Leadership Challenges And Practices In Organisations

Macro and Micro Challenges for Organizations

The report carries a detail discussion about the concept of leadership in an organisation and the challenges that are faced. The challenges are classified into micro and macro. The success of an organisation is dependent on leadership and effectiveness for long term success. The role played by leaders in an organisation is very crucial and used for determining the progress of an organisation.  Leadership is a process that takes actions for the betterment of organisational goals. It works is a direction to improve the productivity and effectiveness. There are many challenges that are faced by the organisation in terms of different parameters. In this report various leadership theories are discussed that are widely used in the modern culture (Bolman and Deal,  2017). The last section of this report covers the role of leaders in the execution of talent management.

Leadership plays a significant role in shaping the actions and planning in a direction so that success is achieved. The goal of a leader is to motivate others and make sure that the objective and goals are achieved. Motivation to achieve the goals in an organisation is exercised through counselling and training that gives a proper guidance so that goals are achieved (Bolman and Deal,  2017). The work role of a leader is to boost up the confidence and lead employees about the direction. Leadership also helps in resolving the conflicts between the employees by resolving all the queries. Apart from that, other goals of leadership are to coordinate and support the engagement of employees so that performance can be increased (Landy and Conte, 2016). Leaders understand the work flow and guide the employees so that conflicts in an organisation are eliminated.

The concept of leadership is linked with the culture of organisation as well national culture. The organisation culture covers the value, beliefs and rules that are followed in an organisation from a long run (Landy and Conte, 2016). The culture of an organisation is made up by the employees as it completely depends upon the attitude and behaviour of the employees. The culture of an organisation should be user friendly and it should have a positive environment. The job satisfaction of an organisation is related to the culture. The culture of an organisation is created by members and their interaction among them (Masa’deh, Obeidat and Tarhini, 2016). The culture of an organisation supports the employees in understanding that is acceptable and what is not acceptable in an organisation. Positive organisational culture automatically enhances the work processes. The national culture is also reflected by the leadership practices. National culture coves the set of rules, language, beliefs and customs. There exists a culture difference between nations in terms of culture, beliefs and practises followed (Masa’deh, Obeidat and Tarhini, 2016). Due to different cultural practises an individual face difficultly while communicating with other employees of different custom.

Role of Leaders in Talent Management

Thus, for these issues the concept of cross cultural leadership is used it states that employees should be give training so that they can easily adapt different culture in the market. Leader should design plans so that cultural differences can be eliminates this could be done by offering training and conducting programs so that employee to employee interaction gets improved (Burke and Noumair, 2015). It is true that national cultural of one country is entirely different from other this different leadership practices and theories should be implemented. Thus, it can be said that leadership practices play a very important role in organisational as well as national culture.

Leadership plays an important role in contributing the overall effectiveness of the organisation. Apart from that, there are various challenges linked with cultural differences on an organisation (Higgs and Dulewicz, 2016). Some of the general challenges that are faced in an organisation are lack of communication, lack of vision and mission, lack of accountability. Other challenges that are faced in an organisation are due to adapting the change, removing discrimination, discouragement in attaining success. There are various challenges that are faced in an organisation at micro and macro level (Van Wormer and Besthorn, 2017). Now, we will discuss one by one by focusing on the leadership parameters. Macro level defines the organisational vision by planning the strategies of future so that conflicts could be resolved. The challenges of micro level cover the activities of an organisation (Van Wormer and Besthorn, 2017). The challenges at macro level affect the performance of an organisation directly.

Challenges at macro level- These challenges affect the growth of an organisation and arise due when an organisation expands in different geographical area. It arises due to globalisation as it has the impact of world’s economy that is linked with the trade activities undertaken with the organisation (Balcells and Justino, 2014). Some of the macro level challenges that are faced by an organisation are:

• Managing the competition-While working in the market the major challenges for any organisation are its competitors or industry in the market (Paul, Parthasarathy and Gupta, 2017). The strategies adopted by the competitors need to be understood so that sustainable growth is achieved.
• Managing the change and uncertainty- It is true that organisation work in a dynamic background in which changes are uncertainty. Thus, it is important to manage the changes in an efficient way so that conflicts due not occur (Paul, Parthasarathy and Gupta, 2017). At time of change employees become unsatisfied thus proper training should be offered so that change is adapted easily.
• Challenges of innovation- It is important to adapt to innovation so that operations are completed automatically. Innovation is hard to adapt for this training need to be offered so that employees gets use of innovation and learns how to use them. Thus, the organisation that drives for effective leadership practices in the organisation must practice innovative business practices  (Hislop,  Bosua and Helms,  2018).Due to this survival in the market leadership acts as the catalyst in introducing new products and services which would lead to higher customer satisfaction.

Challenges at micro level: Micro level challenges arise due to conflicts between the employees and within the team.

• It is difficult to maintain peace at the workplace as employees belong to different culture and background. As while work together in a team to attain goal they face various issues (Lu, Chang and Chang, 2015). This gives chances of conflict as they disagree on various terms. This disturbs the harmony of the work place; this is a problematic situation for leaders.
• Communication is the other issue at micro level that an organisation faces. Leaders assure that an effective communication is used so that goal and objective of an organisation is achieved (Lamm, Tosti-Kharas and King,  2015). It allow employee to share ideas and work in a collaborated effort.
• Training and Development- Leaders should ensure that training in an organisation takes place regularly. Training helps in developing skills and conduct business activities in an effective manner (Lamm, Tosti-Kharas and King,  2015). Conducting training at the workplace is difficult for the leaders.
• Managing the change- Change is important for the success of an organisation as it increases the productivity and supports in beating the competitors (Lawton and Páez, 2015). This act as a challenging thing for leaders as employees might not react in a positive way after the change. Thus to increase the productivity change is must.
• Leaders also face issue in managing the concerns and work flow. It is important to resolve the issue faced at time of mobilizing and implementing change (Lawton and Páez, 2015) .
• Managing internal conflicts- There are various conflicts that take place between employees due to discrimination at the work place. Thus, these issues can be resolved by maintaining same policy for all the employees and handling the politics at the workplace (Ogunfowora, 2014). It also includes the aspects of managing relationship between the higher authorities and subordinates, and within the employees in the organisation, in getting support from other individuals groups or firms in the industry

In an organisation leadership is considered as an important aspect that assures that goal and objective are attained. A leader is someone who can guide and show the direction to many employees and is confident and have high self-confidence(Anderson, Baur, Griffith and Buckley,  2017) . Value based leadership is used to balance and attain the objective by practising. A successful leader should present him by being confident and non-biased. He/she should take decisions that are favourable for all the employees and an organisation. The quality of leadership is being honest and responsible so that people are treated equally and fair decisions are taken(Latham, 2014) . These values prove to be a successful leader and assure that organisational goal is achieved. Beliefs on the other hand are considered another important trait of a good leader, as the beliefs of a leader shapes the direction of organisation for future goals(Landis, Hill and Harvey, 2014) .

Connection between Leadership Practices and Organizational and National Cultures

The belief of leaders motivates employees to work in a direction so that goal can be achieved. Thus leadership practices play an important role in the success of an organisation. Leaders should follow all the values and should work in a direction to achieve organisational goals. Considering the ethics, beliefs and values leader should have all the qualities to maintain a positive work place (Landis, Hill and Harvey, 2014) . Leader should have a passion towards a work and should be highly dedicated to attain the objectives and goal. They should encourage employees to take effective decisions for the betterment of an organisation.

The culture of an organisation is related to the concept of leadership and the practices that are undertaken by leaders for improvement. Corporate culture is related to the values and the principals that are followed in an organisation (Amanchukwu,Stanley and Ololube, 2015). Thus corporate cultures have a positive influence on the leadership practices that are followed in an organisation (Scott,  Jiang, Wildman and Griffith, 2018). Some of the theories that can be used in contemporary organisation are discussed below:

• Transformational theory of leadership- As the name suggests this theory of leadership is used to make a change in the social system or among an individual related to the organisation. The change that is made is beneficial for the entire organisation as it aims to attain the organisational goal and objective. This approach is efficient for every employee working in an organisation along with the leaders so it supports in managing all the resource efficiently (Scott,  Jiang, Wildman and Griffith, 2018). It is considered as one of the most effective leadership style especially in the healthcare sector. Considering an example, this kind of leadership approach is followed in healthcare as well as nursing sector.  In this leaders motivate the employee to work in a direction so that organisational goals are achieved (Bullough and de Luque, 2015). Transformational leadership has four components that are individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence. The aim of this theory is to develop positive workplace and a healthy environment so that employees work efficiently without any chances of conflicts.

Considering a real life example of transformational leadership is Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates are considered as successful transformational leaders and many others. From corporate sector many industries have adopted transformational leadership like Microsoft, apple, IBM and Intel (Bullough and de Luque, 2015).

• Fiedler’s contingency and Situational model of leadership- This theory is widely used as in these decisions are taken according to the situations. Leaders have right to change the decisions according to the situation. It can be said as an adaptive leadership style as decisions are taken according to the situation (Chow, Salleh and Ismail, 2017). It resolves all the chances of conflicts and work in a direction to achieve the organisational goal. It highlights on the growth of people and the workgroups in the organisation (Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe, 2014). Thus, it can be stated that this method is not based on the skills of employees, and applied according to the needs of the organisation
• Trait Theory- This theory of leadership is derived from the traits of an individual. Trait theory states that to be a successful leaders their should be six common qualities to be a good leader like intelligence, adjustment, extraversion, conscientious, openness, and the efficacy of an individual. This theory states that leaders are not born but they are made by some efforts (Ma and Tsui, 2015). Leaders learn can grow, there are basic qualities that should be acquired so that successful decisions are taken. This theory is very rarely implemented as there are chances of criticism (Delmas, 2017). The criticism included that it failed to take account of other factors, such as situational and environmental factors.
• Transactional theory of leadership- This theory of leadership monitors the organisational processes and work in a direction to improve the performance and organisational supervision. In this style of leadership take strict actions against the wrong work and on the other hand promote employees for their good work by rewards and incentives. This theory is more focused in improving the performance on daily basis and maintains the brand image (Smit 2018). There exist a difference between transformational as well as transactional leadership theory, as in case of transactional leadership theory efforts are putted to enhance the motivation externally and in case of transformational theory leaders focus to improve internal motivation.
• Distributive or Participative leadership- In this theory employees of an organisation participate in decision making. In this the input are taken from the employees so that decisions could be taken in their favour (Smit 2018). This is said as a distributive style of leadership and works in a direction that positive outcomes are achieved. In this employees are asked to participate in all the events internally or externally so that transparency is maintained (Khan, 2017). All the above mentioned theories are applicable in an organisation and are used so that higher success and enhanced performance is achieved.

The most commonly used theory of motivation at the workplace is Maslow’s theory. This theory defines the need of an organisation step by step and then working in a direction that organisational needs are fulfilled (Caetano, Ferreira, Camilo and Ullmann, 2015). They make sure that employees are motivated and work in a direction to attain business objective. The need of motivation is to achieve powerful and affiliated goal. Maslow’s theory of motivation is used to satisfy the clients and fulfilling the needs from lower level to higher level (Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe, 2014).

The theory of motivation is highly related to the theory of leadership and works in a direction so that employee performance is improved. It contributes for better organisational performance by resolving all the conflicts and bugs (Flores-Parra,  Castañón-Puga,  Evans,  Rosales-Cisneros and Gaxiola-Pacheco, 2018). The performance of an organisation can be improved by improving the employee engagement.

This technique has nine roles that support higher success for an organisation. This theory is used so that an individual understands their own strength and weaknesses so that actions could be taken to improve it (Satiani, Sena, Ruberg and Ellison, 2014). By understanding the team roles help in working effectively. Roles consist of coordinator, plant, monitor evaluator, specialist, shaper, resource investigator, team-worker, implementer, and completer/finisher. For an example, a specialist in a government under these varied roles performs the role of incorporating in individual’s in-depth information of a key area to the members of a team (Festing and Schäfer, 2014).

Contemporary Leadership Theories

Training is a concept in which plans are designed to improve the overall performance. Training should be offered regularly at fixed interval of time to improve the communication and leadership skills. Leaders act as a coach for the entire team as they provide employees with the guidance so that organisational goals are attained (Flores-Parra,  Castañón-Puga,  Evans,  Rosales-Cisneros and Gaxiola-Pacheco, 2018). The concepts of modernism refers to the philosophical movement in the groups occur along with the cultural trends, and defines about those activities, and creations of those people who felt that the mores, norms, art, literature and the religious faith will affect their tasks, and becoming obsolete or irrelevant to the rapidly changing industrial surroundings (Festing and Schäfer, 2014). Training and growth is also linked to effective management in the organisation as imparting teaching to the employees in the organisation helps in growing their knowledge and skills required to perform the job. Thus, it is related to the positive consequence of effective leadership or successful leaders in the organisation (Kulkarni and Scullion, 2015). Hard management is the exercise wherein managers make plans and measure employee enactment. On the other hand soft management suggests about a friendly environment which is based on the emotions. Reconsidering or rethinking International management is a miracle where practices are undertaken considering the interest, cultural background of the people working in the organisation (Meyers  and Van Woerkom, 2014). Contrarily critical management describes about applying new ways and management or leadership theories in the organisation, to compete with the dynamic environment and changing needs of the customers in the market.

Conclusion 

It can be concluded from the above report that leadership plays a significant and important role in an organisation. They deal about all the cultural aspects involved in an organisation. It involves the entire human factor and the major challenges that are observed in the concepts of leadership in the modern organisation. The aim of leaders in an organisation is to improve employee performance and help employees in identifying and executing talent management in the organisation through effective leadership theories. Hence, it can be stated that a leader is significant into contributing to the organisational success and higher performance in the long run. . Various leadership theories are discussed and it can be concluded that the culture of an organisation is related to the concept of leadership and the practices that are undertaken by leaders for improvement. Corporate culture is related to the values and the principals that are followed in an organisation.

Motivational Theories

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