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Evaluation and Analysis of Key Issues in Leadership

   

Added on  2019-09-25

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Literature Review21st Century Leadership: Evaluation and Analysis of key issues in relation to leadership

IntroductionThe onset of 21st century has brought varying level of challenges to the leaders across the organizations. The current paper looks into the 21st century leadership and evaluates and analyses the key issues in relation to the leadership (Thomson, 2013). The market has rapidly globalised due to the improved accessibility of the technological elements. This has increasedthe responsibilities of the leaders from managing the mass markets to the efficient usage of knowledge base and intelligent human resource. Earlier, the game of leadership used to be theone man show with few at the top of the organization (Green, 2017). However, now the dynamics has changed and the collective effort of the entire organization is needed in the areas of the decision making. All the resources within the organization have the ability to bring something of importance to the table (Jaques, 2017). The need for flexibility within the organizations has increased which calls for different set of skills for their management (Butler, 2016). The term innovation and creativity has become the need of the hour for every organization that is willing to survive the ever changing marketdynamics (O’Connell, 2014). However, in this environment, it is important that the leaders donot miss the strategic focus and take the management effectively (Hanna and Latchen, 2013). In the second chapter of the paper, various leadership theories are compared and contrasted tounderstand the possible changes. In the third chapter, the challenges that are faced by the 21stcentury leaders are discussed. In the fourth chapter, the factors of change are discussed. In thefifth chapter, the necessary core competencies of the leadership have been discussed in relation to the 21st century requirements. This has chapter is followed by conclusion based on overall study.

Changes in Leadership TheoriesThere are various leadership theories that have tried to explain the leadership, beginning from“Great Man” theories to transactional and transformational theories (Amanchukwu et al, 2015). It has been found that the theories from earlier times were more focused towards characteristics of the leaders and their different behaviours. However, the theories at the later stage moved their focus towards followers and considered context based theories (Daft. 2014). One of the leadership theories is the Trait Approach. It has come up from the Great Man theory (Walter and Scheibe, 2013). The understanding the theory was that with the help of this the individuals with particular set of traits can be hired and trained for the various leadership positions within the organizations (Dinh et al, 2014). However, later it was found that the number of traits identified were almost equal to the number of studies undertaken. There were no particular set of traits which could be identified for the selection of the right leaders. It was found that few set of traits of repetitive in all the studies, but overall, it was notcompletely a conclusive list. In 1974, Stogdill found almost 12 traits and 9 skills that were considered important for a leader (as cited in, Einarsen et al, 2016).Another is behavioural theories which cover McGregor’s X and Y Theory, and Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid. Though McGregor’s theory cannot be entirely attributed as a leadership theory, yet it can be stated that leaders who act on Theory X will be more of autocratic and that of Theory Y will be participative (Aithal and Kumar, 2016). However, it clear that not one style can be enough as an organization can have human resources with various characteristics (Mohamed et al, 2013). On the other hand, the theory of Blake and Mouton considers production and people as the factor. Blake and Mouton has suggested that

the leaders should be able to focus on effective management of the employees as well as the output (Gregoire and Arendt, 2014). The studies have found that the leadership has mostly been oriented towards the male. The researchers have found that there always been the gender differences in the leadership (Schuhet al, 2014). The sex-stereotyping and considering other gender as less capable has been found in some instances. However, the findings in relation to the gender differences and leadership styles are confusing (Grijalva et al, 2015). Few researchers have strongly asserted that there exist differences in the leadership styles (Smith and Bejou, 2015). However, there are some who holds contradictory point of view (Tomal & Jones, 2015). As per Schein (1989), there are some difference among men and women. However, Schien states that the differences are less significant. The differences within the sex have been found to be higher than between both the sex. Later, James McGregor came up with the transformational leadership theory. As per James, these leaders focus on converting the followers into the future leaders and instilling the moralaspects into the current leaders (as cited in Goethals and Allison, 2016). As per McGregor, transformational leaders focus on mutual growth. The factors such as values, purpose, and goals are brought into the picture while taking the entire organization ahead. As per Covey, the transactional leadership is different from the transformational leadership in many ways (Covey et al, 2017). Transactional leadership has more of traditional orientation (Odumeru and Ogbonna, 2013). It focuses more on getting things done from people using power, position, shot-term need, tactics, and role expectation. On the other hand, transformational leadership provides meaning to the individual’s need, gives purpose and values, and moves towards long term missions and strategies. Here, it can be stated both the orientation is necessary to manage the organization. However, transformational leadership is gradually becoming important considering the changing global situation.

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