Business Leadership and Market Competitiveness

Leadership is a remarkable attribute; it is one that has been witnessed in the work of renowned politicians, policy makers, businesspeople, athletes, scholars, members of the clergy and nobelists, among many others. There have been so many women and men who have achieved great results, regardless of the nature of their strategic objectives and goals. Granted, not all have had the best of intentions, and their actions may have been somewhat disappointing and even straight-out unethical; however, their success ultimately lies in their followers and achievement of effective outcomes. Their legacy is, in fact, the continuous successes as leaders despite potential contradicting points of view.

Corporate governance tends to resonate when large and multinational firms’ decisions’ outcomes make the daily news headlines. It is a concept that hardly comes up, that is until stakeholders’ outrage reaches the boardroom, mass media, or worse, social media. It is only natural that current and potential stakeholders take action when they become aware of organizations engaging in questionable and/or unethical practices. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the internal and external dynamics of governance attributes, as well as their impact on current and potential stakeholder perceptions and actions, and influence on organizational standing.

Performance is one business concept that is never checked off the to-do list, meaning that there is no finish line when it comes to performance; once an organization has reached its strategic goal for performance, another is put in place. And with good reason, as this leads to sustained growth and development, as opposed to an organization’s expiration. Therefore, measuring performance is an important managerial practice because its results may yield important insights into the fulfillment of strategic objectives and goals or lack thereof. Furthermore, a timely performance evaluation can be the difference between the design and execution of an effective strategic plan, strategic decision making, and the failure to achieve desired outcomes. A prominent issue with performance management is organizational leadership’s unwillingness to disengage from individual performance evaluations as an indisputable direct correlation with organizational performance.

Millions of people around the world making their way to work are thinking about the day they are about to have. They are planning their day, going down the list of pending work, and picturing the exchanges they will most likely have with others in order to complete their tasks. While some are enthused, knowing that they are about to have pleasant interactions, others have increasing feelings of disconcertion and anxiety and are dreading the moment they step into the office. When managing collaborators, there are a great many factors that must be considered, including dialogue, voice, empowerment, task delegation and completion, and goal achievement, among many others; perhaps the most important factor that should by no means be overlooked is human nature.

Organizations follow a certain path or track which they have created in accordance with their strategic planning. Like any other organizational process, the continuous innovation of design is required in order to ensure that it is effectively adapted to changes in the environment, organizational behavior, as well as collaborator attitudes and needs. It has become trendy to follow organizational design trends, as they are typically in tune with environmental changes; however, design challenges lie within the organization rather than outside it; that is, while trends are informative, following them is complex. Shifts in competition paradigms are telling of organizational designing efforts, environmental receptiveness, as well as the effectiveness of their test of time; however, it is the organization’s innovativeness that will lead to a design that drives responsiveness and the co-creation of value.

The ever-changing environment certainly poses a series of questions of what lies ahead and what will organizations be challenged with next. Perhaps, to understand future directions, it is important to first acknowledge what has been learned in order to appreciate the current state of affairs. There are two particular concepts that come to mind, not new but resounding, these being accountability and legitimacy; although much has been learned about them, there are still significant areas of opportunity which must be addressed. Therefore, future directions will entail the reinforcement of accountability in pursuit of organizational legitimacy.