees and encourage a long lasting relationship with the employees. The use of sophisticated technology by the other companies has raised the expectation of consumers towards the banking industries. Conclusion The leadership of the company should be able to encourage the employees to be able to interact with the consumers through the current technology. The needs of the customers have to be identified through research. The leadership should also be informed of the technology applied by the other industry and its effectiveness. The information acquired should be shared with the employees (Bass & Riggio, 2006). Through collaboration between the top managerial level and the subordinate as stipulated by transformational leadership, effective decisions and opinions will be raised. The decisions raised can help in strategic planning to enable the industry deal with technological challenges such as mobile banking and social media as a way of communication. Cost is essential consideration in an organization. Change in technology comes with the change in the cost in an organization. Bringing new technology would involve the purchasing of some machines that may be expensive to the organization. The management is left in the dilemma on whether to adapt the new technology or not. The cost increases may also be through the need to hire personnel to train the staff on the proper use of the machines. Small organizations may be forced to have dalliance in purchase and upgrade to the new technology. When small organization change to the new technology, leadership of the organization always take long in the making of the decision on the use of funds available to the business. References Bass, B., & Riggio, R. 2006. Transformational leadership 2nd ed.. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates. Bass, B., & Bass, R. 2008. The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications 4th ed., Free Press hardcover ed.. New York: Free Press. Botelho, A. 2010. Meeting the Liberalisation Challenge: Technological Learning in the Brazilian Banking Automation Industry. Science Technology & Society, 111-128. Bass, B. M., & Bass, R. 2009. The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications. Simon and Schuster. Casolaro, L., & Gobbi, G. 2004. Information technology and productivity changes in the banking industry. Roma: Banca dItalia. Goddard, J., & Molyneux, P. 2001. European banking: Efficiency, technology, and growth. Chichester: John Wiley. Morse, R. 2007. Transforming public leadership for the 21st century. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. North house, P 2013 leadership, theory and practice, London sage. Thompson, G., & Vecchio, R. P. 2009. Situational leadership theory: A test of three versions. The Leadership Quarterly, 205, 837-848. Read More