IntroductionLeadership - what is it? Many definitions have been offered, various theories abound, numerous programs focus on leadership development, but the question remains. It is almost always a difficult and situational process since organization, environment and social needs are continuously changing. Theories around leadership have emerged for roughly one century, such as trait theories focusing on the leaders of the organization, or behavioral theories stressing the relationship between leaders and followers, but cannot explain the nature and effectiveness of leadership. With the development of the theories, the Fiedler model, Hersey and Blanchard's situational theory, ...view middle of the document...
As a process of influence, it clarifies the goals of a group or an organization, guides and motivates behaviours of the followers to achieve these goals, and helps define and shape organizational culture. In fact, effectiveness of leadership is playing a critical role for an organization to pursue the success in the future.Then what is effective leadership? And what is it playing in success of an organisation? As leadership is influenced by contextual factors like environment, relationship and ethical issues mentioned above, in fact, effective leadership could be only deemed as many different things for different people to use different ways in different circumstances. Namely, effective leadership is variable and situational. Meanwhile, effective leadership is a dynamic or changing process in the sense that, while influence is always present, the persons exercising that influence may change. Possession of influence depends upon the situation and upon the relevancy of the individual's skills and abilities to the situation. For example, if a particular individual has the expertise that is required to solve a problem, then that individual may be assumed to have some degree of influence over others. Therefore, the leadership effectiveness is contingent upon the leader, the follower and the organizational situation, which will be discussed through three typical aspects- business globalization, leader-follower relationship, and ethical issues.DiscussionGiven it is impossible for leaders to exist in vacuum and they are always influenced by contextual factors such as external environment, leader-follower relationship, and ethical issues. Thereby, what makes it go? Only by exploring these kinds of contextual factors, leaders can take action forward in their development and preparation for twenty-first century leadership.A significant part of external environmental change is the business globalization that is becoming an important influence on effective leadership, both on global level and internal organization level. Globalization has many implications for leadership today and in the future. Early to the last century (even to some extent today), there was a tendency for many people to think locally: one's hometown was one's world. However, current leaders are realizing that, although this point of view may have been common during that era, globalization is rapidly occurring. As technology and communication improve, barriers between nations and regions are disappearing, and global village is forming. Global perspectives are being spread to the farthest points in the world and to the most isolated people. People of different cultures come together to live, study or engage in business. Not only that, New Zealand's individuals and organizations are going to Asia on business as easy as they used to travel to neighboring Australia. Globalization has become and will continue to be a new way of life that all people must face. In organization term, leaders a...
