Innovation

Organizations globally must expect severe competition for at least the next decade, and there is unanimous agreement that sustainable innovation is the quintessential challenge for all organizations – without it organizations must flounder and perish. In this chapter, theory and practice are explored to specify the vital underpinnings of successful innovation, including the critically important organizational property of absorptive capacity which is largely based on leadership, participative and open culture, and knowledge management. Strategic topics such as the knowledge based view, open innovation, and the pros and cons of ‘innovation’ orientation and ‘imitation’ orientation are discussed, together with the importance of supply chain innovation. Details of the practical role Communities of Innovation (CoInv) serve are clarified, together with explanations of why identifying and leveraging the influence of innovation champions and opinion leaders is essential to success. The concepts of Learning-to-Innovate and Innovating-to-Learn are also discussed.

Sustainability

Organizations of all kinds must increasingly take into account not only the simple bottom line of their organizational operations, but also address their sustainability in broader terms. This chapter reviews sustainable development and the various definitions of sustainability accepted in the literature and in organizational practice, including what has become known as “Triple Bottom Line” (tbl) sustainability. The complex systemic properties of sustainability are detailed, and the general status of sustainability as an organizational, national, and global priority is characterized. The importance of organizational learning in achieving sustainability is explained, and important guidelines are outlined for sustainability performance measurement and reporting, including Corporate Social Responsibility and the Global Reporting Initiative. Details of attempts by various individuals and organizations to address sustainability in practice and how they achieve positive results are described, and latent opportunities to express leadership are highlighted.

Socio-Digital Technologies

Organizations of all kinds, and their leaders at every level, have already been impacted significantly by socio-digital technology and the chances are that we “ain’t seen nothing yet.” The growth of completely new industries allied to increasing levels and integration of global digitally connected environments across all domains of personal and professional life open up new opportunities whilst also demanding more mental flexibility, and emotional adaptability, as well as new business focus. Traditional notions of subordinates and super-ordinates and associated cultures are being degraded or destroyed. Organizations that fail to co-evolve and transcend their old business paradigms will suffer. This chapter presents a detailed overview and discussion of present and future trends based on an exhaustive literature review and in-depth practitioner know-how. The impact in business, government, and educational environments is described, including how the coinciding interests of these important communities are being addressed.

Knowledge Management

This chapter examines the fundamentals of Knowledge Management (KM) and Intellectual Capital, traces the history of these movements, and explores organizational applications of both traditional and current KM implementations. The three subsystems that are fundamental to any KM system are examined, and the importance of organizational learning and sense-making for successful KM is explained. The necessity of treating knowledge management in a systemic organizational sense to include the social as well as the technological implications is rationalized, and the key attributes of an organization’s prevailing culture, including affective factors that encourage or block effective KM, are discussed. The importance of information technologies such as SCM, CRM, ERP, ERP II, and Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, mobile technologies, and social media is highlighted. Leadership concerns and application of dynamic leadership models are addressed in the text and in case studies.

Complexity and Organizational Learning

Complexity is omnipresent in all aspects of organizational life, and leadership today and in the future must be achieved in face of such complexity. Leaders are here given an in-depth overview of the causative relevance of the competitive way in which business is conducted today versus the past, and the importance of personal and organizational learning for successfully addressing the classes of problems that typically occur. Insights from an extensive literature search are combined with practical experience to identify the important guidance that theory and practice can provide to a leader in successfully carrying out his/her role, including how to apply content from other chapters. The leadership approach to complexity that is outlined here is founded on learning to achieve results through experimentation, learning, and reflection; a case study is presented that illustrates application of this approach.

Dynamic Leadership Process

Based on a wealth of experience in leadership roles and development, and enhanced by a broad literature review, the authors present an enabling framework for individuals at all levels of an organization independent of gender, industry, discipline, and leadership style, that will enhance their ability to carry out their leadership roles, particularly in digitally connected environments where dynamic complexity is typically most challenging. Leadership is treated as emergent, being co-developed with the context in which the leadership is taking place. To this end the authors detail, and relate to current theory and practice, a four step incremental leadership process cycle together with a personal assessment instrument. A case study is provided that illustrates application of the approach.

Leadership

This book addresses current and aspiring leaders from across the spectrum of organizational types and functional units and encompasses formal as well as informal leadership at all individual, team, unit, and global levels. Chapter one presents an historical overview of leadership and management theory development, outlining the professional and academic framework within which current narratives have evolved. The authors locate leaders as engaged in a complex journey traversing a challenging and rapidly-evolving terrain within a theatre of action that is undergoing a period of global crisis. The reader is introduced to the definitions and debates about leadership and management boundaries, differences, and overlapping responsibilities. Drawing on both theory and practice, current issues and topics are covered in depth.

Generational Demographics

In this chapter, the authors review the changing currents in the stream of the new globalization as the developing riptide in the flows of dissemination, transfer, and exchange of goods and services drags in more areas and enhances business complexity. The tension between local and global priorities impacts all aspects of organizational leadership and talent management, including supervising the supply chain for materials and employees, where organizations must source where the best value for money assets or resources can be obtained globally. In particular, the new digitally connected business environment for global and international organizations continues to evolve. The complex dynamics of migrations, and the globalization of business in an interconnected world of changing climate and shifting spheres of political, military, and economic influence, pose threats as well as opportunities to multitudes of people and organizations, and ultimately the sustainability of the planet.

Organizational Contexts

All leaders are embedded in a community context. In this book, the authors consider leaders in organizational contexts. This chapter provides a historical literature review of key developments with regard to academic and practitioner theorizing about organizational contexts of business leaders, the main body of the chapter being structured around organizational mission, strategy, structure, culture, and organizational lifecycle. This chapter provides an outline of the growth of the strategic planning area within organizations which typically emphasized rationality and employed analysis rather than synthesis. The key schools of thought that have evolved over the past six decades or more range from the informal design school which gradually ceded ground to the emergent and more formalized strategic planning school. There have since been a number of others such as the cognitive school, the learning school, the political school, the cultural school, the environmental school, and the configuration school.

Leadership, Global Business, and Digitally Connected Environments

To adopt a successful global business perspective, leaders must continually enhance their understanding of the social, political, technological, and environmental forces that are shaping our existence, and concurrently, they must develop personal and organizational capabilities to co-evolve with the dynamic complexity of this emerging world. To this end, chapter ten builds on the dynamic leadership models and the complexities impacting leadership practice described in previous chapters. The following sections then significantly expand on this research. Initially the broad underlying spectrum of global leadership-related issues is reviewed; then the current and emerging dynamic drivers of global business are detailed; next, the nature of leadership in connected (networked) environments is explored; finally, the critical characteristics of leadership in digitally connected environments are examined. In addressing these challenges the relevance of the Leadership Learning Process described in chapter two is highlighted. An assessment instrument is included to assist in assessing readiness to lead in digitally-connected environments.