Modern Management Challenges and Leadership

This assignment delves into the complexities of modern management, arguing that traditional models are inadequate in today's dynamic environment. It highlights the importance of a 'postmodern servant leader' who combines clear direction with coaching and communication to foster positive organizational change. The text emphasizes the need for leaders to define an organization's purpose, value proposition, and contribution to stakeholders, while empowering employees within a defined framework.

Project Management Case Study
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Introduction
The changing business environment requires a change in leadership and leadership strategies in
order for organizations to meet their goals. Leaders lead teams, which in turn form groups. Teams
are bound by a psychological factor and there is interdependence within the team, similar to a
group, except that for groups, the psychological element is missing. The effectiveness and
performance of teams and groups within an organization largely depends on leadership. Leaders
must possess certain traits and characteristics to perform the dual roles of leading and managing; to
manage effectively, one must possess leadership skills and to lead, one must manage teams and
groups. Leadership and managing are therefore, mutually inclusive. Leadership is the process of
controlling, directing, inspiring, and motivating staff teams or groups) towards the realization of
defined organizational goals. To lead effectively, the leader must be a ruler, a motivator to inspire
people, and be a coach to guide teams. Yet the behaviors and traits of leaders determine how
effectively they lead teams and groups and enable the entire organization meet its goals. To attain a
specific goal, leaders must choose a leadership path that suits their skills and the circumstances.
With modern pressures to perform, leaders are easily tempted to micro manage, and/ or focus on
‘priorities’ that do not add value to the organization or the customer. Time is a scarce resource in the
‘parlance of leaders’ yet effective leaders of the modern age must of necessity create time regularly
to ruminate on the bigger picture. When talking of the bigger picture, managers must take time and
critically think of answers to the critical questions of;
The purpose and reason their organization exists, what value it does or does not offer client why and
how their offering delivers value to customers. Leaders must also seek answers to the question of
the value it add to shareholders and the business and the behavior of the people in the organization.
By answering these questions effectively and switching between macro managing and a little micro
managing, leaders can direct the energies of their staff towards these goals, ‘the big picture’. This
paper discusses the subject of how leaders can focus more on the bigger picture in the context of
leadership theories and leadership types, specifically situational and contingency behaviors and the
postmodern, transactional and transformational leadership styles, and the need to challenge and
change present perspectives on leadership towards full range leadership where leaders direct
employees rather than wholesale espousal of empowerment, which is the norm.
Discussion
Teams are connected psychologically to work interdependently in order to achieve a specific goal or
aim. Teams form groups, which share similarities with teams, except that it lacks the psychological
connection. Organizations are made of small teams that form groups collectively known as
employees (Britton 2014). The prominent paradigm is that employees enjoy work when they are

autonomous; that the key to being happy at work for employees and therefore being more
productive is being autonomous as it creates empowerment. Autonomy at the workplace implies
having a job where one can make some decisions and people find it important to perceive they have
choices and that any actions is due to their own volition and that they instigate their actions.
Autonomy is among the most basic and highly important psychological needs of human beings,
according to Van-den-Broeck et al., (2010). Autonomy has been established to be an important
mediating factor in job satisfaction and job characteristics (Millette & Gagnâe 2008). However, this
empowerment of employees requires some boundaries in order that it becomes meaningful since the
empowered employees with their autonomy and freedom end up flailing. This happens because the
empowered and autonomous employees are not sure whether whatever they are doing is what the
leaders want and that they are utilizing the resources and time available to them in the best way
possible as they do not have a well-defined organizational goal to work towards, something that can
be achieved through macro management and prescriptive leadership (Johnson 2016).
To most leaders, time is always on the premium, and so they focus on tackling the ‘priorities’ that
do not necessarily add value to the important things that should define the organization or spend
more time micromanaging employees, something that does not necessarily improve productivity
(White Jr. 2010) and can be counterproductive. The obsession with the scarcity of time such that
managers cannot ‘spare’ time for mundane things as seeking answers on important questions that
should drive organizational policy and mindset is making organizations lose focus of the important
issues (Freeman 2014). Further, many managers tend to avoid prescriptive leadership in favor of
empowering employees and giving them greater autonomy. However, the modern business
environment requires management leadership, which requires leaders that are both transformational
and transactional. To give a direction that employees must follow, the managing leader must seek
answers to the crucial questions of the purpose and reason their organization exists, what value it
does or does not offer client why and how their offering delivers value to customers. Leaders must
also seek answers to the question of the value it add to shareholders and the business and the
behavior of the people in the organization. This will provide a clear direction and require some
prescription leadership to temper employee empowerment and autonomy (Riggio & Reichard
2008), (Johnson 2016). In the pots modern world, the servant leader is desirable; the servant leader
is a servant that empowers and recounts stories, is a visionary androgynous, network extensively,
and is a team builder (Sendjaya & Pekerti 2010).
According to Johnson (2016) leaders must ask themselves the tough questions relating to their
organizations’ purpose and the value they provide customers and shareholders before deciding on a
strategic direction. Leaders must network more, seek feedback from people and sources that will
criticize them and put them to task over their ideas. By constantly asking the hard questions,

organization leaders will be able to offer better leadership by creating teams rather than letting
groups flourish within the organization. They will become visionary and empower the teams they
build, while creating synergy and providing direction to all team members so that the company has
a common goal. This will help change the organizational culture and pepper empowerment and
autonomy with direction and purpose enhancing the change and adjustment in the organizational
culture towards goals that add value to customers, the company, and its shareholders. Without
effective management of human resources, even the most talented employees become less
productive when they are not given a clear direction. The leader, in seeking answers to the critical
questions of what value the organization adds and the purpose of its existence, should ensure they
are aware of the prevailing situation; situational awareness and participation as well as motivation
will achieve greater impacts (Manser 2009).
The postmodern leader is a servant that must place greater emphasis on macro management, with
the occasional micromanaging episodes to help them understand their employees so as to build
better teams and change their mindset to align with the macro management principles of
understanding why the organization exists and the value the organization offers. By understanding
their employees, the leader will work with middle level managers that understand the organization
vision based on macro management principles that seek to understand and answer questions on the
purpose of the organization and the value the organization provides customers and shareholders.
The modern managing leader must be an effective communicator as well; after getting answers on
the question of organization purpose and value they provide, the managing leader needs to
effectively communicate these ideals to employees and create effective teams in the process, while
continuing to guide and mentor and coach them (Sendjaya & Pekerti 2010). Leaders must use the
negative to make choices; such as what happens if they do not do something; leaders as well should
think from the point of view of no money, network with different fresh groups to help them evaluate
and examine the viability of their strategic directions and help them fine tune their message to give
direction to the teams they build. The modern manager must be simultaneously engage in micro
management as well as macro management to foster positive organizational culture change and
steer the organization towards fulfilling the purpose of its existence, creating the desired value for
customers, and adding value to itself (the organization), as well as to shareholders and owners
(Johnson 2016).
Conclusion
Modern management challenges have made managers believe there is no time for ruminating and
seeking answers to fundamental questions of the purpose of an organizations’ existence, its value
proposition to customers and the value it adds to shareholders and the company. The modern adage

of employee empowerment has been counterproductive because the empowered employees, even
the best, become uncertain when they don't have a definite direction to direct their efforts and
resources. The modern world requires the postmodern servant leader and manager that use
prescription as well as effective communication and coaching to pass their message to teams they
build in order to mediate an organizational cultural change that is geared towards value addition and
understanding the purpose for which the organization exists.

References
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