Good Example Of Globalization Essay

Summary

Numerous new issues exist in the current external business environment that have an impact on firms. These issues might be either in terms of risks or opportunities, or both. The issues vary from globalization and human rights issues to the change to low carbon economies and scarcity of resources as well as poverty issues. A future global leader needs to understand this changing context of business and know how his/her organization is responding. The challenges and opportunities as well as trends presented by these issues seem to be complex, which means more often, there is less certainty and less agreement about their nature and the required response. Thus, in such circumstances, leadership requires a variety of skills. In addition, leaders need the ability to understand other actors in the broader political landscape and to engage and build effective connections with new categories of external associates.

Introduction

In the current business leadership, the hierarchical approach is not applicable anymore. Today, many organizations are full of knowledge employees who do not react to hierarchical leadership. Looking for opportunities to become successful, the young generation is not willing to waste more years waiting in line. Employees are searching for true satisfaction and meaning from their employment, not just financial gains. Responding to such changes, new group of leaders is remodeling best-led organizations. True leaders who concentrate on consumers are now replacing hierarchical leaders who concentrate on satisfying short term shareholders. Such kinds of leaders include Boston Beer CEO Martin Roper, Travelzoo CEO Christopher Loughlin, and Google CEO Larry Page. In the 21st century, leaders need to communicate authentically in order to create value, that is, they are required to be real, relate with a broad range of people and cultures and serve a broad range of followers. Those who perform well have greater chances of surviving in the new emerging business environment. Different human resource forces are significant for developing organizational capabilities in the face of the changing business environment. The knowledge and skills need to be developed through career development planning, development programs, performance management and incentive systems as well as competency frameworks. A wide range of various techniques to learning is needed to create the future global leader. Since the global issues are complex, effective learning and skill development are achieved through practical experiences.

There is an indication on the increasing significance of emerging economies in the international market place. The reality of doing business in emerging economies offer different challenges and big opportunities compared to those found in developed economies. Supporting concerns about the global issues are trends like the growing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as civil society organizations that affect public policy and public opinion. These organizations play a role in driving increased legislation and regulation as well as affect changing consumer preferences in connection to the social and environmental performance of products and services (Greer, 2013). Page believes that senior leaders need to understand the risks and opportunities offered by social and environmental developments to the business as well as know how their industry together with other players such as regulators, investors, and customers; are reacting. He continues and adds that senior leaders need also the expertise to react to this information. On his part, Loughlin asserts that the future global leader needs to have the capability to include environmental and social developments into strategic decision-making. Roper expounds on this by stating that this has different meanings in different contexts and businesses, which may include understanding how to include the issues into processes such as decision making in capital expenditure as well as development of the brand.

Organizational response

Numerous organizations have reacted to the above trends by implementing new policies, systems, and processes, communicating and engaging externally, as well as innovating to create new products, services and production techniques. This has involved creating ethical codes, supplier codes and human rights policies, and management systems for social and environmental effects (Hays & Kim, 2012). Both leaders agree that the culture of the organization and the ability of employees in the organization are as significant factors to get right in the response of the organization as tangible things such as accepting new policies and codes of conduct and implementing new management systems and processes are.

Importance of capabilities and culture

The leaders reveal that they believe that much change will be needed over the next coming years to develop their organizational capability through building relevant skills and knowledge among their senior directors, administrators as well as employees (Lindgren, 2012).

Implications for knowledge and skills

According to Northouse (2010), the following knowledge and skills are required: an understanding and being capable of responding to changes in the external environment. Possessing the skills to survive and thrive in low certainty and low agreement situations; and the ability to understand players in the broader political landscape and to engage and build effective connections with types of external partners. Page thinks that it is significant that organizations themselves design the knowledge and skills required, while Loughlin thinks is it significant that the task of developing the knowledge and skills be left for business schools. However, Roper thinks that it is significant that intellectual membership organizations create the knowledge and skills required through the mainstream education and training offered.
Both leaders agree that for their own businesses, various human resources levers are significant for developing the capabilities for organizations. They believe that the knowledge and skills should be build through leadership development plans, career development programs, and succession programs, management of performance and incentive schemes, competency outlines, as well as searching the knowledge and skills during recruitment of new talent into the organization. In addition, it is also clear that these leaders have a wider range of various approaches to leaning required to develop the future global leader. Both of them agree on the complexity of the issue, but agree that an effective skill development and learning should come through practical experience, either through on the job learning, project based learning or other kinds of experiential learning. These learning experiences should be enhanced through coaching.

Context

Future global leaders need to understand the changing business context. Currently, every leader is required to have knowledge about climate change and many other important issues that are relevant to certain sectors. In addition, it is not enough to raise the awareness level of business leaders about these issues. Solid skills are required if organizations are to be capable of effectively responding (Northouse, 2010). Martin Roper of Boston Beer believes that a leader has to analyze the outcomes of his/her decisions. More emphasis should be placed on thinking before acting to determine how the decision will influence the situation. Christopher Loughlin of Travelzoo asserts that decisions should be based on thoughtful and critical evaluation of the situation and issues and leaders should identify and challenge assumptions and make decisions suitable to the context of the business. Larry page on his part maintains that a leader needs to think critically about every situation he/she ends up in and analyze his/her decisions before acting on them. A leader must make ethical decisions about what is appropriate for the business and understand what he or she is doing is the right thing for the reason that he or she is a role model and his/her every move is under surveillance. This kind of thinking involves interpretation of contextual evidence (Prentice, 2013).
These views suggest that a leader must understand the restrictions to power and leadership styles. A leader should have awareness that various situations need different styles of leadership (Castellano, 2014). For instance, Loughlin explains further and states that a leader must be able to identify and analyze the strengths and shortcomings of his/her followers and have the capability to distribute duties accordingly. On the same note, Page underscores that since empowerment has limits such that a particular group of employees lacks a clear understanding of the empowerment boundaries, some employees may require direct leadership. Roper on his part echoes that leaders should know when to lead as well as when to follow and have the ability to grasp the range of behavioral styles of their followers. Moreover, it is significant to understand corporate governance frameworks and be aware of wider debate concerning the role and purpose of business in society. Leaders require discrete skills in the ability to synchronize social and environmental objectives with financial goals as well as the ability to communicate the rationale behind the alignment.

Complexity

Globalization issues and trends demand that future global leaders possess the skills to offer leadership in the face of complexity and ambiguity. Opportunities and risks as well as trends presented by globalization issues tend to be complex because most often there is less certainty and less agreement about their accurate nature as well as the required response. In such circumstances, leadership needs a wide mindset, which is comfortable with ambiguity and complexity. In addition, it also needs a variety of discrete skills that support the mindset, are flexible and responsive to change, innovative, creative, and be able to balance short and long-term considerations. The future global leader is required to have the capacity to understand interdependencey of actions as well as the variation of global implications present in local level decisions (Greer, 2013). Page states that leaders must understand processes, organizational structures, and policies before taking action or making decisions to change them. On the same idea, Loughlin believes that leading involves understanding the change the leader wishes to inspire, searching the numerous possible paths to accomplish the change, as well as offering an action plan. On the other hand, Roper adds that thinking critically should not be present only in the arrangement stage.
It is critical to understand that business decisions are not driven by rational quantitative evaluation always. More often, business decisions are driven by feelings, emotions, values, and intuition. It is also important to understand the ethical foundation on which business decisions are made (Hays & Kim, 2012). Loughlin believes that senior leaders need the capability to be flexible and responsive to change, while Roper underscores that senior leaders need the capability to bring into equilibrium short and long-term considerations. On the other hand, Page believes that senior leaders need the capability to search for creative, innovative and unique ways of solving issues as well as the capability to learn from mistakes.

Connectedness

Leaders should have the ability to understand players in the broader political landscape as well as to engage and build effective connections with new categories of external collaborators. This may include regulators, competitors, local communities, or NGOs. The mindset of the current leaders discourages productive engagement with collaborators outside the business. Most leaders acquire much training in negotiation skills but lack expertise for engaging for effective dialogue and collaboration. According to Lindgrem (2012) collaboration enables leaders to find a common ground with others, which aids positive change. Thus, Page suggests that during decision-making, more emphasis should be placed on purposeful action with a commitment to a goal and the willingness to collaborate with external collaborators. Loughlin agrees that the aim and advantage of collaboration process is that the process is ethical, moral and benefits all those involved. Roper states that leading is about making appropriate decisions not only for the leader but also for the business organization and his or her colleagues. Thus, a good leader considers the needs of the business as well as its associates, the various plans of actions to take at different times, the impact of different tactics implicated with approaching matters, and why the effects influence the business.
Leaders should have the ability to contribute and engage to public policy. Businesses need to closely work with regulators to ensure that the new principles do not have unintended consequences, but work well. This requires new skills for business leaders (Northouse, 2010). Loughlin suggests that senior leaders need to understand how their business organization affects, positively and negatively, stakeholders. According to him, senior leaders are required to have the capacity to engage in effective discussion. On his part, Page suggests that senior leaders need to have the capacity to build collaborations with both internal and external stakeholders.
In conclusion, the focus of 21st century leaders is on maintaining high performance by putting to lien their followers around mission and values as well as empowering leaders at all levels while at the same time focusing on satisfying consumers and teaming up throughout the business. The difficult duty is to be able to align followers around the business’ mission and values. Conventional leaders could achieve this alignment by issuing rulebooks, training plans and systems of compliance. However, they were disappointed because their followers often diverged. Employees in alignment always commit themselves to the mission and values of the business and would want to be included as part of greater things than themselves. In addition, leadership style in the 21st century is about empowering senior leaders at all levels. Moreover, the challenges faced by businesses at present are more complex to be handled by single leaders. Partnerships in the organization as well as with the external collaborators such as consumers, regulators, and even competitors are needed in order to reach long-term solutions. However, the final goal of leadership effectiveness is the capacity to maintain superior outcomes over a long period. Those business organizations that concentrate alignment, empowerment, and partnerships outperform traditional hierarchical organizations all the time.

References

Castellano, W. G. (2014). Practices for engaging the 21st century workforce: Challenges of talent management in a changing workplace.
Greer, Melvin B., Jr. (2013). 21st Century Leadership: Harnessing Innovation, Accelerating Business Success. Iuniverse Inc.
Hays, J. M., & Kim, C. C. (2012). Transforming leadership for the 21st century. United States: Xlibris Corporation.
Lindgren, M. (2012). 21st century management: Making people dance in the thought economy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Northouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5thed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Vroom, V. H. (1995). Decision making and the leadership process. In J. T.
Prentice, A. E. (2013). Leadership for the 21st century.