Modern day leader should pay attention to new developments of technology. Development of technological skills will enable a leader to better set the direction and development of the organization.
One of the modern theories is highlighted by the thinking that leaders can be made, thus an individual can acquire skills that are necessary to be a leader. Katz (1955, as cited in PSU, 2018) created a three-skill model, where he highlights the importance of acquiring technical, conceptual and human skills for a leader. Acquisition of technical skills is especially important for low and mid-level management. Let’s examine some of the technical skills that may be desired.
Forbes Technology Council (2017) predicted 13 Top Tech Skills in High Demand for 2018. Notably, among one of them is a technological skill to envision, design and develop AR Apps. Augmented reality is a user interface that allows outdoor and indoor users to access and manage information that is spatially registered with the real world (Höllerer et al., 1999).
One of useful examples of utilization of Augmented reality is an App created by Google. Google translate “does have one AR feature that’s incredibly useful for translating text. That particular feature is part of the app’s camera mode. Simply snap a photo of the text you don’t understand, and the app will translate the text in your photo in real time” (Jansen, 2018). This is just one of the examples how useful this technology can be.
According to Heppelman and Porter (2017), “Augmented reality technologies promise to transform how we learn, make decisions, and interact with the physical world.” (Heppelman & Porter, 2017). Even though the more in-depth knowledge may need to be more important for a lower level management, a leader should be capable of understanding some of the possible implications, benefits and opportunities AR technology has brought about, as well as future innovations.
Augmented reality is still relatively new and has a potential for utilization, a modern-day leader may choose to utilize the potential benefits this technology has to offer, and therefore explore possibilities of improving the life of people in the world.
References
Forbes Technology Council (2017). 13 Top Tech Skills in High Demand for 2018. Forbes. Retrieved March 10, 2018 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/12/21/13-top-tech-skills-in-high-demand-for-2018/#3f0be1221e5c
Heppelman, J. E., Porter, M. E. (2017). Why Every Organization Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved March 10, 2018 from https://hbr.org/2017/11/a-managers-guide-to-augmented-reality
Höllerer, T., Feiner, S., Terauchi, T., Rashid, G., & Hallaway, D. (1999). Exploring MARS: developing indoor and outdoor user interfaces to a mobile augmented reality system. Computers & Graphics, 23(6), 779-785.
Jansen., M. (2018). Escape reality with the best augmented reality apps for Android and iOS. Digital trends. Retrieved March 10, 2018 from https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-augmented-reality-apps/
PSU (2018). Skills Approach Models- Three Skills Model. PSYCH 485. Lesson 04. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1925331/modules/items/23786512