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Strategy evaluation
Strategic Leadership and Practice
the influence of strategy
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Strategic Leaders and Top-Level Management in an Organization
Strategic leaders provide the direction, vision, purpose for growth, and context for success of an organization. The most effective organizations are preparing now for tomorrow’s leaders, precisely seeking future leaders that possess qualities that include ambition, strong training skills, leadership skills, and those who transition into change well (“Five key traits,” 2013). Furthermore, understanding how culture ties into an organization and the influence that top-level managers have in organizations is very important.
Characteristics of Strategic Leaders and the Role of Culture
The distinguishing characteristic of strategic leaders compared to team-level employees is that it
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In organizations, there are typically three levels of management; there is top-level, middle-level, and first-level. This is referred to as management hierarchy. All levels of management are responsible for planning, organizing, directing, and controlling in the work place. Additionally, there are differences across the management levels as to what types of management tasks each does and the roles that they take in their jobs. Top-level managers consist of the board of directors, president, vice-president, CEO, and other similar positions. They are responsible for planning and directing the entire operation of the organization (“The role of management,” 2014). Top-level managers do not direct day to day activities; however they are responsible for setting goals for the organization and directing the company to achieve them. Top-level managers often have a great deal of management experience. Every part of what lower level managers and subordinates do generally come from top-level managers. It is the lower levels of management responsibility to implement these standards to the subordinates. Every decision made by top-level management has an effect on the organization and other members within the organization (“The role of management,” 2014). One wrong decision can cause a lasting effect over an organization. That is why those in top-level management positions gave a wealth of knowledge and experience. Without top-level management companies would lack a great deal or structure and
The culture of an organization is embodied in its vision as well as the actions and attitude of its employees. Managers can sometimes sustain the skeleton of the company culture but it takes a leader to invigorate it and keep it healthy. A manager works hard at keeping the “old” culture and a leader works even harder at ensuring the culture is innovative and breathing in each of its employees. Bo...
...d attributes listed in this paper described the qualities which best enable future strategic leaders to be successful in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment. Also addressed was the need to cultivate future strategic leaders; this method conflicts with traditional methods of placing individuals in strategic positions without utilizing a vetting process. Therefore, it should be concluded that strategic leaders should be developed and identified through experience and training and lastly channeled through a tailored education process. It is also important to note, that they need to know where they're going, (vision) they need to actively communicate (communication skills) this to both their subordinates and especially to those outside the bounds of their organizational structure all while having the fortitude to see thing through (persistence).
Strategic leadership comprises styles and abilities to yield employee performance producing the desired outcome. Leadership styles consist of various components, dependent on situations, and produce one of three responses- commitment, compliance, and/or resistance (Trident 2016). As leadership engages the use of power to influence employee outcomes, leaders develop personal leadership styles in order to empower the workforce. Efficient directors possess influential powers such as legitimate, expert, reward, coercive, and referent, allowing managers to obtain desired employee performance while empowering the workforce (Eveland n.d.). Various models of leadership styles have evolved, evident in innumerable situations, yet not limited to
without failure. On the other hand, top managers are responsible of company’s goal setting and to make sure
Vera, D. and Crossan, M. (2004) 'Strategic leadership and organizational learning', Academy of Management Review 29 (2): 222-240.
Leadership and organizational culture have direct influence on an organizations performance, thus effecting the quality, cost and effectiveness of the organizations strategic plans and missions. Organizational culture (OC) can be the established set of patterns, believes or “norms” that exist with an organization. An organization’s cultural environment can either increase or reduce employee stress. This stress can then in turn take a dramatic toll on individuals creating additional employee stressors. Obviously eliminating stress is simply impossible, but the best managers are
Management is the basis of how any given organization operates and how each activity preformed is organized that makes each day possible and profitable for the overall good of the company. Power and responsibility levels are ranked amongst each individuals own skill set, education, and experience level in an organization. Management has many levels depending on each individual company and its size. This can consist of several people answering to one main head of operations, or thousands upon thousands answering to several different tiers of management (Bauer & Erdogan, 2012).
Leaders ensure culture of the organization is understood and adhered to; they also spearhead cultural change efforts
Crucial to the implementation of cultural change is senior management?s ability to use leadership and provide a shared vision of the future. In a chaotic, dynamic world of change we must be able to come up with new ideas and inventions in order to compete in the global market.
Organizations are experiencing a rapid transformation in the environment, which has caused them to reevaluate how they do business. Economic changes, globalization, and expansions in technology have warranted the need to adapt quickly to changes in the environment (Schneider, 2002). Organizational leadership has three general components: setting the direction for the organization, organizational performance, and change management (Johnson, 2011). It is critical for organizations to position themselves in this competitive market for success.
Leaders with transformational leadership behavior can direct their organization toward effectiveness and productivity (Hur, 2011). Leaders can direct human resources toward the strategic objectives of the organization and ensure that organizational functions are in line with the external environment (Riaz&Haider, 2010). Furthermore, capabilities of effective leaders are predicting the future probabilities and planning strategies to satisfy uncertainties (Riaz&Haider, 2010). They can lead and supervise organizations to success by paying attention to changes especially environmental changes, which helps them set suitable goals and objectives.
According Hughes, Beatty, and Dinwoodie’s ( 2014) work on strategy, all areas of an organization need to collaborate with each other to help bring strategy to fruition. They mentioned four elements of leadership strategy. (1) Leadership Drivers of Business Strategy. This is the identification of and the preparing of leaders to implement strategy. Certain skills, abilities and resources need to be in place prior to a strategies’ roll out. When the correct leaders have the proper skill sets are in place coupled with the backing of the organization this may create a dynamic situation. Hughes et al. (2014) describes these as “levers- that if pulled will catapult the organization toward success” (p. 236). (2)Leadership Culture, as mentioned
Leaders have influence the organizational climate and can change the command culture. However to accomplish that they have to first understand the existing organizational culture within which they are operating. Culture is the behavior characteristic of a particular group. In an organizational setting, leaders have to be mindful of this cultural factors in the context that is sensitive to the different backgrounds of team members to best leverage their talent. There are three levels of culture. First level is the Artifacts. This is the surface level. It includes all phenomena that one sees, hears, and feels when one encounters a new group with unfamiliar culture. Second level is the espoused values. These reflect the original values. Third level is the basic underlying assumptions. These are what were once hypothesis, supported only by a hunch or a value, come gradually to be treated as reality. Climate, in the other hand, is a prevailing trend of public opinion or attitude in a given organization at a given time.
...l man who enables others to think and do in his way (role model) and his employees work him for unconditional loyalty (e.g. his PA), also, adopt a fair system of rewards and punishments; however, as a leader sometimes he just needs some transformational styles which respect and communicate with followers equally rather than forced them to shut up rudely. As for organizational culture, the article obtains further understanding that some factors attribute to detect cultures existed in an organisation, communication system, for example. As a result, it can be identified that his culture not only can be classified as power but task. Moreover, due to the changeable outside environment, compounded and flexible cultures seems to be a better way for an organisation’s sustainable development. Therefore, leadership is tightly related to organizational culture.
Usually, the belief is that the managers, administrators, presidents or even the supervisors, have the greatest source of power, because they are at the top of the ladder in the hierarchy of the organization. The reality is that they need