MBA 5223 Leadership: Leadership Challenges in Digitalization

Most of today’s organisations and leaders are struggling with the transition from a stable to a chaotic environment. What skills and qualities do leaders need in these circumstances? 

Topic 2: Challenge

Entrepreneurial leadership is of great concern in today’s turbulent environment. What traits and behaviours do entrepreneurial leaders display? Can these traits be developed? Are these traits important to leaders of today? 

Topic 3: Challenge

In most service and knowledge based organisations, technology has replaced certain jobs and employees need to be more skilled than ever before. In this context, how can leaders determine the style of leadership (contingency approaches) that increases the likelihood of leadership success? You should also consider substitutes for leadership when addressing this question. 

Topic 4: Challenge

How important is it for leaders to use emotional as well as intellectual capabilities and understandings to guide organisations through turbulent environments and help people feel motivated in the face of rapid change, uncertainty and job insecurity? What challenges would learning to be ‘a whole leader’ (leading with both the head and heart) present? 

Topic 5: Challenge

Research indicates that many employees have quit jobs at some point because of their bosses.  There appears to be a clear correlation between an employee’s engagement (motivation and effort to achieve organisational goals) and his or her relationship with the boss. How can an understanding of leaders and followers help managers retain good employees and improve employee engagement. 

Answer:

1. Topic 1:  Introduction

Digitalization have taken over the world, and it has seeped into every section of the society. Even organizations in today’s time are evolving to adapt to the changes that the new technologies are bringing about in the market (Parviainen et al., 2017). However, for the organizations to adapt to these changes, the leaders should possess certain skills which would enable the smooth operation of the organization with respect to these changes.   

Discussion

The new digital age has made the world a different place as well as brought about many changes in the operations of the organizations. This has brought on the leaders the responsibility to make the organization adapt to these changes and for that to happen there are certain qualities that the leader must himself have. Firstly, he should make sure that the technology used should be customer centric. The change that digitalization have brought into the organization must be used by the leaders to solve the issues and grievances of the customers in the first place. This is because an organization is successful when the customers are kept happy and satisfied. Secondly, the leader should understand the needs and requirements of his team (Black, 2015). With the advent of technology the team members become restless about their future in the organization and this might lead to the start of a chaotic environment. The job of the leader is make sure that no such ideas come into the minds of his team members and that they are able to do their work with the same mindset and concentration that they have been doing before. Thirdly, the leader should be adapt to the use of the new technology that have been brought into the organization. If the leader is not used to the new media then the other members would not find the motivation to learn or follow the leader. Hence, it is of utmost importance that the leader is literate regarding the use of the new technology. Fourthly, the leader might be agile and flexible regarding the decisions that he has to take in favour of the organization and their employees (DuBois et al., 2015). This is a very important quality for the leader as there are certain  decision that have to made in a very short time due to the fast pace of the market that has currently emerged because of the evolution of technology. Fifthly, the leader should have the continuous urge to keep learning new things and he must also instil this quality into his team members. The curiosity to learn new things will bring a good change in the organization and will help the employees to update themselves according to the changes that are occurring in the market because of the advent of the new technology.          

Conclusion

Thus, the above mentioned qualities are very important for a leader to make sure that their organization and the members are able to cope and compete with the changing market and technological aspects. These qualities would also ensure that the environment of the organization does not turn chaotic and unstable.

2. Topic 3

In current times, technology has taken over the world and every aspect of it. May it be schools, universities or organizations, technology have become an important part of their everyday function. With the changes that have occurred in technology, there have been many changes in organizations as well. Technology have somewhat replaced human resources in every aspect and especially in organizations (Ramdani, Chevers & Williams, 2013). Employees in organizations are pushed to be more efficient and skilled so that they are not replaced by the new technologies. In such circumstances, leaders have to find new approaches so that they are able to succeed in their leadership role.

Discussion

There are various approaches that the leader has to incorporate in his leadership style so that they can succeed in their work. Firstly, the leader should always maintain a healthy and communicative relationship with his members. The performance of the employees in one group can only be efficient and effective if it matches with the style of leadership of their leader. For this to happen there should be proper understanding between the team and the leader so that they complement each other. If the performance of a group is good then the organization will not think about replacing both the employee and the leader. Secondly, the leader should know the ability and the competency of each member of his group (Du et al., 2013). The leader should always allocate tasks to the employees according to their skills and abilities. If that is not done then the performance would be effected which will create a negative impact on the team and the leader. Moreover, if a certain task is allocated to an employee who is not willing to do the task, then he will not be able to do the work with his full potential and might even spoil the task creating a bad record for himself and the leader as well. In this context, there is a theory known as substitutes for leadership which states that there may be certain factors which are situational which can act as a substitute for leadership. This means that with the increase in technology and their adoption in organizations, if the leader are not able to succeed in their role, they may be replaced or substituted by technological factors (Breevaart et al., 2016). For example, a well scheduled task which may be designed by a machine will not require any guidance from the leader if the whole task is being planned in a proper way according to the skill base of every employee. Moreover, technology can be used by organizations as a method of taking feedbacks from the employees regarding their issues with the work and the workplace. If these matter are solved with the help of technology then the organization would no longer require a leader to guide the group of employees.          

Conclusion

Hence, the leaders should be able to maintain their foothold in the organization by managing their group of employees in the correct manner so that no one is dissatisfied. The proper management would keep both the jobs of the employee and the leader safe in the current technological world.

3. Topic 5

Employee engagement is the inputs and the commitment of the employees towards their organization. Employee engagement is present when an organization treats its employees in the right manner and provides them with a safe and satisfied workplace environment. If the workplace environment is good then the employees will be able to concentrate on their work and help in achieving the goals of the organization (Alfes et al., 2013). However, there have been many instances when the behaviour of the leaders have made a great impact on the employee engagement in an organization.  

Discussion

The behaviour of a leader is a very important factor for the employees as the leader is the person who guides them and shows them the correct path. If the employees do not get the right behaviour from their leader then they lose the will to work for the organization. The leaders who do not behave well with the employees, indirectly harms the reputation and the operations of the organization as the employees slowly lose their commitment towards the organization. They feel that their work is not being appreciated even though they are giving their best to achieve the goals of the company. There have been many instances where employees have felt pressurized by their leaders to do work that is out of their expertise or requires special skills to complete. There have been bad behaviours from the leaders when the employees have failed to do any work. Employees, in the fear of being rebuked or humiliated by the leaders, tend to leave the organization so that they do not have to suffer any more trauma from their leaders (Breevaart et al., 2014). This way organizations lose a lot of competent and skilled employees due to the bad behaviours and characteristics of the leaders. This is why the organization should focus on building a good relation between the leaders and their employees so that they are able to retain the performing employees. Firstly, the leaders should create a relationship of understanding with the employees. They should communicate with each other so that the leader knows the limits of the employees and in turn the employees understands what the leader wants from them. Once this becomes clear the two parties can work in harmony without harming each other. Secondly, the leader should appreciate the employees when they deserve it so that they feel valued within the organization and also feel motivated to do their work. Thirdly, the leader should encourage any new idea which is given by the employees so that they get a chance to grow within the organization and also feel that their opinions are given importance in the organization (Chaurasia & Shukla, 2013). Lastly, the leader should always treat the employees with respect and dignity and not undermine them in any situation. If any work is not being done by the employees then the leader should let him know in the right manner and not behave rudely.      

Conclusion

There are a lot more ways in which employees can be retained by the managers, however, the most important thing is that the employees should always feel like a part of the organization that they are working in and feel valued by their leader.

References

Alfes, K., Shantz, A. D., Truss, C., & Soane, E. C. (2013). The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), 330-351.

Breevaart, K., Bakker, A., Hetland, J., Demerouti, E., Olsen, O. K., & Espevik, R. (2014). Daily transactional and transformational leadership and daily employee engagement. Journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 87(1), 138-157.

Chaurasia, S., & Shukla, A. (2013). The influence of leader-member exchange relations on employee engagement and work role performance. International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, 16(4), 465-493.

Breevaart, K., Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Derks, D. (2016). Who takes the lead? A multi?source diary study on leadership, work engagement, and job performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(3), 309-325.

Du, S., Swaen, V., Lindgreen, A., & Sen, S. (2013). The roles of leadership styles in corporate social responsibility. Journal of business ethics, 114(1), 155-169.

Ramdani, B., Chevers, D., & A. Williams, D. (2013). SMEs' adoption of enterprise applications: A technology-organisation-environment model. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 20(4), 735-753.

Black, S. A. (2015). Qualities of effective leadership in higher education. Open Journal of Leadership, 4(02), 54.

DuBois, M., Koch, J., Hanlon, J., Nyatuga, B., & Kerr, N. (2015). Leadership Styles of Effective Project Managers: Techniques and Traits to Lead High Performance Teams. Journal of Economic Development, Management, IT, Finance & Marketing, 7(1).

Parviainen, P., Tihinen, M., Kääriäinen, J., & Teppola, S. (2017). Tackling the digitalization challenge: how to benefit from digitalization in practice. International journal of information systems and project management, 5(1), 63-77.