Faculty of Business & Law

Critical Issues in Business

STRM042

Student Name: Mohamed Fahad Rahim

Student ID: 20417768

Lecturer: Dr. Hasintha Premerathna

Word Count: 2663

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Table of Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Leadership Styles.......................................................................................................................4
Ethical Leadership..................................................................................................................4
Servant leadership..................................................................................................................5
Authentic leadership...............................................................................................................6
Responsible leadership...........................................................................................................7
Conclusions................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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 Abstract

Global businesses are profoundly dependent for their sustainability and success on the
efficacy of business negotiations. International business negotiations over the last decade
have received significant interest among researchers as a significant business feature for
establishing and sustaining good partnerships. While these research efforts have focused on
many dimensions of international business negotiations, neither a detailed review of the skills
needed nor an examination of the problems that arise are left unexplored. The aim of this
report is to provide a comprehensive overview of the publications provided in the last decade
on international business negotiations, to identify and critically analyse the range of skills a
negotiator needs to draw upon, including styles, strategies and techniques, in the process of
conducting effective negotiations across different cultures.

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Introduction

The corporate world has evolved drastically in the past few decades, and currently we reside
in a connected environment which is unpredictable and rapid. Fast-paced technological
developments have created a world in which the Internet, phones and social networking are
appearing everywhere, and the global financial crisis has amplified the sense of uncertainty,
risk and unpredictability in the economy (Deloitte, 2019). The word VUCA which is an
acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity was introduced due to the
continuous change in the external environmental factors we live in. This state of continuous
change has switched the level of certainty and stability that people have been used to
(Tiefenbacher, 2019), therefore, making it evident that it is a VUCA environment. The
emerging global health-care issue COVID-19 can be taken as an example. From a market
point of view, this current world is fundamentally shifting in the context of a VUCA climate
(Andreux, 2020). As corporate choices become greatly influenced by external factors, the
future leaders need to effectively navigate the complexity of this global phenomenon.

In this current era, power to the stakeholders is dominant and the autocratic leadership style is
not the best leadership style to use. Today, becoming a leader involves taking others with
you, joining in on corporate goals and reducing the consequences associated with leadership.
Also, the latest technology used back then are now outdated and traditional leaders can
consider this change to be a challenge. It is known that Generation Y is stepping into the
business world and is rapidly growing to be tech-savvy specially, with social media
marketing which is another point to consider since traditional leaders are not very
comfortable using latest technology (Caramela, 2017). Since modern leadership styles are a
mix of traditional leadership styles, Asrar –ul-Haq and Anwar (2018) state that there is a
research gap in the modern leadership styles. He also agreed on the fact that modern
leadership styles need more significance.

Leadership Styles
Ethical Leadership

According to Al-Jammal (2015) ethical leaders refers to the reflection of one’s self of who
they are, what they can turn out to be, how they live their life and in what way can they make
their lives better. Al-Jammal (2015) also mentioned that ethical leadership is about
encouraging individuals to do the correct thing rather than interpreting it as stopping

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individuals from doing the incorrect thing. To describe it is an ethical leadership as showing a
good standard of conduct through one’s actions and relationships between people and
encouraging others to such conduct through communication and decision making.

One of the main advantages of this leadership style is honesty within the organizational
culture. Since this leadership style promotes workers to be honest, they won’t feel stressed
out to talk and be honest when something goes wrong which will strengthen the relationship
within the whole organization. Secondly, while employees strive to achieve the goals and
objectives, adding values and ethics to the process gives more satisfaction which eliminates
guilt, thus resulting in a state of being a prosperous organization (Indeed, 2020).
The main drawback of this leadership style is the fact that implementation is costly.
Practising an ethical leadership style will need an ethics compliance program which can be
very costly for many organizations. Also, when the company keeps growing and expanding,
ethical policies will have to be continuously updated to be in line with the changes.
This leadership style can benefit the organization in many ways. In an individual and team
point of view, this leadership style will help individuals sustain a healthy and positive work
culture and also get others to follow by their ethical conduct (Mihelič et al, 2010).
Productivity and work attitude can be enhanced due to the positive communication which is
practised in this leadership style. This will assist in achieving organization targets. In an
organizational point of view, the success of an organizations depends on the wellbeing of the
employees. Due to this leadership style, the positive environment created lets employees
grow and achieve their goals and objectives effectively and efficiently. Although this
leadership style has many pros, there are some cons that need consideration. One main
drawback of this style is that all employees and especially the top management have to
support this style and ethical behaviour to make it a success. When one or few leader acts
unethically, it attracts more employees and that behaviour keeps building, making this style
less effective.

Also, this leadership style can create disruption to the organization. Since each person has his
or her own set of ethics which they believe are ethically right, it can vary from person to
person thereby creating an argument. Agreeing on what is ethical and unethical can create
conflict among employees.
Servant leadership

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This style was first introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf with the main aim to have a different
perspective on leadership .This leadership style mainly focusses on serving others rather than
taking control or gaining power. This style aims to include employees in decision-making
that is firmly focused on ethical behaviour, which promotes individual development thus
enhancing work culture and motivation. Melchar and Bosco (2010) explain this leadership
style as fulfilling the needs of the team first before serving one’s self. The reason behind this
belief is that, servant leaders assume that a better quality of work can be obtained effectively
and efficiently when the members in the team are personally and professionally satisfied (Ho,
2020). Team work and employee satisfaction are key concepts in this leadership style. This
leadership style is beneficial for organizational growth because this assists in creating an
environment where employees in all levels are respected and valued. It has been proved that
organizations that individuals who move forward with this leadership style have a more
positive working culture with high morale and employee engagement (Indeed, 2020). These
factors directly affect the growth of the business in terms of sustainability. Since this
leadership style aims to benefit everyone in the organization, the benefit serves everyone and
helps them develop because they work as a team to achieve a mutual benefit. It also lets
employees view things from different perspectives because of the diversity created in the
organization. Although this has been stated as an advantage, making decisions that is
advantageous to everyone has a major weakness. It is the fact that it takes longer to make
decisions. In this VUCA environment when everything is fast paced, time is a key factor
consider and stay competitive in the market. Since the decision has to benefit everyone,
organizations can take much longer because of different points of view that needs to be
considered.

Authentic leadership

Authentic leadership is an area that is now being highlighted in academic researches which
was once not important (Iqbal et al, 2019). This context emerged in the 1960s as a way of
explaining how an entity represents itself by authenticity. Some authors claimed that through
accountability, problem solving, and innovation, an organization could function authentically
as a single individual would. This is a leadership style that puts great emphasis on bringing
up the acceptance of the leader and not power, by forming authentic partnerships with
employees that respect their opinions and are founded on an ethical basis. In General, people
who possess this leadership style are positive and honest about themselves and is open about

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it. By strengthening trust and getting honest help from others, these leaders can boost the
performance individually and as a team because of the trust placed by their followers. This
leadership style has been widely adopted by many leaders who see this as a way to focus on
individuals and ethics rather than profits. For example, Martin Luther King Jr.

This leadership style can remove many legal problems in an organization (Covelli and
Mason, 2017). Authentic leadership removes a variety of civil and ethical problems. Since
these leaders focus their behaviour and judgments on strong ethical values, they never find
themselves guilty of cruelty, or harassment to workers. The decision-making is based on
competitiveness and efficiency, yet through your own views, you understand the importance
of workers as individual beings. It makes for a cohesive environment in which workers are
members of a group that works in a common direction. You are the primary decision maker,
but you gain from the support of the employees.

Regardless of the great values that come with being an authentic leader, being authentic can
also be problematic if the leader has negative emotions. Emotions can spread quickly within
organization, furthermore, when a leader appears depressed or upset, those feelings will be
taken by everyone they communicate with and spread through the organisation. For example,
if an employee doesn’t feel right about something, they most likely seek assistance upwards.
This is because authentic leaders act as emotional role models and under these cases it may
be harmful to the organization because of the negativity spread by the leader.

Responsible leadership

This leadership style has been explained by many authors in different ways. Woszczyna et al
(2015) explains this leadership style as a value-based leadership style in the search for the
method of inspiring and connecting, economic and social change and sustainable growth by
enabling and influencing people to follow a modern vision of sustainable growth and the
required suggested change. Vogtlin (2017) defines Responsible leadership as a trend affecting
people, teams and organisations that prioritize leadership effectiveness, ethical practice,
respect and social and environmental sustainability activities says Shi and Ye (2016). The
main reason why this leadership style is needed in an organization is because for instance,
when the top management is chosen by the Board of directors, they would want an individual
who will be responsible the growth of the organization. This shows that responsibility is a

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key element that is looked into in modern leadership. One of the most highlighted benefits of
this leadership style is the fact that current problems can be solved.

One major responsibility for this leadership style is the Corporate Social Responsibility.
Corporate Social Responsibility can be explained as the responsibility of the organization to
the society. Moreover, responsible leaders are introduced to cope with the regularly arising
business problems and to satisfy business social obligation. These leaders therefore
consistently participates in socially responsible practices, such as providing employees with a
secure working atmosphere and engaging with partners. Towards completing such practical
acts, responsible leaders attempts to satisfy social obligation of the organization. A case study
also made it evident that this leadership style aims to satisfy social obligation through respect
for all stakeholders, including the external environment (Antunes and Franco, 2016).
Some researchers say that responsible leadership will inspire all stakeholders to reach
common objectives, thus improving corporate financial efficiency and achieving social goals.
It was also evident through research that Responsible leadership not only directly influences
organizational efficiency, but also improves organizational output.
Being a responsible leader can also bring some challenges. The main challenge for these
leaders is the fact that stakeholders have different interests and have unique requests.
Although this leadership style gets everyone involved when making decisions, sometimes
tough decisions have to be make that won’t be in favour of everyone. Some of the challenges
can appear from external environmental forces (Sarkar, 2016). Therefore, it is challenging to
find a balance between both.

Conclusions

In this current 21st century, leadership is mix of many courageous decisions. Although this is
more difficult, the effect of modern leadership during these periods can also be quite high.
Many of the challenges are now threatening organizations all over the globe and is very much
stronger when compared to previous years. It takes leaders with bravery, determination, firm
self-belief and commitment and a deep sense of purpose to successfully steer an organisation
through this VUCA environment. Yet we do need to bear in mind that a leader can’t achieve
anything by himself and now this is more significant than ever. A leader requires a flexible
mind to accomplish important corporate objectives, should be responsive to teamwork, have
the capacity to balance opposing views, and should have the confidence to guide teams with
diverse interests and desires. While modern leadership in this 21st century continues to be

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highly demanding, when performed correctly it can be very rewarding as well. Regardless of
it being an individual or a team, the attributes of a good leadership apply to both.

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