The Basic Definition of Management - Essay Example

PART Q. Choose one of the management processes discussed in the which are Starting, Organizing, Leading, Planning and Changing. Explain themain characteristics of the chosen process and describe its relationship with any two of the other management process within a generic organization Introduction Management connotes collaborative activities organized, coordinated and controlled, to meet a collective mission. The era of modern management started with Frederick Taylor's principles of scientific management in the late nineteenth century. Over the years, management thoughts and processes have changed to suit knowledge based, connected global economy. Typified hierarchical organizational structures of the past, with strong control mechanisms, have slowly given way to modern, flat, loosely connected organizational structures with emphasis on core competencies, and outsourcing of non-core functions. The basic definition of management as a process of planning, organizing, staffing, leading and control (Koontz & Weihrich, 1990) are still relevant and various approaches have been formulated and presented in management literature. In this paper the aspect of leading and its connection with planning and staffing would be explored. Leading Leading is the ability to positively influence people and systems to have a meaningful impact and achieve results. "Leaders venture out. Leaders are pioneers - people who are willing to step out in the unknown (Kouzes & Posner, 2006). Leading is about search for opportunities, to innovate, grow and improve. Leading, perhaps is the most crucial aspect of management, and predominantly, deals with the interpersonal behavior and relationship management. In a globalized economy, the expanse leadership extends beyond an organization, encompassing cultural diversity across the borders. Unwittingly, the leadership attribute is also latently embedded with ethical considerations. So what does a leader do In effect a leader inspires, influences, persuades, encourages, motivates, attracts, and unifies team members to accomplish the organizational mission. Leadership is innately linked with effectiveness. Leadership provides strategic direction to the enterprise to achieve its missions. Through the strategic directions emanate the function of planning. What to do in the long term, medium term, annual, and quarterly periods What skills should the team develop in course of the planned periods, and how are they to be realized Planning, and building core competencies, go together. Talent acquisition and nurturing is a critical staffing function, which in turn, is driven through right global leadership. Leadership in Planning Leadership drives strategic planning. Those in leadership must ensure buy-in from members of the team with regard to the organizational values, mission, and goals. The twin responsibility of leadership therefore, is to manage perceptions of the team members, and drive the planning process itself. Genuine communication and empathy are the key skills of leadership that enable achieving these objectives. Strategic plans play the role of signposts that guide behavior and decision making in organizations. The plans translate into departmental and individual objectives. The role of leadership is to ensure continuous alignment of individual goals with organizational missions. The departmental and individual goals can further be amplified using acceptable performance measures, and monitor them periodically. So in a way, plans connect with the management functions of coordination and control. Leadership in a sense provides the vital link between planning and doing. Effective leadership channelizes the organizational efforts towards meeting short and long term objectives of the enterprise. Leadership in Staffing Leadership in staffing is about creating a shared vision, involving the right people, for the right job, at the right time. Leadership can play a silent but effective role of changing the organizational culture through world class professionalism, and conducive mentoring. With regard to staffing, leadership is also about succession planning, and growing more leaders within the organization. Building a leadership pipeline is the primary business of leaders. Leadership in staffing ensures attracting the right talent, developing people, recognizing strengths, rewarding performance, and building competencies for future in alignment with business strategies. Strategic human resource leadership ensures alignment of talent pool with a right-fit placement in the organization. It also enables businesses to become effective and support top-line organizational goals and forecasts. Significantly, staffing, and in a larger perspective, human resource management, acts as the nerve and soul of the organization. Researchers have concluded that three important themes help in creating a strong organizational culture: (a) high performance standards (b) a caring attitude, and (c) a sense of pride (O'Reilly & Caldwell, 1985). In today's knowledge economy, quality of human resource becomes the key differentiator that ensures competitive edge in industries and societies. The 'war for talent' is truly fought to leverage human capital to attain organizational goals. Most importantly, leadership in staffing means creating an inclusive environment for everyone (Cockerell, 1998). References Cockerell, L., 1998. Disney Great Leader Strategies. Disney Institute. Koontz, H. & Weihrich, H., 1990. Essentials of Management. McGraw-Hill. Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z., 2006. The Leadership Challenge. Jossey-Bass. O'Reilly, C.A. & Caldwell, D.F., 1985. The Power of Strong Corporate Cultures in Silicon Valley Firms. Executive Seminar in Corporate Excellence, Santa Clara University. PART 2 Q. Illustrate the chosen process in an existing organization of your choice. Learning to Lead at Toyota Toyota is one of the big six automotive industries in the world. The company was founded on monozukuri philosophy with strong leanings towards quality. The company is trying to create a new automotive paradigm - one that contributes to a bountiful society as it helps preserve the Earth's environment. Cost, is key source of company's competitiveness, which posted healthy net revenue of Yen 24,177.3 billion (Toyota Annual Report, 2008). In this section, the management function of leadership, as practiced in Toyota has been studied and described. So how does Toyota's leadership DNA look like How does Toyota lead its staff to accept stringent work methods For record, Toyota has outperformed its competitors in quality, productivity, cost reduction, market share, and market capitalization (Spear, 2004). Toyota's practices have been widely reported: kanban, cords, and production cells are a few of popular one's. One major differentiator in Toyota's leadership and working methods is that, the work is tightly coupled with learning. The company seeks to achieve continuous improvement in reliability, flexibility, safety and efficiency. At Toyota, the insistence is on explicit work specification before any work is carried out, so that the testing phase becomes easier, and effective. Whilst Toyota's production system is focused to continuously improve its operations, what's more significant is to note, the commitment of its staff to live up to those laudable principles. Training through practice is the cornerstone of a new recruit's orientation to Toyota's production system, which is applicable to all levels, from workers, managers to top executives. Leading at Toyota also means understanding one's role, and to facilitate continuous improvement empowering workers to carry them out. The distinguishing feature of work culture in Toyota is that work is designed as experiments. At Toyota weekly plans and expectations are clearly communicated between the employee and the reporting manager. The work is reviewed at the end of the week and the gaps between actual and expected are analyzed. Lessons are learnt out these expectation setting and reviews. Leadership at Toyota also means gaining technical and professional competency through on-the-job practices. Its hand's on, and feedback is prompt, reinforced with active mentoring. A mentoring program encourages building leadership competencies mainly through guided practice, or guided examples (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2008). Communication is another area emphasized in Toyota. If an English speaking executive is required to communicate with Japanese, no translator would generally be provided. In such cases, communication would happen through actions, drawings, role plays in the work area. The focus most of the time is also to ensure that a productive worker is not over-burdened with avoidable activities like walking or reaching, that might tire the worker doing non-essential tasks. In design of work experiments, special care is taken not to over-burden a worker with tiring un-productive tasks. Efficiency and productivity is at premium at Toyota shop floors. Continuous improvements are sought to reduce waste, redesign work methods and processes so that time at each of the tiny levels are saved. Leadership encourages the staff to maintain a log and analyze them frequently to spot areas where efficiencies could be built. People learn by different processes. Some things can be best learnt by observing or experimenting, and applying the new skill or knowledge in context (Hartog, n.d.). Leadership at Toyota effectively teaches the value of:- Learning by direct observation. The emphasis is not so much on reports, reviews, interviews, but direct observation for which there can be no substitute. Proposing changes in work methods as experiments. Experiments are treated as scientific method that allows acceptance or rejection of hypotheses. Problem solving thus becomes structured with testable assumptions. Encouraging experiments at all levels, and as frequently as possible. The focus is on many quick simple experiments than one long lengthy procedure. Learning from incremental changes is valued. Managers acting as coaches. Managers are encouraged to act as coaches, than as problem-fixers themselves. Leaders at Toyota thus become enablers. The coach would enable his subject to experience and experiment. In doing so leadership would provide requisite resources to support the experimentation. Learning at Toyota is an all-immersive experience with lessons to learn at each step. Every working moment becomes a live experience that has plenty to teach. Leading at Toyota is unique in its own ways. The maximum emphasis is on learning through practice, observing at each step, experimenting with work methods, and coaching with feedback to assimilate and reinforce the learning. References Annual Report, 2008. Toyota Annual and Business Report. Available at: www.toyota.com. Hartog, D.N.D., n.d. Learning in a Global Context: Vision in Complexity. Blackwell Handbook of Global Management. Spear, S.J., 2004. Learning to Lead at Toyota. Harvard Business Review, May. U.S. Office of Personnel Administration, 2008. Best Practices Mentoring. Working for America. U.S. Office of Personnel Administration. Read More