Changes in Organizations and in Expectations of Leaders.

 

To some, a leader is someone who takes charge and jumps in to make decisions whenever the situation requires. This view is particularly dominant in traditional organizations with a clear hierarchy in which employees and managers carry out narrowly defined responsibilities. To others, a leader is a facilitator who simply channels the group’s desires. The extent to which a leader is attributed power and knowledge varies by culture and will be discussed in the next chapter.

 

New Roles for Leaders

With the constant need for innovation, intense global competition, changing demographics, and reliance on teams, organizations and their hierarchies are changing drastically. As a result, many of the traditional leadership functions and roles are changing as well. This figure presents the traditional model and the new model for the leaders in organizations. the changing environment for organizations has forced us to reconsider our expectations and requirements for leadership.

 

Effective leaders of diverse and global teams are not necessarily in control of the group. They might need facilitation and participation skills much more than initiation-of-structure skills. For example, employees in traditional organizations are responsible only for production; the planning, leading, and controlling functions, as well as the responsibility for results, fall on the manager.

 

An increasing number of organizations, however, are shifting the activities and responsibilities typically associated with managers to employees. Managers are expected to provide the vision, get the needed resources to employees, act as support persons, and get out of employees’ way. The employees in turn, learn about the strategic and financial issues related to their job, plan their own activities, set production goals, and take responsibility for their results.