Module 11 Discussion Adaptive Leadership

Module 11 Discussion: Adaptive Leadership

Insert name

Institutional affiliation

Module 11 Discussion: Adaptive Leadership

Adaptive leadership is a leadership framework that helps people and organizations adapt and thrive in challenging environments. As such, during times of constant change, adaptive leadership is critical to people and organizations. It enables organizations and people to individually and collectively adapt to the process of change (Jefferies, 2017). It helps in isolating the expendable from essential, which facilitates the challenging of the status quo. Adaptive leadership may be summarized in three steps. The first step involves determining the practices that are core to the future of the organization and any obstacles to the future. The second step involves developing and testing the “next” practices, whereas the third step involves integrating the “next” practices (Northouse, 2018).

Adaptive leaders should possess certain behaviors. These include the ability to link organizational change to the primary values, capabilities, and dreams of the stakeholders involved in the change. The adaptive leader should also have the ability to create an environment that facilitates diversity of views and uses the collective knowledge derived from diversity of views to benefit the organization. The adaptive leader should also acknowledge the fact that change is painful process, which would help in foreseeing or counteracting any resistance to change. The adaptive leader should also proactively look for opportunities and invest the required resources to take advantage of the opportunities. Adaptive leaders should also admit when they make mistakes and change or abandon any non-productive strategies they may have (Yaghi, 2017). They should also have the ability to encourage innovation among the employees of the organization.

On the other hand, situational leadership is a leadership style that requires leaders to use different types of leadership for different situations. There are several similarities between adaptive leadership and situational leadership. In both leadership styles, the leader and the follower have to change or adapt to a certain situation. In addition, both situational and adaptive leadership try to determine effective ways of influencing empowering the followers. One of the main differences between adaptive leadership and situational leadership is that the focus of adaptive leadership is the follower whereas the focus on situational leadership is the leader (Dugan, 2017).

Adaptive leadership can be used to tackle the problems facing Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer. The global oil market has experienced significant changes due to the low price of oil in the global market. This necessitates organizations to seek for alternative sources of revenue. As such, adaptive leadership can be used to facilitate mergers and acquisitions of other companies lower down the energy value chain. These companies include companies that are involve the in manufacture of chemicals derived from fossil fuels. These companies are more profitable than companies higher up the energy value chain, which are mainly involved in the production of oil and gas. This would help in improving the profit margin and ultimately the profitability of Saudi Aramco.

References

Dugan, J. P. (2017). Leadership theory: Cultivating critical perspectives. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Jefferies, S. (2017). Adaptive leadership in a socially revolving world: A symbolic interactionist lens of adaptive leadership theory. Performance Improvement, 56(9), 46-50.

Northouse, P.G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications,

Yaghi, A. (2017). Adaptive organizational leadership style: Contextualizing transformation leadership in a non-western country. International Journal of Public Leadership, 13(4), 243-259.