Leadership and Management Future Adaptations

The management sector has seen dramatic changes in recent decades because of the factors that have revolutionized management styles, including technology and globalization. A decade ago it was more a fiction than a fact that virtual teams of workers operating in various regions had the opportunity to exchange data and ideas in real time. The old management structure is replaced by millenary workers, as technical developments in demand for new skills have seen significant demographic and social changes. In addition to this, more companies are expected to grow to operating across boarders hence the need for prepared management teams that can navigate through cultural differences. Monica well argued on leadership by stating that leadership was bound to radically change in the foreseeable future and lots of leaders and managers feel unprepared for the changes. Leadership programs need to strive to provide training that develops the leadership skills through the addressing of issues likely to rise from future technological advancements, globalization of economies and the evaluation of the current leadership gaps (The Institute of Leadership and Management 2014).

The key to successful management lie in the ability of the organization’s management to stay prepared in terms of development of relevant skill sets required to keep up with the change in leadership and management. Through the evaluation of the current trends it is feasible to anticipate for intensified globalization in the future, heightened use of computation and technology in general in the daily management of organizational activities. In order to be placed in a position to benefit from all these advancements require the keenness in learning, ability to adapt to changes and most importantly non-tolerance to complacency (Carson et al. 2007). A solid understanding of the past and the future trends in management allows for the understanding of the existing gap and development of strategies to bridge the gaps in management.

The continuous diversification of the business requirements requires for the business leaders to analyze the organizational objectives in accordance with the changing customer needs. This aspects of management should be primarily focused at ensuring that the business organization remains competitive. The predicting of future needs tends to be challenging due to the continuous change in external factors beyond the organization’s control and this in turn impacts the overall performance of the business organization. Technology has played a major role in the diversification of the marketing concept. New technology has allowed for the ability to target new consumers and improve product popularity over large online marketing campaign platforms. These new marketing methodologies allow for a cheaper mode of advertisement that can be utilized by all organizations. An example of a social media website that was able to exploit this was Facebook and this allowed their revenues generated from advertising to rocket (‘Facebook profits jump on advertising revenue hike’).

The type of employees employed is a key determinant on organization success and growth. The current management systems need to develop management policies that advocate for sustainability. It is very likely that there will be a shift in the leadership styles from autocratic styles that primarily focuses on command and control to a system that promotes inclusivity of all employees in a democratic style of leadership (Krafcik, 1988). Another key mechanism in business that is forever changing is the production sector that has been transformed from the lean production style used by Henry Ford to specialization of jobs hence allowing for skill enhancement within a specified production field. Currently the production sectors have hugely adopted machinery and task automation with little human effort required in overseeing the performance. This factors helps provide insights on how companies are likely to adopt production in future. The idea of computerization worries employees on the probability of being replaced instead of improving their skills to fit into the new systems of production. Besides the production sector is always diversifying in attempts of lowering the costs of production and this tends to change over time. China through their reducing of laws that restrict business have been able to increase their performance to the extent of ‘overtaking ’ United States in the volumes of goods sold globally hence making the largest good trader.

The adaptation of leaders and managers need to conform to the society’s demands while at the same time tracking the constant changing trends. One of the primary factors that influence the business performance trends is the economy hence the organizational leaders and managers need to develop business structures that adapt to any dramatic changes within an economy. During periods when the economy is struggling the general public tends to reduce their spending and save during these periods and understanding of such factors helps in development of adaptation strategies. Woolworths for example struggled during the recession due to economical declines since their high trade credit structure could not sustain them during the period of economic struggling. The main reasoning behind their struggle was the dramatic cutting of credit with suppliers and since the managers had failed to plan with alternative strategies to adapt it was driven to closure. This serves as a reminder to the leadership and organizational managements that regardless of the organizational popularity lack of preparedness to change can adversely impact the business operations.

Regular evaluation of the business organization through the use of business evaluation model like the Porter’s five forces allows for the organization to analyze the market trends ad find ways of strengthening the business organization. The five competitive forces in Porter’s model are important in the development of leadership and management strategies ("The five competitive forces that shape strategy."). For starters the model provides highlights to the management on the existing competition rivalry hence allowing for the development of strategies to ensure the organization remains competitive. Another factor that should never be underestimated is the threat presented by new entrants as they may offer competition in future. The organization should adopt a heave research and development (R&D) thereby discouraging new entrant’s entry due to innovation of many ideas. Alternatively the organization can improve their competitiveness by purchasing new business ideas from the upcoming entrants thereby ensuring the company remains competitive with new products that present success. Another of Poster’s force that can be strategically used is the bargaining powers with suppliers. If utilized correctly by the top management bargaining powers can provide for a great control over business by regulating the amount of stock required in specified locations thereby giving the suppliers increased responsibility. The current business evaluation models can be seen as a tool for strategic business management that allows for organizations to study their market in a continuous manner, provide feedback and strategically act on the feedback to gain advantages over close competitors.

Finally, the population shifts globally have realized increased diversity in business management. Women still remain to be the greatest resource that has not been fully tapped. The current trends is a clear indication on the increment of women rates of employment. Balancing of gender in the human resource employment is critical for performance. A research conducted by Credit Suisse indicated that the companies that had men only in their management boards were out performed by the companies that included women in the boards especially during the economic recession period increasing the average net income growth by 14%. The managers and leaders who are bound to be successful in the future if they recruit, develop, retain and the creation of an environment that fosters cultures of diversity and inclusion. The current technological trends are likely to influence how people work with the millennials expecting to work in a different manner that integrates their personal life and work. This allows for a balance between the social life of employees and their work. Cases where an environment of balance is created the employees are likely to be more productive and satisfied. The analysis of past global economic crisis emanating from the competition presented by rising economies has highlighted on the importance of adopting new methodologies of enhancing productivity while at the same time reducing the costs of operation. There is need for devolved management to develop models that can measure and reward employees in accordance with their performance results not just time.

The management at the same time needs to be more enabling than controlling by providing their employees with clear objectives and tools to accomplish their tasks and this shift in management should be driven as a business strategy for it to be successful. The managers will need to harness the globalization power to facilitate their success. In the recent decade’s globalization through the integrating of markets, industries, economies, cultures and business processes has gathered pace and the future advancements in technology are bound to increase interconnectivity. Organizations should also focus in sustainability since global resources are decreasing and becoming rather expensive. There is need for the organization to be prepared to combat challenges arising from the external environments in which each organization operates. There is strong logic on the new models of management and leadership in organizations in future through the development of an environment that equips bot the managers and leaders with the required skills and knowledge to resolve challenges in future while utilizing available opportunities. As much as we can’t predict into the future occurrences the current trends can be used to predict possible scenarios that might affect the organization operations in future and it is the task of the management to ensure they prepare the organization for such eventualities.

References

Carson JB, Tesluk PE, Marrone JA. 2007. Shared leadership in teams: an investigation of antecedent conditions and performance. Acad. Manage. J. 50:1217–3

‘Facebook profits jump on advertising revenue hike’ – 5th November 2015, BBC, Line 4-5

‘Top 10 Social Networking Sites by Market Share of Visits’- July 2015, Dream Grow, Prit Kallas.

Krafcik, John F. "Triumph of the lean production system." MIT Sloan Management Review 30.1 (1988): 41.

‘Will a robot take my job?’- bbc, 11 September 2015, Produced by Nassos Stylianou, Tom Nurse, Gerry Fletcher, Aidan Fewster, Richard Bangay and John Walton.

‘China 'overtakes' US as world’s largest goods trader’- BBC, 10 January 2014, Linda Yueh.

‘Woolworths was sadly not built for recession’ The Telegraph, Richard Fletcher, 18 December 2008.

Porter, Michael E. "The five competitive forces that shape strategy." (2008).

The Institute of Leadership and Management: 2020 Vision: future trends in leadership & management 2014 [Online ] Available at: https://www.i-l-m.com/~/media/ILM%20Website/Documents/research-reports/future-trends/ilm-research-reports-future-trends%20pdf.ashx (Accessed: 11 July 2017)