As in all things, the future promises an array of new ways and new understanding in the practice of leadership and leadership development. These are critical role-changing contexts which will play an important part in leadership development. Several trends will rise to prominence in the days to come, changing our outlook and perspective on leadership development. These rapidly occurring changes may require future human resources professionals to obtain a masters in organizational leadership. What follows are several important trends.
Leadership competencies
First, leadership competencies or requirements will still be significant. However, they will change as the competitive environment changes. A major study identifies five critical forces that will shape leadership in the future including, global competition, understanding of cultural and business norms in different parts of the world, information technology, the need for rapid and flexible groups, and varying employee needs based on location and culture.
Globalization
Future leaders will have to be familiar and fluid in doing business on a global basis. Globalization, will force leaders to cope with different and more complex groups outside of their organization and nation. There will be more components involving international markets, global economic trends, and outside regions like the Asia Pacific rim, the Southern Hemisphere, etc. There will be an extensive use of the internet in the marketing of products and services. In addition globalization will require an increased awareness of currency markets and exchange rates and foreign exchange trends. The effects of globalization cannot be overemphasized as a result this phenomenon is fully analyzed when you study for a masters degree organizational leadership.
Technology
The revolution in technology has drastically altered organizational life. It has altered the means by which information is obtained and exchanged with others. One of the most important changes is in the way people communicate. This has critical implications for the implementation of effective leadership training. As the future unfolds, technology will play a key role in leadership development. The global use of Skype as a voice and video conferencing tool makes global communication inexpensive and widely accessible. Leaders will have to keep abreast of rapid technological changes and adapt accordingly.
Character and integrity
The decade of the 1990's particularly the late 1990's produced some of the most egregious corporate scandals of the twentieth century. The resulting backlash has caused an increased oversight of corporate officers and their conduct. The trend among the new breed of corporate leaders is to behave in a modest and humble manner. This contrasts with the pompous and arrogant styles of well known business leaders of the past who have had a negative impact of their orgainizations.
Return on investment
The strongest pressure of leadership practitioners in the future will be to demonstrate return on investment for leadership training. This is very difficult to quantify. Leadership development may be strategically important, but it is also very expensive. Many large organizations have been attempting to quantify the benefits of leadership training for years, with mixed results. In the future, it is likely that leadership development investments will be a priority of some organizations. However, plans are in place to maximize the return on investment for leadership development efforts by way of effective planning, implementation and evaluation.
For some time now, the thinking has been that leadership and leadership development are going to be inherently collaborative, social and relational processes. It is conceptualized as the collective capability of all members of the organization. This kind of leadership development is more difficult to design and implement. This is because it is in contrast to the ideas of the past where the focus was on training individual leaders.
