Universal Leadership - the New Management Era

Universal Leadership - The New Management Era

Ana M. Munoz

Post University, Waterbury, Connecticut

Abstract

After tribal, agricultural and industrial leadership comes the next era of universal leadership. In the future, leaders will need to be present everywhere to accommodate the new virtual work environment, the constant growth of organizations and the rapid change due to technological advancements. Universal leaders will also need to include and involve everyone in the leadership process. This means communicating a compelling vision, redistributing power to the organizational members, and building innovation communities to engage the members in a cooperative innovation process.

The role of leaders, the definition of effective leadership and the reasons for needing leaders have all evolved over the past several hundred years. Marre (2009) reviews the history of leaders starting with tribal leadership, which began as a need for the strongest and fittest in a hunter-gatherer group to lead the food-collection efforts. Later, agricultural leadership came about with the development of agriculture and communities, in which leaders were the most resourceful and took control of the availability of food by growing and storing it. The last major evolution of leadership was initiated by the Industrial Revolution. Industrial leadership required leaders to achieve the greatest productivity levels from their workers, which also meant strict rules and regulations, and a clearly defined hierarchy. Marre (2009) asserts that this "form of leadership has reached its limit...because we were so successful at extracting things from the earth and using capital and labor in specialized ways, that we created an abundance of products and services which then created a vicious competition... and a profit squeeze... which is an unsustainable model for the business and for our planet." The following paper will describe the new role of a leader, define what effective leadership looks like in the future and share some insights into why leaders are still needed. The author has labeled this the era of universal leadership.

The definition of universal leadership begins by listing the definitions of "universal" adapted from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (1997):

* Present or occurring everywhere.

* Including or involving all.

The future of leadership will come about through the recognition and acceptance of these core elements as the basis of the new frontier.

Present or occurring everywhere.

Leaders will need to be "present" everywhere in order to be effective due to the following environmental factors:

* Virtual work.

* Expanding organizations.

* Rapid change.

Virtual Work

Teams can now engage in work activities from anywhere, so leaders must be able to support them in their attainment of the organization's goals from a distance. The evolution of work-life balance is what will be known as work-life integration. Work-life integration will require more and more work from home and no clear distinction between what is for work and what is for fun. New leaders will need to be present everywhere in the sense that they should always be available to support their teams and make it easy to stay in contact. Even in the hospitality industry, which traditionally requires its team members to be physically present to deliver the service, leaders were finding creative ways to allow members to work from home. For instance, scheduling work-from-home days or assigning projects that could be completed at home. Clearly, if the lines between work and home are being blurred for the members of an organization, the same will apply for those in a leadership role. The universal leader will be key in moving organizations towards integration and keeping their virtual teams on the path to success.

Expanding Organizations

Along with virtual expansion, there will also be more physical expansion in the size and geographic location of teams and organizations. Thirty years ago, team size averaged five members and now the average has reached upwards of 25 members. Organizations have also grown far beyond expectation, some with hundreds of thousands of employees stretching across many nations, and still growing. For instance, this author's former organization had hotel and casino properties in over 40 unique locations. How will leaders still be able to engage and inspire the members of massive organizations like these? There will be more of what Nahavandi (2012) defines as "inclusive management style" where the use of hierarchy is shunned and the leaders opt for more flat organizational structures such as lattices or webs. These allow the leaders to gain direct access to all members and for all members to have access to them. They will also rely heavily on self-managed teams. These teams will be directly connected to the leader and yet have the autonomy to achieve results at the local level.

Rapid Change

Technological advancements will continue to force incredible changes on the business. Therefore leaders will need to be present everywhere in order to see and communicate what is coming around the bend and ensure that their teams are poised for action. For instance, major changes in the hotel and casino industry will come about from online gambling technology. The executive leaders