Strategy as a Practice and Leadership - Assignment Example

The paper "Strategy as a Practice and Leadership" Is a wonderful example of a Management Assignment. The business and competitive landscape have been changing rapidly in recent years. technological change, globalization, the codification of knowledge, internet talent, employee mobility increased rate of knowledge transfer, etc have all caused a turbulent environment for most organizations and increased the rate of change and disruptions (Vogel 2003). Organizations always look up to their leadership for guidance during hard times and / or during unexpected changes. Looking at the new forces that we currently have in the Economy, for instance, China and India, you will realize that their leaders believe that if there is one factor that will determine their future, it is leadership. Management typically has incentives to present the organization’s financial positioning the best possible light (Bazerman et al 1997) However, many CEO’s or top Organizational leaders often complain about a lack of leadership talent in their organizations and there is an outcry as to what will happen in future when the current so called the baby-boomer generation of leaders finally moves on or steps aside. There seems to be a gap as far as talent is concerned in the leadership arena or so it seems. However, before making any conclusions, there is a need to define what strategic leadership is and also to establish what it means to different people be they leaders or just students; Strategic leadership is one that develops and establishes a clear plan (strategy) which is often organizational. Strategic leadership is about making choices and tradeoffs in an organization, and setting clear intellectual frameworks to guide that strategy and strong leaders who are willing to make choices are integral to an organization’s achievement of its strategy which means; making tradeoffs, defining and communicating the company’s unique position, providing discipline as far as customer and needs and industry changes are concerned and at the same time avoiding organization based distractions and maintaining the company’s distinct position (Porter 1996) The core of management is strategy hence the term Strategic leadership. Lower level management in organizations has often been marred with a lack of confidence and focus as far as maintaining strategy is concerned. There are pressures often to compromise, and relax tradeoffs and emulate competitors or rivals.

One of the leadership roles in an organization is to teach strategy and to avoid or to say no to anything that threatens to distract the company from its strategic course. Strategy, offers a choice to leadership on what to do and what not to do since setting making choices about the things that affect an organization is also one of the main roles of leadership; variety and the needs of the company decision making on matters pertaining to customers, varieties and the needs that an organization should serve is a central part of developing a strategy. The same applies to making decisions on which customers not to serve, the needs that an organization should not serve as well as which offers and services an organization should not offer. Strategy therefore needs constant and strict discipline and a clear precise communication which are the aims of strategic leadership. In fact, one of the most crucial roles of a well communicated strategy is to give guidance to employees in matters of making choices that rise from tradeoffs in their day to day decision making activities. The question that begs therefore is whether organizations can rely on the next generation of leaders to step up strategy once they take over the mantle of leadership and enable organizations to avoid risks related to inadequacies of leadership and also whether they can better prepare an organization to steer current and future leaders into dealing with future changes that are not yet seen.