LEADERSHIP ---KEY ISSUES AFFECTING LEADERSHIP IN 21st CENTURY
"-The failure of modern leadership is not because of the lack of traits and attributes amongst the modern leaders but the breakdown of very institutes on which their power depends-----" observes Alvin Toffler in his book, THIRD WAVE.
According to Alvin Toffler, Force, Money and Knowledge have been the three pillars of power, which during the various phases of human development have shaped the society and its leaders. He argues it so in his trilogy of books, beginning with Future Shock in the 70s of the 20th Century, building upon it in Third wave in the 80s and finally concluding it in Power Shift in the 90s.
He sees human development through three waves of social and political growth, each in turn dominated by one of the three pillars of power, while other two complement it. First wave was Agricultural Wave, when Force was the prime instrument of power and leadership. It lasted till mid Fifteenth Century. Physical force and hard assets created not only wealth but also men of power. Feudal lords and kingdoms sprawled across the globe.
Industrial revolution in the fifteenth century unleashed Second wave and the money became the prime instrument of power during this wave. Those who had the money and means of generating more money, held the power. It ushered in the era of mass production and concentration of power. Social and political thought led to evolution of the concept of Nation and small political units merged to create big.
It was around the end of second World war that Second Wave ended and the world moved into the Third wave of development. This wave is dominated by information and knowledge and we live in it. It has individualized societies, polities and communities. Rising individual aspirations, fired by rising level of individual awareness, have broken up joint families into nuclear families and impacting the social stratagem everywhere. This had to affect the leadership and power structure, too. Individualized and demassified society throw up conflicting needs of the followers for the leaders to tackle.
Third wave is in full momentum now and we are faced by a FLAT WORLD, as theorized by George Friedman. It has unleashed the process of globalization , which is making the world a microchip of inter connected and inter dependent economic nodes.. While big is breaking up, small is getting connected to each other. Nation after nation are getting engulfed into insurgency and secession movements. Rising aspirations of the people make them break free of central authority.
Ethos , values and moralities are being redefined with economist aspirations of individuals rather than social, religious or political affiliations. Intra civilization and inter civilization clashes are indicative of the attempt of the central authorities,(read leadership and power barometers of past), whether religious or political, to resist the process of globalization, which would vanish the old identities and thus change the leadership and power equations.
The challenges to leadership and management are far and wide. Before I go any further, let me explain to you social and political transformation with the help of old and new Indian social stratagem.
SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
CAUSES EFFECTS
MATERIALISM AWARENESS
COSUMERISM SELF AWAKENING
COMMUNICATION RISING ASPIRATIONS
TECHNOLOGY DEMASSIFICATION
ENVIRONMENTS NUCLEAR FAMILY
UNIFORMITY IS THE KEY TRAIT DIVERSITY IS THE KEY TRAIT
OLD SOCIAL ORDER. NEW SOCIAL ORDER
THEME. TREND. EFFECT. THEME. TREND. EFFECT
Family man No self I'd Family supreme. Individualized self interests. Self-matters
Family head Respect Amenable to. Self Supreme Insensitive. Not Amenable
Messiah Family elders Auth
Family goals Means Uphold Self Goals. Ends justify. Self-
Aim. Important Family ethos. Any means. - Oriented
Contentment. Curb personal. Peace and. Aspiring and. Rising Conflict &
Desires Harmony Ambitious Expectations Question
Result Result
1. MASSIFIED AND NON INFORMED SOCIETY. DEMASSIFIED & KNOWLEDGABLE
SOCIETY
2. LARGE IS STRENGTH. SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
3. STATUS QUO DISPOSABLE CULTURE
( OLD IS GOLD) (STAGNATION IS A CURSE)
The socio-economic changes and the modern communication system have transformed the social values and social percepts of our society. Individualistic man, fueled by the on-rushing fires of materialism, has emerged on the scene. Advent of the sky-waves into Indian homes has sky-rocketed the general level of awareness and aspirations of the new social man. He is no more a joint-family-man who lived in oblivion with little self-identity and who largely suppressed self-desires to avoid conflicts in the family. Thus, while the old social man was easily amenable to authority because of the very design of the old social order the new and the emerging man is ready to question, ignore and circumvent the family ethos which restrains him in self-goal realization. The essentials of the transformation can be seen in the graphic form above. The notable difference is while the old social order encouraged closely knit and self-weaving family system, put together to make it a one big social mass, the new social order aims at de-massification of society into smaller islands in the stormy sea of social mass. Technology, information and communications have played a vital role in ushering up consumerism and materialism which resulted into self awareness, rising expectations and loosening of the family grip on the men, it, thus, climaxed into de-massification of society where individual assumed prominence family and others.
It would be seen form the above that the new-social-man is more self-centered, self-oriented and self-seeking. He will use any means; do anything to ensure the attainment of his self-set goals. He is cunning and sheered. He weighs the effect of all laws, rules, regulations and orders on his self-determining scale. He is intelligent and thinking who does not accept any thing on its face value. He will question, criticize and denounce what, according to him, is not right. He will frame his own definitions of ‘Right’ and ‘Wrong’. Such a new-social-man will not respect institutions, customs values and the work-cultures founded on the myths of old social stratagem. Message, thus, he sends to the protagonists of old social order is clear and simple. Change, alter and modify to suit the new social man or else he will trample, maul and mutilate them. There will be social chaos, upheaval and disorder, if the massage is not heeded.
Attributes of a New-Social-Man:
The new social man, when crowned as a leader or placed in a POST of POWER and PELF would bring in his new social ethos and values. There will be conflict and frustration, if basic ethos of work culture is based on old value system. There will invariably be cries of MALPRACTICES, which probably be accepted as privileges by modern society. Some of the salient ingredients of new Leader (POLICEMEN, SOLDIERS, BUREAUCRATS, DOCTORS, TECHNOCRATS etc) would be:-
o Being materialistic and individualistic, he will be always guided by self-interests. Self-advancement will be his single-minded purpose. He will mend, break and interpret rules and regulations to suit his scheme of things.
o A very high level of awareness would nudge him to disregard pseudo-orders and instructions which seek to deny him his privileges generally enjoyed by his counter-parts in other societies/organizations.
o Liberal and democrat, he would like more freedom of action. He would like to express his views frankly and be heard patiently. He will resent autocracy and top-down flow of orders.
o Cunning and shrewd, he will live by ‘opportunism’. He will compromise and temporize based on his scheme of self-advancement. He will allow ‘Wrong-doing’ seem harmful for him. He will assert himself legally and question the moralities of his superiors. ‘Live-and-let-live-philosophy will be given new interpretation by him.
o When in position of authority, hypocrisy and double standards would characterize his conduct. He will have different set of rules for self and others.
o And most important, being self-oriented, self-seeking and calculating, he will encourage and stand by play-safe-work-ethos. In its applied and functional form, it would evolve into a work-culture reading, “Mistake occurs if you work. If you do not, you make no mistake.” He will sugar-coat his indecisiveness by keeping his superior informed on all trivial matters of administration. Though in reality, if something went wrong, he would retort back to his superior, “Well1 you know it, I did so and so under your benign guidance, blessings, advice and instructions.” Element of failure would nudge him either to over-insure or pass on the buck. Risk-taking will not be his forte.
Ethos of the old family system in India , not only encouraged but sustained old philosophy of Social-Trust. Men were easily amenable to authority because of the very design of the family system and the social order. ‘Elder-does-no-wrong’ was the KEY NOTE OF SOCIAL OBEDIENCE, DISCIPLINE AND SOCIAL HARMONY. Being a family-man, he readily accepted the organizational supremacy of the family (read organization). Family goals became his life’s ambition. Less educated and less aware, he could accept personal discomforts, willingly and voluntarily. In short, old family system was the ware-house of made-to-order TOLERANCE and PATIENCE in a man, who fitted well into the ‘Social-Trust of a COMMUNITY/POLITY.
If, technological, social and economical factors have transformed the social forestry of the nation, then definitely the new social man is not tailor made for the existing TOLERANCE and PATIENCE for peace and harmony in the society. He needs to be handled, guided and caressed in such a manner so as to make him fill the slot. Otherwise, he will remain a square peg in a round hole. This would be the challenge for the LEADERS in various disciplines of SOCIAL-POLITICAL-MILITARY- BUSINESS/CORPORATE and TECHNOLOGICAL ORDER. This, we would see in the next part. I invite observations by the readers. I hope it generates some discussion.
