Strategic Management and Leadership Techniques Efficiency - Research Proposal Example

 Strategic Management and Leadership CONTENTS Background………………………………………………………………….3 Rationale…………………………………………………………………….4 Importance to knowledge……………………………………………4 Topic area……………………………………………………………5 Research question……………………………………………………5 Purpose of study……………………………………………………………..6 Objectives ……………………………………………………………………7 Literature review……………………………………………………………..7 Methodology…………………………………………………………………11 Research purpose…………………………………………………….11 Research approach……………………………………………………11 Data sources and collection…………………………………………..12 Credibility…………………………………………………………………….14 Reliability……………………………………………………………..14 Validity………………………………………………………………..14 GANTT CHART……………………………………………………………...15 Limitations and scope…………………………………………………………15 Limitation……………………………………………………………...15 Scope…………………………………………………………………..15 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….16 References Background Information is a strategic resource in the modern time and the use of it depends upon the different ways in which knowledge is stored and used in the firms. (Vering, 2001) Knowledge management, which has become the modern day’s trend, also depends a lot on the use of information. (Harris, 2005) So, apart from the other tangible resources, information serves as a crucial role in organizations. In an ambience where alterations take place in every 24 hours’ time, it is essential for the management to get adapted to the same and handle it. A manager of the present century is mostly expected to do his own works like typing emails and reports and also handling his own computer apart from his abilities towards budgeting and forecasting. In an age where information plays a major part in framing of strategies, it is important even for the manager to avoid the luxury of an assistant in every trivial job in order to maintain privacy and security. Organizations are therefore becoming flatter and the “… modern workplace is more stressful, moves at a faster pace, and is more demanding than before” (Teik, 2009) The use of technology has brought about dehumanization of the workforce and human resource has turned into a product which can easily be discarded on grounds of effectiveness (Green, 2008). The modern day’s leaders need to alter their tactics and ways of dealing with the subordinates in order to keep parity with the changing time. Therefore, their strategies towards management will also change. The layers of management are gradually being eliminated such that costs might be reduced and decisions are made faster than usual. This gives rise to a flatter organizational structure. This again imparts greater responsibilities to the managers who will now have more workers reporting to them. The managers need to work under stress and empower themselves with coaching abilities such that some of their tasks might be passed on to their subordinates. This also gives rise to team leaders who are designated to take care of their small teams. No more can an autocratic structure be used in the firm. Motivation is the main factor where the managers need to lay stress upon. However owing to the enormous stress at times the managers forget the small notes of appreciation towards those who are indispensable to the organization in terms of know-how. It is important for the managers to capture the change once it is visible in the recent future and enable the workforce to accustom to this oncoming change –“ Through their constant contact with employees, managers will notice the weak areas and encourage the workers to go for training in specific subjects” (Teik, 2009). Innovation is the key word and mangers must ensure that the best is secured from the workforce. For companies who are not performing to the mark, the problem almost always is present at the top of the bottle. Rationale Importance to knowledge In the topical times, firms are becoming more dependent on machines. Hence the technical know-how or soft skills necessary to operate them became more important compared to manual labor or the effort of the muscle. This brings in the significance of knowledge regarding efficient work of the machines and tools. The manager therefore needs to pass this know-how to the subordinate workers. According to Taylor there are certain “preparatory acts” which a manager or a leader needs to undertake before a work is allocated to the employees (Christensen, 2003). This initial part needs to be accomplished and carefully planned out by the management such that the task is performed efficiently. Here this planning or the initial acts surmounts to the strategies of business. Considering Taylor’s concept, one would think that knowledge rest with the management of a firm. Bronson, on the other hand feels that the knowledge or soft skills lie with the workforce. Therefore, the responsibilities of the management will change according to the concentration of this technical know-how or soft skills. In other words the strategies of the leaders in a firm will have to adjust according to the situation and the nature of a task. Following Taylor’s concept the task is comparatively easy and the management can ensure the effectiveness of a strategy when implemented (Christensen, 2003). However in the later case it is difficult for a manager to estimate whether the workforce is giving the optimum effort in reality. Therefore managing the people with the correct strategy is more important than anything else. With the structure of organizations undergoing eventual change the type of leadership is also changing rapidly. Topic area As the role of managers are undergoing changes along with the alteration in organizational set up, so will the mode of leadership undertaken. (Nonaka, 2005) In this information age, the need to adopt the oncoming changes is very crucial. Along with the need of the time, the leaders of an organization should adopt new practices and implement change sin the framework of strategies designed for the firm. Research question The paper addresses the question “what type of leadership would be more suitable for incorporating organizational change within strategic management techniques?” Purpose of study The study on the role of leadership technique in strategic management in the context of organizational change is undertaken with a view to identify the correct leadership technique, which will provide the most suitable approach towards strategic management. The idea is to find out through primary as well as secondary research the changes in the pattern of leadership style, which the organizations have been experiencing and the role of this change in leadership approach in the sphere of strategic management. Strategies of the modern organizations can change within a 24-hour period. Therefore the typical autocratic leadership style incorporating hands-on management techniques where the manager knows-it-all might not work in the modern current context. (Teik, 2009) Here the organization works in teams for different departments and units. Changes in information might be reflected differently in all these divisions and the strategies and approach to management will be different accordingly. Apart from that at a time when information and knowledge rests with the workforce and not necessarily in the leader, the dependency on the workers and along with that their cultural differences and orientation play a significant role. (Harris, 2006) In this context the key issue to decipher is the style of leadership to be applied for the management of the human resource and the strategies need to be framed likewise. Here comes the importance of our topic: The role of strategic management techniques in managing change in organizations implies the need for virtuous leadership. Objectives 1. To observe the changes taking place in the work environment and how they are throwing challenges before the firms 2. To analyze the modifications require din the firms’ strategies in order to adapt to these changes. 3. To understand the leadership traits essential in today’s work environment. 4. To understand what kind of leadership style will best fit in this changing work environment in order to keep pace with the need for strategic changes in the management. Literature review Leadership styles and approaches might be distinguished from one another by their mode of functioning and the involvement and role of the managers. Going by this criterion there are mainly two extreme styles of leadership and one combination of the extreme styles. Autocratic style of leadership involves the direct and firm control of the leaders and their constant involvement at all levels of decision-making. This often brings out resentment among the workers especially considering the current psychological set-up of employees. As firms began to install technologically upgraded systems the importance gradually moved from manpower towards soft-skills and handling of technology. (McElroy, 2003) Managers’ role shifted mainly to policymaking and implementation of the strategies formulated. Another extreme case is the permissive style of leadership where people are allowed to work as they want and take decisions for themselves. Such an approach encompasses a lot of risk. Without the managers’ close monitoring anything could go wrong. Participative style of leadership centers on the inclusion of the employees and has three components – directive (goal setting, control and strategies decided by manager), permissive (everything is done and decided by the employees) and democratic (manager and employees jointly set goals but employees do the rest) styles. In this approach, normally freedom is given to teams while the managers overlook their activities and know when to pull the string and to what extent. This style is parallel to the hands-on approach in management while autocratic style is connected with hands-in approach, which is synonymous to micro level management. This entails inter-personal interactions with all subordinates. In this style of leadership, every employee can give their suggestions and speak during meetings. Therefore every one has a voice. (Corrin, 2010) In such style of management communication is important and time-to-time meetings and conferences often help in decision-making during which both the managers and their subordinates take part. (Rashid, 1983, pp. 250-251) Dubrin (2008) notes that a leader usually has more than one leadership styles to deal with situations – one is the dominant type and the other is a backup style. When the dominant style fails to yield the desirable result the leaders adopt the back up style. The author defines certain benchmark styles of leadership – authority-compliance (9,1), Club management (1,9), Management (1,1), Road management (5,5) and the team management style (9,9). While authority compliance style shows ultimate inclination and priority towards production and least towards the people, team management style is all about involvement of the people and “a goal-directed team approach that seeks to gain optimum through participation, involvement and commitment.” (Dubrin, 2008, p.118) Team management approach is highly recommended by the managers. It is supposed to result in fewer absentees, high level of employee satisfaction, improvement in performance and turnover. According to the grip the leader would rely upon more than one system depending on the situation and the team. Dubrin (2008) identifies yet another approach – entrepreneurial leadership style. This theory highlights upon the charisma of the task oriented leader who sets ups his business and is busy with the related tasks. Thus he sets an example and motivates his employees. Several characteristics are attributed to an entrepreneur though the existence of any specific personality in an entrepreneur is debatable. A study carried out by Barrella and Buffinton (2009) show that with increasing dependence of the workforce on technology modern day’s managers and the recent graduates need to be in harmony with one another. The skills required by the management in today’s organizations pertain to “people skills” comprising of both written and oral communication as well as teambuilding techniques. The author observes certain literature studies where evaluation shows that engineering students can attain leadership status if they gain exposure to public communication, develop inter personal skill and other coursework pertaining to non-engineering field. Employers often are looking for managers who possess prominent leadership qualities especially within a team set up especially the quality of adaptation to changes and utilizing interpersonal qualities. Communication is the main thing and important for interdepartmental management. Apart from that employers were also looking for flexibility within the managers of recent times and especially the management majors were expected to show proper planning potential almost like the engineers and apply systems thinking. The survey included participants from the graduates of ILTM (Institute for Leadership in Technology Management) (11 graduates) and based on them the study evaluated the working environment of the newly hired employees. The questions centered on globalization, communication, leadership and critical thoughts in a modern workplace. One shortcoming observed by employers in the management students was the application of their education to real life situations. In order to achieve the characteristics of leadership students needed to reach that ability of relating and addressing the practical situations. This also implies the necessity of the management students or the future generation leaders to be able to adapt to changes. The study does not prescribe any strategy to be undertaken to deal with the situations but highlights the importance of virtuous leaders who might deal with such real issues. Mills, Dye and Mills (2008) put forward the Six Sigma strategy to manage organizational change. This strategy incorporates some statistical tools, training of the management and improvement of organizational procedures (cost cutting, maintaining strict schedules, high quality product and maintenance of customer satisfaction) by getting rid of the defects. This is especially applicable in the current context of increasing international competition when the customer expects high quality. However to implement this strategy a company needs effective leaders. In case of such a strategy the main task of the leaders is mere monitoring the activities and seeing to it that the strategy is implemented flawlessly. Jeffrey Pfeffer has argued that the observable effects of a leader on organizations might be trivial because “leaders are selected and only certain limited behaviour might be chosen, excluding many other potential behaviours”, “the discretion and behaviours of leaders are constrained by their positions” and “leaders can realistically only affect a few of the variables that impact organizational performance” (Mills, Dye and Mills, 2008, p. 122). According to him, in order to make their presence felt, leaders must exert his influence intentionally and not accidentally. Methodology Research purpose The purpose here is to understand most suitable leadership style in the context of strategic management considering the changes taking place. A thesis paper as this current study might help the students “to move into tangential areas, to increase knowledge, to sharpen insights and to make new discoveries” (Teitelbaum, 2003, p. 2) The purpose of the research is to take into consideration the perspectives of today’s corporate leaders or those who are the budding managers and leaders with respect to the strategic changes required in today’s context where the use technology demands changes almost every day and good reflex along with flexibility are the key to management success. Research approach Any academic research might comprise of either or both of the two approaches – library research and laboratory study. Library research implies research out of secondary databases and sources. On the other hand, laboratory research is collection of first hand information through an extensive fieldwork carried out by researchers. Experimental research is often termed as “laboratory study” which involves primary sources. Now, secondary sources saves time and money since already a researcher has collected and compiled the information by spending his research time and money. So infinite number of other users may now access this source through print or virtual media. Thus so many users share the total cost and cost per user is very low compared to the cost of total research. This generates economies of scale. However there are doubts regarding the “recency”, “accuracy” and “relevance” which are not present in case of primary survey since the information is fresh and original (Patzer, 1995, p. 14). When library research is done as a background study to primary survey, it reinforces the grounds of the researcher for the first hand field study. The current study undertakes a combination of both primary and secondary research. The secondary research is conducted by consulting books and journal articles related to the chosen area. The idea is to learn about the basic theory about the leadership styles, kind of changes organizations need to adapt to and how the strategies should change in an organization, thus influencing an alteration in the leadership styles. The literatures also give us an idea about the way a leader chooses his style keeping in mind the need of the situation and changes going around the firm’s environment. The main tool required for a primary survey is the questionnaire, which is designed according to the need of the study. The analysis of information can be qualitative or quantitative based upon the nature of data collected (either in the form of words or numbers). (Blaikie, 2003) Data might at times be collected in terms of words and then codified in the form of numbers. This research-based study will be based upon qualitative analysis. Data sources and collection For the purpose of library research authentic books and articles are used from both print sources and the Internet. For the purpose of our experimental research, a carefully selected sample of 20 people from different streams of managements – 5 management executives, 3 directors, 5 team leaders, 1 financial advisor, 2 proprietors, 2 management trainees and 2 senior analysts. They belong to the age group of 25 to 55 years and comprise of 10 men and 10 women. The sectors chosen are spread amongst five industries: Banking and finance, garments, corporate research, education, media. The participants will be chosen from Germany such that they are easily accessible. The interviews and interactions would carried out on a face-to-face basis unless absolutely impossible. If so, then it will be carried out over the phone or email. The idea is to obtain their viewpoints and experiences in a way that will help us understand the kind of leadership that will help the organization frame the right kind of strategy towards management especially in the context of external changes. The questionnaires will comprise of open ended as well as fixed options or close-ended questions. A few unstructured or informal questions will be present in order to let them share their views and ideas about the modern workplace and related ideas. The questionnaire will be categorized into three groups. First group will contain close-ended questions, which will help us understand the style preferred by each of these participants or the style practiced by them. The second group will contain open ended but semi structured set of questions such that we may get a notion about their views in detail. This second part focuses upon the trends in the workplaces of modern times and the areas, which require improvement. The third set of semi structured questions focuses upon the strategic part. The idea here is to understand what strategies will best optimize the use of resources given the current challenges faced by the workplaces. After all these, a 10-minute discussion with each of them will encourage the participants to unravel those areas, which have not been explored by the designed questionnaire. Credibility Reliability: The data obtained shall be crosschecked amongst the participants in order to avoid being misled. The reliability of data can be assured in mainly two ways. First the identities are kept anonymous such that the participants feel secure enough to speak about the problems faced by them and other aspects of their organization. Second, the data obtained from one person belonging to one organization might be crosschecked with the other person if they belong to the same organization or industry. In order to assure reliability a face-to-face interaction is carried out such that those participants might be contact for future reference if needed. To guarantee reliability the qualitative data obtained shall be noted down in their words and if permitted, it will be recorded so that anything missed during conversation might be taken down later. Validity: The sample has been selected carefully from different age groups and well distributed in terms of gender. Various age groups have been considered to avoid bias in the data obtained. Also gender equality, which is a significant element of corporate ethics, will be reflected through the method of data collection. Men and women among the participants are equal in number. A random collection of sample might have overlooked these issues. The following GANTT-CHART gives the layout of the timeframe required for each component of the research: WK1 WK2 WK3 WK4 WK5 Library research ****** Designing questionnaire **** Experimental survey ************** Data compilation ************* Draft ***** Final report ****** Limitations and Scope Limitations The first limitation of this study is that the management personnel come from a wide range of streams. Their responsibilities are different according to the industry they belong to. From their perceptions we have to generalize our observations into some broad conclusions. Our observation will obviously depend on the distribution of designation made. Industry or segment wise categorization will not possible in the scope of our study. Scope for further research The above-mentioned limitations leave us with a scope for further research where the leadership traits essential for manufacturing, service and retail sectors may be observed separately. The strategic implication might be explained for each of these sectors and accordingly, the role of leadership under the changing environment. This might be an interesting area to explore in future research studies. Conclusion The idea is to obtain the findings such that the researcher may first identify the different choices of strategies available in the face of changing business environment. In order to meet the research objectives both the library research and the primary research will provide a clear idea especially with regard to the leadership style to be chosen under specific circumstance. After obtaining the majority view we may generalize and suggested the best alternative available to the leaders. However my expectation is to find that the proprietor would follow autocratic combined with entrepreneurial style while the executives, trainees and team leaders would prefer participative styles. On the other hand the Financial Advisor is likely to reflect entrepreneurial style while the directors are likely to prefer a combination of both autocratic and participative switching his styles according to circumstances. References Barrella, E. M. & K. W. Buffinton (March 2009), Corporate Assessment of Strategic Issues in Technology Management, Engineering Management Journal, Vol. 21, No. 1, 28-33. Blaikie, N.W.H. (2003). Analyzing Quantitative Data. London: SAGE. Christensen, P. H. (2003). Knowledge Management, Frederiksberg: Copenhagen Business School Press DK. Corrin, A. (2006). Winning strategies for workplace knowledge management, Federal Computer Week, retrieved on August 15 2010 from: http://fcw.com/articles/2010/05/06/knowledge-management-workplace.aspx Dubrin, A.J. (2008), Leadership Research Findings, Practice and Skills, Dreamtech Press. Green, D. (2008), Knowledge Management for a Postmodern Workforce, Journal of Strategic Leadership, Vol. 1 Iss. 1, 16-24, Available at: http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/jsl/vol1iss1/JSL_Vol1iss1_Green.pdf (accessed on August 22, 2010) Harris, P.R. (2005). Managing the knowledge culture, Human Resource Development. Harris, K. (2006). Knowledge Management Enables the High-Performance Workplace, Gartner, retrieved on August 15, 2010 from: http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=489448 Mills, J.H., Dye, K. and A. Mills (2008), Understanding Organizational Change, London: Taylor & Francis McElroy, M.W. (2003), The new knowledge management, Butterworth-Heinemann Nonaka, I. (2005), Knowledge Management, London: Routledge. Patzer, G. L. (1995). Using secondary data in marketing research, Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group. Rashid, S.A. (1983). Organizational Behavior. London: Taylor & Francis. Teitelbaum, H. (2003). How to Write a Thesis. Peterson’s Teik, T. C. (2009). The manager in the modern workplace: to remain relevant, the new manager must accept innovation and take risks, Entrepreneur, retrieved on August 15, 2010 from: http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/198473956.html Vering, M. (2001), The e-business workplace, New York: John Wiley and Sons Read More