QUESTION 1 (30 MARKS): 1.1 Identify 3 leadership needs in organisations. Explain why you think a need is a need. Give

background to the need (20 marks).

Leadership is less about the leader’s needs and more about the needs of the people and the organization being led. If a leader can come to an understanding of their team's expectations and demands (needs), either as a group or as individuals, and adapt to these, the effectiveness of their leadership can be expected to improve. In organisations, there are many leadership needs but below is a look at the top 3 needs within the organisation that has an impact on the success and survival of the organisation.

NEED 1: Need for Transformational and Authentic Leadership:

In the modern era, there is a growing need for leaders especially executives to transform organisations to cope with globalization, increasing local and international competition and more rapid technological and social change. The world today is a lot different to what it was in the past and there is a requirement for leaders to transform the organisation and influence the overall effectiveness of the organisation to get maximum output. Globalisation: refers to the shift toward a more integrated and interdependent world economy by means of an integration of the various countries. The world's increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly every continent. Coupled with this are the technological advancements in the past couple of years where the Internet has played a pivotal role in bridging the gaps between countries, organizations and people. This has resulted in organizations being under pressure to deliver unique products and services to customers at competitive prices in order to survive. And this is going to increase as technology is rolled out to more countries and competition between organisations increases. There is a need for followers to be kept aware of the changes that affect them but also to have a leader that is on the ball and able to put a strategy in place to transform the company. One of the biggest things for any employee in any organisation is job security and this can only be achieved if the company survives and remains competitive. Organisational effectiveness is the long term prosperity and survival of the organisation and depends on 3 types of determinants which the leader has to take cognisance of although they may differ across organisations and over time:

1. Efficiency and process reliability;2. Human relations and resources;3. Adaptation to the environment.

Change or transformation that result in enhanced performance determinants can be achieved by the following methods; leadership behaviour, changes in programs, systems and structure and competitive strategy.

This however leads to the second part of this need which is to ensure that while the leader is transforming the company, he or she remains authentic. It is clear that the depth of misconduct by leaders in the corporate and government spheres is on the rise and continues to shock the world. There is a need for authentic leaders to not only inspire those around them, but bring people together around a shared purpose and a common set of values. They are also required to motivate

them to create value for everyone involved to gain success in the organisation. If leadership is about influence, then the foundation of leadership is authenticity. The leader needs to be real, sincere, and defined by honesty and integrity.

The whole aim of transforming the organisation is to ensure long term survival of the company and unethical behaviour is not sustainable with chances are that it will be investigated and found out one day. When that happens, the damage to the brand and morale within the organisation will be great and could go a long way in undoing what the transformation was meant to achieve. This means that transformation and authenticity has to go hand in hand as a need.

NEED 2: Need for Flexible, Adaptive Leadership:

The second need is related to the first need. Decisions and actions taken to transform the company could have a positive impact on the one side and a negative impact on the other side. The net result is that if the right balance is not found, it could actually lower the organisational performance and its competitiveness. When there are difficult decisions to make that have advantages and disadvantages, there is a need for the leader to weigh up the pros and the cons and make a decision that will benefit the organisation. This calls for the leader to be flexible and adaptive in their approach as some of the decisions would have to be made that cuts out red tape in a process due to the urgency, or a decision might have to be made halfway through a process if something is not working. There might also be a situation where the leader is able to find a way to balance the performance determinants only to find that changes in other internal or external conditions affect the balance again. It is essential then to continually monitor the situation and decide on what types of behaviour, programs, management systems and structural forms are relevant and mutually compatible. Depending on historical information to make a decision may not always work as there could be changes to the environment, technology, strategy that makes things different. There is a huge amount of skill, knowledge and development required to monitor and diagnose the situation accurately and integrates diverse leadership activities in a way that is relevant to the changing conditions.

The world today is not standing still. Information changes that effect organisations happen on a weekly, daily, and hourly basis. Some of the changes are volatile and have major impacts, while other changes are less volatile and have minor impact. Leaders need to be able to react to different circumstances and situations and have the flexibility to adapt accordingly as these impacts the followers and the organisation as a whole. This means that the leader cannot be rigid in their style; successful leaders will have to adjust their styles depending on the situation. Flexible adaptive leadership is essential to deal successfully with the trade-offs, competing objectives and changing situations.

NEED 3: Need for Strategic Leadership:

The need for strategic leadership to influence the performance of the organisation depends on how the organisation has evolved and what stage of maturity the organisation is in. A strategy planned and implemented for an organisation cannot be expected to be sustainable throughout the lifetime of the organisation especially in light of the rapid changing environment mentioned with the 2 other needs. An organisation should constantly monitor its performance and poor results could trigger a period of reorientation. This may be done by top level leaders to respond to a variety of changes which has an impact on the performance of the organisation. Changes could include environmental,

technological, new competition, new laws or regulatory changes, declining demand for organisations products or services. Major strategy changes affect the whole organisation and there is always going to be resistance and unhappiness from certain employees. There is a saying “it is impossible to please all of the people all of the time.” This a time when top level leaders will have to guide and co-ordinate the changes, and communicate relevant messages to the employees to make it a success.

Strategic decision making is not an easy task and is not only done by the CEO but incudes other Executive members as well. The most important part of any strategy is to ensure the organisation is able to compete effectively in the marketplace and remain profitable. A strategy should address the changes in the external environment and take into account the organisations strengths and weaknesses. It should also reflect the core mission and the high priority objectives of the organisation. The following guidelines help with the formulation of the strategy (page 418):

1. Determine long term objectives and priorities.Long term objectives and priorities should be based on the stated mission and vision of the organisation.

2. Assess current strengths and weaknesses.Strategic planning is facilitated by a comprehensive objective evaluation of current performance in relation to strategic objectives and compared to performance of competitors.

3. Identify core competencies.A core competency refers to the knowledge and capability to carry out a particular type of activity.

4. Evaluate the need for major change in strategy.One of the most important responsibilities of executive leadership is to help interpret events and determines whether the organisation needs a different strategy or adjustments to the existing strategy.

5. Identify promising strategies.If a major change in strategy is necessary, it is better to begin by looking into a list of possible strategies.

6. Evaluate the likely outcomes of a strategy.A strategy should be evaluated in terms of the likely consequences for the attainment of key objectives.

7. Involve other executives in selecting a strategy.Executives carry a huge responsibility as they are responsible to make strategic decisions that will improve the organisation.