Technological Impact on Leadership: The Positives

Fourth Industrial Revolution

Digital revolution is often described as the Fourth Industrial Revolution as it is rapidly transforming our society and the way we function on an everyday basis. In the past, communication was something that could only be achieved in person, face-to-face. But with this new digital era emerging, people have learned to communicate easily over long distances through their electronic devices. Naturally with this change, leadership and relationships between people have been affected. People in older generations who are not comfortable with technology think of this “technological overtake” as something negative and unnecessary. But it’s important to focus on the positives of technological impact on our society and therefore leadership practices as well.

Global Expansion

To address the most obvious positive aspect of technology, distance is no longer an issue when it comes to communication. For example, you and your boss could live in different countries but work on the same project on the same team in an office. With global expansion, many companies have different offices around the world and their projects and duties overlap a lot of the times. With the use of digital media, businesses can operate more quickly and efficiently. Headsets, webcams, laptops and smartphones are overall affordable and easily accessible throughout the world, which helps even small organizations communicate over long distance. With such a positive result, leaders have the opportunity to look over projects and after workers over distance. Any types of meetings, discussions, employee evaluations, etc. can be done through free and open source programs such as Skype, Oovoo, or Apple Facetime. As mentioned by Ruben in What Leaders Need to Know and Do, “leadership is first and foremost a communication process”. With a vast base for global communication, leadership is in turn an easier process and governing a group of people has become easier despite the distance. Managers can use technology to boost employee morale, as working from home can be an option due to communication over a laptop. The more employees feel “at home”, the more they will like their jobs. This in turn increases output and leads to business growth and expansion. Outside of the office, digital communication has also positively impacted our education system. Professors can use video teleconference services to hold discussions with students over distance. From personal experience, I got admission into the School of Communication last summer and my orientation was held online over a video chat along with several other students admitted during the summer cycles. Since students were at their respective homes, the orientation was made possible in a timely manner through digital resources. The director of the School of Communication was able to lead us through the presentation and give us information about our admissions and requirements through her laptop. This type of leadership is slowly starting to dominate industries in our evolving technological society.

Theory X and Theory Y

The emphasis on time and speed with output has grown over the years. Everyone wants fast results as we are all trying to reach a higher level of efficiency. With technological advancements, we are able to achieve results faster and with higher productivity and efficiency. While a lot of people believe that technology can be a distraction in an office environment, many online workers beg to differ. In a survey done by Pew Research Center, 46% of online workers felt using digital tools increased their productivity. 51% of internet-using workers said they felt like their contacts expanded beyond the company and 39% of online workers said they felt more flexible with their schedule which increased the amount of work they put in. With such positive feedback from workers, mangers and bosses have to adjust their style of leadership. With open digital communication, workers feel more comfortable and in order to maintain that relationship bosses have to lead in a non-authoritative way. This is where the concept of Theory X and Theory Y comes in. Theory X is almost an authoritarian style of leadership where the boss has all of the control. This tier styled leadership technique was used in the past to maintain order in a non-digital world as everyone worked face-to-face and needed to be governed. In the digital era though, Theory Y is the new approach that is suitable in the workplace. Theory Y has a manager who is keeps a positive opinion of employees, and uses a decentralized and participative management style. This ensures more of a trust-based relationship between leaders and employees. With digital media being a great influence in our lives, employees require freedom, which encourages creativity as well as self-motivation. The increased efficiency in the work place does in fact positively affect leadership styles.

Easy Accessibility

With the digital era emerging and growing by the day, we have an overwhelming access to resources online. Since face-to-face interactions are not even necessary anymore, the way work is handled today is completely different than how it was in the past. Just by noticing our surroundings we can see how young children have smartphones, there is a growing industry of online classroom, and the usage of print books and newspapers is slowly reducing. Why would you go out to your local library and check out a book when you can Google the information sitting at home? This drastic of a change over the past many years has affected the way management and leadership works with people. Using this hybrid class as an example itself, the professor and students have a completely different experience interacting the one time we meet during the week, and the dynamic completely changes when the professor and students interact online. Instead of scheduling office hours, one can just communicate through emails. The professor can easily give instructions and guide a student via email. This is a convenient type of relationship and works in the favor a leader to manage their employees or students. There are many positive impacts technology has had over our society and leaders can learn a lot of new ways and techniques to better advantage their leadership skills and results.

References

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Purcell, K., & Rainie, L. (2014, December 30). Technology’s Impact on Workers. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/12/30/technologys-impact-on-workers/

Ruben, B. D. (2006). What Leaders Need To Know And Do. Washington, DC: National Assoc. of College and Univ. Business Officers

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Writer, L. G. (2011, December 25). What Are Some Positive & Negative Technology Training Impacts on an Employee? Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/positive-negative-technology-training-impacts-employee-37082.html