Leadership in the 21st Century and Strategic Development

This report provides a critical literature review on leadership in the 21st century and its relationship to the strategic development of organizations. It explores various leadership perspectives, including leadership as science, quality management, value displacement, trust customs, and spiritual leadership, and how these perspectives influence strategic thinking and planning. The report delves into the foundational concepts of leadership in the 21st century, emphasizing the importance of aligning organizational values and the functions of leadership in achieving strategic development. It highlights the leader's roles in serving employees, fostering collaboration, and ensuring customer satisfaction. The review also discusses the capabilities of leadership in driving strategic development, such as the ability to adapt to a changing business landscape, motivate employees, and drive innovation. The report draws on a range of academic sources to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic, with the aim of guiding leaders in contemporary organizations.

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 1
LEADERSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY AND STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT OF
ORGANIZATIONS
Name:
Institution:
Course:
Tutor:
Date:

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 2
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Leadership perspectives and strategic emphasis..............................................................................4
Foundational concept of leadership in the twenty-first century and the strategic development of
organizations....................................................................................................................................6
Functions of leadership in the twenty-first century towards the achievement of strategic
development in the organization......................................................................................................7
Capabilities of leadership towards strategic development in the organization................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
List of References..........................................................................................................................12

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 3
Introduction
In the present business operations, leaders are required to rethink their historical
perceptions as well as be capable of cultivating fresh configuration of abilities and attitudes in
order to succeed in the shifting business landscape of the twenty-first century. The global society
has undergone changes and experienced profound variations in the early days of the twenty-first
century (Line and Lasmane 2014). Countless challenges have led to the development of the
global economy, and its effects on several nations have forced leaders around international
society into unchartered territory. The changes have forced the leaders into literally redefine
what it takes to succeed in different operations. Leadership has been defined in different ways by
various scholars. For instance, O'Connell (2014) defined leadership to refer to the mixture of
management of people, primal, psycho-energetic, alongside spiritual competencies that relate
with subordinates towards the establishments of targets of an organization. However, according
to the study by Guthrie and Callahan (2016), leadership is defined to be the capability of an
individual to show a high range of superior mental energies with firm determination, courage,
along with effective skills of communication. Therefore, the primary target of this research
paperwork is to examine leadership in the twenty-first-century ad strategic management.
The aspect of leadership can be examined by various approaches together with theories.
These theories comprise of behavioral, trait, full-range, and contingency theory. According to
Adams, Kutty, and Mohd Zabidi (2017), the aspect of leadership illustrated by the idea that
shows the manner of involving individuals that form the group of operations in an organization.
Besides, leadership in society consists of the effect of motivating various workers to operate
appropriately (Moon and Ruona 2015). By involving workers in their operations, leaders remain
to be the fundamental aspect that helps workers to operate on a correct approach that can help

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 4
them in reaching different operational goals. Therefore, leadership in strategic management is
just goal oriented as it has the ability to improve the general performance of organizations and
individuals.
Leadership perspectives and strategic emphasis
With all views on strategic planning in an organization, strategic management has long
been assumed to be duties as well as responsibilities of leadership. Every perspective on strategic
management presumes a particular assumption concerning the function of leadership. The
assumptions are in term of emphasis offered to process of guiding or shaping the environment of
an organization (Ho Jung 2017). One approach is to grapple with the variation between
leadership and strategic thinking focusing on uncovering what specific perspectives of leadership
emphasize in the process of strategic operations.
The leadership perspectives according to various researchers have been reported to be
five views that culled from researching the operation of local government directors. These five
perspectives comprise of leadership as science or administration, leadership as quality
management of operations, leadership as a value displacement activity, leadership as trust
customs, and whole essence or religious leadership (Rosch and Priest 2017). Therefore,
management as scientific organization relates to the underlying strategic assumption in
management that an organization together with their leaders requires to control instances of
chaos. Such control in operations of the organization is necessary to make predictable, verifiable,
daily processes, alongside outputs to be the norm. Fundamentally, this type of leadership
perspective concentrates on strategic preparation for effectiveness. Moreover, the subsequent
type of leadership view which is management as excellence organization presumes like the

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 5
leadership as management that managers of an organization have the responsibility of controlling
chaos. The difference of this kind of perspective lies in the concern offered to process
enhancement as well as the participation of workers to help in developing strategic plans (Smith
2015). Such developments in strategic plans are essential in controlling the organizational chaos
together with disorders in operations of an organization.
The other perspective of leadership is the leadership as values displacement activity in
strategic operations of organizations. It is the type of leadership perspective that assumes the
strategic thinking comprising of prioritizing values of other individuals. The values of the
individuals are assumed so they can help to support and implement the goals of the organization
(Gladden 2015). In such a manner, this type of leadership perspective in the strategic operations
of organizations assumes the strategic thinking to be all about impacting chaos instead of trying
to have appropriate techniques of controlling occurrences of such chaos. Additionally, leaders
perspective of leadership as trust culture relates to where the goal of a leader to encourage
people to act in a wise manner (Toms, Wilson, and Wright 2019). It also helps people in
maintaining mutual trust so that individuals can act independently to attain shared operational
goals of an organization. However, this type of leadership perspective assumes that the systems
approach as it concentrates on embracing chaos in operation. It assumes a different kind of chaos
by utilizing it to develop the surrounding to attain preferred outcomes (Seemiller 2018).
Furthermore, other type of leadership view of the whole soul or spiritual leadership is also useful
in attaining strategic operations o an organization. It is the non-manage group as it highlights
tactical thoughts at the grandest stages. Such stages in operations help in developing the best in
others, so they lead other workers and themselves in the right direction. The leading of others in
appropriate direction remains to be useful towards the achievement of appropriate results in the

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 6
operations (Cancino, Merigó, and Coronado 2017). Therefore, this type of perspective is possibly
the final manifestation of accepting the intrinsic order in clear commotion in the approach of
tactical thoughts within the operation of organization.
Foundational concept of leadership in the twenty-first century and the strategic
development of organizations
The assumptions that diverse perspectives of leadership have is to commence to unpack
the diverse views as well as approaches to strategically help in the development of organizations.
Section of ending plea of strategic preparation is that several individuals might sense they do not
need the control on the whole view of the corporation or its operations (Hearsum 2017).
Therefore, to manage discomfort, the normal approach is to take on the critical and immediate,
the strategic to communicate. The process of planning out such tactical steps and processes is
relevant and need practical processes of management (Isebor 2018). It helps managers of
different organizations to understand what their operations might face next to be not just
practical but as time-consuming effort.
It is evident from various studies that the definition of strategic thinking is still emerging.
However, the primary focus of the strategic development of organization according to leadership
in the twenty-first century remains on the outcomes of goals of the strategic development of the
organizations (Fisher and Robbins 2014). Even in system method, strategic thoughts are related
to the method of discipline to assessment concerning the results of the corporation as well as
relationships inherent between various sections of organization. Despite how essential is a leader
focuses on results of operations, goals, and processes, strategic thinking towards the
development of organization need to be founded on more essential principles (Croft and

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 7
Seemiller 2017). Founding strategic thinking in basic principles can help if such strategies are to
be distinct from processes or activities that deal with planning.
When individuals within operations of the organization have the clear understanding of
their real values in operations, commitments, their purposes in operations, and meaning of
different issues in development, they can then start to view why their outcomes and goals are
either sensible or incongruent. The understanding of strategic development principles can make
people in operations to start to look if their operations are time-clear, reasonable, or too rigid
(Hitt, Haynes, and Serpa 2015). Commence with objectives does not enable individuals to decide
if the targets are real or correct. It can also help leaders in the twenty-first century to determine if
the goals in strategic development in an organization are properly executed. These help in
determining if the succeeding actions designed to attain those targets will operate as stated (Line
and Lasmane 2014). Values along with reason become the gauging rod together with the norm to
verify the value of any objective, result of operations, formal or informal, or activity towards
strategic development in the organization.
Functions of leadership in the twenty-first century towards the achievement of strategic
development in the organization
In the twenty-first century, the most thriving managers tend t concentrate on supporting
better performance by supporting individuals around task and different principles. The alignment
focus on different organizational values that is more challenging than making short-term
numbers in development. The need to gain alignment in strategic development in an organization
is another major function of a leader (Hitt, Haynes, and Serpa 2015). However, gaining if such
alignment is particularly difficult in far-flung global corporations where local workers may be

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 8
more loyal to native customs than their managers, especial in line with business practices.
Traditional leaders thought they could be capable of solving such kind of issues with rulebooks,
training plans, and compliance systems. However, they were shocked when individuals deviate
such actions. Hence, the leadership in the twenty-first century has the duty of aligning workers to
commit to the values together with the organizational mission (Croft and Seemiller 2017). In
most cases, these leaders concentrate on operations by focusing on being part of something
greater than themselves in operations. Leaders in the twenty-first century have different
responsibilities such as serving and collaborate with other people during their operations.
The leadership in the twenty-first century has the first obligation of serving the workers
to attain strategic development in the organization. The obligation is only for the customer but
not to different shareholders that might have a say in operations of an organization (Adams,
Kutty, and Mohd Zabidi 2017). Therefore, leaders that hold top positions in the operations of
organizations spend much time listening to different risks that they might face in the process of
development of strategies of operations within an organization. Leadership in the twenty-first
century ensures that every organization is capable of providing its customers with excellent value
relative to competitors to make them satisfied with services and products they get from
organizations. Therefore, leaders are responsible for making workers to be much motivated by
serving different clients than what they are getting stock priced up (Pandher, Mutlu, and Samnani
2017). Such operations remain to be the essential concerns that lead to innovations and superior
service of customers. Besides, satisfied clients and motivated workers are fundamental to
sustaining growth in revenue and ultimately improving the values of shareholders.

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 9
The leadership in the twenty-first century has an essential duty of improving the
collaborations between stakeholders of an organization leading to improvement in strategic
development. The challenges that different businesses face these days are too complex to be
solved by various workers or even single organizations in the markets (Isebor 2018). Leaders
collaborate with various clients, suppliers of different materials, and even with their rivals in that
market as a way that helps the organization to attain lasting solutions in their strategic
development processes. Therefore, leaders in most cases focus on fostering collaborative spirit
that helps me eliminating internal politics while concentrating on internal cooperation. Besides,
the ultimate measure of effectiveness for leaders remains to be the capability to sustain super
outcomes over a long duration. Organizations filled with aligned, collaborative, and empowered
workers focused on serving different clients to outperform hierarchical organization every
moment (Moon and Ruona 2015). Therefore, in the 21st century, top leaders can attain near-term
outcomes, but only authentic leaders can galvanize the entire corporation to sustain lasting
performance towards strategic development.
Capabilities of leadership towards strategic development in the organization
The capabilities required for strategic development by leaders in the twenty-first century
can help in improving the operations. The leaders have to possess various traits in order to attain
strategic ideas in development (O'Connell 2014). Some of these traits comprise of developing an
effective communication channels, creating vibrant competencies, spending in the improvement
of new skills, and engage in ethical practices. These leaders need to have other traits such as
emphasizing and effectively using human capital, developing and maintaining the effective
culture of the organization, and investment in the advanced technologies for operations. All these

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 10
capabilities of leadership are essential in ensuring that the organization works strategically
towards the development of its operations.
Leadership in the twenty-first century has the responsibility of developing and
communicating the vision of the organization. The leaders provide an effective form of
supervision that is useful in to launching the course of the organization for its advancement, kind
of yields and services, and market concentrates towards attaining the desired outcomes
(O'Connell 2014). Without appropriate guidance offered by the mission, organizations can then
turn out to be chaotic and are improbable to be flourishing. According to report by organization
Hearsum (2017), having basic competencies is the key potential to achieve essential operations
by a leader. The competencies make leaders to perform their operations in a planned approach
and make the valued contribution to the competitive advantage.
Conclusion
The twenty-first century has been predicted by various surveyors to bring the highly
challenging competitive landscape in both leadership and policies of strategic advancement of
organizations. Leaders are needed to develop and use unique abilities to stay as successful
strategic leaders in the present and prospect centuries. There is the need for every leader involved
in the process of developing strategies for organizations to build and progressively develop
appropriate techniques to support their operations. Effective leaders in twenty-first century are
tamed to be compassionate leaders that are optimistic towards attaining high operation standards
in their management practices. It is clear that leadership and strategic management needs of
successful organizations in present society have changed. Effective strategic leaders have to
operate under conditions of sometimes extreme uncertainty together with view volatile business

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 11
setting as offering the potential to identify and exploit opportunities of entrepreneurs in such
context.

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 12
List of References
Adams, D., Kutty, G. and Mohd Zabidi, Z. (2017). Educational Leadership for the 21st Century.
International Online Journal of Educational Leadership, 1(1), pp.1-4.
Cancino, C., Merigó, J. and Coronado, F. (2017). A bibliometric analysis of leading universities
in innovation research. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 2(3), pp.106-124.
Croft, L. and Seemiller, C. (2017). Developing Leadership Competencies. New Directions for
Student Leadership, 2017(156), pp.7-18.
Fisher, K. and Robbins, C. (2014). Embodied leadership: Moving from leader competencies to
leaderful practices. Leadership, 11(3), pp.281-299.
Gladden, R. (2014). Leading Virtual Project Teams: Adapting Leadership Theories and
Communications Techniques to 21st Century Organizations. Project Management Journal,
45(4), pp.e3-e3.
Guthrie, K. and Callahan, K. (2016). Liberal Arts: Leadership Education in the 21st Century.
New Directions for Higher Education, 2016(174), pp.21-33.
Hearsum, S. (2017). Humble leadership: hippy fantasy or 21st century necessity?. Strategic HR
Review, 16(1), pp.39-41.
Hitt, M., Haynes, K. and Serpa, R. (2015). Strategic leadership for the 21st century. Business
Horizons, 53(5), pp.437-444.

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 13
Ho Jung, K. (2017). Change of public sector leadership in the 21st century : Theoretical
reflections and prospects. Korean Public Administration Review, 51(1), p.117.
Isebor, J. (2018). Transcendental Leadership for the 21st Century: A Narrative Inquiry on
Effective Leadership and Workplace Spirituality. SSRN Electronic Journal, 8(1), pp.9-53.
Line, A. and Lasmane, A. (2014). Leadership, Communication And Union Commitment In
Latvia: Development Perspectives Of Strategic Management. European Integration Studies,
0(8).
Moon, H. and Ruona, W. (2015). Towards a deeper understanding of strategic learning.
Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(6), pp.657-674.
O'Connell, P. (2014). A simplified framework for 21st century leader development. The
Leadership Quarterly, 25(2), pp.183-203.
Pandher, G., Mutlu, G. and Samnani, A. (2017). Employee-based Innovation in Organizations:
Overcoming Strategic Risks from Opportunism and Governance. Strategic Entrepreneurship
Journal, 11(4), pp.464-482.
Rosch, D. and Priest, K. (2017). Strategies in Assessment of Leadership Competencies. New
Directions for Student Leadership, 2017(156), pp.87-99.
Seemiller, C. (2018). Enhancing Leadership Competencies for Career Readiness. New Directions
for Student Leadership, 2018(157), pp.39-53.

Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organizations 14
Smith, S. (2015). Managing Human Service Organizations in the 21st Century. Human Service
Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 39(5), pp.407-411.
Toms, S., Wilson, N. and Wright, M. (2019). Innovation, intermediation, and the nature of
entrepreneurship: A historical perspective. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 1(2), pp.5-76.