Cosmopolitanism, Alliances, Partnership and Other Changes Occurred in Leadership - Essay Example

Changes that have occurred in Leadership Name: Institution: Introduction Organizational leadership is much attributed to its performance as it is through this that there is increase in efficiency in the organization not leaving behind performance. All sectors in an organization consider leadership to be the core of productive performance and a way of having a competitive advantage among other companies. Investing heavily on quality leadership in an organization will ensure that there is increased managerial competency that will lead to delivery of organizational objectives leading to performance that is highly valued in the organization and other organizations. Leadership can be termed as a process whereby an individual influences others in order to achieve a certain goal. Gill (2006) describes leadership as a characteristic of quality interaction among members in the same organization in the way they deal with problem solving with the aim of achieving a common goal. Leadership incorporates establishing a direction in which visions and motivations can be given to a particular group of individuals to ensure that there is effective performance. The following essay will focus its attention on the dynamics facing organizations within the context of a globalised business environment. This will be discussed in relation to the following concepts: Cosmopolitanism Leaders ability to make faster and correct changes Formation for alliances and partnership Working with diverse cultures Social responsibility Changing leadership attitudes Changes in the leadership structures Changes in application of leadership theories Ability to make decisions faster Changes in leadership in the context of a globalised business environment Global challenges: working with diverse cultures This poses a major threat in incorporating globalization in leadership performance context. As Marquis (2008) says, it is a challenge that many firms experience when exposed to diversity as different people have different views on how to handle businesses and make them yield successful performance. Though through diversity there can be a significant profits in the business, most organizations find it as a challenge and prefer working with a particular culture. By embracing and appreciating multiculturalism and diversity in an organization, there is cohesion which enables different perspectives and functions to be accomplished. Modern day firms have incorporated diversity in leadership employment that ensures multiculturalism throughout the organization. By applying diversity in an organization, firms are eligible to have higher performance because they incorporate diverse practices which can be combined to bring positive results. To ensure that there is successful leadership, there must be appreciation of different opinions from other cultures and recognition of diversity. Taking the example of Page in his organization, he has tried to incorporate people from all backgrounds in his organization hence in any kind of information required; Google provides solutions basing on diverse backgrounds. Google celebrates cultural diversity by incorporating all cultures and setting aside dates that employees can celebrate their diverse backgrounds and the organization encourages people to come as they are and it is through this that a global environment is reached. Social responsibility In a firm, there has to be social responsibility and it is through being social with the community that a global perspective of successful performance is gotten. Being socially responsible means that anything given to the public derives maximum benefit and does not in any way meant to distort the organizational public image but it is mean to improve the company image. Through participating in community events and having interactions with various stakeholders in the community like politicians, a company is able to know the needs and wants of the society and come up with strategies that can lead to organizational performance(Yana and Christoph, n.d). The modern day leaders are very much concerned with global views of customers on their products and it is through great concern that companies yield much profit. The community plays an integral part in leadership and performance as it is through the community that there is an interconnection of a globalized environment. Page through his organization ensures that the firm is socially responsible by being committed to addressing the challenges facing the world at large. Some of the challenges that Google is actively committed to is climatic change, worldwide education for all and reduction of poverty in the world. Google participated in the rescue and relief efforts in an earthquake experienced in parts of western china. In terms of education, Google gives donations and grants to abandoned children and HIV AIDS education promoting awareness of the disease. To ensure that they remain socially responsible, Page ensures that the information given to the public does not in any way demean their quality standards and their culture. There are also workplace benefits that include Day care programs and adoption assistance for employees working at Google who are not able. Cosmopolitanism Cosmopolitanism is said to be the mind set of commonalities across places or individuals. It is based on nations rather than a particular community. Organizations in this type of environment integrate themselves in different cultures and because they have oriented themselves to others, cosmopolitans develop strategies that can help them interact openly and freely with others. Through this, organizations in this kind of setting welcome other peoples perspectives bearing in mind that any idea generated from outside will have an impact personally or professionally. Cosmopolitans have good managerial skills that can be exercised in a global environment as they have the technical competence and business experience in a global dimension. In today’s modern businesses, organizations are adopting the cosmopolitan employment strategy as it is through this that developmental perspectives gathered from cross cultural and interpersonal abilities will foster success in international environments. Page appreciates cosmopolitanism as he views all human being to belong to a common kinship and have equal status when it comes to citizens in the world. By using the social media as a platform to relay information, Google ensures that there is creation of cyber-cosmopolitanism which enhances global ethics in communication. Through this kind of cosmopolitan relationship, it is clear that there is much trust developed among people. Changes in application of leadership theories There exist a wide range of theories that tend to characterize leader and explain the practice and concept of leadership in the global arena. Leadership theories have also changed with globalization. The current day leaders seem to apply two major theories that is; the situational leadership theories and the contingency leadership theories. These two theories are of the idea that the common day leaders are supposed to align their leadership styles with the current situation. In relation to this leaders will tend to apply different leadership styles when presented with different situations (James & Burgoyne, 2001). When faced with intense situations the task oriented leaders seem to fit best in these situations. The people oriented leaders on the other hand seem to fit well in situation that are not extreme or easy that is the average situations. The decisional leadership structure was mostly applied at it guided managers or how to arrive at certain decisions in this case they do not make the decision alone and in most instances they tend to seek the opinion of others though a clear and concise analysis of the situation. The theories that have been discussed in the above paragraph dominated leadership development and also their training for the longest time possible. Although with globalization of the business environment there has been a major and noteworthy change. This is mainly attributed to the fact that new and improved ways of thinking have developed over time. The new approaches tend to view leadership as an exceedingly approach that is more focused on the followers (Amabile et al., 2004). The most popular leadership theories that are currently been employed are the leader member exchange theory and the transformational leadership theory. This two theories advocate for effective leadership which is mostly based on the ability of the leader who is in charge to engage, develop and at the same time energize the new followers. Another common theory that have been adopted within the context of a globalised business environment is the shared leadership theory, the theory emphasizes the responsibilities of making decision related to the organization and the responsibility of leading the members of the organization ought to be shared equally by all the member in the organization. The aspect of placing all the organizations responsibility on one person have been passed by time since the activities within the organization will be slow and the effectiveness of the decision that are made will also be slow. Thus other positions of leadership are been developed in organization so as to assist the top level managers in running the organization and also in attaining the stated objectives. Thus the common day leaders have over time learnt to share responsibilities among themselves for the effective running of their organizations. In the past leadership was viewed as been a straight forward aspect this was in relation to the contingency theories that were been applied then. With globalization of the business environment the operating environment has become more complex and thus calling for shared and leased capacity of all the workers and leaders in organizations for them to be operating effectively (Rodgers et al., 2003) and efficiently and at the same time be competitive in the market they are operating in. Leaders operating in the modern day business world also need to engage the employees, motivate them and delegate and monitor the situations that are arising in the environment. Though it may be a difficult task, but they need to adopt these new leadership theories for them to remain competitive and to succeed in the changed business environment. Changing leadership attitudes Leaders have to take the global concept in handling leadership roles as they have to do it in a global environment where different attitudes and traits have to be adopted while handling various people in the organization hence leaders should adapt to different approaches while handling organizational issues. An attitude portrayed by an individual can attract others to join them in achieving a certain goal or deter a person from joining. Having a leader who has positive attitude in approaching a situation or has positive traits in handling problems rising in any organization is highly eligible to work in a global environment. An organization is inclusive of stakeholders among them employees, shareholders, suppliers and customers. In dealing with any emerging issues in the organization, leaders should have a global perspective in the way different people are handled (McCollum, 2012). Nowadays organizational leaders are not chosen on the bases of what they feel for the organization but on what the organization needs in a leader who can cater for all the needs of the stakeholders in a globalised environment. Larry in his leadership encourages leaders that have immediacy minded attitudes that would cater for a changing globalised world. With this, Page calls in for crazy audacious ideas that would encourage positive attitude while tackling the challenges at hand. He therefore encourages people to avoid bureaucracy and it is through this that leadership attitudes will be embraced. Ability to make decisions faster The ability of the leaders to make decisions in a faster way is seen as a major change that has occurred over in leadership within the context of a globalised business environment. Decisions are seen as part been the heart of the leaders success and there are certain situations when decision making can be nerve-cracking, difficult and perplexing (Raelin, 2003). Leaders are in most instances expected to make decisions that will on one way or another have a negative or positive impact on the organization as well as the employees that are working in the organization. Leaders are ultimately responsible for the decisions that are made in the organization thus as a leader, they are supposed to monitor and evaluate clearly the decision that is been made. Prior to making the final decision leaders need to identify the available options and from that they can choose the most appropriate decision to make based on the situation. The way in which decisions are made is seen as a major change that has occurred in leadership (Gosling & Mintzberg, 2003). Leaders operating in the within the context of a globalised world need to arrive at decision quickly in spite of the ambivalence as well as the uncertainties that tend to prevail in the modern day business world. In the globalised environment and with the technological advancements which are taking place from time to time, the boundaries that were been used to separate a country with another one or a certain company with another are over time becoming irrelevant. Companies have also over time adopted real time competition, thus the leaders do not have a lot of time to make decisions and they have to make them in a haste manner though they are expected to make the correct decision for their organizations. The leaders are presented with a lot of information and data related to the business and through that information they are supposed to come up with a final decision. Leaders are finding the management of all this information a tiresome work since they are supposed to come up with the relevant aspects and thus it requires sound judgment from the leaders. The current day leaders are therefore expected to act fast and at the same time not miss out in any significant window of opportunity that may be available for the company. Formation of alliance as well as partnership with other companies Alliances are termed as the agreements that are usually formed between firms for them to do business with each other and in most instances in ways in that exceed the normal operations of the companies. On the other hand other companies opt to form partnerships, and it is termed as the agreement in which parties or companies agree to cooperate with each so as to progress their mutual interests. Prior to globalization of the business environment, leaders did not engage in partnerships and alliances and each of them used to operate only in one country. This in turn limited the amount if revenue generated by those organizations. In respect to this leadership has changed and most leaders are opting to form alliance with other as to make their business more competitive and for them to have access to various types of markets in the world (Carson, Tesluk & Marrone, 2007).). Through the partnerships and alliances the organization are able to sell their products or at the same time offer their services to wider markets which they would not have been able to access if they operating within their own national boundaries. Through the leadership of Larry Page, Google has formed alliances with companies such as apple, Samsung and Microsoft for the Kodak acquisition. Changes in the leadership structures In the old days most individual believed that leadership could be learned and leaders ought to have followed to the letter the set practices. With globalization of the business environment the work of leaders have become more complicated. Within the context of globalization, the leaders operating in the current business environment lead their organizations through influence rather than based on the power that is endowed to the positions that they hold in their organizations. Hierarchical, control as well as command structures were used in the management of the organizations (Austin, 2003). The juniors had to receive authority from above before undertaking a particular activity in the organizations. The juniors had to receive authorization from their line managers and they line managers would later get authorization for their higher levels managers. This is not the case with the modern day leaders and in their place the leaders operating in the globalised business environment have adopted other structures to replace these structures. The structures which have been applied seem to be more efficient as compared to the earlier structures. The earlier leaders also used the control and command structures. The organizations believed that they had to command and control the entire employees who were working under them. The modern day organization have fully integrated the employees working under them and thus the employee are also involved in the running and making decision that are related to their organization. With these the organization has turned into been an enjoyable place for both the employees and leaders since team work is enhanced since the leaders do not act on the command and rule leadership structures. Conclusion To conclude on the above discussion, it is evident that globalization is the center to effective leadership performance and it is through having leaders with diverse qualities that quality performance will be produced in a globalised environment. As companies seek to recruit leaders, they should seek for a leader with a global concern for everyone without leaving behind the stakeholders’ interests. By embracing all the traits mentioned above and trying to fight the challenges facing leadership in a global environment, it is a sure way that there will be effective performance. Larry Page in his leadership advice says that to be an effective leader, one must incorporate everyone inside their circle and the people invited should not be afraid to challenge the leaders thoughts and ideas and it is through that way that that effective performance will be achieved. He also states that leadership in a global environment needs smart leaders who are willing to embrace diversity and speak up for power. If all companies and leaders appreciated such thoughts then that is a sure way for achievement. References Raelin, J. (2003). Creating Leaderful Organizations. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc. Gosling, J., & Mintzberg, H. (2003). Mindsets for Managers. Working paper, Centre for Leadership Studies. James, K., & Burgoyne, J. (2001). 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