Is there a need to rethink leadership as digitization continues to grow? (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,7, University of applied sciences, Düsseldorf, language: English, abstract: Due to the increasing spread of many companies into international markets, one can clearly see that globalization is continuing to rise. The entry into new markets is simplified by the fact that nowadays online platforms and especially social media platforms can often be used to handle for example sales tasks. This shows that the age of the digital revolution has been reached which is additionally confirmed by individual companies that are changing their internal procedures to implement this digital trend. The result must be that business leaders are forced to think about their internal processes, and leadership in particular.

In order to find out more about digital leadership, the assignments objective for the module "Soft Skills & Leadership Qualities" is the answering of the research question:

"Is there a need to rethink leadership as digitization continues to grow?"

Firstly, this paper will provide a short introduction about the theoretical background. Within this, the following chapters are introduced:
- the traditional form of leadership;
- insights of digital leadership.
After introducing already established leadership styles and the actions needed for a new way of leading, the paper switches over to the core topic, the 21st century leader and its requirements. Finally, this theoretical background is needed to highlight the differences between both leading styles, which will be compared together with the information out of the core topic within the conclusion part.
As a result, leaders need to rethink how to manage their business and especially their employees in today's volatile and uncertain world. Static forms such as "control, plan, analyze" can no longer be applied as strictly as they used to be. Due to the changing environment, leaders need to focus on globalization, innovation and communication and develop a strong global mindset.