Major Issues in Management - Essay Example

AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP According to Dave Sharpe, a Community Development Specialist, the choice of proper leadership style for a given corporate situation affects how well the company accomplishes its goals and how well it is able to maintain itself. Therefore to ensure that the chosen leadership style works, the leader must assess his current situation according to company goals and its capacity of maintaining a leadership style. For example, autocratic leadership is best for situations wherein the company engages in routine and unskilled jobs. The University of Calgary believes that this leadership style wherein the leader has absolute power over his employees can lead to increased absenteeism and staff turnover. The company can maintain itself through the effect of the implementation of this leadership style by hiring new employees. So, if the company engages in mere routine and unskilled jobs, it is easy to hire new employees without ill effects to company management and production. The tactical plan and actions to address Autocratic Leadership has its basic foundation in ensuring that the leadership style suits company goals and the company’s capacity to maintain such leadership style. From this, other plans may arise to ensure employee loyalty. This system of rewards has been proven as a good means to keep employees under control. A system of rewards as defined by a business dictionary as “procedures, rules, and standards associated with allocation of benefits and compensation to employees” may be put into play. The company can devise steps for the giving of incentives, bonuses, and benefits to those who will continue to work well and obey management. Rewards may also be given for employees who continue to stay with the company, perhaps a bonus for every three year anniversary. EMPLOYEE RELATIONS A government agency, NASA, defines employee relations as “involving the body of work concerned with the maintenance of employer-employee relationships that contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivation, and morale.” This leaves no room for conflict or problems between co-employees and management. Management must ensure and maintain employees happy, creative and enthusiastic. By keeping employees in such a state, they will work better for the interests of the company. It is for this reason that the Florida Atlantic University promotes the creation of a positive environment and relationships based on good management practices and workplace behaviors. There are courses of action to create a positive environment and relationships which the University of Oregon has categorized as administration, grievances, discipline and performance management. Administration necessitates that employees are made aware of company goals and their important place in the scheme of things. Company Rules are also laid down. A series of small group conferences can be initiated by the human resource office to get to know individual employees and to educate them of their role in the corporation. Possible speakers may be invited ranging from guidance counselors to management personnel to explain proper employee relations with the company as well as with co-workers. Grievances and Discipline go hand in hand. Grievance entails the adoption of the company of grievance processes where the employee can air his/her complaints against management, supervisor or a co-worker. A committee may be created to proactively act on such matters and to discuss matters with management if needed. Discipline to be effectively understood as just must, in my opinion, must be enforced by management upon proper investigation and report of the grievance committee. Without a separate investigating body, the employee might see a disciplinary action as discriminatory being judged and implemented by a single authority- management. Performance Management is a means of giving recognition to worthy employees. A good example of possible courses of action is that implemented by the University of Memphis as having recognition awards (Outstanding Employee Award, Distinguished Employee of the Year Award, Service Award); Performance appraisals, and even Employee discounts in cooperation with local stores. TEAMWORK AND COLLABORATION In a company, organization, or even in a small team, it is necessary for each and every member to work well at his appointed task for the whole machinery to work. If this is made possible, then the machinery will not only work but will succeed. LaFasto and Larson makes a clear definition of the relationship existing between teamwork and collaboration as, “refers to people with different views and perspectives coming together, putting aside their narrow self interests, and discussing issues openly and supportively in an attempt to solve a larger problem or achieve a broader goal.” This according to Crow, includes not only the bringing together of the knowledge and experience but also the skills of each team member towards solving problems or in the creation of new company products or services. According to LaFasto and Larson there are five factors that come into play, namely, Individual team members (Attributes and behaviors); Team Relationships (dimensions, strengths and weaknesses); Team Problem Solving; Team Leadership; and, the Organizational Environment (Processes and Practices). Maintaining a balance between these factors would lead to a successful teamwork and collaboration. Hence management should devise action plans for each factor. For Individual Team Members, plans for individual growth in terms of seminars in the field of expertise should be allowed. This works on the precept that each employee hired is competent. For the task that he is assigned to. Without this basic level, all efforts for improvement will be impossible. This would ensure that the employee is updated in current developments in his field which he would bring into the team. Team relationships should be strengthened by designing corporate bonding through outings or in working in smaller groups. Team problem solving is sharpened through management supervised activities. Activities geared not only to develop increased logic skills but also infused with teaching each one to respect and support each other’s ideas and opinions. Team leadership refers to management’s ability to lead its team members. Managers and supervisors must also go through retraining at intervals. This will ensure that company rules, protocols and goals are remembered and continually enforced. Educational growth by way of seminars must be encouraged to bring in innovations in management styles and action plans. Organizational environment, according to Crow, is the development of a culture that encourages team work, cooperation and collaboration. The fulfillment of the action plans in the other factors helps to create this organizational environment. The only thing needed are feedback mechanisms to make adjustments in the organizational environment. These may be done through surveys and interviews, the creation of a suggestion box or email and other action plans to obtain feedback. COMMUNICATION In all relationships of people communication plays an important role. Being able to communicate ones thoughts effectively enables others to understand and appreciate ones ideas and suggestions. In a setting wherein there are people communicating in different levels, it is necessary to impose or institute communication action plans to avoid misunderstandings. In the level of management, communication action plans will ensure that teamwork and collaboration will prosper. Trust and respect is obtained through open communication. Venues for communication like staff meetings and even emails maybe utilized. Good communication action plans will also keep the labor sector, or the workers of the company in harmony with management and with each other. This may be attained by putting into place proactive grievance committees, and suggestion lines or boxes. Another action plan that may be implemented at both levels by management is a model for active communication by Crow: “This model represents two axes: Cooperativeness and Assertiveness. Different approaches to dealing with an issue are mapped against these two axes. A low degree of assertiveness and cooperativeness represents avoidance of an issue or the approach of "I don’t care". A high degree of cooperativeness and a low degree of assertion represents accommodation or the approach of "You win, I lose". A high degree of assertiveness and a low degree of cooperativeness represent competition or the approach of "I win, you lose". Many people believe compromise is the ideal. Compromise represents a moderate degree of both assertiveness and cooperativeness. It represents the approach of "Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose". This, however, is not the ideal. A good team includes people that have strong beliefs and are professionally committed. The team members believe is important to the company and the development program (but not necessarily to just the narrow functional perspective of their discipline). We also want a high degree of cooperation. This represents the basis for a collaborative approach or the "win-win" approach. The key to the win-win approach is to creatively search for solutions that can mutually satisfy the needs of the team rather than focusing on just two competing solutions that involve trade-off’s or are mutually exclusive.” Other models may be implemented depending on the choice of management as to what will suit the company work environment.” Another action plan that must be instituted are the feedback mechanism. Feedback mechanisms allows management to change rules or procedures that are not as effective as seen from the feedback mechanism. Changes may be instituted to ensure the smooth flow of the corporations goals and aspirations. SUMMARY Autocratic Leadership; Employee Relations; Teamwork and Collaboration; and, Communication are aspects of management that should be carefully addressed. There are a lot of action plans that may be placed into effect to combat issues that may arise from each aspect. In autocratic leadership, action plans geared towards keeping the employees happy while under the dominant control of the leader must be instituted. The answer to this are action plans for the giving of incentives, bonuses, and benefits in the form of a system of rewards. In employee relations, the main issue is conflict or problems between co-employees and management. This may be avoided through action plans designed to create a positive environment. Action plans may range from seminars or small group conferences to the institution of grievance committees. Of course, a system of rewards is strongly recommended to boost employee morale. In teamwork and collaboration, action plans ranges from discussions, open forums, meetings and conferences (that become venues for the exchange of ideas and opinions) to Corporate events and outings (for team bonding). Action plans geared for feedback are necessary and may be done through surveys and interviews, the creation of a suggestion box or email. A communication action plan for the different levels in the corporation may be implemented. Management levels may evolve around staff meetings and even emails while on the level of the employees, the institution of grievance committees, and suggestion lines or boxes may be necessary. A model for active communication must be included in the action plan to facilitate proper, efficient, and effective communication. In all of these aspects, a feedback mechanism is necessary to determine the effectively of the actions plans that have been put in place. A feedback mechanism is necessary for monitoring and evaluation purposes. Sources Autocratic Leadership Style. University of Calgary. Retrieved on 7/12/10 at http://www.ucalgary.ca/ose/files/ose/Defining%20Leadership%20Handouts.pdf Collaboration. Kenneth Crow and Associates. Retrieved on 7/12/10 at http://www.npd-solutions.com/collaboration.html Definition of Employee Relations. NASA. Retrieved on 7/12/10 at http://ohcm.gsfc.nasa.gov/employee_relations/whatis.htm Employee and Labor Relations. University of Oregon. Retrieved on 7/12/10 at http://hr.uoregon.edu/oa/ Employees Relations Services. Florida Atlantic University. Retrieved on 7/12/10 at http://www.fau.edu/hr/EmpRelations/index.php LaFasto, Frank and Larson, Carl. When Teams Work Best: 6,000 Team Members and Leaders Tell What It Takes to Succeed. Retrieved on 7/12/10 at http://www.uky.edu/~drlane/teams/lafastooutline.html Reward System. Definition. Retrieved on 7/12/10 http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/reward-system.html Sharpe, Dave. Choosing Leadership Styles. Montana State University Extension. Retrieved on 7/12/10 at http://www.msuextension.org/communitydevelopment/pubs/mt8404.pdf University of Memphis Employee Relations. Retrieved on 7/12/10 at http://bf.memphis.edu/hr/employeerelations/categories.php Read More