Today‘s globalized nature of competitiveness is placing more pressure on companies to employ effective leaders who are capable to develop knowledge-based companies. There are many academic studies that focus on the organizational and managerial factors that drive organizational competitiveness. Leadership is one such area that plays a critical role and is a strategic prerequisite for business success in today’s knowledge-based economy.
Global expansion of business is constantly changing as companies are increasingly participating in international markets. A new leadership approach may be necessary as the globalized market demands are increasingly difficult to adapt and sustain profitability. For example, the emergence of global business environments drives companies to become world-class. Leaders within companies can play a crucial role in achieving a high level of effectiveness and world class efficiency and effectiveness.
Companies increasingly need to employ effective leaders who are capable to develop a global vision for companies. Also, leaders need to think globally yet act locally because local strategies need to be realigned with the global economic integration and for individual countries. Leadership plays a critical role and is a strategic prerequisite for business success in global markets. There is a global need to investigate leadership to accomplish sustainable competitiveness in global markets.
Organizational commitment, flexibility, and innovation are necessary attributes to evaluate the success of companies in global markets. Effective leaders in world-class companies are highly characterized by enablers of organizational commitment, flexibility, and problem-solving oriented. The global markets represent cross cultural settings and require top management executives who can adapt to various environments successfully. A cross-cultural setting can enhance the employee’s organizational commitment through empowering human assets and developing an inspiring vision for future. The major tasks of leaders in global companies include:
• empowering employees
• generating a shared vision, and;
• creating fundamental changes at the organizational level.
Furthermore, sustained performance in global markets is dependent on continuous learning. Leaders may be able to build a learning climate through identifying intellectual capital and empowering them. With intellectual stimulation, leaders may improve knowledge sharing and learning. Therefore, they are possibly the most qualified CEOs that may be able to enhance organizational performance in global markets through empowering human resources and enabling change.
One way that leadership may be valuable in foreign markets is because leadership sheds light on the critical role of employee’s attitudes and values in implementing change. Leadership features effective organizational change as a by-product of developing relationships with subordinates.
Hence, leadership should be embraced at the senior level of companies to enable performance in globalized markets through implementing organizational change and developing a shared vision for future expansion into global markets.
Therefore, success in today’s global business environment can be more effective when leadership is applied to change attitudes and assumptions at the individual level and creating collective-interests for cultural adaptation.
