Executive Summary
For any organization to have competitive advantage over other organizations, the leaders in the organization should have the necessary leadership skills that for running an organization. Leaders in Australian organizations use their leadership skills to help the nation achieve competitive advantage over other competing nations. Some external factors that affect an organization include: competition form organization producing similar products, consumers, social factors, etc. In Australia, most company have leaders that are responsible for the operations that take place within the organization. These leaders rely on both internal changes that affect the organization and changes in the external environment that also affect an organization in a great way. Quality leaders should have certain skills that help them manager the changes that take place within an organization. Some of these skills include: integrity, communication, teamwork, adaptability, decision-making, vision, planning, etc. In order to increase its competitive advantage, an organization should try to lower its cost of production to the lowest level while still focusing on the average market price of the product. The organization should also perform investigations to determine the needs of the customers.
Introduction
The leadership skills that the management in an organization has determine the competitive advantage of the organization. The way that the management react to changes that affect an organization determines the successes of the organization. The management should have the necessary leadership skills that can help it react in a proper way to changes in the external environment. Changes in external environment are those changes that take place outside the organization but affect the changes in the organization. In most cases, the management in a company does not have control over these external changes but can only change within so as to meet the demands of these changes. The management should therefore have some leadership skills that can help it react appropriately to external changes by making some internal changes. In Australia, most organizations keep on scanning the external environment so as to detect the changes that are taking place and eventually make the necessary changes within the organization. The top management selects teams of professionals that go out to look for vital information, do the analysis, and present the final report to the top management. The major factors that affect the competitive advantage of organizations in Australia include: competition, social, economic, legal, political, ethical, technological, etc. This paper will seek to analyse how leaders use leadership skills in Australia to help in building the competitive advantage of the nation. The main focus will be on how the leaders react to changes in external environment affect the internal operations of organizations in the country.
The External Environment
As stated earlier, the external environment affects the organization in different ways. Environmental factors either affect an organization directly or indirectly. Those factors that directly affect the organizations are those whose impacts are immediate and the impacts affect within a short period of time in the organization. A competitor joining the market and lowering the prices of commodities is likely to win many customers from an existing organization. Indirect factors are those that are at a distance but still affect an organization in a great manner. A factor such as government legislation affects the organization in a great way but indirectly.
Leadership in Australian Organizations
In Australia, leaders in many organizations work to strengthen cooperation amongst all the individuals that work in their organizations. Interactions at all levels are encouraged in many organizations and all the departments work together to achieve the overall goal of the organization. The leaders look on the feedback of the actions that they take in the organizations and they use the results to determine the impact that the action will have to the organization. Most leaders keep learning the leadership skills that can help them help the organizations achieve some competitive advantage over other competitors. The leaders are responsible for all the activities that take place within the organization (Allcorn 2003, p.14). Leaders work towards achieving outcomes and any actions that they take as a result of changes in the external environment help them achieve better outcomes. The leaders not only rely on changes that take place within the organization but also look at external factors that affect the profit of the organizations. In recruiting new leaders, the human resource department looks for those leaders with the leadership skills that can help an organization achieve its objectives and increase its competitive advantage. Selection of leaders without competent skills can produce poor results and is likely to frustrate the objectives of an organization. The management also promotes those individuals within the organization who have shown competitive leadership skills since they are already aware of the operations in the organization. In fact, most organizations prefer promoting individuals who have worked with the organization to a top position instead of recruiting a new individual which could be a waste of time if there was a competent individual in the organization. Other than relying on only the internal changes that affect the organization, most leaders rely on changes in the external environment because these are the changes that greatly affect the competitive advantage of an organization (Luks, & Savery 2000, p.314). Leaders attend leadership development programs so as to gain the various skills that they should have so as to help increase the competitive advantage of organizations.
Leadership Roles, Skills, and Responsibilities
For an organization to build its competitive advantage, the leaders in the organization should have some leadership skills that are necessary in a smooth running of an organization. Integrity helps the leaders treat the employees in an organization the way they would wish others to treat them if they were in similar positions. Employees in an organization tend to like those leaders that associate with them and those who do not view t6hemselves as being special. Leaders in the human resource department should have some recruitment skills that help the organization in selecting the most competent individuals to fill vacant positions in the organization. This will help in perfecting the products that the company produces. The best leaders to manage the changes that occur in an organization as a result the changes in external environment should have adaptability skills so that they can adapt and help other employees in the organization to adapt. The leaders should also be able to work as a team so as to ensure that the changes that take place have positive results in the entire organizations and not in some departments (Pierce 2001, p.304). It is the responsibility of the leaders to persuade other individuals in the organization of the importance of change so as to meet the demands of the consumers. Meeting the demands of the consumers will increase the sales of an organization and eventually increase the competitive advantage of such an organization. The leaders should be able to make quality decisions that help in positive development of an organization. Skills necessary for proper planning that will help in the implementation of the changes are also necessary. The leaders in an organization are required to orient and train new employees so as to arm them with the necessary skills. There is no way that the leaders can train without the skills themselves and should therefore have the necessary skills. The leader should also be aware of the vision of an organization so that they can gear all the events that will be taking place in the organization towards achieving the vision. Good leaders should be sincere and honest so that the employees will always see believe what the leader says. The leaders should be able to communicate to every individual in the organization so that they can run work smoothly (Rodrigues 2001, p.884). They should be open to new learning that helps them learn new skills to help increase production.
Competitive Advantage
Competitive advantage is a case where an organization has an advantage over others that offer similar products. Every organization faces a certain level of competition either from organizations offering similar products or substitutes to the organization’s product. This greatly affects the profits of the organization and the ability of the organization to make more profits. Every competitor works towards having an advantage over other competitors in the market. Competition differs depending on the type of an organization and its amount depends on the type of market that an organization operates. Small organizations can have many rivals located at the same place all aiming the same customers and serving a small market. Large organizations can be few but impose great competition on each other while serving large markets. An organization with professional leaders that have the necessary leadership skills will be able to react to increase its competitive advantage over other organizations. Most of the competitors in the market use strategies such reducing prices of commodities which reduces profits; improving quality which increases costs; spend more on promotion which costs money; or use cheaper materials in production which reduces quality. In Australia, a team is set that investigates and lists all the competitors that are in the market. These are organizations offering similar products and those offering substitutes to an organization’s product (Lernak 2006, p.357). The team set makes a list of all organizations against their sizes and the pool of skills in each organization. The competitive advantages of each organization over the investigating organization are also determined. These help the top executive in making its decision in countering the competitors. Other areas that are determined include marketing strategies of the competitors and offshore development. In general, all these help an organization in increasing its competitive advantage over its competitors. The team also does some investigations to determine those similar products that are coming from abroad and the changing social-political situations.
Different departments in an organization provide information on the specific environmental changes that affect the organization. Leaders from the sales and marketing department provide information about the new products that are in the market that are competing with the organization’s product. The department can also provide information about emerging new technologies that are available to other organizations and can help reduce the price of production and increase the quality of the products produced. The human resource department provides information on skilled resources that are required in the organization and help in the selection of qualified individuals to fill vacant positions in the organization. It also determines the rules and regulations that the organization can use so as to have a smooth running. A team can be set aside to collect and compile all the competitive information from each department and present it to the top management. The top management uses this information in decision making and in strategic planning (Popp 1992, p.110). So as to avoid unbiased recommendations, some organizations use external consultants who design questionnaires and use them in the field. The consultants then use statistical techniques to analyse the data and make recommendations.
The management team in an organization cannot exist on its own and the organization itself cannot exist on its own (Steiner 2001, p.154). The consumers are the end users of the products that all companies produce. The likes and dislikes of the consumers change frequently and these changes affect the organization in a great way. Technology may also affect the way that a product from an organization is used. These affect the product that an organization produces. The economic class of consumers in a market, ethnicity, education level, and population age also have an effect on the product that an organization produces. Leaders with the necessary skills will conduct investigations to determine the types of consumers in the market and produce those commodities that will meet the needs of the consumers (Lernak 2006, p.358). The organization will then produce a product that is acceptable and that meets the needs of the consumers. Differentiating the product involves improving the quality of the product by incurring more expenses and then convincing the consumers the reason as to why they should use an organization’s products other than that of the competitors. Some consumers have the belief that expensive products are of high quality and confirming this would increase the competitive advantage of an organization. In other areas, the lowest cost producer in a market has the highest competitive advantage over the competitors. Organizations concentrate on minimising the costs of production while at the same time focusing on the average selling price of the product in the market. If several organizations that are competing use the same strategy, the one that will achieve the lowest production cost has the highest competitive advantage and makes the highest profits. Having the lowest cost of production also gives an organization an opportunity to give some discount to the consumers so as to increase sales. This increases the market share of the organization that has the highest competitive advantage.
Most organizations depend on external resources for production of their commodities. An organization requires skilled workers to help in production of products. The availability of the skilled labour is not constant and this affects the organization and its productions. The availability of raw materials also changes and a company that has some means of preserving the products when they are in plenty and the prices are low will do so in order to reduce the costs of production.
Conclusion
Leadership skills are the most important skills that leaders in an organization should have so as to help the organization meet its vision. Leaders in Australian organizations use their leadership skills to help the nation achieve competitive advantage. External environment consist of those factors that are external to the environment but their changes affect the organization. Some external factors that affect an organization include: competition form organization producing similar products, consumers, social factors, etc. In Australia, most company have leaders that are responsible for the operations that take place within the organization. These leaders rely on both internal changes that affect the organization and changes in the external environment that also affect an organization in a great way. Quality leaders should have certain skills that help them manager the changes that take place within an organization. Some of these skills include: integrity, communication, teamwork, adaptability, decision-making, vision, planning, etc. In order to increase its competitive advantage, an organization should try to lower its cost of production to the lowest level while still focusing on the average market price of the product. The organization should also perform investigations to determine the needs of the customers. This will help it produce products that will meet the needs of the consumers. A means of preserving the raw materials that are seasonal can help an organization become consistent in its operations and add to its competitive advantage over other organizations.
Reference List
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Pierce, J. L., 2001. Toward a Theory of Psychological Ownership Organizations. The Academy of Management Review. 26(2), pp: 298-310.
Popp, W., 1992. Are You Straight or Just a Manager? Harvard Business Review. 70(1), pp: 105-113.
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