Question

Looking at the different myriad of leadership styles and approaches that exits.

1. What are your critical views on their applicability to the South African business environment?

Answer 1

The importance of leadership for the success of an organisation is a well-researched and proved fact worldwide by meteoric rise of organisations under able and superlative leaders. A brilliant leader and achiever adept at handling every situation quickly and precisely. We are in a very competitive economic environment today largely due to the massive impact of communication technology putting the world at our fingertips. In this scenario most of the succesful brands and large organisations worldwide are creating fresh milestones in leadership excellence and over the top management, a no bars no boundaries mindset and out of the box thinking has taken business management to an altogether different sphere. Hence, most leaders are very much aware of the need to carry the team along with the organisation to achieve its core goals of maximisation of profits and global growth. Every good leader exhibits these core values although leadership style may differ. The main types of leadership styles are autocratic, democratic transformational, team, strategic, facilitative, cross cultural etc.

South African situation is highly complex as it exhibits an authoritarian and bureaucracy infested organisational setup which just cannot accomodate leave alone promote the transformation required to root out low productivity, industrial conflict and lack of competitiveness in world economics due to low quality, fluctuating production, The requirement is for a dynamic and strategic leadership which can enable transformation into world class organisations while introducing, simultaneously, a clear strategy for the sustenance and growth of the organisation within the existing framework of restrictions and disadvantages. an effective leadership will ensure the streamlining of every process and department and motivate each individual to excel, the company's growth becomes everyone's growth. The world competitiveness report in 1995 had placed the finance 19th and infrastructure 20th of South Africa compared to people at 48th and management at 35th out of 48 countries.

Hence, the cause is pretty evident for the lack of progress and growth in business organisations. As the major issues are identifiable a leader should look to match skills to profiles to ensure optimum output from management and ensure adequate training across the lower levels to maximise quality and productivity. The formulation of the right team to propel the organisation is the main factor for achieving success. Poor leadership unable to motivate and involve itself at every level of organisation and insisting on a hierarchical structure when the requirement for transformation and dynamism demanded adhocracy has been another clear cause for failure of organisations in South Africa. An effective leadership with vision and drive to overcome challenges and surge ahead in the face of adversities is the requirement to produce world class products and provide world class services. The leadership should necessarily be aware of the cultural climate and ensure morality and equality exist at every level in the organisation.