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Question: Write a Literature Review on Leadership of the 21st Century. Answer: Introduction Leadership refers to the act of leading a group of individuals for the fulfilment of common goals with the same objectives and determination, commonly within an organisation. It is the act of getting others do something in a manner in which the leader wants it to be (Kuratko 2007). As pointed out by Chhokar, Brodbeck and House (2013), Leadership is the process of establishing a focused vision, sharing the vision with the members and providing them with knowledge and guidance for the fulfilment of the vision. They need to have the ability to inspire others to outperform the competitors after considering challenging goals. The 21st century has witnessed a drastic shift in the trends of leadership as applied to almost all domains across the globe. Leaders in the 21st century consider changes brought about in the traditional leadership styles for the benefit of all as a result of changes in the economy and globalisation. A new generation of leaders is making a mark on the global platform with innovative ideas and focus on sustainable superior power (Wilson 2017). The present paper is a critical literature review of 21st-century leadership. The aim of the review is to provide a summary, comparison and evaluation of the research topic. The paper discusses core competencies for leadership and the differences with traditional leadership capabilities. The factors for change in 21st-century leadership and challenges facing 21st-century leaders are after that reflected upon. The meaning of leadership in management and the concept of leadership theory as foud to be changing with time is also highlighted in the paper. The paper provides key ideas from existing literature. A logical conclusion is put forward at the end of the paper. Core competencies for leadership in 21st Century As opined by Uslu, Bubul and Cubuk (2015), leadership approaches in the 21st century adopt a democratic, inclusive and transformational view of the management. The employees are constantly pushed to exert control over the tasks they do and get notified of the issues and challenges faced on a regular basis. Leaders of the 21st Century encourage the followers to put forward suggestions and proposals about how their own capabilities and knowledge can be used for better performance. This form of leadership is primarily transformational leadership style. Leaders provide the followers with the chance to create innovative and alternative ways to solve the existing issues. Transactional leaders might adopt a systematic and impartial reward and punishment scheme for resolving the conflicts. On the contrary, present day leaders provide more space for action and more freedom. Leaders of the modern world support the commitment and empowerment of the followers to a deeper extent. Jayashree and Sa dri (2016) reported that the new leadership style of the 21st century considers a combination of novel ideas and ethics as a skill mix for leading from the front. Future and present corporate leaders tend to act ethically, and there is a consistency in this regard. In addition, the leaders are dependable and are normally found in the deontological mode. Ruwhiu and Elkin (2016) highlighted that a leader in the 21st century adapts the character of corporate management and upholds commitments so that there are no chances of questioning his credibility. A healthy tension is often maintained between change and tradition. Ahmad (2015) stated that leaders in the 21st century are expected to stir the transformation in which the system can be made relevant and dynamic for overall functioning. Further, international leadership is been widely exhibited in the global stage. Leader roles also cover the engagement in intense dialogue with followers. OConnell (2014) put forward a simplified framework for 21t century leaders development. As per the author, the five beliefs that 21st century leaders consider are reverence, learning, authenticity, flaneur and service. These constructs are the schemas that leaders refer to as guideline principles prior to adapting new learning, gaining new experiences and facing new levels of complexity. The difference with the traditional leadership style is that in contrast to the concept of leadership prevalent in older times, present day leaders follow strict principles for changing their course of work life. With different definitions of management and organisational power taking shape, it has been apparent that the leaders in the 21st century have an increased understanding of the significance of strong actions taken in collaboration with the managers at all levels for establishing sustainable competitive advantages as the key base for profitable growth of the organisation. Leadership has shown a gradual shift towards the managerial way of performing tasks since these methods have been found to be more effective in gaining increased output (Ayranci and Ayranci 2015). Deinert (2015) bring into focus that transformational leadership is widely accepted at present times for addressing issues applicable in the changing, modern, and uncertain work environment. Its success has therefore been heightened recently. Factors of change for 21st Century leadership According to Kuratko (2007), it can be pointed out that the increased pressure to outperform the rising number of competitors in a globalised market has driven new leaders to approach managerial styles for achievement of organisational objectives. The key message circulating across the different spheres of the modern world is that continuous innovation in terms of processes and technologies and competitive approach in the global market determines the performance in the twenty-first century. Changed leadership style is necessary for leaders to flourish and prosper. Leaders need to create innovative ideas and constantly encourage the followers towards a changed perspective. Changes in leadership style are necessary for the same. According to Uslu, Bubul and Cubuk (2015), the widespread augmentation in the utilisation of different communication channels and the information age with easy access to information has brought about different leadership requirements. Ayub, Manaf and Hamzah (20 14) pinpointed that effective leadership in the 21st century is adjudged by the effectiveness and mode of communication. Transitional changes have occurred in how leaders communicate with the followers. With the progress of people and time, leadership concept has also changed for adjusting with the latest trends witnessed in human relationships. Bedrule-Grigoruta (2012) gave insight into the fact that the constant demand of exerting a more flexible and dynamic leadership has brought about changes in leadership style. For multiple multi-faceted reasons, leaders have taken up distinct features from different theories and models of leadership and integrated them together to suit the needs of the organisations for achieving sustainability. In a similar context, Walker and Walker (2011) has to say that project leadership needs to adapt to fulfil the needs of the 21st century if it wants to remain appropriate and significant. The 21st-century world has witnessed drastic changes from the past century with global financial crisis becoming a source of the changes. Against the background of generational changes, it is now time to consider changes brought about in leadership. Hit, Haynes and Serpa (2010) has been found to state that globalisation is to be blamed for what has happened to the global scenario of leadership. After examining the competitive landscape of the 21st century, it is to be expected that strategic leaders would change how they act. Since they required to communicate and develop a new vision, built up core competencies and put the focus of utilisation of human capitals, they brought about changes in their leadership style. Titu, Raulea and Titu (2015) argue that maintenance of organisational culture demands evolving leadership styles and management in ethical practices. Implementing balanced control between conventional and modern leadership style is pivotal. In words of Anderson (2016) employees of present world are more individualistic. The previous theory of transformational leadership is not successful in preparing managers. Inspirational motivation is less appealing at times, and employees at present have different cognitions about leadership than previous generations. All these are factors for a leadership change. Challenges facing 21st century leadership 21ST century leaders are faced by many challenges due to extremely harsh and constantly changing markets. Currently, business leaders are struggling to keep up with changes in latest technological advancements and reliance on conservative approach has made it even more difficult for them embrace the new change in business market. To survive the challenges of the 21st century, leaders have no choice but to evolve in business (Yukl and Mahsud, 2010). The review of research evidence related to challenges for modern leaders indicates that leaders face challenges in creating an innovation culture in organization. Oke et al. (2009) mentions that certain skill set are necessary for leaders to promote employees innovative behavior in organization. De Jong and Den Hartog (2007) investigated about the types of leadership behavior that can promote individual innovation. On evaluation of leadership behavior according to the transformation leadership, participative leadership and leader member exchange theory, transformational leadership was hypothesized to encourage creativity. However, the challenges for modern leader arise because positive linkage between delegation and idea generation is not found. For instance, granting employees freedom and autonomy is necessary to facilitate innovation process and this helps employee to explore and challenge ideas for innovation (McLaughlin et al. (2008). Therefore, the article was useful in giving t he recommendation that 21st century leaders need to create a balance between stimulating innovative behavior and maintaining efficiency in business. The weakness of the literature is that there is lack of clarity regarding ideal behavior needed by leaders to innovate (De Jong and Den Hartog 2007). Therefore, future work in this area may determine how leaders can adapt to stimulate innovative behavior in organization. The main challenges for global organizations in the 21st century are the lack of leadership skill to fulfill modern demands of business. The creativity theory suggests that people are more likely to generate innovative ideas when working environment facilitates knowledge sharing and problem solving process. Some of the core challenges for leadership in the 21st century includes diversity management and goal oriented performance (Barak 2016). The research study by Meeussen et al. (2014) gives insight into challenges faced by leaders in managing diverse workforce. Currently, workplace consists of people from different cultural background. However, diversity has negatively affected leaders role in group functioning. The study gave the evidence that culturally diverse workforce perform better under transformational leaders who exploit full potential of each member. The weakness of the study is that the study has not confirmed whether such leadership styles can affect performance of minor ity members or not. Due to this vagueness, it is apparent that leaders lack of multiculturalism in leaders will lead to relationship conflict in teamwork (Tekleab and Quigley 2014). Therefore, from the review of this article, it can be referred performance of minority groups can be enhanced only when leaders recognize cultural difference as a strength for the organization. To overcome this challenges in leading, self-leadership strategies holds promise in maximizing the organizational capacity. Some of the main values that leaders can encourage to respond to changing business market includes encouraging employees to challenge status quo, sharing knowledge, focusing on continuous learning process, having a open attitude towards risk taking, being self-reflective and practice participatory management (DiLiello and Houghton 2006). Transition of the leadership theory overtime Uhl-Bien et al. (2007) highlighted about how leadership models and theories has evolved with passing century. For instance, leadership model of twentieth century was useful for physical production process, however these models now stands obsolete in todays knowledge oriented economy. It suggested that current leadership must have a dynamic characteristic from which adaptive outcome of learning, innovation and adaptability emerges. The study gave the recommendation that currently leaders should have combination of roles such as adaptive, enabling and administrative leadership role to efficiently manage complex business environment. The strength of the article was that it brought to the forefront limitation of current leadership theory and proposed the complexity leadership theory as a new tool that enables leaders to learn, create and innovate. This theory has the potential to fit recent trends towards performance management and accountability in business environment. Adaption of the core elements of this theory would help leaders to maintain innovativeness of a firm (Boyatzis 2008; Landy and Conte 2016). Meaning of leadership in management in the 21st century The old hierarchical model of business is obsolete in 21st century environment because of volatile, uncertain and ambiguous competitions in business. In such environment, the meaning of leadership has changed and success in business is dependent on leadership through network of people. As organizations in the 21st century are constantly growing and innovating, greater level of decision making and delegation is seen at all levels. Hence, currently leaders are giving more responsibilities to junior employees. This has implications for leadership and management development (Thomson 2013). The current issue for business organization is that majority of leaders lack understanding regarding the new role in leading in current business situation. The article by Prandin et al. (2012) is influential in addressing this aspect as it gives insight into the responsible management education for 21st century leadership. This was based on the principles of Responsible Management Education, which can give students the necessary skills to provide sustainable value to business. The study also proposed that values of global social responsibility, effective learning process, development of sustainable social and economic value and dialogue with consumers and media can teach future aspirants who aim to be a leader. The main strength of this article is that the knowledge framework is a step ahead toward developing sustainable corporate responsibility of leaders and this approach can easily foster critical thinking and problem solving skills in students so that they learn to solve new dile mmas in leadership. Relationship between gender and leadership in the 21st century Another remarkable change in the 21st century is the presence of proportionally higher number of women leaders in business organization. In the past century, leadership was regarded as domain reserved for males. However, the as society and people have now become very competitive and broadminded, skilful women leaders has been fully embraced by the world. The Fortune 500 Executive Officer list is an indication of growth of men as leaders (Glass et al. 2016). Despite this evidence, the debate and arguments regarding the effectiveness of men leaders compared to women continues (Glass et al. 2016). The study by Paustian-Underdahl et al. (2014) is very important in relation to this argument as it gives a meta-analysis of the gender differences in the perceptions of leadership effectiveness in 99 countries. The review of findings related to perceptions in all the countries suggest skill of women and men does not differ in terms of perceived leadership effectiveness. However, these results were obtained for all leadership content. When other contexts were evaluated, women were rated as more effective in leading compared to men. In addition, the self-ratings data showed that men rated themselves greater in leadership effectiveness than women rated themselves. Although the study is important as it contributes to the debate of gender advantages in leadership, it also has certain limitations. This includes second order sampling error due to inclusion of large number of studies. Another weakness was that some studies examined leaders, whereas other examined educational setting. This li mits the reliability of the result. Conclusion The critical review of literature related to 21st century leadership gave insight into the change in leadership style and management requirement in the current situation of changing business environment. The critical review on the topic gave insight into the core competencies needed for 21st century leadership and how far current leaders are equipped with these skills. Secondly, the literature review also gave rise to the theme of factors leading to change in 21st century leadership, challenges facing leaders, evolution of leadership theory overtime and narrowing of gender gap in leadership. Therefore, the inference from this review is that leadership is no longer restricted by gender in the 21st century and educational development can be improved by embracing curriculum related to current skills for 21st century leadership References Ahmad, H., 2015. 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