STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP

Introduction 

Mubarak (2019) defined that “Strategic leadership refers to a manager’s potential to express a strategic vision for the organization, or a part of the organization, and to motivate and persuade others to acquire that vision. Strategic leadership can also be defined as utilizing strategy in the management of employees”. 

Koustelios and Belias (2014) defined that “Strategic Leadership can be defined as the ability of the top level managers or executives to determine the future courses of action and direction of the firm and motivate the members to make efforts in that direction”. 

Importance of Strategic Leadership

According to Korbi (2015) strategic leadership has the ability to influence the employees of the organization during the execution of the change process. Strategic leaders create organizational structure while allocating limited resources among organizational activities to achieve the strategic vision. The components of strategic leadership include; 

Source: Korbi 2015

According to the above figure, strategic leadership concerns on environmental factors information systems, human resource development, policy formulation and internal controls of the organization during the change implementation (Fazlurrahman, 2018). The key characteristics of strategic leader include; 

• Setting the direction

• Strategic decision making

• Human capital management

• Translating strategies into actions

• Change Management

• Effective communication within the organization

• Ensuring efforts are made in the right direction.

• Developing strategic competencies.

• Framing policies and plans for the effective implementation of strategic decisions.

• Developing and maintaining a constructive work culture (Koustelios, 2014).

Strategic productivity is the main objective of a strategic leadership and it encourages employees to be more productive during the change or system implementation stage. Also, strategic leadership focuses to develop an environment in which employees forecast the organizational needs in context of their job roles (Asghar, 2010). Strategic leaders encourage creativity and innovation from subordinates in effective decision making process and effective change implementation process. Strategic leadership used a greater reward and incentive system to encourage employee productivity and quality of employees to ensure a better performance (Ashkanasy, 2006).

Conclusion 

Strategic leadership is effective in the change implementation process and top managers encourage leaders to follow a strategic leadership approach especially during strategic change execution. It is emphasized that strategic leadership is very important for the modern context of business organization since organizations cannot perform with similar organizational practices over the period of time. Leaders who follow strategic leadership approach help employees to become more innovative and creative. Therefore, it can be concluded that strategic leadership is the best leadership approach which can be used in the change implementation process to achieve the change objectives as well as success of the organization by creating favourable organizational culture.

References 

Asghar, I., 2010. The Role Of Leadership In Organizational Change. 

Ashkanasy, N. M., 2006. The Impact of Leadership and Change Management Strategy on Organizational Culture and Individual Acceptance of Change during a Merger. 

Fazlurrahman, H., 2018. The Mediating of Change Organization in the Effect of Strategic Leadership Style and Innovation. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(4).

Korbi, K., 2015. Leadership and Strategic Change. The Journal of Organizational Management Studies .

Koustelios.A & Belias.D, 2014. The impact of leadership and change management strategy on organizational culture. European Scientific Journal , 10(7).

Koustelios, A., 2014. The Impact Of Leadership And Change Management Strategy On Organizational Culture. European Scientific Journal , 10(7).

Mubarak, M. F., 2019. Impact Of Strategic Leadership On Strategy Implementation. British Journal of Mangement and Marketing Studies, 1(1).

DELIBERATE AND EMERGENT STRATEGY

Strategic planning and strategy development is a very important element for the organization and organizations need to identify opportunities to ensure the business survival and growth. Deliberate strategies provide the organization with a sense of purposeful direction (Cailluet, 2010 ).” Also, Stretton (2017) defined that emergent strategy implies that an organization is learning what works in practice. Mixing the deliberate and the emergent strategies in some way will help the organization to control its course while encouraging the learning process. Purposeful direction and learning organizations have become the modern requirement of business management (Zheng, 2017).

Deliberate and Emergent Strategies on Leadership 

According to Andersen (2007) deliberate and emergent strategies have significant influence on the leadership. Also, leaders have a significant role in developing deliberate and emergent strategies for the organization to achieve the competitive advantage and objectives of the business. Leaders develop purposeful direction for the employees and they help employees to achieve the given roles and responsibilities (Moore, 2019). Further, emergent strategies develop learning cultures for the organization and provide opportunities for employees to develop within the business in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies. Emergent strategy is the process to identify and assist unexpected outcomes of the business and formulate new strategies that will help the company to survive in the long term. Emergent strategies focus on unforeseen circumstances whereas deliberate strategies are completely blinds towards unexpected circumstances (Rivera, 2012). Emergent strategies infuse innovation to the planning process whereas deliberate strategies can get obsolete with time. It is emphasized that leaders are the employees who develop direction for the organization and learning cultures within the business. Leaders also have a significant role in the strategy implementation process since they need to get help from employees to ensure successful strategy implementation (Sheldrake, 2014).

Conclusion

Deliberate and emergent strategies are important for the organizations and leaders have a significant role in developing strategies for the organizational survival. Leaders identify the opportunities for organization to ensure long-term survival and they develop strategies to create innovative and learning organizational cultures. It helps organizations to achieve the competitive advantage. Employees in modern context need career development opportunity. Innovative and learning organizational cultures help organizations to enhance employee motivation and satisfaction. Strategic direction and learning opportunities are important elements in competitive business environment. 

References  

Andersen, T. J., 2007. The Effective Ambidextrous Organization: A Model of Integrative Strategy Making Processes. 

Cailluet, L., 2010 . Mintzberg's Emergent and Deliberate Strategies: Tracking Alcan's Activities in Europe, 1928-2007. The Business History Review , 84(1), pp. 79-104.

Moore, K., 2019. The Emergent Way: How to achieve meaningful growth in an era of flat growth. [Online]
Available at: https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-emergent-way-how-to-achieve-meaningful-growth-in-an-era-of-flat-growth/
[Accessed 5 July 2020].

Rivera, G., 2012. Emergent Strategy. [Online]
Available at: https://interactioninstitute.org/emergent-strategy/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CDeliberate%20strategies%20provide%20the%20organization,while%20encouraging%20the%20learning%20process.
[Accessed 5 July 2020].

Sheldrake, P., 2014. Deliberate And Emergent, By Design. [Online]
Available at: https://www.philipsheldrake.com/2014/07/deliberate-emergent-design/
[Accessed 5 July 2020].

Stretton, A., 2017. Deliberate and emergent strategies and origins of projects. PM World Journal , 6(9).

Zheng, Y., 2017. Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent-Strategic processes in small and medium sized Swedish companies in the IT-industry. Masters Thesis Department of Management & Economics.

STRATEGIC LENSES

Organizational strategic issues are commonly investigated and analyzed under different strategy lenses. Strategic lenses are a concept of strategic management. The lenses are different ways of viewing strategy development. It examines the flow of tasks and information, or how you get things done (Naser, 2019). Each lens reveals many different traits and qualities. Organizations can use each strategic lens to optimize the workflow to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. Strategic lenses can be explained under below perspectives (Shujahat, 2017).

Strategy as a Design

According to Lowstedt (2012) strategy development is an important process for the organization and organizations should carefully identify the constraints and strengths of the organization to develop clear strategic direction. Strategy development is a top down approach and experts will investigate strategies to identify the most effective strategic decisions for the organization.

Strategy as Experience

Further strategy development is heavily influenced by the experience of managers and other employees in the organization based on their previous strategies. Strategy development requires assumptions and experience to develop most effective strategies for business success. There are two types of experiences in strategy development such as individual experience and bias and collective experience and organizational culture (Muogbo, 2013).

Strategy as Ideas

Above mentioned two perspectives are helpful in explaining innovation which influences the strategy development process. This lens emphasizes the importance of promoting diversity in and around organizations which can potentially generate genuinely new ideas. Idea generation requires innovation in modern organizations in creative ideas and suggestions to develop business strategies (Jarzabkowski, 2019).

Strategy as discourse

for managers, language is the main thing that matters. the way of presenting strategy is very important. through the better language managers can justify strategy to promote innovation and change.(Preedy et al.,2012)

Importance of Strategic Lenses 

Strategic lenses are very important for the organizations and it has been explained under three perspectives such as strategy as experience, strategy as ideas and strategies as design. Strategy is a decision making process which is very important for further strategy development. Also, strategy can be defined as an idea which requires innovative and creative ideas to develop business processes (Kenton, 2014). Further, strategy development is based on the experiences of existing employees and experts. The combination of each strategic lens is useful and important for organizations to develop effective strategies to face the intensive market competition and ensure organizational survival.

Conclusion 

It is a management concern to identify the importance of strategic lenses to implement effective strategies to achieve the organizational success and the growth. Strategic lenses can be evaluated under three main perspectives such as strategy as design, strategy as ideas and strategies as experience. Organizations consider each lens in developing successful business strategies to achieve the organizational success in competitive business environment.

References

Jarzabkowski, P., 2019. Strategy Tools-In-Use: A Framework For Understanding ‘Technologies Of Rationality’ In Practice. Strategic Management JournaL, 36(4), pp. 537-558.

Kenton, W., 2014. Managers under the strategy lens: Inspiring others or preoccupied with themselves?. Strategic Direction,, 3(3), pp. 22-24. .

Lowstedt, M., 2012. Exploring the concept of strategy using a practice lens: The case of a large construction company. 

Muogbo, 2013. The Impact of Strategic Management on Organisational Growth and Development (A Study of Selected Manufacturing Firms in Anambra State). IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM), 7(1).

Naser, A., 2019. Strategic lens practices and their role in achieving strategic transparency. Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems , Volume 11.

Preedy, M., Bennett, N. and Wise, C., 2012. Educational Leadership: Context, Strategy and Collaboration. 1st ed. London: Sage.

Shujahat, M., 2017. Strategic management model with lens of knowledge management and competitive intelligence: A review approach. Journal of Information and Management Systems , 47(1).

Autocratic Leadership

Introduction 

Autocratic leadership style also known as authoritarian leadership style. 

“Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership, is a leadership style characterized by individual control over all decisions and little input from group members. Autocratic leaders typically make choices based on their ideas and judgments and rarely accept advice from followers. Autocratic leadership involves absolute, authoritarian control over a group” (Akinbode, 2018).

 Characteristics of Authoritarian Leadership    

• Leaders allow little or no input from the group members

• Leader makes the decisions

• Provides leaders with the ability to dedicate work methods and processes

• Leader does not consider the inputs or suggestions from followers 

• Discourage the creativity and thinking out of the box ability of group members

 Benefits of authoritarian leadership style

• It is suitable for the situations which required quick decisions

• It offers a clean chain of command

• It is a directive leadership style and it is suitable for the workplaces which require a directive approach of managing people (Belias, 2014).

 Drawbacks of authoritarian leadership style

• This leadership approach discourages the input from the team members

• It ignores the creativity and innovation from subordinates (Belias, 2014).

Impact of authoritarian leadership style

Several authors have conducted studies to identify how the authoritarian leadership style influences employee performance and employee morale (Ashkanasy, 2006; Belias, 2014.; Madanchian, 2018). However, it can be concluded that authoritarian leadership is comparatively ineffective since it does not consider the inputs from the team members (Hao, 2015). This leadership approach is suitable for the small groups which requires quick decision making. (Mitonga-Monga & Coetzee, 2012 ) This leadership style is effective in different organizational contexts especially when an organization implements a change management process which requires effective and quick decisions (Obiwuru et al., 2012). Many studies argued that there are numbers of negative impacts from the authoritarian leadership style since it discourages employee motivation and creativity. Employees are willing to participate in decision-making process but authoritarian leaders do not consider employees' ideas and suggestions to make the decisions (Rukmani, Ramesh & Jayakrishnan, 2010; Sougui, Bon & Hassan, 2015).

Author: Thejani Jayasinghe

Conclusion 

Leaders adapt to different styles of leadership approaches and each leadership approach has both advantages and disadvantages. Leadership approaches include autocratic leadership style, democratic leadership style, transformational leadership style etc. Authoritarian leadership style is less productive since it does not encourage creativity and innovation among employees. But it is suitable for the organizations when it requires them to make quick decisions.

References

Akinbode, A. I., 2018. Change Management Process And Leadership Styles. International Journal of Social Sciences.

Ashkanasy, N. M., 2006. The Impact of Leadership and Change Management Strategy on Organizational Culture and Individual Acceptance of Change during a Merger. Volume 28.

Belias, D., 2014. The impact of leadership and change management strategy on organizational culture. European Scientific Journal , 10(7).

Hao, M. J., 2015. How Effective Leadership can Facilitate Change in Organizations through Improvement and Innovation. Global Journal of Management and Business Research: Administration and Management, 15(9).

Madanchian, M., 2018. Effects of Leadership on Organizational Performance. Economics and Education .

Mitonga-Monga, J. & Coetzee, M, 2012. Perceived leadership style and employee participation. African Journal of Business Management, 6(15).

Obiwuru, T. C., Okwu, A. T., Akpa, V. O. & Nwankwere, I. A., 2011. Effects of leadership style on organizational performance: A survey of selected small scale enterprises in Ikosi-Ketu council development area of Lagos State, Nigeria. Australian Journal of Business and Management Research, 7(1).

Rukmani, K., Ramesh, M. & Jayakrishnan, J.,, 2010. Effect of leadership styles on organizational effectiveness. European Journal of Social Sciences, 15(3), pp. 365-369.

Sougui, A. o., Bon, A. T. B. & Hassan, H. M.H., 2015. The Impact of Leadership Styles on Employees’ performance in Telecom Engineering companies. International Conference on Tourism and Hospitality.

Transformational leadership Vs Servant Leadership

 

Introduction

A simple definition for leadership is that it is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Leaders direct and guide employees or followers to achieve the organizational goals. Leadership is a module and a topic which has gained the attention of several research studies in present context due to the increasing and important role of leaders to achieve the organizational success and enhance employee motivation. Different leadership theories and leadership styles can be discussed on the topic of leadership (Allen, 2016 ) .

Out of all leadership styles transformational leadership style and servant leadership style marks significant part in organizations.

Transformational Leadership

According to Kettunen (2015) transformational leadership is a theory of leadership where a leader works with a team to identify the need of change and creates a vision to guide the change through inspiration and execution of the change among the organization by ensuring the commitment of group members

 Servant leadership                                               

According to Randall(2016) Servant leader is a servant who leads and a leader who serves.

“servant leadership is a leadership philosophy in which the main goal of the leader is to serve”(Kettunen,2015)

This is different from traditional and other leadership styles where their lead focuses thriving on their organization.

                                          Transformational leader vs Servant leader/Source: Youtube

Diferences

It is very difficult to suggest one leadership style which organizations can practice to achieve the common goals and objectives (George, 2011).

Ali et al., (2015) emphasized that each leadership style has different characteristics and leaders should select the leadership style according to the situation and nature of the organization. “There are certain differences between transformational leadership style and servant leadership style” (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014). 

“Transformational leadership guides and inspires employees to achieve the organizational goals. But the servant leadership style emphasizes on listening and supporting employees as well as treating employees not only as heroes” (Khajeh, 2018).

 Also the transformational leadership aims at the bigger picture only focusing just the employees. They consider how people can grow and transform both employees and organization to achieve the competitive advantage in the industry. Same time servant leadership emphasizes on setting the examples of facing and serving others and it is good for creating organizational culture and collaboration among people (Kaleem, 2016).

Difference between servant leadership and transformational leadership/Source:www.differencebetween.com

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the both transformational leadership approach and servant leadership approach have advantages and benefits for the organization. It is selective but it can be emphasized that the transformational leadership approach is more effective than servant leadership style. Modern business environment is highly changing and organizations should implement change strategies to achieve the competitive advantage while maintaining the competitive position. Therefore, it is recommended organizations to highly focus on transformational leadership approach.

Author: Thejani Jayasinghe

References

Ali, N.M ., Jangga.R., Ismail, M., Kamal., S., Ali, M.,  2015. Influence Of Leadership Styles In Creating Quality WorkCulture. Procedia Economics and Finance , Volume 31.

Allen, G. P., 2016 . The Role of Servant Leadership and Transformational Leadership inAcademic Pharmacy. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 80(7).

George, W. M., 2011. Servant leadership versus transformational leadership in voluntaryservice organizations. Leadership & OrganizationDevelopment Journal, 32(1), pp. 60-77.

Kaleem, Y., 2016. Leadership Styles & Using Appropriate Styles in Different Circumstances.

Kettunen, J., 2015. Transformational And Servant Leadership: Evidence From Indian HigherEducation. The Online Journal of Quality in Higher Education, 2(4).

Khajeh, E. H. A., 2018. Impact of Leadership Styles on Organizational Performance. Journalof Human Resources Management Research .

Nanjundeswaraswamy T.S. & Swamy D.R., 2014. Leadership styles. Advances InManagement , 7(2).

Piyu, (2019), Difference between servant leadership and Transformational leadership. [ONLINE]. Available at: https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-servant-leadership-and-transformational-leadership/ [Accessed 5 June 2020].

Randall, D., 2016. A Guide To High Definition Servant Leadership. 1st ed. online: lulu.com.

Youtube. (2018). Transformational Leader v. Servant Leader. [Online Video]. 9 November 2018. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l0Xcqcw3Rg. [Accessed: 5 June 2020].