“A Study Of Evolving Role Of Shared Services Leadership”

Abstract

Leadership and management are two important elements that drive success in shared services. In the shared services context, management is about doing things right, such as on-the-joh performance and accomplishment of day-to-day activities, while leadership is about doing the right things such as having a vision and finding a way to give tangible form to that vision. Simply put, leadership is about doing the right things, while management is about doing things right. This vital distinction is often ignored in the shared services domain, causing shared services leadership skills to be shrouded by management skills. However, literature review shows that it is the leadership skills and competencies (more than management skills) that spearhead a shared services organization to do the right things in their unique situation. Implementing shared services is a multi-year and multi-million-dollar programme aimed at collaborative transformation that requires skilled and knowledgeable management and leadership team at the top level.

Organizational leaders are primarily responsible for the success of transformation, which is largely an undefined and vague process to begin with. In other words, change is primarily about leadership. Shared service leaders are responsible not just for transactional activities such as cost reductions and process improvements, but also the transformational ones strategic to the business. Relationship management is an important competency at a senior level, often more important than technical know-how. The ever-increasing expectations and turbulent business environments continue to push the boundaries of the shared service leaders' skills and abilities. The current paper focuses on the significance of shared service leadership, its scope, desirable competencies in a shared service leader, challenges faced by shared services leadership, few measures to overcome the problems associated to the role of effective leadership for a successful collaborative transformation.