Running head: BUSINESS 1

Global Leadership and Management Issues in 21st Century

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Global Leadership and Management Issues in the 21st Century

Today's world organizations are constantly looking for leadership and management

concerns that can invariably hinder business improvement. Such organizational concerns are

becoming compounded in the 21st Century because of the emerging growth in relationships and

integration in the global market which has led to the changes in geographical boundaries and

national borders that dictate the aspect of business space and time. The need to enhance practical

skills and knowledge in business activities can steer an organization to have successful

leadership and management in today's global field which is coupled with advanced knowledge of

the global economy. Developing business in the 21st Century calls for proficient leadership and

management which enhances quick and operative decision-making. With the drastic change in

the world as a result of the rapid technological and industrial revolution, the business should

have leaders and managers who are familiar with and capable of using computer software,

advanced Its, communication as well as multimedia technologies (Landy & Conte, 2016). There

are various factors examined in the paper that are capable of influencing global leadership and

management concerns.

The new emerging models of leadership and management are leading to dramatic

changes across the world. There is a rapid change in leadership styles in this century that should

be accommodating the future system transformation. Globalization has led to the integration of

social, technological and political facets of development. The expansion in global economic

integration necessitates more negotiations and execution of operative agreements in the world

trade and investments thus leads to the creation of new opportunities and issues thereby calling

for the organizations to promote business transactions across the world on an unprecedented

scale. As a result of globalization, the leaders and managers find newly established roles such as
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integrating individuals into new horizons, inspiring and motivating, recognition of a good job

done, addressing economic ambiguities, and standard-setting among others. Skills that involve

guiding and inspiring team members is one of the requirements successful global managers and

leaders ought to have.

Apart from mere language skills and social etiquettes, globalization has driven the need

for a global skill set for leaders and managers which encompasses multiculturalism that is

premised on tolerance and recognition of various cultures. Due to that, a change in leadership

style is necessary to match the globalization speed. The recognition and respect for institutional

culture in the global market require leaders to acquire new leadership styles and theories such as

transformational, integrative, autocratic, charismatic, benevolent, visionary, and participatory

leadership among others (McDonnell et al., 2010). Global firms look up to their leaders to ensure

they recruit and develop the best talent from across the world since organizations continue

developing large and complex structures that require no co-located teams and virtual working.

Therefore, leaders have to appreciate the effect of globalization, liberalization, and revolution in

information technology on the organization and step up by ushering the right employees to the

matching seats while moving off the wrong individuals to put the business on the

transformational track.

Apart from ever-changing technology and globalization, the other leadership and

management issue in the 21st Century is the major workforce disruptors or people issues. In the

21st Century, people issues, which include the relationships within or with the staff of an

organization, are increasingly establishing themselves at a critical center stage. Many individuals

are running away from conventional full-time employment as they prefer temporary or part-time

jobs and self-employment which is deemed more flexible. Moreover, the current workforce does
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not prefer being in one company or career. The risen sharing platforms and networks had led to

the emergence of the GIG economy which allows for non-employee freelancing and temporary

assignments thus people do not work for others. Also, the current globalization and industrial

revolution have prompted the use of AI and robots leading to loss of jobs in some disciplines like

medicine. Due to such transformations in the global market, leaders should be certain that staff

will develop various expectations and demands and thus the employee-employer relationship at

the workplace will change (Mendenhall et al., 2012). The pressure that will be mounted on

leaders in understanding the motivation required by their non-direct workers will be greater and

difficult to engage. With such complexity in the organizations, leaders are required to have

demanding skills and abilities to understand employee needs and customer wants which is

difficult to strike efficiently.

Still, on people issues, diversity of the 21st century is becoming a strategic differentiator

rather than just a demographic profile. As diversity is becoming productive and exciting but not

just a target attained through quota setting, the leaders and managers should adjust to embracing

and fulfilling the needs of the postmodern world. With the working continuing to grow more

diverse, the leaders should accept and appreciate individual differences by looking at them as

productive and a source of creative energy to gain access to an extensive and more talented

workforce. Diversity means that work will require the use of interdependent teams, which might

be chaotic as few people will know and dot work well than others. The managers and leaders

ought to be flexible, adept and intelligent to understand the significance of such chaos and

develop great opportunity and potential from it (Panetta & Obama, 2012). Apart from just

recruiting a highly diverse workforce by race, culture, disability or age, the leaders must

experience the pressure on how to reap the benefits of diversity to the organization.
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The development of leadership competencies that can be well compounded to match the

ever-changing organizational demands remains to be a clarion call for organizations in the 21st

Century. The complexity of structures and systems calls for a leader with strategic focus and

clear vision and who is flexible, adaptive and optimistic to tap organization resources for success

(Rotherham & Willingham, 2010). The complicated systems require that leaders and managers

must acquire the ability to managing multiple points of view, keeping the high-level objectives

and tracking daily success. The rapidly changing systems in the organization require the leaders

to be able to understand customers' needs to empathize with relevant stakeholders to assist in

developing workers, fostering productive changes and keeping the spirit of enterprise lively

(Cascio & Boudreau, 2016).

The evolving nature of organizations demands that a leader be fundamentally different.

21st Century does not acknowledge the traditional styles of management such as top-down, hard-

nosed direction but needs a kind that fosters demonstration of flexibility and empathy while still

recognizing the organizational core values and developing techniques of circumventing

unpredictable impediments. Such leaders need to be inspirational by being technologically

savvy and apt with details as well as be entrepreneurial by being devoted to service and inclusive

instead of being autocratic or independent (Pinos et al., 2013). Other challenging but demanding

characteristics or competencies required of the 21 Century leader and manager include having

the ability to develop and articulating a value proposition. The leader should be able to invest in

a dynamic business model that is capable of guiding worker decision making at every level and

have the ability to commit to a culture that recognizes and appreciates mentorship and learning

while aligning corporate objectives.

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Competition or competitiveness in the global markets requires that organizations that

want to survive must have to adapt to a radically different environment with differentiated

production functions, consumers, employees, and distribution channels. Due to that leaders must

be confined into rethinking all stages of the value chain. Since most organizations expect success

from leaders but rarely review their future direction to make necessary adjustments, the leaders

should be able to integrate daily business demands with early determination of risks and

opportunities to formulate innovative strategic initiatives and execute them as early as possible

before the competitors invade the global markets (Zander et al., 2012). Any style of leadership

used in this case must always fit the business and thus leaders and managers should intervene

actively to assist bridge gaps between skills and styles and the needs of the organization.

To ensure survival in the competitive business, the organization should be able to

leverage its significant competitive advantage by having leaders who can convert information the

firm has concerning the customers into knowledge to provide the best experience. The leaders

should be able to transform an organization from a conventionally analog system to a digital

knowledge-based organization. As the organization's ability to adapt in new business models to

curb competition will largely rely on its ability to innovate, the leaders must be ready to catch up

with the new designs to remain relevant to reinvent the company based on the need for the digital

age.

The other challenge to leadership and management in the 21st Century is performance

management which has become a difficult task due to diversity and many workforce related

disruptors. Performance management has become challenging due to organizational changes

such as changing from internally-defined performance standards to customer-defined one or

shifting from designs that optimize current performance to ones that enable future performance
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(Rockstuhl et al., 2011). Due to complications in performance management, the leaders should

be able to build a good relationship with team members at levels to learn about and control role

ambiguity and role conflict arising from the shift in operations. Their ability to drive strategy,

manage operations and uncertainties, and lead through change are wanting in this case.

The leaders must be able to develop the right and accurate ways of managing the

performance of employees in an organization. Apart from using rewards and sanctions in the

management of performance, the leaders should be able to understand issues that are related to

the design and implementation of a reward system to ensure effectiveness (Rothaermel, 2016).

Some of the issues to be considered include behaviors versus outcome and various types of

rewards to be offered. A manager who checks in with workers regularly, address under-

performance by providing necessary support and mentorship, coach others through new roles,

providing advice, promote career progression, approachable to employees for raising issues, and

give credit when due is the one considerable good for the 21st Century's dynamic performance

management.
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Reference

Cascio, W. F., & Boudreau, J. W. (2016). The search for global competence: From international

HR to talent management. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 103-114.

Landy, F. J., & Conte, J. M. (2016). Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and

organizational psychology. John Wiley & Sons.

McDonnell, A., Lamare, R., Gunnigle, P., & Lavelle, J. (2010). Developing tomorrow's leaders

—Evidence of global talent management in multinational enterprises. Journal of world

business, 45(2), 150-160.

Mendenhall, M. E., Reiche, B. S., Bird, A., & Osland, J. S. (2012). Defining the “global” in

global leadership. Journal of World Business, 47(4), 493-503.

Panetta, L., & Obama, B. (2012). Sustaining US global leadership: priorities for 21st century

defense. Washington, DC: US Department of Defense, 1.

Pinos, V., Twigg, N. W., Parayitam, S., & Olson, B. J. (2013). Leadership in the 21st century:

The effect of emotional intelligence. Electronic Business, 12(1), 61-74.

Rockstuhl, T., Seiler, S., Ang, S., Van Dyne, L., & Annen, H. (2011). Beyond general

intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ): The role of cultural intelligence (CQ)

on cross‐border leadership effectiveness in a globalized world. Journal of Social

Issues, 67(4), 825-840.

Rothaermel, F. T. (2016). Strategic management: concepts (Vol. 2). McGraw-Hill Education.

Rotherham, A. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2010). 21st-Century” skills. American Educator, 17(1),

17-20.
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Zander, L., Mockaitis, A. I., & Butler, C. L. (2012). Leading global teams. Journal of World

Business, 47(4), 592-603.