Leading - Understand Groups and Teams - Essay Example

?Leading - Understand Groups and Teams Leading an organization is a complex process that is driven by both purpose and results. The purpose of organizational leadership is to ensure that the organization has successful results. In this case, leading an organization is more demanding than leading a team. Unlike team leadership, organizational leadership requires that the objectives of the leadership team be met. The requirements and anticipations of employees as well as those of other stakeholders such as customers, investors, shareholders, and the public should always be met. This implies that organization leaders need to be concerned with people working within the organization as much as they are concerned with results and expectations. Crises are usual occurrences in an organization. A crisis can have disastrous results on an organization that lacks concrete management or leadership. Leading an organization in the first few months after a disaster is of particular interest since it requires balancing the needs and expectations of the organizations as well as those of other stakeholders (Kalb, 1993). This essay will discuss the expectations of an organizational leader in the few months after a disaster. The essay will discuss the group model of leadership as opposed to team model. Leading an organization for the first few months after a disaster has occurred is challenging to both the leader and the employees. This is because there is need to find a solution to the immediate problems as well as ensure employee satisfaction. Being successful in organizational leadership requires organizational leaders to organize their employees in order to achieve the objectives of the organization as well as employee satisfaction. In this case, an organizational leader will employ either a team model or a group model. A group leadership model will be the most appropriate in steering the organization through the crisis. The group leadership model has groups as its basic structure. In this case, a group is composed of people with similar work objectives. As opposed to team models, group models are easy to develop since they are based on visible qualities of employees, it will also be easy for an organization leaders to steer an organization from a crisis through group leadership. Unlike teams, groups are made of people who are united by a common goal or problem. In this case, the common problem will be the disaster that has occurred within the organization. A group will also be based on the availability of a common solution for the immediate problem. This factor makes group leadership models to be more preferable than team models. Unlike groups, team are concerned with success in a particular area of strategic management. Leading an organization through a crisis requires facing or accepting reality. This will involve establishing the root cause of the problem before coming up with possible solution. If the cause of a crisis is a natural disaster, then the organization leader will be concerned with finding both short term and long-term measures to fix the problem. A crisis resulting from natural disasters may make things worse for the organization and therefore, organizational leaders should be prepared to tackle any aftermath or occurrence. Before trying to fix the problem, a leader needs to address the available groups of employees. This will involve creation of positive behaviours that will enable the employees to survive through the resultant problems that were caused by the natural disaster. Understanding group behaviours will be the basis of group development. The organization leader will be concerned with developing positive behaviour for each member of the group and each group. In this case, positive behaviours are behaviours that will enable the organization to achieve both short-term and long-term interventions for the immediate problems (Lawrence, Weber, Post, 2005). In the group behaviour model, knowledge, skills, and ability are significant element of organizational leadership. Knowledge will involve how each member of the team is conversant with the problem within the organization. Equipping each employee with appropriate skills will enable them visualize possible strategies that will contribute to the solution. The right combination of skills and knowledge will determine the ability of each employee. This will in turn determine the ability of the organization to cope with the disaster. Group structure will also depend on the abilities and skills of each member of the group. The right structure consists of several employees under a group leader. It is necessary to choose a group leader from employees who have had experiences with crisis or those who have experience in leadership (Lawrence, Weber, Post, 2005). Less experienced employees should work under more experienced employees in order to achieve the objectives of the organization. Employee’s experience would therefore, be critical in determining the composition of each group. Group composition will also be determined by group norms. Group norms are things that are considered usual or common among different group members. Teams and groups are essential in organization leadership. It is however difficult to distinguish between the two elements of leadership. Teams are work groups although not all work groups forms a team. Unlike teams, work groups value individual work and each group has individual accountability. On the other hand, teams have collective or mutual accountability. Group members are united by the need to share information and perspective in relation to a common problem. On the other hand, team members are more concerned with problem solving strategies, planning and appropriate decision-making (Smither, & Reilly, 2005). Unlike team, groups are more concerned with individual challenges and outcomes than collective outcomes and responsibilities. The managers control the purpose, goals and work approach of each group while team leaders are responsible for the success of each team. This would be necessary in crisis management since mangers are more equipped to handle crisis than team leaders. In addition, mangers are well equipped with implementing short-term strategies than team leaders. Group organizational model would therefore in a better position to revive an organization from a crisis within the shortest time possible. Conclusion Leading an organization through a crisis is more challenging than usual leadership. This is because an organizational leaders needs to be concerned with achieving a solution for the immediate problem as well as realizing satisfaction of every employee. In this scenario, group leadership will be preferred to team leadership. Group leadership is based on groups of employees who are united by common goals and objectives. In this case, the common goal would be sharing information, knowledge and skills that are essential in helping the organization to cope with the immediate problems. Works Cited Kalb, I 1993, Structuring your business for success, K & A press, New York. Lawrence, A. T., Weber, J., Post, J. E 2005, Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy. 11th Edition, McGraw-Hill, Irwin, India. Smither, J. & Reilly, R 2005, Does performance improve following multisource feedback? Personnel Psychology 58: p. 33-66. Read More