Diaries in Leadership and Decision-Making - Essay Example

The Six Hat Theory of Leadership and Decision-making The six-hat theory of leadership and decision-making is a design by Edward de Bono (Hargie, P. 25). that helps management outlay a leadership plan to help managements of organizations think of the best strategy to apply to their organizations so as to increase overall productivity of the business undertaking. He identifies the six variant types of thinking, metaphorically representing the different theories that managers should employ to make a concise plan to help in managing. The hats come in different colors representing the various strategies that managers can employ. He advises that managers can use many strategies concurrently, but one can switch between the different hats as business progresses (Hargie, 2011, P. 15).The white hat strategy focuses on management’s decision centering on just the facts at the management’s disposal. Management wearing the white hat has to primarily and ultimately make decisions based on the facts at hand before making any decisions. The only considerations’ base is on proposals and data, and their presentation focuses only on neutrality and their presentation. Bono advises that although it is viable, the leader should not wear it for a long time as it only asks the questions of “what is the manager has, what is missing, what the manager would like to have and how to avail this extra information” (Hargie, 2011, P. 75). The yellow hat strategy asks management to base their decisions purely on how benefits can are attainable. Management in the yellow hat should not look for the cons in entering the particular business ideas. It focuses on just the positive side of things with pros filling the sheet of paper. The underlying factor in wearing the yellow hat suggests that the entrepreneur to assess the benefits of venturing into the idea, it focuses on the proposal at hand and assesses the positive assets available (Hargie, 2011, P. 765). The manager should then ask how this proposal should commence. Bono asserts that its viability is that every good business idea deserves the entrepreneur’s attention Yellow hat attire, but the profits are not always instantly (Hargie, 2011, P. 765). The black hat sends out a word of precaution. When wearing the white hat, one’s obligation focuses on cynicism and utter concentration on assessment. One has to carry out logical assessments, focusing on the attributed costs, the formulation, the feasibility and also the safety factor. Usually, this decision making hat reflects on why the proposals do not align with the facts at hand. This method of critical thinking gives does not give room for reasonable doubt and faces a lot of criticism from the recipient. Most people tend to wear the black hat when making entry into businesses. Most innovative ideas do not go beyond, if they confront the black hat phenomenon. There is too much negativity in wearing the black hat as there will always be something that makes the wearer skeptical of the idea. Bono advises that one does not wear the black hat for too long since it makes venturing difficult (Hargie, 2011, P. 76). However, one should always have the black hat on in current times since there are so many cons and pyramid schemes walking this day. Critical decision making thinking while wearing the red hat introduces feelings and hunches. The manager will always suggest that they do not have too much faith in the venture and they always fear of downfall once they tread into the business idea (Brown, 1998, P. 86). The logic centers on looking at things critically and usually in broad daylight. Someone in a red hat relies on senses and makes decisions due to their gut feelings. The feeling of feeling spurious usually brings this about and the thinker does not have faith, or even thinks that the idea brought forward is merely senseless. Things simply do not add up. They base their assumptions on the notion that they do not like the execution of the idea, their guts tell them that it is not the best idea. Normally, one does not require justifying themselves why they are not in the same boat as the project. They red hat wearer also feels that the prices will plunge once the project kicks off. The green hat is purely innovative. It allows for innovations and requires a lot of critical thinking. The specialty is based on new things, or improving an existing to create a new idea. Normally, there are usually very creative schemes and new ways of doing things. There will also be very many changes and propositions. The blue hat is an idea facilitator. They will take up the planning and controlling process of the different projects. They increase productivity of the idea in question and make attempt at an effort to drive the innovator towards achieving the goal. The blue hat may not have an idea of what the technicalities are but will drive through towards its final realization. Most of these may even be facilitators; financiers of the underlying concepts. Stakeholder Engagement Stakeholder engagement processes of communication and decision making in an organization enables the management in protecting the interests of stakeholders, thereby leading to more congruency in the realization of business objective of continuity (Blake & Moulton, 1991). The stakeholders of an organization are those individuals that have interest in an organization, and organization decision making directly affects their interests. The stakeholders of any particular business entity include an array of parties. Stakeholders include shareholders, customers, management, the community, suppliers, debtors, lenders and employees (Harris & Nelson, 2008). Their constant involvement in the business demands that management enhance communication for easy effective decision-making. Communication amongst the different stakeholders comes in different forms. For instance, some involve in the business formally while others are informal. For this reason, management should device appropriate measures to enhance communication. Cyert & March (1963, p.27) familiarise with ‘The Behavioural Theory of the Firm’. This theory elaborates on the view existing between the various stakeholders of a business that ‘their relationship with the business is a coalition and each party is a member of a sub-coalition’. All the members there present have a common goal, and their participation will lead to the realization of a larger common goal. This repeated interaction needs to be well established to have well defined, and communication among them should be fluent and clear. Managers and employees of the organization have a duty and responsibility to safeguard the interests of the stakeholders of the organization. Management has interaction with every one of these stakeholders. For this reason therefore, Corporate Social Responsibility assigns them the responsibility to undertake thorough check on the communication ensuring its enhancement and constant refurbishment. In order to good communication, it is core that management first identifies all the stakeholders of the organization. This identification is beneficial to effective communication since better knowledge of the stakeholders place management in a better position to know their specific needs. It also helps the organization with effective social responsibility. When an organization identifies their stakeholders closely, then it helps in the selection of constructive as well as destructive members in the community. It can also provide good ground for establishing a market share. In the end, the most highly interested stakeholder might also end up as the most powerful of the stakeholders. However, while management tries to protect the needs of the stakeholders, it is important to balance interest in protection of the needs of both internal and external stakeholders. This will ensure that there is no tension between the different stakeholders of the organization. The Leadership Grid gives a true depiction of the situation that arises in the organization with varying concern on either production, the people and with balanced concern for both. When management keeps balance on concern for people with the concern they have for production there usually is a constructive energy flowing through the stakeholders’ of the organization. This shows that with the right energy focussed not just on safeguarding, some of the stakeholders but all of them at a go creates a serene environment leading to all people working towards achievement of a common goal. With this teamwork enhanced, it will aid in realization of organizational objectives. It is the work of organizational management to establish a proper framework in enhancing stakeholders’ engagement towards the creation of proper communication and decision making. These channels and networks are important in an effort to create proper communication. Networks are the conductive tools that two or more communicating parties use to transmit messages amongst each other. These networks are some of the processes and procedures that the management of an organization use to enhance communication and other forms of interactions among its stakeholders. The work of establishing these networks within the organization lies with management. Without this communication network, the organization suffers ineffective communication and the result will be adverse to the organization, to even the stakeholders. Management should ensure to keep watch on the networks it introduces to all the stakeholders of the organization. However, the network used for each individual of the various choices of stakeholders differs with each level. In management training, the candidate needs to be empowered to formulate proper communication networks so as to introduce them in the organizations since it is key to organizational prosperity. The strategic management of an organization is assigned the responsibility to formulate strategies on behalf of shareholders (owners) (Meyer, Ashleigh, Jones, 2007). These strategies are normally historical for every organization. Strategic plans are normally used for long durations sometimes going to several years. Communication channels are meant to facilitate information flow in the organization. Communication channels dictate how information flows with the entity. The most effective way and thus the most common used channel that information flows within the organization is the hierarchical approach. This ensures that information flows from shareholders, the management right through to the employers, to the customers. This flow of information ensures that every stakeholder of the organization answers to someone. This flow ensures that communication flows through without interruption. Channels can also be individual innovations. Some channels upwards or horizontally such as company innovations from subordinate workers to managers. Culture Culture by definition is “a collective set of shared mental understanding that can be brought down from historical times and events”. It is brought down to younger generations in the form of legendary stories and sometimes fairytales. This has a big influence on the minds of those it recipients and affects their way of thinking. Theorists further explain culture as a belief, value or meaning shared among people following certain historical or otherwise belief. Different forms of culture affect the company communication and eventual decision making differently. Organizations experience different forms of cultures over time, with every employee purporting to introduce their basic form of thinking into the organization in their own different ways. There are different forms of cultures, and since these entire cultures conglomerate in the organization there may be conflict on the operations of the organization (Brown, 1998, P. 27 ). Both National Culture and Organizational Culture affect the organization members in their own different ways. According to (Fineman, Sims & Gabriel, 2010, P. 69), National Culture is a collective way of thinking taken upon by a collective number of people and it tells them apart from other groups of people with their own way of doing things. With an ever increasing number of exchanges of national cultures, there is thus an increasing effect on the management of the organizations. Certain components of effective laws and project management thus demand that organizations also adopt the same in their culture allowing for cross cultures (Hofstede, 2001, P.128). Frank respects the work ethic of his country. However, being in a different environment, he should respect, adapt and respect the views of the national culture of the country. According to Hofstede’s model, people should be aware that there exists a difference between different countries’ cultural background, way of carrying out duties; but still most people believe that everyone is all the same. The problem with Frank’s unacceptance of the culture of the South Americans was his inability to survive in Peru, which is a lower power distance culture. The case with lower power distance cultures is that they have smaller portions of supervisory personnel. However, he still decided to leave the country and was not accepting the culture of the Peru people. Another problem generated from Pablo Guitierrez (Brown, 1998, P. 76), since he was also not conversant with the culture of the place where Frank was from. He had the responsibility to brief Frank of the situation in Peru and thus allowing him to adopt from the high The South American culture differs from the western countries in that, there is most definitely a difference in the economic status of both regions and this tends to make people work as hard in South America. In this respect, Peruvians do not have high maintenance costs as the westerners do. They do not have to toil as hard and they do not need as much money as the westerners need. While westerners have to be on their toes and actually have to make a living out of more than one job at a time, the Peruvians do not need as much toiling. That is why they leave for long breaks and they go to work late, yet leave earlier than what Frank was used to. Peruvians have less activity structuring due to the low uncertainty avoidance trait of their culture. People do not work less than Frank; he just works more than they do. According to Hofstedes theory, (Brown, 1998, P. 86), Frank should just accept the culture of his new environs and work with the fewer written rules of the low uncertainty, cultural background. He should make sure he does not introduce his supernatural white-collar western culturally oriented tendencies of the Peruvian ‘manual work same status as clerical work’ simulation of the low power distance cultural tendencies. When these cultures meet in a single organization for instance, management also needs to adopt bigger and broader strategies that are adoptable by other nationalities. Management should consider all these different nationalities that compose their organizations when making decisions on behalf of the organization as a whole (Morgan, 1997, P. 57). A manager needs to encompass and include all organization members with respect to their values, customs and beliefs when making these decisions on behalf of the organization. These managers have to be in a position where they can work with employees and subordinates of other nationalities. Hofstede established the global dimensions in cultures, dividing them into four. Power distance showed that if heightened, it creates a gap between people in the low class and the high class. When lowered, people will usually interact more and people in the lower classes eventually gain better status in society. Uncertainty Avoidance Dimension shows that people will usually feel threatened with uncertainty. When people focus less on avoiding uncertainty in life, then their innovative capability escalate and they get rewards for their efforts. The underlying factor of consideration when it comes to national cultures is the different factors of composition of these different cultures within the organization. National cultures attribute their eventual values to factors such as laws, religion, languages, social attributes, educational values, technological cultures, values, economic and social factors, just to mention a few. Although certain ingredients of national cultures may be similar between two or more cultures, their eventual composition is always different at some point distinguishing them from all other national cultures. For managers to make better decisions for subordinates and other employees of the organization, they need to make a personal evaluation on themselves. Some of the things they might consider would involve putting themselves in other people’s shoes and placing them in their subordinates’ circumstances. A manager might question what kind of family they would be in if they were in their subordinates’ circumstances. They would also consider questioning what kind of economic background they would have grown in had they the same nationalities as those subordinates working in the organization. Furthermore, managers need also to ask how they would handle their positions within the organization; how they chose to go about their professions within the organization. Other considerations would be how they would chose their partners within the organization had they been from these other different national cultures as their subordinates. They should also consider how they would align their personal life goals with those of the organization (Brown, 1998, P. 26). While asking if there is an international culture that is adoptable for the organization, there is firstly the Convergent Hypothesis up for consideration. This hypothesis considers all the possibly universal traits that different national cultures have in common. Such common traits in national cultures include TV, internet, forms of transport and communication, universally accepted products and the like. The second consideration bases on Divergent Hypothesis; those differences existing between these national cultures (Brown, 1998, P. 86). Verbal and Non-verbal Communication in Teams The two main categories of communication are verbal and nonverbal communication. Verbal communication comes out orally, while nonverbal communication in organization could be specific and restrained to only people who know responses amongst each other such as team members. Verbal communication is entirely voluntary while nonverbal may either be voluntary or involuntary. While verbal communication is mostly made use of in formal situations organizations or employments, nonverbal communication plays a major role in both formal and informal situations in the day to day running of businesses. Verbal and nonverbal communication can be both very effective when carried out in the right manner, inversely destructive if approached in the wrong way. It is also important that team members learn how to communicate effectively to each other or when to others outside their teams (Morgan, 1997, P. 11-90). When using verbal communication, it is important that everyone in the organization adopts a tendency to use positive rather than negative language. When team members use positive language towards each other and even to members of other teams, they will most likely also be in a position to learn to communicate better with other stakeholders of the organization. For instance, management and employees may experience situations where they are dealing with a supplier or creditor who does not negotiate prices very well, or generally have a negative attitude towards his customers. If a team member had not learnt how to carry out effective verbal communication within their teams and the organization stakeholders at large, they might end costing the organization more by talking badly to the suppliers which could end up cost more than if the employee had learnt proper ways of verbal communication during team work. It is therefore important that in team building and team learning, team members are encouraged to conduct the positive verbal communication skills with each other, so as to have that same attitude when they experience the outward world. Employees also need to learn be assertive in communication, rather than aggressive with each other. Normally, researchers say that when one uses “I”, it is more assertive than using “You” is aggressive to the audience. For instance, if someone is asking for something on a common day at work that they should not say “You need to give me something” and instead should say “I need something”. Usually, the use of such words in communication tends to create faulty communication in the organization, which would prove detrimental to the organization as a whole. An assertive attitude tends to prove someone’s confidence, and this does not have the adverse effects aggression has in the workplace (Morgan, 1997, P. 1-100). In team building, managers should ensure to teach employees the right style of verbal communication when it comes to intonations, speed, volume and accent when they speak. This helps them in communication better with each other as this will be the portrayal when they communicate with other stakeholders. This will prove worthwhile as certain tragedies, as portrayed above, will not occur. Nonverbal communication primarily alert the speaker if the other parties they are talking to are paying interest to whatever is taking place. It is particularly helpful when someone is dealing with someone from the organization is dealing with stakeholders form the public. It may also help management know whether their subordinates are paying attention to whatever is going on. Nonverbal communication skills are not acquired formally, and it is up to management to ensure that employees acquire these special skills from their engagement in teamwork and team learning. This gives the employees a better playing ground when it comes to day to day running of business matters experiences. Traits such as making eye contact when addressing one’s workmates such as during presentation makes the listener know that one is confident and sure of they are saying. When talking in the workplace and someone puts on a gesture such as folding their hands over their checks draws the portrayal that whoever is folding their hands is not paying attention to whatever is the speaker is saying. Nonverbal communication styles include anything that does not include verbal communication. Nonverbal communication’s examples in the organization include written material, gestures (such as handshakes), frowns, and other expressions that someone may use (Peters & Waterman, 1982). In the History Channel of body language, the depiction shows different body languages through messages that show how the narrator is portraying. Some of the celebrities show different postures, gestures, handshakes, pointing and other nonverbal gestures. Nonverbal communication can exude different feelings, Such as fear, power, confusion, panic, uncertainty, being gullible. In fact, researchers say that about 93% of what someone says is communicated through nonverbal communication (Morgan, 1997, P. 1-100). Nonverbal communication also goes a long way in making communication with the public at large. During the Seth McFarlane’s performance of the ‘Ain’t that a kick in the head’, the whole audience show an enthusiastic attitude towards the performance. All the people in the audience are looking at the performer, while some are even singing along and nodding their heads while the performance is going on. This is nonverbal communication, and the audience most definitely asserts the performer that they are enjoying him. Certain actions can tarnish an organization’s reputation to the public and could even lead to closure of a business. It is important therefore that the management of an organization make sure that the employees undergo proper training on ways of good communication around the work place. The importance of good communication is that it creates an office place free of misunderstandings, distractions and confusion. Good communication makes success of the business undertaking as it is the basis for carrying out business undertaking. Having the appropriate communication means in among people of the same department within an organization helps employees gain experience that leads them to dealing with communication between departments, communication with the public, communication with customers and also the important business to other business communication. All these levels of communication are fundamental to business success for any kind of company. Teaming In the seven sequence of high performance, the speaker shows the implication of teaming. He tries to teach on the various ways that people should He introduces the first that is the trust makers, people who always revenge. They should be eliminated from the team. The other people who should be eliminated from teams are those who share secrets of teams (Hargie, 2011, P. 99). While forming these teams, it is also important to make sure that people complement each other for every good that is done within the team. This will ensure that people work even harder within the team, thus empowering team members’ ad, which in turn boosts the morale of every team member (Hargie, 2011, P. 99). In the organization setting, the manager plays the role of leader of the pack and his departmental managers are the members of his pack who also have their packs of technical managers. For ease of execution of task, the management assigns (the finance department, accounting department, marketing department, human resource department) each departmental manager some assignment which in turn become part of the organization as a whole. In teamwork, every person works towards the achievement of a common goal to benefit the entire organization. To have effective team work, the ‘head of the pack’ must ensure good communication in the team. Researchers suggest that teams formed by people who are close to each other produce better results than people who are not close. The best idea a manager can make is to bring the team members close by employing good communication skills. Firstly, the management needs to understand the positive as well as negative effects communication may have on a team. Management should ensure that constant interaction between the team members is a priority as this increases familiarization for among team members. Since the key to make a good team is make members come close, this constant interaction lets members come close together and get to understand each other closely (Hargie, 2011, P. 79). Secondly, the team leader needs to understand that a team with poor communication is more prone to conflict than that with good communication. Misinterpretations and conflict creation within a team is recipe for an unproductive team (Hargie, 2011, P. 89). Thirdly, each member needs to understand their basic responsibilities in the team so as to ensure proper delegation for each member of the group. In this scenario everyone will be answerable for any failures that occur in their duties. With good communication, each member understands their tasks. This also ensures that all tasks are assigned to a particular person and none is left out. Bad communication gives room for confusion in the team and members also become unmotivated. Lastly, managers should ensure that all team members receive training for their various tasks. With good communication, the members receive good training on the execution of their duties when undertaking their various tasks. Good communication also helps in saving time that would otherwise go to waste on re-training members in the middle of execution of duties (Hargie, 2011, P. 99). It is imperative that managers ensure great team learning techniques. These come in handy for the organization as a whole since subordinates become specialties in their execution of day to day work. Teamwork ensures that employees become social and collaborative. When employees are subject to routine team learning, they engage more in learning and in the end become more experienced faster in training, thus giving room for high performance for individuals as well as teams. This is good for the organization as efficiency increases and therefore the realization of organizational goals becomes a reality. When people learn as a team, they get to hear other people’s points of view and they also talk of their points of view. This encourages team players to interact and increases their communication through interaction. Learning solo leads to competitiveness, incongruence of organization goals, isolation and non-interaction of employees, thus giving room to conflict and bad communication. In order for managers to make learning what it should be, they need to understand that learning bases on creating wisdom for employees rather than for merely helping them remember facts and acquiring knowledge. Team learning is key to making dynamic employees. It helps them in easy transition in an ever dynamic business world (Hargie, 2011, P. 91). In conclusion, Research has shown that 40% of a managers time is spent working in teams. This helps them acquire an all round form and boosts them when times get hard. With repeated teamwork and team learning, the employees gain motivation, communication and experience, which are key elements in ensuring prosperity for the organization towards realization of organizational objective. Team building encourages communication among employees, which is core in organization setting. Teamwork helps boost organization’s employees’ communication within the organization. With well executed teamwork and team learning comes effective communication. 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