Contemporary leadership style

One of the greatest challenges confronting organizations is how to select and develop leaders.

Many Leadership theories were written by scholars, some were very effective and other were criticized for impractical the main arguments were as culture and generation change the leadership style change along, lot of contemporary leadership theories are no longer applicable modern era (kevin 2004). But the trouble with leadership theories is they’re easy to hide behind often inaccurately. They become proxies for actual leadership when something important is on the line, people don’t follow Fayol’s segregation of activities or Mintzberg’s three categories of managerial roles they follow real people. Leadership has evolved to the extent that our human context has evolved On the other end of the spectrum is the Situational Theory of leadership​​​, which presumes that great leaders are more the product of circumstantial factors than innate ability (USB university, 2017).

Issues of leadership in today’s world

Historically in an organization people more engaged in production where a particular leadership is applied, such as transaction leadership or autocratic style, where workers are motivated by rewards and managers lead by transaction with their followers in respond to the behavior of workers and to boost production, (Max Weber in 1947) only handful of people possess basic knowledge. These leadership styles were indeed effective in the last centuries and this led to substantial growth of economy They were more affective to undertake operations efficiently, manage large corporations, or lead international projects that require rules and regulations to complete objectives on time or move people and supplies in an organized way, (Mujkic, Alisa, 2014).

The challenges current leaders are experiencing in leading in a changing world

The biggest challenge current leaders facing is managing the different geographical diverse culture employee in respond to the globalization, more global mindset managers are needed for building & fostering value creation, also the global skill set which is far beyond just language but social etiquettes. The rapid changing environment, the different national culture and different team need are also of the challenge leader need to be dealt with which require huge amount of corporation between leader and the followers, (Kevin, 2004).

John Adair team theory

HP as an example

The transactional model is likely to succeed in a crisis or in projects that require linear and specific processes. Hewlett-Packard, a company known for its extensive use of management by exception it was very successful and inspiration to the employee in 1990s sales grew by 20% between 1992 & 1996 with an increasing dependency on the low margin PC & Printer business. By 1997, HP was among the top 3 manufacturers of PC. Due to the change in social and culture in the recent years (HP) board of directors have been in the limelight for wrong reasons. Four CEO’s were hired and replaced in the last decade and three CEO’s changes were within a span of 1.5 years. The board has not been able to find the right leader to fit into the HP’s Cultures of doing things. The uncertainties in leadership has led to a huge loss for HP in terms of decreased market value, dissatisfied shareholders and blurred strategic vision, (Kort, 2018).

Whereas in today era people engaged more in knowledge oriented job and production are mainly left to the machine, some of the traditional leadership are not a good fit for places where creativity and innovative ideas are valued. The other leadership style that frequently being used by some managers is the transformative leadership, (Burns, 1978). Burns, said that “transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of morality” (1978). Mohandas Ghandi is frequently cited as a classic exemplar of transformational leadership (Northouse, 2007).

Transformational leaders tend to have dedicated and satisfied followers. Furthermore, they empower their employees, pay attention to their needs and development, helping them grow their own leadership potential (Bass, 2008).

How relevant are they in today’s changing world?

By definition they are still quit relevant, particularly the transformative leadership by reviewing it can be noted that transformational leaders tend to create a working environment with satisfied and motivated employees (Bass, Riggio, 2008), Bushra et al. (2011) argue in their research that transformational leadership has a significant positive effect on the level of employee job satisfaction in general. The same study supports the view that adopting the transformational style of leadership leads to raising employee engagement in the work by 42%, (Jams, 2009).

In the history of leadership models in the 20th century, there is no such thing as the perfect model of leadership. Of the leadership models theories written, it may seem that the more recent theories are more applicable to address contemporary leadership issues however each brings its own set of unique perspectives on situations, culture, structure, and process that need to be taken into account. In applying any leadership model to a given set of circumstances, it is important to understand the context, limitations, and biases introduced by each one so as to understand the limitations of the solutions they present as alternatives. It is also important to understand that measuring the effectiveness of each model may present unique challenges as new techniques for measuring the success are improved upon.

References

James O. McDowelle, 2009, Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, A Contemporary Consideration of Transformative Leadership, Volume 3, Number 2, (November 2009).

Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row.

Lewin, K. (2019). Leadership StylesChoosing the Right Approach for the Situation. [online] Mindtools.com. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm [Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].

Antoine, P. (2004) Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership [online] available from < http://www.stfrancis.edu/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/btopics/works/fied.htm> (12 March 2019).

Kevin 2004, Knomaze Corporation, Leadership – Past to Present [online] available from < http://www.knomaze.com/leadership/leadership-past-to-present/  > ( 12 March 2019).

Mujkic, Alisa; Sehic, Dzevad; Rahimic, Zijada; Jusic, Jasmin.Ekonomski Vjesnik; Osijek Vol. 27, Iss. 2,  (2014): 259-270.

Mujkic, Alisa, 2014 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION, proquest [online] available from https://search.proquest.com/abicomplete/docview/1645743058/fulltextPDF/8374E40E55D04F19PQ/1?accountid=10286 > (12 March 2019).