Leadership Practices: Contemporary Management Issues in 21st Century

This essay discusses contemporary management issues in 21st-century organizations, emphasizing the evolution of management concepts and the impact of technological advancements and market conditions. It analyzes leadership practices, particularly drawing lessons from Shackleton's leadership during his crew's icy ordeal, highlighting the importance of commitment, optimism, and teamwork. The essay identifies common issues like technological changes, poor teamwork, and employee turnover, using Unilever as an example of a company facing organizational culture and leadership challenges. Recommendations include amending the organizational culture, updating leadership styles, and involving employees in decision-making to improve employee retention and overall performance. The conclusion underscores the importance of effective leadership, inspired by Shackleton's approach, and cultural changes to address these contemporary challenges.

Contemporary
Management Issues in
21st Century

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Considering the past century the concept of management has experienced a drastic
evolution. The understanding of the concept of management is depended on the intricate
combination of presumptions and exemplars which were formed on the basis of the issues of that
period. The reason behind the management issues are the transitions that the business world and
the economy of the world has been experiencing lately. As a result of which the management
related issues in the 21st century have reached to an alarming state. The pace at which the
changes in the technology, trends, financial conditions of the market as well as the financial
conditions are changing is having an impact on the operational capability and the profitability of
the organisation (Kleiner,2018).
This project will include the discussion on the reasons for the contemporary business
related crisis in an organisations. In addition to that, this report will also analyse and evaluate the
leadership practices within an organisation and provide recommendations for improvement.
MAIN BODY
Shackleton was an explores renowned for his leadership skills which he showcased while
his crew got trapped in the ice for more than an year. The rescue of the crew was possible only
because of their efforts and because of a leader like Shackleton. The Shackleton never let his
crew members to loose hope and tried to keep them engaged by planning another expedition. He
also tried to maintain optimism in the crew members and made them stick with other no matter
what the situation was. He tried to create feeling of mutual respect amongst the crew members.
These are the reason why the crew never broke and it was because of the team work only that
they were able to rescue themselves from the situation (Gutmann, 2018).
The leadership style of Shackleton is mentioned as the most efficient style of leadership
in the article that taught the manager efficient leadership and management skills that allowed him
to lead his team appropriately. The members of the team were motivated by the manager to
coordinate their work with the other members of the team in order to achieve the desired goals
and that too in specified period of time. The managers should follow the leadership style of
Shackleton and lead the team by continuously increasing their morale. As Shackleton considered
the factor of same skills while forming teams, the managers should also form teams on the basis
of the skills they have. The team with members having speciality in similar fields will be more

efficient in accomplishing the task assigned to them, therefore a team should be formed of
members having same skills and interests (Appanah and Pillay, 2020). The learnings that can be
derived from the leadership style of Shackleton are an individual performing leadership role
should himself be committed and feel responsible about the task, it is then only that he will be
able to encourage his team members to be responsible and committed to the task assigned. If the
leader is going to practice presence of mind while working the team member will also be
motivated to efficiently get their work done in the specified time.
Leading a team is not related to keeping the team members motivated and forming teams
with members with similar interest but is also related to providing the team with all the resources
that might be required by them for achieving the completion of the task. Shackleton was very
supportive towards his team members and never made them do any difficult task alone. This is
the reason why his team members were creative enough to think of new ideas if one did not
work. This leader skill is the most effective an necessary one in the 21st century. The employees
of the present century consider a committed, flexible and creative leader to be an effective
leader. Therefore, to address the current contemporary issues of management a leader has to have
combination skills of imaginative and creative, flexible about the process applied for task
completion so that improvisations can be made in the process when required and credible. The
team leader should be have accepting and have considering behaviour towards the new and more
effective ideas and approaches for getting a task completed and should work in order to make the
task as simplified as possible for the team members. The team leader should also make sure that
the team members are made available with all the resources that are required for the completion
of a task.
The leadership requirements of today's time also mentions a leader to have a clear vision
of the goals that the team needs to achieve in order to make the organisation successful in
achieving its ultimate goal. A leader having a clear vision and understanding of the goals can
share his understanding regarding the purpose and details of the task with the team members in a
more effective way (Hîrbu, 2020). This is necessary because the for effective completion of a
task it is necessary for each team members to have a clear understanding of the part that each of
them have to perform to get the task completed. Also if the members have a clear understanding
of the task then they will be able to come up with ideas which can be helpful in effective
completion of task. It is also the responsibility of the leader to listen and be considerate towards

the different and new ideas of various employees. A leader being considerate towards the ideas
of employees will make generate interest and enthusiasm for the tasks with in the team members.
A yet another lesson regarding leadership that can be learnt from Shackleton is along
with generation of excitement and motivation in the employees it is also necessary to keep the
team together by teaching them the importance of team work (Perrone, and Tucker, 2019). It was
due to the combined efforts of all the crew members that they were able to get themselves out of
the ice trap. Along with teaching the members the importance of team work the leader should
also give importance to practising good communication skills which is important for keeping the
team together. A leader which practices good communication skills with his team members
would be able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of different members and would be
able to train them accordingly. Practising good communication skills also makes sure that the
work related issue as well as any personal issues are discussed so that proper measures can be
taken by the team leader to eliminate those issues so that the efficiency of the members are not
affected.
The contemporary management issues of 21st century include issues regarding
technological changes, poor team working skills, depletion in the performance levels, poor hiring
decisions which result in high employee turn over, conflicts between employees due to lack of
communication etc. (Dumas, and Beinecke, 2018). For instance, taking the example of a
consumer goods company of Unilever which provides consumer goods to people. This
organisation has management related issues like lack in organisation culture, employees of the
organisation are not motivated enough, the leaders of the organisation have weak leadership
styles. These all are contributing to decrease in the performance levels of the employees. The
main issue of the organisation is that it follows autocratic and power culture based management
styles which did not involve the employees in the decision making process. The plan are made
and then the employees are asked to work accordingly. These issues are resulting in poor
retention of talented employees by the company and the company is losing its productivity. In
order to rectify these issues the higher management personnels need to emphasize on making
relevant changes in the internal environment of the organisation (Humphries-Kil, 2019).
Recommendation
The management team of the organisation needs to make amendments in the
organisation's working culture to increase employee retaining. The management also needs to

update the leadership style that the leaders of the organisation are practising in order to ensure
improvement in the performance of the employees so that the overall performance of the
organisation can be improved. Another recommendation for the changes that need to brought
about by the management is that it should introduce inclusion of the employees in the decision
making process so that the employees feel involved and interested (Podsakoff and Podsakoff,
2019). Providing proper leadership to the employees will also ensure development of the
employees which will also contribute to increased retention of the talented employees in the
organisation.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it can be conclude that the contemporary issues that the
organisations of 21st century are facing include week leadership styles and lack of motivation in
the employees which is further contributing to depletion in the levels of performance of the
organisation. Shackleton's leadership style is one of the most effective styles that can be used by
the leaders in order to tackle these contemporary issues in the most effective way. Also
introducing changes related to working culture can also help the organisation to take care of
these issues.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Appanah, C.N. and Pillay, A.S., 2020. Investigation into the effectiveness of leadership styles in
the performance and retention of millennials. Journal of Management &
Administration, 2020(1), pp.1-23.
Dumas, C. and Beinecke, R.H., 2018. Change leadership in the 21st century. Journal of
Organizational Change Management, 31(4), pp.867-876.
Gutmann, M.R., 2018. Consulting the Past: Integrating Historians into History‐Based Leadership
Studies. Journal of Leadership Studies, 12(2), pp.35-39.
Hîrbu, A., 2020. Leadership and management in the 21st century.
Humphries-Kil, M., 2019. Unilever and Leadership: Gender, Race, and Classification in
Corporate Globalisation. In SAGE Business Cases. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business
Cases Originals.
Kleiner, G.B., 2018. Humanistic management, social management and system management—the
way to the management of the 21st century.
Perrone, F. and Tucker, P.D., 2019. Shifting profile of leadership preparation programs in the
21st century. Educational Administration Quarterly, 55(2), pp.253-295..
Podsakoff, P.M. and Podsakoff, N.P., 2019. Experimental designs in management and leadership
research: Strengths, limitations, and recommendations for improving publishability. The
Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), pp.11-33.