Front-Line Leaders: Building High-Performance Organizations From the Ground Up - Essay Sample

Introduction

Emerging Organizational Leadership Trends: The Front-Line Leader: Building a High-Performance Organization from the Ground UpOne of the emerging organizational leadership trends is redesigning the management structure. The processes in performance management should be two way. As a leader, one should be able to assist the staff set clear goals and objectives, and this entails checking their progress frequently. In return, the team will feel welcome and cooperate in all the operations of the organization. In return, they will help in building a collaborative environment. Van Gorder (2014) argues that a leader should be able to know its people to improve the performance of the organization. In most cases, the leaders do not go deep to know their employees. However, most employees prefer working in an environment where the leader can even help them do some task and get dirty. In society, when a leader is friendly with the staff, then they will be motivated to work towards achieving the goals of the organization.

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The risks that are associated with the trend of redesigning the management structure includes overworked leader and difficulties in holding people accountable (Van Gorder, 2014). The issue of a leader being overworked is not severe. Therefore, some of the strategies that can be used to reduce the risk include creating standards that the employees will work towards (Van Gorder, 2014). This strategy will mean that every employee will achieve the set standards by working on the assigned tasks. At times, when a leader interacts with the employees most of the time, the issue of holding them accountable may come up. This issue can be reduced by providing them with the required resources, laying down the law, and rewarding good performance (Van Gorder, 2014).

The trend is applicable in my academic life. While undertaking my undergraduate, there was a professor who was so friendly to the students, and he even gave us the chance of calling him or emailing when there is an issue. When making a comparison to the other classes where the lecturers were so strict and did not give students the chance of interacting with them, our performance was excellent. Although the course was a bot challenging, everyone got the credit.

The first step of implementing the aspect of redesigning the management structure is making the stakeholders aware of the new trend (Kesler & Kates, 2011). Giving them the chance to air their views will play a significant role in the trend of achieving its objective. The other steps include defining the functions needed for success, identifying capabilities needed to use the aspect, assessing one's talent, and shaping the processes and culture of the organization (Kesler & Kates, 2011).

If the trend is successfully implemented in an organization, there will be increased productivity as the employees will be motivated to work (Van Gorder, 2014). There will be increased sales due to increased revenue. The customers will also be satisfied as the employees are motivated to provide their best. The trend is highly applicable in the market since leadership is an important issue. According to Van Gorder (2014), it will result in the creation of advocacy culture in the firm. Moreover, it will also bring people together and build loyalty among the employees and customers (Van Gorder, 2014).

Emerging Principle and Process Trends

Leading Change

One of the emerging principles and process trends is transforming organizations. Firms work in a global economy, which is characterized by intense competition and high economic collaboration and interdependence. According to Kotter (2012), firms should be transformed to reduce costs and improve the quality of their goods and services. If this process is implemented will improve the competitiveness of companies. Transforming organizations is beneficial to the society since there will be improved services provided.

While working in a certain hotel, the firm used traditional methods to lead its employees. However, when a new CEO came to the firm, he wanted to transform the organization, starting from the managers to the junior employees. He created a culture where managers and employees could easily interact and emphasized teamwork. When the performance of the hotel is compared with the previous CEO, the profits highly increased due to increased productivity and sales.

The risks that are associated with transforming organizations include giving room for much complacency, undermining vision power, and failing to establish an efficient guiding coalition (Kotter, 2012). One of the mistakes made when transforming firms is allowing complacency. The risk is severe in organizations and can be mitigated by motivating the employees through their work. It will make them move out of their comfort zone. The other risk is not creating an effective guiding coalition (Kotter, 2012). The risk can be reduced by making the employees work in teams to achieve the objectives of the organization. Lastly, the risk of undermining the power of vision can be reduced by assisting in directing, aligning, and inspiring the actions of the employees (Kotter, 2012).

The process of implementing transformational change include creating a sense of urgency, establishing a guiding coalition to carry the process, establishing a strategy and vision, and communicating with the stakeholders of the organization regarding the change vision (Kotter, 2012). The other stages include empowering the staff regarding broad-based actions, outlining the organization's short-term wins, and combining gains. The last stage is to anchor new cultural approaches for the organization (Kotter, 2012).

Implementing the trend is applicable in an organization as it will result in reduced costs as most of the processes will be automated. The short term benefit of transforming change is the reduction of turnover costs as it will help in retaining employees, which will further result in retaining the customers (Kotter, 2012). It is also applicable in the market as it will result in creating an organization that is nonbureaucratic, limited to few levels, and organized in the sense that management leads as low-level staff manages. Also, the provision of data to the customers will be improved through transformational change. In terms of systems, performance data will be distributed, and management support and training will be offered to many individuals (Kotter, 2012). In the new culture, there will be an open, externally oriented, empowering, and quick in making decisions. Generally, the trend will result in improved performance.

Emerging Technology Trends: Disruptive TechnologiesOne of the emerging technology trends is Artificial Intelligence. According to Armstrong (2017), artificial intelligence aims at emulating human behavior's intelligence by seeming to understand the content that is complex, taking part in a natural chat with individuals, and learning then make its judgments. The application is used in different areas, including cars that drive themselves and customer service bots. The technology has made work easy for society as it has the ability to process information fast (Armstrong, 2017). For instance, Facebook launched 'M' that is a service in messenger assisting users in booking hotel rooms and tickets. It also helps in answering simple questions but with the oversight of a human being.

The risks associated with implementing the strategy includes data loss. Highly relying on big data has its limitations, like when issues affect AI, then there will be a lengthy downtime and even costly offline when trying to restore the files and data (Armstrong, 2017). The other risk is the issue of creativity. For instance, when the machine is needed to think outside the programming, it might not be able to do so. Emotional intelligence is also a risk since robots do not have souls, and empathy cannot be programmed (Armstrong, 2017). The issue of degeneration as it will mean that humans use their brains less.

In my academic and professional life, the trend of artificial intelligence has been applicable. I have encountered the use of artificial intelligence in professional life when working in a certain hotel. The hotel used AI technology in conversing with the customers through email before the information is handed over to a qualified team. It was efficient as it increased the sales of the organization.

The steps of implementing a new technology include communicating with the management team, finding a champion of the technology that needs to be implemented, and outlining a plan for change (Thomsett-Scott, 2014). The other steps include assembling the right team to undertake the process, migrating and testing, and lastly, going live with the supplier (Thomsett-Scott, 2014).

The short-term benefit of artificial intelligence is accuracy. When AI is used in organizations, then there will be a low error rate (Armstrong, 2017). Since there is a rise in processing capabilities, then an organization can choose the best decisions. The technology is highly applicable in the market as it is accurate and saves time, which enhances the productivity of an organization (Armstrong, 2017). The technology is applicable in the hotel industry, health, motor, and military. An organization needs to be committed for it to be able to benefit from the emerging technologies to achieve their objectives (Armstrong, 2017). Therefore, the best solution is TBD, which stands for Technology, Behavior, and Data. Technology is essential for future society as human beings race to increase possibilities, as human behavior is constant while data is important when making the required decisions (Armstrong, 2017).

References

Armstrong, P. (2017). Disruptive technologies: understand, evaluate, respond. Kogan Page Publishers.

Kesler, G., & Kates, A. (2011). Leading organization design: How to make organization design decisions to drive the results you want. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Harvard business press.

Thomsett-Scott, B. C. (2014). Marketing with social media. Chicago, Ill.: ALA TechSource.

Van Gorder, C. (2014). The front-line leader: building a high-performance organization from the ground up. John Wiley & Sons.