Leadership has always been looked upon as a significant area in any sort of business enterprises. Along with the advent of globalization and an ever changing era, it is notable to comprehend the requirements of an effective and prosperous leadership. It is gradually conceptualize that leadership is not framed upon the characteristics of authority, power and dominance but rather concentrates on aspects of equal division of responsibilities, active team participation, bringing out and putting to work the talents of the colleagues thereby managing skilfully. In this study, two varying approaches of leadership will be analyzed and their effect upon organizations will be rated. Culture that plays a pivotal point in defining a successful leadership will also be brought into consideration thereby relating with knowledge management and evaluated. Relation between social corporate responsibility and leadership will be studied pertaining to governmental, business and societal context (Gong et al., 2009).
1.a.The two different leadership approaches that can be taken into account are the transformational leadership and the adaptive leadership. The idea of transformational leadership evolved from the “Leadership” book by James McGregor Burns during 1978. In this form of leadership the leaders as well as the team members raise each other to higher strata corresponding to morality and stimulation. It is based on integrating the objectives of the workers and treats the members with equality. The goals are clearly set with high levels of expectations. The leaders as well as other group members tend to encourage each other and share similar goals through inspirational and motivational behaviours (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009). Nonetheless, it is mainly the motivational behaviour of the leader and his/ her friendly attitude towards work that inspire others. Further in this form of leadership, the colleagues extend their vision from their respective selfish interests to attain the improbable. The main criteria that come to play is constructing the trust factor and retaining it (Arnold et al., 2007).
Ancient are those formulas where it is observed that the CEO of the company makes an unthinking emotional decision by pushing the employees to attain the set results while there is decline in sales and profit results. Nonetheless, the transformational leaders get to the root of the problem and diagnose it. Similar situation occurred with Ceridian, a HR software service provider company headquartered in Bloomington. David Ossip filled up the position of CEO in the company during mid, 2013 thereby diagnosing the company with disengaged workforce problem. Ossip found the solution in placing significance on culture to stimulate employee engagement which will better customer relation as well as market share. He further traced the cost of unsatisfied workers as $550 billion both to the national economy and the company. Ossip formed a partnership with Ceridian during 2011 with Dayforce, the company he started during 2009. Dayforce possess sturdy and integrated workforce management technology to sketch, schedule and trace employees while Ceridian own enormous market presence and popularity for its services but did not possess the characteristics that Dayforce has. After the collaboration, the CEO predicted 100 consumer purchases while it amounted to 483 which exhibited good market response of the collaboration. Thus David Ossip evolved as a transformational leader in this case (Efron, 2016).
Adaptive leadership refers to practical leadership structure that is knowledge driven. It is a breakthrough from the traditional leadership approach. It shows path to the employees as well as the companies to stride through difficult changing and complex organizational situations. It also focuses on bringing out the essential elements from the dispensable thereby ushering a challenge to the existing state of affairs (Boal & Schultz, 2007).
Mark Hoplamazian, the CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corporation has demonstrated adaptive leadership in dealing with change and culture. This is why the company has been witnessed to consider diversity and inclusion as their key ingredients to success. The company through the incorporation of adaptive leadership has projected and extended its nature of work that flows both inside and outside the organization. The employees are termed as colleagues and their opinions, preferences and culture are given importance so they feel comfortable working in Hyatt environment thereby extending their feelings to the customer reception and hospitability. Further the CEO aspires to link the Global Operations centre with the regional segments of the company so that it fulfils the ground level market demands as well. Therefore, the adaptive leadership model followed by Hyatt’s CEO forms the integral aspect of its success (Investors.hyatt.com).
b.Having knowledge is something different from utilizing it in required contexts. Leaders who are not able to comprehend the worth corresponding to actionable knowledge causes hindrance to business opportunities thereby creating contingent liabilities. Another challenge that any leader has to face is relating to cultural aspects that give rise to silo-centric process of thinking. Efficient leaders believe that successful incorporation of the knowledge utilised for the apt situations pertaining to right kind of timing certainly adds fervour to business leadership thereby magnifying returns and diminishing risk factors (Bowditch et al., 2007).
Knowledge management refers to any company’s capability of collection of information thus metamorphosing them and vice-versa. It helps the company to mitigate the risk factors and drive innovation. Further it is anticipated that knowledge management mostly depends upon people and culture which forms integral sections of the business systems. Businesses are expected to value culture, knowledge, data and others as vital assets. A successful business leadership lies in effective blending of corporate culture and knowledge management. Successful business leadership gains knowledge from diverse culture that is existent in the company while connecting and managing them efficiently as per Yukl, (2008).
One of the best examples that might be cited is of Hyatt Hotels Corporation which places great significance on culture and inclusion through successful business leadership. The company strives to frame “an all inclusive culture for its customers, employees and other stakeholders” thereby setting an objective to value everyone. Gradually the company has globalized its boundaries. It aligned with a U.S. bill based on securing the rights of LGBTA in regards to education, job-orientation, housing and so on. Hyatt is often termed as “a great place to work” as it offers jobs to Hispanics, African American people and others. Culture is looked upon as its “competitive strength” by the CEO, Hoplamazian of the company. The corporate culture strategy that Hyatt follows is considered to be the “most preferred” as it works to anticipate for the requirements generated by its guests, colleagues and other stakeholders so that the company might achieve superior results. The company believes in taking well care of its employees because through them it will be able to serve its guests in a better way. Therefore Hyatt presents a picture of successful business leadership that blends well with knowledge management which considers culture, diversity and inclusion in its cultural context (Investors.hyatt.com, 2014).
2.There are so many business principles that come into consideration while managing a company. ‘Commitment’ happens to be one of the business principles that are considered to be crucial. It is the commitment towards the organization, fellow colleagues, team members, commitment made to one’s own achievements and commitment to success that creates the positive drive among the leaders and the employees thereby earning revenues and profits for the organization while supporting it to earn its competitive advantage (Gao & Klarke, 2008). Rather it is the element of commitment that can be correlated with other ethical principles. For instance, if the leaders show commitment in their action then that builds up an environment of trust and respect within the organization. A committing leader seems to be fair with his/ her set of decisions thereby evoking trustworthiness factor. Again on the contrary, while the leader displays committing actions towards others that unfolds his/ her quality to show concern. Furthermore, commitment also generates honesty as the team members or other individuals find the committed person to keep his/ her words thus finding the respective leader to be honest. Therefore, commitment is related with other ethical business principles in innumerable ways (Pauliene, 2012).
When it comes to organizational responsibility, it is noted that any organization is not able to perform effectively unless and until the organizational responsibilities are set. These organizational responsibilities might be social, political, environmental, and financial and others. The organizational responsibility depends upon the model and the structure of each business unit. Commitment is one such ethical business principle that mingles well with all sorts of organizational responsibilities because without it, the business would not function effectively (Bowditch et al., 2007).
Responsible leadership refers to taking into account the views and opinions of all the stakeholders of the business enterprise along with the set of decisions of the leader. Therefore a responsible leader believes in all inclusiveness and takes care that no one’s opinion gets neglected. This is some sort of commitment in action towards the stakeholders, set objectives and organization that the leader strides to fulfil (Yukl, 2008).
For example, Lenovo shows commitment in accomplishing its certain social responsibilities. It has set certain elevated standards based on “integrity and responsibility” in dealing with its stakeholders. Further Lenovo has been rendering support to the employees concerning diverse matters such as ethical concerns and issues, announcing illegal or unethical behaviour, rendering protection to intellectual assets as well as obeying the governmental policies and laws through the incorporation of “Employee Code of Conduct’. It also led the way to fight against piracy in the land of China during 2005. As its social responsibility, the company also concentrates on its health standards of the employees as it considers the human resources to be their most significant asset. It strives to offer a safe, secure and workable surrounding for its human asset. Te employees and the workers are furnished with pre-tested and safe equipments in order to prevent any sort of accidents. Further the company also works to upgrade and develop its process controls so that they are able to lessen any sort of accidents within the workplace. Nonetheless, the company puts forth the security and safety concerns of its human asset in each of its location (Lenovo.com, 2017).
Furthermore the company commits to offer competitive pay packages to its employees and thus is acclaimed as one of the world’s leading organizations. Thus it showcases that how commitment becomes a typical characteristic of responsible leadership thereby improving the organizational responsibility (Maak, 2007).
3.In the current trend, the consumers not only count the organizations for their products and services but also rate them on the basis of social as well as environmental issues that these organizations have addressed. Therefore the consumers are little more aware and hold an elevated perception and expectation regarding the companies. There are also consumers who search for environmentally responsible products. The companies are also smart enough to comprehend the scenario and thus have started concentrating all the more into corporate social responsibility (CSR) aspects. One of the main and chief points that are considered in CSR is environment. The business units are noted to possess enormous carbon footprints. Therefore it is recommended that the business organizations take effective measures to reduce their carbon footprints and thus will be appreciated. Nonetheless, this step will also be considered as a responsible step taken to maintain its CSR (De Hoogh & Den Hartog, 2008).
Another CSR activity relating to philanthropy is very common to consider. Most of the time, the organizations are noted to donate funds either for governmental causes, charity houses as well as they donate while participating in regional community programs. Ethical labor laws and practices are also incorporated by certain business organizations that reflect their CSR. Again on the other hand, several companies perform volunteering through the participation in volunteering events. However, this sort of step taken by the company displays its interest and inclination as well as organizational behaviour. Moreover, the modern day consumers are always keen to note the organizational behaviour of the companies that they not only show interest in money making but also social charitable and responsible activities (Basu & Palazzo, 2008).
Therefore CSR is quickly gaining momentum while making its presence felt in the mainstream business. The example of Coca Cola India stands apt in this segment. Coca-Cola India has been acknowledged as one of the most recognized Indian beverage organization. An incident took place which led to open the eyes of the company concerning CSR matters. It proclaims that it considers CSR to be significant and that aspects like environmental, political, governmental issues are related with it and must be taken care of. Thus the company has adopted certain measures to upgrade the lifestyle of its employees, consumers as well as the society. The organization was vehemently criticized for its effects upon the Mother Nature and the society. It was stated that the company exhausted ground water resources concerning the locations where the company has its bottling plants. Further it was added that this exhaustion of the ground water resources has deeply affected the lives of the farmers as the company has been throwing all its toxic and precarious waste surrounding the area of the locations of its bottling plants. The company was also charged with the statement that it has been emitting waste water from its plants which caused enormous agricultural damage. Further, the business practices of Coca-Cola were considered to be unethical corresponding to developing nations and therefore the company was boycotted.
However, Coca-Cola showed responsible leadership through CSR decisions thereby sketching initiatives like rain water harvesting, refurbishing ground water resources, sustainable packing as well as recycling of the waste. It also focused on taking active participation in community programs and volunteering and philanthropic activities. Nonetheless the organization set its target to transform into water neutral during 2009 in the Indian nation. Therefore this case certainly limelight the aspects of societal, governmental, business aspects that are related with CSR of any company (Icmrindia.org, 2017).
Conclusion
This paper throws light on certain models and approaches of leadership. Along with the advent of time and globalization, the concepts in regards to business, ethics, organizational behaviour, leadership approaches and organizational responsibilities have changed. Transformational leadership and adaptive leadership are the two new and significant new generation leadership models that are put much into use. Then there are disciplines like knowledge management that must be inculcated in organizational behaviour so as to achieve organizational effectiveness. Responsible leadership model is also another that pushes the company further to attain success. Culture, commitment as well as successful business leadership play pivotal roles that affect the effective functionality of the company. CSR is another aspect that is acknowledged to be mainstream now and determines the success and competitive advantage of the organizations (Yukl, 2008).
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