The Changing Paradigm of Leadership in A 21st Century Global Business Environment

Abstract

Leadership in the 21st century is characterized by its complexity and dynamism as there is no one best approaches to leading people. The onus therefore lies on a leader’s capacity to adapt swiftly to the best style contingent to the leadership challenges and the changing context within their domain or industry, paying more attention to the people, technology, structure, culture, and the need to be strategically and emotionally intelligent. The researcher has juxtaposed that effective leadership approaches are necessary for optimal performance irrespective of the sectors whether private or public, especially dealing with plethora of challenges in this fast changing contemporary environment. This paper explores leadership and its theoretical diversity and paradigm shift in a contemporary business environment. The paper contributed that the key parameters of leadership such as coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching are fundamentally contingent to the subject matter. The researcher posited that leaders must adopt the right mix of leadership styles and competencies required for the 21^st century work environment to succeed in the new global economy.

Keywords: Leadership, Leadership styles, Competencies, Business environmeny, Pacesetting

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/15-14-05

Publication date:July 31^st 2023