Leadership and Management Development Program - Medico - Case Study Example

Leadership and management development program proposal Table of Contents Leadership and management development proposal 3 2.Company background 4 3.Learning strategy of the program 5 4.Key features of the program 7 5.Implementation and evaluation strategy 8 6.Conclusion 8 Reference List 10 1. Leadership and management development proposal Change is considered as a common denominator in the rapidly evolving world and workplace. It leads an organization to attain competitive advantage and henceforth success. That is why organizations strive to make any and every change that is deemed to be growth provoking in context of the organization’s business process and its end output. Business expansion is considered to be one such change as it requires an organization to modulate its business model to a certain degree in order accommodate several changes that comes along with the execution of the business expansion plan (Adair, 2010). One of the major changes observed in cases of business expansion is in the working environment. Managers have to accommodate employees from different cultural backgrounds as well as delegate responsibilities appropriately between the workforces. It is extremely important for managers and leaders to lead a business expansion plan as several aspects needs to be considered while the expansion plan is in process. For example the host country environment, the regulatory framework, the sensitivity in relationship between the host country and the home country, the sentiments of the wider public, the customers, and other stakeholders and so on an so forth. Business expansion plan are often reported to have failed primarily because of the managers’ inability to lead the project. They find it difficult to resolve conflict of cultures, opinions, regulations as well as work ethics. That is why it is extremely important for a manager to be a good leader who can establish a stable trust relationship with the employee base and promote itself as a sustainable and translucent business to the stakeholders. Failure to consider these aspects may make it difficult for the organization to survive in an intensely competitive foreign turf (Edenborough, 2009). Therefore, in order to ensure that managers of the concerned organization are imparted with the necessary knowledge and skills that will help them to tackle the uncertainties of a business expansion, a leadership and management development program is being introduced. This will not only help the organizational managers to gain valuable insights regarding the intricacies of dealing with a multicultural environment but will also allow them to hone their leadership skills in an effort to lead a business expansion plan. The leadership and management development program is aimed towards providing training to 30 top managers across the globe working for the concerned company. The programmed involves rigorous routines that are to be undertaken by the managers. Each and every routine is associated with an objective that needs to be achieved by the managers regardless of the approach that is adopted. These routines are designed in such a way that managers will be able to gain a holistic view of the strategies that needs to be adopted while executing business expansion plans. The sections to follow will contain a detailed description of leadership and management development program that is to be introduced in the concerned company. 2. Company background Medico is a multinational corporation primary engaged in the development and distribution of pharmaceutical products in commercial markets based in the US, UK and Europe. The corporation is known for its integrity and transparency with which business operations are conducted. The products manufactured by the company have been lauded by customers all over the world. Such an unprecedented success and recognition achieved by the company has inspired the managers to expand the company’s business operations in the emerging markets as a means for the corporation to widen its customer base and hence the revenue stream. However, the management has cited several issues that the company faced while expanding in all of Europe. According to the top level managers concerns are mainly related to the dispersion of information, channelization of resources and management of the workforce. As per the observations made by the top tier managers, absence of appropriate leadership skills within the existing middle and lower level managers have been cited as the major reason behind the some of the major impediments faced by the corporation while it was expanding in Europe (Charnan, 2008). Therefore, considering the fact that the corporation is considering an expansion in emerging countries whose culture is vastly different from the cultures followed the corporations existing operational bases, presence of effective leaders and attainment of appropriate leadership skills has been regarded as the fundamental driver of organizational success. This is the precisely the reason why the introduction of an effective leadership and management program is deemed to be extremely important. This will help the existing managers of the company to gain the knowhow required to manage a culturally diverse workforce, allocate resources effectively, facilitate free flow of information and execute the business expansion plan successfully (Rush, 2011). Taking into the account the fact that the managers of Medico is considering an expansion in the emerging market, it is expected that the managers will encounter multiple problems while expanding the business in this relatively unexplored area. As far as the internal challenges are concerned, the first and foremost cause of concern will be occasional conflict of opinions and interests between the expatriates and the native employees. Therefore, in such situations it becomes the primary responsibility of the managers to ensure that such conflicts are resolved at the earliest (Marquis and Huston, 2011). Failure to do so may not only deteriorate the working environment within the organization but will also affect the overall operational efficiency. Additionally internal challenges may also escalate due to biasness. Employees who are recruited from the host country at managerial levels may be biased towards the subordinate employees who belong to the host country or follow the host country culture. This biasness may influence the host country managers to compromise with the quality of workforce. They might be urged to recruit employees from their own country regardless of whether they have the required talent, skill set or knowledge. Such biasness will degrade the quality of workforce which in turn will affect the overall quality of work done. As far as external challenges are concerned, they may arise due to vast difference noticed in the regulatory and political regime. Normally organizations that are primarily engaged in the development and distribution of pharmaceutical products have to go through a strict scrutiny conducted by host country government authorities before they are allowed to operate on foreign soil. Therefore, in such situations it becomes extremely important for the expatriates to be fully aware of the rules and legislations that are applicable in the foreign soil. The expatriates will have to work collaboratively with the native managers in order to ensure that the company adheres to all legislations enacted by the host country government (Algera and Lips-Wiersma, 2012). Nonetheless, it often becomes difficult for foreign companies to completely adhere to the political legislations enacted in the host country primarily because of misinterpretation of rules and regulations, host country culture as well as weak collaboration between expatriate and host country managers. It is factors like this that necessitates the implementation of an effective leadership and management development program that will not only help manager and employees to work in a collaborative manner but will also allow them to consider both internal and external challenges while making business decisions (Ellebracht, Lenz and Osterhold, 2009). 3. Learning strategy of the program The first and foremost learning outcome of the leadership and management development program is to enable the manager to emulate an appropriate leadership style. The most perfect leadership style has been described by Khan (2010) through the Black-Mouton managerial grid. According to the author the most appropriate leadership style is the team leadership style which encourages managers to focus equivalently on the welfare of the workforce and the organizational productivity. Through the implementation of this leadership attribute managers are able to establish a strong relationship based on trust and respect with the employees. Attainment of this learning outcome is extremely important as this will help the expatriate managers to communicate freely with the native employees vice versa (Zehir and Erdogan, 2011). Considering the fact that it is a business expansion, it is extremely important that each and every organizational member works collaboratively. This can only be achieved if managers are able to facilitate a free flow of information between themselves and their subordinates (Kellett, Humphrey and Sleeth, 2002). Secondly, the leadership and management development program will also allow the managers to establish robust communication channel whereby the employees can share their opinions while business decisions are made. This is one of the fundamental drivers of organizational success especially in host country environment as the native employees will have more knowledge regarding the external environment and thus add valuable inputs while business decisions are made (Adair, 2010). The learning outcome related to the establishment of communication channel will also allow the expatriate as well as the native managers to engage in frequent communication with the subordinate employees by means of which the managers will be able to learn the issues, challenges and conflicts that are being faced by the employees. Therefore, the managers will be in a better position to resolve any issues related to conflict of opinions and interests (Edenborough, 2009). The third and arguably the most important learning outcome of the leadership and management development program is to enable managers to have the knowhow of managing people from different cultures. Given the fact that Medico is based in the US and it is considering business expansion in the emerging markets, it is imperative for the managers to accommodate themselves according to the culture followed in the host country (Rush, 2011). The managers will be able learn the ways in which both home country and host country employees are encouraged to respect each other’s culture. Cultural integration is extremely important in order to ensure that Medico completes a successful business expansion in the host country. This will not only help the managers to resolve conflict of opinions and interests but will also allow them to enhance collaboration and coordination within teamwork (Charnan, 2008). 4. Key features of the program Benchmarking is one of the key features of this leadership and management development program. The managerial behaviour and performance exhibited by the managers while participating in the leadership and management development program will be thoroughly monitored and evaluated against benchmark performance previously set by other managers. After the evaluation is done, the manager will be provided with a 360 degree feedback by means of which they will be able to assess their performance improvement (Ellebracht, Lenz and Osterhold, 2009). The managers will be provided with supplementary learning materials such as e-books, videos, online articles, webinars, and industry wide publications. This will enable the managers to peek into the results obtained in the real world. The organizational managers will have the opportunity to take part in an inclusive approach aimed towards learning and development. The leadership and management development program will help the managers to facilitate enhanced knowledge sharing as well as learn from the performance delivered by fellow managers. By the end of the program, the managers will be able to come up with effective solutions to complex problems (Algera and Lips-Wiersma, 2012). The leadership and management development program will be headed by the board level managers of Medico. The mentoring and coaching services that will be provided by these esteemed personalities will add significant value to the program. The learning outcomes of such rigorous yet effective training will allow the trainee managers to focus on their own strengths and weaknesses. This will also allow them to adopt an appropriate approach that will tap their strengths and at the same time eradicate their weaknesses. The managers will be able to engage in frequent discussion with the mentors which will encourage them to achieve breakthrough in terms of their performance delivery (Marquis and Huston, 2011). Teamwork is another key feature of the leadership and management development program. The trainee managers will be given rigorous schedules and activities and they will be paired with fellow managers belonging from a different culture. Their strategies, approaches and performance consistency will be scrutinized strictly. Their behavioural characteristics within the group as well as outside the group will also be monitored. This will allow the mentors to evaluate the capability of the managers in terms ad adapting to a vastly different business environment. Their performance will also be assessed against a benchmark following which they will be provided with detailed consultation on the areas which require improvement (Kellett, Humphrey and Sleeth, 2002). These are the primary features or highlights of the leadership training and development program that will provide a robust platform for the participants to strengthen their leadership skills which will have a significant when Medico managers go through with the business expansion plan in the emerging markets. 5. Implementation and evaluation strategy It is imperative for the organizational managers to ensure that the leadership and management development program is successfully implemented. In order to make sure that such happens, the underlying objective behind the program needs to be clearly conveyed to all the organizational employees. It is primary responsibility of the top tier managers to communicate the key features and benefits of the program to the middle and lower level managers and simultaneously inspire them to take part in the program. Subsequent to that adequate amount of funds needs to be pooled up for initiating the program as it is one of the most vital ingredients that will ensure an unobstructed and unhindered flow of the program. The funds needs to be appropriate channelized in all the functional departments that forms a major part of the program. Alongside that action sets need to be prepared that will serve as the robust foundation behind the execution of a successful leadership and management development program. The organizing manager of the program will have to give a brief presentation to the board members regarding their role in the program as well as the benefits that are expected to be fetched out of this program. Lastly an appropriate schedule of 20 days needs to be set in order for the organizing manager to be able to successfully initiate the program. As far as evaluation is concerned, it has already been mentioned that the performance and behavioural attributes of the managers will be strictly monitored by the mentors (in this case the board level members) and assessed thorough against the standards set by previous participating managers. A proper 360 degree feedback will be provided to the managers in order for them to able to clearly identify their strengths and weaknesses. 6. Conclusion The high intensity of competition experienced by managers in the contemporary business environment has made it imperative for them to establish a sustainable business that enables them to generate consistent stream of revenue. In order to ensure that such happens operations have to be managed by highly skilled and knowledgeable managers who have to required expertise to lead a culturally diverse workforce. Emulation of an effective leadership style is considered as one of the most crucial ingredients of organizational success and business sustainability. This is where the relevance of this leadership and management development program lies. The practical nature of the program will help the managers to acquire the necessary skill sets and expertise that are required to manage a multi cultural workforce in the host country. The program is also aimed towards enhancing the decision making prowess of the leaders which is one of the fundamental drivers of business expansion success. Therefore, at a time when the managers of Medico are considering a business expansion plan in the emerging markets, the leadership and management development program can lay a robust foundation for the successful execution of this plan. Reference List Adair, J. (2010) Strategic Leadership: How to Think and Plan Strategically and Provide Direction, 3rd ed. London: Kogan Page Algera, P. M., and Lips-Wiersma, M. (2012). Radical Authentic Leadership: Co-creating the conditions under which all members of the organization can be authentic. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(1), 118–131 Charnan, R., (2008). Leader at All Levels Deverlopment. 4th ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Edenborough, R., (2009). Assessment methods in recruitment, selection & performance. 4th ed. Belgium: Peeters Publisher. Ellebracht, H., Lenz, G., and Osterhold, G. (2009). Coaching und Leadership–Konzepte für Entwicklung, Wandel und Führung. Systemische Organisations-und Unternehmensberatung, 273–306. Kellett, J. B., Humphrey, R. H., and Sleeth, R. G. (2002). Empathy and complex task performance: Two routes to leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 13(5), 523–544. Khan, A., 2010. The Dilemma of Leadership Styles and Performance Appraisal: Counter Strategies. Journal of Management Sciences, 4(1), pp. 1-30. Marquis, B. L. and Huston, C. J. (2011) Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application, 6th ed. London: Elsevier. Rush, S. (2011) The Leadership in Action Series: On Strategic Leadership, 4th ed. Germany: Grin Verlag. Zehir, C., and Erdogan, E. (2011). The Association between Organizational Silence and Ethical Leadership through Employee Performance. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 24, 1389–1404. Read More