Contemporary Organization Leadership

This study explores the leadership qualities, skills, and knowledge possessed by leaders in contemporary organizations. It discusses the most suitable leadership style, focusing on transformational leadership. The case of Catherine Livingstone, a prominent businessperson, is examined to understand how her leadership skills have contributed to organizational success. The study also highlights the importance of leadership in driving organizational change.

Running head: CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATION LEADERSHIP
CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATION LEADERSHIP
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The study aimed to understand what are the leadership qualities, skills, and knowledge
possessed by leaders. The most powerful leaders have even failed in their lives, and they
learn from those failures and develop a few skills and characteristics. The qualities that the
leaders have are inborn or do the leaders acquire these qualities due to various incidents in
their life have been discussed. The leadership method, which is most suitable for the
contemporary organization is transformational leadership. These leaders know how to deal
with changes and help move the organization from its present state to the desired state.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Leadership style for the contemporary organization..................................................................4
Characteristics of transformational leaders................................................................................4
Clarity of mind.......................................................................................................................5
Difficult decision....................................................................................................................5
Prediction...............................................................................................................................5
Vision and sharing of vision..................................................................................................5
Motivation..............................................................................................................................6
Inspirational............................................................................................................................6
Integrity..................................................................................................................................6
Encourage innovation and creative ideas...............................................................................6
Telstra and money laundering scandals:....................................................................................7
Leaders are born.........................................................................................................................8
An inborn desire for achieving higher...................................................................................8
Self-confidence and motivation.............................................................................................8
Adaptability to change...........................................................................................................8
Leadership Method adopted by Catherine Livingstone.............................................................9
Transactional leadership.........................................................................................................9
Transformational leadership for the contemporary organization.........................................10

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Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Organizational design is the process of integrating information, people and
technology formally. Organization design can be divided into two main categories- traditional
organization designs and contemporary organization designs. Modern designs include matrix
structure, team structure, project structure, learning organization, and boundary less
organization. Leadership for present organization will consist of leaders who are
transformational, emotionally intelligent, intelligence quotient, visionary, inspirational,
charismatic and strategic thinking (Mencl, Wefald & van Ittersum, 2016). Transactional-
transformational leadership models are used to understand the leadership required for
contemporary organizations. The traditional leadership theories highlight leaders’ attributes
and rational processes; Transactional-Transformational Theories highlight the values,
emotions, and intelligence, which acknowledges the importance of behavior. These
leadership theories simultaneously illustrate both non-scientific and scientific features of
leadership in modern time. The study focuses on analyzing the best suitable leadership style
for contemporary organizations.
Leadership style for the contemporary organization
There are different types of leadership styles that have been identified by different
management experts. Some of them are democratic, laissez-faire, authoritarian, paternalistic,
transformational and transactional. The leadership style that is most suited for contemporary
organizations is transformational leadership (Mencl, Wefald & van Ittersum, 2016).
Catherine Livingstone is a businessperson from Australia. She has held some influential
positions in many organizations including- CSIRO, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and
many more.

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Characteristics of transformational leaders
Clarity of mind
Livingstone has had clarity of thought ever since she got her degree. She joined an
accountancy firm as she knew her hedgehog point and finally, she reached the position of
chief executive officer in finance (Hougaard, Carter & Coutts, 2016). Thus transformational
leaders like her have clarity of minds, they know what they want to achieve, and these leaders
add value for the organization.
Difficult decision
Livingstone has taken many difficult decisions in business (MAKING, 2015). For
instance, she floated the Cochlear pty limited company just a year later she was assigned the
role of a CEO. When she resigned from the company it’s product had already been exported
globally.
Prediction or future forecasting
In today's dynamic environment, it is essential to have a clear strategy to lay down
parameters that will create the future (Sharma & Kirkman, 2015). The business involves
prediction for upcoming changes to the leader should be able to take specific business
decision for a future course of action.
Vision and sharing of vision
It involves a combination of systemic thinking and prediction in an idea, and creating
a real holistic view of business (Cheema, Akram & Javed, 2015). A leader should be a true
visionary, and he should be capable of showing the same vision to his followers. He should

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be able to align the goals of individuals with the organization. At the time when no one could
see a future for Telstra, Livingstone saw its bright future and continued to remain calm even
in most difficult times.
Motivation
The motivation includes activities for encouraging employees to attain the goals and
visions (Miner, 2015). Many leaders have the required technical skills but may not have the
soft skills that are needed to motivate employees. Modern leaders must be able to recognize
what are the things that excites and engages the employees. The transformational leader is a
motivator.
Inspirational
The leader should be able to inspire people than they will follow the leader (Higgs &
Dulewicz, 2016). He should be able to drive results by encouraging the people for that he
needs to understand what motivates the employees beyond rewards.
Integrity
They practice what they preach. These leaders will never lose their integrity for
achieving any objective or target. They carry out their work in an ethical manner. Their
integrity inspires their followers (Engelbrecht, Heine & Mahembe, 2017). Catherine
Livingstone discarded the universal wealth bank's executive team and board because of the
sense of self-satisfaction under the former chairperson and forcing her to start fresh.
Encourage innovation and creative ideas
A transformational leader is always open to new ideas, and he encourages followers to
give new ideas unlike transactional leaders (Jaiswal & Dhar, 2015). Transactional leaders

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force their beliefs upon their followers because they are not risk takers. They have a
particular way of doing things, and they do not want to change that. She has contributed to
Innovation and Productivity Council.
Livingstone’s skills have helped her earn many awards. She was awarded for her
leadership skills when she got the centenary medal. She became the order of Australian
officer for serving the development of technology, Australian science, and policies.
Telstra and money laundering scandals:
Telstra's relationship with the government was deeply harmed, its relationship with
stakeholders and shareholders was equally destroyed, and it is market valuation was almost
nil. The then chief executive caused Telstra's dangerous condition. At that time it was
Livingstone who remained calm and composed throughout the journey. She applied a lot of
efforts to restore the relationship with Canberra. Russell Higgins was appointed by her to
improve the conditions. Thodey replaced Trujillo and rebuild the executive team, with the
right people. Thodey was under immense pressure due to downgrades in profit, and he was at
the verge of being fired when the situations improved (Kakabadse, 2015). This incident
displayed her characteristic of clarity of mind. Her knack for technology and innovation was
also discovered in this incident.
The collective wealth bank scandal can be considered as a failure in living stones life
because they have not been able to answer the questions by Australian transaction reports and
analysis center(AUSTRAC) for failing to report on large cash amounts under laws for anti-
money laundering. The board comprising had ignored these breaches for a while. Catherine
Livingstone who is the new part of the board has said that the delay in addressing the
breaches was due to the previous CEO, Ian Narev. The main problem is that the directors are
not in a position to question the CEO. This is what happened with Catherine Livingstone she

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had asked the then CEO to address the breaches charged by the AUSTRAC, but she was
never given sufficient information about it. That is why though she had challenged the CEO,
but she did not have enough information to prove it.
From the above scandal, one of the characteristics that Catherine has displayed is that
she stood for her values. She questioned her CEO for not addressing the breaches.
Livingstone is known for her integrity and the manner of tackling difficult situations. This
was a difficult situation in her life, and she grabbed it with her problem solving skills.
When and How Livingstone Developed her Leadership Skills
An inborn desire for achieving higher
At an age when people rarely think about working, Catherine Livingstone is leading
most of the business organizations as CEO, director, and president. She has learned this from
her father who was a world war two air force pilot. She had learned about flying high from
her father.
Self-confidence and motivation
At the time when Catherine Livingstone became the director on board of ASX was
very low as 8%. Today it is around 21.3% it was all possible because of Catherine. She
wishes to increase this rate in the near future. She had always been taught about stepping out
of her comfort zone. That is where she gets her ethical values. She was self-motivated to
reach that position (Eragula, 2015).
Adaptability to change
Livingstone has always believed that stability is never going to take people where
they wish to see themselves (Jackson et al., 2017). For that, change is needed. In this era

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where –globalization, changes in economic power, digitalization and many more changes are
taking place it is very important to change. Change sometimes also brings problems with
itself, but the ultimate result is incomparable. Catherine Livingstone who had faced many
challenges but did not stop in her life.
Leadership Method adopted by Catherine Livingstone
Burke-Litwin model is used to describe the two types of leadership (Burke, 2017).
Warner Burke and George Litwin developed the model to understand how organizational
change takes place and which leadership style bring a transformational change in the
organization. According to Burke and Litwin there are two main leadership styles - one that
affects the organizational climate is called the transactional leadership and the other than
changes the organization culture entirely is called the transformational leader.
Figure 1: Burke-Litwin Model

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Source: (Burke, 2017)
Transactional leadership
Is a leadership style in which the focus is on achieving the pre-determined goals and
objectives of the organization by using the carrot and stick approach (Antonakis & Day,
2017). That is the leader uses rewards and punishment approach to get the work done by the
employees. The main motivation of the employees are the rewards. These leaders use
authority, responsibility, decision-making, and problem solving (organization structure) to
achieve their goals. Positive and negative reinforcement are two essential tools used in this
form of leadership. These leaders are incapable of getting extra-ordinary performances from
the employees because they are bureaucratic leaders and they believe in maintaining the
employee-employer status.
Transformational leadership for the contemporary organization
Transformational leaders are those leaders who can change the culture of the company
(Ghasabeh, Soosay & Reaiche, 2015). Organization cultures are the deep-rooted values,
beliefs, and assumptions of individuals that are difficult to change. Organization climate is
not so difficult to change because those are related to the management styles of people – if
people’s working style changes than organization climate can also be changed. The main
problem lies in changing people’s culture. That is where the role of a transformational leader
sets in. In today's dynamic world, where everything is changing so fast – technology is
changing, peoples attitudes and personalities are changing, organization structure is changing
it becomes essential to have a leadership style that can address these changes and help the
organization to improve according to the environment. Catherine Livingstone has been made
the officer for development of technology, innovation and science in Australia due to her
interest in innovation and technology . A transformational leader is one who uses his

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charisma and zeal to influence his followers. Livingstone changed the destiny of Telstra
which had bad relationships with the government and stakeholders. She changed its destiny
and todays the company’s share value is very high due to the hard work of Livingstone stone
who corrected Telstra relationship with government and shareholders. This story of her has
inspired millions of people. He encourages his followers to work for the goals by showing
them a broader perspective of things. He explains his follower how they contribute to the
targets. By doing so, people feel like they are a part of the organization and they give their
best. The transformational leaders are thus able to get extraordinary performances from their
followers. Transformational leaders share the vision with their followers (Hawkins, 2017).
They have the ability to show the employees the benefits that the future will hold for them if
the organization changes. The transformational leaders align the employee’s goals with his
goals. After sharing the vision, explaining the mission to the followers, the leader can get
peaceful cooperation from the employees for implementing change in the organization. The
leader acts as a motivator and provides- more than just rewards; these leaders understand the
needs of their employees beyond rewards, intellectually he is associated with his followers,
encourages them, offers excitement, and many more benefits are there for both the employees
and the employer. The transformational leader does not believe in maintaining employer-
employee status instead believes in achieving the target through team building. The
transformational leaders act as a change agent for carrying out the organizational change
using different Organizational development interventions smoothly.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that leaders become so after facing
some problems in their life. The main idea is to change according to the situation and
continue instead of stopping. A few characteristics of the leader have been defined such as –

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clarity of minds, vision, motivation, and others. Business leaders develop these skills and
sometimes the skills and characteristics are inborn. Transformational leadership method is
what most leaders are adopting for achieving their targets and goals.

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References
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