MBIS5014 Leading People in Digital Organisation Report 3 Sample

MBIS5014 Leading people in digital organisation Report 3

In this assessment, you will work in group and form a group of 4 members by week 1. Select a digital organisation and conduct a research to identify the challenges that the leaders of this organization are facing while leading their people. You can use any credible secondary data source and use proper references to back up your findings. You are expected to apply relevant concepts and theories learned in this unit, and a minimum of 12 scholarly journal articles must be used in the group report.

You are encouraged to attend a workshop on Referencing and Research Practice organised by the Academic Success Team (AST). You may also schedule a one-on-one workshop with the AST by emailing academicsuccess@aih.nsw.edu.au.

Solution

Introduction

Among all the companies in the digital streaming market, Netflix can rightfully be called one of the pioneers of this format, changing its approach to consuming content worldwide. Netflix started in 1997 from being a DVD rental company to one of the leading movie streaming platforms right now, having more than 230 million subscribers. Still, this growth has not been without trials, especially when having to lead a digital organization whose core competence is innovation, creativity, and flexibility. Another challenge that’s associated with the growth of the organization is how the leadership of Netflix is going to address challenges such as sustenance of the competitive advantage, creation of a culture that nurtures innovation, management of the global workforce and finally ability to respond to the market changes effectively. It is with these leadership challenges for MBA Assignment Expert that this report seeks to elaborate on the ways and manner in which Netflix’s leaders can further consolidate and enhance its leadership role in the global provision of digital entertainment. Based on the analysis, the report highlights the recommendations Netflix uses to solve the mentioned challenges and some suggestions concerning leadership practices in the future.

Main Body

Innovation Leadership at Netflix

Summary: The author describes how innovation leadership is a key efficiency factor in maintaining competitive advantage in digital organizations. It reveals that according to the leadership of Netflix, most of its success is attributed to its culture of innovation (Souza, & Romero, 2021). Owning to the approaches of experimentation and encouragement of failure, Netflix has a higher capacity to adapt to the current entertainment market while retaining the top position in the streaming industry. The work also discusses that created, the leaders at Netflix ensure employees are proactive; this leads to a culture that flourishes in innovation and always seeking for improvement.

Application: One of the fine examples of the leadership structure which is adopted by Netflix is none other than transformational leadership where the leaders encourage their team to perform better and go beyond the ordinary expectations. This innovation-focused culture is important, especially in today’s world of frequent technological advancement, this makes Netflix to be able to embrace change easily.

Controlling Organizational Culture in Global Digital Organizations

Summary: The author explains the challenges of changing organizational culture in global digital organizations such as Netflix. The article shows that by controlling cultural identity on the global level while trying to implement cultural changes on the local level, Netflix encounters some difficulties (Televik, 2024). The study concentrates on leadership to manage these issues saying that a master strategy has to be culturally sensitive but at the same time, it has to enforce the company’s values at that place. The work provided some evidence to show that Netflix has been successful in international markets mainly because the new; risk-taking culture that it possesses can be merged with the culture of the country.

Application: The idea of expansion towards the global market by Netflix can also be explained as influencing the concept of cultural intelligence which implies a certain sensitivity to cultural peculiarities. That is why the policy of decentralization adopted by Netflix has been effective: it allowed focus on the preservation of the brand’s identity while expanding on the local presence.

Figure 1: Netflix marketing strategy- An overview of the marketing tactics of Netflix
(Source: https://www.sprintzeal.com/blog/netflix-marketing-strategy)

Transformational Leadership and Digital Innovation

Summary: The author discusses the effect of transformational leadership on digital innovation, especially Netflix. The article also avows the importance of transformational leaders in creating a favorable context in which digital innovation outcomes can be nurtured. These leaders define clear strategic goals and engage the staff in the constant notion of new offerings (Arora, Waiters, & Goel, 2022). Leadership is also touched on in this regard expounding on the questions marks and risks that leaders have to factor in about digital innovation though the investigation points to Netflix as the best example of efficient leadership.

Application: Thus, the leadership of Netflix can be considered as an example of transformational leadership because of the promotion of the vision of change and improvement. This particular leadership style has been critical in helping Netflix to sustain its competitive advantage, thus offering its customers the best technology solutions with contents of equal value.

Table 1: Netflix Subscriber Growth (Global)
(Source: Statista, 2024)

Leadership Skills for the New World / Adaptive Leadership in the Digital Age

Summary: The author examines the phenomenon of adaptive leadership and its relevance to twenty-first-century, Netflix. The article focuses on how adaptive leadership helps organizations to appropriately address chaotic conditions prevailing in the external environment (Raei, & Rasmussen, 2021). Adaptive leadership is well captured at Netflix due to its shift of the business model from DVD rental to streaming and from streaming to content production. As highlighted in the study the understanding is that this flexibility is management-sponsored, and a culture that fosters flexibility, learning, and change readiness and implementation is encouraged.

Application: The case of Netflix showing how a company has transformed itself from a DVD rental service to the leading digital Streaming Company is a vivid example of a company that has embraced Adaptive Leadership. Following the fundamental principle of workplace flexibility and the culture of innovation, Netflix’s leaders have guaranteed that it can smoothly respond to changing conditions and develop new opportunities in the digital environment.

Strategic Leadership and Competitive Advantage

Summary: Author discusses the potential of strategic leadership in fostering the attainment and sustenance of Competitive advantage in digital organization such as Netflix. The article further posits that through the right decisions that are aligned with the overall vision of the organization, the strategic leaders help to determine the long-term future of the firm (Souza, & Romero, 2021). The work also provides the leadership’s creative roles in building new sources of advantage through Netflix’s shift to content production as one of the strategic directions. Thus, by making a bet on the production of their programs and series, the company gained a competitive advantage and a strong audience.

Application: Netflix’s strategic management decision to invest in original production shows the need to have proper strategies to win a sustainable competitive advantage. This strategic view has helped Netflix to have a competitive advantage in the huge domain of streaming services and become one of the leaders in delivering digital content.

Leadership and Digital Transformation

Summary: The author provides an analysis of leadership and Digital transformation, with Netflix as one of the most common examples. The article analyses the idea of digital transformation and how this means that leaders have to dispense with old ways of thinking and adopt new forms of technology (Au-Yong-Oliveira, Marinheiro, & Costa Tavares, 2020). Netflix’s leadership is regarded as highly effective to have managed to steer the company through several phases of digital transformation, from transitioning from DVD mailing to streaming to the current stage of relying on artificial intelligence to personalized recommendations of content. In this context, the study highlights the visioning in terms of being a strategic foresight of technological developments for organizational adoption.

Application: The leadership of Netflix has also proved over time an organization competent enough to foster digital transformation, placing the organization at the vanguard of innovation. This visionary approach has helped Netflix to be ahead of all competitors given the nature of the digital media environment.

Figure 2: Leadership - Common Challenges in Digital Transformation
(Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-common-challenges-digital-transformation-dandapani)

Empowerment and Employee Engagement in Digital Firms

Summary: The authors employ Netflix to explore the effect of leadership empowerment on employee engagement in digital firms. According to the author of the article, the culture of employee management in which leaders grant more freedom and allow employees to be actively engaged in the decision-making process is more effective since it creates more committed and creative workers (Bhattacharya, 2023). In Netflix’s case, the leadership, Miller, and colleagues adopted Corporate freedom and responsibility that makes employees feel empowered and embrace initiative roles to enhance Netflix’s success. The study also examines the ways of ensuring that people in organizations own an innovation to ensure that it sustainably continues in the digital environment Leaders are key players in ensuring that the employees own an innovation.

Application: From the leadership perspective, the Netflix culture of giving people autonomy and accountability has paid off by incentivizing its employees’ productivity. This self-empowerment approach is one of the reasons for Netflix's success when it comes to developing and offering unique inventions in the digital media market.

Leadership and Organizational Learning

Summary: The researcher investigates leadership and their contribution towards organizational learning in digital organizations such as Netflix. The article shows how leaders at Netflix constantly support a process of learning, including practicing, thinking, and teaching (Rešetar, & Seljan, 2021). It is important for creating and sustaining innovation in an organization because it will allow learning from success and failure. The work also covers the topic of how leadership promotes learning throughout an organization so that knowledge that is obtained in one project is used in the next.

Application: Netflix’s leadership ensures that learning is encouraged, and it forms a major part of organizational learning, as seen below. This means that, by providing employees with ways to learn from their experiences and share their knowledge, Netflix has been able to set itself up as a market leader in terms of trends and innovation.

Figure 3: Organizational digital transformation: from evolution to future trends
(Source: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/DTS-08-2023-0061/full/html)

Crisis Leadership in Digital Organizations

Summary: The researcher focuses on the behavior of leaders in briefs in digital organizations with reference to Netflix. In the article, the author explains that the leadership actions in the crisis embrace swiftness in decision-making, appropriate communication, and the protection of organizational stability (Priddy et al., 2024). The study also looks at how Netflix’s leadership managed through storms like the disruption brought about by the emergence of digital piracy as well as the backlash brought about by the price increase in 2011. In essence, through the timely declaration of the mentioned crises and constant adjustment of strategies, Netflix was able to minimize the effects of these crises.

Application: Thus, based on analyzing Netflix’s experience in leading crises, it can be concluded that leadership resilience and flexibility are crucial to surviving in a digital world. This belief has especially been the case about such aspects as decision-making as well as communication during periods of uncertainty: the leadership of the company has always demonstrated its effectiveness.

Table 2: Netflix Content Spend vs. Competitors (2023)
(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, 2024)

Leadership and Technological Innovation

Summary: To elaborate on this topic the author examines how leadership influences technological advancement among digital organizations regarding Netflix. The article under review here is as much about leadership, as about the conditions conducive for technological innovation to happen (Mier, & Kohli, 2021). The paper then presents how the leaders at Netflix have always embraced new technologies in technologies such as AI and machine learning to improve content delivery. The article also emphasizes leadership in the management of technological decisions in terms of strategic planning and finding ways to implement them for the benefit of the company.

Application: With regards to technological leadership, Netflix’s leadership has been exceptional in the promotion of innovation, which has enhanced the technological provision of services and value added to customers as well as eradicating rivals in the market. Hence, technology investment has placed Netflix on an advantageous pedestal in the digital streaming industry.

Leadership in Talent Management

Summary: The author analyses the leadership of talent management in digital organizations with specific reference to Netflix. Netflix leaders have designed a concept of talent management in the organization that includes employment on culture, fostering talent development, and reward based on performance (Ahmed et al., 2021). A high-performance culture, the research concludes, requires leadership to attract and maintain the best human capital. Thus, at Netflix, creativity and accountability were promoted, as well as the constant focus on the excellent results in the employees’ performance.

Application: Netflix’s talent management philosophy has been more centralized and leadership and this has worked for the company. On the aspect of cultural harmonization and growth, Netflix guarantees its labor force is consistence with the company vision and able to transform Netflix in a volatile market.

Table 3: Leadership Challenges in Digital Organizations (Survey Data, 2024)
(Source: McKinsey & Company, 2024)

Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Summary: The link between leadership and CSR in digital firms: the Netflix case. The article further posits that leadership has a central duty of determining the manner and extent to which the company undertakes CSR some of which strengthens its brand image and improves on the faith placed on it by stakeholders (Meux, 2023). Thus, the analyzed study shows how Netflix’s leaders adopt CSR within the company’s business model by addressing such concerns as diversity and inclusion, environmental protection, as well as concerns relating to ethical content production. Therefore, managing CSR in such a way that aligns it with an organization’s core values and brand is crucial in achieving social benefits as well as enhancing the brand.

Application: The CSR policies implemented by Netflix are leadership-driven CSR which portray Netflix’s responsible standards and ethics. Due to the implementation of CSR, Netflix has also improved its image and gained better relations with its stakeholders thus increasing the firm’s long-run success.

Challenges

Innovation Leadership at Netflix: This is the question confronting Netflix’s leaders: How to maintain the tradition of innovativeness in the context of a rapidly evolving digital ecosystem? While the organization grows it becomes more challenging to remain a lean organization and encourage its employees to take risks (Souza, & Romero, 2021). This challenge calls for the use of transformational leadership theory that focuses on how leaders can influence and engage employees.

Managing Organizational Culture in Global Digital Firms: To this challenge, Netflix’s leaders face the dilemma of establishing a strong corporate culture while catering to the varying market global basements (Televik, 2024). The cultural realities are even more important as Netflix continues to grow its business around the world, while not losing sight of its values. It is worth mentioning cultural intelligence theory here because such an approach means that one has to be sensitive and adapt to different cultures.

Transformational Leadership and Digital Innovation: Netflix has a problem of maintaining constant digital evolution in an increasingly competitive sector, which is a problem for its leaders (Arora, Waiters, & Goel, 2022). As to the third problem, the purpose requires boldness and fresh ideas that can be provided by the concept of transformational leadership. However, leaders must also deal with the potential use and the uncertainty that comes with the application of innovation while keeping the course of the business in mind.

Adaptive Leadership in the Digital Age: Surprisingly, the main managerial/economic problem for Netflix’s leaders is how to remain and remain eager to be continually permeable and adaptable to the massive technological changes (Raei, & Rasmussen, 2021). Thus, the Adaptive leadership theory focuses on the fact that leaders have to adapt to changes, which is an important factor for Netflix while it has to adapt to the change in technology and consumer trends. Managers have to work on creating a culture of change where the employees wish to be equipped with new knowledge and abilities for the organization to adapt to the market conditions.

Strategic Leadership and Competitive Advantage: Netflix’s leaders must manage the problem of building and maintaining a competitive advantage in the context of intensifying competition (Souza, & Romero, 2021). Long-term decisions which are taken with the organizational objectives in mind are key in addressing this challenge and this is done through strategic leadership. Managers have to think about what is going to be important a year or two in the future, and what kind of investments will be fruitful, such as creating the show’s content.

Leadership and Digital Transformation: The situation that Netflix management experiences is the permanent pressure to advance digital transformation while preserving organizational stability (Au-Yong-Oliveira, Marinheiro, & Costa Tavares, 2020). The theory of digital transformation underlines the concept of leadership to help firms navigate through digital changes. At Netflix, the leaders must also always look for new technologies that would help improve the user experience.

Empowerment and Employee Engagement in Digital Firms: One of the critical issues that Netflix’s leaders are to address is that of retaining a high level of employee engagement with change and increasing work pressure. Leadership empowerment theory posits that if employees are to be given the mantle to work on their own, they will be more productive and creative (Bhattacharya, 2023). But it gets worse in that one has to empower the employee while at the same time ensuring that he or she is pulled in the right direction towards the achievement of organizational objectives.

Leadership and Organizational Learning: Having stability in a constantly shifting technology sector, the leadership of Netflix is under pressure to promote constant learning. According to this theory, organizational learning is concerned with leaders’ responsibility to facilitate knowledge acquisition and reflection in organizations (Rešetar, & Seljan, 2021). Hence the task for Netflix’s leadership is to effectively communicate lessons from successes and failures throughout the organisation. This involves the development of frameworks for learning which at the same time promotes risk-taking of new ideas that will allow Netflix to adjust itself to the new environment in the shortest time possible.

Crisis Leadership in Digital Organizations: One key issue of Netflix’s leaders is in today’s increasingly open global economy, how to deal with crises at the operational level. Crisis leadership theory posits that the style of crisis management entails the aspect of time and information, decision-making, and stability (Priddy et al., 2024). In the case of the threat, this is most apparent concerning Netflix where a potential threat would be in the form of service disruptions, technology breakdowns, or public relations mishaps in an endeavor to meet the specified threat; the company may easily damage its reputation and or destroy its ability to operate efficiently.

Leadership and Technological Innovation: Hence, the real strategic dilemma for Netflix’s leaders is how to relentlessly advance technology and innovation and control the risks that this approach entails. Technological innovation theory focuses on leadership when it comes to the decision-making on technological investment. At Netflix, leaders have to search for and implement up-to-date technologies that can improve user experience. However, the problem is to be able to introduce such innovations and not upset the stratagem of the firm. Leaders have to keep both innovation and risk in check while at the same time preserving Netflix’s technological dominance.

Leadership in Talent Management: The competition is rather high, and it is difficult to attract and hold the best employees in a team; this is one of the main concerns of Netflix managers. According to talent management theory, the ability to establish and maintain a high-performance culture that will attract talented performers is a leadership function. The chief difficulty that lies in front of Netflix’s leaders is to sustain such a culture together with the various requirements and assumptions of people around the world.

Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The organization’s leaders are to contemplate how to incorporate CSR into the company’s business model most effectively. Therefore, CSR theory pays significant attention to the leadership in the overall CSR management that links the initiatives to organizational culture. The issue of existential crisis for Netflix is to fully enshrine the CSR activities that have been established, for example, diversity and environmental responsibility.

Conclusion

Therefore, the development of Netflix from a DVD rental service provider to a digital entertainment company around the globe is a practical example of how complex the digital organization can be and how important is efficient leadership in such an organization. Several issues currently affecting Netflix such as innovation, creating an effective workforce, and survival in a highly competitive environment make leadership in this organization dynamic, innovative, and strategic. Applying the leadership theories and concepts elaborated in this report, this is how Netflix has effectively dealt with these challenges: But this is the reality of today’s world of a highly competitive market for streaming services, and it is vital for the leaders of Netflix not to underestimate new challenges in the industry. The following suggestions, therefore, are intended to improve Netflix’s leadership practices to enable it to establish a long-lasting organizational culture that will help it continue to thrive in the marketplace. 

Reference List

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