by: Hafni Zuhairi Bin Mat Husin
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Leadership is a notion that has confused the scientists and
has been hard to define. Definitions are provided by amount of academics but
differ from each other. When considering the most popular scholars '
definitions, Schein (1992) has defined leadership as “ability to step outside
the culture to start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive”.
The period from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2100 is known
as the 21st century. Significant movement has happened applicable to the most
critical areas such as worldwide economic growth, third-world consumerism,
increased worldwide attention to terrorism, mistrust governance, increased
private-sector power, globalization, digital revolution, Y-generation force and
Z-generation in Western countries.
It was discussed heroically in the 18th and 19th centuries
when considering past and contemporary management trends, and this was based on
people's perspective of deficiencies. Heroic philosophy defines when an
individual's management should be able to encourage and impact others to fix
the issues while attaining objectives. Modern trends of leadership can be
described through “post- heroic” perspective of leadership (Huey, 1994). Post-heroic
view is based on transformation from the bottom up, compelled by the
construction of society and shared authority. As suggested by Nirenberg (1993)
other modern trends in this leadership perspective are community and
distributed nature, living organization, action oriented nature.
According to MSUE task force, 21st Century leadership is
holistic in nature. Modern Leadership trends are based on four segments such as
technology, Globalization, knowledge workers and Diversity (Hays &
Christoper, 2012). Concluding the historical developments towards contemporary
management trends has shifted from an individual-centered view to a
collective-centered view, developing curriculum from a wrapped process of
collective leadership development to a distinct phase of leadership
development.
1.0
Key
competencies for 21st century leaders
Though different scholars have presented various
competencies that need to be possessed by 21st Leadership, following
competencies can be identified as the key competencies covered by all those
suggested competencies.
·
Ability of Motivation and inspiration the others
Vision to be accomplished in future is created by the
leader. It should be descriptive while compelling and motivating employees to
fulfill the vision. Everyone needs to contribute to make difference within the
world. Leader should have ability to support the team members to better connect
with community including customers. This is also known as “letting go” ability
(Hays & Christopher, 2012). It means leaders’ responsibility is to provide
definite guidelines and boundaries to the employees while supporting through
solving the problems related to them.
·
Exhibit the honesty and High integrity
Honesty and transparency are inherent characteristics of
great leaders. And also there should be a compliance in between what he leaders
say and so. According to Davis (2013) as CEO of Umpqua Bank he always expresses
its employees about their ownership to get solved and answered any question
that they have. He highlights the importance of dealing with truth.
·
Problem solving and analyzing skills
Ultimate objective of recruiting and training employees is
to make solutions for organizational problems and get the benefit of market
opportunities. The leader should have high level of analytical skills. When it
comes to the 21st Century, it is a movement from industrial economy to
information based economy. Therefore most of the problems raised in 21st
Century are not previously experienced or existed problems. Therefore the
leaders should be more creative to bring the solutions for such problems
(Prentice, 2013)
·
Result-oriented performance
Great leaders have strong determination, drive towards the
success than any other and able to get things done to fulfill the vision. Steve
jobs who is known as the leader and founder of Apple incorporation always
expected to find the most efficient and convenient way to communication. He
decides what to do and what not to do and guided the employees to achieve the
intended result (Issacson, 2012).
·
Powerful and productive communication ability
The leaders in 21st century should have ability in
communicating utilizing the different communication methods that are
appropriate for each situation. Leaders have to communicate by playing
different roles such as manager, entrepreneur, regulator…etc. Therefore leader
has to use different communication methods such as face to face meetings,
email, Skype calls.
·
Competency in relationship building
It would not generate a successful business without
relationship and trust. The leader should have ability to maintain continue
relationship with the team members, customers and other stakeholders. According
to Kourdi & Bibb (2007) there few attributes need to be fulfilled by a
person in order trust on that person. Those attributes are respect, openness,
supportiveness, empathy, courage, unselfishness…etc.
·
Technical and professional expertise
Knowledge workers are one of four trends of twenty first
century (Hays & Christoper, 2012). Knowledge society requires high end of
technical and professional skills in different fields. The Best leaders should
be able to build those skills overtime and become expert in relevant field.
·
Strategic perspective
The best leaders have a long term vision shared with others.
The leading the effort which make the vision reality is identified as success
of leadership.
·
Being Innovative
A good leader in 21st century should be innovative enough to
capture the market opportunities. Innovations should be integrated in to
business strategy by the leaders. (Greer, 2013)
2.0 Differences or similarities of key competencies
with classical leadership capabilities
Contemporary theories of management have defined a leader's
unique abilities to face the difficult circumstances. But in classical
theories, the particular abilities that the leader wants to possess were not defined.
Innovative thinking is a capacity that enriches leaders' decision-making
abilities because alternative alternatives are endorsed. Modern capacities
highlight the importance of system thinking. It is an essential ability to
better analyze situations and information relevant to more complex
organizations.
Emotional intelligence is another capacity mentioned but not
discussed in classical methods in modern management theories. It is a vital
capacity for management because it allows the leader to monitor other person's
feelings and emotions and to act on it. Transformation management theory
strongly discusses this fact. High-capacity EI executives are extremely likely
to become efficient leaders while achieving company outcomes. Boundary spanning
is another capacity that improves modern leaders ' efficiency.Boundaries are
inherent in organizational context (Christopher & Jeffery, 2008). But with
the globalization trends in 21st Century, it is essential to span
organizational boundaries such as culture, values, and perspectives and need to
be expand to deal with world. Transactional leaders involve in making
significant change within the company through boundary spanning (Christopher
& Jeffery, 2008).
Another unique capacity of the leader is the capacity to
perform in a shared management setting. Most organisations in the 21st century
have a flattened organisational framework and self-managed teams. McCleskey
(2014) suggested the trait speculations that intended to select the pioneer's
main characteristics that are essential to company achievement. This hypothesis
was developed to advance with the intention of strengthening the relationship
in the redoing of the pioneer's center focal point characteristics, features,
and characteristics so that associations select and enlist the position of the
association's initiative. Despite the reality that many amounts are available of
perceived authority qualities from the few sorts of research including
definitiveness Wang, Waldman and Zhang (2014), fearlessness Reid (2016) and
steadfastness and versatility (Czabanowska et al., 2013), it is additionally
reprimanded and have been expressed that there are no significant
acknowledgment for attributes and properties of initiative.
Unlike classical leadership which assigns one leader for a
group, all organizational members in leaderful organizations get an opportunity
to work collectively as a leader (Raelin, 2003). So there can be number of
people performing as leaders in one occasion. Expansive leadership another
aspect discussed under contemporary theories. Expansive leaders are identified
as people who have passion for continuous learning (Diamante & London,
2002). There is a knowledge-based employee society that is fuelled by
technology in the 21st century. The rulers should therefore have ongoing
learning skills and drive towards the technology. Learning organizations in
this age are highlighted strategy and expansive management enriches this
notion.
3.0 Underlying causes of
changes to leadership competencies
·
Necessity of adapting with changing business
environment
Number of modifications have been
produced in the fields of technology, globalization, work climate and other
external variables with the endowment of the 21st century. There was a
tremendous increase in market opportunities. The rulers must therefore adapt to
changing environments. Competencies in the area of change leadership and
continuous learning are greatly altered. Because of the amount of options
available in the modern company setting, being flexible in problem solving.
·
Different emotional and personal experiences
Due to growing workload, work
life balance, employees have to face distinct emotional and personal issues
with the modifications in the working setting. That's why the employees come up
with distinct emotional circumstances that are hard to handle separately.
Therefore the requirement of mediation of leader was raised. The competency in
emotional intelligence was then raised as a required competency of leaders.
Leaders need to have Younger workers alter to generation X and Y. It is a
leader's capability to keep those employees happy. Those workers require
accessibility, authenticity, respect for individuality, personal rewards for
accomplishments. So it is required to have diversity capabilities to deal with
those different workers from different cultures and ethnicities.
·
Changes in learning and development activities
Number of modifications in market
dynamics, technology and client needs have happened. It has therefore created a
necessity that organisational employees be changed to suit those changes.
Leaders must become an agent of change. With the increase of knowledge workers,
employees need sophisticated learning about technological development such as
virtual companies, jobs known as expatriates in a worldwide context. By
creating possibilities for creative learning experiences, leaders should allow
and sponsor ongoing learning and career development.
·
Age and maturity
21st century leaders have to being more knowledgeable and up
to date because maturity level is in the demographic context. Most of the
people are matured in the knowledge. Leader has to manage the matured workforce
towards an appropriate direction.
Most of the academics who talked about governance or management
of the 21st century did not give an accurate definition of governance because
there are more problems and limitations in identifying the word. According to
Lorz (2012) 21st century leadership is defined as a process of interaction in
between leaders and the environment including the followers. And also it is a
process for vision formulation, acquisition of situational knowledge and joins
followers to achieve the vision collectively. When considering the discussions
of it is able to identify few themes relevant to the topic.
4.0 Arguement
21st century leadership is identified through the leaders’
attributes and competencies that are needed to be developed to face the trends
and challenges in the contemporary environment. Those attributes and
characteristics are derived through the contemporary and classical approaches
of leadership.
When considering the trends related to the 21st century
leadership and its impact in contemporary business context it is able to take
in to account a research conducted by few researchers and presented through
“Developing the 21-st century leader”. The research was conducted by using
leadership Zone model and few trends were identified through the research.
Those are business growth, diversity in workforce, expanding in to new markets,
virtual workplace structure, retaining talents, technological improvements,
innovation trends…etc. According to leader Vroom incorporation there are five
trends in 21st century leadership such as increasing population, Generation Y
and Z in the global workforce, declining working age population, growing global
competition.
There are different perspectives presented by different
authors about 21st century leadership. 21st century leaders recognized as a
person who needs to shift in to knowledge and combine this knowledge in to
innovative product or services faster than their competitors (Greer, 2013).
According to Greer all other trends in 21st century can be addressed through
innovation. Therefore Greer describes innovation model for 21st century leadership.
On the other hand situational leadership theory is highlighted by most of the
scholars as an appropriate theory for 21st century leadership. According to
Greer (2013) 21st century leaders should be flexible and follow the most
appropriateleadership style to the situation. Situational models reinforce the
leadership development and movement (Hays & Christoper, 2012).
When considering the practical applications of the theory
W.L Gore is a company which has implements the theories of shared leadership successfully.
It is a flat structured company, no bosses but self-supporting groups are
there. Steve Jobs known as the Leader of Apple Incorporation is a good example
for leadership for relationship, Steve Jobs is a relationship oriented leader
in the 21st century as well.
Conclusions
Leaders need to enhance particular skills to suit the
movements, trends and difficulties that have been raised in the 21st century.
Such abilities cover fields such as motivation and inspiration, sincerity and
high integrity, problem solving and analyzing abilities, outcome orientation,
communication skills, relationship construction abilities, technical and
professional knowledge, strategic outlook, creative orientation. These skill
demands were raised with the new millennium movement. Some age-specific
features have been developed to enhance the skills in these fields. Such
reasons have been recognized as changes in people's company setting, mental and
personal experiences, changes in learning and development operations, changes
in demographic setting in era and maturity. However, from the past in the 21st
century, it is able to study important change in management strategy and it has
changed favorably.
References
Robert S. Kaplan. (2002), Conceptual Foundations of the
Balanced Scorecard. Harvard Business Review. 1 ((January-February 1992)), 3 -26
Hays et al.(2012) Transforming leadership for the 21st
Century. Xlibris Corporation, Business & Economics
Davis.R (2013) Leading through uncertainty. Josey-Bass A
Wiley Brand, San Francisco, CA
Conger, J.A. (1989). The charismatic leader: Behind the
mystique of exceptional leadership. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., and McKee, A. (2002). The
emotional reality of teams. Journal of Organizational Excellence, 21(2), 55-65.
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