business activity lesson question

Characteristics of the 21st Century organization:

1. Organizations will be flatter but far more complex.

a. Distance, boundaries, and reliance on communication technology add levels of complexity that ordinary teams just don’t have” (Stevenson & McGrath, 2004)

b. Virtual organizations are structured like a geodesic dome – joined together at key intersections (Lipnack & Stamps, 1999).

c. Unlike the old workplace with routine work, specialization, and standardization, “… the new workplace is organized around a flat structure of networks in which teams may have members who are suppliers, customers, and even competitors who work on a project-by-project basis” (Akan, 2005)

2. Organizational boundaries will continue to become more and more blurred, but this will add value to the organization’s offerings.

a. Virtual organizations bring together critical contributors who might not otherwise be able to work together due to time, travel, and cost restrictions (Stevenson & McGrath, 2004)

b. Virtual organizations can enhance the available pool of resources by including people from outside the sponsoring organization, such as supply chain affiliates, members of partnering organizations, or external consultants (Kerber & Buono, 2004)

3. Organizations must have a single-minded shared purpose to glue together its complex structure.

a. To manage the complexity of the virtual, global environment, the organization has identified and formed a shared understanding of their actual and target core competencies (Voss, 1996)

b. Virtual organizations have shared vision and goal or a common protocol of cooperation (Voss, 1996)

c. Gaining commitment to the team’s purpose is far more challenging for teams that do not meet face-to-face (Kerber & Buono, 2004)

4. Organizations will be learning organizations.

a. “In the future, workers will have to possess in-depth professional knowledge and expertise to continually advance in their careers” (Huang & Chuan, 2005). To develop this in-depth professional knowledge and expertise in its employees, Liu & Chen (2005) expect that more than 50% of businesses will establish their own internet-based management training seminars and corporate university advanced degree programs during the 21st century.

b. Huang and Chuan (2005) note that, “In the future, workers will have to possess in-depth professional knowledge and expertise to continually advance in their careers.”

c. Infrastructure that supports knowledge-sharing, communication, and work on joint projects. (Voss, 1996)

d. Create teams that differ considerably in their purpose, structure and dynamics, balancing attention on task, behaviors and learning.

Characteristics of the 21st Century virtual leader:

1. The virtual leader of the 21st Century will be a virtual (life-long) learner and his/her virtual learning will be incorporated into the culture of the organization

a. Huang and Chuan (2005) recognized that education is a required core capability of an organization and it can not be separated from the work.

b. Some suggest that networked education is a new educational paradigm and a response to the educational needs of the emerging information society (Uys, 2002).

c. Changes are occurring not just at the hourly or supervisory levels within organizations. “Executive education is undergoing a gradual but radical transformation” (Conger & Xin, 2000).

2. The virtual leader of the 21st Century will necessarily be brighter than her counterparts of the 20th Century. She must multi-task within a complex network of loosely knit organizational entities.

a. Greater levels of complexity within organizations add greater demands on the managers (Stevenson & McGrath, 2004; Pauleen, 2003; Bell & Kozlowski, 2002; Ikayworth & Leidner, 2002)

b. Managers must by globally literate to manage globally centric, multicultural teams (Stevenson & McGrath, 2004)

3. The 21st Century virtual leader will be a situational leader with transformational team leadership qualities.

a. Open and spontaneous communication with emotional intelligence (Voss, 1996)

b. Build and maintain the rapport (and in particular the trust) necessary for a positive learning climate (Clutterbuck, 2004)

c. Moral character with concern for self and others (Bass, 1999) with ethical values embedded in the leaders’ vision (Bass, 1999)

d. Communicating the importance and value of specified and idealized goals (Northouse, 2004)

e. Consultative leadership, common values, and idealized influence (Gillespie & Mann, 2004)

4. The virtual leader of the 21st Century will be a situational leader with excellent people skills

a. As Lee-Kelly (2002) suggests, the leader will be called upon, “…to cope with multiple roles, unplanned events, losing key members of the team, modifications to the project schedule, and the need to innovate and adapt to the changing circumstances in order to maintain control. The manager must alter his/her management style to match the situation.”

b. Build and maintain the rapport (and in particular the trust) necessary for a positive learning climate (Clutterbuck, 2004)

c. Motivating, communicating, appraising and encouraging learning remotely (Clutterbuck, 2004)

d. Servant-leader (Cardona, 2000)

e. Work jointly in teams of core-competence groups with shared vision and goals or a common protocol of cooperation, and delegation from the bottom up (Voss, 1996)

f. Develop the skills of team members in working collaboratively at a distance (Clutterbuck, 2004)

g. Much more of a facilitating and consulting role (Clutterbuck, 2004)

h. Measure not only the “hard” facts of business performance but also the “soft” facts that indicate qualitative improvements of services and people

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