Verified Document

Leadership Two Of The Most Pressing Issues Essay

Leadership Two of the most pressing issues in corporate leadership today include gender equality and labor rights. In "Women See Slow Progress in Leadership," Gay (2013) cites numerous empirical studies showing that the glass ceiling remains nearly impenetrable at the highest levels of management. The report cites the work-life balance ideal as the most common reason offered for why many women are either opting out of the CEO lifestyle, or are not considered ready or willing to handle the challenges and pressures of senior leadership.

In "The Best Retail Companies to Work for Right Now," Smith (2013) describes Costco's approach toward human resources management. The company has recently been named one of the best companies to work for in the United States because of their relatively high salaries, supportive work environment, opportunity for growth, and job security. Its ethical labor rights practices are helping gain positive publicity for Costco, showing that ethical leadership practices can be profitable.

A servant-leadership model can be applied to both of these situations. In both these situations, the need for work-life balance is highlighted. Costco is a good company to work for in part because of the fact that employees are encouraged to develop a balance between the time spent at work and the time spent with family. A balanced life ostensibly creates healthier and happier employees, which are in turn more productive, more loyal to the company, and more likely to show up for work on time. On the other hand, too many pressures to sacrifice personal time for work leads to a low morale among employees and may be the main reason why women who could become senior executives remain in subordinate roles. These are women who are unwilling to sacrifice...

As a result, the workforce has become unbalanced, and many lives are becoming unbalanced as well. Servant-leaders recognize the need to empower employees by encouraging them to work on their own schedule to fulfill the mutual goals they share with the company.
According to the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (2013), "A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong." Companies cultivating a servant leadership approach would focus on the growth and well-being of all employees, as Costco seems to be doing. However, companies that do not value servant leadership are more concerned with "the accumulation and exercise of power" at the top (Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, 2013). Greenleaf (2013) outlines the ten main components of servant leadership including listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community.

Visionary leadership principles also apply to the issues of gender equity and labor rights. Focused primarily on long-term goals, a visionary leader "calls for discipline and creativity" (Lavinsky, 2013). The vision for the company is framed in terms of how the organization can contribute to the community, how it can better the lives of people, and how it can improve the ethics of the global business community by setting a positive example. Applying visionary leadership to the impediments women are facing while climbing the corporate ladder, a company might create a new strategic vision that permits work-life balance within the overall framework of market strategies. Encouraging a work-life balance can also be viewed as…

Sources used in this document:
References

Gay, M. (2013). Women see slow progress in leadership. The Wall Street Journal. 14 Nov, 2013. Retrieved online: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303289904579196123043065800

Greenleaf, R. (2013). Ten principles of servant leadership. Butler University. Retrieved online: http://www.butler.edu/volunteer/resources/principles-of-servant-leadership/

Lavinsky, D. (2013). Are you a visionary business leader? Forbes. Retrieved online: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/2013/04/26/are-you-a-visionary-business-leader/

Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (2013). What is servant leadership? Retrieved online: https://greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/
Smith, J. (2013). The best retail companies to work for right now. Forbes. Nov 21, 2013. Retrieved online: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/11/21/the-best-retail-companies-to-work-for-right-now/
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Leadership the Main Issue in This Case
Words: 946 Length: 2 Document Type: Case Study

Leadership The main issue in this case appears to be that Jessica's training effort has resulted in some unforeseen consequences, with managers treating all employees like they have been instructed to treat the mentally challenged ones. This has resulted in some unhappy feelings among those employees who have been part of the team in the long-term and are not handicapped. Perhaps one of the causes for the situation is that the suggested

Leadership SME Leadership Strategy From the Top
Words: 2109 Length: 8 Document Type: Article Review

Leadership SME Leadership Strategy from the Top Down: Lessons from the Boardroom in Small and Medium Enterprises Leadership and management theories and strategies have proliferated at a rapid rate in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as organizations have grown larger and more complex and have faced pressures of a much faster pace of business. The demands made on leaders of business organizations and the need for strong leadership in navigating the ever-more

Leadership -- Conflict Management in
Words: 3122 Length: 10 Document Type: Term Paper

In these kinds of situations, the health care professional is taking the middle ground to satisfy both parties (which will lead to a number of challenges). This is from both sides feeling that they have won and will want more down the road. The only difference is that they are more emboldened in their position. This is problematic, because it can make the underlying situation worse in the future.

Leadership Management Leadership Roles and
Words: 606 Length: 2 Document Type: Research Proposal

Therefore, I am finding that there is a benefit in creating an Assistant Manager position, through which these scheduling duties may be performed. This allows me the freedom to focus on the important matters of budgeting and financial planning. Indeed, during my years as the owner/operator at Southwest, I have become increasingly adept at the maintenance and interpretation of financial records, budgetary concerns, inventory flow and adherence to appropriate accounting

Leadership Characteristics That Facilitate School
Words: 5111 Length: 15 Document Type: Essay

Those administrators that are able to provide educators with this will more than likely have favorable opinions of the current strategy (from the staff and the public). While those administrators that are unable to achieve this objective, will more than likely face possible resistance issues to new ideas that are being presented. This will make creating a change in the educational environment more challenging, as educators will often view

Higher Education Leadership Purpose Statement the Purpose
Words: 2401 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Higher Education Leadership Purpose Statement The purpose of higher education leadership is to ensure organizational learning through the induction of most qualified men and women in educational institutions, at the same time keeping pace with rapidly changing educational standards by applying modern teaching and research methodologies, to embrace flexibility and creativity in virtual learning of diversified workforce across the globe. Higher education leadership aims to win the commitment and loyalty of

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now