Leadership Challenges in a Changing World

This blog discusses the challenges faced by leaders in a changing world, including coping with globalization and technological advancements. It explores the need for leaders to adapt their leadership style and strategies to meet the demands of the modern world.

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Author Note

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Table of Contents
Blog 1........................................................................................................................................2
References...............................................................................................................................5
Blog 2........................................................................................................................................6
References...............................................................................................................................8
Blog 3........................................................................................................................................9
References.............................................................................................................................11
Blog 4......................................................................................................................................12
References.............................................................................................................................14

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Blog 1
One of the key components of a business is the organisational culture as it
defines the set of behaviours, beliefs, systems, symbols and value that drives the
operations, activities, performance and other crucial aspects (Alvesson and
Sveningsson 2015). It is the defining factor for the method of internal and external
interaction. So, it is of great prominence that an organisation maintains a sound and
effective organisational culture. However, many international organisations are
facing organisational culture issues and one of the major firm is Uber (Sundararajan
2014). Uber technology Inc. is the biggest taxi cab service provider and has also
stepped in businesses such as food delivery, transportation network company,
bicycle sharing and others. The firm however, have been engulfed in controversies
regarding the sexual assault against women, discrimination within the organisation
and several others. A study conducted on the Uber employee turnover identified that
the women employee of the firm leaves the organisation because of hostile work
environment, lack of advancement opportunities and dissatisfaction with the senior
leadership (Carson 2018). Other reasons are also influencing the organisational
culture of the Uber that needs to be mitigated.
CHALLENGES
The primary challenges faced by the firm in terms of organisational culture are
the negative competition, discrimination & priority, lack of transparency and
inadequate HRM (human resource management) (Jordan 2017). The negative
competition has filled the organisational culture with toxicity, and the seniors who
have adjusted in the environment exploit the young talent and snatches their
opportunities. It is developing a barrier between the young talents and established
employees, which will impact the firm and its culture. The second most primary
challenge is the discrimination and prioritising. The firm discriminates with the young
talents and prioritise its employee who have gained certain experience. When young
talents or women employee reach to complaint against any illegal or unethical act
conducted by the senior employee, the talent receives negative feedback instead of
help and support (Glick, Berdahl and Alonso 2018). Another one of the most primary
challenge that is leading to high rate of employee turnover is the lack of
transparency. The decisions made by the senior officials is not transparent and any

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decisions made by them has to be followed. The reason for promotion, appraisal or
other felicitation of an individual without any proper reason is believed to be stealing
the opportunity from the deserved one. Finally, the most prominent challenge is
inadequate HRM. The HRM in an organisation is designated with the responsibility to
keep the employees and the management satisfied with each other, however, the
firm is failing at it (Carson 2018). The complaints and feedbacks of the young talents
are ignored, discrimination promotional opportunities and others. So, it would be
justified to state that the most prominent challenge driving the organisation’s cultural
challenge is its HRM.
STRATEGY
To amend the organisational culture of the Uber and improve it, Lewin’s
Model of Cultural change should be adopted (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). As
part of the process, the first step (that is unfreezing) should be to include the
employee’s as part of the process. The organisational culture should be unfreeze
and the employee’s feedback should be collected for the development of the new
cultural guidelines. The feedback should be collected through a mixed survey format
that should consider both the closed ended and open ended questions. The
responses from the employee should be compared and contrasted with the best
organisational cultures such as that of Zappos, Google, Twitter and others along with
the organisation’s need to develop the guidelines (Naranjo-Valencia, Jiménez-
Jiménez and Sanz-Valle 2016). The next step will involves implementing the
changes as part of which the changes should be implemented. However, before
implementing the changes it is crucial to test the feasibility of changes. The feasibility
test should also be done after the implementation to ensure the success. The
changes should include non-discrimination, equal opportunity for all and other
needful aspects which are directed towards human resource satisfaction. The final
step would be to freeze the changes to make them stable and effective.
CHARTER STATEMENT
Mission- “Transportation as reliable as running water, everywhere for everyone with
safety and customer priority in mind”.
Vision- “To create safe and ethical economic opportunity for every member of the
global workforce and build a greater society together.”

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References
Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural
change work in progress. Routledge.
Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural
change work in progress. Routledge.
Carson, B. (2018). Inside Uber's Effort To Fix Its Culture Through A Harvard-Inspired
'University'. [online] Forbes.com. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bizcarson/2018/02/03/inside-ubers-effort-to-fix-its-
culture-through-a-harvard-inspired-university/#1a388d571695 [Accessed 30 Dec.
2018].
Glick, P., Berdahl, J.L. and Alonso, N.M., 2018. Development and validation of the
masculinity contest culture scale. Journal of Social Issues, 74(3), pp.449-476.
Jordan, J.M., 2017. Challenges to large-scale digital organization: the case of
Uber. Journal of Organization Design, 6(1), p.11.
Naranjo-Valencia, J.C., Jiménez-Jiménez, D. and Sanz-Valle, R., 2016. Studying the
links between organizational culture, innovation, and performance in Spanish
companies. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 48(1), pp.30-41.

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Blog 2
Leadership is defined as the act of motivating people towards achieving
common goal/ goals (Bolden, Witzel and Linacre 2016). Based on the definition
above the organisational leadership can be stated as the act of leading the workforce
towards delivering the best deliverables to the organisational customers. Leadership
is one of the primary factors, which ensures the success of the firm. Hence, it is
crucial to have a strong and effective leadership in place for the success of the
organisation. To support the objective of attaining effective leadership different
leadership theories has been identified. However, with changing time the leadership
style, strategies and theories have been challenged so that the modern needs of the
leadership can be accounted. According to Bolden, Witzel and Linacre (2016), one of
the primary reasons for the challenging of the traditional leadership theories is the
development in the field of technology and its association with corporations. Madhav
Dhakal in his paper states that the change in the technology and society demands
change in the leadership style from short term objectives to long term visions
(Shrestha 2017). One of the prime example is Jeff Bezos who adopted the
technology instead of sticking to the traditional style of leadership and after almost
two decades he is the richest man on earth. Another criticism faced by the traditional
leaders is their focus on bottom-line products while the need of time is shared
mission that is a win-win situation for all (Mango 2018). According to Anderson et al.
(2017), Division of labours was also evident in traditional leadership theories that is
being criticised by the scholars and researchers, instead they state that the leaders
should focus on the cross-disciplinary.
The most prominent challenges that are faced by the current leaders in the
changing world is coping up with the globalisation and technological advancements.
According to Genovese (2015), both the globalisation and technological
advancements offer different challenges. The most prominent challenges faced due
to the globalisation is the demographic issues. The demographic issues include the
intra-organisational conflicts and chaos due to gender difference, age difference,
cultural & communicational difference and similar others (Martin 2015). The
globalisation has led to a high influx of the immigrants into different countries, for job
opportunities. They get the job with great ease because they are willing to work at a
low wage in comparison to the domestic workforce. The prominence and the

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opportunity availed to the immigrants generally develop a challenge for the local
workforce and leads to the conflict between the local work force and immigrants.
Furthermore, the challenges of educating the immigrants in the working technique
and tools is another challenge that needs to be managed by the leaders. The second
most prominent challenge is the technological advancements that is faced by the
leaders. The leaders need to ensure that the employees are willing to adopt the
technological change and are comfortable with the technology so that quality work
can be achieved (Genovese 2015). Based on the demographic of the workforce the
plan for training needs to be developed which is a challenge as old employees are
comfortable with the technology they have been using and does not want to change.
The cultural and communicational difference also develop challenge for training and
development that needs to cope up.
Kumho Tire, the first firm to adopt RFID (Radio Frequency identification),
adopted a plan for the adoption of technology in their manufacturing process (Han
and Ko 2017). The leaders selected a number of employee and gave them a demo
of the manufacturing of tyres using the RFID prototype and it lead them to becoming
the first firm to use RFID for manufacturing of tyres. Similar, attempts should be
adopted by the leaders when managing a change, they should take the necessary
action and lead by action and not only words. In another case, Apple and Google
have designed its office with such innovation that it encourages interaction between
the employees mitigating the demographic threat (Schawbel 2018). The future
leadership theories will be dominated by the technological advancements. The
reason for the above made statements is that the scholars of tomorrow who will
present the leadership theories are the ones who will witness the use of technology
and globalisation in their academic stage. The academic researches done by them
will promote the use of technologies such as Big Data Analytics, IoT (internet of
Things), VoIP (Voice over IP) in decision making (Dinh et al. 2014). It is also justified
because the consideration of the technology and globalisation will offer the
opportunity to present an effective leadership theory and should be considered.

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References
Anderson, H.J., Baur, J.E., Griffith, J.A. and Buckley, M.R., 2017. What works for
you may not work for (Gen) Me: Limitations of present leadership theories for the
new generation. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(1), pp.245-260.
Bolden, R., Witzel, M. and Linacre, N. eds., 2016. Leadership paradoxes: Rethinking
leadership for an uncertain world. Routledge.
Dinh, J.E., Lord, R.G., Gardner, W.L., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R.C. and Hu, J., 2014.
Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends
and changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), pp.36-62.
Genovese, M.A., 2015. Leadership Challenges in a Hyper-Changing World. World
Policy Journal, 32(4), pp.100-107.
Han, J. and Ko, Y., 2017. Knowledge exploitation and entrepreneurial activity in a
regional innovation system: First adaption of RFID at Kumho Tire in GwangJu,
Korea. European Planning Studies, 25(5), pp.867-885.
Mango, E. (2018). Rethinking Leadership Theories. Open Journal of Leadership,
07(01), pp.57-88.
Martin, J., 2015. Transformational and transactional leadership: An exploration of
gender, experience, and institution type. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 15(2),
pp.331-351.
Schawbel, D. (2018). 10 Workplace Trends You'll See In 2018. [online] Forbes.com.
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2017/11/01/10-workplace-
trends-youll-see-in-2018/#1b155e464bf2 [Accessed 30 Dec. 2018].
Shrestha, T.M., 2017. Leadership and policing in security management of
Nepal (Doctoral dissertation).

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Blog 3
European Union has the biggest GDP (nominal) around the world, that is even
above United states but with the departure of the Britain from the European union
(EU), the scenario will change. The Brexit (departure of Britain from EU) will bring
the GDP of the EU below US. The impact of the Brexit will not only impact the GDP
but will further extend to the industries. One of the industries that will be greatly
affected is the automotive industry which has been booming since the past decade.
The automotive industry of UK has an average production of 1.6 million cars
annually of which 77% are exported. Of all the exported cars 58% are exported to
the EU associated states (de Costa Cabral, Goncalves and Rodrigues 2017). The
above statements have it evident that Britain’s automotive industry is greatly
dependent on the European Union and Brexit will impact the automotive industry.
Toyota, one of the biggest car manufacturing firm issued a response on the
decision of Britain for Brexit and they said “Back in 1992, Toyota chose the UK for its
first major manufacturing operations in Europe because of the availability of skilled
workforce and the presence of a strong network of suppliers. We are committed to
our people and investments, so we are concerned that leaving would create
additional business challenges. As a result, we believe continued British membership
of the EU is best for our operations and their long term competitiveness” (Clarke et
al. 2017). The concern shared by the discussed firm is a common though that is
shared by many automobile manufacturer and other industries as well. The country
also houses different automobile firms such as General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover
and multiple others. The taxes, surcharges, permits, rise of price will lead to
decrease in sales and others are the prominent challenge that will rise due to Brexit
that will be faced by the organisation. The companies who are producing goods and
providing services and action from UK will have to fill in the custom declaration. It will
need upgradation of the business operation software.
Another challenge that will develop is the challenge of obtaining authorised
economic operator status. The discussed challenge will restrict the UK based plants
from gaining easy clearance at the EU borders (Inglehart and Norris 2016). Omission
of the free-trade will also be a challenge that needed to be coped up with for
mitigating the impact of the Bexit. Supply chain management will be the biggest

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issue for the automotive companies and they will also have to audit the international
contracts with objective of renegotiating (Dhingra et al. 2016). Another one of the
most promising challenge would ne the nationality of the employee who will be
impacted by the Brexit.
The above discussed challenge could be coped up by signing a transition deal
with the EU as it will help the organisations to avail the advantage of EU partners
while keeping their plants at UK (Hix 2018). However, the discussed solution is
short-term and in long term, the firms will have to come up with a new strategic plan
for attaining the smoothness of business. So, as a resolution for the long term
strategy the firms should adopt a change management model for the coping up with
the challenges posed by the Brexit. Korter’s Model of change, McKinsey 7-S and
several other models are available for the change management. However, for the
discussed scenario Lewin’s Change Management Model would be adequate
because to adopt the change effectively, the firms will have to reassess the whole
processes and guidelines of their organisation and the selected model would greatly
assist (Hussain et al. 2018). The firm’s need to unfreeze all their processes and
guidelines of operations, post which they need to negotiate on different contracts,
terms and deals for trade after Brexit. During the unfreeze status transition deal can
help them. In the second phase they need to implement the change and then with
assurance should free their processes and guidelines again.
The change management in the discussed scenario has enabled a lot of
learning because the change in discussion is not assured of what changes will be
made. The reason for the above made statement is that the change will be impacted
by the ending contracts that is signed between UK and the EU. Furthermore, the
broad impact of the change also needs to be accounted and it have helped in
learning a lot. The success of the proposed change management can be evaluated
on after Brexit is completed, but it would be justified that researching, identifying
problems and impacts are some of the key leaning from Brexit and impact on
automobile industry.

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References
Clarke, H.D., Goodwin, M.J., Goodwin, M. and Whiteley, P., 2017. Brexit. Cambridge
University Press.
da Costa Cabral, N., Gonçalves, J.R. and Rodrigues, N.C. eds., 2017. After Brexit:
Consequences for the European Union. Springer.
Dhingra, S., Ottaviano, G.I., Sampson, T. and Reenen, J.V., 2016. The
consequences of Brexit for UK trade and living standards.
Hix, S., 2018. Brexit: where is the EU–UK relationship heading?. JCMS: Journal of
Common Market Studies, 56, pp.11-27.
Hussain, S.T., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M.J., Hussain, S.H. and Ali, M., 2018. Kurt
Lewin's change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee
involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3(3),
pp.123-127.
Inglehart, R. and Norris, P., 2016. Trump, Brexit, and the rise of populism: Economic
have-nots and cultural backlash.

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Blog 4
Leadership is one of the most challenging task and to attain the position as a
leader is challenging then justifying it is the biggest challenge (Bolman an. The
author’s believe is that the leaders should lead by action ad Deal 2017) example
rather than just by notifications, memos, emails and instructions. Hence, the action-
centred model of leadership is the most suitable for the author. The vison of
leadership that is supported by the author is that the leaders should be involved with
the team so that their issues, expectations and capabilities can be evaluated and
processed accordingly to achieving the goal of leadership (Antonakis and Day 2017).
The understanding of the team and individual needs will help in making decision that
are supportive towards achieving the task and motivating everyone for moving
towards a common goal (Tannenbaum and Schmidt 2017). However, the team
should also be accountable for their activities and evaluation is one of the best ways
to attain it. Evaluation will help in identifying talents that needs felicitation and talents
that needs to be worked upon. It also mitigates the challenges such as ethical issues
and human rights violations that will help in a sustainable leadership.
Action centred leadership is one of the most efficient and easy leadership
models that are greatly appreciated by the modern businesses. It takes account for
three primary activities and that being achieving the task at hand, managing the
team and managing individuals (Fairhurst and Connaughton 2014). None of them
are separate entities but overlap each other. However, the need for assessing the
team and individuals individually can be justified by the fact that an individual’s goals
and agendas may not be same as that of the team. However, the individual goals
can be made compatible with that of the team by evaluating, understanding and
taking the necessary action for the individual need (Haifetz and Linsky 2017). So, the
model of action centred leadership is compatible in nature with the leadership vision
and values of the author.
The author is attempting to made a career through MBA which demands a lot
of leadership skills. The action centred leadership compliments the author’s style of
leadership and will even assist in attaining the position of a perfect (or at least a near
perfect) leader (Dalton 2015). The companies of the today’s world are pursuing
hierarchy or leadership grid models which can be complimented by the selected

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model. In both the hierarchy and leadership grid model an individual holds command
over other group and other individuals have their own set of individuals to command
over (Kumar, Adhish and Deoki 2014). The leading individuals can easily account for
the three activities of the action centred leadership for their group. So, the leadership
brand selected will prove to be effective and efficient in the career that is being
pursued by the author.
The leaders also need to evaluate themselves for identifying their
weaknesses as they are on top of the chain and there is no one to evaluate them.
Hence, as part of the self-evaluation, the leader may need help and the author did
the same and took assistance of three of different team members. The evaluation
revealed that the most prominent strength of the leader was the attitude of
completing the activity as a team. It was identified that the author will get the team
together to complete the task under any circumstances and the approach selected
by the author was the most appreciable aspect. The author instead of bribing the
team by money or name or fame for achieving the task motivated them to look at the
long term benefit offered by the completion of the task. The author in the process off
motivating ensured that the individual benefits are discussed. However, one of the
weakness that was identified that at moments the leadership style of the author was
becoming dominant due to the motive of completing task which could be challenging
for the team.
Hence, the author will work towards motivating the employees more efficiently
and develop the discussed skill by accounting for an in-depth level off
communication both individually and as a team. While, to mitigate the weakness the
author will attempt to find better ways of getting the task done by the team rather
than becoming over dominant. It will be attained by adopting a softer approach for
communicating the neds of the task completion at both individual and at team level.

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References
Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V. eds., 2017. The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Dalton, C., 2015. The Every Day MBA: How to turn world-class business thinking
into everyday business brilliance. Pearson UK.
Fairhurst, G.T. and Connaughton, S.L., 2014. Leadership: A communicative
perspective. Leadership, 10(1), pp.7-35.
Heifetz, R. and Linsky, M., 2017. Leadership on the Line, With a New Preface:
Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Change. Harvard Business Press.
Kumar, S., Adhish, V.S. and Deoki, N., 2014. Making sense of theories of leadership
for capacity building. Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of
Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine, 39(2), p.82.
Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt, W.H., 2017. How to choose a leadership pattern.
In Leadership Perspectives (pp. 75-84). Routledge.