Technological improvements is perhaps one of the biggest factors
to the change in leadership. Unlike today, many things had to be done by hand.
A lot of time was spent to focus on meeting customer demand in addition to
ensuring quality of the product or service. As a result, much less time was
spent on employees: resulting a more directive leadership style (Institute of
Learning and Innovation, n.d.).
Today, most organizations have shifted from a car-like approach to
something more organism-like: where autonomy and interaction among employees is
active than ever before. The Google Company is one of few examples that follows
this approach. Innovation is critical for Google to efficiently run their
business, and to promote this, they established an assortment of strategies. To
encourage interaction among employees, Google established the Google Café. This not only help
establish stronger relationships, but interaction among employees (from all
levels) can be used as a learning opportunity to employees (He, 2013). Google also
has their well-known 20 Percent Time
strategy to promote innovation. The strategy aims to encourage employees to
spend 20 percent of their work time to create something in their field of interest.
While this help employees establish a purpose as well as enhancing their
skills, the strategy also helped Google create some new and successful products
such as Google News and Gmail (D’Onfro, 2015).
People’s thoughts and beliefs are another
reason to why leadership has changed over the course of years. Whether its
political, environmental, or something tragic, people often “shift gears” to adapt
to a particular event. The 1982 Tylenol Crisis is a good example of this. After
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) learned that the several deaths in Chicago were
caused by Tylenol pills laced with cyanide, the company immediately followed up
with a thorough investigation of their organization. Eventually, the
investigation led to a reconstruction of the entire organizations, as consumer
safety became the primary focus. In the end, the company was able to regain
consumer trust and successfully overcome the crisis with their new tamper-proof
packaging and pills. While the crisis changed J&J’s ways of doing business,
many other companies looked up to J&J’s actions: changing their perspectives
on consumer safety (Markel, 2014).
Another factor that changed
leadership are the demographic changes. The world is coming closer together as
many companies are doing business with people from different places around the
world. Due to the different cultural differences, leaders have become more
adaptive to their people and surroundings. For example, an American company
working closely with a Japanese company may shift to a more context language than
being directive. The Japanese are often uncomfortable being direct, as this is
often seen as a rude gesture (Lim, n.d.).
Over the course of years, leadership
styles have shifted to a strict and directive style to something more fluid. In
my current job as a university advisor, I see all three factors playing some
role to the university. In terms of communication, technological improvements
led us to do more “live chats” (phones and video calls) to help our employee come
together (feeling less reserved). We’re always alert by the things that happen
around us, and establish new degrees, procedures, etc. based on what’s
happening. Lastly, as an online university, we deal with an array of people. I
am starting to notice that employees are becoming more aware of cultural
differences, and accommodating students as much as possible (example: reminding
residential campus staff about the Ramadan).
References:
D’Onfro, J.
(2015). The truth about Google’s famous ‘20% time’ policy. Business Insider.
Retrieved from
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-20-percent-time-policy-2015-4
He, L.
(2013). Google’s Secrets Of Innovation: Empowering Its Employees. Forbes.
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurahe/2013/03/29/googles-secrets-of-innovation-empowering-its-employees/#7913604657e7
“Institute of Learning and
Innovation”. (n.d.). The Evolution of Leadership [PDF file]. Mind Resources.
Retrieved from http://www.mindresources.net/web/institutejournal5/Article2.pdf
Lim, T. (n.d.). Cross Cultural
Leadership [PDF file]. Retrieved from http://www.regent.edu/admin/stusrv/student_dev/docs/Downloads/Professional%20Skills/Comparative%20Cultural%20Etiquette/Comparative%20Cultural%20Etiquette_index.pdf
Markel, H. (2014). How the Tylenol
murders of 1982 changed the way we consume medication. PBS. Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/tylenol-murders-1982/
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