One of the things that many recent articles about leadership, and leadership training have in common is the recognition that workers become cynical about concepts and activities that seem merely "trendy" to them. They tend to ignore changes in the organization which seem likely to be ephemeral and superficial, rather than long term and substantial. Leadership training, and new leadership theories, have to take this into account. If leadership is to be effective, and influence the direction of the organization, then it needs to be the ongoing focus of ownership and management.
Establishing the Agenda of the Organization
One new emphasis in the field of leadership and managing organizations is the development of organizational mission statements or visions. Often these are accompanied by statements of purpose or general principles about how the organization is to operate. This is really not a new practice for successful leaders of organizations, however. John Kotter (1997) discussed one modern example of a leader developing a specific vision for his company, supported by specific principles of behavior in his article about Matsushita, the famous Japanese entrepreneur.
Matsushita's vision, which continues to provide a foundation for the company after his death, was that the successful business person takes a product and continues to tinker with it to make it more valuable to his or her customer. He has been accused of simply being an imitator, producing cheap copies of other's original inventions, but his vision has been an extremely successful one. The core of the practice is a focus on continual change and having an unshackled mind in order to continue to create and recreate. He disseminated his philosophy in seven business principles, which workers in his plants are still encouraged to memorize and utilize.
In a more modern example, Rodel, a manufacturing company supplying the electronics industry, also made use o...