Leadership and Change Management

Chapter 11 : Leadership Challenges

Challenges of Knowledge Work
Realities of E-commerce environment

Managing diversity

Factors that lead to increased diversity
Fostering creativity through diversity

Chapter Summary

The emergence of knowledge work, the knowledge worker as capital, and the transformation of the industrial economy into a knowledge-based economy have influenced the way businesses operate very significantly. This suggests that organizations which want to maintain leadership in the economy and in emerging technologies need to consider carefully the social position of knowledge professionals and their values, as related to the organization.

Leading an organization in a knowledge-based environment needs a thorough overhaul of management philosophy. A different mindset is essential to lead knowledge workers. New measurements of performance, new values, new goals, and new policies have to be designed. A leader cannot expect all these things to happen overnight. Creating and bringing in all these needs long-term commitment.

In the future, the delivery of goods, services, and spare parts will be done in a completely new manner. E-commerce which can be used to serve these needs, requires a new outlook on traditional functions. Different yardsticks will be required to measure the performance of e-commerce organizations. In traditional businesses, delivery is regarded as a “support” function.

This function is treated as a part of routine work, which is taken for granted unless something goes drastically wrong. But with e-commerce, organizations can create competitive advantage through this function. They can transform delivery into their “core competence”. The speed and quality of delivery can be made competitive factors for the organization.

In this environment, a leader has to seek new ways to communicate his vision, create a culture, and think about what the company is and how it should be in the future. This search for new ways may force organizations to abandon their age-old hierarchical organizational structures and governing systems. In organizations, people with diverse backgrounds are linked by interdependency.

These people may have different goals, values, stakes, and outlooks. Diverse people will naturally reach different conclusions about events in the organization. As there is more diversity, and more interdependence, there are more differences in opinion. Conflicting opinions can lead to conflicts in action. Thus diversity can create conflict in the organization.

Addressing this conflict is a challenge to leaders. Diversity and interdependence does not necessarily lead to destructive situations. If effectively handled, they can stimulate excellent decisions, creative solutions, and innovative products and services.

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