Organizational Leadership and Performance in Today's Globalized World - Essay Example

Organizational Leadership and Performance Name Course Name and Code Instructor’s Name Date Introduction Technological advancements have virtually transformed leadership in the global perspective; the current time leaders are faced with global challenges that they must overcome in order to be considered effective and efficient leaders. In this regard, they are compelled to adopt to leadership styles that will best help them achieve their organizational goals as well position them as effective leaders in the global arena. Leadership is defined as the ability to influence others towards the achievement of goals that contribute to a worthwhile purpose (Cacioppe & Marsh, 1998, p. 397). It is a process that must involves the leader, followers and the context within which it is exercised for it to be effective; it does not occur in a vacuum (Wart, 2012). In this essence, it entails the traits and behaviour of the leader, the culture together with the characteristics of the followers, and the context that may be either industry or politics, in stable or unstable times. The greater the collaboration between these three entities the greater is the leadership effectiveness as well the chance for achieving group goals and objectives. Leadership style is the approach and manner of providing direction, plan implementation, and people motivation within the leadership context. Every leader has his/her own leadership style that can motivate, instruct, and/or inspire (Yammarino & Dansereau, 2009). There are different leadership styles displayed by different leaders in different fields including business, political and other relevant fields. These leadership styles include autocratic, bureaucratic, charismatic, democratic, Laissez-faire, people/relations-oriented, task-oriented, transformational and transactional leadership. Steve Jobs was one of the greatest global corporate leaders; as a leader of Apple, he transformed the global communication technologies by introducing the iPhone (Ashkanasy, Wilderom & Peterson, 2011). His leadership style was key in establishing the company’s direction, aligned the employees with the goals and strategic direction of the organization, instrumental in producing change, successful giving and receiving feedback, and understood the organizational culture (Duyar & Normore, 2012). His transformational style of leadership is one of the excellent attributes that no one in leadership position will ever want to associate with (Klenke, 2008). He was an unconventional corporate leader. This research paper discusses organizational leadership and performance; in this regard, the paper discusses the way leadership has changed within a globalized environment over time (Simon, 2008). Using Steve Jobs as the subject of this paper, his leadership style in a global context will be discussed, how he influenced the operations and culture at Apple, and above all his leadership style affects organizational effectiveness and efficiency will also be inherently and comprehensively discussed. Leadership in a globalized environment Globalization has mainly been heightened due to the ever increasing growth in technology, science, transportation infrastructure, coupled with the development in fibber optic technology, electronic media as well as the introduction of less expensive and affordable communication networks (Blazey, 2009). Globalization has been in existence for quite a long period of time; globalized trade began after people of different races started traversing across the world linking different world nations. It is not a yesterday phenomenon. The main driver of globalization is technology, which has the immense capacity to drive change particularly in the way trade, and economies are manifested. Information technology is the main driver of globalization due to its vast powers to process information and transmit it across world within the shortest time possible (Seay, 2008). The ever declining costs of transport coupled with the efficient ways of moving goods, the rise of flexible forms of organizations that have the ability to trade timelessly, and the increased importance of knowledge have catapulted globalization to extreme limits. Globalization has transformed the world into a global village, where individuals and societies the world over have been progressively brought closer to each other (Ashkanasy, Wilderom & Peterson, 2011). The use of jet planes, cheap telephone services, computers, computer networks, emails, instant capital flows, and the development of large ships have made the world communities to be interdependent (Klenke, 2008). Similarly, multinationals companies have their manufacturing operations within many countries across the world. Given this perspective, money, technology as well as other production resources is moved swiftly across several national borders. Accordingly, products, finances and culture circulate freely across the world due to globalization. Due to this globalized trade, global trade laws, economies, social movements are continuously being formed at an international level. Different stakeholders in globalization including academicians, politicians, as well as socialists have welcomed this trend as the only way forward in all matters affecting the global development. However, it is also important to note that globalized business demands for the abolition of traditional means and ways of commerce as well as livelihood and cultures. Other outcome of globalization is the global justice movement that has been on the forefront demanding for more responsive governments and businesses. The above overview of globalization provides a clear picture of what current political and corporate leaders across the world are faced with (Klenke, 2008). The complexities created by the global economy dictates that leaders disengage from the physical world; trade in a virtual environment to enhance their company’s efficiency and effectiveness. For this matter, leaders are required to think globally but act locally. Globalized economies and trading systems have influence on all levels of the society. The specific leadership challengers that leaders are faced with due to globalization include; increased communication, greater speeds of transportation, increased access to infrastructure, and working across time zones and cultures. With regard to this, mobile and cosmopolitan population has been developed across the world as a result leaders are confronted with distance, cultural, technological, complexity, and time zone issues (Ashkanasy, Wilderom & Peterson, 2011). Following this realization, it is extremely important for leaders understand the manner and the way the multinational cultures of staff as well as the occupational cultures they work within and the way they play out in the overall organizational culture. Leadership in a globalized environment demand for leaders to create pluralism, achieve leadership diversity through having a cultural mix in leadership positions, create full structural integration, and create full integration of informal networks by making sure that informal activities are included. In the same line of discussion, they must create a bias-free organization by abolishing practices that might exclude specific groups in terms of ethnicity or religion, work to ensure that the organization is identified by all ethnic groups, and above all, the leaders must work to ensure that intergroup conflicts are abolished if not minimized. Steve Jobs as already established in the introduction was a transformational leader; he was the one who spearheaded change at Apple Company (Klenke, 2008). He transformed the organization; the employees as well as the procedures in order achieve the organizations’ goals and change the status quo. He had mastery of methods, procedures, practices and focus of the organization. He developed a vision for the company’s future while improving the current trends and values of the organization (Ashkanasy, Wilderom & Peterson, 2011). He always worked reframing the vision for his followers to understand where the organization was heading. Regardless of his poor communication skills and autocratic attributes, he ensured that his followers embrace the vision for the future (Wentland, 2009). For instance, he used his genius together with his capacity to articulate the vision to bring all company stakeholders on board. He demanded perfected performance from his followers; excellence was the only option that he tolerated. Jobs was a leader who understood the big picture or had a global perspective of the company’s business something that is crucial and vital for leaders in a globalized environment to comprehend what is changing and what are the big trends that are affecting the societies and workplaces. Jobs leadership can be analysed in this regard using STEEP model; a simple formula that is essential in evaluating and organizing information about these issues. STEEP is an acronym for Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political factors that affect the organizational leadership and performance. Socio-Cultural factors Leaders in a globalized context must and should analyse their target market in terms of age range, income brackets, gender specific, cultural learning, life-style and leisure patterns; changes in social trends, and shopping trends (Cameron, 2012). The understanding of these socio-cultural factors will help leaders to understand fully the global socio-cultural issues and hence work to meet them. Steve Jobs understood this very well and worked to ensure that he comes up with a product that will meet socio-cultural needs of global consumers. Technological factors Currently IT for business management is the way forward for all businesses that are positioned to succeed globally; for instance, the installation of hardware and software (Klenke, 2008). Similarly, ICT for communication among businesses and customers; and above all equipment and materials including quality, cost together with the new developments. Jobs, was a technological genius who only accepted perfection. Economic factors The general national and global economic trends; interest rates; tax and insurance; funding resources and requirements as other critical factors that affect global businesses as well as leadership in a globalized environment. Environmental factors Environmental preservation and protection for sustainability is what current global environmentalists are working to ensure that businesses and companies across the world must achieve. For this matter, recycling of resources, waste disposal, energy-efficiency, and fuel in this regard must be appropriately used. Political factors The national and global politics, legislations including tax laws, trade laws, equality legislations, trade unions, healthy and safety, and working with vulnerable people are some of the key political factors that affect organizational performance and leadership and leadership in a globalized environment. Organizational culture Globalization is the process of change seen as increasing interdependence, integration, and interaction among people and companies in disparate locations around the world (Klenke, 2008). Due to globalization, corporate companies have an obligation of learning new ways of doing business, localize and adapt to new global environment, manage operations in large scale, deal with diversity, utilize technology, find and nurture talents with international capacities, streamline corporate communication as well as develop and share corporate culture (Ashkanasy, Wilderom & Peterson, 2011). Corporate culture has a significant impact on employee experience and hence the overall company performance. Similarly, corporate culture is defined by the company leadership; mission, vision and values of the company; business strategy; brand promise; programs, policies, and practices; and the physical work environment. These corporate culture building blocks have influence on customer experience, shareholder value, business partner relationships, as well as community relationships. Given this clear view of effects of globalization on corporate culture, it is essentially important for companies to integrate continuously their corporate culture in order to cope up with the ever-changing global business environment. Basically, culture is the way of life of a given group of people; it comprise of their behaviour, beliefs, values, and symbols that they readily accept without thinking about them, that are then passed to the next generation through communication and imitation. Differences in culture manifest in different ways and levels (Abiodun, 2010). Corporate/organizational culture defines how things are done in a particular organization; it provides a system of guidelines that aid in the construction of reality in a social community. Consequently, corporate culture dictates the space within which certain behaviours are expected and/or taken for granted; it helps organizations and communities make sense of themselves and their surroundings while at the same time being informed and shaped by those sensible activities (Klenke, 2008). Most importantly, it refers not only to those behaviours held in common by the human race, but also to what makes societies or groups unique from each other. Leaders in a globalized environment are called upon to understand culture in general in order to deliver their leadership duties more effectively and efficiently. There exist cultural diversities within the current organizational settings, which have massive impact leadership style and application; for instance, what might be acceptable and appropriate in context might not be in another (Rumsey, 2012). Establishments in this area has it that, globalization leads to convergence of organizational culture which therefore dictates that the workplace must be adjusted to accept cultural diversity. It is extremely to note that what works well in one culture can work well elsewhere. Leaders hold the mantle of organizations’ culture as they are the ones who create, shape and strengthen their organizations’ cultures through embedding their assumptions in missions, goals, structures and working procedures. Important to mention, each organization has its own culture that is unique and essential in determining how it responds to both external challenges and internal performance and cohesion. Corporate culture is dynamic and constantly changes with changes in circumstances for it to respond aptly influences that change a culture, and comprehensively understand what underpins or informs it (Klenke, 2008). With regard to this explanation, corporate culture has great impact on economical performance of an organization as well as determines its success or failure. Taking Apple Company for instance, Steve Jobs was the mantle holder of the corporate culture; he demanded only excellence performance from his followers, he shaped the vision for the company and above influenced his followers to embrace hard work as the only way for success. Learning Organization Competitiveness of an organization is the main driver of its performance and profitability; in order for the company to main competitive in this turbulent global environment; there is an extended need for having adaptable and elastic business operation strategies that will enable the organization to learn, and change direction quickly to conform to the current changes in the market. The leaders of organizations must listen to employees at all levels of the organization in order to facilitate change. A learning organization is one that has its employees continually expand their capacities to create the desired results, new and expensive thinking patterns are nurtured, collective aspiration is set freely, and people continuously learning in order to have a clear view (Ashkanasy, Wilderom & Peterson, 2011). The main objective for a learning organization is that in rapidly changing situations, only those who are flexible, adaptive and productive will succeed. For this to be realized, the organization must discover how to tap into people’s commitment and their capacity to learn at all levels. Apple Company is a learning organization; employees were encouraged to expand their potentials in order to work effectively and efficiently to achieve the desired results. Jobs, as a leader, fostered continued learning for employees to have a clear picture particularly in the rapidly changing global business environment, and come with results that will be sustainable for an extended period of time. A learning organization is usually characterized by team learning; the strength of the entire team is usually more effective than the sum of individual capacities (Klenke, 2008). For this to be realized dialogue and engaging communication is very vital in ensuring thinking and talking together. Similarly, the organizational culture or the environment within which the team operates is vitally important for team learning; for instance, team members must feel comfortable in order to try new things, to fail and rejuvenate themselves and keep on trying until they find working solutions. It is essentially for the team to learn in order for the organization to learn. Organizational effectiveness and efficiency Effectiveness in an organization is the degree to which an organization achieves its short and long term goals, the selection of which shows strategic constituencies, the self interest of the evaluator and the life stage of the organization. The main factors that drive improved organizational efficiency and performance include the influence of corporate managerialism together with its focus on efficiency and profits and outcomes. In addition, the customer demand for quality products and services, competition with other organizations as well as providers and the push to maintain and extend market share, individual organizational commitment to success, and adoption of the latest, state-of-the-art technology. There are four main approaches that an organization can use to achieve its intended effectiveness including: goal attainment approach, systems approach, strategic/constituencies approach, and the competing approach (Klenke, 2008). The goal attainment approach addresses whether or not the organization achieves all it sets to do; for instance, will it achieve its goals or not. For the organization to reach or achieve effectiveness, it must have set goals; it must have a vision. Similarly, specific goals to be achieved must be identified and defined in a manner that is easy to understand. Another significant assumption is that the identified goals should comprise of a small and manageable number that the organization can work on them without strain. Most importantly, there should be a consensus, which states that the goals identified are shared and understood well. Accordingly, advocates of this approach established that these goals must be measurable; the organization should be to know when they have achieved them. The system approach on the other hand, goes beyond the focus of achieving an output; it explores and measures the success of the systems that work together to bring about the desired output. In this regard, this system determines both overall results as well as the means of achieving it. The approach emphasizes the criteria associated with the long term survival of the organization (Ashkanasy, Wilderom & Peterson, 2011). An example of this can be the organizations’ ability to acquire resources, maintain itself internally as well as interact successfully with the external environment. Strategic constituencies approach sees an organization as a player within a political arena working to attain a position and competing with other similar organizations for funds and resources from their constituencies (Sornum, 2010). This approach dictates that the organization develops attainable goals that are aligned with those of its constituencies. The measure of effectiveness in this regard will be how well it was able to obtain funding required to further its operations into the future. The competing values approach understands that there are ranges of criteria that help in determining the effectiveness and efficiencies of an organization and that these will change depending on the interests of the organization (Klenke, 2008). In this essence, there is neither best criterion for determining organizations’ effectiveness, nor will there be a single goal that will satisfy everyone in the organization. The assumption here is that there are diverse ranges of preferences and goals that can be organized and consolidated. Conclusion The world is rapidly changing due to globalized way of doing things; this is a fact that has extreme effect on organizational leadership and performance. Corporate leadership in a globalized environment demands for organizations to align their operations with the global market demands. Steve Jobs leadership at Apple is an example of leading in a globalized environment. Learning organization as explained from the above discussion earns the organization a competitive advantage; for instance, it empowers employees to continuously learn in order to have added capabilities to perform more effectively and efficiently. Team learning is encouraged in a learning organization. Organization effectiveness is the degree to which an organization achieves its short and long term goals, the selection of which shows strategic constituencies, the self interest of the evaluator and the life stage of the organization: goal attainment approach, systems approach, strategic/constituencies approach, and the competing approach. References Abiodun, R. (2010). Leadership behaviour impact on employee's loyalty, engagement and organizational performance: Leadership behaviour and employee perception of the organization. London: Author House Ashkanasy, N., Wilderom, C., & Peterson, M. (2011). The handbook of organizational culture and climate. New York: Sage Publishers Blazey, M. 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