Blog 2: Contemporary Leadership Styles: How relevant are they in today’s Changing world?

Leadership is a transition of socially influencing by understanding the efforts and talents of group members in order to achieve the groups various goals. (Leadership and Power, 2005 6-7). There is a need for various theories related to organisation and also leadership to overcome the cultural factor and identity what is more suitable for a specific organisation in different cultural settings (Triandis, 1993). This blog focuses mainly on leadership problems and analysis related to the market. I’m going to talk about the future, past and present of leadership theories and the changes to be made in terms of coping up with the changing world in the future.

Challenges of leadership theories

Theories and Research on leadership development has been taking place upwards of a century (Avolio, Reichard, Hannah,Walumbwa, & Chan, 2009). Importance should be placed on the necessity to combine socio-neuro-cognitive scientists in order to develop an integrated theory of leadership (Bennis, 2007).  Bruce Avolio (2007) Points out the main issues with leadership in this present era is psychologists still treat leadership as an individual phenomenon. Many models of leadership have set up to tackle different set of circumstances which its relevance in the present therefore can be questioned with no clear alternative at place. (Davenport, 2001)

(nuleadership.com, 2018)

Present problems of Leadership 

Leadership in 20th century was more production inclined whereas in the 21st century it is derived by knowledge and innovation for firms to sustain in the market. (Bettis & Hitt, 1995; Boisot, 1998). The mainstream bureaucratic mindset in common leadership theories in the past are not practical for our knowledge based era (Heckscher, 1994). The main challenge that poses leadership presently is how to develop a alternative and come up with solutions which tackles the well planned bureaucracy in the present world which hinders the growth of leadership in our modern era. Coming to feminine leadership, women are considered to be the “managers of 21st century” (Rosen et al., 1989; Schwartz, 1992; Fisher, 1998). Organisations works in a larger complexity, competitive and aggressive surroundings which arises a need to change leadership structures, strategies and theories in order to cope up with increasing business challenges. ( Conner, 1999: Higgs and Rowland, 2001). All of the above mentions keep the accuracy of leadership theories in doubt.

Challenges Leaders face in the changing world

According to Samuel R. Chand (2016), the number of challenges for leaders are numerous like difficulties related to crucial decisions on who to hire and the selection of the members of the team, time allocation which is to come out with most productivity in less time, Organisational alignment of informal and formal structures, finding the right mix of control and delegation within themselves, understanding decision making to make better ones, leadership developments in multiple aspects, capabilities of leaders to transition rather than change for smoother change, vision casting is a challenge as to cast vision in ways to prompt people for response, focusing on what is important and maintaining it. All of us know there is interest related to the doubt that development and training of authentic leaders can be effective is questioned.(e.g., May et al., 2003).

(http://drmat-ismail.blogspot.com, 2012)

Examples

PMC (2014) states that healthcare organisations largely think a well working organisation is akin to a well oiled machine, it produces a notion of performance being optimised when work is explained in detail and given to the operation units. Clinicians often object to these detailed specifications, while managers bemoan a lack of cooperation. Apollo group of hospitals follow transactional leadership which has caused biased opinions and inequalities within the organisation. Adair’s model can be implemented in order to raise the standards and overcome the need of shallow judgement.

(https://slideplayer.com/slide/14630238/, 2018)

Future of Leadership theories and research

According to Harrison, and Halpin (2008) although there is no shortage of developmental practices and theories of leadership, the missing part is comprehensive theories related leadership development. Authors are emphasising to shift from traditional focus on leadership skills and competencies into a more integrated model that gives importance to whole development to a person as a leader (Riggio, 2008). It is also suggested that combining research from education, developmental psychology and other disciplines will pile to what we know about leadership and how to most effectively develop next generation leaders.(Riggio, 2008). A similar view for future is seen in the recent work of bruce avolio (Avolio, 2005, 2007), self and adult development but includes the importance of role of followers, leadership culture and contest to stand by a more “Holistic” view of leader development.

REFERENCES

Google Books. (2018). Leadership and Power. [online] Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3g93IW0IBOUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA5&dq=inaccuracy+of+leadership+theories&ots=Af1FKXz16j&sig=NsfTr612yLYjhH4LSbieaA-6btY#v=onepage&q=inaccuracy%20of%20leadership%20theories&f=false [Accessed 19 Dec. 2018].

Riggio, R. (2008). Leadership development: The current state and future expectations. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 60(4), pp.383-392.

Paul E Plsek, T. (2018). Complexity science: Complexity, leadership, and management in healthcare organisations. [online] PubMed Central (PMC). Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1121291/ [Accessed 20 Dec. 2018].

Chand, S. (2018). What’s Shaking Your Ladder?. [online] Google Books. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books?id=4EqUCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=challenges+faced+by+leaders&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi36a_n4azfAhWNe30KHZcBBkI4ChDoAQg8MAQ#v=onepage&q=challenges%20faced%20by%20leaders&f=false [Accessed 20 Dec. 2018].

Higgs, M. (2003). How can we make sense of leadership in the 21st century?. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 24(5), pp.273-284.

Pdfs.semanticscholar.org. (2018). [online] Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2e35/fe273da639bda2633a6385c4da852c14d1ce.pdf [Accessed 20 Dec. 2018].

Bennis, W. (2018). [online] Pdfs.semanticscholar.org. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4c3d/73a26d3d5ee5c2470cb50e68d8539d1d4250.pdf?_ga=2.142902513.556359157.1545254535-1641045345.1545254535 [Accessed 20 Dec. 2018].