Essay Sample on Leadership in the Knowledge-Driven Economy: Challenges & Opportunities

Introduction

The world today is transforming from the globalization to the knowledge economy and definitely knowledge-driven organizations. This shift has come with its both opportunities and challenges. Among the challenges is the need to breed new leaders who have a new understanding of this unique style of leadership. This new breed of leaders should have a blend of skills which involve being visionary, excellent communicator, and of course, be well versed with the new knowledge-driven culture and technological development. E-leadership is the governance in the digital era in which businesses use the fast-developing technology in reaching the global market. The aim of e-leadership is changing the outlooks, opinions and performance of entities and organizations towards achieving a specific goal facilitated by technology. E-leadership involves other contexts such as technology leadership, online leadership, digital leadership, virtual leadership and many more (Avolio et al, 2014).This study explains the change in the leadership roles of officials and managers of public organizations as well as private sectors in response to) technological development in both social and organizational life. As technology advances in the workplace, so do management and leadership. The traditional leadership methods are old bearing in mind the way today, employees are informed and smarter than before. This paper will explore how technological development has influenced leadership in organizations today. The research question will therefore be; "To what extent is social media and the technological developments influencing leadership in organizations today?"

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With the growth of the internet and electronic media, there has been a massive increase in social media users. Businesses and people lives today are increasingly reliant on technology. China, according to Mckinsey, has an internet user base of around 510 million people, the largest in the world, doubling the United States user base of approximately 240 million users. According to different statistics, a quarter of the people in China today are connected online through various platforms. Chinese internet users spend more than 2 hours daily online; this is according to a study done by a Boston consulting group (Wilson III et al, 2004).This is more than any other internet users in any county globally, including the United States. We all understand how powerful social media is in today life and how we cannot escape or move away from it. A leader who is not vast with social media today is considered a conventional person. A successful leader today should be able to use social networking effectively for both personal and organizational gains. (Heller Baird et al, 2011). Social media gives the customers access to products shared online, and they also have access to share their reviews and feedbacks about the product (Poell et al, 2016). They can also share their opinion on the quality of the products as well as complaints and suggestions through these online platforms. A study done among the officials of organizations in Lanzhou city in china showed that 70% of them use social media for various reasons, both personal and organizational. This shows the popularity of social media among the executives of Lanzhou city, and this proves that they stay connected with their families, employees and bosses via the internet. In China, there are different platforms in which persons and organizations use while sharing information. The graph below shows how social media is used for various purposes in China.

Conclusion

Success or failure of any organization is majorly dependent on leadership. This is why organizations aiming to achieve enough today and in the future need to carefully choose forward-looking leaders who are visionary and understand the direction of this digital era. From the results of this research, it is evident that social media is massively gaining ground both in personal and organizational excellence. E-leaders should stand both transformative traits of leadership and as well be social media savvy. They can use the opportunities brought by social media and technology effectively for organizational excellence. E-leaders should also work on the drawbacks of excessive use of internet n workplaces which might affect employees' performance. Not only in China can global organizations embrace E-leadership to match the global technological market today. (Tubtimhin et al, 2009)

References

Avolio, B. J., Sosik, J. J., Kahai, S. S., & Baker, B. (2014). E-leadership: Re-examining transformations in leadership source and transmission. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1),

Heller Baird, C., & Parasnis, G. (2011). From social media to social customer relationship management. Strategy & leadership, 39(5), 30-37.

Poell, T., Abdulla, R., Rieder, B., Woltering, R., & Zack, L. (2016). Protest leadership in the age of social media. Information, Communication & Society, 19(7), 994-1014.

Tubtimhin, J., & Pipe, G. R. (Eds.). (2009). Global E-Governance: Advancing E-governance through innovation and leadership (Vol. 2). IOS Press. 105-131.

Wilson III, E. J., Goethals, G. R., Sorenson, G., & Burns, J. M. (2004). Leadership in the digital age. Encyclopedia of leadership, 4, 858-861.