Leadership in the globalized business world today

¶ … leadership and management. The writer defines the terms as well as discusses the three most important issues in leadership today. There were seven sources used to complete this paper.

Worldwide globalization has brought many positive things to the business world including better trade abilities, more communication devices, and additional consumers. The globalization of the business world has blended cultural and tradition beliefs with technological advances to produce a new world of business to be enjoyed and shared. This new way of doing business has brought about many changes at all levels. One of the most important levels of change is happening at the top of the chain, among leaders and managers. As the world continues to globalize and technology keeps opening new possibilities it will become more important for leaders to keep pace with the process.

DEFINING LEADERSHIP

One of the most important things to do if one wants to improve leadership in their organization is to define what leadership consists of. Leadership as defined by dictionaries is to lead. This can be applied to many aspects of life including school, politics, social functions and business (Issac, 2001). Each area holds certain requirements that the leaders must possess. Business leadership used to be narrowly defined as one who set the pace, defined the rules and determined consequences. Today that is no longer true and businesses across the nation are scrambling to redefine the role of leader (Issac, 2001).

In today's economic and global climate leadership can be probably defined best with the word mentor. This definition encompasses many duties including delegation, guiding, responsibility and innovation. Leaders of today's business must be able to have a vision of the future and then be able to visualize an innovative and clear cut path to get there.

Leadership is the ability to create a vision, then embrace its components, and finally communicate with others so that it can be followed through on and completed. Leadership integrates the delegation of responsibility with personal management at every level of the business (Issac, 2001). Years ago leadership meant the taking of credit for things that went right and passing the buck for things that went wrong. Over the past several decades the meaning of leadership has come full circle and today it means accepting responsibility for the outcome regardless of its reception. In addition current leadership skills include sharing the accolades of success with those who worked together to make it happen, while not blaming those people if the vision fails. Leadership is allowing people to self-manage and self-motivate, yet being available to guide someone who needs help getting back on track. While leadership used to be a heavy handed venture with top heavy power, the effects of worldwide globalization have tempered it with the incorporation of more equal footing.

Leadership is the act of guidance in which a vision or goal is aimed for and steps are encouraged at all levels to reach those goals. Leadership promotes best efforts, and shows by example the best path to the goal. Leadership success is often based in the ability of the leader to communicate effectively with many levels of the business. "The results showed that people who worked under a charismatic leader generated more ideas and reported greater job satisfaction than those with structuring leaders (Laver, 1996). In addition, students with charismatic bosses performed at a higher level, displayed higher satisfaction and developed stronger bonds of loyalty than those with considerate leaders, despite the latter's efforts to be sociable (Laver, 1996). "

The definition of leadership has not only changed because of the current worldwide globalization, but also because of the equality of women that has been worked for over the last four decades. The females in the business world possess many leadership qualities that have a positive impact on those that they work with. Leadership is not gender specific, but is rather trait specific if it is handled in a successful manner (Klarsch, 1997).

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MANAGER and LEADER

Many people have the mistaken belief that a leader and a manager are always one and the same. While this is true in the sense that all managers are also leaders, the reverse does not have to hold true. Leaders can be those who are charged with the responsibility of overseeing the managers of a business or project (Alred, 1996). While a leader does help manage in a sense, because they have to guide those who work on the project, they are also often defined as separate from actual managers. One way to understand the difference is to use a manufacturing plant as an example. In a manufacturing plant there is an assembly line. Employees work on the line to produce a product for sale. A line supervisor supervises the workers, and then above them are the managers. The managers often act as liaisons between the company leaders and the supervisors (Alred, 1996). The leaders head up the organization and provide guidance to the managers. The managers then take that guidance and use it to promote higher productivity on the line. The leader is not usually directly connected to the manufacturing employees. The manager is often times attached to both the line and the higher ups or the leaders (Alred, 1996).

Comparing the difference between as using concrete examples can do manager and a leader. A manager is one who is directly involved with the day-to-day operations of the business. The manager is involved with the actual production, or sale of the product. The daily quotas, or goals are the responsibility of the manager because he or she supervises the actual production of products. The leader provides the overall picture, or vision for the company and its future. While the manager may be charged with the step-by-step process of providing one piece of the overall picture the leader is concerned with the entire picture and therefore works with all aspects of its completion. One of the easiest ways to describe the difference between a manager and a leader is to look at the traits of each and see where they differ.

A recent study of management skills that will be needed in the future determined the following traits were important (Alred, 1996).

A knowledge-based technical specialty This is different than a leader because a leader is more div (Alred, 1996)."ersified and broad based in his or her responsibilities cross-functional and international experience. This is similar to the traits of a good leader (Alred, 1996).

A self-management skills. The role of a leader also demands self-management skills (Alred, 1996).

A personal traits of flexibility, integrity, and trustworthiness which are also traits needed for leadership (Alred, 1996).

If one were to use this study as a basis for comparison between the leaders and the managers of the future it would become clear that the main difference is the manager need to be specialized and the leaders need to be diversified.

Studies have shown that there is not a difference in the traits of female and male managers. They handle the same task and turn to the leaders for leadership. If one difference were to be chosen between managers and leaders it would be the scope of their domain. Management specializes while leaders are broad based in their areas of interest in the company (Wangsteen, 1997).

There are some things about the role of managers and leaders that are startlingly similar. The fact that they are both expected to be trustworthy, be able to delegate, communicate and display integrity are commonalities regardless if one is a manager or a leader. Delegation is important in both positions because it allows more ground to be covered at one time (Whitener, 1998). Managers delegate within their area of expertise and allow others to handle the specifics. Leaders have to be able to delegate because of their role in overseeing the entire project or vision.

CONCLUSION

The world of business is changing with the rapid progress of worldwide globalization. The future will be filled with changes and today's management and leaders need to be prepared for those changes if they want to succeed in business. Diversity, team building and maintenance while progression is learned are all going to be important factors to the smooth transition between now and then. Leadership skills consist of a combination of learned behaviors and personality traits that work together and guide a team. Leadership is a skill that requires self-motivation, communications skills and the acceptance of diversity. As the future moves in it will be important for leaders to continue their education so that they understand the most effective ways to lead.