Using 21st Century leadership as a basis for your literature review, outline the key academic themes on this topic.
Using good quality academic sources you should outline the following:
What are the predicted key competencies for 21st century leaders?
How are these similar or different to classical leadership capabilities?
What are the underlying causes of changes to leadership competencies?
Compare, contrast, synthesise and critically analyse the academic research on this topic.
Present an overall, evidence based conclusion on the topic.
Academic sources to give an overview of your chosen topic such as academic journals and quality practitioner
Materials and sources. You must discuss and critique the sources that you use in order to reach evidence based conclusions.
You are required to use good quality academic sources throughout your work to support your arguments.
A critical literature review requires you to look at good quality research on your chosen topic to give an overview of the research in this area. This will require you to discuss academic definitions, identify key themes in the literature, and discuss the potential applications and implications of the literature and to show that you understand the quality of the sources that you are using.
Complete your discussions with an overall conclusion which is based on and referenced with quality academic material.
Answer:
Introduction:
Leadership in its archetypal signification explores a certain framework based on skill, effectiveness and courage as well as the manner in which a leader should respond in a particular situation of chaos and conflict. Being led by an ideal leader is believed to be the most essential criteria for achieving workplace goals (Bums 2016). It is the excellence of the leader, which enables an organization and its employees to perceive the best possible path to attain the aspired aim (Hanna and Latchem 2013). In addition to this, leadership involves a dynamic interaction between the leader and his followers, which eases communication and lessens the opportunity of any deviation from the path of aim. The worth of genuine leadership lies in transforming a group of people into effective, functioning and constructive employees (Daft 2014).
However, there has been an overnight shift in the prevalent concepts and characteristics of leadership with the advent of new technologies as well as theories in the field of work concerning leadership. With the rise of new technologies in epic proportion, the entire industry became disrupted initially in the first decade of 21st century; the companies seemed invincible became victims of bankruptcy and this completely changed the way leadership had been viewed until that time (Hanna and Latchem 2013). In fact, the conceptualization of 21st century leadership has exceeded any outline or framework previously made. There can be noticed a consistent strive to push the boundaries and wield leadership with more competence, courage and effectiveness (Daft 2014). The following discussion attempts to outline some of the key academic themes on leadership acquiring a perspective from the literature.
2.0 What are the predicted key competencies for 21st century leaders?
As discussed earlier about the massive shift in leadership concept, there also have been notable alterations in the outlook of competencies of a leader. Earlier the parameters of leadership used to be things like intentions, the caliber of influencing the followers, personal responsibility, ethically strong, visioning and ability to retain integrity within the organization (Bums 2016). However, the present century has brought about significant changes in these parameters, which are different and are listed as followings:
2.1 Fundamental competencies of 21st century leaders
Ingenuity and Innovation:
Innovation and ingenuity is the most salient characteristic of 21st century leadership, which often unfortunately has been romanticized as breaking rules and transcending boundaries (Herd, Alagaraja and Cumberland 2016). However, ingenuity and innovation have to come in front where resources are sparse and limited. In fact, Drucker defines creativity and innovation as an act that endows resources in a restricted situation with a fresh aptitude creating wealth (Drucker 2014). Besides, leaders have to think creatively and estimate risks and consequences since there is almost no opportunity to go wrong in the ever-demanding market of 21st century. Hence, any performance of ingenuity is char
acteristic of this century keeping up with the latest leadership trends (Lussier and Achua 2015).
Global Acumen:
Since in the present century the world has become borderless in terms of market, possessing global acumen is rapidly being considered decisive for achievements of the multinational enterprises (Kotlarsky, Scarbrough and Oshri 2014). Without a global perspective and a global acumen for business, it is almost impossible to survive the rapidly changing market worldwide (Herd, Alagaraja and Cumberland 2016.).
Technical Expertise:
As mentioned earlier 21st century is the age of digitization and technological gadgets. A 21st century leader, therefore, must be technologically sound in order to enhance his professional excellence (Drucker 2014). Technical skills deepen the understanding of a leader on technical possibilities and help to view the leader what his organization can achieve through the usage of technology (Gallos 2014). Efficiency in handling technology enables the leader to view the bigger picture of the industry and to realize what roles he has to play to reach the zenith (Kotlarsky, Scarbrough and Oshri 2014).
Managing Diverse Workforce:
Diversity in workforce is a well-known concept but the paragon of a 21st century leader is he who shows competency in strategizing approaches in order to deal with a diverse workforce (Podsiadlowski et al. 2013).
Collaborator and Builds up Communication:
Deviating from the earlier point of view that a leader is someone superior to his employees, the modern concept of leadership views a leader as the collaborator of his team members (Nichols and Cottrell 2014). On the other hand, building up communication does not only refer to communicating with the co-workers but also with every element of the organization such as investors, managers as well as consumers of that company (Men 2014).
Leading by example to motivate and inspire:
Evidence-based practice is a crucial thing in leadership and it is as relevant today in the field of leadership as it had been in the last century (Stetler, 2014). Setting examples while leading is probably the best method of leadership as live examples generate passion and enthusiasm within the employees. These become a source of constant inspiration to the followers to work harder (Lussier and Achua 2015). A leader must set an ideal for his subordinates through his own personality and work and thus, becoming a role model himself helps him to engage his employees even more. This skill is fundamental to the concept of leadership as it forms a high-energy group delivering outstanding performances and thereby achieving desired business results. However, every work culture has a negative impact as well; sometimes too much idealization may make the employees overwhelmed by the imposition and momentum setting before them (Men, 2014). In addition, the leader’s repeated instructions may not be clear to them, which can baffle the employees and on the other side, the leader may lose patience on them due to his engagement with becoming a role model (Stetler, 2014).
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking has been considered as a prized quality of leadership. A leader must be able to analyze any situation critically and reach to an appropriate conclusion. In fact, it is the analysis and critical thinking power, which distinguish a leader from the rest (Drucker, 2014). This specific attribute sharpens a leader’s thinking power, questioning assumption and helps to look at problems from multiple perspectives (Herd, Alagaraja and Cumberland 2016).
2.2 Leadership Theories:
Taking into account some leadership theories of twentieth century this literature review assesses their relevance in the new century.
2.2.1 Theories of Power and Influence:
There are several theories concerning the power and influence factor functioning behind leadership. However, the most renowned among these theories is that of Raven and French’s Five Forms of Power (Wood 2014). These forms include legitimate power, expert power, referent power, coercive power and reward power. Although around six years later, an additional power had been attributed in the base named informational (Pennings 2014). Apart from exercising power on the team members, a leader has to be a consistent source of influence for them and following these power bases anyone can become a influential and prominent leader (Chemers 2014). Now, the concept of power and influence is essentially integrated to leadership in any century and undoubtedly, it is as significant now as it had been in the past.
2.2.2 Transformational Leadership:
Introduced by James McGregor Burns this theory revolutionized the idea of leadership in the late twentieth century (Antonakis and House 2014). According to this theory, a transformational leader is he who performs beyond expectations while demonstrating the desired quality to the team members at the same time (Dumdum, Lowe and Avolio 2013). Besides, there are several other qualities, which can be noticed in a transformational leader; such a leader has the tendency to set clear and comprehensible goals to his cohorts along with consistently inspiring them while stirring the emotional quotient of the people (Braun et al. 2013).
2.2.3 Attribution Theory:
In 21st century, the principle characteristic of a leader is being well informed and processing that information in all the team performances (Harvey et al. 2014). The leader draws information about his subordinates and the behavioral pattern of them and thereafter attributes cause of such behavior of each one of them accordingly (Daft 2014). Thus, the determination of the causes helps the leader to frame strategies for any poor performer. The identification of the problems also enables the leader to attribute them as either situational or personal causes for the inefficient performances of his subordinates (Lussier and Achua 2015).
2.2.4 Transactional Theory:
The theory of Transactional Leadership is a relatively modern concept, which focuses on valuing order and structure of an organization to bring out the best possible performance from the employees (McCleskey, 2014). Transactional leaders are entitled with formal authority; they are responsible for maintaining organizational practice by managing performance of every individual and enhancing group performance (Dumdum, Lowe and Avolio 2013). This theory of leadership tries to look for the capability of an employee i.e. how well the performance can be of an employee within a structured environment of an organization.
3.0 How are these similar or different to classical leadership theories?
The classical leadership theories that were highly popular until the last century revolved around the archetypal concerns what characteristics make a person leader and that whether leaders are born or situation and circumstances create leaders out of common people. This view is starkly in contrast with the newly emerging theories since contemporary theories seek persons with revolutionary ideas, profound technological efficiency and excellent communication power rather than researching on the characteristics of a leader’s personality.
3.1 Trait Theory:
Since the previous theories of leadership were grounded on the concern whether leadership quality comes by birth or they are made the much acclaimed trait theory revolves around discovering the specific and exceptional traits that make a person leader (Nichols and Cottrell 2014). As Lussier and Achua puts it, it were those traits that were supposed to be perquisite for endorsing a person as leader (Lussier and Achua 2015). Although numerous researches have been made on attributing distinct traits no universal list of traits has not been made yet. One of the major contributions of this theory in the field of leadership is to discover the aspects in a leader’s character that people desire (Chemers 2014). However, this theory does not comprise personality changes nor mentions anything about trait development. In addition, it does not address measures to highlight the constructive traits nor provides any solution on how to upgrade low traits in a leader’s character (Lussier and Achua 2015). These major drawbacks of this theory have gradually made it irrelevant in the 21st century.
3.2 Behavioral Theory of Leadership:
This theory attempted to explain the nature of a leader’s work and the distinctive styles adapted by him. An additional subcategory of this theory tries to the nature of managerial work; in fact, the ten management roles of Mintzberg are the examples of behavioral leadership (Men 2014). However, there are several setbacks of this theory too (Nichols and Cottrell 2014). One major limitation of applying behavioral theory in learning is that different people learn in different ways. Besides, contemporary scholars unanimously agree on the fact that learning is not only behavioral but a cognitive process too, which includes understanding and interpreting the tasks while completing it (Lussier and Achua 2015).
3.3 Contingency Theory of Leadership:
This comparatively recent theory was developed keeping in mind the limitations of the universal theories like trait and behavioral theories (Pennings 2014). Contingency theory is also called situational theory because it attempts to find out behavior and traits of a leader given a situational variable. The significant contribution of this theory is that it explores situational constituents, which includes the style of the work, external environment and distinctiveness of the followers (Otley 2016). It has been although criticized for several limitations as why some leaders with some certain leadership quality perform better in particular situations and what an organization should do if a situation variant from the leader’s characteristic traits arises (Kotlarsky, Scarbrough and Oshri 2014).
3.4 Integrative Theory of Leadership:
This theory is elementally the integration of the three previous theories; trait, behavioral and contingency (Lussier and Achua 2015). The objective of integrating them as one separate theory is to account for successful and influencing relationship between leaders and their followers that makes the followers so agile to work with complete dedication for their leader and achieve the organizational goals with success (Chemers 2014). This theory is however, very recent and under critical research of the scholars.
4.0 What are the hidden occasions of changes in the competency factors of leadership?
Some of the factors that have been continuously forcing change in the competencies of a leader are definitely worthy to be considered while analyzing changed perspective of leadership in 21st century. There are some obvious reasons like globalization and technology advancement in the new century as well as some hidden and indirect ones; these have evidently compelled the leaders to think and act in a different way with fresh aptitude and greater efficiency.
4.1 Globalization:
The very term global includes all aspects of a given situation, embracing all of its parts in a holistic and interdisciplinary way (Nielsen 2014). In the age of borderless business market, it is very important to have a global outlook and border crossing knowledge of business (Nielsen 2014). In the present day world, the business leaders must engage in examining the customer characteristics all over the world so that the organization can modify its product or service and uniquely design for them (Herd, Alagaraja and Cumberland 2016). With the concept of Multinational Corporation, the companies have even started to shed off their national identities and in this situation, a leader of such a company must emerge above the country borders with open-mindedness and a global outlook (Gallos, 2014). This factor of globalization has thus attributed several new competencies in the leader being capable to handle the dual areas of business- local and global, simultaneously diverse and homogeneous in operating business (Nielsen 2014).
4.2 Technological Advancement:
The ever-emerging technological advancement has deep impact in modern day business transforming the world of commerce into a more demanding and competitive one (Manyika et al. 2013). Previously the managers used to have manual help in processing the regular business functions (such as fixing meetings, operating daily schedules or chalking out learning materials for the subordinates). However, with the technological riots the persons in leading positions at present are expected to make use of this brilliance of science, which has replaced the previous work procedures (Nichols and Cottrell 2014.). Besides, without being technologically sound it is impossible for a modern day leader to keep him updated about the global market at every moment (Herd, Alagaraja and Cumberland 2016).
4.3 Increased Competition:
Competition in the market has been growing intense where it has become hard for the companies to get return on their investments and to survive the extreme competition in the market, thanks to the scientific and technological progress (Rothaermel 2015). Now, the people of 21st century in leading positions of the companies are compelled to strategize in a completely new way going beyond the existing economic resources and competitive forces (Braun et al. 2013).
4.4 Demographic Changes:
The age of globalization has great effect in the company demographics since employee population of 21st century is not restricted to any country border, rather the present day nations are diverse in terms of demography (Ridley 2016). Therefore, being aware of these essential social and demographic changes in employee population is one of the most desired competencies of a modern day leader (Gallos, 2014).
5.0 The underlying causes of Changes in Leadership Competencies
5.1 Exposure to Different Business Circumstances
Leadership requires not only presence of innovation and leadership traits in the personality but also it demands experience and maturity to administer any complicated situation suddenly arisen (Ferraro and Brody 2015). This competency originates from exposure to diverse business environments that enable the leaders to take appropriate steps and generates an overall inference about situations in them (Nielsen 2014). Exposure to different adverse environments enhances practical knowledge and professionalism of the leader, which establishes leadership success (Hanna and Latchem 2013). However, experience acquisition due to exposure to diverse business circumstances is often seen congruent with the core personality traits of the leader.
5.2 Diverse Emotional and Personal Experiences:
Emotional and personal experiences are intertwined with the leadership process and outcomes of the leader and his followers (Caruso, Fleming and Spector 2014). This underlying leadership enhancing cause has received a good deal of attention in the literature of leadership. However, this is a rather precarious thing as emotional reaction as well as personal interpretation of an issue can both promote and retard leadership competency (Chemers 2014). While emotional abundance is harmful in leadership, it is also essential for a leader to gain positive perspective from his or her personal experiences in order to steer the business to the desired direction (Ridley 2016).
5.3 Activities of Learning and Development
Learning can take place even for a person in the leadership position; it may occur due to any intrapersonal experience or any unfavorable situation faced earlier. On the other hand, development activities tend to be more effective in advancing leaders’ knowledge and experiences as well as competencies when it structures a consistent component of a greater set of prospects (Stetler et al. 2014). These kinds of activities create opportunities for the leaders to engage actively in the meaning of leadership and implement it in the practical field of work (Guskey 2014). It has been also observed that longer activities facilitating coherence of experiences with the leaders’ previous knowledge increase leadership competencies (Otley 2016).
5.4 Personal Evolvement and Growth
A person may have inherent personal traits that may enable them to emerge as leaders but true leadership stems from continual strive of evolving with the present needs of business. However, it is a fact that personal growth and evolvement needs some natural traits to be present in the leader’s character but evolvement means to exceed them with effort and endeavor (Nichols and Cottrell 2014). These beliefs, when observed are stable in leadership literature. On the other hand, according to new leadership theories and models of 21st century, the evolvement of critical thinking power and acquaintance with latest technical means in the market are equally congruent with leader’s personal growth and literature (O'Connell 2014).
5.5 Age and Maturity
In most of the literature, it has been mentioned that older age makes a leader more judicious and insightful; age has been synonymous with experience and maturity all through these years (Smith et al. 2015). Age increases experience that becomes responsible for improved self-awareness, self-regulation and emotional intelligence of the leader (Herd, Alagaraja and Cumberland 2016). However, the emergence of new contexts in the field of leadership has changed the previous perspectives distinguishing maturity from age. The new theories like transformational leadership and leadership theory of power and influence emphasize the fact that maturity does not depend on age but on experience (Buengeler, Homan and Voelpel 2016). It is the gained inference from diverse experiences that eventually help the leader to guide his followers ideally (Drucker 2014).
6.0 Compare, contrast, integrate and analyze critically the literature on this topic.
Definition of Leadership has been viewed in different lights since the time in memoriam. There has been uncountable argument on what aspects of a person’s character make him a leader. However, one thing that every researcher in every century has agreed is that a leader is nothing but a person with willing followers. As Ciulla (2014) opines that it is, rather an intricate moral relationship between a leader and his subordinates based on conviction, obligation, emotion, commitment and most importantly a collective vision. On the other hand, McCleskey (2014) has emphasized in the light of trait theory that leaders are persons with the extraordinary characteristic ability. Contrary to this view, Otley (2016) states that 21st century has come up with a new idea of leadership; now-a-days, it is believed that a person well informed and competent in using a range of new techniques has the best potential to emerge as a leader.
This analysis of literature attempts to take a close perusal of different leadership theories both classical and contemporary. While the trait and behavioral theory explains leadership to be the innate ability of exceptional individuals, according to Weisband (2013), situational leadership or the theory of contingency refers that effective leadership equals rational approach to any situation and responding to it appropriately. As stated by Braun et al. (2013), in 21st century, leadership has significantly seen a shift from task-oriented hegemony to people-oriented management. On the other hand, Antonakis and House (2014) have mutually agreed that the much popular as well as debated theory of contemporary times Transformational Leadership puts emphasis on such a leader who raises the consciousness level of his followers. To this, Gallos (2014) adds that this theory expects the leaders to stimulate his intellect so as to the subordinates follow the path of innovation. Returning to Weisband (2013), it can be said that Transactional Leadership concentrates on enhancing and easing communication between the leader and the followers, which is a major demand of the century.
While a charismatic leader has a large band of willing followers, McCleskey (2014) opines that the implication of situational theory helps to grow a rational outlook of any situation giving out an appropriate response. However, according to Braun et al. (2013), application of transformational leadership facilitates to create the desired collective vision among the followers by raising their consciousness level. On the other hand, Herd, Alagaraja and Cumberland (2016) believe that present century demands strong communication and constant exchange between a leader and his subordinates as implied by transactional theory. The latest inclusion in leadership theory i.e. contingency theory by Fiedler (2015) however, suggests that control over a situation is more essential for a leader rather than the manner of leadership.
Conclusion:
The biggest challenge of modern day leadership in 21st century is to get rid of the erroneous belief that leadership has limited scope of development and that it can be improved only in programs concerning leadership development. The ideas of leadership traditionally referred to exhibition of power, dictation and self-promotion. Contrary to this, modern leadership necessitates new limelight on leadership competency, new outlook on the leader’s role and development of flexible leadership capability even more than earlier times. A leader in 21st century would be acceptable when he understands the needs of this new century; he must be a blend of confidence, commitment, creativity, intuition and ethics at the same time. In the age of rapid globalization, a leader has to consider many social, communal, emotional and financial factors before taking any decision. The concept of exercising power as a leader is past, 21st century rather teaches the leader how to work with group of subordinates on the ground level while being a role model himself for them and inspiring them at every step. Undeniably, therefore, present day leadership is a more challenging task and requires greater involvement of intellect and mental ability than some specific characteristic or behavioral traits.
References:
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