In the current era where globalization is rampant, there is a need for global leadership to govern the interconnected communities and societies, notably in the business sector. Global leadership entails governing and leading in a group of people from different cultural backgrounds. It is critical to note that with the increased diversity prompted by globalization, there is a need for global leadership changes. Global leaders are expected to incorporate strategies that support diversity. Additionally, an increased technology revolution has affected the management and leadership in global businesses. The rampant changes encountered in the 21 st century have prompted both challenges and opportunities for international companies. For instance, there is a need for leaders and managers to establish strategies that meet the needs of local and global clients and employees. Therefore, leaders and managers need to address global issues, including economic, legal, and social issues (Hill, 2014). This paper will explore emerging global leadership and management issues during the 21st century by focusing on market forces, diversity, leadership competencies, and people issues.
Market Forces
Market forces are pivotal in determining the success of any business. Both international and businesses are affected by market forces. In the current world characterized by globalization, the forces continue to generate changes at the macro-economic level; thus, demanding more effort from managers and leaders ( Doh, Luthan & Slocum, 2016 ). These forces include an unstable political environment in different countries and an increased technological revolution. Therefore, leaders and managers have to set proper strategies to tackle various market forces effectively. Furthermore, market forces influence consumer behaviors and their response to the organization's products, affecting demand and supply in the market.
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The political environment of other nations across the world affects global leadership and management significantly. Businesses tend to thrive in a peaceful environment; therefore, political heat in different countries significantly affects multinational companies, demanding their leaders and managers to incorporate urgent policies to protect their organizations' interests and well-being. For instance, research done by Panetta & Obama (2012) argues that global leaders and managers encounter challenges in formulating efficient trade policies due to the dynamic political climates in several countries. Undoubtedly, the political uncertainty, especially in economic giant countries like The US and China, makes it hard for global leaders and managers to establish appropriate strategies and complicates the organizations' decision-making process.
Additionally, increased technological advancement affects global leadership and management since leaders encounter challenges in deciding when and how they should lead their organizations in adapting to emerging technologies (Cater, 2013). The majority of the leaders may also face difficulty using technology to access essential data because some may lack the technical knowledge to use advanced technological devices. Additionally, managers and leaders are familiar with the fact that most people are shifting to online activities due to the easy accessibility of technological devices and internet availability. Consequently, managers' duties that include the formulation of policies and communications continue to change dramatically due to technological advancement. Furthermore, they acknowledge that they are entitled to leading their organizations and employees into adapting new technologies to match the external environment standards. Companies that fail to keep up with emerging technologies are most likely to lose the market's competitive advantage, leading to business failure.
Furthermore, different countries' legal requirement affects how multinational leaders and managers execute their leadership roles. Transnational companies must comply with the legal requirements of the nations they operate in and also adhere to various economic requirements. Consequently, global leaders and managers are forced to devise proper strategies that fit the legal and economic requirement standards of different countries. More so, leaders must comply with price-setting considering the country's economic level and ensure they also do not make losses. Price and customers' needs act as the most significant determiners of supply and demand. Suppose global organizations set their prices higher than the economic standards in the countries of their operations. In that case, their commodities will most likely have low demand, leading to losses.
Diversity
Diversity in the workplace has increased dramatically in recent years, which can be attributed to globalization. It has been a significant issue in the current debates involving global businesses and organizations. The majority of people propose that diversity is essential in the workplace; therefore, global leaders and managers should devise proper strategies to ensure that their organization embraces diversity. Leaders and managers must acquire a global mindset to execute leadership roles in a diverse business setup effectively. As a result, they must possess a global mindset that helps them understand that differences exist across different cultural practices. A critical aspect of a global mindset is conceptualization, which requires leaders and managers to perceive the business world from a global perspective, which can be complex (Cohen, 2010). Furthermore, a global mindset ensures that leaders can establish and reinforce quality relationships with shareholders from any part of the world.
Additionally, most countries have designed primary policies to ensure that diversity is incorporated into various organizations, notably international companies. Consequently, global leaders and managers are forced to adhere to standard guidelines during recruitment and staffing processes. These policies influence global leadership and management since it requires managers to ensure adequate inclusion of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Diversity prompts both positive and negative effects on the global business (Perez, 2019). As leaders strive to ensure that their organization adopts the spirit of inclusivity, it improves the organization's performance because different people from different cultures possess unique skills and qualifications. Therefore, when an organization embraces diversity, it enjoys a vast pool of skills and talents, leading to outstanding organizational performance.
However, diversity can also prompt negative results threatening an organization's well-being. It may create loopholes for discrimination and bully against the minority group. Discrimination is inherent in workforces that constitutes people from diverse cultures. People in the minority groups are vulnerable to encounter discrimination based on salary rate and seclusion from the decision-making processes. In most cases, the minority group may be paid less than people from the dominating group within an organization, although they all possess similar qualifications. Furthermore, they may also face the challenge of being secluded in the decision-making processes involving critical aspects of the organization (Fragouli, 2016). Discrimination affects organization performance negatively because it leads to decreased employees' output.
Undoubtedly, diversity is an essential part of the organization; however, it also poses risks of increased discrimination cases. Therefore, leaders must ensure that diversity is embraced and all employees are treated equally regardless of ethnicity. In some companies, especially the transnational ones, diversity tends to be legal compliance. Additionally, in the workforce, organizations have an ethical obligation to ensure that all employees working in a similar job position receive a standardized salary and remuneration. An individual's ethnicity, race, or nationality should not act as a determinant of his/her salary. Leaders and managers are expected to execute all these responsibilities.
Furthermore, diversity has affected the organization's advertisement strategies. International corporates must practice-wide coverage in their advertisements for job vacancies to ensure that people from different parts of the world know the available job positions. Consequently, people from diverse cultural and social backgrounds are granted an opportunity to apply for job opportunities and proceed to recruitment and employment processes. Numerous diversity programs tend to be a legal requirement in many organizations, enabling people to learn about each other, respect, and value others' cultures. It is the leaders and managers responsibilities to ensure that they devise proper advertisement strategies that reach out to almost all people from different backgrounds
People Issues
Whether clients, stakeholders, or the human workforce, people contribute significantly to any business's success, either local or international. Within the internal business environment, the human workforce acts as a significant asset that determines a business's success (Nam et al., 2014). Therefore, global leaders and managers strive to motivate the human workforce to reinforce their performance and improve their overall performance. In the current days, associated with an escalated level of globalization, the internal relationships between may appear difficult because the people involved are different across cultural practices and beliefs.
Additionally, global leaders in the human resource department face the challenge of keeping up with globalization trends that concern employees. For instance, due to easy mobility, most employees are opting for full-time jobs. Furthermore, global organizations constitute consultants, temporary and full-time employees. These trends evoke uncertainty, making it hard for global leaders and managers to predict employees' demands and expectations. Additionally, Human resource leaders face difficulty balancing the global and local employee needs ( Boone, Kurtz & Berston, 2019 ). The managers are also responsible for establishing compensation plans that will address various needs met by people in different socioeconomic setups.
Leadership Competencies
As discussed in the above texts, the witnessed changes experienced in the current times prompted by diversity, globalization, and technology advancement have changed the leadership competencies. There is a vast difference between what was considered competent in the global leadership roles a century ago. The business context has changed dramatically in the 21 st century and requires global companies to be innovative and establish policies based on current knowledge and information. Global leaders need to comprehend that international interaction is vital for them to develop global leadership competencies. Mele &Sanchez (2013) argued that leaders must acquire and exercise global competencies because of increased global operations. Many leaders tend to fail in the global leadership roles because they do not possess global competencies. One of the primary reasons associated with failure in the global arena is that as the business globalizes, there is increased complexity and diversity, and leaders without global leadership competencies do not possess the ability to operate within a diverse environment.
Conclusion
In summary, there have been increased changes in the current times, which has caused global leadership changes. Some of the emerging issues that have impacted global and management leadership include market forces, diversity, people issues, and leadership competencies. Market forces are pivotal in both international and local businesses. Multinational businesses need to formulate strategies that fit into the standards of the particular countries they operate in; thus, influencing an organization's leadership and management. Some of the market forces include legal requirements, technological advancement, among others.
Additionally, diversity is a major issue caused by globalization and affect global leadership and management greatly. Leaders and managers are required to establish policies that allow inclusivity in their organizations. Furthermore, due to diversity, different people in the organizations demand different needs; thus, affecting managers, notably the HR managers, since they focus on the organization workforce. Lastly, global leadership and management are affected by improved requirements of leadership competencies. Global leaders and managers should familiarize themselves with the emerging changes and strive to ensure that they lead their organizations into formulating strategies that align with global changes.
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