Leadership & Strategic Management in the 21st Century: A Review

This report provides a critical literature review on leadership in the 21st century and its influence on the strategic development of organizations. It begins by highlighting the evolving definitions of leadership and its increasing significance in modern business environments, contrasting traditional views with contemporary perspectives. The report examines key factors shaping 21st-century leadership, including globalization, technology, and the importance of knowledgeable workers and diversity. It explores collective leadership, the need for honesty and integrity, and the shift to an information-based economy. The report also discusses the impact of the internet, the importance of result-oriented performance, and the role of effective communication. It presents a four-layer leadership model emphasizing value, traits, communication, and situational decision-making, and highlights the need for respect, support, and empathy. Finally, it touches upon the big five model traits and emphasizes the necessity for strong decision-making skills and adaptability in the face of rapid changes. The conclusion synthesizes these insights, underscoring the transformative nature of leadership in the current business context.

Leadership & Strategic Management in the 21st Century 0
Assignment Title: Leadership in the 21st century and strategic
development of organisations.

Leadership & Strategic Management in the 21st Century 1
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Critical Literature Review..........................................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

Leadership & Strategic Management in the 21st Century 2
Introduction
Leadership has been a very confusing concept for the scholars and the various
definitions stated by them in the past were always inadequate in some or the other way. Each
scholar has a different take on leadership, some described it as a power to dictate, and some
explained it as the capabilities to go against the cultural norms to commence an evolutionary
change. All these opinions exhibited the lack of perceptions of the scholars. But by the
emergence of the 21st century, there were some authors who identified the change in the
business environment and examined leadership with a more refined and effective perspective.
Though in the 18th and 19th century, there were authors who described leadership as a positive
influence on others that helps in solving problems and achieving the objectives of an
organization. Now in the current times, leadership has gained a lot of prominence and also
because it is viewed with a different perspective in the 21st century. The involvement of
leadership in every aspect of the organization states its significance in the strategic
development of an organization. The strategic development of an organization involves a
number of processes that an organization has to conduct appropriately for the development,
and each process highlights the requirement of effective leadership. In this assignment, a
critical literature review will be conducted on the leadership in the 21st century and the
strategic development of the organization. The critical analysis will display the relationship
between the leadership in the 21st century and the strategic development of organization and
this will also display a comparing and contrasting evidence that will help in building a better
informative study.
Critical Literature Review
According to Hays & Christoper, the nature of leadership in the 21st century is
holistic. The leadership of the 21st century is based on four important factors that include
globalization, knowledgeable workers, technology and diversity (Hays and Christopher,
2012). The main change that has occurred in the leadership of the 21st century is the
perception that was only centered towards an individual has been changed and shifted to a
group. In simpler words, the leadership of today has its main focus on collective leadership.
Collective leadership can be explained as the accomplishment of collective goals rather than
individual, with the help of collective actions that are in coordination due to the effective
utilization of the leadership. Now, in an organization, the strategic development in the current
business environment can be conducted only if the leadership has a main focus on the four

Leadership & Strategic Management in the 21st Century 3
key elements. The technology has helped in the globalization of the business and this has also
increased the competition between the organizations. Though for the strategic management
and to deal with the competitors, it is important for all the organization to utilize
knowledgeable workers and promoting a diversified working environment in an organization,
it is also very crucial for the current organizations to evaluate effective and innovative
methods to conduct the practices of strategic management that involve the usage of creative
leadership (Bush, 2013).
There are some key components of the 21st century leadership that has to be utilized
by the current leaders of the organization in achieving the objectives of strategic
management. The leaders have the responsibility of motivating their workforce and inspiring
them to work with their full motivation. According to Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, with the
globalization of the organization, there is an increase in the demands of the customers and all
the organizations have to continuously improve their quality, price and customer satisfaction
(Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2010). This have led to the transformation of leadership in the
21st century that is more focused towards motivating the workforce to fulfill the growing
demands of the customers. According to Davis, the two factors that are very crucial for the
leadership of the 21st century are honesty and high integrity. Both of these traits are important
for solving problems and facing them strongly (Davis, 2013). In the current times, the
functioning of an organization is possible only if the issues and the challenges are handled
logically and they should be faced with all the strength rather than running away from them.
In the 21st century, the presence of honesty and high integrity are very less to be found in
people in comparison to the earlier times, but the main aim of the organization is to identify
such people and formulate team for planning strategies that will help in facing the issues of
strategic management (Male and Palaiologou, 2013).
There is a rise in the competitors and they are rapidly increasing with the changing
times. Due to this the issues in the strategic management has been increasing as the pressure
on the employees are increasing. The economy has changed from industrial economy to an
information-based economy. So, the shift that has taken place is new and due to it, the issues
which the current organizations face has never been experienced before (Khasawneh, 2011).
Though, the changes in the economy has brought the focus of the organizations on following
methods that are more information based, it is also important for them to think about the
overall changes in the business environment due to globalization. According to Thomas
Friedman, the 21st century can be termed as the era of “globalization 3.0”, as it is due to the

Leadership & Strategic Management in the 21st Century 4
huge dominance of internet on the globalization, which is continuously having an impact on
the organization’s processes, practices, and strategies (Friedman, 2012). This has been very
challenging for the leaders of the organization to deal with this transformation, especially for
the organization using the traditional approaches of leadership. Also, the ones who have tried
to adjust to these changes have been struggling a lot due to the continuous changes that the
internet brings in the business environment, hence, affecting the strategic development in an
organization (Bush, 2012). The internet has brought both positive and negative effect on the
organizations, though they have brought high level of convenience in connecting the
organizations directly with the customers, it has reduced the store culture. The leadership of
today thus can be helpful in formulating strategies that will help in dealing with such
challenges.
The current leadership practices require a basic focus that has to be on result-oriented
performance. The leadership of the 21st century required a great determination that is needed
by all the organization to fulfill the vision of the organization. The leadership of today can
only be effective if there is a determination to identify the difference between want has to be
done and what has to be excluded. According to Issacson, the main approach of the strategic
management team is to prioritize their work and for this, they should have effective
communication between each team member (Isaacson, 2012). So, with the leadership
prioritizing the works for the strategic development organizations are able to focus on the
tasks which are more important and this has helped better decision making. Like leadership,
communication also plays a very important role in the development of an organization. But
major organizations of the 21st century does not know or understand the importance of
communication. Also, the one thing that impacts the communication between the team
members in an organization is the weak internal communication. The lack of effective
communication results in conflicts in an organization that affects the strategic management of
the organization. The leaders of today have to utilize the numerous tools that help in
improving the internal business communication that is required for successfully performing
the various processes that are essential for strategic management (Miller and Sardais, 2011).
According to the four hierarchical layers of the new leadership model of the 21st
century, there are four layers that are important for all the leaders to possess. The first layer is
of value and vision, the second layer is of the trait and learning, the third layer is about
communication, and the fourth layer is about situational decision making. Now, it is
important to understand that this model is a collaboration between the traditional and modern

Leadership & Strategic Management in the 21st Century 5
leadership principles. But for successfully accomplishing the different layers of the leadership
model, there are certain factors that have to be used. The leaders have to build a competent
relationship with the organization’s employees, stakeholders, and customers. According to
Kourdi &Bibb, the leadership of the 21st century also requires some components that were
majorly ignored in the traditional leadership which are respect, supportiveness, openness,
empathy, unselfishness, and courage (Bibb and Kourdi, 2009). These attributes are required
as leadership in the 21st century does not mean to dictate whereas it means to inspire and
motivate. For inspiring the workforce, the leaders have to exhibit qualities that the workforce
adapts from the leaders. All these qualities are based on a single factor that is trust and in the
current time it is the hardest thing to trust a person, thus for an organization to have a
working environment in which trust is the prime quality is a very tough thing to achieve in
the current scenarios (Hitt, Haynes and Serpa, 2010).
The strategic management of an organization requires a knowledgeable workforce.
The workforce of an organization should possess the knowledge and skills of the latest
techniques that helps in making the business activities simpler. According to the second trait
of the business model of leadership for the 21st century focuses on the traits and learning.
This is important for the leaders of the current organization to possess unique skills that help
in problem solving and should keep learning the new techniques and trends that are being
utilized by competitors (Hearsum, 2017). The leadership of the 21st century demands higher
skills and knowledge for the strategic development of the organization and for this, it is
crucial that the organization adapt to the creative approaches of leadership that help in better
strategic management. According to Robbins & Judge, the big five model exhibits the five
traits of various leadership that are crucial in the 21st century. The five model traits are
extraversion, emotional stability, Agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness (Robbins
and Judge, 2017). All these traits can be further elaborated in a number of qualities that are
crucial in the leadership of 21st century as they help with positive thinking, dealing with
brutal facts, helps in gaining confidence, formulating innovative ideas, humility, and for
bringing the entire workforce together for the strategic management. As a leader of the 21st
century, it is important to have strong decision making and also the leaders should make
decisions according to the changing circumstances. The one big issue which the future
generations are going to face is that there will be a dearth of leaders and this is due to the
failing of the individuals in growing new skills and to keep up with the changes (Mainiero,
2013). The third layer of the leadership model is communication and the fourth layer of the

Leadership & Strategic Management in the 21st Century 6
leadership model is situational decision making. The different authors of the 21st century have
provided various definitions of the leadership and the main focus of their perspectives have
been about innovation and situational leadership. The situational leadership theory can be
incorporated in the fourth layer of the leadership model that is situational decision making.
The situational leadership theory helps in the development of leaders. But the main aspect
that is very important for the leadership of the 21st century is to utilize the best theory
according to the circumstances. The different theories provided by the scholars of today have
provided the organizations to examine different aspects that can be taken into account for
better strategic management (Clampitt, 2012).
Conclusion
After understanding the different approaches of various authors to the leadership of
21st century, this can be formulated that there is a huge transformation that the leadership has
witnessed and according to the changing business environment, the approaches of the
different authors have to be applied in the organization for strategic management. The
strategic management of the current organization requires a number of strategic processes,
various activities, high skills and a communication network that is smooth and effective. All
these activities can be performed only if the organization has effective leaders exhibiting
effective leadership traits. The leadership of today requires the leaders to fit in the shoes of a
manager, motivator, mentor, advisor, and an emotional support. Thus, the leadership of the
21st century gives complete importance to the traits that help in reducing conflicts between
people and also helps in generating a mutual respect that is important for any process of an
organization. The strategic management in an organization may require high skills,
knowledge and the new trends that are arising due to the globalization, but some of the key
qualities that are needed in a leader for the strategic management in an organization,
according to the above critical analysis are innovation, communication, emotional stability,
and high learning standards. According to the changing times, one aspect that can be
concluded from the research and the analysis is that with the changing times, the approaches
to leaderships will also change. So, for the strategic development an organization have to
utilize the latest trends of better leadership practices for strategic development of an
organization.

Leadership & Strategic Management in the 21st Century 7
References
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Clampitt, P. (2012). Transforming Leaders into Progress Makers: Leadership for the 21st
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Davis, R. (2013). Leading through uncertainty. 1st ed. Jossey-Bass, pp.30-90.
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Leadership & Strategic Management in the 21st Century 8
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