Leadership in Action - Coursework Example

Leadership in Action of Phoenix Connie Johnson 6/13 Since the turn of the century the business world has become more fast paced and complex. It is imperative for managers to control and lead their human resources effectively in order to achieve optimum organizational performance. The person or group of people responsible for the performance of an organization is the managerial staff. An important attribute or skill that managers must possess to be effective at their jobs is leadership. Leadership can be defined as the act of motivating a person or group to achieve a common goal (Ward, 2010). This paper describes various organizational behavior topics as well as discussing the results of the Simulation Leadership in Action. Leadership is very important and its applications impact all types of organization. The use of leadership can seen the sporting industry, government, and in all industries of the private sector. The Greek civilization had a power structure depended on the leadership of the emperor. In the 20th century great leaders such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Steve Jobs have achieved massive personal fortunes by leading their organizations. The success of organizations such as Microsoft were highly depend on the control mechanism the managers establish to monitor the company. Lack of operating control can lead to disaster. In 2001 the Enron Corporation came down largely in part there were no control in place to prevent and detect the fraudulent activity of the top executives. A piece of legislation that helped improve the internal controls of corporation was the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002. In the simulation leadership in Action the player served the role of chief operating officer. As the new member of the team the COO has to find a way to connect with the different groups in order to create networking and alliance with the rest of the staff. The goal of the COO is to be able to influence the staff by exerting leadership. “In the simulation, you will face challenge of leading a group of unwilling employees to achieve aggressive targets” (Leadership in Action Simulation, 2010). The company in the simulation is called Smith & Falmouth. The company is dedicated to mail order network and tele-shopping. The new COO does not have any influence of the staff. The person needs to earn the trust of the workers by performing networking. The simulation Leadership in Action deals with a group of employees that are unwilling to follow the company goals and targets. As the newly recently appointed COO my job is to win the employees over in order to be exert leadership. The first round of the simulation involved creating alliances with the different groups within the organization. The main players are the marketing manager, the project manager, the logistic manager, the web development team, and the logistic development team. The relationships I have to develop are with these groups. I choose that I all managers must have a two way relationship with each other. It is essential for the top managers to communicate well with each other in other to establish parameters and guidelines for the employees to follow. The organizational chart established that the project manager should be responsible for the web development team, while the logistic manager should handle the logistic team. In order to improve the working relationships my strategy was to change the power structure and interaction between the teams and the managers. Both the logistic team and web development team should interact with all three managers. Then myself as the COO should be able to gain more insight about the operation. I would have contact with all three manager and both teams. The information interaction illustrated in the sociogram is not completely aligned with my simulation results. The problem with my plan was probably that it was too ambitious and created too many connections among different groups. In the second round of the simulation problems occur with the customers. The CEO of the company wants to increase sales by 100% during the quarter. As the COO of the company it is my responsibility to comply with the expectation of upper management and the stakeholders of the corporation. The simulation stipulated that I choose an ally. My options are to become an ally of the project manager, the marketing manager or the logistic manager. I discarded the marketing manager because according to the corporate hierarchy he does not have any group of employees he is responsible for. This implies that he is a player with limited power within the organization. The person I choose as an ally due to his influence over the other employees of the company was the project manager. The approach I choose was to arrange for a team meeting, state my position, and explain the need to work together. I choose the following three points to create an action plan: Create a vision for the teams and state expectation from individuals Set clear goals for individuals and teams Install a performance management system to identify and reward performers. The results of the action plan was that the team felt reluctant to accept terms and appear to be intimidated by the performance system. The problem with my plan was that I started to create evaluation system without winning the trust of the employees first. New managers have to learn that it the first steps in their transition process is to gain the trust of the workers. Once a manager gains the trust of the workers the person can start implementing traditional managerial practices. An advice given by the simulation was to trade traditional authoritarian style leadership with transformational leadership practices. In the next round of the simulation Irene, CEO, stipulated that the company’s growth was insufficient. The new goals are to upgrade the customer base by 100%, upgrade systems to handle the additional load, and integrate newly hired specialist with the team. My new action plan to deal with the situation includes the three following three points: 1) introduce mentoring to promote learning prospects for all employees; 2) call for a team meeting, take inputs on achieving goals set by Irene, and establish a common goal for the team; 3) offer a job safety plan, compromising the career plans and annual training plans. According to the simulation I should have chosen the option of providing training to plug the competency gaps and setting industry standards would have provided better results. In the next round of the simulation there is a takeover threat. I have to make decisions in order to ensure the company breaks-even. My decisions were: a) empower the teams by letting the teams mutually decide targets, expand job roles and responsibilities; b) create leadership symbols to motivate the team; c) augment development team by recruiting skills employees based on skill-gap analysis. The simulation stated by I perform a good job in the decision made during this round. There are various management practices that can improve the functionality and effectiveness of the staff. Managers can empower employees to improve the confidence of the workers due to the fact more responsibility is delegated to them in the process. When employees feel valued in the workplace they perform at a higher level. Another important variable for leadership to manifest itself is having the lines of communication open between the manager and the workers. Good managers utilized their superb communication skills to influence the behavior of their subordinates. The five virtues that leader have include intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and sternness (Leadership in Action Simulation, 2010). The organizational structure a company chooses has a tremendous impact in the way the company operates and its chances for success. Companies that have lots of projects running at the same type is more suited to choose a matrix organizational structure. A matrix structure divides employees in different teams that work independent projects of a company. Each team has a leader in charge of the team unit. Other organizational structures are commonly used are division and departments. The matrix structure is the organizational structure I would have chose for the corporation in the simulation. The traditional authoritarian leadership style did not work well throughout the simulation. There was a need for a different type of leadership style in order to captivate the interest of the employees. A leadership style that would have worked well at influencing the employees is the transformational leadership style. Transformational leadership occurs when a leader broadens and elevates follower’s interest and stirs them to look beyond their own interest for the good of others (Schermerhorn & Hunt & Osborn, 2003, pg. 302). If the COO in the simulation would have been able to get the employees to look beyond their own interest the person would have been more effective at accomplishing the corporate goals. There are four dimensions to transformational leadership. These are charisma, inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. A person that has charisma is more likely to be well accepted by a group of people. The transformational leader makes decision that benefits the group. The use and application of leadership varies depending on the situation. The simulation leadership in action showed that leadership can have a profound effect on the productivity of an organization. When companies have weak leadership structures they tend to underperform because the employees lack proper motivation to perform at a higher level. A corporate structure that works well for fast changing environment that utilize team organization is the matrix structure. The simulation taught me that it is important to recognize the needs of the employees. I was not able to grasp the important of this concept when I first ran the simulation. After completion of the simulation module I learned the input of the employees has a tremendous influence in the performance of a company. Managers have to have solid leadership skills to be successful at their jobs. Employees are able to improve their leadership skills when they work with other employees in team projects. Leadership is something that is learned, thus it takes time for a new manager to be able to effectively exert leadership over a group of people. The tactics and practices a manager uses to lead a time vary depending on the size and the composition of a group. The optimal group size is between six and eight people. As companies move forward in the 21st century the importance of leadership is going to grow because multinational corporations deal with human resources from a global workforce. References Leadership in Action Simulation (2010). University of Phoenix. Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. (2003). Organizational Behavior (8th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Ward, S. (2010). Leadership. Retrieved June 13, 2010 from http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/leadership/g/leadership.htm Read More