Organizational Leadership

Abstract

Organizational leadership comprises of set of actions and outcomes such as implementing rules and procedures, work responsibilities and dedication of the workers within an organization that would lead to development of the organization. Effective leadership is particularly crucial for the success of an organization. Its importance becomes solely apparent within the social content, cognitive aspect and political insights. Leadership becomes established in the work settings in order to enable the organization to achieve its aspirations. On the other hand, it adheres to the system loop of corporate ethics. An organizational frame or structure sets a direction for actions that need to be implemented. Feasibility of such implementations solely depends on the talented leader. As for Netflix, the company demonstrated its corporate purpose and direction of the organizational frame through a set of visions, strategic plans, goals, and its mission that the company envisaged for its customers.

Introduction

As defined by Morrison (2011) in the book “Leadership Phenomenon”, leadership comprises of the ability of an individual to influence others, aimed to accomplish certain goals or mission. This individual coordinates the framework of the entire organization by applying his or her leadership values and ethics accordingly. Effective leader should be able to establish a positive vibe for communication, in order to convey the message correctly. The success of an organization depends on the right choice of an individual who plays the role of a leader. With this knowledge, it is imperative to empower leadership to competent individuals capable of handling the organization’s challenges and contingencies. An effective leader needs to respond to any complex demands on time, because his performance is essential for achieving the organizational goals (Lewinsky & Justin, 2010). Organizational leadership concerns with strategic planning and fulfillment of company’s goals and mission. It is all about the shift of priorities and creation of followers through the enunciation of a clear vision. Leadership also relates to a set of functions a model leader should possess, provided there are various leadership styles depending on individual.  As for Netflix Inc, organizational leadership involves a series of processing channels, and true commitment of workers who are, therefore, contributing to the development, as well as achievement of the organization’s goals and vision. According to Carbos (2011), organizational strategy should be formulated, based on the environment that the organization is facing. Considerations of internal events form an integral part in the designs of strategies. 

Netflix: Organizational Leadership

At Netflix Inc, the leader’s responsibilities comprise of identifying, defining, establishing, and translating the directional purposes for its followers, thereby, enabling the organizational flow of actions to be smooth, while maintaining focus on the achievement of success. This functional perspective of a leader means that a leader should be at the service for everybody and observe the compiled action plans for impressive execution (Marvis & Erning, 2010). The leader, therefore, bears the responsibility to ensure accomplishment of the tasks timely, effectively and in the right way, thus thriving to achieve excellence in their performance. By all means, a leader has to be able to accomplish complex assignments and demands by demonstrating his or her intellectual capability. For a substantial amount of time, organizational leadership at Netflix has stumbled occasionally, so there was a need for reconstruction of the entire organizational framework within the corporation to readjust its goals and strategies and unveil a new perspective of business to its customers. The company endured critics for making too many changes too often. It is necessary to note that most of the issues pertaining to reorganization or readjustments that took place within Netflix strategic team or committee perceived a goal of simply modifying its internal operations and hence broadcasting structures more efficiently (Lewis, 2009). A mistake, however, occurred, when the organization failed to communicate to its client adequately the changes it made. This led to a disconnection of the networks that Netflix had established with its clients. A critical analysis of different aspects of the issue justifies the move. This is because the company is trying to accomplish organizational and logical tactic that will improve the operation ground as far as the business scope. Netflix had an easy way of operating its distribution of DVDs to its clients via shipping and receiving the products back from customers, but that was not sufficient for their operations. Today, with the increased predominance of computer and WiFi networking, enabling tele-services, marketing has become considerably easier. It would have been better for Netflix to apply a slow pace of change, rather than an extreme rush in price increase, which only led to frustration of its core operation. One can conclude that Netflix did not make use of its leadership endowment effectively while handling this situation. The CEO, Reed Harris, should have been able to make his followers along with Netflix customers believe him throughout the course of his decisions-making process, but that was not the case (Montel, 2011). There is also substantial evidence of lack of participatory decision making process. The board members did not assess various alternatives to the problem adequately before settling on one decision. Although I agree with Netflix CEO that an organization should have adhered to its principles in obtaining certain benefits from its moves, Harris did not demonstrate effective leadership skills. When the leaders are self-righteous as it often occurs among executives, those leaders loose abilities to be open for critics from other members within the same sector (Marvis &n Erning, 2010). Failure for the leaders to accommodate the idea of others and readjust their own position in most cases is a sure course to failure. Autocracy features with learning from experiences, but for the case of businesses, this may lead to large losses of profit or market as is the case with Netflix. Such leadership failure has placed the company under pressure resulting in the need to revise its prices. Alternative would be to explore other new strategies to compete effectively with other movie companies such as Blockbuster. Netflix failed to realize that its original business of mail-in services was a key to its business for favorable outcomes with relation to its customers (Lewis, 2009). Just like in a game, Netflix lost its primary driven potential and, therefore, lost its confidence in executing its operations. At that point, the only feasible solution for Netflix management to control the situation was teaming up with the CEO, Reed Harris, and remodelling the company’s business structure. The starting point to resolve the problem would be mending the relationships with their disappointed customers by communicating the reasons for changes. Furthermore, Netflix should point out the benefits that the clients would gain from such changes. Montel (2011) observed that executive involvement ensures effective management of the entire team and thus fosters and accelerates organization’s success. Leadership competence would always be put to test during the crisis situation evolving within an organization. It is, therefore, up to a person in charge, to prove that he envisions, where the company is heading, by providing smart judgments; he should also include room for making re-adjustments from other perspectives’ standpoints. Moreover, the leader should be able to demonstrate his capability to manage crisis without alienating neither the customers nor the co-workers and employees by any of his actions.

Conclusion

It is apparent that an organization would need to structure and restructure its strategies, in order to remain competitive in the market, as the situation will be changing. It is necessary to point that leadership revolves around the judgment and the choices, which the leader is capable to explain and elucidate as the framework of the problem or issue. It was crucial for Netflix to be aware of its customers’ choices and make no drastic changes without giving a proper explanation of the change to the customers. Netflix should have also considered maintaining its original connections with its customers so as to retain their loyalty. Customer concern should always form a priority in the company’s decision making process. Netflix, however, failed in its options by its attempts to manipulate the market without due consideration of the possible effects. This was a gross mistake that left the company at a losing end and called for immediate action. Although leadership often links with the management in the business world, it aims to accomplish effective operation and achieve the organization goals and vision.