New Trends in the Global Business Environment †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the New Trends in the Global Business Environment. Answer: The society that we live in today expects those in leadership positions to express themselves in a manner that represents the authentic self. Employees of any given organization find it hard to follow a leader who does invest much effort in his leadership behaviour as they want to be led by a leader who is real. Authenticity is in most cases associated with leadership values such as honesty, integrity as well as sincerity. Whereas authenticity is an essential trait for great leadership, the concept is often confused not only by leaders but by their subjects as well. Most people tend to assume that authenticity is a quality that is innate and as a result most employees tend to judge their leaders as either being authentic or not (Ibarra, 2015, pp.53-59). Nonetheless, no one can be able to tell that they are authentic by themselves. This is a quality that can only be attributed to one by those around them basing on how the others are able to view their leadership styles. Therefore, it would be wrong to assume that authenticity is a purely innate quality. Such an assumption would mean that authenticity as a quality cannot be managed and therefore leaders are constrained and can do nothing to improve their leadership qualities and make themselves effective leaders (Ford Harding, 2011, pp.463-479). Herminia Ibarra gives an example of two leaders who hold authentic qualities; Cynthia who discloses her feelings because she believes in transparent leadership and George, a Malaysian executive who finds himself between a rock and a hard place when he is forced to adopt a leadership style which he does not believe in. From the two examples, it is quite clear that although most leaders do not like acting in a manner that goes contrary to their authentic self as it makes them look like imposters, sometimes the company one works for may force one to go against their authentic qualities for the sake of the success of the company. Similarly, some leaders cling on authenticity as an excuse to remain and operate within their comfort zones for fear of new challenges (Novicevic, et al. 2006, pp.64-76). Managers who fail to control their expression on the level of authentic qualities find it hard and troublesome to succeed whenever they ascend into positions of leadership. Authentic leadership does not allow room for manipulation. A leader with authentic qualities acts in a manner reflective of his/her aspects of inner self and hence authenticity is not just about how the leader acts (Marra, et al. 2008, pp.1-15). A great leader who possesses authentic qualities always knows how to operate in every given situation; they know the kind of personality traits to portray, who to reveal to as well as when to reveal the trait. Just like a chameleon, such leaders know how to adapt to the situational demands faced in life as well as how to tackle the varied interests of the people they lead without losing their innate identities (Diddams Chang, 2012, pp.593-603). Such leaders are able to keep focused on the goals they are to achieve while at the same time being able to remain true and not to lose sight on where they originate from. In the course of their leadership journey, they are able to adapt to their environment through experience as well as intuition. The harsh leadership environment makes them strong and resilient over time hence enabling them to gain an in-depth understanding of the expectations as well as the concerns from those people that they set out to influence (Guthey Jackson, 2008, pp.84-92). In the course of influencing the people, such leaders are able to remain authentic while at the same time being able to win over the acceptance and confidence from the people they seek to influence in the strong and diverse corporate and socio-cultural settings as well as how to manipulate the diverse cultures to enable them bring radical changes within a given environment (Lawler Ashman, 2012, pp.327-344). Hence according to Herminia Ibarra, authenticity is viewed as the gold standard upon which leadership styles are based. This article by Herminia Ibarra raises four crucial questions to be researched on. The four key questions include; What should one do to perform if they found themselves working with people who do not share their cultural norms and who have different expectation on how they should behave rather than what they believe in? What qualities should leaders possess to help them adapt to new leadership roles? How should leaders sell their ideas as well as themselves? How should a leader in a new leadership role respond to negative feedback? Authentic leadership entails performing effectively in the multicultural environment, being able to control territories that are unfamiliar, effectively selling ones ideas as well as oneself to people from diverse cultural set-up and having the ability to handle negative feedback from the audience without compromising ones authentic self (Caza Jackson, 2011, pp. 352-364). In an attempt to answer the question on what leaders should do to perform effectively among people of diverse cultural norms and holding different expectation of the leader, Erin Meyer, maintains that persuasive arguments are never universal. To her, persuasive arguments are based on cultural philosophies, religion as well as assumptions derived from ones education system. Leadership, according to Meyer operates in a similar manner as a persuasive argument. The manner in which leaders are supposed to look and sound is diverse just like the leaders themselves. According to Meyer, despite the various attempts by corporates in ensuring that leaders build an understanding of the differences in culture as well as promote diversity, there is high expectation of leaders to express ideas assertively, to be given due credit for the assertive ideas and eventually to be able to inspire and motive the people they lead with charisma (Nana, et al. 2010, pp. 720-742). Jack B. Soll, Katherine L. Milkman and John Payne, through an article, Outsmart Your Own Biases, maintain that leaders will definitely face challenges and tough traps which are brought about by the expectations the people have from them. Soll et al. encourages leaders whenever faced with various challenges to broaden their perspective and make sound judgements. Leaders should always be themselves, embra ce their own cultural norms and act to fulfil what they believe in whenever they work among people of diverse cultural norms as well as with people who hold different expectations from them rather than what they hold (Walsh Glynn, 2008, pp.262-276). The first 90 days of any leader in a new leadership role are usually very difficult and challenging. During this period, the leader faces various challenges such as aligning themselves with the demands of the new leadership role, acquainting themselves with new people who possess different cultural norms as well as trying to perform amidst different expectation from the people he/she is serving (Bligh Schyns, 2007, pp. 343-360). This leads to the question, what qualities should leaders possess to make them adapt to new leadership roles? To answer this question, scholars such as Mark Snyder, a psychologist at Minnesota University came up with two psychological profiles which influence the development of personal styles of leadership by leaders in new roles of leadership. He maintains that leaders ought to develop high self-monitor qualities as well as true to self-qualities. In the high self-monitor styles, leaders in the new roles just like chameleons camouflage into the new environment. They mingle with those they find in the new job environment and adapt to the new ways of doing things. This leadership style encourages flexibility by leaders as they are encouraged to freely and easily embrace change without necessarily feeling fake (Edwards, 2010, pp. 192-205). Snyder also encourages the leaders who may find it difficult to change and adopt new ways of behaviour to freely express their feelings and do things in the manner they are used even if their ways of doing things runs contrary to the way things are done in the new work environment. To answer this question, Stefan Thomke and Jim Manzi, in their article, The Discipline of Business Experimentation, demonstrates the leadership of an organization can test-drive innovation efforts and leadership styles to improve their efficiency and boost the quality of products produced. Thomke Manzi borrows examples of leadership from the researches conducted by Kohl, Wawa and Petco to demonstrate how a new manager can become successful by trying out new ideas and leadership styles in their new roles while minimizing risks. Good leadership according to them is reliant on the use of diverse perspectives as well as expertise of the manager. The process of growth for any leader entails possessing new leadership ideas and passing them over to other people in an attempt to influence their actions. Leaders and especially those in new leadership positions find it quite difficult to sell their ideas as well as themselves to other employees in the new organization. This forces some of the leaders to adopt a high self-monitor leadership style whereby they conform to the leadership styles they find existing within the new leadership role (Barry Meisiek, 2010, pp.331-349). However, employing such leadership styles makes the leaders to lose authenticity and appear fake. Nonetheless, for leaders who employ a true-to-self leadership style, it becomes very difficult for them to sell their ideas and themselves. To answer the question on how leaders should sell their ideas as well as themselves, Donald Sull, Rebecca Homkes and Charles Sull in their article, Why Strategy Execution Unravels-and What to Do About It, gives myths that affect leaders in the process of selling their ideas as well as themselves to the new leadership role. They maintain that the new leaders should start by first seeking to have an understanding on what is the force behind the successful execution of ideas in the new roles. By so doing the leaders will be able to identify and seize the opportunity in the new role that will go hand in hand with their strategy, identify the areas in the management styles that seem to have stalled and eventually translate the newly acquired ideas into results. By following the five myths as suggested by Sull et al, leaders will easily sell their ideas as well as themselves in the new leadership roles. In their leadership roles, several leaders face a wide range of negative feedback which they have to learn to cope with if they are to be successful in their leadership roles. In most cases, the negative feedback towards leaders in new leadership roles centres on their leadership style as opposed to their skills or expertise (Sinha, 2010, pp.185-205). As a result, most negative feedback ends up posing a threat to the identity of the leader. Ben Waber, Jennifer Magnolfi and Greg Lindsay through their article, Workspaces That Move People, offer an explanation that can help answer the question, how should a leader in anew role respond to negative feedback. They encourage leaders to create physical workplace face-to-face communication as it will help them built a good rapport and know how to tackle critics. 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