Article review on leadership skills in community development

The article that Szu-Fang Chuang (2013) wrote, entitled “ Essential Skills for Leadership Effectiveness in Diverse Workplace Development”, provides a clear definition of the skills essential when conducting leadership in the workplace arena. It proves how the effectiveness of global leadership can solve developmental issues, whether it is social, business, economics, human resource, health, education, or even politics.

Summary

Global leadership has always been an issue, since it is vital to international business and the management of the workforce. Leadership is a main component of all types of organizations, and now that its function and capacity are getting more complicated, both managers and leaders must think and act more positively. They should look to these changes and accept them either as challenges or opportunities for the initiation of growth and development of the organization. They should respond swiftly through continuous leadership training, since global leaders would have to “ build their interpersonal skills with racial conflicts that have occurred and to develop individuals and groups in the workplace” (Szu-Fang, 2013, p. 1). It is therefore evident that, leaders should know what is expected of them, no matter what their cultural background is, since all leaders should sustain effective leadership strategies that would lead to long-term change benefiting the institution.

Analysis

This article relates to community organization, in the essence that leadership concerns the ability of influencing others, to create a vision of organizational future that is vital for any type of organization. It influences the manner of communicating that vision to all its members through the provision of an encouraging, stimulating atmosphere, whatever the language or culture is. Still, there is no constant type of leadership, since the Western approach had started to be questioned, since the Eastern type of leadership presented cultural traditions that were far different from the Western approach. Thus, Szu-Fang (2013) states that, to create a lasting leadership, “ global leaders must show expected competence in cross-cultural awareness and practice” (p. 2). This means having the capacity to comprehend the significance of leadership—the role of leaders and what people expect from them to create long-term change. This is very important in community development, as changes appear to be constant in an environment, so that there has to be constant changes in the implementation of plans and developmental strategies for the institution to survive. As Szu-Fang (2013) stated, “ Effective global leadership is a key to unlock the mystery of working with diverse employees and bring the organizational development and change to the next level” (p. 2).
Reflection

Reference:

Szu-Fang, C. (2013). Essential skills for leadership effectiveness in diverse workplace development. Online Journal for Workplace Education and Development, 6(1), 1-23. Retrieved June 12, 2015, from http://opensiuc. lib. siu. edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi? article= 1133&context= ojwed.