PROCEEDINGS OF THE 10 th INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE "Challenges of Modern Management", November 3 rd -4 th , 2016, BUCHAREST, ROMANIA LOCAL LEADERS AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITY IN SHAPING THE NEW ECONOMY OF FORMER INDUSTRIAL REGIONS Sabina IRIMIE 1 Mihai – Ionut DANCIU 2 ABSTRACT This paper aims to highlight the importance of local leaders in the functional restructuring of former industrial areas, as the latter are struggling to reset their economic processes. The emergence of the third industrial revolution produces a series of vital changes and the most affected regions are the ones that were once dependent to the production and processing activities specific for the industrial age. This shift is undesired for stakeholders that were once dependent to the state economy, and they are now looking to reset their activities in order to adjust themselves to the market economy. There is a new regional metabolism that is setting, and the greatest responsibility in this process stands on the shoulders of people’s representatives: local administrations (LPA). This metabolism consists of flows of materials and information in the process from production to consumption that has to be reconsidered in the new situation of the global economy and it has to be analyzed using both economic and spatial tools. This is where this paper brings a relevant contribution to research, by combining methods used in management, public administration and territorial planning. The result is an overview of the processes in industrial zones, highlighting the role of local leaders in each situation. KEYWORDS: leadership, metabolism, administration, process JEL CLASSIFICATION: R11, Q01, R58 1. INTRODUCTION We reckon that major economic trends have a transversal impact, in every level of human organization, from the world flows of information, energy and materials down to the local communities and the interpersonal relationships. The communities that suffer the most are those dependent to only one of the processes, specific to only one stage of industrialization. All of the three industrial revolutions and stages of industrialization are the appanage of modernity. In this framework, considering the modern processes of production, consumption and extinction, there is the question about the raison d'être of the former mono-industrial communities and their role now, when we cross from the second to the third industrial revolution and, respectively, to the new paradigms. Our study aims to highlight the role of community leaders for the regeneration of former industrial areas. Communities remnants of the industrial period are characterized by an occupational identity, which, once removed, leaves the group without any identity. Hence the role of leaders that must coalesce communities around new ideals and purposes, respondent to the new economic situation. But the most efficient leadership is applied to small communities, where there is a direct relation 1 University of Petrosani , Romania, sabina.irimie@gmail.com 2 West University of Timișoara, Romania, mihaiidanciu@yahoo.com 351