Literature Review on 21st Century Leadership-Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Write a Literature Review on 21st Century Leadership. Answer: Introduction: In the current age, the extreme predomination of competition in the corporate world has made survival extremely difficult in the dynamic economy. And hence, there is need for modern corporate competencies in the professionals so that they can continue to sustain in the market overcoming all the challenges and hurdles that are presented in the path. One of those core competencies that the corporate professionals need to have in their arsenal before anything else for optimal scope of growth in the corporate world is adequate leadership capabilities. It has to be mentioned in this context that the corporate domain functions in the team environment in the current age, and the path for progress in the corporate world can only be attained through adequate leadership skills (Chhokar, Brodbeck and House 2013). Leadership is not by any means a novel concept, the term leadership is age old; and it can be stated that with time the concept of leadership has changed considerably as well. There can be found vast differences in the basic understanding of leadership capabilities in the current age from what it used to be in the past century. For instance, according to Warren Bennis, he defined the leadership competencies to be the capability to materialize visions into reality. And on the other hand a rather modern argument on leadership had been provided by Bill Gates, who stated leaders of the next century to be the ones empowering others (Schein 2010). This assignment will attempt to review the literature on the topic of leadership in the context of 21st century and attempt draw a link between the transitions that has occurred in the leadership competencies from the traditional leadership concepts and the leadership competencies required in the 21st century. Key competencies for 21st century leaders: In the current scenario of organizational structures, it is crucially important for the corporate professionals to understand the importance of the modern leadership competencies in order to be able to address the leadership needs and requirements that the professionals can use for their advantage. There are a few modern competencies that can be discussed in the context of 21st century leadership, although the most vital element of modern leadership capabilities is the transformational leadership capabilities. First and foremost, in the current age of leadership, emphasizing on both interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies is crucial. First and foremost leadership competency that the future leaders in the organizational sector need to emphasize on is the critical thinking and decision making skills. Johansen (2012), has discussed on this context that the importance of critically analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of an opportunity that presents itself to the leaders. In t he current age of competition, the business organizations need to stay one step ahead at all times to retain and expand their consumer base and hence, if the leader of a particular corporate team is not capable of recognizing the right opportunities, it is close to impossible for the corporate organization to continue to sustain in the market. Along with that, another core competency that the millennial leaders must have in their arsenal can be the art of effective communication. According to the DuBrin (2015), communication is a key pursuit that is an essential element of the corporate world. The corporate world functions on the basis of a co-operative collaboration of different employees and without effective communication between them it is completely impossible for them to attain the mutual understanding to make the optimal use of an opportunity and perform in a successful and efficient manner. Along with that, it also needs to be mentioned that in the age of multinational business companies, a large base of employees with differential understanding and behavioral characteristics are required to work in a collaborative manner. In such a situation 21st century leader needs to employ the art of assertive communication with mutual respect which will not offend the employees but will also propel him or her to perform in th e required manner (Charan, Drotter and Noel 2010). According to Wheatley (2011), another key competency for the modern organizational leaders is the conflict resolution skills. As mentioned above in the age of multinational business corporation, the employee base is often multicultural and as a result with a myriad of interpersonal conflict is inevitable. According to the authors, the responsibility of sustaining the organizational culture and equilibrium within the microenvironment of a team falls on the leaders. And hence, having adequate conflict resolution skills are essential for the modern organizational leaders. Lastly, the last set of attributes that has been argued to be necessary for the 21st century leaders is the motivational and inspirational power (Holt and Marques 2012). In simplified note, leadership can be defined as the phenomenon of influencing others which results in maximization and optimal utilization of efforts invested by others towards the achievement of a singular goal. According to Lloyd-Walker and Walker ( 2011), it has to be mentioned that there are innumerable challenges that the corporate employees need to face on a daily basis, and hence, these challenges often serve as demotivating hurdles in the path of professional satisfaction for an employee. The motivation and inspiration that helps an employee to overcome and then move forward from such a hurdle comes from a leader itself. It has to be understood the responsibility of the entire team of employees, whether guiding them in the right path or motivating them to be efficient and successful comes from the leaders, and hence the modern leaders need to be compassionate and inspirational so that the rest of eth employees can discover a role model in their leaders and can move forward towards professional excellence (Bell 2010). Relationship with classic leadership capabilities: There is a vast difference between the classic leadership styles and theories and the contemporary approaches to leadership, which has become a prerequisite in case of 21st century organizational world. According to the article by Wren (2013), there have been a few core leadership strategies that have dominated the past century. For instance, the very first traditional leadership approach that has been abundantly used by a vast variety of traditional leaders is the autocratic leadership. According to the Holt and Marques (2012), the most important transition that has been discovered between the traditional leadership competencies and the modern leadership styles is the inclination towards the transformational leadership styles. Elaborating more on the traditional leadership styles, the inference from the trait theory can be drawn. Trait theories describe leadership to be innate personality traits that distinguishes between leaders and non- leaders. As explained by the Derue et al. (2011), the trait theory discusses the concept of effectual leadership situations emphasizing only on the wellbeing of the public. Whereas in the current age, the transformational leadership style enables organizational leaders to guide the followers or team members to the path of performance excellence all the while safeguarding the best interest of the employees (Ismail et al. 2011). Hence it can be suggested that the contemporary transformational leadership is more suitable for organizational culture as it takes into account all the broad elements or variables of organizational domain. If we consider the behavior theory for discussing the traditional leadership styles, there are three different leadership styles that can be discussed. According to the Giltinane (2013), the authoritarian style of leadership is where the leaders have a fundamental unshakeable vision directed only at the personal goal that the leader needs to achieve. In case of autocratic leadership, the leader will not take into account the grievances or needs of the employees; rather he will only focus on the organizational benefits. The next leadership behavior is the paternalistic leadership style, here the leader will have the behavioral characteristics of a parent and will safeguard the wellbeing of the employees more than the overall well being of the organization. Here the leader will take into consideration the benefits and safety of the employees or subordinates and will take actions that facilitate the benefits of the employees, although as explained by Skakon et al. (2010), the parental l eader can very easily incorporate favoritism or partiality, which has the potential to destroy the equilibrium of the organization culture in the team. The last traditional leadership style which can be discussed in the context of behavioral leadership theories is the democratic leadership style. As per the Wren (2013), the democratic leaders take the approach that is completely different to that of the autocratic or authoritarian leaders. In this case the decision making abilities are equally shared by the leaders with the employees as well, so that the shared vision of both the employees can co-align with that of the leader and excellent performance and productivity can be achieved for the organization. It can be mentioned in this context that the democratic leadership style comes the closest to the contemporary leadership styles like transformational leadership; there is a fundamental link between a traditional democratic leader and a transformational leaders (Ismail et al. 2011). In both the cases, the democratic leader will take into account the needs and requirements of the employees or the following subordinates before a critical decision is taken in the team or organization. Similarly a transformational leader will understand the shortcomings of the employees and attempt to integrate the vision of progress within the employees all the while motivating them and involving them equally in the entire process. On the other hand, there is a vast difference between the contemporary transformational leadership, an overall necessity in case of 21st century leadership, and the autocratic and parental leadership. The autocratic leadership eliminates the employee wellbeing and shared deci sion making completely, whereas, the parental mode of leadership eliminates the fairness and organizational benefits altogether (Hansen and Villadsen 2010). Contributing factors to the transition in leadership styles: The modern leadership competencies have witnessed a steady change from the traditional methods of the past century. It has changed from the harsh autocratic to useless parental leadership modes in the past to the more contemporary leadership techniques of the current age. However, there are various external and internal factors that have actively been contributing to the steady process of change. The very first contributing factor that has had the most influence in the organizational leadership domain is the change in the organizational culture and the business process management activities due to globalization. According to the Antonakis and Day (2017), the impact of the integration of different international concepts has made the corporate world highly critical and multicultural. Hence, in order to retain harmonious and effective productivity it is crucial for a leader to understand the cultural differences, changed business requirements and custom principles. Bello (2012) has disc ussed that in order to survive in the changes that globalization has initiated in the corporate world, changes in the leadership style had been inevitable. On agreement, authors have discussed that the onset of globalization has brought forward a myriad of complications and adversities in the business world, that inevitably led to a number of interpersonal conflicts and risks, which could be only managed through a changed leadership approach so that the employees can be inspired to adapt to the change rather than shying away from it. Another factor that needs to be discussed in this context is the global financial crisis and its impact on the economy and its stability. According to Crane and Matten (2016), in the brewing financial crisis, there are two key responsibilities that the leaders will have to perform for their respective organizations. One of these responsibilities includes keeping the company afloat in the ever changing economy and the second responsibility is to restore the sustainability of the company in the market until the economy is recovered. In order to attain that, the organizations need to employ maximal employee engagement, which has been argued to be the most important aid in a crisis situation for any organization. However, in any crisis situation employee engagement can only be facilitated with effective motivational leadership in place. According to Eagly and Chin (2010), the 21st century is witness to a vast array of technological innovations that has changed the corporate world in each and every sector of its operations. As opined by the authors, the technological innovations in the corporate industry has a number of implications in the operational management of the organization as well which inevitably puts the responsibility of the streamlining of all sectors of business process management for the organization. Hence, the leadership competencies have also changed in accordance with the technologically driven business operation sectors emphasizing on the optimal utilization of different technologies. Lastly, the impact of market competition in the current age of corporate world also needs to be discussed as well along with its impact on the corporate leadership environment. It has to be understood in this context, that competition is a highly threatening element in the corporate world and there is need for an org anizational leader who will be able to correctly identify opportunities, facilitate adequate change management and be motivational towards the employees so that they can overcome the challenging environment facilitated by the excessive competition. Hence in order for the organizational leaders to be capable to achieve these leadership goals the approach also needed to change to a more transformational sector (Chhokar, Brodbeck and House 2013). Comparison of academic research on this topic: The process of development has been noted to be faster for the ones that are responsible for their own pace of progress. The 21st century is in need for a leadership that is responsible, motivational and compassionate by all means. As discussed above in this review, the leadership approaches have changes significantly over the years and hence there is a considerable pool of literature that has devoted time and other resources in the discovery of the pattern of this transition in leadership styles. There are different schools of thoughts regarding the adequate leadership style which is the most applicable for the 21st century corporate scenario. Whereas, one of the school of thoughts entertain the ideologies that the 21st century leadership needs to be multidisciplinary, taking all the complex and globalized domains into consideration. In agreement to this school of thoughts, authors indicated the multidimensional factors for the 21st century leaders to incorporate principled guidance , interpersonal management, communicational prowess, team-working capabilities, and adequate decision making. On the other hand, a second most influential school of thought in this context indicates an amalgamation of a few specific soft skills are the key to becoming the all powerful future leaders. The authors in agreement to this school of thoughts elaborate that the flexibility and self approaching capabilities in the leaders will help them shine in the 21st century corporate scenario. On a more elaborative note, the cultural understanding, opportunity identification and molding capacity, insights on the emerging corporate trends and motivational or persuasive power is the fundamental requirement in the future leaders to cope with the changing economy (Wegge et al. 2010). Conclusion: On a concluding note, it can be said that there have been many a key events or contributing factors that have culminated towards the drastic changes that are prevalent in the present corporate scenario. As a result the corporate leadership has also changed drastically as well. In the present age the organizational leaders need to be efficient in almost every attribute associated with corporate competencies. Along with that the 21st century modern leaders need to critically analytical so that they can identify opportunities and then can optimally utilize it to the benefit of both the organization and the subordinate employees. Furthermore, the modern organizational leaders of today need to be a role model so that they can motivate and inspire the employees adequately. Hence, the need for a transition towards a transformational leadership approach had been necessary for the modern leaders who can link expertise, experience, compassion and foresight together in a culmination that will h elp to administer a vision of change in the employees which will enhance the productivity, performance and quality related issues for the organization; and along with that will be able to overcome any challenge or risk with co-operative collaboration and effective communication Reference list: Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V. eds., 2017.The nature of leadership. Sage publications. Bell, S., 2010. Project-based learning for the 21st century: Skills for the future.The Clearing House,83(2), pp.39-43. Bello, S.M., 2012. Impact of ethical leadership on employee job performance.International Journal of Business and Social Science,3(11). Charan, R., Drotter, S. and Noel, J., 2010.The leadership pipeline: How to build the leadership powered company(Vol. 391). John Wiley Sons. 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