Skills for Leadership and Governance - Research Paper Example

FUNCTIONS OF MODERN MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS IN THE FACE OF NEW AGE BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS Section Introduction Leadership is a serious task that usually people in the business industries risk to take. How is this true' First, to become a business owner, one has to become a leader in his own way. This characteristic of courage and determination in helping others succeed through the existence of a helping organization is only a part of the big scope of leadership. Certainly, a closer look on the situation would help readers understand the main idea that the author of this paper would like to portray. Most likely, the essence of leadership gets successful along with the capability of an individual to govern. Being a leader consequently means being able to govern a certain group of people in doing something worthwhile and practically applicable for the situation of the society. Hence, it could be noted that leaders are never born. Instead, they are made. The skills and the attitudes towards work that the present leaders of the current human society have is what make them prominent enough to be known by others through their leadership capabilities. Naturally, a leader then is expected to address to the outmost important needs of the people that he governs upon. Political as it may seem, as a leader is someone people would look up to, he has to have the capability of understanding and providing what other people need. Yes, through the picture of leadership outlined herein, it could be concluded that becoming a real leader requires effort and enough determination not only to succeed as an individual but also to succeed as a part of a growing and developing society. In the field of business, leadership is an essential part of business continuum. Once the owner, the acting leader, the appointed president of the business organization has the right attitude of a person who could govern over others, then the existence of a particular business organization could be prolonged. Within the paragraphs that follow, the essence of leadership and its important contribution to business governance shall be discussed. Issues on leadership and the importance of the said factor of governance shall be given direct focus on this paper as well. 1.1 Statement of the Problem The main problem that would be addressed in this study is the "effectiveness of leadership approaches towards the different types of business organizations present within the society today". By addressing to this issue, this study is expected to come up with a refined result of study that would be guiding the present leaders towards a more productive process of organizing their business constituents. 1.2 Purpose of the Study The primary reason for the commencement of this study is to: Overcome the different issues that relate leadership with the current demands of organizations from several business leaders. Discover what part of business leadership needs improvement for the sake of organizational progress. Refine the current understanding of the essence of fine leadership towards business organizations. 1.3 Significance of the Study As mentioned earlier, leadership is one of the primary factors that determine the success of present business organizations. Through this study, the people who are directly affected and are involved within the progressive procedures that are suggested herein could actually relate to the study as it does apply to their own field of career. 1.4 Research Questions To specifically address the issues involved in the topic being discussed, the following questions shall be considered within the text that follows: 1. Who are managers and what are their major roles in business organizations' 2. How are managers supposed to face the challenge of creating policies for the people of their organization' 3. How should ethical practices of manager affect the activity of managers that is related to policy making' These questions shall be utilized by the author of this paper as a primary guideline for the structure of the discussion. Section 2 The Entrepreneurial Application of Leadership 2.1 Background of the Study This fact goes well with the issues of leadership that is directly intertwined with the issue that concerns managerial policymaking. Normally, to become a fine manager that is supposed to create a considerably fine working environment for ethics is supposed to be a good leader primarily. Being a fine leader would then involve the ability of the person to carry on creating and implementing managerial policy for a certain business organization basing from ethics, from fine governance, and from globalization concepts of management. The present society and business industry is obviously based upon the globalization-based goals of business entrepreneurs. Hence, as a result, implementing managerial policies becomes more complex as the scope of leadership involves not only the main branch of the business organization but it also includes the outside branches of the business. Hence, in this paper, the involvement of ethics and the value of rightful leadership in the application of an effective implementation of managerial policy would be further discussed. Living in a world controlled by economic progress and stratified approach to gaining profit, an individual may indeed be lured to the luxuries of handling one's own business. The idea is that there needs to be no bosses to serve, the time has no control and the profit is unending. Certainly, this picture of business success is indeed an interesting factor that may invite people who are enthusiastic about having their own business put up their own organizations that are aimed to giving them the profit that they ought to receive from the society. However, the lucrative picture of successful businessmen did not happen in just a blink of an eye. It all starts with an individual's certain want of being a successful entrepreneur. It has been noted through surveys that at least 35 percent of those who start up a business fail from their aims of being successful in entrepreneurial field of industry. This is particularly because of the reason that they lack the essential factors that make a successful business enthusiast. Page 6 2.2 The Four D's It is an essential factor to consider that an aspiring entrepreneur should posses the four D's. What are these major factors of success' Dream A person who has a dream to be successful in the field that he deals with is an individual who is certain to attain his aspirations amidst all the challenges that he knows he should face along the way. Determination This particular factor involves the realization of the individual of the major challenges that he must face along the journey that he is supposed to travel towards success. Determination particularly helps a person gain the courage that he needs for him to succeed in making his dreams come true. Decision A wise person plans before he sets fourth towards his voyage. This is the same with business enthusiasts. It is important for one to have the right set of plans to actually decide to push through with his aim of establishing his own business that would serve the community with the needs that they demand from the social economy. Direction Once the decision has been made, ones' direction towards the success systems that would be taken for the sake of continuing the plans should be clear enough to lead the entrepreneur towards industrial satisfaction. By closely understanding the importance of the four D's, it could be observed that they all pertain to personal based intuition of the aspiring entrepreneur. This particularly means that one's success in business is based upon his personal motivation to actually reach the peak of his preferred business success. More than internal personalities and motivation, there are still the characteristics that should be considered by aspiring individuals who have the plan of becoming successful businessmen. 2.3 The Major Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur According to the article entitled "Successful Entrepreneurs" by Judith L. Glick-Smith, there are twelve major characteristics that a person should posses for him to become a successful business enthusiast. The said twelve characters are outlined as follows: (a) Good health; business entrepreneurs are expected to perform different tasks everyday and thus face pressure and tension every now and then. A sickly entrepreneur would surely loose much profit in a day if he does not give importance to his physical and mental health stability. (b) A Need to Control and Direct; successful entrepreneurs are supposed to face responsibilities of dealing with event organizing and people management. Hence, directing should be a part of their primary skill. (c) Self-confidence; a person who aims to gain control over the situation should gain personal confidence in his capabilities to perform his expected duties. (d)Sense of Urgency; this is important especially in meeting business deadlines. Dealing with clients requires an individual to be deeply involved with up to date attendance to their needs, which in turn also requires a sense of urgency. (e)Comprehensive Awareness; this particularly refers to the ability of the individual to understand every situation that befalls the organization thus giving them a chance to resolve the issues in a much efficient way.(f)Realistic Outlook; one must be able to see the situation basing from reality. Being too much perfectionist or idealistic of the occurrences of the situation may only bring collapse to the organization. (g)Conceptual Ability; Chaos is a major part of any business organization. The capability of the entrepreneurs to understand the situation or conflicts in a much-improved manner should then result to an easier way of resolving the differences of each individual making up the organization. (h)Low Need for Status; it is important that entrepreneurs realize that true success is not gained through the possession of material belongings but through the gaining of fine reputation and achieving success in terms of business clients' satisfaction of the quality of service that they receive from the organization. (i)Objective Approach; everything in the organization should occur in fairness and objectivity. Once a person is given the chance to achieve best results for the company, the entrepreneur should realize acknowledging this particular achievement. (j)Emotional Stability; personal issues should be out of the business relationship. True successful entrepreneurs see their employees as the primary source of success for the organization; hence, emotional feelings should be controlled in dealing with them. Nothing should be taken personal, everything should occur in the name of the goals of the business organization. (k)Attraction to Challenges; an entrepreneur should see challenges as primary doors of opportunity. (l) Describing with Numbers; this particular aspect concerns the ability of the entrepreneur to understand financial issues of the organization. (February 26, 2006, Internet) Carrying these twelve characteristics in consideration, it should be certain that a person aiming to become a successful entrepreneur is sure to attain future success in the business industries. From this evaluative approach of understanding the primary characteristics and factors of success contributing to the achievements that an entrepreneur could gain from Page 10 establishing a business, it could be noticed that the said act towards progress requires much concentration and efforts. Once an individual decides to enter the field of business industries, it should be clear to him that there are major challenges that need to be met. Certainly, it does not only require a person to have the dream, but it also requires determination and resources for one to be able to establish a strong business organization. Although a person may not have the ample skills of becoming a fine entrepreneur at first, it should be remembered that everything in the society could be learned. With patience and through application of the right guidelines towards progress, an individual could indeed become a successful entrepreneur. Yes, a leader who is able to understand the needs and the requirements that a business organization requires is indeed a major candidate for becoming a fine entrepreneur. Section 3 The Essence of Organizational Management Organizational management involves several serious tasks that concern not only the whole company but also its stakeholders. This is the reason why the need for fine application of ethical leadership is essential for the pursuance of rightful managerial policing processes. To specifically refer to this need, it is notably obvious that fine leadership spurs out from right motivation of doing what is right thus, providing the stakeholders of the organization with what they need and what they actually expect from the business. Management, as known to many is a performed function in every organizational set up that is essential for arranging the activities of certain business groups. The said act of organizing a business group indeed requires a high level of leadership skills. As for this reason, governance then is considered as a responsibility that demands effort and patience in dealing with other people. As the present human society advances to being economically global, the need for management especially on commercial business organizations is heightened. Hence, there are necessary points of consideration that needs to be given attention when good governance is being talked about. Certainly, the management of current businesses deal with multicultural differences of the people making up the company, it could be noticed that the challenges in dealing with organizational matters becomes harder to meet, hence, requiring more skillful attitudes responsible measures of managing the organization activities. Certainly, the following organizational issues are the major responsibilities that the leaders must address in their daily activities: (a) High Profile Organizational Failures; This concerns the issue that is in connection with the failure of the company, which in some way becomes controversial and in a way destroys the company's reputation in the business industry. Leaders of the organization should see to it that a certain measure of damage control should immediately be taken into consideration to be able to answer to the doubts raised against the company through the existence of the said issue.(b)Higher expectations on the part of the public sectors and regulators; Since the business organizations are mostly aiming for globalization, the public then as well as with the regulators within the society have higher expectations form the organizational governance. Since the aim for progress is high, the effort to be placed forward should also account for the goals that are to be reached. (c) Increasing litigation and concerns about legal liability; Because of being multinational, the business organizations today are subjected to more complex and more systematic legalities that give them their capabilities and limitations in operating with their business on certain countries around the world. The ability to manage those sectors of concern in business creation makes the responsibility of the managers not only concentrated on the personal concerns of their people, but also on the overall concerns of the society that they serve, especially on lawful measures of business existence. (d) More takeovers, mergers, acquisitions; Since the organizations are expected to become larger, the issue concerning the takeovers and merging of the organizations with other business companies, it easy to conclude that the responsibility of the governing department of any business organization subjects the leaders to resort to different resolutions to be able to deal with the said business transactions with other. (e) Global Competition and Technological change; Carrying these things into consideration in a multinational-based organization would naturally create a possibility for its continuous success for the said large organization. (f) Shareholder Activism and Institutional shareholders; These sectors of the company indeed require an ample attention that would ensure them that the investments that they put within the company would be returned to them in numbers and the profit that they would receive from the organization would be amiably right for the amount of investment that they have placed within the organization. (Adams & Bradshaw, 2000, 51) These major concerns of the modern management system are indeed based upon the growing need of the business organizations today. Since the business companies are considerably large, it is undeniable that the responsibilities are also equally large for the governing committee of any business organization. Certainly, such serious responsibility involves the application of high-level skills for supporting an organization's growth. Through the application of the enlisted managerial concerns above, the success of creating policies that would not only provide the company with the profit that they aim to have, but to also provide their people and the society as well with the support that they need in terms of organizational provisions is certainly reachable. Conclusion According to an article entitled "Why big cities are breaking down": "Lack of permanent, stable leadership hampers many big-city governments. Says Business Week of one floundering city: "It is directed by elected officials who, because of the nature of politics, often have a 'here today, gone tomorrow' philosophy of management." Such transient leadership may even have a corrosive effect on the habits of municipal employees, whose productivity is said to be below that of other workers. Extra workers have to be paid to get the same job done, further draining city finances. Why' An official of one of the largest municipal-employee unions in the U.S. put it this way: "When the municipal worker discovers the city isn't interested in how he does his job, he loses interest too. . . . We want to feel we are disciplined. Discipline means somebody cares. What we need is leadership." (Bradshaw, 2000, 43) Hence, commerce, as the major sector of the society that makes up about the 40 percent of the social development at present has a great responsibility in giving close attention to the needs of the company, its people and its society. The policies that they follow should then be thoroughly outlined with the ethical measurement of values that they should consider while they serve for the best possible results for their company and the society that they are dealing with. Certainly, managers who are able to scale the situation and the essentiality of their role in the companies that they work for are the ones who are able to complete their tasks without any disappointments in themselves. It should then be recognized that among the best pattern of systematic approach to management and the implication of managerial policies, ethical measurement of values should be applied well in the organization. Ones ethics is given a close attention; it is by no doubt a successful progress for the whole organization and the society as well. Yes, because of the lack of fine leadership in the society, progress among all is hard to attain. However, through commercialism and rightful business management as mentioned in this paper, the said aim of global progress could be attained. The key factors that would indeed contribute to such goal is to have the right motives, the right disposition, the determination and the right vision for the lower sector of the society. The leaders who are to rise from this generation should indeed apply the said factors to become the best leaders of business organizations and leaders of the human society. Bibliography books: Bradshaw P. Adams, J. (2000). Skills for leadership and governance. Moving to governance. McGraw-Hill. Pp. 52-53. Kuhn, J. S. & V. Marsick (2005). "Action Learning for Strategic Innovation in Mature Organizations: Key Cognitive, Design and Contextual Considerations". Action Learning: Research and Practice, Vol. 2 (1). 21 Zimmerman, B., Lindberg and Plsek (2001). "A Complexity Science Primer". Edgeware: Insights from Complexity Science for Health Care Leaders, 2nd edition, pp. 3-20. Kelly, S. and M. A. Allison (1999). The Complexity Advantage. McGraw-Hill. pp.xvii-xviii and 3-20. Cragg, W. (1997). "Teaching Business Ethics: the Role of Ethics in Business and in Business Education". Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 16: pp. 22. Steger, Manfred. (2003). Globalization: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions). Oxford University Press, USA . Pp.14,15. Stiglitz. (2006). Globalization and Its Discontents. Academic Internet Publishers, Inc. Pp. 14-19. Khera Communications Inc. (2007). What Makes an Entrepreneur' - Part 1. http://www.morebusiness.com/getting_started/primer/d943458887.brc. (November 26, 2008). Divadani Designs. (2007). WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR' http://www.whereonearthgroup.com/what-successful-entrepreneur.php. (November 26, 2008). Entrepreneurship Series. (2007). What Makes a Successful Entrepreneur' http://www.billda.com/what-makes-a-successful-entrepreneur. (November 26, 2008). Judith L. Glick-Smith. (2006). Successful Entrepreneurs. http://www.awwrdsmth.com/FAQ/characteristics_successful_entre.html. (November 26, 2008). Freelancer's FAQ. (2007). What Are the Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur' http://www.awwrdsmth.com/FAQ/characteristics_successful_entre.html. (November 26, 2008). 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