Challenges

Globalization has a big influence to Muslim populations and it brings huge impacts to the world in every single aspect. Plus, global economy is one of the greatest things happened directly proportional to the rise of globalization. The concept of globalization brings the culture of being competitive among people and surely Muslims are Included. Countries around the world compete with each other In order to gain the superpower as the top global nations.

Though America Is believed to be eager in the near future, but still its influence on the global economy will probably make them to remain strong. This can be seen through the efforts made by the United States nation showing their ability to resolve global crises and their soft power in the field of economy (New Straits Times, 2012). In that matter, they will be able to fight against Incoming competitors to surpass them so that they will remain being the first among equal. However, for Muslims communities,TLS phenomenon has become a challenge for them as the chances in dominating the global economic sector still far way.

As Muslims have lesser chances to be as one of the top rank countries, they tend to follow and adapt what have been posed by the Western. Instead of creating an innovative ideas and great productivity, these issues will create an unhealthy culture among Muslims communities where they will belief behind In economic- based sector and thus, becoming passive communities. In short, less attention given to Muslims has actually become a minor obstacle for this population to move forward towards success.

In addition to that, most Muslims who are living in underdeveloped entries are facing a big problem of dominating the world economics even to get involved the global economic sectors is another issue. As a result to fewer chances provided for Muslims in this sector, this will only reduce or limit the Muslims’ achievement towards the success of this sector. Surely, Muslims will not be able to show the world their talents In organizing this economic field so that to gain others’ certainty about their own ablest that the world has misinterpreted for every now and then.

Likewise, the world will see Muslims as weak, fragile and useless communities living together in a small alienated population. To add this, Hannah, (n. D) also comes out with a smart argumentation saying that human resources act as path to the development of Muslim communities. This however explains the critical element, human resources need attention from Muslims community If they aspire to be significant In the global economic. In other words, the economic growth will likely be depended on the human productivity values itself, which need to be developed and strengthened due to recent global competition.

Another element which also becomes a great challenge for Muslim populations in the immediate future is education. Education has becomes great indicator to measure the development of certain countries and communities, since education shapes the future of a country whether to be success or not. The world perceives changed easily through great education and knowledge. The problem in education arises when Muslims are not given the same and equal chance to seek knowledge like the Western people. People in Western country may have big opportunity in seeking knowledge as they own most of the great universities in the world.

Warren Buffet, the intelligent investor, has shown the world how a brilliant guy survives to come the most successful person in the world. (Kenton, 2014) The excellence in academic does contribute much in constructing the strategies for Buffet to become a Billionaire today. Meanwhile, that opportunity does not happened in the same way for Muslim communities. As they have been isolated within a big community when they migrate to a Western country, they are not being given same privileges in education as well.

The challenges faced by Muslims to further their studies become harder when there are only limited chances in education provided for Muslim populations. This forever has a very much dependency with the aspect of Muslims’ social background. To be cleared, most Muslim countries all around the world suffer the issue of poverty. Not only being the subject of poverty, Muslims are also subjected to discrimination and prejudices for they have always be seen as unimportant to become knowledgeable even to seek knowledge.

All in all, Muslims who do afford to pay the high amount of educational fees will choose not to further their study to reduce their burden of having to pay expensive educational fees. This will result in their in their interest towards education, where they will be no longer interested to seek knowledge as they have been dropped out due to incomplete fees payment, as well as the lacking of formal education. Even though this case is quite common among Muslim countries, yet it also attacks the Western as well.

For example, being a rich and well developed country like America has never stopped this country to urge their students with expensive educational fees. This will cause the school drop-outs to find other alternatives as a mean of continuing their life(Reemerged, n. D). In short, education plays as an important element which triggers one’s well life being, thus the limitations in education among Muslim populations has become a prominent barrier for them to move forward. The problem of getting an education does not stop there. This is because, even Muslim communities have their own restrictions in seeking knowledge in some countries.

This is what happens in Saudi Arabia in which the women have not been only restricted to seek knowledge, yet they are also not allowed to drive and authoritative the permission from their male guardians(“Saudi Arabia”, 2013). In other words, restriction to gain knowledge is also considered as one of the barriers happened within the Muslim communities that may lead to the declination of social development among populations. To have a great country also means to acquire a great society. Every culture and society in the world today is facing many complex moral and social challenges.

The major issue in developing social values in the Muslim communities is the influences of social media. The development of human behavior begins at the early age of children. Being in rapid growth stage has however asses teenagers and children to Just follow blindly what they may perceive as true without having any detailed experimentation to it. This increases their chances to be and others. All in all, these can be seen through their peculiar attitudes as well as dressing style. Feller highlights the rise of pornographic elements in children’s clothing in United States leads to further moral decline (Feeler, 2013).

This culture is unhealthy because it promotes the unethical manners in dressing thus encourages teenagers to dress in that way. Len other words, minor factor sometimes can also be racial to a problem whether it helps to reduce the problem or to boost the problem causing it to be more serious. With no doubt, pornographic issue in dressing style has actualities the sub or minor contributor to the larger problem which are teenage pregnancy and baby dumping. This sounds shocking but it does happen. In Malaysia, for example, a Muslim country, the case of unwed teen pregnancy has reached to the critical stage (Shah, 2014) at this recent day.

This issue is closely related to the moral declination where it is initiated by the improper education and guidance from parents. The statistic of four consequent years’ research shows that more than one thousand unwed teen pregnancies have occurred in Malaysia, starting from 2010 to 2013. This indicates the huge number and most unpredictable statistic in Malaysia involving the under-age teenagers. According to Alicia Shah (2014), as cited in Mad Hussy, the total number of unwed teen pregnancies for two year between 2011 and 2012 is 8405 Another challenge which has always become a nightmare for the Muslims is ‘Claustrophobia’.

It is understandable that challenges towards Muslims do not only occur in the field of economy, education and social but also in a way Muslims receive feedbacks from the people all over the world. To be cleared, Claustrophobia refers to a form of racism being labeled to Muslims (Marci, 2004). Without realizing, the voice of anti-Muslim has been rapidly spread to global world, especially in the Western country. Muslims have been viewed as terrorists in the eyes of Western people.

Head (2013) agrees that, Western people have always misinterpreted Muslims as a symbol of violence besides of their intractability to make any changes whenever they have been asked to. Even though, it is not the actual guru that reflect the true Islam yet Muslims have suffered this for quite long time. According to Harmony, there are some misunderstandings of people’s views, failure to differentiate between true Islam and extremism which later becomes the root of Claustrophobia(Harmony, 2014). Claustrophobia doesn’t exist itself but it has been shaped by people’s perspective.

For example, the Western who are being too judgmental towards Muslims always reflects any bad deeds done by Muslims as a mean to describe Islam as a whole. Later, they conclude that Islamic teachings as a form of terrorism. In other word, Westerners bad perception towards Muslims can be reduced once they understand and open ways for Muslims to explain what Islam is all about. Plus, inabilities of Muslim communities themselves to give the correct picture of Islam also boost Claustrophobia. This is again used by teethe radical Islamic terrors to describe Islam as a whole.

Likewise, Claustrophobia affects the entire world of Islamic community. The huge impact can be seen in Muslim territory after the official term of Claustrophobia has been claimed, declared and well spread to the whole Western countries. One example can be seen through the tragedy of 9/1 1 here Muslims have been blamed for that tragedy as well as the bombing of the world trade centre building. This lead to the establishment of many organizations Western land (“The year in hate and extremism”, 2014). The Claustrophobia has been portrays how social media gather all blames towards Muslims at any global issue of criminals.

Moreover, the treatments Muslim at the West Country get are also dreadful to relief in that critical moment. Muslims have been pictured as bad, immoral, cruel and deviated from society. At the meantime, the world will not welcome Muslim populations even they keep increasing number every now and then. N short, this situation will spread the feeling of hatred on Muslim populations worldwide thus preventing Muslims to develop well (“Claustrophobia ‘explosion’ in I-J”, 2002) After all, Muslims need some strategies to enhance their quality of life in the global world.

As in the field of economics, Muslims should be able to convince the world of their capabilities in economic-based sector. One best example to support this idea is that, Muslims should be more competitive with the outside world. This perhaps can be portrayed through the high-quality products of local Muslim populations being exported all over the world. As a result to this, the world especially the Western will at least start to rethink of their bad perceptions given to Muslim communities. Besides, Muslim leaders should make ways for Muslims to be among the global economic competitors.

So that the respect and chances will help to build up and develop the whole country. This sector closely related to the achievement on the education and academic sector, where the people have to be educated to keep on producing the great, innovative and productive products and works in the global world. As for the education, the restriction is no longer relevant for Muslim immunities, since people are born to be developed with the knowledge they have. Plus, the restriction to gain education between genders should be vanished thus portraying men as being superior in all aspects of life than the women should be stopped.

This can be proven throughout several great of women in today’s world. Morocco can be considered as one among the other countries which realizes the importance of women’s contribution in education for the country. To support this, Morocco does encourage its women to become the religious leaders to guide the society through the service of personal counseling. In short, with this great alternative will actually acts as a medium to provide Muslims with a better chance of being educated thus to prepare living in a world of high technology (Sultan, 2012).

Muslim country has been figured as poor country among countries all over the world. So, in order to improve the level of current development of Muslim country, Muslims themselves need to strengthen the human resources that may indicate how strong they are to survive in global power economically. Teenage must be observed by their parents or guardians at the most of their activities. Teenagers with high exposure to immoral and unhealthy activities may have a higher tendency to get involved with the social problems.

Case Study: Managing the challenge of change. Smith, A. and Langston, A. (1999) Policy change has been a large factor in the management change in today’s early years services. Many people are cautious towards change due to the fear of the unknown or the failure that it may cause with implementation; therefore, it is sometimes hard for managers. Day at el. (1998) identified three types of response to change; the rational adopter, the stone age obstructionist and the pragmatic sceptic.

Managers need to be ready for staffs reactions and the way in which change affects each individual, negativity is normal in these situations as for many it means aspects of work will change. Managers should prepare themselves for this and facilitate themselves with the skills required to cope with staff’s reactions towards change. Through the use of communication and interpersonal skills management can optimise their own and their employees performance to implement change and thus ensure all persons involved with the setting are confident and happy.

Hay, S (1997, p13) explains ‘Embracing change and the turbulence it can cause requires maturity in a manager. Faced with the moving target of quality childcare, change is part and parcel of everyday nursery life… ‘ What problems are arising with the proposed changes and why? Many of the staff at the school feel hostile towards the changes that are being implemented in the setting. Staff believe their skills and qualifications are being undervalued, as management are employing staff who are not trained to the same level as themselves and resent the fact that they shall still be working alongside them.

The teacher status, in their opinion is being disestablished and that the childminders are being given undue credit and status. The security of the children in the setting is also being disputed by staff as they feel that the childminders are not competent enough in the issue of as they lack training and may be unaware of factors which could threaten the security of the children.

Edgington, M, 1998, offers three models of early years team;The rigorous and challenging team; characterised by high levels of professionalism and outward looking approach to development, debates with possible disagreements and challenges within a strong belief system and high standards. At present there are possibilities that the team at Damson Lane Primary School will become a ‘turbulent team’ if issues are left unresolved. Established members of the team who are finding the new changes difficult could be referred to as ‘stone age obstructionists’ as they feel comfortable with the way in which they used to work and fear change.

What can Beth do to promote the changes and deal with the conflict? Beth needs to show the appreciation for the staffs work in order for them to feel valued in the setting. She also needs to acknowledge the feelings and concerns of all staff and improve communication ensuring that changes are discussed with staff. The team needs to spend time discussing factors which they are unhappy with and build strong relationships, every individual should be given the chance to voice their opinions and input into the implementation of the changes. Beth should promote co-operation and help resolve any, and hopefully prevent future conflict.

Beth needs to re-assure staff that their ideas and work are valued. The issues raised in regards to the practice carried out need to be dealt with to make staff feel as ease. Beth needs to spend time reflecting on how she feels about the changes in order for her to provide encouragement. If staff are able to see her confidence regarding the changes then this will make staff aware about the positive aspects of change. Smith and Langston (2000, p74) explain,’The degree of peoples resistance to change depends on the kind of change involved and how well it is understood’

It is a necessity as Beths role as manager to lead an effective and successful team, therefore when any change occurs she needs to make a conscious effort to include all staff and make sure they feel comfortable with regards to change.

References

Day, C. Hall C. & Whittaker, P. (1998) ‘Developing Leadership in Primary Schools. ‘ London: Paul Chapman. Edington, M. (1998) ‘The Nursery Teacher in action: Teaching 3, 4 ; 5 year old (2nd ed)’ London: Paul Chapman Smith, A. & Langston, A. (1999) ‘Managing staff in Early Years Settings’ London: Routledge.

INTRODUCTION

“The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true self. Man’s real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true self. Man’s search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true self. The true self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end. ”

Mankind is united in conviction that happiness is a very desirable state. Every person, consciously or unconsciously, are motivated in all we do by our need for happiness. Being happy and peaceful is considered the ultimate aspect of a successful life, but it is really the most fundamental aspect of life. The level of happiness may vary from person to person, but what all people are aiming for is to feel happy. We chase money, health, growth, fame, power, property and relationships, not for their own sake but for the satisfaction they promise.

The creation of empires and civilizations, the discovery of continents, the waging of wars, the whole ebb and flow of history is a graphic portrait of man’s ceaseless quest for happiness.

QUEST FOR HAPPINESS

The quest for happiness is endless and bounds no place and time. The level of man’s longing for happiness becomes higher and higher as the standard of living also increases. The first step towards happiness leads to another step, and then to another until a progression of steps is made transgressing the three dimensions of time – the past, the present, and the future.

Happiness is parallel to contentment based on dictionary. Man has never been content all his life. His success for having attained a particular end always paves way to the urge to meet a higher end. Epicurus, an Athenian philosopher, suggested that in order for man to achieve happiness, he should give up all the complexities of life, like wealth, desire, fame and power, and go back to basics when the things that only matter are those necessary for pure biological subsistence, friends, freedom and analyzed life. It is hard to persuade a common man to renounce life’s worldly pleasures.

If man will relinquish his desire to aspire for the better, progress will be hampered and everything will be doomed in complete stagnation. The nature of desire makes the acquisition of happiness impossible. Man desires, he obtains and get satisfied, then he desires something else and begin a new pursuit. This is a cycle to which every man is subjected. For every man to remain healthy, productive and sane, he must continue the never ending quest of happiness.

KNOWING ONESELF

“Know thyself means this, that you get acquainted with what you know, and what you can do” Says meander.

When a person knows who they are, and clearly understands what they want, then they have a much better chance of discovering how to reach their own success, happiness and personal fulfillment. To be successful one need to deeply know what he really likes, what he genuinely does not like, what he is good at and what he is not good at. If these questions are answered about oneself and decisions are made then naturally success is followed by happiness. This fills everyone with much bliss, calmness and also improves people mindset, as well as their relationships and connections with others.

Knowing oneself will enable them to develop their full potential and be happy, contented and fulfilled. Whether their idea and understanding of success is fulfillment in business, friendship, love, sports, a blend of all these or another thing altogether, knowing oneself and working on change for the better will enable them to achieve their goals. Then indeed, when they reach their goals, they will turn out to be a much happier person. And that is real success in its truest sense. The only way to bring your best self to work and life is to know oneself well.

CHALLENGES IN KNOWING ONESELF

“Knowing the other and knowing oneself, in one hundred battles no danger. Not knowing the other and knowing oneself, one victory for one loss. Not knowing the other and not knowing oneself, in every battle certain defeat. ” Man tends to be blind to his own faults and weaknesses and so never fix the problems that keep him from greater success. He should begin by identifying the barriers. If one knows oneself, barriers can be overcome. Bror Carlson says, “A problem that is located and identified is already half solved.

By understanding the nature of the problem, we are well on the way to greater self-mastery and personal success.

IGNORANCE

Seventy-five percent of the high school students who will enter the workforce have no idea what the term ‘inflation’ means. Sixty-six percent cannot tell you what profits are. And 55% of our young people have no understanding of what a ‘government budget deficit’ is. This is due to the lack of devoting time to gain knowledge though the person is very much capable. There are many internal and external causes for ignorance; Lack of self interest, motivation, and wrong assessment of oneself.

All these contribute towards internal causes and external causes are due to family pressure, lack of time management or even financial barriers.

PERSONALITY TRAITS

Personality traits are fixed at a young age, Hence external factors like upbringing environment plays a major role in determining the personality. Since most organizational leaders are not on a rigorous program of self-mastery, they exhibit these same traits throughout their life. If one is strong on self-esteem and self-improvement, these traits would support the drive toward self-mastery. But other traits such as self-destruction, elf-indulgence and self-pity would have the opposite effect. It is beauty that captures your attention and personality which captures your heart.

EGO DEFENSE MECHANISMS

“The nice thing about egotists is that they don’t talk about other people. ” Lucille S. Harper The Ego is subject to a number of self-deceptions preventing self-mastery. Sigmund Freud many years ago observed that the Ego is a fragile entity requiring protection from anxiety. Typically it manifests as some type of stressful emotional state such as fear, guilt, embarrassment, anger, frustration.

Even the little things in life can activate an Ego defense mechanism. A frown from a superior, criticism from the colleague, getting angry at the person who bumped into you is a few examples. Sadly, once these mechanisms are engaged, the mind does not properly process the information it receives.

NEGATIVE SELF-TALK

Thoughts have a great impact on the emotions, feelings or states of mind that operate at any given moment of time. For example, the person who thinks, “I’m not happy,” typically feels that way. Studies say those who have emotional problems engage in negative self-talk about 50 percent of the time.

For some reason, few people admit that they talk to themselves or understand the critical nature of this internal dialogue.

HABITUATION AND HABIT FORMATION

Habituated thinking patterns develop like certain streets in Boston. In the older parts of the city, the streets follow the paths used by long dead cows to get between barn and pasture. The issue here is that we tend to get “stuck” in a set of behaviors and patterns of thought that do not support our pursuit of worldly success or self-mastery. Habits start developing at a young age, and continue to build on them as a person become older.

Sometime negative habits are recognised, but the person may feel like they are a part of who they are, so they hold on to them. There are also some individuals who seem to be in denial and do not seem to recognize their negative habits at all. If one pay close attention to oneself as it relates to our everyday lives and our dealings with others, we will likely find habits that we need to change.

HOMEOSTASIS

“The mind acts like a rubber band that when stretched, tends to snap back to the way it was. ” It’s hard to build new mental or behavioral habits–and extremely difficult to stop an old habit and substitute a new one.

This means that one-time bursts of motivation tend to produce little lasting effect. It’s safe to assume that new changes will be resisted by the motivational forces supporting the status quo (homeostasis).

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

Many powerful leaders have immature Egos. Arrested development essentially means that Ego growth has stopped prematurely. There are many symptoms one can experience. One symptom of this immaturity is the leader who cannot control their emotions. Another is a boss who blames others while failing to look at their own personal contribution to the problem.

A third symptom is someone with high IQ but low emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is said to be a ladder comprising self awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management at each level.

EMOTIONS

The study found that 26% of new hires fail because they can’t accept feedback, 23% because they’re unable to understand and manage emotions, 17% because they lack the necessary motivation to excel, 15% because they have the wrong temperament for the job, and only 11% because they lack the necessary technical skills. This aspect deals with people who fail on managing their emotions.

There is another aspect to these emotions where on the journey of discovering the real self many fail to trust their emotions. These people have very high chances of failing at a job in the long run. At a particular point of time they lose their passion for the job and business. The intensity which they once had is lost. They do not think through their heart, hence in the long run they lose passion for what they work or do. Analysis and logic are part of decision making process but what ignites an individual to take action is said to be emotions.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

John Tierney, International Herald Tribune says that for half a century, social psychologists have been trying to figure out the human gift for rationalizing irrational behavior. Why did we evolve with brains that salute our shrewdness for buying the neon yellow car with bad gas mileage? Cognitive dissonance commonly operates as an unconscious mechanism and so it is difficult to detect. It is associated with buyers remorse and purchasers regret when it comes to making important purchases. More importantly, it provides insight into why man takes pride in his stupid decisions.

OVERCOMING BARRIERS / CREATING A CHANGE

• Recognizing is the first step to making changes. Then an action plan is required to overcome these barriers. Each of these action plans are clearly explained as follows.
• Being a creature of habit and automatic thinking is dangerous in a world of constant change. Identify the bad habits. Notice the patterns. Listening to the things other people say to about oneself. They may say the same negative things. These feedbacks can be used as a fuel to work on becoming a better person. A journal of the behaviors can be maintained that a person desire to change. Write down the efforts made and results obtained. This would motivate the person to continue to work on changing other things.
• By discovering oneself, personal interests and what the person is capable of ignorance can be eliminated. This self discovery can be followed by the following action plan. Expanding knowledge. Killing ego. Never say die attitude.
• Analyzing one’s personality over the entire lifetime is necessary to determine the personality trait they belong to. A common mistake people make is analyzing oneself based on the present and this can be down right misleading. In Myer Brigg’s a person may type himself according to his inferior function.
• A normally calm person would see himself anxious and reactive under high degree of stress. This can be overcome by looking at oneself throughout his life and notice what it has in common. Negative self talk can be overcome by developing positive thinking and attitude. The following action plan would overcome negative attitude overtime.
• Stop talking, start writing- Instead of talking about one’s problems write it down and make a note of the cause for the problem.
• Commit oneself to thinking about the life they actually want and start visualizing it
• Savor each moment Exercise gratitude
• Do not waste time dwelling on the past
• Keep a sense of humor.
• Belief that can change one’s life
• In order to overcome ego of oneself, the person must be brutally honest to himself, willingness to accept change. A self monitor must be installed in their mind that constantly analysis their activities. They can also ask their friends to monitor them and provide feedback.

CONCLUSION

“I am what I am” To know oneself, will be an invitation as well as a challenge. It is an invitation to look deeply into oneself and to learn how gifted they are.

It is a challenge to make a personal decision to enhance these gifts and do something about the short comings. Love, understand and appreciate the real self rather than seeking for the ideal self and thus true happiness is obtained. True happiness is a spontaneous feeling of inner peace, joy and contentment which is the result of introspection a person turn within and establish contact with inner nature.

REFERENCES

1. “Twelve Psychological Barriers To Self-Actualization and Personal Success” By Murray Johannsen.
2. “Positive Thinking – Your 7 Step Action Plan By Jinger Jarrett
3. “Knowing yourself well” by Donna P. Lendzyk

Introduction

Over the past 15 years there has been a change in the working environment in the organizations. Businesses today have become complex than ever before. There are the baby boomers and the generation X and Y workers and together they expect the managers to acquire special leadership skills in order to integrate the multi generational workforce.

Globally the top executives need to interact with individuals from all around the globe almost everyday. There is a transformation in the business markets with India and China becoming major powers and Asia has recovered from the 1997 crash. The foreign competition has increased. There is a global labor market and in this complex ever changing business environment managers cannot simply rely on the traditional approach of managing the workforce. They need to drive strategies that are a lot more sophisticated and constructive. Market forces will keep on changing and they will demand more from our leaders. This is due to increasing globalization and the multinationals emerging as a result of mergers and takeovers. Coming in contact with this new diverse work force will require more technical expertise and a different kind of a leader.

The 21st century leader is a one who understands well the current scenario unlike the older style leader who would only know about sales, marketing and finance, his knowledge will not be limited. The 21st century leader is the one who can gel everyone in the organization together and lead the market too.

The idea behind doing this study is to find out the trend in the 21st century markets. The changing pattern of the workforce and the business markets and that how that has led towards the change in the way managers take decisions and organize organizational resources in today’s time. There are different kinds of challenges that the managers come across and there are different ways of dealing with those challenges. This requires different leadership styles based on the type of decision and situation.

Management and Learning opportunities

The challenges of the managers in the 21st century will include traditional method of learning as well as the newer ones. Managers today require new skills and areas of development. Managers perform a variety of different tasks at work. They are doing multitasking. There are opportunities of learning all the time. It depends on an individual whether to explore them or under utilize those opportunities (Robbins, 2004). Learning is an unconscious process where one tends to learn through trial and error in all kinds of difficult business situations.

Managers believe that the most important way of learning is through experience. Every activity that a manager undertakes gives one an opportunity to learn in the form of why the work was done, how it was done and the end result. The analysis of the work is an opportunity to learn. In this way it is the organization itself that gives so many opportunities to the manager (Robbins, 2004). Effective managers are those that learn and move on. They pass on this knowledge further to their subordinates.  This learning is not only confined towards the success of a problem. Learning is also when going through pressure at difficult times yet failing in the end. There is no end to the learning process.

Technology Revolution

Managers today have come to realize that communication today is way different then what it was years ago. Most professional work is done through PC’s at the desk and phones in the pocket. The explosion of internet and advancement in IT has improved the means of communication and made it a lot easier, fast and convenient. The true successful managers of the next century will be differentiated on the basis that how they access the relevant information with the use of technology through the most efficient way and then take decisions based on that information.  They need to develop skills in order to cope up with the changing technology and be flexible enough to implement it on time.

Market Forces

The market forces will continue to expand in the future too as the world has become a global village. Companies are experiencing economies of scale. They are buying in bulk and producing in bulk. They are making huge profits and sales offering a variety of different goods and services. The race between speed and quality is very high. However, increasing in size doesn’t guarantee success. In the United States there were 100 companies at the start of 20 century and now only 16 are present (Robbins, 2004). Survival is a major challenge that companies are facing today. The supply of labor has become diverse. Labor needs to possess variety of skills and expertise in order to be contributing towards the success of the organization. As a manager companies need the right person at the right job who can come up with newer ideas and meet the requirement of the job (Leadership as a boss in the workplace).

Cross-cultural interaction

Businesses have expanded globally dynamically. Cross cultural issues does not affect international marketing alone but also the working of organizations too. There are people from different cultures, background and religion working together at one place. It is the challenge of the manager to deal with the differences among the employees and not let that affect the performance of the over all productivity and outcome of the firm. For these understanding different cultures is very important. For those who deal with foreign delegates a lot then understanding cultures becomes mandatory on them. The ones who travel a lot they at times tend to learn a variety of languages in order to facilitate them in the communication process.

People Issues

This means the relationship among the co workers and the organization .Previously these issues were confined to the area of human resource of an organization but now it has become a critical issue for managers. In the 21st century there will be more self employed, temporary and part time workers. The challenge to the 21st century manager is that the staff of tomorrow will have entirely different expectations from the work and the organization. One of the key issues would be to balance the needs of the employees and yet keep the customers happy.

As the workforce is becoming more diverse those businesses which are willing to take the diverse labor force without any differentiation on the basis of cast, color or race will be able to retain a talented pool of labor. The work itself will demand a pool of creativity. This will be an opportunity for the managers to make teams that are adaptable, flexible and effective.

Retaining the best employee in the organization is itself a challenge. Employees tend to switch jobs on a short notice due to better job opportunities else where. Therefore job training, employee development and constant retraining will be normal routine. Labor are the most productive asset of any organization. They contribute directly towards the success of the firm. Organizations will spend huge amounts just to get the best applicant for their job in the competitive markets and more investment is made in order to retain those employees. Similarly companies will demand more out of their work force such as follows (Robbins, 2004):

Innovation and creativity
Flexible, adaptable and competitive
Focus on the results
Accept accountability
Contribute to the over all goals and mission
Leadership Competencies

One of the most important roles of a manager apart from controlling, planning organizing the resources is leading the organization. Not all managers are effective leaders. The ability to adapt to changes and become flexible, to manage multiple tasks and take decisions simultaneously, to understand the goals of the organization and track the success of the business, motivate the employees and understand the needs of the customer and keep the organization as one team is what is going to differentiate successful managers from ordinary ones.

Learning Methods

To cope up with the challenges of the 21st century it is not that traditional ways are not required any more. It’s just that they are not sufficient. These methods include learning through books and case studies. In order to compete with the strong market forces, the changing labor demands and leadership roles there are new educational models that are needed which are in line with the older ways of learning. Giving timely feedback to the learners is necessary. In this way the learner can improve on the problem and can enhance his performance so that the employee can get positive feedback in future.

The 21st Century Leader

Leadership is the most significant part of a job. In the changing business environment it’s difficult to meet the challenges of today. One has to be a role model for the staff .you need to possess a personality that everybody looks up to you. Today’s leader is influential and identifies the weakness and opportunities of a project before starting it. He thinks through a wider perspective. He has all the information He keeps up with the rapid change in technology and is creative (Ciampa, 2005). Their job is to develop the organization in a way that it is adaptable to change in the external environment. He does not panic during unforeseen circumstances. Different situations do not require the same behavior. Before taking on the responsibility of the organization the leaders need to be self aware of your own weaknesses and strong attributes. Successful leaders are those who use their strong attributes in order to overcome their weaknesses and hire those people whose strengths can complement with their weaknesses (Ciampa, 2005).

Importance of Communication for Leaders

In a professional life great communication and interpersonal skills are very important. Great leaders are those who possess the ability to communicate powerfully their ideas and make the other person follow that. Due to the business world flourishing globally one has to travel and communicate with people around the world. The leader should be able to communicate any change to the business and strategies that are being implemented to the team members that are working along with him (Leadership as a boss in the workplace).

Effective Leaders

There are various styles of leadership. As the world has changed some styles that were used by our great grand fathers in the past seem to be less effective in today’s time. Following are one of the most effective leadership styles of the 21st century:

1.      Visionary leader

This is where the leader sets a vision for the employees and they contribute to fulfill the dream. This is one of the most effective styles.

2.      Coaching

In this style the leader finds out the needs of the employees and based on those needs and wants he would connect it to the organizations needs and wants. This style would bring the interest of the employees into the work as they would set long term goals and work for them.

3.      Affiliative

Under this leadership style the leader encourages team work. Such team work builds healthy relationship among employees as their commitment and loyalty increases towards work and the organization.

4.      Democratic

This kind of leadership encourages the ideas and feedback from the employees and make them part of the decision making process. The employees feel important and part of the organization. It increases their morale and satisfaction from work which in turn is better for the growth of the business.

However there are two other leadership styles that are relatively less effective and they are as follows:

5.      Pacesetting

Under this situation the leader sets a target and a goal that all the team members have to achieve; this kind of leadership style is effective in highly competitive business environment with a confident and motivated work force.

6.  Commanding

This is where the leader takes all the decisions himself without any contribution from the employees. Such kind of leadership style is least effective in the 21st century organizations. It can be used during times of crises but under normal circumstances such style of leadership should be avoided.

Conclusion

The paper was written in order to discuss the different kinds of changes in the dynamic business environment that has happened over the years due to globalization. These changes have brought in rising expectations from the customers, employees and organizations point of view. The international environment is changing. To deal with such rapid pace of advancement there is a need for the 21st century’s managers to adapt themselves. Such adaptation is necessary in order to cope up with the revolution in technology and live up to the expectations of everyone. The traditional ways of managing and leading are still practiced but those methods are in sufficient to deal with all the problems of today’s time. A manager is a person who manages the resources of the business in the most effective way, plans them and organizes them; he’s responsible for leading the workforce and keeps them motivated. His role and affectivity is necessary for the success of the organization in accomplishing its long term goals. If there is no clear and effective communication then the manager would never be able to make the employees understand the importance of the work and the strategies that are to be followed. If the manager fails to motivate the employees then the de motivated workforce will never be able to meet the objectives of the business. Hence the managers of the 21st century apart from being an effective leader need to be well versed, knowledgeable, experienced and flexible.

References

Ciampa, Dan. (2005) Almost Ready: How Leaders Move Up. Harvard Business Review 83

Judge, Timothy (n.d.). Motivating by changing environment

“Leadership as a boss in the workplace” Retrieved September 09, 2008 from: http://www.managernewz.com/managernewz-21-20070125LeadershipasaBossintheWorkplace.html

Robbins, Stephen P (2004). Organizational Behavior, 11th Edition. Prentice Hall.

The first leadership challenge in the tourism industry in Australia has been the inability to recruit the right kind of workers and to retain those that have been hired (high employee turnover). Staff has had constant issues with management regarding its approach to recruitment and to leadership when ruling over these employees (Christensen, 2001). Most of the time, the employees have complained of having to do so much work due to shortages of staff. Another challenge has been the failure by leadership to supervise staff effectively. Leaders have been known to lord it over their juniors (Wilks, 2006).

They have built hedges around them and cannot be reached for communicating with employees. Bureaucracies in leadership and organizations have also served to widen the chasm between senior staff and the junior ones. This has made relations between the two sides to be strained (Theobald, 2005). There is poor participation of employees in the making of decisions regarding the organizations they work for. The worst cases of employee being required to take on decisions they were not part of have been reported in tourist hotels and villas. Recommendations for the Leaders in the Industry

There ought to a lot of working together between the leaders and the other employees in the industry (Hollander, 2008). One can never be an effective leader unless one pays close attention to the needs of the followers. To do this effectively, the leader has to listen to the followers. A second recommendation is that the leaders in the industry ought to be more visionary and futuristic in their approach to industry challenges (Wilks, 2006). This will make them to be better placed to foresee challenges and act accordingly to address them before they turn into nagging problems.

The other recommendation is that the leaders ought to be cognizant of the great importance and value of recruiting staff using information technology so as to have not only the best employees but also those who are less likely to leave at the earliest opportunity (Wilks, 2006). Then the leaders need to be more strategic in approaching the challenges of the industry. For instance, they need to realize that there are peak and off-peak seasons for tourists and so might try to hire more staff during the peak seasons and reducing them during the off-peak seasons.

This is because strategy is what defines a good leader (Ledeen, 2000). Finally, the leaders ought to be able to be situational and adaptive. They have to be able to foresee and determine what ought to be done to make sense of otherwise horrible situations. They must be ready to respond to problems and challenges as they come and not hide under certain pretexts. They have to always be ready and willing to work together with staff and other stakeholders to bring about solutions to nagging problems facing the industry (Bass, 2006).

In the 2003 Case Study of Wal-Mart, there have been several threats that have been mentioned and lengthily discussed. But probably one of the said threats that have been stated in the said case study is the presence of stiff competition that may bring the lordship of Wal-Mart as the biggest retail store around the world in jeopardy. True to the case study done in 2003, one of the biggest problems being faced and challenges the existence of Wal-Mart in the industry is the competition being brought by the local competitors and Carrefour, the second leading retailer in the world in terms of revenue earning. Carrefour poses a great threat to Wal-Mart since the former is doing very well in engaging in business internationally.

Moreover, Carrefour holds the leadership in the market in China. Nevertheless, this threat of competition from a rival big retail store is expected to be an ever-present challenge to the business and leadership of Wal-Mart in the retail industry. Any firm engaged in a business is sure to experience stiff competition from rival players in the industry.

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Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday launched a full-fledged music streaming service with subscriptions as low as $3.99 per month for owners of its Amazon Echo speaker, accelerating the industry trend toward more flexible pricing after years of sticking to $9.99 subscriptions.

The new streaming service, called “Amazon Music Unlimited,” lets users access a vast catalog of songs on demand, similar to Spotify and Apple Music. Subscriptions to play music on the Echo cost $3.99 per month; for access beyond that device, subscriptions cost $7.99 a month for members of Amazon’s Prime shipping and video service and $9.99 for non-members. Amazon will continue to offer Prime members a limited streaming service for free.

As it plunges deeper into the crowded streaming field, Amazon is counting on the Echo, a smart speaker that responds to voice commands, to set it apart. Released broadly last year, the Echo has become a surprise hit, prompting many to predict that voice will become a key way users interact with technology — and music is central to the device’s appeal.

Amazon has built an elaborate system of voice controls for listening on the Echo. The company believes such smart home devices will be a key source of growth for the music industry, said Steve Boom, vice president of Amazon Music.

“The first phase of growth (in music streaming) was driven almost entirely by smartphones,” he said in an interview. “We believe pretty strongly that the next phase of growth in streaming is going to come from the home.”

Reuters reported details of Amazon’s streaming plans in June.

The low price for Amazon’s streaming service is consistent with the company’s reputation for undercutting the competition and signals the music industry is beginning to accommodate consumers who are unwilling to pay $9.99 per month. Having watched revenues plummet from the CD era, label executives have been reluctant to budge on price, but they have come under pressure as streaming accounts for more of the pie.

Boom said he is optimistic that the new prices will expand the market.

“We’re moving music away from a one-size-fits-all approach,” Boom said. “We are the ones who have been pushing this the hardest.”

Streaming services must pay a majority of their revenues to rights holders, a business model that has left Pandora and Spotify struggling to turn a profit. But Amazon can afford to take a loss on music streaming, and the boost to Prime is well worth it, analysts say.

The premium music service, following the release of a standalone video service, suggests Amazon will increasingly offer basic media options through Prime while selling additional subscriptions for consumers who want to go deeper, said analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research.

“It’s just making Prime that much stickier,” he said.

Amazon is also hopeful that artificial intelligence will keep users tuned in. Recommendations based on listening habits have become a staple of streaming services, and Amazon has also woven artificial intelligence into the system so users can request songs that fit a particular mood or search with lyrics.

Data from the Echo has taught Amazon much about the language of music, said Kintan Brahmbhatt, director, Amazon Music.

“You can ask for Michael Jackson by saying, ‘Play music by the King of Pop,'” he said. “It’s smart enough to know that’s what you meant.”

Despite the low price for Echo-only subscriptions, Amazon and the labels are likely betting that consumers will be motivated to upgrade so they can listen on more devices, said Ted Cohen, managing partner of TAG Strategic.

“At a certain point you’ll get frustrated and go, ‘Oh, what the heck,'” he said.

(Reporting by Julia Love)