Discuss about the Business Performance of Leadership.
Choi and Kim (2014) opined that leadership is the capability of the management of a company to make vital decisions, inspire as well as motivate others to perform their work in the workplace. Effective leaders can set as well as achieve challenging goals, take decisions at difficult situations, calculate the risks as well as persist in the face of failure. The characteristics of a good leader are to manage the workplace, have communication skills as well as self-confidence. However, the IT leaders are different from other leaders. Loveridge (2014) argued that the IT leadership is the group of the senior executives those are responsible for implementing an IT infrastructure as well as applications that can drive the IT business strategies.
The report is based on the leadership in the IT business of Australia and its importance for the business. The selected organization for this report is Melbourne IT. It reflects on the impact of the leadership on the success of the IT business. Leadership style is also discussed in this report for the IT leader. As the business is based on Information Technology, therefore the leader face IT challenges in their business, and respective solutions are also given.
Australian IT businesses are facing innovation shortfalls and failure in the development of the leadership programs. The selected IT business for the report is Melbourne IT and as the leader of the business, different leadership functions are conducted. Melbourne IT is an Australian Internet company with its primary business is the registration of the domain name. This IT business also provides the web as well as email hosting services as well as online marketing services to the Australian population (Melbourneit.com.au 2015). When it comes to achieving business success, most of the leaders of the organization think of a strategy which most of the business comes up with. The following are some of the quality traits that should be there within a good leader who leads an IT business organization:
Character: The leader requires to be trusted as well as known to live their life with honesty (Katsos and Fort 2016). As in the current era, technology becomes the most vital needs of the population; therefore, the leaders should do the delivery of the IT services from respect for the good character as well as trustworthiness of the person who leads the business.
Communicate: In order to reach new benchmarks of achievement, it is required an art of clear communication (Anvari et al. 2014). With good communication skills, the leaders are also required good listening skills that help to drive results and hear to the employees. As a leader of the organization, it is the responsibility to respond to the employee’s concern and questions.
Direction: The leader can work to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. As a leader of an IT business organization, the leader can create impressive change within the organization as the use of technology changes day-by-day (Harney 2016). The leader can act according to the needs and requirements of their customers and provides with better IT service delivery.
Optimistic: The leaders are the source of the positive energy. They are helpful as well as concern for other’s welfare (Almog-Bareket 2012). In order to avoid personal criticism, they start to gain the consensus of the employees to work effectively as team members.
Honesty: The leader should be ethical, believable; honesty as well as reliability forms the foundation of the business success (Marco and John 2013). In order to avoid conflicts, the leader shares information openly to the employees.
Transformational Leadership Style
An IT leader encompasses of two various types of leadership styles such as transformational as well as transactional. The transformational leadership inspires the followers by raising consciousness about the specified values and motivates the followers in order to address the high level of personal needs (Minavand 2013). As this particular report is based on an IT business organization, Melbourne IT, therefore this style of leadership plays an important role as the leader works with the subordinates in order to identify the required changes and create an organizational vision in order to guide changes through inspiration. As a transformational leadership style, the leader is focused on increasing the effectiveness of the organization. This style of leadership stresses that the leader understands as well as adapts to the followers motives as well as requirements (Brandt and Uusi-Kakkuri 2016). An IT leader has the responsibility to achieve good role models who can empower the staff members in order to achieve higher standards.
In the last few years, many transformational changes are taken place in technology. As for example, the development of computing technology by Apple, Intel was the transformational events that are taken place. Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple transformed their business processes through the software applications as well as high-speed microprocessors. At Apple, Steve Jobs is seen as a leader who has an idealistic vision to provide computers as a tool to change the world (Davenport 2014). Jobs were passionate about the company as well as enthusiastic about the announcements of products.
Figure 1: Transformational Leadership Style
(Source: Minavand 2013, pp-47)
Apart from this leadership style, another type of style is transactional leadership that focuses on the exchange, which occurs between the leaders as well as followers. The leader can have a concern with maintaining the normal flow of the business operations (Minelle 2014). Disciplinary powers, as well as an array of incentives, are used to motivate the employees to work. This style of leadership conforms to the existing structure of the IT business as well as measures success as per the organizational system of rewards as well as penalties (Antonakis and House 2014). Performance review is required to judge the performance of the employee.
Steve Jobs also acts a transactional leader who directs their efforts through tasks as well as structures. Steve influenced the employees for a strong desire to work, shared their passion with the staffs as well as provided with the organizational vision (Moors 2012). The leadership style of Steve Jobs is desired to create great products that would give enjoy to the clients by using it rather than the products that bring profit to Apple.
Figure 2: Characteristics of Transactional Leadership Style
(Source: Minelle 2014, pp-47)
Both this style of leadership is required to guide the Melbourne IT to success. The transactional leader provides with an ability to address small operational details that on the other hand, the transformational leader is crucial to the strategic development of the business. Apart from this, the transactional approach features both positive as well as negative enforcement while the transformational leadership features both motivation as well as inspiration (Salovaara and Bathurst 2016). Transactional leadership appeals to the self-interest of the individuals, and transformational leadership focuses on the group progress.
There are various challenges that the IT leaders are facing in Melbourne IT business organization:
Rate and pace of change: According to Moore’s law, the doubling of the speed of the computer processing takes place every 18 months. It is one of the manifestations of the technological trend that all the changes occur at exponential rates (Sethuraman and Suresh 2014). Due to the exponential rate of change in the technology, the IT leader is also making changes according to the business requirements. This rapid change in the business affects the leadership quality.
Complexity in the integration of the system: Sometimes, change in the system becomes complex. Therefore, the leader is not able to cope up with the complex situation, and it affects their responsibility as a leader (Brandt and Uusi-Kakkuri 2016). Due to rapid change in the technology, the IT department of the company requires changing their IT infrastructure in order to meet the requirements of their clients.
Ongoing pressure to cut the cost: Due to rapid change in the technology, the implementation of the new system requires more cost and budget. Therefore, it becomes a vital task for the leader to implement the new system within the estimated budget.
The threat to cyber security: Cyber attack is the most vital concern for the IT leader as there is a high risk of threat of hacking of the information from the database system (Ali Shurbagi 2014). The main function of the IT leader is to give high-security measures to the client’s information so that any third party person cannot access it.
In order to exploit the technology as well as information is fast becoming a prerequisite for the leadership programs. The IT leaders must help the company to value their business as possible from the technology (Sethuraman and Suresh 2014). The following are the solutions that the leader should follow to have a great role in technology decisions and cope up with IT challenges as:
Information Technology Leadership Development Program: It is one of the best solutions for the IT leader to change their character according to the change in technology (Antonakis and House 2014). This program takes the IT leader in the IT application management, operations, technical services as well as IT planning for Melbourne IT. The development program gives a full-time position to the leader with benefits as well as design in order to create a sustainable career path with Melbourne IT.
The building of strategic IT leadership skills: A strong IT leaders can create a clear vision for the future, a design of the competitive strategy for the business; create an agile as well as flexible culture for Melbourne IT.
Consultation with the IT business analyst to develop a new existing system for the business: Due to change in the technology, the business leader can develop and implement a new legacy system for their organization with the help of the IT business analyst (Salovaara and Bathurst 2016). With consulting their ideas with the analyst, they can implement such a system that should be beneficial for the organization in the future.
Take the ownership of information: The vital part of managing the information technology is to manage the data quality as well as accessibility (Marco and John 2013). The IT business leader is responsible for the usability of the data gathered as well as stored in the technology and service. The IT providers should have required integration capabilities, but the leader does managing the information.
Improve the technology vendor management capabilities: Technology vendors can double contract value when they are circumventing to the IT. The IT business leaders can also look in order to corporate IT for guidance as well as support with the vendor negotiations (Antonakis and House 2014). One of the techniques to nudge in this direction is to measure the effectiveness of the vendor management as well as negotiations.
Conclusion
It is concluded that the IT leader must be self-achiever, and they are motivated to become a proactive leader. Rapid change in the technology produces a chaos situation of the leader, and they must be ready to cope up with the technological change. In this report, two types of leaders are used such as a transactional style of leaders such as they used to motivate through the system of rewards as well as penalties. The manager’s use this style and it is focused on the basic management process to control, organize as well as do short-term planning. The leader can act as indicated by the necessities and prerequisites of their clients and offers with better IT administration delivery. As a transformational leadership style, the leader is engaged to build the adequacy of the Association. This style of initiative anxieties that the leader comprehends and additionally adjusts to the followers thought processes and necessities. The transformational leadership inspires the followers by raising consciousness about the predefined values and inspires the supporters to address the high state of individual needs. Therefore, these two types of leadership style are to be in an IT business leader.
References
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Marco, R. and John, F., 2013. The role of need for achievement in self-leadership: Differential associations with hope for success and fear of failure. African Journal of Business Management, 5(20), pp.8368-8375.
Melbourneit.com.au, 2015. Melbourne IT. [online] Melbourneit.com.au. Available at: https://www.melbourneit.com.au/about-us/ [Accessed 5 Jul. 2016].
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