Leadership Reflection Essay

Leadership Reflection Essay

(Yifan Chu)

Currently, people live in a knowledge-based and changing environment, the concept of declining management authority is raised. Some companies have adopted the strategy for decentralizing the business management to motivate the employees. The visible form of management has changed into a system of loose network within the business management structure. This paper argues that the managerial authority is still essential in business management under certain circumstances.

Authorities could be used for effectively guiding the team and monitoring the progress of work and it cannot be replaced by leadership. The changing environment has proposed the new definition of traditional managerial role, enabling it to become the incentive instrument for the employees.

Three key circumstances when managerial authority is needed are addressed. Firstly, when there is decision-making urgency, the managerial authority could ensure the efficiency and effectiveness in decision-making. If the senior managers are too handful or long time to share the information, the decision might be undermined. The centralizing management structure could reduce the delays from collaboration and consensus-driven approach.

Secondly, one key knowledge is concentrated in the management team, the managerial authority is needed. Decision-maker’s access to information about the conditions in the market could directly impact the business decisions being made and delegation could allow the local decision makers to be equipped with knowledge to achieve the local business goals.

Thirdly, when there exists the need for internal coordination, the managerial authority is also essential. Factors influencing the decisions could be inter-dependent to some extent, thus coordinating the involvement of several different parties is needed and things need to be tightly coordinated.

It is also addressed that mixing authority and delegation could also be adopted in the dynamic world. It is important to address the right size of the leadership team, enabling the employees to be equipped with feelings of entitlement but not overrule others.

This paper provides an insight on the importance of network in leading the success of great change agent. 68 initiatives of change are followed and the striking predictors of the success of change agent is identified, addressing the importance of network in the business organization. It has been identified that change agents in the center of informal network gain the advantage regardless of their formal position in the organization and those who build the bridge between the disconnected group and individual could gain advantage in leading the reform of business. And being close to the conservatives could be beneficial to leading the change, which also acts as a double -edged sword due to the possibility to hinder the major change attempts.