Team Leadership Concepts and Applications, Research Paper Example

The world’s economic status has often been regarded to be rather inexplicable. Every now and again the different twists and turns in this aspect of world relations creates a sense of worry especially for organizations that are enjoined within the system of modern business. It could be analyzed that sometimes, there are instances when organizations are faced with great decisions that are necessary to make simply to be able to save the organization from being fully turned by the economic situations at the time. Hence, to make sure that these organizations stay strong even in the middle of hard-to-handle situations, it is vital that the leaders become enthusiastic enough to handle the challenges fully and effectively.

Doing so involves taking into consideration the strategies that are most importantly vital in establishing strong decisions. Large scale organizations from all around the globe model the way on how to use such strategies of leadership especially in the face of a tumultuous economic situation. Organizations like Apple Inc, IBM and Walmart all have remarkable leaders who have stepped in front of the line to make sure that their people and the entire organization remains intact even in the face of financial worries in the market.

The financial depression of 1998 to 2010 [and at some point still stretches to today’s current economic situation] has created several points of hardships for large scale organizations that are operating worldwide. Among the situations that they had to contend with was the existence of the need to handle laying-off of some of the employees to lower the cost of their operations, handling tighter competition in the market through product and price adjustments and generally lowering the cost of expenses of the business not forgetting the fact that this approach could jeopardize some of their organization’s reputation including the quality of the products they release in the market.

The capacity of leaders to face such tumultuous situations is a vital aspect of the role that they play in either small or large organizations. The situation pictured above would imply what whatever the decision that the leader takes would greatly affect the welfare of those who are working for the organization and would specifically make an impact on how the entire organization functions as a group. In relation to strategic approaches to handling such challenges, the contingency theory of leadership could support the need for the adjustments to occur. Notably, the contingency theory calls for the leader to become more involved in the situation, knowing what it does and how it affects the organization as a whole. This is the very step that Walmart’s CEO took in relation to creating better plans of employment policies for the people working for the company especially during the time of recession (Gardner, 1999, 66). Losing most of its loyal employees was not a choice. To respond to this, adjusting the different aspects of labor policies that the organization follows was vital and specifically effective in facing the unique situation they needed to handle.

On the other end, the behavioral theory of leadership was best modeled by Steve Jobs of Apple Inc as he tried to create outstanding and innovative products that the people of the organization could trust (Scouller, 2011, 43). This gave the company a higher level of confidence in facing the new challenges in the market amidst all the different impacts that economic deterioration brings in. Participative theory of leadership on the other hand was best used by IBM to impose the new rules of operation that they had to embrace especially in their outside branches (DeRosa, et al, 2010, 56). Involving everyone else into the system of operation and the adjustments needed to be considered even bounded the organization in unity hence creating a more valid condition of development even while dealing with economic crisis at the time.

References:

DeRosa, D., & Lepsinger, R (2010) Virtual team success: A practical guide for working and leading from a distance. Wiley. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Gardner, J.W. (1999). Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society. New York: Harper and Row.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2007). The leadership challenge. (4 ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Northouse, P. (2012). Leadership theory and practice, 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Scouller, J. (2011). The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill. Cirencester: Management Books 2000.