Leadership Change in Globalized Environment - Report Example

Leadership Change in Globalized Environment Name: Institution: Leadership is the process of influencing where one is involved in mobilizing people in accomplishing a certain task. This term has many definitions depending on the approach where the word is to be used (Northhouse, 2007). The main objective of leadership is to achieve the set goals and objectives. Leadership is used in almost all sectors of human life. It can be used in businesses and social groups (Pearce, Imre, Ramirez, 2001). It is evident that leadership cannot take place when one is alone, but it involves a group of people. This process requires some skills for it to be effective. A person, who gives directives and is followed, is a leader and shows the way forward. Leadership is mostly related to abilities, personal skills and the degree of influence (Northhouse, 2007). Leaders have the ability of expressing a vision, encouraging cooperation, influencing others and promoting teamwork by being in front as an example. Globalization has changed the terms of leadership in a significant way (Roland, 1992). Leaders are changing their way of leadership due to the changing world in the use of technology, new ideas and new approaches (Pearce, Imre, Ramirez, 2001). This context will discuss leadership in general and its changes in the globalized environment. The context will also contain an example of a global leader, who I admire, and explain how the leader fits in the leadership framework and the reasons as to why I admire them. The current world requires strong, influential and congruent leaders (Pearce, Imre, Ramirez, 2001). The context will also contain the concepts, qualities of leadership and the reasons why leadership need to change in the globalized world. There are also theories of leadership contained in the context. Leadership is a subject that puts every person to think on how to make good leaders, how to learn leadership and methods that leaders use to approach a problem (Kouzes, 1987). There are many authors who have come up with various approaches and theories to describe leadership. Some of the theories include the Great Event Theory, the Trait Theory and the Transformational Leadership Theory (Dalglish & Miller, 2010). These theories explain how some people become leaders and are known all over the world. The Trait Theory says that a person’s personality traits can lead a person to become a leader naturally. The Theory of Great Events describes how a person can be triggered by an event or crisis and causes the person to rise and brings out his/her unexpected leadership qualities (Northhouse, 2007). The Transformational Leadership Theory states that a person desires and chooses to become a leader. The person learns the leadership skills and tries applying them on different points. The process of making the decision and learning leadership skills to become a leader is the transformational process (Markovic, 2012). This theory is widely accepted and used in the world today. The world’s environment setting makes leaders gain different skills on how to achieve significant tasks (Northhouse, 2007). Successful leaders inspire their followers by being present, knowing the way forward and doing what is expected to be done. These elements are acquired by continued working, practise and study (Bass, 1985). Good leaders usually do work and study continually to advance their leadership skilfulness. It is crucial to note that being a head of a department; supervisor or manager does not make one a leader, but a boss. A leader differs from a boss in that a leader makes the followers have the desire and want to achieve the set goals (Markovic, 2012). Leaders need to build on their integrity, respect and trust to their followers. The most crucial elements to effective leadership are trust, confidence and effective communication (Kouzes, 1987). Effective communication is a skill that helps in mobilizing, inspiring and understanding the workers (Northhouse, 2007). Leaders are judged by what they say and do. Successful leaders execute what they say in a manner, which is respectful and admirable. People require their leaders to guide them, but leaders have no guides, therefore; they must guide themselves on what to do at the right time (Bass, 1985). On the other hand, followers require guidance from the leaders they respect and those who have a clear direction sense. Respect is gained through adherence to ethics, while sense of direction is obtained by displaying a strong and robust vision of the future (Shriberg, 2010). Leaders require principles that guide them on what to do and decide on the way forward. Some of the principles of leadership include; Technical proficiency- a leader should understand and know his/ her job, and be familiar with the employees’ responsibilities (Lussier, Achua, 2009). Make time conscious decisions- A leader should have the knowledge to make decisions, have sound problem solving approaches and planning (Bass, 1985). Be role model- Leaders require to set the example for their employees to follow (Kouzes, 1987). Seek self improvement and know yourself- Leaders need to understand their attributes to help them improve on their skills (Shriberg, 2010). Take care of the employees- The employees require to be looked after for their wellbeing. Leaders should understand the nature and wellbeing of their employees (Lussier, Achua, 2009). Keep workers informed- knowledge on effective communication is necessary for a leader to pass information to the workers and others (Bass, 1985). Leadership is not applicable when alone, but it requires various factors to be present. There are key factors of leadership, which include; Follower. Leader. Communication. Situation. The followers are the people who require to be guided. Different people require various leadership styles. This factor determines the leadership that is needed for particular people. The leader factor provides the required leadership skills (Northhouse, 2007). The leaders need to have sincere understanding of who they are, what are able to do and what they know in the globalised society. Communication factor involves the transfer of information between the leader and the follower. Communication in this context is in two ways; verbal and nonverbal (Lussier, Achua, 2009). Nonverbal communication involves the things done, and others need to copy such as the leader setting an example for the followers. The way a leader communicates to his/her follower determines the building or harming their relationship (Northhouse, 2007). The situation factor provides an environment at which the leadership is conducted. The situation at hand determines the action and leadership style to be used. Leaders are faced with many situations in their leadership, for example, employee misbehaviour, employee promotions and business contracts (Bass, 1985). The four factors are affected by various forces such as the relationship with the seniors, the people’s skills, organization of the firm and the number of informal leaders in the organization. Leadership models are significant indicators that show and help people to know why leaders act in a way. Different situations calls for the use of different approaches to handle, therefore, different models have been formulated. Some of the models include the Managerial Grid and the Four Framework Approach (Egner, 2009). The Four Framework Approach displays leadership behaviours as composed of four kinds of frameworks, which are, Structural, Political, Human Resource and the Symbolic frameworks. The Managerial Grid model involves the use of two axes, which are used to draw a graph (Egner, 2009). The two axes are the Concern for People and Concern for a Task, which are plotted on the vertical and horizontal grid axes respectively. The axes have ranges of zero to nine. This grid is plotted depending on the leadership of a person (Egner, 2009). The grid produces four kinds of leaders, which include; Authoritarian – has high concern for task, but low concern for people relations. Team leader – has high concern for people and high task concern. Country Club- This leader has low task concern, but a high concern for people relationship. Improvised leader – This leader has low task and people concerns. The Managerial Grid model shows the leaders that can be formed depending on the leaders’ actions and commitment (Egner, 2009). The suitable position for a genuine leader is the Team leader. This does not mean the other types should be done away with, but they are also useful in some situations. Acting as an Improvised leader creates self reliance among the follower. Authoritarian leaders can instil discipline to an employee who misbehaves in the firm (Egner, 2009). Globalization is a word used to denote international integration process to increase the connectivity and interrelationships in the world’s businesses and markets (Roland, 1992). The advancement in technology has made people move, communicate and transact business all over the world. Globalization has been fast tracked by the development of the internet, advancement in transport and telecommunication infrastructure. The process of globalization has changed the process of leadership in many ways. Some of the impacts of globalization on leadership include changed planning, diversity business, increased personnel, change of environment and culture (Dalglish & Miller, 2010). The changes caused by globalization calls for change in the way leadership is carried out. Leaders need to come up with new ideas to tackle the problems that arise from Globalization. Globalization cannot change to fit a firm’s requirements, but the management and leadership of the organization are the ones that need to change (Roland, 1992). In a globalized business environment, there is increased need to improve communication skills so that information is transferred to every part where it is required. Motivation of employees is another challenge that leaders are facing (Waters, 2001). Leaders need to use methods such as promotions, annual conferences, improve employees’ relations and encourage workers to be self reliant. Businesses are interconnected internationally, and control of the transactions in various parts of the world is made easier by effective communication among various leaders in the world (Waters, 2001). Competition in the globalized environment is increased; therefore, the leaders require improving their motivation skills to enhance production of high quantity quality goods and services and to retain the organization’s competitiveness (Waters, 2001). My admired leader is Mark Zuckerberg. He is a visionary, innovative and admirable leader. He has showed exemplary leadership from the time he established the Facebook organization. Mark is determined to establish and dominate a new kind of internet to serve his global fraternity. He has great battles to make his Facebook organization to be known and recognized globally (Kouzes, 1987). His followers like and respect him for his leadership. Mark’s innovation has changed the way the world does things. His company, Facebook Inc, have been in the frontline in the globalization process. The company has helped in the interconnection of people all over the world. Using Facebook has made the transfer of communication easier and reliable across the world (Kirkpatrick, 2012). Mark Zuckerberg is a son of Edward and Karen Zuckerberg. He began to use computers and writing software when he was a child in middle school. He enjoyed creating computer programs such as communication tools and games (Stewart, 2009). His works of innovations inspired him and others who admired him for what he did. Some of his innovations were Syanpse Media Player, Zucknet, Facemash and CourseMatch (Kirkpatrick, 2012). He attended and graduated from Mercy College and enrolled for a programming course at Harvard University to continue with his education. In High School, it is the time that Mark developed Zucknet and Synapse Media Player. Zucknet was a program that enabled connection of different computers and enhanced communication to each other (Stewart, 2009). Later, Synapse Media Player was a music program that used artificial intelligence to learn the listening habits of the user. Other organizations such as AOL and Microsoft tried to buy the media player program and have a chance to recruit him for further development (Kirkpatrick, 2012). However, Zuck had wise decisions of enhancing his experience and education; therefore, he joined Harvard University (Stewart, 2009). His friends admired him for his skills in programming. In Harvard, he developed CourseMatch and Facemash programs, which were used by the university students for interactions (Kirkpatrick, 2012). Facemash received various critics from the university administration. Mark closed Facemash and developed the Facebook which was only used by the university students initially. As a student, Mark has shown that he had solutions to the problems that he encountered. He promoted connectivity and interrelationship of students in the university. Mark dropped out of school to go and complete his Facebook project (Stewart, 2009). In his early life, Mark displays his innovative nature and knowledge of making decisions. He led his fellow students in many contexts and encouraged student relationships by creating software that were used for interactions (Kirkpatrick, 2012). The development of Facebook formed his followers who he directed and motivated. Mark leads his workers and the shareholders of the Facebook Inc (Kirkpatrick, 2012). He owns the most shares that make him have the decisive right of the company. Zuckerberg is a team leader who listens to the decisions of others and works together to achieve the set objectives. He displays outstanding leadership qualities such as understanding, respectful, good planning skills, intelligence, trustworthy, confidence, motivating and positive attitude (Kirkpatrick, 2012), qualities which are required by modern organization leaders to lead their organizations into stardom like Mark. The leadership of Mark Zuckerberg as the CEO of Facebook is admirable (Stewart, 2009). He has a listening nature of the challenges affecting them. He has stood strong from the critics of his enemies and defended the Facebook site from buyout offers that could turn off his dream. He had big dreams and visions for the company (Kirkpatrick, 2012). His initial dreams were to make the world be connected, and he lived to succeed in his dream with his determination and hard work (Stewart, 2009). Mark has other firms and individuals who own the Facebook organization; these are Accel Partners, Greylock Partners, Digital Sky Technologies, Eduardo Saverin, Sean Parker, Sheryl Sanberg, Microsoft, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, Peter Thiel, Jim Breyer and others (Kirkpatrick, 2012). Mark’s partnership with all these individuals and companies shows his understanding for team work and diversity, characteristics that modern leaders need to develop and enhance in the organization. The companies are spread worldwide, and this makes the Facebook Inc to promote globalization (Kirkpatrick, 2012). It accommodates several cultures and business environments together and hence deals with the aspect of diversity in the globalised society, hence modern leaders should emulate these characteristics. Globalization has led to change in the leadership of Zuckerberg. The board of directors contained only men, but he hired a female, Sheryl Sandberg, to serve as Chief Operating Officer of Facebook Company (Dilts, 2012). The reason behind this was to include all genders and cultures in the company (Markovic, 2012). This change was a major step towards globalization (Pearce, Imre, Ramirez, 2001). The increase of personnel, who are over eight hundred and forty million members, in the Facebook site has led to advancements of its servers to provide quality services to its people (Stewart, 2009). Initially, Mark started the company with few numbers of workers, but as the organization keep on growing the workers keep on increasing to meet the demands of the services required (Kirkpatrick, 2012). He was determined to make the world be connected but not competing. His innovations led him to be one of the successful young innovators and now he owns billions of money (Markovic, 2012). Mark Zuckerberg is a leader to learn from and admire. Mark is one of the role models of the young people in the world today (Stewart, 2009). He has shown other young people that one should not wait until one gets old to formulate a change in the world (Stewart, 2009). He had made various changes in his leadership so that he adapted the globalization effect (Rondinelli, Heffron, 2009). He had to include other people in the company, such as Sheryl Sanberg and others, to allow globalization. Mark had to change his consultative leadership style and use participative leadership style (Stewart, 2009). Consultative leadership involves giving room for workers and partners to take part in decision making, but the final decision are made by the leader. Participative leadership, on the other hand, involves allowing workers to play a part in decision making process, and any member in the group or team can make the final decision. The change of leadership in the organization due to globalization had to change for effectiveness in the company (Pearce, Imre, Ramirez, 2001). This is because the firm has several shareholders globally; therefore, making of decisions had to change to accommodate the different cultures in the organization (Shriberg, 2010). The board of directors had a change by including both male and female members for the organization to be recognized globally in matters of equality (Rondinelli, Heffron, 2009). Facebook Company deals with interconnection of people as the personnel keep on increasing the privacy terms of the company must keep on changing (Kirkpatrick, 2012). These privacy terms had to change to enhance the privacy of people. The leadership skills of Mark Zuckerberg are unique, and it has made the organization effective and improved performance (Kirkpatrick, 2012). This context has shown that leadership is a vital element in the effectiveness and quality performance of an organization. Leaders need to learn and understand leadership skills from books, education and training (Lussier, Achua, 2009). Leadership is a difficult process, if one does not know and understand what to do. From the leadership of Facebook organization, women leadership is rare in the globalized world today (Dilts, 2012). The effect of globalization has made organizations change their way of leadership and approach to situations (Rondinelli, Heffron, 2009). Facebook organization has changed its leadership approach to allow globalization to take effect (Kirkpatrick, 2012). There are different leadership theories and models that have been established. The Transformational Theory of leadership is appreciated in most parts of the world (Stewart, 2009). The developed models of leadership help to discover the types of leaders that can be developed from the way they act and leadership skills (Shriberg, 2010). Leadership is one of the pillars in four for a successful business. Other pillars include management, control and command. Fig. 2 The other pillars supplement leadership skills to enhance growth of any organization (Lussier, Achua, 2009). The leadership skills and management of Mark Zuckerberg were the key supports for the exemplary growth of Facebook Inc (Stewart, 2009). The lesson that people can learn from the leadership of Zuckerberg is that if one want to change the world, one starts with the surrounding. Mark had changed the surrounding by developing admirable innovations, and then proceeded to change the world, and succeeded, hence, the change in leadership context, in the globalised world. References: Bass, B. (1985). 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