Develop Activists for Civic Associations and Leadership

Discuss about the Develop Activists for Civic Associations and Leadership.

Introduction:

Leadership is a very important aspect that needs to be researched. This is because leadership style has found to be evolved since years according to the changes in the surrounding of the business and the organization. Various theories have been given by the theorist regarding the different leadership styles (Latham, 2014). As the changes occurred, the evolution in leadership style has also been observed. This is because various factors such as follower’s behavior, attitude of the leaders, demand of the organizational objectives etc. affect the style used to lead in the organization. The critically analysis of the literature and the relevant sources can be studied to make the research regarding the leadership of 21^st century.

Leadership is the quality of the person to lead others. It can be defined as the skill that is required by the mangers of the organization so that they can guide the employees of the organization. Leadership is not only about heading  or delegating work to the people but it also involve motivating and inspiring the followers to perform effectively. Leadership has evolved since years.

Many leadership theories have been given by the theorist to define the nature of leaders. The first leadership theory that has been evolved was Great Man theory. This theory believes in the fact that leaders are born on the hand the next theory that has been identified is Train theory which talks about the traits of the leadership that can be acquired in life. With the evolution in the businesses and the change in culture of the organizations, the need of considering situation has been developed. This result in development of contingence theory which says that there is no single theory of leadership but the leadership style is adopted according to the situation. Situation theory is more or less like a contingency theory in which situation is considered to decide the leadership style used. According to the behavior of the people, training can be provided to them in order to make them learn about the leadership. The theory that believes in this concept is behavioral theory (Latham, 2014). All the above theories have classical approach of leadership. With the development of environment of the organization and change in the needs of the employees, transformation has occurred among the leadership theories. Participative theory has come into existence that believes in the idea of including the employees in the decision making process. After that transformational and transactional theory has been introduced. Transactional theory is all about what the followers and learning from the leaders while the transformational theory is about influencing the followers to follow the rules that the leaders believe. Most of the 21^st century leaders believe in last 3 theories discussed.

Trends in 21^st century leadership:

Many factors are there that drives the type of leadership in the organization or business. There are any differences between the leaders of 21^st century and the classical type of leadership. This may be because of changing organizational structure and the desires of the employees from their jobs and organization. The first trend that has been observed these days in the 21^st century leaders is that they are ready to get their hands dirty. The leaders do not mind trying new things. They do not just delegate the duties to the followers but try to bring the people together to complete a task (Giuliani and Kurson, 2007). The second trend or the key competency that has been found in the 21^st century leaders is their inclination towards change. Change management is the important aspect of 21^st century leadership. They know how to use the resources and their knowledge to bring out the change. This quality of the new leaders allows the communities to collaborate with each other and bring the change in the society and the business. Developing new ideas by the employees and providing new direction to the conversation between the employee and the leaders help in bring the change effectively. The leaders need not to force the followers to work towards the change; they themselves get motivated to bring the change in the business. The third competency or the trend that has been seen in the 21^st century leaders is that they believe in trust and building relationships. The leaders of 21stcenturybhave realized that customer’s base can be increased by making relationships with them rather than convincing them to buy their product (Dinh, et.al, 2014). Thus, the leaders these days teach their followers to build trust among the customers. Customers are also not interested in the structure of the business but they also rely on the company that earns their trust. Trust and relationships within the organization and outside the organization is the need of hour for the business to stand in the market for long time. This is because the change in the industry and the demands is very much dynamic these days. The major key trend that has been identified among the 21^st century leaders is that they never act as experts. They try to find out the solutions of the issues by getting into it with the followers and allow the followers to find out the create solutions. This brings about the change in the processes. The leaders create the space for the people to make the conversation about the issues rather than asking them and resolving the issues with the traditional concepts that are justified already in the old processes (Burns, 2012).

Differences and similarities between 21^st century leadership and classical leadership:

There are some of the differences and some of the similarities between the traditional and the new leadership of 21^st century. The basic and very important difference between both the leadership is that traditional leadership believes in achieving short term goals while new leadership believes in achieving goals that provide long term benefits. Today’s leaders do not practice individualism while try to focus on group work or team work. This is because they believe that organization can gain the success if all the employer of the organization works collaboratively (Baron, 2016). The classical leaders behave as experts and does not allow the members to provide their creative solution to the issues while try to resolve the issues by pre decided theories and concepts. It has been analyzed that the classical leaders focus on achieving the goals of the organization and do not focus on developing the followers at individual level. Under the leadership of old leaders, the employees do not get training for their personal development (O'Connell, 2014). On the other hand, new leaders of 21^st century respect the needs of the employees and try to train the employees in order to deep them individually. Although both the leadership has different beliefs and concepts but this leadership also has something in common. The most common concept of classical and new leadership is that it is formed in order to motivate the employees and in order to make them work. The major aim of any leader is to accomplish the goals of the organization by making its followers work for achieving the organization goals (Metcalf and Benn, 2013).

The evolution of leadership from inception to present is because of the changes in the environment and the surrounding as well as the need of the different leadership style. It has been analyzed that the hierarchical model of the organization doesn’t work these days, this is because people have their own individuality and have their own style of working (Han, 2014). Employees in the organization wants to learn new thing and just do not want to follow the pre described facts and concepts. This change in the working style of the people results in leaning organization in place of the organizations with crafts apprentice. Today, people are not waiting in a line for the opportunities instead try to learn new things and explore the opportunities for them. They try to find out the meaning out of their work rather than doing and performing the monotonous tasks in the organization. Work life and balance is another concept that acts as the driving force for change in the leadership. People wants to work and at the same time wants to enjoy their life (Frisch and Huppenbauer, 2014).

In response to all these changes in the environment, behavior and needs of the people, change in the leadership has come up with time. Authentic leaders who believed in earning profits have replaced by the hierarchical leaders who believed in short term goals (Foss, Nåden and Eriksson, 2014). Now, in 21^st century the scene is very different as the leaders of this new generation try to adopt the changes rather than avoiding them. They try to sustain the talent t and the performance of the people by individual development of the employees that in turn help the organizations to develop. Aligning the goals of the individual and the organization helps the leaders to make the people work and do not need to make extra efforts in motivating the employees to work. This is because the involvement of the employees in the organization motivates them automatically to work as they develop the feeling of belongingness.

Conclusion

Over the period of time, changes are taking place in the environment, behavior and the needs of the people. Organizational structures of the companies are also changing with time. These changes results in changing the leadership style of the people. This is because leaders have to handle the people under them and they have to adopt the style that can be related to the type of the people they are leading. The comparison between the classical and the new leaders suggests that both the leaders focus on leading their followers in order to make them work and perform but the style of their leadership is different. The old leaders believe in delegating work to the people while new leaders of 21^st century believes in involving their views in creating new solutions to the issues generated rater then reliving them by own expertise.

The above four basic qualities have been observed among the 21^st century leaders.  Evolution in leadership is required according to the changes. Today, the employees in business want to perform and are ambitious in nature. They prefer to work under the leadership that allows them to show their creativity rather than just make them follow the orders.

References

Baron, A., 2016.Are You a 21st Century Leader. The Huffington Post.

Burns, J., 2012. Leadership. New York, NY: Open Road Integrated Media.

Dinh, J.E., Lord, R.G., Gardner, W.L., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R.C. & Hu, J., 2014. Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), pp.36-62.

Foss, B., Nåden, D. & Eriksson, K., 2014. Toward a new leadership model: to serve in responsibility and love. International Journal for Human Caring, 18(3), pp.43-51.

Frisch, C. & Huppenbauer, M., 2014. New insights into ethical leadership: A qualitative investigation of the experiences of executive ethical leaders. Journal of Business Ethics, 123(1), pp.23-43

Giuliani, R. & Kurson, K. 2007. Leadership. New York: Miramax Books.

Han, H., 2014. How organizations develop activists: Civic associations and leadership in the 21st century. Oxford University Press, USA

Latham, J.R., 2014. Leadership for quality and innovation: Challenges, theories, and a framework for future research. Quality Management Journal, 21 (1), 5.

Metcalf, L. & Benn, S., 2013. Leadership for sustainability: An evolution of leadership ability. Journal of Business Ethics, 112(3), pp.369-384.

O'Connell, P.K., 2014. A simplified framework for 21st century leader development. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(2), pp.183-203.

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