The Effective Leadership - Essay Example

The Effective Leadership Wheelen et al. (2005) identified that functional strategy formulation in association should be a major strategic objective that should occur before the formulation of organizational goals. In regards to identifying the functional strategy, the authors identified that actual strategy is centered on maximizing resource productivity (p.168). By extension one could argue that the achievement of these goals comes through appropriate and effective management techniques. As such, the purpose of this essay is to highlight the importance of understanding different leadership styles (specifically democratic vs. autocratic leadership).. Furthermore this essay will provide some solutions as to how associated problems can be remedied through effective leadership models. One could argue, that before a leadership style can be decided upon organizations should determine their strategic goals as well as gather a firm understanding of their organizational culture. In a case presented about Harley Davidson Motorcycles by Grant et al. (1999) it was highlighted that the organization suffered as a result of poorly defined work roles, and poor leadership. Through implementing fundamental changes in management techniques, it was determined that the firm should adopt a more democratic leadership style. By definition a democratic leadership role is that which employs a style in which employees are encourage to be active decision makers. As a result the organization implemented a policy of employing “Natural work-groups” between 8-15 people whose purpose was providing feedback to superiors. As a result the democratically managed organization was able to determine that employee satisfaction was the catalyst for change and as such implemented a no-firing policy and implemented a policy of unlimited sick days. As a result the company saw sales growth between the years 1994 and 1997 and a near doubling of production. As argued by Mills & Simmons (1999) organizations may employ a degree of ‘institutional inertia’ which in the end makes them unreceptive to change. The consequence of this kind of policy is ‘rigidity’, insofar as it may become difficult for some organizations to change their workflow to better accommodate changes in technology. As such, in some circumstances it may be beneficial for a company to employ a strategy of implementing more autocratic style of leadership. According to Essortment.com (2010) it is the case that an autocratic style of leadership is a strategy in which management tries to maintain as much power over decision making aspects of an organization as possible. It has been argued by Harris (2004) that an autocratic style of leadership can leave employees feeling detached from the organization as well as being less individualistic as well as less dedicated to clearly defined work roles and management processes. Moore & Bianco (2001) had argued that poorly structured management had been the leading contributor to the near collapse of Xerox Corporation. With many of Xerox’s patents expiring in the 1970 the company began to lose significant market share to Japanese competitors whose management had implemented major cost saving improvements to their production processes and drove Xerox which previously held a 95% market share in 1970 to a 13% market share in 1982. It is the case that having ineffective leadership may negatively affect employee morale and performance. This circumstance can be exacerbated when there is poor communication within an organization, ultimately making it difficult for management to respond to such issues. In an article by Dellinger (1994) poor communication between employees, management and different departments proved to aggravate the already poor morale level in the independent laboratory service for hospitals in Santa Fe. According to Terry (2008) it’s essential for management communication be ‘top-down’ as key managers must be asking questions in order to identify issues, as well as capitalize on opportunities. In a 2002 article published by American Health Consultants, Inc., it was demonstrated that there are tremendous costs associated with having poor communication within an organization. Firstly it is the case that there are wasted employee work hours, for example, according to Xerox as espoused by Mukherjee (2008) approximately 40% of all pages printed by people are viewed only once before being discarded. If there is some way to communicate to management that this function is unnecessary, than it would be the case that there can be a significant savings in terms of consumables as well as employee work hours. As it was demonstrated earlier, it is important for organizations to constantly reevaluate workflow in order to maximize efficiency. One must question how can organizations effectively implement these objectives? For the purpose of answering this question trait theory, as well as contingency theory leadership styles will be covered. According to Allport & Odbert (1936) there are several thousand words to describe a person’s traits, which could be lumped into three categories. Cardinal traits are your central traits which can describe the overall individual, and describe some of the major characteristics of a person. Secondary traits are situational specific traits and common traits recognized within a culture. Why this information is important is because it is the case that management can design a HR recruitment process in which potential leaders within organizations can be pre-selected as to have desired traits. Therefore companies can focus on people who are described as having traits that match the corporate culture of the organization. The second leadership style that will be covered will be contingency or situational leadership. Hersey and Blanchard (1972) postulated that there was no one-perfect style of leadership to effectively lead an organization rather it is the case that leadership strengths are situational and team specific in regards to the life cycle of a particular team. Stage one leadership focuses on “Telling” In which managers dictate orders to subordinates. Stage two which was dubbed “Selling”, the group recognizes a reciprocal relationship between the group and leader. “Participating” is stage three, and emphasizes shared decision making between leaders and participants. Lastly there is the delegating stage in which the leader simply passes responsibility down to other group members and monitors progress. This represents effective leadership styles that can be employed in order to better accommodate the needs of team members to achieve goals In conclusion it would be very difficult for any organization to achieve any strategic objectives that does identify core business unit functions as well as promote healthy business communication. Building on this point the cost associated with having poor business communication are staggering in terms of poor employee morale as well as making it difficult to capitalize on new opportunities. Lastly it was highlighted that there are several major schools of though on management, however it was emphasized that trait theory, as well as contingency theory leadership styles are effective means for improving the role of managers within an organization. References Allport, G.W. & Odbert, H.S. (1936). Trait-names: A psycho-lexical study. Psychological Monographs, 47(211). American Health Consultants Inc. (2002) Poor communication is common cause of errors; communication critical, says JCAHO official - Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement [online] Available at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NUZ/is_2_1/ai_90683346/?tag=content;col1 Accessed on January 2nd 2010. Bianco, A. & Moore, P. (March, 2001) Xerox: To Downfall-The Inside Story of the Management Fiasco at Xerox. Business Week.com[online] Available at http://www.businessweek.com/2001/01_10/b3722001.htm Accessed on January 2nd 2010. Dellinger, K. (Sept, 1994) How We Boosted Employee Morale. Medical Laboratory Observer. [online] Available at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3230/is_n9_v26/ai_16110491/ Accessed on January 2nd 2010. Essortment.com (2010) Styles of Leadership. [online] Available at http://www.essortment.com/all/leadershipstyle_rrnq.htm Accessed on January 5th 2010. Grant, R., Escudero, L., Flavin, N. Trevino, J., Gergen, C., Quillen, B. (1999) Harley Davidson Inc. In Crossan, M., Bansal, P., Fry, J., Killing, J.P., Nicholls-Nixon, C., White, R. (2005) Strategic Management: A Casebook. Pearson/Prentice Hall. 7th Edition. Harris, A. (2004) Distributed Leadership and School Improvement: Leading or Misleading? Sage Journals. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, Vol. 32, No. 1, 11-24 (2004) Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. H. (1972). Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources (2nd ed.) New Jersey/Prentice Hall Mills, A. & Simmons, T. (1999) Reading Organizational Theory: A critical Approach to the Study of Organizational Behavior and Structure. Garamond Press. 2nd edition. Mukherjee, S. (Aug, 2008) Xerox Promises Colour Prints for Rs2. The Financial Express [online] Available at http://www.financialexpress.com/news/xerox-promises-colour-prints-for-rs-2/351212/0 Accessed on January 2nd 2010. Terry, J. F. (2008). The Art of Asking: Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers. FT Press. Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Wicks, D. (2005) Concepts in Strategic Management. Pearson Publishing. 8th Edition Read More