The Benefits of Business Leaders with a Political Background

The Benefits of Business Leaders with a Political Background over those with Business Management Exposure in the Modern-day Corporate World

According to Anthony and Herzlinger (2015), the advent of technology advancement has led to the revolution of most business, leadership, and administration practices. As a result of technological advancement and globalization, the field of public management has been compelled to adjust to the ever-changing functions and requirements in the various domains of leadership (Anthony and Herzlinger, 2015).

Archer (2014) posits that the early intellectual stalwarts of public administration have undergone one of the most significant changes in the field of leadership and administration as a result of the introduction of political concepts of leadership to business administration activities and operations. Borins (2014) concurs by suggesting that the public administration fabric has been altered into a network of collaborations between nonprofit organizations, citizen groups, and public agencies facilitated by the use of modern technology in the strategic delivery of services. As global market forces progressively gain popularity due to globalization, there is an equal increase in the pressure of efficiently using resources. This has led to the introduction of political leaders as the executive heads of major businesses in order to create the desired level of coherence between political and corporate systems especially when conducting international businesses activities (Black and Walker, 2010). As national boundaries continuously erode and multi-national and cross-border business operations progressively gain popularity as the norm, public agencies and corporate entities have been forced to deploy strategies that ensure they manage their human resources in the most humane and legal manner possible (Bruggeman, 2002). The role of ensuring that such goals are achieved has been tasked to leaders and executives who are associated with political systems that handle both corporate and administrative requirements at the global level (Block, 2010). This way, the conventional principles of public management have been adjusted to accommodate the growing need for a merger between politics and corporate leadership.

Chandler (2002) opines that the change that has been realized in the field of public management has led to the revision of the conventional curricula and pedagogy in the verge of aligning them with the changing societal and organizational needs. This has culminated in the combination of principles that run across politics, economics, information technology, and finance when it comes to leadership (Chandler, 2002). Therefore, some schools of thought suggest that political leaders have more capabilities of handling business operations in the modern-day world than corporate leaders since the latter are exposed to factors that are critical in the management of resources in the globalized world (Cheung, 2008).

Other schools of thought disagree by pointing out that corporate leaders have specialized skill sets that are critical in the management of business operations in the modern-day world as opposed to political leaders whose skills are diluted by political concepts and frameworks that create unnecessary bureaucracies (Cohen and John, 2007). Consequently, this document seeks to assess the roles of politicians as managers, and determine if they are useful to the business world or they are just a sign of leadership. In doing so, the document also seeks to investigate on the probable lessons that can be acquired from the political world into that of business in order to lead to the realization of long-term benefits.

The assessment of such critical aspects of leadership will guide some critical decisions as they will point out if hiring politicians would be more beneficial to a company than hiring a corporate manager. The document uses existing case studies to make the arguments thus presented and assess the potency and feasibility of political leadership over corporate leadership by highlighting some of the most probable outcomes for both scenarios. This will lead to the approval or disapproval of the principles suggested by the concept of new public management as discussed hereinafter.

1.1 Background Information

This has created a tug-of-war between supporters of business management concepts and those of public management principles in the undertaking of business, administration, and leadership operations in the highly globalized world. Even so, Nicolaides et al (2014) posit that the differences between business and public management are not restricted to kind but to degree and extent as both practices require different levels of engagement that could be beneficial to a business at different times and in various situations. Therefore, Nicolaides et al. (2014) suggest that “the principles of political leadership should be combined with those of corporate administration in order to create an adaptive executive front” (p.16).

Ojha (2005) holds the opinion that public management varies greatly from business management since the former calls for the acquisition of a set of generic management tools that cannot be retrieved from business schools in which the latter is taught. Patton and Higgs (2013) demonstrate that there is a significant overlap between business and public management that should be capitalized on to produce the most desirable outcomes in business operations especially in the cross-border domain of mergers and acquisitions. The high rate of globalization has led to the erosion of some of the conventional business management principles that have led to its growing similarity to and coherence with the concepts suggested by public management (Hoch, Welzel and Pearce, 2010). Hoch, Welzel and Pearce (2010) show that business schools that relay the principles of business management focus on the compartmentalization of the generic management tools they avail to their students. They proceed to argue that the compartmentalization suggested by business management is no longer applicable in the modern-day business world since information revolution breaks down functional specialization (Hoch, Welzel and Pearce, 2010). Therefore, some of the principles of business management have been eroded or masked with those of public management in a manner that makes political leadership critical to businesses and their success in the modern-day market (Hoch and Kozlowski, 2014).

The conventional roles of business or corporate managers have been progressively revolutionized by the adoption of technology, which has led to the combined management of data, accounts, and financial statements in a manner that has eliminated the need for such specialized administrative functions (Hoch and Dulebohn, 2013). Similarly, modern-day businesses are faced with the challenge of dealing with the emerging political requirements that govern international business operations. Therefore, the role of politicians in business leadership has been progressively increasing (Hülsheger, Anderson and Salgado, 2009).

Hoch and Kozlowski (2014) suggest that as conventional business management roles become eroded, the importance of political systems increases to an extent that it necessitates the presence of a leader with a clear understanding of the dynamism of the political systems in which the venture operates. This has led to the emergence of “flatter” organizations that do not focus on internal hierarchies and leadership systems as they have realized the importance of political systems in activities such as alliances, mergers and acquisitions (Hülsheger, Anderson and Salgado, 2009, p.17). Muethel and Hoegl (2013) suggest that such businesses only share top management with their partners as they have a common culture that guides organizational operations as the management handles the relevant political issues affecting the firm. Patton and Higgs (2013) concur by pointing out that such companies have recognized the importance of non-financial information as political factors control all activities pertaining to such firms. However, it has been challenging to assess the effectiveness of deploying business management principles instead of public management concepts and vice versa (Hoch, 2013). Therefore, it has been challenging to prescribe a politician to lead a particular company as opposed to proposing corporate manager (Hoch, 2014).

1.2 Statement of Problem

As mentioned earlier, there is an eminent overlap between public and business management principles that ought to be capitalized on in order to culminate in high corporate productivity and adaptability especially in the cross-border domain of mergers and acquisitions (Ramthun, 2014). With the advent of globalization, the past two decades have seen a significant increase in the rate at which national borders have been eroding (Perry, Pearce and Sims, 2010). This has led to the subsequent erosion of the conventional business management principles, which has in turn resulted in the growing similarities between business and public management (Pearce, Wassenaar and Manz, 2014). However, most of the principles suggested by business management practices promote the compartmentalization of roles and activities in the leadership function of a firm (Pearce and Wassenaar, 2014).

This seems to be a dated rationale as compartmentalization of roles and activities is no longer applicable in the modern-day business world as a result of the deployment of information technology that has revolutionized and broken down functional specialization that has led to the promotion of politicized leadership in the business world (Pearce, Manz and Sims, 2009). The popularity of political leadership in the business world has led to the erosion of most of the traditional leadership concepts in business management (Pearce and Manz, 2005). Consequently, the conventional roles of business or corporate managers have been progressively revolutionized by the adoption of technology, which has led to elimination of specialized administrative functions (Pearce and Bruce, 2004).

Pearce and Conger (2003) suggest that the modern-day business world is continuously faced with the challenge of dealing with the emerging political requirements that govern international business operations. Therefore, the role of politicians in business leadership has been progressively increasing as conventional business management roles become eroded. Pearce and Sims (2002) posit that this has led to the rise in the importance of political systems to an extent that it necessitates the presence of a leader with a clear understanding of the dynamism of the political systems in which the venture operates.

Despite the growing importance of politics in business operations, it is still evident that the influence of political factors on leadership and management functions of businesses has been significantly overlooked. Ramthun (2014) attributes the overlooking of political factors in business operations to the fact that most executives and business managers perceive political activities and factors with a high and undeserved level of repugnance. Perry, Pearce and Sims (2010) concur by suggesting that most corporate leaders and companies perceive political factors as organizationally damaging. Pearce, Wassenaar and Manz (2014) suggest that political factors play a significant role in business operations since most corporate managers lack a stable and reliable base of power in the political realm that compels them to resort to other methods of gaining influence in order to maintain the successfulness of the business they have been tasked to manage. Pearce and Wassenaar (2014) demonstrate that these alternative sources of influence adapted by corporate managers are usually less effective when it comes to operations requiring political approval. Pearce, Manz and Sims (2009) argue that both corporate managers and political leaders play a significant role in the determination of a company’s success. They further suggest that corporate managers are usually effective in managing the internal affairs in an organization as proposed by business management principles while politicians are the preferable option when it comes to operations that exist beyond the company’s traditional and functional structure (Pearce, Manz and Sims, 2009).

This is a critical research area as the modern-day business world is highly competitive and companies have to devise means of maintaining successfulness without overspending their resources. Additionally, there is also an information gap in the assessment of the effectiveness of deploying business management principles instead of public management concepts and vice versa (Pearce and Conger, 2003). In order to create a reliable prescription protocol for businesses, it is important to assess the pros and cons of having politicians as leaders in the business world, and the comparison to those of employing corporate managers. Since it has been challenging to prescribe a politician to lead a particular company as opposed to a corporate manager, the benefits of both leadership styles ought to be assessed using a comparison framework that points out the relative pros and cons of both styles.

1.3 Justification

The current business world calls for a lot of aggressive measures due to the high levels of competitiveness in the global market. As national borders continue to be eroded due to globalization, companies venture into new markets and further increase the market saturation in new geographical regions. Therefore, companies have been forced to deploy strategies that will give them a competitive edge over their rivals. As they do so, companies are likely to engage themselves in highly unethical activities in the verge of boosting revenue streams and increasing profitability. Even so, the definition of unethical is highly contextual as different cultures have varying norms and ethical codes. Therefore, as national boundaries become progressively eroded, companies have been compelled to acknowledge the political differences in the countries of operation in order to avoid litigations. This has led to the growing importance of political leaders in businesses as they are conversant with the demands and conditions of the various political systems in their regions of operations. Even so, it has been unclear whether the efforts of political leaders surpass those of traditional corporate managers in the current business world. Different researchers have shown benefits and shortcomings of both political and corporate leaders in the business world. However, these studies have been one-sided and incomprehensive as they do not show the relationship and comparison between the two styles of leadership and their effects on a firm’s successfulness.

By understanding the individual relationship between politicians and the successfulness of an organization, researchers have pointed out some of the most eminent pros and cons for this type of leadership. The same has been done for corporate managers. However, these efforts have not shown the relationship between politicians and corporate managers and the comparison of their benefits and shortcomings. Therefore, this study is bound to culminate in highly indicative and beneficial output that will enable executives to select the best type of leadership for their firm on the basis of contextualized analysis. This will ensure that the eminent overlap between public and business management principles is capitalized on for the overall benefit of the global economy through the cumulative boost in corporate productivity and adaptability especially in the cross-border domain of mergers and acquisitions.

This study is also bound to lead to indicative suggestions that will enable companies to adapt to the significant increase in the rate at which national borders have been eroding due to globalization. This study will also lead to the comprehension of the subsequent erosion of the conventional business management principles, which has in turn resulted in the growing similarities between business and public management. By comparing the pros and cons of political and corporate leadership, this study will address some of the issues availed by the dated rationale of compartmentalization of the roles and activities as suggested by business management. The popularity of political leadership in the business world has led to the erosion of most of the traditional leadership concepts in business management. Consequently, this study will investigate on the conventional roles of business or corporate managers and their progressive revolution by the adoption of technology, which has led to elimination of specialized administrative functions. This way, the study will ensure that some of the challenges faced by modern-day businesses when dealing with the emerging political requirements that govern international business operations are understood and acted upon. Therefore, the role of politicians in business leadership has been progressively increasing as conventional business management roles become eroded. Pearce and Sims (2002) posit that this has led to the rise in the importance of political systems to an extent that it necessitates the presence of a leader with a clear understanding of the dynamism of the political systems in which the venture operates.

Even with the eminent effects of political factors on business operations, there is a prevalent dearth of information when it comes to the most appropriate leadership style in the modern-day globalized business world (Pearce, Manz and Sims, 2009). There has been an array of research studies focusing on the effects of corporate leadership on organizational success. Equally, researchers have dedicated a significant amount of effort in understanding the effects of political leadership on the successfulness of a business (Pearce and Manz, 2005). Even with the high level of research dedicated to understanding the relationships between the different types of leadership and corporate success, there is a dearth of research focusing on the comparison between corporate managers and politicians as the executive leaders of a company, and the disparity between their success rates (Pearce and Bruce, 2004). This is a critical research area as the modern-day business world is highly competitive and companies have to devise means of maintaining successfulness without overspending their resources. Additionally, there is also an information gap in the assessment of the effectiveness of deploying business management principles instead of public management concepts and vice versa (Pearce and Conger, 2003). In order to create a reliable prescription protocol for businesses, it is important to assess the pros and cons of having politicians as leaders in the business world, and the comparison to those of employing corporate managers. Since it has been challenging to prescribe a politician to lead a particular company as opposed to a corporate manager, the benefits of both leadership styles ought to be assessed using a comparison framework that points out the relative pros and cons of both styles.

1.4 Research Questions

With the confirmation that there is indeed an overlapping area in the fields of business and public management as indicated by the preliminary review of literature, it is critical to try and understand the dynamism of the two types of leadership and their connection to organizational success. The comprehension of the connection between political and cooperate leadership and organizational successfulness will enable executives and leadership trainers to develop strategies that enable companies to harness the potency of relationship and boost productivity. The compartmentalization of organization functions and operations as suggested by the principles of business management also has to be scrutinized in order to formulate ways through which it can be updated to adapt to the changes brought about by technological advancement. In order to do so, studies have to be conducted with the aim of assessing the role played by information technology in the reinforcement of political leadership, and equally, corporate management. As the role of politicians in business leadership progressively increases, conventional business management roles become eroded. Therefore, it is critical to comprehend the reasons behind the rising importance of political systems to modern-day business operations. This will ensure that leaders have a clear comprehension of the dynamism of the political systems in which their ventures operate.

Even so, the researcher has identified that despite the growing importance of politics in business operations, it is still evident that the influence of political factors on leadership and management functions of businesses has been significantly overlooked. Even with the eminent effects of political factors on business operations, there is a prevalent dearth of information when it comes to the most appropriate leadership style in the modern-day globalized business world. There has been an array of research studies focusing on the effects of corporate leadership on organizational success. Equally, researchers have dedicated a significant amount of effort in understanding the effects of political leadership on the successfulness of a business. Even with the high level of research dedicated to understanding the relationships between the different types of leadership and corporate success, there is a dearth of research focusing on the comparison between corporate managers and politicians as the executive leaders of a company, and the disparity between their success rates.

Additionally, there is also an information gap in the assessment of the effectiveness of deploying business management principles instead of public management concepts and vice versa. In order to create a reliable prescription protocol for businesses, it is important to assess the pros and cons of having politicians as leaders in the business world, and the comparison to those of employing corporate managers. Since it has been challenging to prescribe a politician to lead a particular company as opposed to a corporate manager, the benefits of both leadership styles ought to be assessed using a comparison framework that points out the relative pros and cons of both styles.

In order for all the aforementioned objectives to be effectively achieved the researcher resorted to diving them into attainable goals in the form of answerable questions that will guide all the activities of the research into the proposed topic. The questions are also aimed at ensuring that the output from the research efforts are not only relevant and indicative but also appropriate and applicable to modern-day business practice. These questions are as outlined below:

What are some of the lessons that have been borrowed from the political arena to the business world?
What are some of the benefits created from the lessons borrowed from politics by the business world?
What are some of the benefits and shortcomings associated with hiring a politician or a corporate manager in a company?

1.5 Purpose

The two past decades have seen some of the most significant rates of change in most business operations in the global market due to the advent of technology advancement. The introduction of electronic gadgets and specialized information technology that has the capability to handle several conventional management roles concurrently has led to the revolution of most business, leadership, and administration practices. Similarly, technology has also facilitated communication and the modes through which information is passed from one party to another. This has culminated in the rendering of the current world as a “global village” due to the advent of globalization. The combination of technological advancements and globalization has led to transformation of public management rationale as the relevant stakeholders strive to adjust to the ever-changing functions and requirements in the various domains of leadership. Consequently, the early intellectual stalwarts of public administration have undergone one of the most significant changes in the field of leadership and administration as a result of the introduction of political concepts of leadership to business administration activities and operations.

On another note, it is evident that the global market forces progressively gains popularity as a result of globalization, which in turn culminates in the equal increase in the pressure of efficiently using resources. The constantly increasing pressure has led to the introduction of political leaders as the executive heads of major businesses in order to create the desired level of coherence between political and corporate systems especially when conducting international businesses activities. For some companies, this has been extremely beneficial while for others, it has been the opposite. This has led to the development of two schools of thought that hold different opinions on the ideal form of leadership for modern-day businesses. One of the school of thought suggest that political leaders have more capabilities of handling business operations in the modern-day world than corporate leaders since the latter are exposed to factors that are critical in the management of resources in the globalized world. Conversely, the other school of thought disagrees by pointing out that corporate leaders have specialized skill sets that are critical in the management of business operations in the modern-day world as opposed to political leaders whose skills are diluted by political concepts and frameworks that create unnecessary bureaucracies.

Consequently, the major purpose of this study is to assess the roles of politicians as managers, and determine if they are useful to the business world or they are just a sign of leadership. In doing so, the study will also seek to investigate on the probable lessons that can be acquired from the political world into that of business in order to lead to the realization of long-term benefits. The assessment of such critical aspects of leadership will guide some critical decisions as they will point out if hiring politicians would be more beneficial to a company than hiring a corporate manager. The study deploys several case studies in order to make the arguments thus presented and assess the potency and feasibility of political leadership over corporate leadership by highlighting some of the most probable outcomes for both scenarios.

This will lead to the approval or disapproval of the principles suggested by the concept of new public management as discussed hereinafter. The study uses secondary sources of information due to the nature of the research problem as there is an existing challenge when it comes to assessing the benefits of leadership to a business. Most ventures will strive to portray a good public image and would therefore strive to look appealing. This is bound to jeopardize the validity of the output from the research considering the time frame allocated does not allow for stringent data collection procedures. The preferences of secondary data also emanate from the time and financial constraints of the researcher as it would be challenging to assess the successfulness of different types of leadership in various companies then compare the results. Therefore, the researcher hopes that by deploying secondary sources of data, there would be sufficient time to assess, compare and contrast, and analyze the existing case studies in the verge of drawing and inferring some of the most indicative factors of the different types of leadership to organizational success.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

Most of the firms are moving towards stable leadership by reducing some of the organizational level to simplify the structure in the management positions. Organizations need to have a flexible leadership style to ensure there is a smooth flow of decision making (Anderson et al., 2008). Over the past few decades there have been changes in work force and industry that have resulted into a need for other alternatives in most organizations. This brings the need to transform or incorporate different leaders to support or increase leadership skills. Politicians promote productivity performance and output which brings a high rate of understanding when it comes to balancing the nature of a business. They can relate to external factors that affect the business. Even so, as public leaders they have acquired skill to deal with different sets of individuals. They are prompt to empower and encourage employees into achieving the set goals and focus on quality production. For the past four decades studies in leadership have attempted to internalize and understand the aspects in leadership that improve the performance of a particular organization. However, different scholars have come up with literatures that support the role of politicians in the business world while other scholars have theories that do not support the idea. The scholars aim at examining why some leaders are more effective as compared to others; there are elusive answers that do not clearly explain leadership practices in an organization. This research aims at identifying the work of different scholars and analyzing their literature in relation to leadership skills in an organization.

Beliefs of political leadership in the business world are drivers to change which incline the results in every aspect in an organization. Several studies have incorporated other disciplines like reinforcement to challenge the leadership position in an organization. Policies that are set increase need of politics in business to adapt to globalization trends and relate to self-efficacy in leaders to increase performance in the work place. The researcher analyses to types of literature, the first part is to analyse literature that support politics in business world and the second literature vividly explain the theories that does not support the role of politicians as managers. According to Yun, Cox and Sims (2006), leadership involves adjustments and how to cope with it.

2.1 Leadership

There are various theories that explain leadership in different organizations. According to Upper Echelon Theory of Hambrick & Mason (1984), he claims that strategic leadership can be identified in managerial positions that comprise of core values. In addition, he suggests that most organizations are a result of cognitions and values of top managers rather than a contemplation of environmental forces or corporate board control. Also the top manager’s preferences, values and experiences influence their research on the environment and therefore can make the strategic decisions. This theory was later expanded to strategic leadership theory which assumes that any operation of any organization is a reflection of the leading individual. It shows how psychological make-up of the top leadership of any organization influences decision making and how issues are acted upon in the organization. Although ideas and strategies can surface from the bottom, the perception is that only the top leadership has the power on any impact on the organization’s performance. Therefore strategic leadership theory is more of a decision making theory.

Not only does strategic leadership center its attention to the persons who have the overall obligation to the organization, but also to the people in the top management group. These leaders need to own important attributes or abilities such as; managerial wisdom which means the skill or talent to understand the differences in the environment surrounding the organization and also the ability to take action at any unfavorable moment. Another attribute is the absorptive capacity. It is the ability to know new data and understand it, then use it to improve areas, between the organization and its surroundings. It is important to the top managers as they have a rear skill to better the organization using the existing action patterns. The other attribute is the ability to change, also known as adaptive capacity. Leaders in the top positions need to have this attribute in order to be able to maintain the organization’s success by being active and have the ability to respond to the changing environmental conditions.

In strategic leadership, the important attributes explained enables the leaders to provide direction to the organization, making decisions regarding the services and products of the organization, formulating the organization’s strategies and goals and representation of the organization on different dimensions such as governmental institutions, financial institutions, work variation and customer related institutions. Also, identifying and mentoring the next generation of leaders in the organization, keeping an effective organization’s culture intact and impacting ethical values into the organization’s culture. Ireland et al. (1999) explains strategic leadership as the capability of a person to have tactical thoughts, visualize and also maintain team work among the employees to enable changes that will improve the future for the organization. He believes that in the near future, people will not see leadership as a position or title but as an important role to the cause of the organization. This means that instead of the organization being a company full of employees, they will form a sense of community among the workers where they have a relationship of partnership with the leaders. This of community will enable the employees to be inspired to have the responsively to work together to achieve the set organizational goals. He suggests that this strategic leadership will be experienced by shared information, visions and responsibilities so as to achieve positive results. These virtues are shared between the top leadership and the employees in the organization.

There are six strategic leadership practices that the interactions of the firm in question strive to satisfy. These key practices are; emphasizing ethical practices where the leaders practice and instill values especially in decision making. Another practice is maintaining and exploiting major resources and capabilities that keep the organization at its advantage. The third practice is maintaining a successful organizational culture. These include values and ideologies that govern decisions, behavior and communications and provide the situation in which policies and the firm’s plans are formulated and implemented. The fourth is initiating balanced organizational controls which are informational systems that the strategic leaders use to maintain and alter strategies of the firm’s activities. Another key practice is directing the organization’s purpose. The strategic leaders of the firm in question should provide the guidelines to envision the firm’s goals and the necessary steps in order to reach there. The last practice is developing human capital where, the firm’s workforce is categorized as the most important resource of the entire company on which important capabilities are based on. Investing on the citizens results to a positive driven workforce; creative and intellectual man power is capable of giving out excellent results.

In contrast to strategic leadership theory, supervisory theories of leadership also known as leader behavior theories, center their attention on task and person oriented conduct of leaders as they deliver their leadership to their subordinates. This type of leadership is referred as the actions purposed to provide support, direction and corrective results for everyday performances of the employees. This means that they are about leadership in the organization. One of these theories is the Leader-Member exchange theory which explains the effects and the developments of the interaction between superiors and subordinates relationships. This theory suggests high levels of mutual understanding and respect between subordinates and their superiors will results to general positive outcomes in the firm. Another theory is the Implicit Leadership theory.

This theory was advanced by Robert Lord and his associates and it states that leadership impressions are made through either spontaneous recognition-based procedures or intentional and controlled inferential. Under supervisory theories is the Trait Theory which explains that personal characteristics and talents contribute to the performance of the leaders in all situations. It also explains that some leadership characteristics are overall significant in that, they are important in all situations. These characteristics are categorized into cognitive factors, motives and personality traits. Another theory under supervisory leadership is the Contingency theory. This theory explains how the environment or situations influence character or style of leadership that the leader draws his or her attention to. All types of environment both the internal and the external have an important role on the leader effectiveness. Some theories were advanced to explain Contingency theory and they are; Cognitive Resources, Hersey-Blanchard, Fielder’s, Decision Process and Path-Goal theories.

Positive Agency Theory is a type of leadership theory that was suggested by Canella & Monroe (1997; 2) which states that it emerged from financial economics giving a substantial reason for the control of public domination. This theory points out the interaction, between the top managers and the stakeholders. It also explains that managers are thought to be interested in themselves only while the shareholders are considered to be risk-takers which mean they are the only reason that managers should be interested in making decisions. Theorists are concerned that there are a number of factors that are used by the stakeholders or investors to protect their investments or wealth from the self-interested managers. These factors include; monetary incentives, board of directors who are responsible in monitoring the performance of the firm’s executives, corporate control where incase of under performance of the executives, the investors can buy the firm from the stakeholders and terminate the self-interested top managers.

Leadership is also explained by New Leadership Theories as theories that highlights the relationships between followers and leaders. According to House et al. (1997:16), these theories entail various features like they emphasize emotional and representative leader characters such as role modeling and empowering, they try to show how leaders are able to lead in the achievement of the organizational goals and accomplishments. Also the theories show how some leaders are able to attain high degree levels of their follower’s respect, loyalty, high performance and trust. Lastly the attributes of leadership pointed out in these theories include followers associating with the leader’s visions and attributes, the follower’s high and low self-esteem and their strong response to their purpose and emotions. These New Leadership theories include; Theory of Transformational Leadership (Burns 1978; Bass, 1985), the Value-Based Theory of Leadership(House et al., 1996), Theory of Charismatic Leadership (House 1977 ), the Attributional Theory of Charismatic Leadership (Conger &Kanungo 1987), and lastly the Visionary Theories advanced by Kouzes & Posner (1995), Bennis &Nanus (1985), Sashkin (1988) and Nanus (1992).

2.2 Business Management

Business management involves strategies that enhance the performance in an organization. The principles that constitute the strategic management include models that ensure quality, efficiency and effectiveness in the organization. Strategic management in business ensures that the strength and weakness in the organizations are considered and measures are implemented to ensure control and objectives are formulated. The core values in the organization monitor the success in the business world; most managers ensure that employees in an organization have positive behavior that is desired to maintain the ethical values in an organization. According to Pryor, White and Toombs (1998) they argue that small business managers or owners utilize and understand the strategic management that should be deployed in business management. This formulates distinctive characteristics that create competition in an organization, which is evident by the unique capabilities that the organization has an upper hand own. It ensures that leaders have a plan to run and formulate policies that are significant in deploying or executing the goals in the organization. By so doing, the leaders monitor the performance of the organization and seek out necessary modification to visualize on the success of department and group leaders that are in the managerial chain.

Chandler and McEvoy (2000), posit that an organization must have quality initiatives for the integration of an organization. This creates an impact to the organization as it depicts a positive picture through strategic planning and achieving business success. Butz (1995) supports this claim by emphasizing that total quality management is linked to the strategies in a company because most plans include quality goals. While all this might be true, total quality management must be done in a single process to ensure that integration in management produces the targeted results. Butz (1995), further argues that for the results in a company to be prolific strategic management must thrive to success. He therefore came up with a strategic model that entails the 5P’s.

2.3 Public Management

Public management is literally the management of public organizations. The successful management of agencies and departments is a significant factor for the success of programs and public policies. Therefore, public management is aided by effective policy making, evaluation and implementation. It emanated from the private sector and implements managerial techniques to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of public services. The major change in the public organizations occurs when a public administrator transforms to a public manager.

This change occurs primarily because of high expectations from the stake holders. During the late seventies, the financial crisis that occurred is another reason that causes changes in the organizations to avoid further crises and regulate financial policies. The aim of the transformation was to achieve efficiency in most public sectors; this created the urge of different sectors to come up with principles and measures that can be employed organizations to focus on targeted approaches. The OECD (2005), points out that the increase in cost, financial crisis and technological changes have led to various reforms in the organization. Such reforms in the organization targeted the fiscal adjustment, management efficiency, capacity building, and accountability. The organization used mechanisms such reduction of public expenditure, tax reforms, privatization of public functions, decentralization, introducing new market mechanism, monitoring and evaluation of management, rendering quality services and reforming legal structures among other things.

According to Pollitt & Bouckaert (2011), public management reforms have specific objectives that comply with the technical or legal policies in the organization. Reforms were quite specific to national boundaries and could not be outspread to other bordering countries. Consequently, institutional bodies with prominent ideas emerged and formed development administrations which created rules and regulation that would be adapted by developing countries. The reforms in public organizations emerged to link the gap between the government and the welfare of the state, an exhortation to pull the government to engage in businesses increased bureaucracies and increase efficiency to save money and respond rapidly to their clients. From the bureaucratic measures set by the government conditions were set that enhanced the development of New Public Management. Therefore, the aim of the new public management was to strengthen the capacities in the government and redefine relationships between markets, governments and citizens. The OECD (1999) emphasizes on various reasons for the management to reform; the most significant factors that have led to the introduction of the new sector.

To better resolve these functional and applied conflicts in regard to the commitment of NPM to open organization an individual must be familiar with a few essential ideas. The first fundamental reason of NPM rises due to the term organization and administration. These two terms go hand in hand in explaining the importance of implementing new policies in an organization. Since the 1880s most political researchers have incorporated the term organization in their field of study to guide them into identifying the difference that ought to comprise autonomous pragmatic skills, techniques and hypothesis. Even so, the term administration brought about a broader analysis that social researchers utilized the term and speculated the fundamental characteristics that will improve the leadership in an organization. Most individual in the highest hierarchy emulate administration and identify the principals that are bureaucratic in the business world. Therefore, traditional organization expands and investigates the extensive bureaucratic frameworks and other legislative procedures that aid in strategic execution in leadership.

Organization, on the other hand, escapes the general routine of drawing in people and get-togethers in various social circumstances and the treatment of complex progressive advantages for grow efficiency and practicality amid the time spent conveying stock or administrations. A second present of NPM gets from the nature and estimations of lion’s share principle nations. Nationals of current dominant part control governments go about as voters and specialist’s vitality to administrators and directors to do what is best for people and social requests.

In any case, delegate famous government leaves its fingerprints on the exercises and operation of associations. For quite a while, organizations worked in a route far removed from occupants and with a nonattendance of affectability to the growing needs and demands of heterogeneous peoples. As proposed by Rainey, the 1960s and the 1970s were depicted by the beginning of unsuccessful open methodologies in Europe and in America. In any occasion some of these unsuccessful experiences were a direct result of nonattendance of strong examinations of the prerequisites and solicitations of the all inclusive community, while diverse dissatisfactions were achieved by wrong evaluations concerning the power of organizations.

Consistently, the tries by governments to roll out expansive improvements in instruction, welfare systems, wellbeing programs, inside security, and wrongdoing control were by and large scolded for being insufficient and ineffectual and for manhandling open resources. Responsiveness to the bona fide needs and demands of subjects was inconsequential. The crisis in practical open technique execution, together with the extended cynicism of subjects toward government and open association structures, created rich keen activity went for making significant alternatives for upgraded approach in various social fields, and moreover in the administrative methodology when all is said in done. Voters discussed their failure with picked powers and, as a securely attached unit with the academic gathering, called for expansive changes in government. This call made a far reaching number of working papers, articles, and books that proposed expansive administrative changes.

A champion amongst the most propelling works, Osborne and Geabler’s Reinventing Government, is as regularly as could be expected under the circumstances said as the casual starting phase of such changes, later known as NPM. As time went on, a creating number of political analysts saw open association as an old and declining discipline. It was not capable outfit individuals all in all with adequate utilitarian answers for its solicitations and furthermore, left the theoreticians with scourge social quandaries envisioning study. Verification for this development in attitude appears in the change of various schools of open association, into schools of open organization that happened in the midst of the 1980s and 1990s. Hunting down alternative considerations, organization speculation was proposed as a hotspot for another and resuscitating perspective. It was suggested that open organization as opposed to open association could add to another perception of how to run the organization more successfully and thus beat some of its pandemic issues.

More conspicuous highlight on yield control; development to the disaggregation of unit; a development to more unmistakable competition; a weight on private division styles of administration practice; and a weight on more important control and parsimony in resource use. This definition proposes that NPM depends energetically on the speculation of the business focus and on an expert society with no attempt at being subtle affiliations. Different definitions were proposed in the 1990s and drew on the wide writing in the field. Case in point, Hays and Kearney found that most of the studies on NPM had said five focus norms of NPM and thusly reasoned that they address the most basic hypothesis of the request: reducing—diminishing the size and degree of government; managerialism—using business traditions in government; decentralization—drawing fundamental initiative closer to the organization recipients; bureaucratization revamping government to stress comes to fruition rather than methods; and privatization planning the designation of authoritative stock and organizations to outside firms. These norms are ordinarily related, depending strongly on the speculation of the private section and on business hypothesis yet went for minimizing the size and degree of managerial activities.

Coordinated with contemplations built up in political economy, they have now been associated with open division establishments. Thus, governments that are far from being fundamental associations have been asked to regulate and run themselves like associations. An integrative definition for NPM that relies on upon the past works would therefore fight that NPM addresses ”a procedure straightforwardly organization that uses learning and experiences got in business organization and distinctive controls to push ahead capability, suitability, and general execution of baric organizations in present day associations.”

2.4 Political Influence in Business

Not only that the political environment poses direct threats to firms, administrative issues and politics are similarly fragment of other external risks. Ibeto (2011) argues that authoritative changes can progress or limit market competition, routine social hazards have political bases and responses, and political bobble can change normal or human-made events into catastrophes. Moreover, the political environment is seen to be outside of organization’s control, making it difficult to predict, and change in accordance with objectives. Given the multifaceted way of these issues, it is obvious that ventures much of the time fail to address issues of political environment efficiently. Multinational associations are pondering political issues that shock even the most experienced (Auster and Choo, 1993).

For multinational associations, political risk resulting from the political environment suggests the threat that a host country will settle on political decisions that will show to effectively influence the multinational’s advantages and/or targets. Unpleasant political exercises can keep running from preventing leadership in organizations. For instance, according to Griffen (2005), the point of view that resolute to change involves those of a more financial nature like the making of laws that engage in the increase in business capital. All around, there are two sorts of political risk, peril and little scale danger. Vast scale peril suggests threatening exercises that will impact each and every outside firm, for instance, appropriation or defiance, while littler scale danger insinuates hostile exercises that will simply impact a particular present day division or business, for instance, corruption and one-sided exercises against associations from remote countries. Regardless of the sort of political peril that a multinational association goes up against, associations regularly will end up losing a lot of trade out the occasion that they are found napping for these hostile circumstances. For example, after Fidel Castro’s organization took control of Cuba in 1959, countless ‘worth of American-had assets and associations were seized. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of these American associations had no arrangement of activity for recuperating the money (Andoh, 2007).

According to Walter (2014), the consequences of political environment to a business is that the threat oozing from it is a measure of likelihood that political events may entrap its journey for money through direct impacts, (for instance, costs or charges) or winding impacts, (for instance, opportunity cost sworn off). Along these lines, political peril resembles an ordinary regard such that the likelihood of a political event occurrence may diminish the charm of that wander by decreasing its predicted returns. All the more along these lines, there are political risks or events rising up out of nongovernmental exercises, considers that are outside the organization commitment. There are wars, insurrection, oust, terrorism, strikes, extortion, and kidnappings (Andoh, 2007). They all got from some insecure social situation, with people disappointment and extremism. Each one of these threats can create mercilessness, facilitated towards firms’ property and specialists. There may in like manner be the circumstance of remotely induced budgetary goals and remotely constrained cutoff focuses on imports or tolls, especially in the occasion of embargoes or any money related endorsements against the host country.

Political perils impelled by the lawmaking body constitute a couple of laws facilitated against remote firms. Some organization instigated perils are incredibly phenomenal. There are seizure, reallocation and preparing (Auster and Choo, 1993). As demonstrated by Limna (2012), appropriation is the seizure of outside assets by an assembly with portion of pay to the proprietors. In various terms, it is programmed trade of property, with pay, from a select firm to a host country government. Seizure may deliver a couple of advantages for the proprietors. In any case, procedures to get paid from the organization are once in a while broadened and the last aggregate stays low. Also, if no compensation is paid, conflicts may emanate between the host country and the country of the seized firm. For example, the relations between U.S. additionally, Cuba perceives such condition, since Cuba does not offer compensation to U.S. firms that have their points of interest measured. Furthermore, appropriation can go without various associations from placing assets into the concerned country (Auster and Choo, 1993).

Leadership, business, public and new public management constitute the importance in an organization. Leadership is a fundamental entity that must be adhered to for the smooth flow of business. In today’s society, what matters more is the politics that goes around in most offices. Politicians can be able to positively associate themselves to individuals of all manners. This creates room for socialization and focusing on the core problem of the organization from bottom up. Public management is necessary to ensure that external risks in the organization are resolved through seeking measures that ensure that specific policies guide the day-to-day activity in a business. Politics in business aim at positive decision making by the managers, this is because most politicians can be good managers.

According to Steve Tobak (2015), business and politics do not mix. The mindset of a politician is entirely different from a business person. A politician would include public policies to control the business in competition with other factor while a business person would seek measures that engage in financial policies and constraints. Although they both aim at making profits in a business, it can be deduced that both internal and external factors are important in running a business. Hence, engaging in widespread activities can ensure a smooth flow in business. In the modern day politics is important, it is an influential measure that most individuals might fall prey. In addition, scholars have argued that a politician in a business world has more impact as a manager because leadership comes when you apply good working ethics and instill values to your followers. Therefore, this literature aims at finding ways in which politicians and business managers can have produce a healthy environment and become good leaders in any organization.

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Context

In order to understand the interplay between politics and corporate leadership especially in transnational business operations, it is critical to analyze the public management framework as it points out some of the most eminent relational ties between the two concepts. According to Muethel and Hoegl (2010), public management refers to the practice that entails the activities and tasks that revolve around policy implementation in publicly governed programs. From the simple definition given by Muethel and Hoegl (2010), it is evident that public management has an eminent difference from business management. This has created a tug-of-war between supporters of business management concepts and those of public management principles in the undertaking of business, administration, and leadership operations in the highly globalized world. Even so, Nicolaides et al (2014) posit that the differences between business and public management are not restricted to kind but to degree and extent as both practices require different levels of engagement that could be beneficial to a business at different times and in various situations. Therefore, Nicolaides et al. (2014) suggest that “the principles of political leadership should be combined with those of corporate administration in order to create an adaptive executive front” (p.16).

Hoch, Welzel and Pearce (2010) show that business schools that relay the principles of business management focus on the compartmentalization of the generic management tools they avail to their students. They proceed to argue that the compartmentalization suggested by business management is no longer applicable in the modern-day business world since information revolution breaks down functional specialization (Hoch, Welzel and Pearce, 2010). Therefore, some of the principles of business management have been eroded or masked with those of public management in a manner that makes political leadership critical to businesses and their success in the modern-day market (Hoch and Kozlowski, 2014). The conventional roles of business or corporate managers have been progressively revolutionized by the adoption of technology, which has led to the combined management of data, accounts, and financial statements in a manner that has eliminated the need for such specialized administrative functions (Hoch and Dulebohn, 2013). Similarly, modern-day businesses are faced with the challenge of dealing with the emerging political requirements that govern international business operations. Therefore, the role of politicians in business leadership has been progressively increasing (Hülsheger, Anderson and Salgado, 2009).

3.2 Research Design

This study mainly revolves around the human resource practice of leadership and strategy execution, and its relationship with the effects of political factors on business operations in the modern-day corporate world. As discussed in the justification of the research study, the fields of business management and public management have been progressively emerging as some of the most critical aspects of business operations. With the advent of globalization that has been exclusively rampant over the past two decades, there has been a growing need to incorporate a global view on matters pertaining to international business operations due to binding legislations aimed at making the global market tolerable. Owing to the criticality of the issues surrounding leadership and its effects on the overall productivity and image of a company, the researcher had to invest a significant amount of time in selecting the most appropriate research design.

As the magnitude of the study demands for a significant level of effort from the researcher in order for the dynamic relationship between the type of leadership and corporate productivity to be understood, the researcher resorted to deploying strategies towards comprehending the knowledge development process (Robson, 2002). As the information pertaining to leadership and business productivity acquired through the efforts of this study ought to revolutionize the growing debate between parties supporting corporate managers and those venting for political leaders in the business world, the researcher embarked on a strict process for understanding the knowledge development process. This process is critical to such a study as this process affects how data is collected and interpreted. Saunder, Lewis and Thronhill (2007) posit that the knowledge development process occurs in predominantly three sub-processes. These researchers include axiology, ontology, and epistemology. Due to the nature of this study, the researcher decided to deploy the epistemological view of the knowledge development process. This selection was based on several reasons and arguments that revolve around the fact that the process sensitizes on the origin and nature of knowing, and how both of them affect how knowledge is constructed (Robson, 2002).

According to Saunder, Lewis and Thronhill (2007) point out that the epistemological view of the knowledge development process greatly affects the manner in which data is collected, understood, and interpreted. This way, this knowledge comprehension strategy creates a sense of dependence on the researcher’s perspectives that leads to the creation of freedom in research. However, the epistemology view of the knowledge development process is disapproved by most scientists based on the fact that the nature and extent of the freedom realized through the adoption of the view cannot be quantified. This way, the freedom could compromise the output from the research as its quality and credibility could be affected by personal bias. Even so, Maykut and Morehouse (2000) point out that effect created by the personal bias could be reversed or nullified with the combination of the epistemology view with positivism. The introduction of the positivist perception to the epistemological view of the knowledge development process vents for the use of methods deployed in natural sciences as a reinforcement to those used in the study of social realities. Considering the fact that this study revolves around the comprehension of leadership types in the corporate world, and their effects on the industry’s productivity, the social realities involved in political leadership and corporate management could be understood by statistical and analytical procedures. Therefore, the positivist view combined with epistemology is bound to boost the credibility of the output realized by the efforts of the researcher in this study.

Considering the fact that the two styles of leadership on the business world being focused on in this study (political leadership vs. corporate management) as predominantly psychological and social in nature, the analysis of their effects on a company’s productivity can be easily understood with the use of quantitative and qualitative analyses of the companies’ financial statements and fiscal performance records. This way, the use of statistical and mathematical analyses of the companies’ performances that falls within the delineation of natural sciences reinforces the comprehension of the social realities revolving around corporate management and political leadership. Therefore, the researcher was entirely convinced that by the selection of the epistemological view of the knowledge development process in combination with positivism was bound to culminate in the realization of the nature and extent of the relationship between corporate management, political leadership, and productivity in the modern-day business world.

3.2.1 Research Rationale and Framework

According to Bjerke and Arbanor (2008), the systems view is comprised of the systems theory, structuralism, and holism. They go ahead and suggest that the systems theory calls for the interdisciplinary study of a firm using a system-oriented language (Bjerke and Arbanor, 2008). Bjerke and Arbanor (2008) further suggest that the systems approach is preferable for the analysis and scrutiny of a group of correlated objects that work collaboratively to realize some output or result such as a business. The researcher decided to deploy the framework suggested by the systems view as it is the best serving bridge for the dialogue between different disciplines in the full scrutiny of a phenomenon using autonomous areas of study that include business, economics and science. Bjerke and Arbanor (2008) argue that the systems structural approach is based on two fundamentals. The first one is that “all phenomena can be regarded as a networked web of relationships comprising all the component aspects of the system in which it is found” (p.103). Bjerke and Arbanor (2008) posit that the second fundamental is that “all systems demonstrate the property of having common patterns, behaviours, and properties that can be understood in the process of developing greater insight into behaviour of a complex phenomenon. Therefore, since the modern-day world has been greatly transformed by the advent of globalization and technological advancements, the interrelation between firms and countries can be regarded as a web of the global economy with eminent relationships among the component macro- and micro-economies. In addition, there has been eminent pattern of behaviour in the economic world to the extent that we have financial strata. This is an indication of common behaviour as all components of the business world strive to make the best out of their resources and those of others. However, in order to do so, the business system has to be exposed to other components such as societal and political factors. This makes the systems theory framework very applicable to this study.

3.3 Research Approach

In order for the data from this study to be comprehensive and all-inclusive, the researcher deployed a mixed methods approach which incorporates both quantitative and qualitative research methods (Maykut and Morehouse, 2000). However, it is very likely that the combination of the qualitative and the quantitative methods could culminate in the realization of contradictory results and outputs. Even so, the research question being addressed is bound to benefit more from the deployment of both methods due to its nature. The quantitative methods can be easily used in the comprehension of the numerical and mathematical aspects of the study such as the level of productivity of a firm. This way, the quantitative methods can be used to comprehend the relationship between corporate management and political leadership in the modern-day business world. Therefore, the duality of the nature of the research question is well fitted with the different natures of quantitative and qualitative methods of research.

As mentioned under the justification section of the study, there has been significant amount of effort focused towards the comprehension of the different types of leadership in the corporate world. Even so, there has been a dearth of information on the relationship between the types of leadership and their effect on corporate productivity. Therefore, this study mainly revolves around the comprehension of the observed erosion of the conventional business management principles, which has in turn resulted in the growing similarities between business and public management. This study has also tried to approve or disapprove the hypothesis that in the age of globalization, with the reduced prominence of national borders, political leaders are bound to steer businesses towards higher productivity than corporate mangers could.

One of the overarching objectives of this research study is to understand the relationship between the different types of leadership and their effect on a firm’s productivity. Due to the dynamism of the study, the researcher opted to undertake a stringent selection strategy for the secondary sources of the data thus used in the subsequent chapter of this report. In order to ensure that all the perspectives of the research questions are well-incorporated into the study, the researcher resorted a critical review of existing literature as this would highlight the major issues and concepts related to the topic at hand (Cabinet Office, 2006). Due to the acuteness of the issue at hand, the author was compelled to present findings systematically (Carey, 2009). Therefore, the search for existing literature on the topic at hand has to be systematic as well. To maintain the relevance of the literature, the author divided the research topic into appropriate search terms like business management, public management, political leadership, and corporate productivity. Once the literature was identified, the author evaluated the credibility of the sources using several parameters (Carey and Foster, 2011).

First, the author identified the type of source of the literature (Carpenter, 2010). All the information found on official websites, academic journals and institutional sites were retained and all the rest discarded. Second, the author’s background was assessed (Chandhoke, 2002). All the literature by experts in the field was retained and all the rest were eliminated due to lack of credibility. The author also assessed the depth of the sources’ review (Chandler, 2000). All the literature with controversial reviews, good public response and general approval were discarded and those with peer reviews from credible sources were retained. The sources of the identified literature were also assessed and these sources were put under the same scrutiny to determine their credibility (Chew and Osborne, 2009). The objectivity of the sources was the final parameter the author used to assess the credibility of the identified literature (Condie et al., 2001). All the sources with balanced or neutral objectivity were preferred to those with clear bias and sponsored sources (Davidson and King, 2005). The scrutiny of the sources was done according to the source evaluation cheat sheet found in Appendix One.

Before the approval of any journal as a source of information, the author read the abstracts of the papers in order to determine their relevance to the research question (Gray and Webb, 2008). The sources cited in the journals were also assessed using the source evaluation cheat sheet (See Appendix One) and the approved sources acted as additional sources for the study. For both academic journals and books, the timeliness was paramount as the author acknowledged the change in the dynamism of social work in the UK in the last decade (Jones and Truell, 2012).

In order to determine the case study area, the author applied the non –probability sampling methods of convenience sampling and judgment sampling. The researcher applied convenience sampling since the research is exploratory and the researcher was interested in getting a comprehensive understanding of the understanding the individual relationship between politicians and the successfulness of an organization without excessive and unnecessary expenses during the study. Judgment sampling was applied after the author realized that the literature meant to provide the study with information lacked enough research studies in the topic as it relates to the relationship between leadership and corporate productivity in the context of the modern-day business world. However, the author only used the information from these locations as a source of incite hence no generalizations were drawn from them due to the diversity of national economics, politics and culture

On top of written literature, the author also sourced some video and audio clips on media coverage on the different case studies that will also be systematically analyzed in order to draw lessons and understand the trends that can be identified in the field. The credibility of the media coverage footages was determined by the credibility of the sources in terms of global influence and reliability. Some of the footages were sourced from major media houses like CNN, BBC and Fox News.

3.4 The Selection of Materials

As the researcher has pointed out in the previous sections of the paper, the current business world calls for a lot of aggressive measures due to the high levels of competitiveness in the global market. As national borders continue to be eroded due to globalization, companies venture into new markets and further increase the market saturation in new geographical regions. Therefore, companies have been forced to deploy strategies that will give them a competitive edge over their rivals. As they do so, companies are likely to engage themselves in highly unethical activities in the verge of boosting revenue streams and increasing profitability. Even so, the definition of unethical is highly contextual as different cultures have varying norms and ethical codes. Therefore, as national boundaries become progressively eroded, companies have been compelled to acknowledge the political differences in the countries of operation in order to avoid litigations. This has led to the growing importance of political leaders in businesses as they are conversant with the demands and conditions of the various political systems in their regions of operations. Even so, it has been unclear whether the efforts of political leaders surpass those of traditional corporate managers in the current business world. Different researchers have shown benefits and shortcomings of both political and corporate leaders in the business world. However, these studies have been one-sided and incomprehensive as they do not show the relationship and comparison between the two styles of leadership and their effects on a firm’s successfulness.

In order for the dynamic nature of the two sectors at hand to be clearly comprehended, it is critical to look at the basic principles and analyse them. By finding some of the most influential works in the field of leadership and comparing the methods and techniques used in such studies, the researcher acquires the ability to identify and confirm the most reliable and indicative frameworks that can be used to prove the credibility and academic nature of the findings thus acquired. There is a great level of need when it comes to the comprehension of the extent and nature of the relationship between the two variables identified in the study. These variables include the leadership and its effect on corporate productivity. Due to the nature of the variables, the researcher had to ensure that the content selection process is not only stringent and productive but also has the ability to culminate in the complete comprehension of the research question at hand. In order to draw from the root principles of leadership, the findings also ensured that the information in focus was scrutinized on the critical elements of corporate productivity as a function of the type and style of leadership in the firm. Due to the required level of academic influence in this field, the researcher had to ensure that the analysis presented in the document culminates in the most noticeable level of influence to the scholarly comprehension of the relationship between leadership and business profitability and productivity. This way, the researcher thought that it would be best to a conduct a thorough systematic comparison of the most influential texts in the domain.

As an emerging topic of interest in the field of business and administrations, the disparity in the effects of corporate management and political leadership, the concepts behind executive management have to be very well understood. Therefore, not so many publications have been devoted towards linking the two types of leadership and their effect on business productivity. As echoed in the preceding section of the document, the researcher was compelled to deploy one of the most strict search strategies in the field as this would make the content selection process sensitive to some aspects that would boost the credibility of the output from the study. Consequently, the researcher also had to select some of the most reliable databases in the field of study as this would culminate in the identification of the most relevant and credible information in the domain of interest in this study. Some of these databases as identified included; York and the Active Learning Research database. The main intention was making sure that the information acquired from the study was highly indicative of the prevalent patterns in this field of leadership. The researcher used terms such as “business management”, “new public management”, “leadership and the effect of politics”, and “the frameworks that relate leadership to productivity” in the search process.

After the first stage of content scoping, the researcher decided to make some eminent changes in the search strategy in order to ensure that the information thus acquired was credible and reliable. The overarching reason behind the amendment of the search strategy was that the first phase culminated in the acquisition of online periodicals with numerous hyperlinks that were placed a marketing strategy for businesses and university libraries that only posted previews and price tags for their resources. This made the researcher decide to discard and disapprove all the results from the first phase as they demonstrated less than required level of succinctness for the question at hand. Fro the second phase of the search strategy, the researcher thought it would be more productive to re-run the same key words with a slight alteration of the search parameters. For the second section of the search strategy, the researcher changed the search parameters to be limited specifically to books. Using refined search parameters to limit the results to books led to the expected identification of the unbiased and academic sources of information as all the identified content was from a well-recognized and appreciated publishing house with a certification of the quality, credibility, and reliability by the aficionados in the field of business administration. The search strategy also ensured that the results from the efforts were all books that evidently focused on the concepts and discussions of the factors related to the technical and analytical aspects business administration. Only such books were approved by the researcher as per the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

In the same way, the search process allowed the researcher to have the content that only discussed either business administration or political leadership or the combination of both. As per the inclusion and exclusion criteria selected by the researcher, all the books that satisfied all the highlighted conditions were defined as eligible for inclusion. The databases and search engines the researcher resorted to using were highly diverse in terms of regional dominance and cross-national inclusion algorithms. Therefore, the researcher also had to ensure that all the sources thus identified were written in English, or else there was an English translation version of the same. All the other books that were in any other foreign language and did not have any translations or equivalent versions for the English-speaking audience were excluded as per the scrutiny parameters. Once the researcher was satisfied that the books that were identified at the end of the search were sufficient to fulfill the research question at hand, they then deployed a critical appraisal strategy with the aim of ensuring that only the influential and indicative books were used in the study.

As the researcher has constantly echoed in this report, the search strategy had to be stringent in order to sufficiently satisfy the research question at hand. This would ensure that the identified sources of information were all relevant to the topic at hand books in the poorly researched domain of business administration. The researcher had anticipated the possible outcomes of the search strategy deployed in the study. This way, they were ready for the observed magnitude of the results from the study. Due to the magnitude, it was probable that most of the sources thus identified had a significant number of irrelevant ones with respect to the question at hand. Due to this reason, there had to be subsequent scrutiny and critical appraisal criterion. This was aimed at making sure that only the most relevant and academic studies and sources of information were incorporated in the data of the study.

The appraisal process had to be divided into different steps. In the first step, the appraisal process entailed the looking at the titles of the identified sources in the verge of determining whether or not they are within the scope of the study being discussed hereinafter. The stage was also aimed at ensuring that sources have attained the set threshold for relevance in the study. From this stage, the researcher then identified all the books that were deemed to be irrelevant and shallowly schemed through them. The scheming process entailed a look at their table of contents and some of the pages in the introductory chapter. All the books that indicated any signs of irrelevance were discarded. Using the same strategy, the researcher also ensured that all the duplicates to the identified results were filtered out. For the duplicates, the researcher only retained the most recent copies of the two for subsequent scrutiny.

The researcher did the same thing for the remaining books. Their tables of contents were viewed and the introductory chapter assesses superficially. Additionally, for the identified books, the researcher added an extra step of scrutinizing their synopses. The researcher also added an extra step of analyzing them for relevance and currency. From this stage, the researcher discarded all the sources that were deemed to be irrelevant in terms of content and in-depth analysis of the principles surrounding leadership and business productivity as an application of the exclusion criteria. If any other situation occurred, the researcher only ensured that the sources with relevant content and an eminent demonstration of a high level of in-depth analysis of management styles and techniques were included. Once the entire process was completed, the researcher resorted to accessing the complete versions of the study.

The entire critical appraisal process was then terminated by the final scrutiny of the accessed full versions of the short-listed sources. The final scrutiny process entailed the in-depth synthesis of the content in the sources that reached the final stage of the appraisal process. The main objective of the synthesis was to assess the books in terms the academic techniques deployed in the investigation of the concepts and trends in leadership and understanding how it affects corporate productivity. The assessment was deemed so important since it has a high potency of creating a vivid and comprehensive picture of the research question being addressed.

From the first phase of the scrutiny process, the search of the electronic databases culminated in the identification of 84 books. The terminal end of the entire scrutiny process, the researcher identified 38 duplicates that were excluded and the latest versions of them retained. After scrutinizing the remaining sources and their content, the researcher eliminated 33 books and their most updated version retained. The researcher also viewed the introductory pages of the first few chapters to assess their relevance. From this stage, the researcher excluded a further 19 books. Using the synopses and tables of contents, the researcher assessed the remaining texts relevance and in-depth analysis of leadership styles, and their effect on new public management as an emerging field. This stage led to the exclusion of an additional 15 books. The remaining books were excluded on the basis of the availability of the electronic version of the books. This led to the exclusion of 7 out of the remaining 12 books.

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS

4.0 Introduction

As echoed in the previous sections of this study, it is critical to analyze the content and case studies that revolve around public management frameworks and business leadership in order to understand the interplay between politics and corporate leadership especially in transnational business operations. Also, as viewed in the preceding chapters, public management refers to the practice that entails the activities and tasks that revolve around policy implementation in publicly governed programs. The preliminary synthesis of the materials used in this study exposed the fact that public management has an eminent difference from business management that has created a tug-of-war between supporters of business management concepts and those of public management principles in the undertaking of business, administration, and leadership operations in the highly globalized world. Consequently, this chapter is focused on outlining the discussions and the findings of the systematic synthesis of the secondary materials identified by the researcher using the methodology outlined in the third chapter. Some of the eminent themes discussed in this chapter include The Role of Leadership Diversity, Political Leaders vs. Corporate Managers, the Benefits of Political Leaders over those of Corporate Managers, a discussion of the Renault and Volvo Merger and its Indication on the Dynamism of the Matter, and the Outcomes and Expectations from Political Leaders vs. Corporate Managers.

4.1 The Role of Leadership Diversity

One of the major questions that the researcher strove to answer in the systematic synthesis of the materials thus identified for this study as per the methodology outlined in Chapter Three was, why companies have been observed to progressively prefer hiring politicians or executives with political backgrounds instead of “real” or corporate business managers in a manner that has led to the eruption of the concept of new public management. As identified in the literature review, new public management has been increasingly popular as members of the public, even those without prior knowledge and academic qualifications in business management, have been continually taking up leadership roles in the business world. According to Rotberg (2012), business leadership is one of the most eminent tools of sending messages that indicate that commitment to diversity and inclusion is one of the most important determinant factors in company productivity. The systematic synthesis of the identified sources of information pertaining to business leadership indicates that diversity has managed to form one of the most critical agendas in the field of business management. The analysis of the secondary sources of information also demonstrated that there are a significant number of researchers focusing their research efforts on the analysis of the role diversity plays in the dictation of company productivity and success especially in the realm of international business (Rotberg, 2012; Ciulla et al.,2008; Post, 2004; Foley, 2013).

. One of the identified studies was that by Hart (2014) who suggests that a series of interviews conducted with a couple of CEOs from different fields of operations and highly diverse backgrounds indicate that there has been an array of companies that have reaped the benefits of embracing diversity and inclusion. This has led to the eruption of diversification as a major pivot point for the strategic priorities of such companies especially in terms of goal execution. From the synthesis of the materials thus identified, it was realized that due to the relatively recent nature of the concept of leadership diversification and inclusion, most company leaders have taken it up to themselves as a personal agenda rather than a corporate one at the organizational level. Most company leaders and executives have taken the adoption of leadership diversification as a personal mission. However, it was noted that the diversification of leadership has been progressively gaining popularity due to the advent of globalization and the subsequent erosion of national borders. Williams (2015) suggests that as national leaders progressively become eroded, and business ventures ramify to different geographical locations, there has been a growing need for leaders who can manage a business with the highest level of diversification in order to make the best out of the assets and resources at the companies’ disposal.

Out of the seven sources used in the analysis, five of them suggested that there are two major reasons for the growing need for diversified leaders in the modern-day business world (Rotberg, 2012; Ciulla et al.,2008; Post, 2004; Foley, 2013). The first reason is the fact that in order to maintain a competitive edge or advantage in the modern-day globalized business world, firms have been progressively compelled to devise means through which they can incorporate the highest level of inclusion in their operations in order to boost their ramification process in the various areas of the world (Brown, 2014). This way, business leaders believe that leadership diversification is imperative for the productivity and successfulness of their companies, especially in terms of competitiveness. The second reason is the fact that leadership diversification also acts as a moral imperative for business in this modern business era that encompasses human resources from different geographical locations. On another note, leadership diversification also seems to be one of the best and most feasible strategies for the adherence to equality laws in the verge of avoiding litigations. This way, Rotberg (2012) suggests that companies ought to ensure that they incorporate all possible levels of consideration to their operations in order to include people from a significant number of races, ethnicities, religions, and backgrounds.

One of the cases identified in the study included IKEA, which is home-products company based in Sweden (Amihud and Lev, 1998). According to the CEO of the company (Mikael Ohlsson), leadership diversity is predominantly vision and value-driven from the business perspective as it creates a reliable foundation (Amoaku-Adu and Smith, 1998). This way, the CEO demonstrates that leadership diversity creates an added advantage for business in this era. This is because it allows firms to adjust to the changing trends in the global business world that has demonstrated a high level of dynamism. Similarly, Paul Block who is the CEO of one of the identified case studies that was an American sweetener manufacturer by the name Meristant, suggests that a diversified leadership ensures that a firm has the adequate level of measures set to ensure that the different backgrounds and lifestyles of the people create a highly competitive and challenging environment that culminates in better outcomes (Black, 2002).

This is because the incorporation of a diverse resource pool creates dissent that creates a higher level of agility that then culminates in a boost in a firm’s productivity that sprouts from the constant inquiries and breakthroughs. In a different stage of the preliminary research conducted before embarking on this study, the researcher came across a quote by the CEO of Discovery Health, which is a South African insurance company (Bleeke and Ernst, 2005). The company’s CEO, Jonathan Broomberg suggested that leadership diversity culminates in the creation of a diverse resource pool that boosts creativity and innovation; both of which play a significant role in the successfulness of a firm (Bonnier and Bruner, 2006). When a company has a diverse leadership, it is likely that their operations will be less insular and out of touch due to the growing heterogeneity of the global customer base in the modern-day business world. Since the customer base acts as a clear reflection of a company’s operations, it would be better for the leadership of a company to demonstrate as similar level of diversity as their customer base in order for the their operations to be well-aligned to their needs and preferences. Another organization identified during the preliminary stages of the study was Bank of America, whose executive leader suggested that a diverse leadership culminates in the creation of a strong level of internal diversity scores that exist concurrently with high employee value that translate to higher levels of customer satisfaction (Brown-Humes, 2004).

From the systematic synthesis, it was also evident that leadership diversity stems from different factors and reasons. One of the main factors that spark the need for a diversified leadership is the fact that it incorporates both the understanding of an insider and an outsider as both perspectives are represented. A diversified leadership ensures that leaders put into consideration the factors affecting the internal operation of the employees they are responsible for, and the external factors affecting the overall operations of the firm and its relationship with its customers. Carnegy (1993) suggests that it is only leaders who acknowledge the roles played by internal and external factors affecting their organizational relationships that could inspire commitment in their firms as they ensure that both strata of the organizational structure are well carted for within the limits of the firm’s resources and capabilities. The former CEO of Avon (Andrea Jung), a personal care products company, posits that the lack of a diversified form of leadership in the modern-day business world culminates in the ignorance of an array of critical operational factors such as gender and racial equality (Furtado and Roze, 2010). Andrea Jung demonstrated that she personally underwent through a tough time being accepted as the boss due to her gender and racial background (Furtado and Roze, 2010). This way, the solution to such issues would be to ensure that the leaders in such a company are well-acquainted with the issues revolving around their domains of operations. Gilson (2004) points out that one of the most feasible and potent strategies of realizing diversity in leadership is to hire executives with a political background. This is because such leaders have a commendable level of knowledge of the issues pertaining to international business relations, legislations, and policies governing the same, and the best means to ensure that the company capitalizes on all the resources they have without any litigations. This has led to the preference of political leaders to corporate business managers in the current business world as they have sufficient knowledge of the factors affecting international business operations.

4.2 Political Leaders vs. Corporate Managers

The second most eminent question that systematic synthesis of materials in the field of business leadership was aimed at answering was why companies have been observed to prefer hiring leaders with a political background to those with business management backgrounds. As seen in the previous section of the paper, the modern-day business world has been progressively demanding for diversified leadership as it plays a significant role in the adaptation to the ever-changing global market forces and trends. The synthesis of the materials identified for this study demonstrates that there is an array of differences between political leaders and corporate managers. From the analyzed materials, it was realized that there is an array of reasons as to why businesses have been preferring leaders with a political background to those with a business management background. Some of these reasons were identified from the case studies used, while others were inferred from the analysis of the different texts. One of the major reasons emanating from the research thus outlined was that political leaders have an all-rounded view of business operations in the sense that they put into considerations all factors affecting the outcomes of their efforts in the business world. Brown-Humes (2004) suggests that due to the political background, politicians have the capability to assess business operations from a two-fold perspective since they intricately consider the political factors affecting business operations, and the internal business affairs that can be easily learnt by anyone through minimal training.

According to Harrigan (2008), one of the most critical factors that makes political leaders more effective in the modern-day business world is the fact that they have an “outsider’s” point of view on most of the business operations as they have been previously compelled to look at business from a different perspective other than of profits and revenues. Even though manager are trained to look into business operations and their productivity from an overseer’s perspective, it is very likely that such leaders measure the effectiveness of interventions and strategies deployed on their direct impact on a firm’s profitability. This makes the operations of such firm’s to be centered on creating monetary benefits and maintaining customer satisfaction levels above the set minimum threshold. Conversely, political leaders progressively learn to do so with their continues exposure to business dynamics with the only major difference being that they use other different parameters such as the avoidance of litigations and the adherence to operational legislations in addition to profitability and corporate productivity. Hirschman (2010) posits that while corporate managers may be focused on hiring the best human resource pool for the peak performance of their firm, a political leader would do the same but ensure that the gender of the employees is balanced enough to pass as an internationally certified company. This way, both leaders have the same agenda (to achieve corporate goals) but the corporate manager is more focused on facts and figures while the political leader ensures that the fact and figures are very aligned with the laws, policies, and legislations governing the processes that culminate in the achievement of these facts and figures.

The systematic analysis of the materials thus identified for the study brings out another dimension of the political vs. corporate business manager tug of war. The synthesis showed that another eminent reason why companies progressively prefer hiring leaders with a political background from those with a business management one is the fact that the former focus solely on the goals and objectives of the business while latter have expressed some form of bias in their management of some of the business operations for which they are responsible. One of the identified case studies was Duke Energy, an electric utility company, whose CEO expressed that the company’s previous executive board that was predominantly comprised of managers from some of the best business schools in the world put in place corporate structures and ideologies that culminated in the creation of an invisible form of bias that formed an intricate part of the firm’s corporate culture (Jarrell and Poulsen, 2007). Since the board was solely focused on the firm’s corporate culture, an element predominantly sensitized on by business management principles, the firm subliminally employed people from the same demographic segment as it was viewed that they would easily fit into the firm’s corporate fabric with minimal training. When the current CEO, Jim Rodgers, joined the company from a southern law firm, he experienced the bias and rejection that most of the employees and executives overlooked.

Being a southerner with a distinct accent and a rural background, Jim Rodger was compelled to work twice as hard to prove himself as a worthy participant in the firm’s corporate culture. Even though there was not a specific company policy that enforced this bias, it was evident that the focus on the firm’s corporate culture led to the nurturing of the racial and ethnic bias in the company (Kunz and Angel, 2006). As a political leader, Jim Rodgers revolutionized the company’s operations and culture to the extent that it now has a human resource pool comprised of 49 percent of people falling in the minorities ethnic groups (Kunz and Angel, 2006). This has led to the boost of the company’s profitability by 8 percent in the first fiscal year after the leadership change. It is such cases that have compelled most firms to introduce a political eye to their corporate business management in order to ensure that such firm’s operate within the demarcations of the international equality and business laws. This is because political leaders have been exposed to a level of self-awareness, insight, and empathy that shapes their attitudes in a manner that triggers the acceptance for diversity and inclusion that has become very critical in the modern-day business world. This is because national border have been progressively eroding to the extent that businesses have been compelled to accept and incorporate the diversity of global cultures in their operations in order to maximize on profitability without infringing the rights and freedoms of any related stakeholders.

4.3 Benefits of Political Leaders over Corporate Managers

According to Pound (2008), there is an array of benefits involved with both political leaders and those with business management background. This is because there are companies that have corporate managers as their leaders, while others have adopted those with some knowledge on political issues. Ruback (2002) posits that one of the major benefit associated with the adoption of leaders with business management backgrounds is that they have a vast knowledge on the processes and technicalities involved in business operations from an academic and professional perspective. Corporate business managers have spent a significant amount of their time and careers on understanding the theories, processes, and principles involved with business operations from an academic, professional and technical point of view. This way, they are well-acquainted with technical aspects of what business entails. For instance, such a leader would easily understand the situation of a company by looking at their financial documents such as balance sheets. This not only saves time, but also ensures that such leaders deploy the most relevant and technical strategies to ensure that the operations in their firm are sustainable and profitable. Roll (2006) also adds that corporate business managers understand the intricate procedures entailed in businesses such as supply chain management. Business schools teach the art of buying and selling that entails what a business is from its inception in the pre-historic times of barter trade to the modern age of monetary exchange. This way, corporate business managers have a vast understanding of the art of exchange in a manner that becomes second to nature as they are exposed to what business was before the introduction of any form of currency to this modern era of the dollar, the pound and the euro. Rydqvist (2002) also suggests that due to the technical aspect and nature of business management courses, corporate managers have a relatively higher negotiation power that other leaders without their educational background. Due to the arguments presented by some of the practitioners that support the principles delivered through the business management schools, there has been an eminent drag period in the adoption of political leadership in the modern-day business world as firm’s still appreciate the benefits of corporate managers.

In fact, there is an array of businesses that still hold the opinion that corporate managers with business management backgrounds demonstrate an eminent and reliable level of specialized skill sets that are critical in the management of business operations in the modern-day world. This is in opposition of the diluted skill sets demonstrated by leaders with political backgrounds as they adhere to political concepts and frameworks that create unnecessary bureaucracies. Even so, the synthesis of materials and case studies in this study shows a different outcome as most of the identified studies indicate that political leaders are more appropriate to the modern-day business world predominantly due to the effects of globalization and erosion of national borders that has led to the rampant sprouting of cross-national merges and acquisitions. Therefore, the most eminent pattern discovered from the synthesis of the materials thus used in this study is that political leaders have more capabilities of handling business operations in the modern-day world than corporate managers. This is because the leaders with political backgrounds demonstrate a reliable level of exposure to the factors that are critical in the management of resources in the globalized world.

Since is evident that public management demonstrates an eminent level of disparity from business management, it is critical to also discuss some of the benefits of political leadership over business management. The synthesis of the secondary sources of information used in the study, and the case studies that were identified as reference points shows that political leaders have an array of generic management tools that are neither taught in business schools nor acquired in the context of corporate management operations. Even though corporate business managers have a vast knowledge on the processes and technicalities involved in business operations from an academic and professional perspective, it is evident that the generic skills acquired by political leaders play a more significant role in the modern-day business world due to the advent of globalization and the formulation of internationally binding business legislations. Additionally, even though corporate business managers have spent a significant amount of their time and careers on understanding the theories, processes, and principles involved with business operations from an academic, professional and technical point of view, business leaders with political backgrounds have a better chance at introducing adaptive and flexible business strategies that ensure that a firm avoids all possible instances of litigation. This is because political leaders introduce an all-rounded perspective of business operations that allows them to assess all aspects of business operations.

For instance, it was not until Woods Staton (a political leader) of Arcos Dorados, which is a McDonald’s operator in South America, joined the firm that the prevalent phenomenon of social cliques was eliminated from the company’s corporate culture. Through the introduction of an inclusive and diverse corporate culture in the company, this CEO ensured that all employees, regardless of their gender and ethnic background, participated in the creation of the networks, and the initiation of the conversations that culminate in career development and promotion (Shleifer and Vishny, 2006). The prevalent culture of people from one ethnic or racial background seeking the company of those from the same background in the company during social interactions was only eliminated with the introduction of a political leader who could identify such political patterns and introduce strategies to break the norms. This led to the improvement of both the social fabric of the company and the productivity of the employees due to the combinations of skill sets and perspectives. This indicates that leaders with a political leadership background are more productive in the modern-day business world that is dominated by a globalized context that calls for significant efforts towards integration and cohesion regardless of ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. This has shifted some of the leadership agendas taught in business schools from profits and revenue generation to maintaining the same while ensuring that social and political factors have been incorporated into the executive control fabric.

As a result of globalization, most cross-border operations have been affected especially in the domain of mergers and acquisitions. Consequently, the high rate of globalization has led to the erosion of some of the conventional business management principles. This has resulted in the growth of the similarity with public management. This way, political leadership seems to the most adaptive means of to cope with the growing effects of globalization. Since the significant amount of time spent by corporate managers predominantly revolves around the compartmentalization of the generic management tools, it is very likely that corporate business managers have a skill set that it no longer in the modern-day business world due to the revolutionization of business operations realized through the information revolution that has led to the breaking down of functional specialization (Hoch, Welzel and Pearce, 2010).

This way, most of the concepts and principles supported by the practices thus taught through business management schools have been progressively eroded or masked with those vented for by political frameworks and guidelines in the field of executive business management and operations. This has led to the growth of the rampancy of political leadership as a critical aspect of business management, and as a tool for triggering the processes that lead to their success in the modern-day market.

On a similar mote, it is evident that the most conventional roles of business or corporate managers have experienced an extensive rate of change that has emanated from the adoption of technology. Information and communications technology has led to the combined management of data, accounts, and financial statements. This has led to the partial or complete elimination of some of the processes needed for conventional business administrative functions. Due to the same growing rampancy in the adoption of information and communication technologies, most modern-day businesses have been compelled to face the challenge emanating from the emerging political requirements that govern international business operations. This way, there has been a progressively growing need for political leaders in the modern-day business world as they seem to portray the most critical adaptability traits in this modern era of information (Hülsheger, Anderson and Salgado, 2009).

Additionally, both the rampancy and growth of the effects of globalization and technology advancements have led to the erosion of most of the traditional business management roles. The erosion of these conventional business management roles has led to the growth in the extent to which political systems affect business operations in almost all domains and industries in the business world. The growth of political systems and their effects on the modern-day business world has led to the increase in the necessitation of the presence of business leaders with a clear understanding of the dynamism of the political systems in which the businesses at hand operate. Consequently, this has led to the emergence of organizations that emphasize less on internal hierarchies and leadership systems, and more on the realization of the roles played by political systems in the trans-national and cross-border domains of international business activities such as alliances, mergers and acquisitions. This way, most of these businesses only share top management with the stakeholders and partners they have worked with, and ensure that they have a common culture that guides organizational operations as required by local and international political systems and legislations that affect the operations of such a firm. This has boosted the need for political leaders who can steer such companies to the right path while avoiding instances of public and international relations disasters by sensitizing more on the political factors of control that ultimately affect the firm’s financial performance. The growing focus of businesses on non-financial information has led to the adoption of political leaders more rampant due to their higher probability to realize profits while maintaining the required levels of political stability in the globalized business world.

4.4. Renault and Volvo Merger and its Indication on the Dynamism of the Matter

The automotive industry in Europe has been making the news especially in the past two decades. As national borders progressively become eroded due to the advent of globalization, the major firms in this industry have been seen to deploy strategies aimed at growing market share and increase revenues sizes and streams in the highly competitive market. Some of these companies include Volvo and Renault. Volvo has been one of the oldest and most celebrated car brands in the history of the automotive industry. However, increasing revenues and annual sales was not the reason why Volvo made the news on the 2^nd December, 1993. For about three years, Volvo’s Chairman Pehr Gyllenhammar and Renault’s Director Louis Schweitzer had been planning on merging the two automotive companies with the aim of combining resources and strengths that would see the inception of a 40-billion-dollar company (Volvo, 1993). The partnership of the two auto companies would have culminated in the creation of the world’s sixth largest automotive company by value and revenue. Some of the dynamics of this merge form highly reliable and credible sources of indicating factors related to political leadership and corporate management in the business world. Even though the merger had the potential of completely restructuring the entire European motor industry, it is critical to acknowledge that the type of leadership, or the disparities between the two types of management in the concerned firms had a significant role to play in the failure (Volvo, 1994). There is an array of reasons as to why the merger did not go through to succession. Most of these reasons revolve around the disparities between public management and corporate leadership as suggested by business principles.

From the analysis of the events surrounding the failed merge between Volvo and Renault, it is evident that most of the pressure was emanating from the Swedish side of the deal (Volvo). This can be attributed to the fact that Volvo was chipping in about 27 billion pounds in the proposed merger with the France-based Renault. The analysis of the case study indicated that the predominant and observable levels of opposition from the Volvo side emerged from both the relevant and influential stakeholders as well as the firm’s management. Even though the management ought to have been on the same side as their leader, Pehr Gyllenhammar, it was evident that the rest of the executive management and leadership did not agree with some of the dynamics involved in the deal suggested and planned by the company’s Chairman (Amihud and Lev, 1998). This is a clear indication that it was neither the leadership style in the company nor the firm’s leadership culture but its leader that contributed most to the failure of the merger. This is because most of the members of the firm’s management team did not concur with their leader who planned and suggested the merger; an indication that the ideals they stood for where completely different from those of the company as indicated by the majority of the leaders against the plan (Black, 2002). In fact, the failure of the merger led to the immediate resignation by the Chairman Pehr Gyllenhammar from Volvo. The failure of the merger points out some of the benefits of political leaders over business managers and corporate leaders in the modern-day business world.

Volvo’s second executive, Soren Gyll, engineered the cancellation of the meeting between stakeholders with the main agenda being to vote for or against the proposed merger (Bonnier and Bruner, 2006). Soren Gyll and other dissidents of the proposed merger expressed their disapproval of the deal as emanating from several factors that were not put into consideration. From the analysis of the factors and the arguments thus given by the dissidents of the idea, it is clear that they are predominantly political, and that a public manager or politically-oriented leader would have addressed them appropriately before suggesting the partnership. For instance, the owners of the Renault company, the French Government, continuously expressed that they were not willing to give away the “golden share” of their company (Gilson, 2004). This appears to be vague as the same party also insisted that they intended to privatize their company Renault. If the then head at Volvo (other than Pehr Gyllenhammar) had a political background, the company would have avoided the public humiliation and failure that resulted from the saga (Shleifer and Vishny, 2009). Pehr Gyllenhammar was overly focused on the business and computational aspects of the deal such a global market position and potential revenue increase for both companies. These are the principles and factors stressed on in business management institutions as the major indicators of corporate successfulness. However, in this case, a political leader could be more appropriate for several reasons.

For instance, if Pehr Gyllenhammar had a political background, he would be keen enough on the public announcement of opposition against the plan by most of the company’s (Volvo’s) stakeholders (Harrigan, 2008). A political leader would have taken this is a clear indication of the actual truth of the matter; the plan was bound to be rejected. However, Pehr Gyllenhammar kept on retaliating to the comments by silence, avoidance, or an over-emphasized presentation of the market share that would be tapped by the merger to make it the sixth largest auto company valued at 40 million U.S. dollars (Jensen, 2006). Additionally, the fact that most of the opponents of the merger stressed on the fact that the other party (Renault) is owned by the French Government would have raised a flag to a political leader as it is a clear indication of the nature of the matter; political (Kunz and Angel, 2006). Instead of focusing on the economic and managerial tasks concerned or emanating from the proposed merger, a political leader would have addressed the opposition as a political issue as this would have improved the acceptability of the merger, address the oppositions it faced, or terminated the entire plan early enough to diminish the effects the failure that observed had on both the involved companies (Pound, 2008).

Another factor revolving around the nature of the opposition to the merger between the Swedish automaker Volvo and the French auto company Renault was the proposed leadership style proposed by the latter party (Hirschman, 2010). Despite the announcement that it had the intention of privatizing the company Renault, the French Government concurrently expressed their interest in retaining the golden share of their company. Not only does this seem impractical and far from the logical concept of privatization but also does it indicate the nature of the opposition to the proposal. Despite the declaration of the intention of privatization, the French Government also concurrently expressed the objective of retaining the golden share of the company that would them make it a government-owned entity. This would mean that the French Government would have a better chance and a higher guarantee of control of the merger after its formation (Rydqvist, 2002). A political leader would have identified this political intention and deployed relevant adaptation and restructuring strategies in order to adapt to the growing opposition. Additionally, a political leader would have understood that the major gaining point in the deal was not economic but political control of the cross-border merger (Shleifer and Vishny, 2006). This means that the political leader would have deployed more relevant and politically appropriate negotiation strategies. This would have culminated in the success of the merger, the formulation of a more acceptable deal fore both parties, or the complete avoidance of the deal in the initial stages before the catastrophic failure thus observed.

Even so, a further and more in-depth analysis of the entire deal and the factors surrounding it indicates that there could have been another major problem associated with the deal (Jarrell and Poulsen, 2007). From the analysis of the case, it was evident that the root cause of the problem could have been the fact that there was a wave of the perception that one of Sweden’s national industrial gems was being sold off to another country that might not carter for the needs of the Swedish employees (Keller, 2003). This wave of disapproval was also seen to emanate from the fact that most employees at Volvo and other interested citizens thought the merger was a cheap sale to the French Government that would neither return on the investment nor guarantee the proper treatment of Swedish employees and practitioners after the merger (Roll, 2006). Additionally, the opponents of the deal also expressed that it could not guarantee the safety and well-being of the Swedish economy. Therefore, it would not be wise to place a firm as important to the Swedish economy as Volvo in the hands of another government without proof and guarantee that it would not affect the nation’s economy.

Even though these comments and opinions seem to lean on the economic facet of Sweden and Volvo as economic entities, it is evident that the overarching reason and comment is political. First, the dissidents of the cross-border merger expressed that it was a cheap sale of one of the most important industrial gems of Sweden as a nation to another country (Ruback, 2002). This is a clear indication that the issues revolving around the failure of the merger are predominantly political as they are related to the transfer of an economic entity and the roles it plays to the Swedish economy from one country to another. This way, a political leader would suggest the most feasible and highly potent strategies that would ensure that the deal is not only beneficial to both the involved parties, but also protective of the interests of both the Swedish and the French citizens (Horner, 2008). Additionally, the opponents of the deal also expressed that they were scared of the possibility of employee harassment and mistreatment if the French Government gained some sort of control of the Swedish company. As mentioned in earlier sections of this paper, globalization has led to the revolutionization of the principles and guidelines that govern cross-border partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions. Therefore, for the sake of the consideration of all the potential issues surrounding the transfer of employees from one country to another, a political leader would be a more efficient manner of facilitating the entire merger. This would ensure that all the local, national, and international labour laws, policies, and legislations are considered and both parties shows a significant level of the recognition of their power and demonstrates a commendable intention to adhere to them (Amoaku-Adu and Smith, 1998). Therefore, it is likely that if Pehr Gyllenhammar had a political background, some of the major issues presented by the opponents of the deal could have been addressed. This would also ensure that all the pertinent issues other than the economic facet of the merger are considered before embarking on the partnership. This would also ensure that the concerns presented by both countries in terms of employee safety and the national economic security of concerned nations are addressed with the required level of sufficiency (Bleeke and Ernst, 2005).

The analysis of the case study also indicated that Pehr Gyllenhammar had led Volvo for more than twenty years. During this leadership, the company seemed to be interested in integrating itself and its operations with that of a European partner. This led to the drafting of the merger that would then see Volvo hold 35 percent stake of the merged entity with the rest being left to the French Government (Brown-Humes, 2004). This is another point of argument in the debate between the successfulness of political leadership vs. corporate management in the modern-day business world. As mentioned in the previous sections of this report, the advents of globalization and technological advancement have been rampant in the past two decades. This has led to the significant changes in some of the principles and guidelines of business operations and enterprise management. This way, it is evident that the advent of technology advancement has culminated in the significant transformation and revolution of most business, leadership, and administration practices (Brickley, Lease and Smith, 2008). Consequently, technological advancement and globalization have led to the inevitable change in the field of public management in the verge of adapting to the ever-changing functions and requirements in the various domains of leadership. Due to technological advancements and globalization that have both been rampant over the same period that Volvo’s Chairman was in the leadership position, intellectual stalwarts of public administration have also experienced one of the most significant changes especially in the domains of leadership and administration (Carnegy, 1993). This can be attributed to the introduction of political concepts of leadership to business administration activities and operations. Additionally, the changes that have emanated from globalization and technological advancements has led to the alteration of the public administration fabric from its previous solitary nature to the current network of collaborations between non-profit organizations, citizen groups, and public agencies through the facilitative capabilities of information and communication technologies.

As the national borders progressively become insignificant in the global business operations due to the introduction of internationally binding legislations, global market forces have progressively gained popularity over the past two decades. This has compelled companies to introduce leaders with a political mind as the best strategy to deal with the dynamic changes. The fact that Pehr Gyllenhammar led Volvo for more than two decades with not major or catastrophic public relations disasters indicated further that it is not his leadership that fell short but his ideology in the modern-day business world (Furtado and Roze, 2010). Since Pehr Gyllenhammar was used to the business management principles, his leadership struggled in the modern-day business world due to globalization that requires a political mind in the handling of corporate operations in the global market. From this, it continues to be eminent that the introduction of political leaders as the executive heads of major businesses creates the desired level of coherence between political and corporate systems especially when conducting international businesses activities. This is because political leaders have a higher tendency to adhere to the management of human resources in the most humane and legal manner possible. This way, the conventional principles of public management have been adjusted to accommodate the growing need for a merger between politics and corporate leadership. Therefore, it is likely that Pehr Gyllenhammar would have been more successful in the peak of his career if he had a political background that would have benefited him in the modern-day globalized business world (Agrawal and Mandelker, 1995).

The irrelevance of business managers in the modern-day corporate world can also be further sensitized on by looking at the fact that four other executive managers resigned after Pehr Gyllenhammar did so. One of the major reasons behind the sequential resignation by the five executive leaders in Volvo is the fact that they did not have any intentions of reopening negotiations with Renault. Even though the company had existing alliances with Renault such as cross-ownership of some of the stocks in the market and joint purchases and product developments, the five executive leaders decided to resign since the issues surrounding the opposition of the merger were “predominantly political” and denoted the “merging imbalance between business issues, social challenges, and politics” ((Agrawal and Mandelker, 1995, p.12). The fact that the predominant argument revolved around the complication introduced by the emerging role played by political and social factors in the modern-day business world indicates that firms need leaders with political backgrounds in preference to those with just a business management credential or qualification. By comprehending the significance of political factors in the modern-day business world, executive leaders can control both the business aspects and the social facets of their firm’s operations in a manner that is internationally acceptable. In fact, in an interview, Pehr Gyllenhammar posits that “management only does not have the capacity to handle the complexity of social and political issues” in the business environment ((Carnegy, 1993, p.8).

Another reason that indicates that leaders with a political background are bound to be more successful than corporate managers in the modern-day business world is the fact that the declination of Volvo in the proposed merger with Renault was perceived as an act of betrayal to the European community. The merger was being debated on at the same time as Sweden was considering joining the European community. Therefore, other than the economic aspects of the firm’s operations that were at stake, Volvo was also under the limelight as its move would indicate Sweden’s general opinion on joining the European community. This made the issue highly political as the failure to go through with the merger was seen as an act of turning backs against the entire European community. This means that a leader with a political background would have a higher chance at leading the company to success by using the resources at the firm’s disposal through political bodies such as the European community that Sweden was meant to join. A leader with a vast knowledge of the political systems in which the firm operates would boost the possibilities of success as operations would be more aligned with the political systems in which the company operates.

From this analysis, it is evident that the failed merger between the Swedish automaker Volvo and the French auto company Renault is a clear indication that there has been an eminent change that has been realized in the field of public management. This has culminated in the revision of some of the most conventional aspects and pedagogy of public management and corporate governance in the verge of aligning them with dynamic and ever-changing societal and organizational requirements in the modern-day globalized business environment. Consequently, there has been a rampant practice of combining the principles that cut across the fields of politics, economics, information technology, and finance. The combination of these aspects into the modern-day business world has led to the subsequent alteration of some of the principles held in the field of corporate governance and business leadership. Therefore, it is evident that political leaders have more capabilities of handling business operations in the modern-day world than corporate leaders since the latter are exposed to factors that are critical in the management of resources in the globalized world (Cheung, 2008).

The analysis also shows that there is indeed a significant level of difference between public management and business management. One of the major differentiating factors is that public management calls for the acquisition of a set of generic management tools. These generic tools have the potential of propelling a firm towards success in the modern-day world, and are highly challenging to learn from an academic institution as they are acquired through practice and experience. This way, some of the skills demonstrated by political leaders in the business world cannot be retrieved from business schools despite their being critical to the success of enterprises in the modern-day business world. Even so, the Volvo-Renault failed merger has also indicated that there is a significant overlap between business and public management. This area of overlap should be harnessed and capitalized on with the aim of boosting corporate productivity and steering firms towards the most desirable outcomes in their operations especially in the cross-border domain. Since the high rate of globalization has led to the erosion of some of the conventional business management principles, there has been an observation that this has led to the increasing points of similarity between the ideologies suggested by this field and those proposed by public management.

This has led to the growing coherence between the two fields. Even so, the failed merger between Volvo and Renault shows that the reliance of business schools on the compartmentalization of the generic management tools, corporate leaders and managers have a set of skills that are predominantly inapplicable in the modern-day business world that experiences an eminent level of revolution through the breaking down of functional specialization realized through information and communication technologies. This way, it is also evident that some of the principles of business management have been eroded in a manner that necessitates the presence of political leadership in the modern-day market.

It is inevitable to realize that the modern-day businesses face an eminent challenge of dealing with the emerging political requirements that govern international business operations such as the employee requirements of the Swedish employees in the French workforce that would have been realized if the merger were to succeed. Therefore, the role of politicians in business leadership has been progressively increasing to the extent that firms have been compelled to introduce a leader with a clear understanding of the dynamism of the political systems in which the venture operates. Therefore, it is clear that politicians play a significant role as business managers in a manner that is beneficial in the modern-day business world dominated by international legislations. From the assessment of the critical aspects of leadership surrounding the Volvo and Renault merger, it is evident that hiring politicians would be more beneficial to a company than hiring a corporate manager.

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.0 Introduction

The analysis and systematic synthesis of the materials and case studies thus used in this report has culminated in some eminent conclusions on the research question being addressed. As mentioned in the preceding chapters of this study, the overarching objective of the study was to identify some of the lessons that have been borrowed from the political arena to the business world, analyze some of the benefits created from the lessons thus borrowed from politics by the business world, and highlighting some of the benefits and shortcomings associated with hiring a politician or a corporate manager in a company. Once the secondary sources of information were analyzed and the case studies investigated, there were some trends that were identified that are highly indicative of the nature and extent of the issue at hand. The researcher could ascertain that most of the firms in the modern-day business world are moving towards stable leadership by reducing some of the organizational levels to simplify the organizational structure. This has been a step channeled towards the adoption of more flexible leadership styles with the aim of ensuring that firms realize a smooth flow in its decision-making process despite the strong effects of social and political factors. As echoed in the previous sections of this study, the researcher critically analyzed the content and case studies related to public management and business leadership. This led to the comprehension of the interplay between politics and corporate leadership especially in modern-day globalized business arena. Consequently, the researcher has dedicated this chapter to outlining some of the overarching trends and lessons that emanated from the research efforts invested in answering the research question for this study. This chapter is divided into several subsections that are targeted at outlining the major conclusions, giving some recommendations for firms and businesses aiming at revolutionizing their leadership in the modern-day business arena, and suggesting some of the critical areas of future researcher on matters pertaining to public management, corporate leadership, and the role played by political factors in the business environment.

5.1 Conclusions

From the analysis of the secondary sources, the researcher identified the past few decades have experienced the most significant rate of changes in the work force and industry that have resulted into a need for other alternatives in most organizations. The researcher also ascertained that this brings the need to transform or incorporate different leadership styles with the aim of supporting or increasing their leadership skills. The synthesis of the materials thus used in this study also indicated that politicians have the ability to promote corporate productivity and boost overall performance and output, which brings a high rate of understanding when it comes to balancing the nature of a business. One of the overarching benefits of deploying political leadership is the fact that they have a new dimension of viewing business operations since they effectively assess and relate business operations to other external factors that affect the business. The researcher also realized that most of the political leaders in the modern-day business world have acquired a generic set of skills that make them public leaders with an ability to deal with the different sets of individuals concerned in their operations. The synthesis of the materials and case studies identified for this study has showed that political leaders have an ability to act promptly and empower and encourage employees into achieving the set goals and focus on quality production.

The study also indicated some of the major reasons as to why companies have been progressively observed to prefer using the services of politicians or executives with political backgrounds as opposed to the conventional “real” or corporate business managers to the extent that public management has been transformed into a new concept. One of the major reasons has been the mergence of what has come to be known as new public management that vents for the taking up of leadership roles by members of the public, even those without prior knowledge and academic qualifications in business management.

Additionally, there has been a growing need to demonstrate diversity and inclusion in the business world in order to adhere to international standards of operation and avoid litigation. This has led to the rendering of business leadership as one of the most eminent tools of sending messages that indicate that commitment to diversity and inclusion is one of the most important determinant factors in company productivity. Consequently, diversity has managed to form one of the most critical agendas in the field of business management. On another note, the researcher also realized that there are a significant number of researchers focusing their research efforts on the analysis of the role diversity plays in the dictation of company productivity and success especially in the realm of international business. Most of these studies indicate that there has been an array of companies that have reaped the benefits of embracing diversity and inclusion. This has led to the eruption of diversification as a major pivot point for the strategic priorities of such companies especially in terms of goal execution.

The researcher also realized that political leaders take up to themselves to handle some issues that were not traditionally sorted out with corporate or business managers. It was realized that due to the relatively recent nature of the concept of leadership diversification and inclusion, most company leaders have taken it up to themselves as a personal agenda rather than a corporate one at the organizational level. This way, most company leaders and executives have taken the adoption of leadership diversification as a personal mission as an adaptation strategy to the changes emanating from the progressively growing popularity of the advent of globalization and the subsequent erosion of national borders. The researcher also ascertained that as national leaders progressively become eroded, and business ventures ramify to different geographical locations, there has been a growing need for leaders who can manage a business with the highest level of diversification in order to make the best out of the assets and resources at the companies’ disposal.

5.2 Recommendations

The researcher suggests that in order for businesses to excel in the conditions thus created by globalization and technology advancement in the modern-day corporate environment, companies have to devise means through which they nurture political leaders. This suggestion emanates from two major reasons for the growing need for diversified leaders in the modern-day business world. First, in order to maintain a competitive edge or advantage in the modern-day globalized business world, firms have been progressively compelled to devise means through which they can incorporate the highest level of inclusion in their operations in order to boost their ramification process in the various areas of the world. This way, business leaders believe that leadership diversification is imperative for the productivity and successfulness of their companies, especially in terms of competitiveness. Second, leadership diversification also acts as a moral imperative for business in this modern business era that encompasses human resources from different geographical locations. The researcher also determined that leadership diversification also seems to be one of the best and most feasible strategies for the adherence to equality laws in the verge of avoiding litigations. Therefore, companies ought to ensure that they incorporate all possible levels of consideration to their operations in order to include people from a significant number of races, ethnicities, religions, and backgrounds.

Moreover, the researcher also suggests that the best approach to the politicization of business leadership is to do it as a complementary strategy to the visions and values of the subject company. This culminates in the creation of a business perspective that is predominantly vision and value-driven to the extent that it creates a reliable foundation. This way, the political leadership in the business arena creates an added advantage for firms in terms of fostering diversity of operations that is critical in the modern-day globalized business environment. This then allows firms to adjust to the changing trends in the global business world that has demonstrated a high level of dynamism. The researcher also suggests that companies should incorporate a political perspective into their leadership operations as it creates an environment that supports diversification of skill sets and resources. This in turn ensures that a firm has the adequate level of measures set to ensure that the different backgrounds and lifestyles of the people create a highly competitive and challenging environment that culminates in better outcomes. This is because the incorporation of a diverse resource pool creates dissent that creates a higher level of agility that then culminates in a boost in a firm’s productivity that sprouts from the constant inquiries and breakthroughs.

Additionally, the researcher also recommends that firms ought to appreciate the role played by leadership diversity that fosters the creation of a diverse resource pool that boosts creativity and innovation; both of which play a significant role in the successfulness of a firm. When a company has a diverse leadership, it is likely that their operations will be less insular and out of touch due to the growing heterogeneity of the global customer base in the modern-day business world. Since the customer base acts as a clear reflection of a company’s operations, it would be better for the leadership of a company to demonstrate as similar level of diversity as their customer base in order for the their operations to be well-aligned to their needs and preferences.

Therefore, a diverse leadership culminates in the creation of a strong level of internal diversity scores that exist concurrently with high employee value that translate to higher levels of customer satisfaction. Firms in today’s business world ought to accept some level of defiance from the traditional business principles suggested by business management institutions. This defiance entails the acceptance of the role played by social and political factors in economic matters. Political leaders have been seen to be well-acquainted with the issues revolving around their domains of operations. Therefore, one of the most feasible and potent strategies of realizing diversity in leadership is to hire executives with a political background. This is because such leaders have a commendable level of knowledge of the issues pertaining to international business relations, legislations, and policies governing the same, and the best means to ensure that the company capitalizes on all the resources they have without any litigations.

Political leaders have also demonstrated that they have the required level of knowledge of the factors affecting international business operations. The y also demonstrate the ability to set up an adequate level of measures set to ensure that the different backgrounds and lifestyles of the people create a highly competitive and challenging environment that culminates in better outcomes. This is because the incorporation of a diverse resource pool creates dissent that creates a higher level of agility that then culminates in a boost in a firm’s productivity that sprouts from the constant inquiries and breakthroughs. Therefore, it is likely that the operations of businesses under political leadership will be less insular and out of touch due to the growing heterogeneity of the global customer base in the modern-day business world since the customer base acts as a clear reflection of a company’s operations.

Even though managers are trained to look into business operations and their productivity from an overseer’s perspective, it is very likely that such leaders measure the effectiveness of interventions and strategies deployed on their direct impact on a firm’s profitability. This makes the operations of such firm’s to be centered on creating monetary benefits and maintaining customer satisfaction levels above the set minimum threshold. Conversely, political leaders progressively learn to do so with their continues exposure to business dynamics with the only major difference being that they use other different parameters such as the avoidance of litigations and the adherence to operational legislations in addition to profitability and corporate productivity.

5.3 Areas of Future Research

The systematic analysis of the secondary sources of information identified for this study alongside the selected case study has indicated that there is an eminent overlap between public and business management principles. However, despite the high level of potency demonstrated by these two fields in the modern-day business world, there is a dearth of information on the means and strategies through which firms can capitalize on the overlapping relationship between public and business management principles. The lack of understanding of the relationship between the two fields has been seen to culminate in the minimal deployment of strategies that lead to high corporate productivity and adaptability especially in the cross-border domain of mergers and acquisitions that dominates this era. Therefore, the relationship between public and business management principles and the effects of their interaction to corporate productivity ought to be studied in order to boost the overall productivity of the global market.

On another note, the researcher also ascertained that with the advent of globalization, there has been a rampant increase in the rate at which national borders have been eroding especially over the past two decades. Consequently, the erosion of national borders has led to the subsequent revolution of the conventional business management principles. The researcher realized that there are not so many studies that have focused their efforts on understanding the effects of this revolution on business and public management. Therefore, it is challenging to determine the role played by promotion of compartmentalization as suggested by most of the principles of business management practices in the alteration of the leadership functions of a firm in the modern-day business world.

Therefore, it is also challenging to pin-point the exact time that the compartmentalization of roles and activities in business management became a dated concept. It is also challenging to identify the rationale deployed in the categorization of the principles of business management as dated concepts in the modern-day globalized business arena. Therefore, there needs to be a study focused on identifying the applicability of the compartmentalization of roles and activities as suggested by conventional business management principles in transnational business operations. Such studies should also strive to understand the role played by the deployment of information technology as a revolutionary tool that has led to the breaking down of functional specialization to the extent that it has promoted the politicization of leadership in the business world.

Additionally, despite the rampancy of studies that have focused on the role played by the advent of technological advancement, there is still an insufficient rate of focus on the role is has on the transformation of the conventional roles of business or corporate managers. The researcher did not come across research studies that were focused solely on the elimination of specialized administrative functions as a result of the adoption of information and communication technology in the business arena. Therefore, this also forms a potent research area especially due to the fact that the modern-day business world is continuously faced with the challenge of dealing with the emerging political requirements that govern international business operations.

Finally, the researcher suggests that there should an effort focused on the comprehension of the potential leadership styles that would accommodate all the effects of social and political factors on corporate productivity. This would help firms in adapting to the erosion of the conventional business management roles as a result of the rising magnitude and rampancy of the roles played by politicians in business leadership. By identifying previous and current trends, researchers can make models that can be used to project the likely future trends that would ensure firms are ready for the anticipated rise in the importance of political systems in the business environment.

Appendices

Appendix One: The Source Evaluation Cheat Sheet

Factors to consider	Least reliable	Possibly reliable	Most reliable
Type of source	Unfamiliar website	Published material	Official websites, institutional sites, academic journals
Author’s background	Uncredited	Educated on topic	Expert in the field
Date published	None	Outdated	Recently revised
Depth of review	Controversial reviews	Good public response; general approval	Peer-reviewed by reliable sources
Sources cited	None	Credible sources	Citations referencing other well-cited works
Objectivity	Clearly biased	Sponsored source	Balanced, neutral

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