21st-century Organizations Face Different Challenges From Those of The Past - Essay Example

 Individual Essay: 21st-century leadership organizations today face significantly different challenges from those of the past The number of climate related disasters has been on the rise in the last three decades (Coumou & Rahmstorf, 2012, p. 493). With continued environmental degradation, the trend is expected to remain as the main threat to human existence and nature survival at least for the next two decades. Globally, at least 250 million people are faced with natural related disasters annually (Sivakumar, 2005, p. 10). It is estimated that this could increase to at least 375 million people who are likely to be face by environmental related challenges at least in the next one decade. Environmental catastrophism is a result of changes in climate. Weather patterns keep changing and sea level keep rising whenever there are changes in climate. It is estimated that gradual changes in weather could cause 40% of world population to fall into the risk of falling victims of limited natural resources like water, pasture, energy and cultivatable land (Easterling et al, 2000, p. 2070). The poor and the less influential people will have little or no control over resources thus likely to suffer due to lack. To be able to establish their position in the society, there is highly likelihood of eruptions of violence as more people fight for a share of the limited resources. To resolve the conflicts, governments will need to have negotiation traits if peaceful coexistence will be achieved once again. South America has already started facing the negative impact of globalization and climate change since there has been increased threat to livelihoods of the poor. For instance, during the 2008 global recession, there was a significant increase in use of food items in exchange of crude oils (Nazlioglu & Soytas, 2011, p. 490). That together with other global related issues led poor people in the south to suffer since most households could not afford the basics like food due to the high prices at the time. The blame was placed on the Northern governments who had failed to invest in alternative drivers of the economy like agriculture. This led to malnutrition among the poor hence causing a critical humanitarian crisis at least for the next few years. It is estimate that there are more than expected countries that have been exposed to political and economical conflicts that end up affecting accessibility to basic resources (Iqbal, 2006, p. 641). Developed countries have also imposed wars aimed at victimizing the poor countries hence leading to more devastation that influence quality of life in the poor countries. The continued exposure to such threats has lead many people in the poor countries to remain victims of the conflict and this could continue for the next 2 decades. Crisis management leadership is majorly left to volunteers and non-governmental organizations (NGO) with access to knowledge and capacity to operate in disaster stricken areas (Blaikie, Cannon, Davis, & Wisner, 2014, p. 141). According to Jump (2013, p. 5), humanitarian organizations make an industry with beneficiaries as the customers and donors as the industry proprietors. The combination of all non-governmental organization (NGO) makes humanitarian industry. Majority of these NGOs are established in areas where issues on governance, accountability, unrest, political instability, and security are a big threat to human existences (Blaikie, Cannon, Davis, & Wisner, 2014, p. 112). The survival and operation of these NGOs is dependent on availability of fund which is affected by global economy. The NGO capacities are thus limited and thus cannot meet the demand of disaster management personnel required when disaster strikes. The humanitarian organizations will have to device appropriate leadership capacity to be able to handle increasing conflict and wars stemming from human life threatening circumstances. Through the leadership of NGOs, grassroots institutions in disaster exposed areas can be established. These institutions can be established to deal with issues on disaster resilience as well as promoting social cohesion especially in limited resources areas (Schipper & Pelling, 2006, p. 26). The improved capacity through local support will be able to reduce risk factors that could be facing particular communities. The grassroots institutions can also be empowered on negotiation skills to be utilised in case of conflict in the community. The most appropriate crisis management skills will be transformational leadership. This leadership style is characterised by high motivational and inspiration levels from the leaders to the followers (Krishna, 2005, p. 14). The leader impact his/he followers through engaging them in the planning and implementation of the decisions made at all stages of a project. Through transformational leadership, the leader develops followers to be leaders even when he/she not there. Transformational leadership style when applied in humanitarian organization will ensure that employees are well vast with the knowledge on crisis management, plus are able to disseminate the same knowledge to the community (Krishna, 2005, p. 14). The community being the key stakeholders will benefit by being guided by people who are committed to see the end of the crisis at hand. This style will capitalize on people development, which will mean, local communities will be able to take care of issues leading into the disaster. Strategic disaster management requires development of programmes that will be used in empowering the community. When applying transformational leadership style, these programmes will be developed by both the humanitarian organizations and the community. Apart form emphasizing on community ownership of the project, their inclusion will be to affirm the fact that local communities understand their environment better than any visitors. Inclusion of the communities in crisis mitigation and management will motivate the communities to think beyond the current situation and work towards finding permanent solutions to the problem. Therefore, the need to build capacities and making local communities play an active role in disaster management and emergency response becomes the future of sustainable response management system (Pearce, 2003, p. 214). Transformational leadership impacts knowledge that is important for both the current and future use. With people empowerment, the skills utilised creates a level of innovation that can be relied on anytime the skills are needed. The application of these skills will ensure that resilient long term programmes have been developed through establishing sustainable livelihoods and the capacity to avoid as well as respond to disasters. For example, when handling issues on environmental disaster, NGOs leadership together with local communities can work on long term awareness of environmental management that will create a sustainable solution to issues affecting the community (Shaw & Goda, 2004, p. 22). Governments are expected to be on the forefront in fighting for the humanitarian dignity of its people. However, many governments are lead by strong political dynamism that makes it hard for the government of the day to implement human efficient programmes that will protect it citizens from being exposed to vulnerabilities (Bok, 2010, p.8). These results into every effort to disaster management being left to NGOs that at time gets overwhelmed with the technicality of the projects needed. To reduce such dependency, humanitarian organizations should build government capacity to develop policies, institutions, and procedures that will be necessary in mitigating and responding to disaster (Schipper & Pelling, 2006, p. 22). This will be effective by instilling leadership-member exchange theory that emphasize on the relationship between the leaders and the subordinates in the leadership hierarchy (Krishna, 2005, p.15). Leader-member exchange leadership style allows development of negotiation skills through ensuring that each member of the team has an individualised relationship with the leader (Luneburge, 2010, p. 1). This style capitalise on individual attitude level created by each member of the group in regard to their capabilities that are negotiated in non-contractual basis. Thus team members have defined platforms where they can influence decision making at their own levels. Much government leadership lack the aspect of considering individual cases at their levels. Some places are more marginalised than others and the government response is depended on preference and negotiation level expressed by community leadership. With the intervention of humanitarian organization, leader-member exchange leadership can be emphasized where individual crisis can be given higher priorities depending on the urgency and the community negotiating capability expressed. In conclusion, environmental degradation is a product of global emissions and continued human activity. The result is that global warming has made it hard for the earth to produce enough resources for its populations. The limitations caused by global warming have posed challenges in how well governments can adapt to climate changes. Disaster management and financial support on the implementation of disaster mitigation strategies becomes a need rather than a strategy for the governments exposed to such vulnerabilities. Through partnership with NGOs, transformational and leader-member exchange leadership theories can create avenues for crisis management and mitigation. Transformational leadership will ensure that local communities develop enough capacity in promoting activities that will reduce the disaster caused by such catastrophes. Leader-member exchange will empower government leadership to come up with real-time solutions that are specific to specific regions. Therefore, both leadership styles will aim at developing local capacity to negotiate and come up with localised innovative solutions to crisis management. References Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., Davis, I., & Wisner, B. (2014). At risk II-2nd edition: natural Hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. Oxon: Routledge. Bok, D. (2010). The politics of Happiness: What government can learn from the new research on well-being. Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press. Coumou, D., & Rahmsorf, S. (2012). A decade of weather extremes. 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