LEADERSHIP VISION

In my studies on business and leadership, I was impressed by the transformational leadership style and would like to become a transformational leader. Transformational leadership involves stating the ideas, communicating the vision and motivating the followers and encouraging them to focus their efforts towards meeting the objectives of the organization (Mullins, 2010). A transformational leader shows the followers why something should be done and guides them on how the task can be performed (Thompson, 2012). Transformational leadership also requires the followers to participate in reaching the goal. I will also like to practice ethical leadership and encourage my team to uphold ethics in business while at the same time working to improve the performance of the organization (Rubin et al, 2010).

Under this leadership, I will invest in knowing the capabilities of the followers to enable me understand how they contribute to the organization. It will be beneficial to understand the diversity of the team to use it to benefit the organization (Ibarra and Hansen, 2011). I will seek to be an effective leader by following the example of Nelson Mandela who led South Africa in a transformational manner to gain freedom and grow its economy without conflicts (Oates and Dalmau, 2013). I will also like to emulate the transformational leadership by Bill Gates and Richard Branson who have built successful business through effective leadership (Brooks, 2009).

I am ready to lead others as shown in the feedback I have received from my colleagues. I can influence others to follow my line of thought and focus their efforts to achieve the set targets (Thompson, 2012). My commitment, optimism and belief in my abilities influence others to be committed and perform the desirable duties. I also have the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed as a leader (Adair, 2003). I have adequate knowledge on financial management, planning, administrative and time management which is beneficial in enabling me to perform as a leader.

My friends say that I am flexible to different situations and therefore can succeed in a changing world. My abilities to lead change are excellent as I have learned on the best ways of leading change and enabling an organization to benefit from the change (Berry and Cartwright, 2000). I am also able to motivate people and inspire them to accept and implement the changes necessary for the development of the organization (Kouzes and Posner, 2008). With these strengths I can say that I am ready to lead others.

However, there are areas and weaknesses that require improvements. It is necessary that I improve my leadership skills in a number of areas. First, I should improve my communication skills by learning to listen which will enable me to create good relationships and understanding with my followers and build mutual trust (Yukl, 2010). It is important that I also improve my speech by reading articles on public speaking. Once I improve my public speaking, I will be able to build my confidence and command respect from my followers and thus become an effective leader. 

I also have another weakness that my affect my effectiveness as a leader which is lack of experience. I have held few leadership positions and this will affect my ability to lead a group. To compensate for this, I will spend more time studying on how to solve various challenges and also seek advice from my mentors on how the specific challenges can be overcome. 

Due to my little experience on leadership, it will also be challenging for me to deal with diversity in a team. To overcome this, I will invest more time to learn about the cultures of the team members and interact with each member in order to understand their behaviours and interests to enable me utilize their strengths for the benefit of the team (Ibarra and Hansen, 2011). I also envisage that I will be challenged to lead and manage change in the organization due to my inexperience. However, I can put more effort and also involve members in the change process to enable the team succeed. Generally, I believe I have the ability to lead and the few weaknesses I have, I am dealing with them.

References

Adair, J. (2003), Concise Adair On Leadership, ThorogoodPublishing Ltd

Berry, A.J. and Cartwright,S. (2000) “Leadership: a critical construction”, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 21 Iss: 7, pp.342 – 349

Brooks, I. (2009). Organisational Behaviour: Individuals, Groups and Organisation, 4th Edn. Pearson Education Limited. 

Ibarra, H. & Hansen, M. (2011). ‘Are You a Collaborative Leader?’ Harvard Business Review, 89, 7/8, pp. 68-74.

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. Z., (2008) The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition, Jossey-Bass

Mullins, L.J. (2010), Management and Organisational Behaviour, 9th Edition, Harlow: Pearson Higher Education.

Oates, V. and Dalmau, T. (2013). ‘Ethical leadership: a legacy for a stronger future’. Performance, Volume 5, Issue 2.

Rubin, R, Dierdorff, E, & Brown, M (2010), ‘Do Ethical Leaders Get Ahead? Exploring Ethical Leadership and Promotability‘, Business Ethics Quarterly, 20, 2, pp. 215-236.

Thompson, J. (2012) ‘Transformational leadership can improve workforce competencies’, Nursing Management – UK, 18, 10, pp. 21-24.

Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in Organizations. 7th  Edition. Prentice Hall.

LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE

It is true that change is not new, but a normal fact in life which requires organizations to always change in order to remain competitive and relevant in a very dynamic and competitive environment. Due to the nature of change, many people resist change as they prefer a status quo while others thrive in constant change as they adapt to the new challenges (Mullins, 2010). 

Due to the changing demographics and expectations of employees, advances in technology, change of consumer preferences and attitudes to customer service and globalization, organizations must accept change in order to succeed in their industry (Mullins, 2010). However, not all organizations succeed by implementing change as witnessed in the internet bubble and the real mortgage bubbles that led to failure of companies (Mullins, 2013). 

In order to succeed in a competitive and globalized environment characterized by advancements in communication technology, organizations implement change and succeed (Kotter and Cohen, 2002). However, not all organizations succeed by implementing change. Some industries like fashion industry require organizations to maintain their brand and thus change can lead to loss of market and failure (Branson, 2008).

Often, individuals and organizations resist change due to a number of reasons. The perception of the individuals of the impacts of change, fear of uncertainty and the expected inconvenience of the change make people to resist the change. Organizations also resist change due to the desire to maintain stability and the culture of the organization (Kotter and Cohen, 2002). However, failure to implement change is not always due to resistance to change but lack of capacity by the individuals and the organization can cause them not to accept change (Mullins, 2013).

Management can do little in avoiding resistance to change (Mullins, 2010). However, managers can take steps to overcome this resistance. This can be achieved by creating a sense of urgency to all members, then build a team with credibility to help lead the change (Mullins, 2010). Managers should create visions that are clear, sensible and uplifting and to communicate the vision and strategy for the change to induce commitment. Furthermore, managers can empower action, produce short wins, put efforts to maintain momentum and maintain a new culture to effectively implement the change (Kotter and Cohen, 2002).

Organizations that accept change and manage change effectively often succeed as is the case of CISCO which moved from traditional technology and a silo-based structure to a model based on the lifecycle theory which led to the improvement of its operations and its success (CISCO, 2009). Virgin money effectively led change to benefit from the disruptive nature of the banking industry and was able to revamp the industry (Branson, 2015). Organizations that fail to adopt change risk failing in their operations as was the case of Kodak which failed to embrace digital technology leading to failure in its operations (Jawanjal, 2015).

I will lead change by using Force Field Analysis (Lewin, 1951). I will start by defining the problem and inform the members that we are should change the condition. Afterwards I will communicate the change objective to the followers Toachieve the change objective, there are forces that drive the change which I should identify as well as identifying the forces that will resist the change. Afterwards I will come up with a strategy to implement the change in such a way to gain the support of those members who support the change and also overcome the resistance from those resisting the change. This model of change management will enable the organization to change in a structured a manner and yield better change. However, this approach assumes that change is intermittent which is against the general research about change (Mullins, 2010).

To lead change in the manufacturing industry, management should protect the dignity of the staff, unleash potential through organization authority, employ consensus, clearly state the mission and vision of the change, unlock the human desire to work, provide feedback and state the values for the change (Harley, 1995). Managers should also create an environment of trust, ensure genuine participation of all involved parties, provide incentives, maintain job satisfaction and empower the employees in order to overcome resistance to change (Mullins, 2013).

References

Branson, C. M. (2008). ‘Achieving organisational change through values alignment’. Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 46 Issue 3.

Branson, R. (2015). 20 years of making everyone better off. [Online], Available at: http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/20-years-of-making-everyone-better-off, (Accessed: 06 April 2015).

CISCO (2009). ‘How Cisco IT Implemented Organizational Change and Advanced Services for Operational Success’. Cisco IT Case Study, CISCO.

Harley, W. B. (1995). ‘Eight critical principles of empowerment’. Empowerment in Organizations Vol. 3(1), p.5-12.

Jawanjal, A. K. (2015) ‘What are great examples of companies that failed because they didn’t adopt new communications technology?’ Quora. [online], Available at: http://www.quora.com/What-are-great-examples-of-companies-that-failed-because-they-didnt-adopt-new-communications-technology, (Accessed: 05 April 2015).

Kotter, J. and Cohen, D. (2002). The Heart of Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press

Lewin, K. (1951). Field Theory in Social Science. New York: Harper.

Mullins, L.J. (2010), Management and Organisational Behaviour, 9th Edition, Harlow: Pearson Higher Education.

Mullins, L.J. (2013), Management and Organisational Behaviour, 10th  Edition, Harlow: Pearson Higher Education.

MOST EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP STYLE TO MANAGING THE WORK OF SUBORDINAT

In managing subordinates, managers should employ leadership rather than management. Management is the process of making people perform a task through their own efforts through the powers bestowed upon the manger by virtue of their position (Mullins, 2010) while leadership is the process of exerting influence on followers to understand a task and agree to do it (Yukl, 2010). In other words, leaders facilitate individuals and the group to achieve shared objectives. 

There are similarities between management and leadership in that both have the same ultimate goal of achieving the set objectives of the organization (Adair, 2003). Leadership and management are also people-oriented (Berry and Cartwright, 2000). In addition, leadership and management require one to have some ability to perform, that is, the relevant social skills and psychological qualities (Mullins, 2010). 

On the other hand, leadership and management have differences. Leadership involves doing the right thing while management involves doing things (Kouzes and Posner, 2008). Additionally, leadership creates change while management creates stability in an organization (CIPD. 2010). Again, management is based on resources and the system while leadership is based on the initiative of the leaders and their followers in performing a given task (CMI, 2013). Basically, a leader pulls the followers to perform a given task while management pushes subordinates to achieve a given task.

Transformational leadership is the best approach of managing subordinates whereby a leader considers the followers individually and influences their actions by motivating them and stimulating their intellect (Thompson, 2012). A transformational leader articulates an appealing and clear vision, explains how it can be achieved, expresses confidence on the individuals and through their own optimism and confidence inspires the subordinates to achieve the desired goals (Berry and Cartwright, 2000).

Bill Gates and Paul Allen are good examples of transformational leaders and I would like to be led in their manner. They set a vision for Microsoft to provide computer for each home or desk which led to the transformation of computing. Bill Gates still works with staff at Microsoft to be innovative and create ways of improving the accessibility of technology to people (Bae, 2015). Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin money led the company to revamp the banking industry through her passion and inspiration and led staff to focus their efforts to enable the company succeed (Branson, 2015). These set an example of how I would like to be led.

A poor approach to managing subordinates can lead to failure of a business. For instance, Blackberry lost their market and its growth was affected by not adapting to the competition of Samsung and iPhones due to poor leadership (Finkelstein, 2013). There were cases of nepotism whereby the company was promoting people on the basis of their duration of working in the company than on their capabilities and competence. Due to the nature of the industry, failure to promote skillful people led to the failure of the company (Mick, 2013).

Another relevant approach to leadership is situational leadership whereby a leader’s actions vary according to the situations and the characteristics of the individuals (CMI, 2013). This kind of leadership requires a leader to be flexible and adapt to the situations to enable them to find solutions to the prevailing needs of the organization. However, this kind of leadership is based on the perceptions of the situation which are subjective and these differences in perceptions can lead to conflicts in the organization (Kouzes and Posner, 2008).

As a member of a team I prefer to be managed by a transformational leader because this leader spreads the aura of optimism and inspires me to work towards the objective. I would like the manager to communicate the vision and explain what is required of the team and how it can be achieved. The manager should also provide a clear path to the vision and show us the passion to spur us to focus in achieving the set targets. I would also like the manager to inform us of the rewards for achieving the tasks. I prefer a leader who is confident of our abilities to achieve the set goals.

References

Adair, J. (2003), Concise Adair On Leadership, ThorogoodPublishing Ltd

Bae, H. (2015). ‘Bill Gates’ 40th anniversary email: Goal was a computer on every desk’. CNN Money. [Online], Available at: money.cnn.com, (Accessed: 06 April 2015).

Berry, A.J. and Cartwright,S. (2000) “Leadership: a critical construction”, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 21 Iss: 7, pp.342 – 349

Branson, R. (2015). 20 years of making everyone better off. [Online], Available at: http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/20-years-of-making-everyone-better-off, (Accessed: 06 April 2015).

CIPD (2010) Sustainable organisation performance Whatreally makes the dIfference? Interim Report January 2010, London: CIPD

CMI (2013) Understanding Management Styles Checklist 236,  Chartered Management  Institute: London.

Finkelstein, S. (2013) ‘The worst CEOs of 2013‘, BBC News, [online] available from http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20131212-the-worst-ceos-of-2013 [accessed: 5th April 2015] 

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. Z., (2008). The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition, Jossey-Bass

Mick (2013) ‘5 Businesses Sunk by Poor Leadership‘ [online] available at http://www.leader-values.com/wordpress/5-businesses-sunk-by-poor-leadership-anna-johansson/[accessed: 5th April 2015].

Mullins, L.J. (2010), Management and Organisational Behaviour, 9th Edition, Harlow: Pearson Higher Education.

Thompson, J. (2012) ‘Transformational leadership can improve workforce competencies’, Nursing Management – UK, 18, 10, pp. 21-24.

Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in Organizations. 7th  Edition. Prentice Hall.

THE CHALLENGE OF MANAGING TEAMS

Managing a team is a challenge to managers and leaders. Often teams comprise people of diverse cultures, backgrounds and training with diverse goals and objectives which leads to conflicts and many other problems to the organization. If managers lead teams in a better way, they will produce better results and vice versa (Ibarra and Hansen, 2011). There is evidence of organizations benefiting from diverse teams and therefore, the duty of leaders is to manage teams in such a way that the team produces better results.

A diverse work force benefits an organization by increasing its market share due to the ability of the diverse work force to deal with the needs of diverse customers (Solomon, 2010). Organizations can tap from the creativity, improved problem solving and innovation of the diverse teams which improves the competitiveness of an organization (Wright et al., 1995). In addition, the ability of diverse teams to be flexible to the dynamic needs of the company is very beneficial to the organization (Mullins, 2013). 

 

 

Diversity can negatively impact and organization by causing a loss in the productivity of individuals and the total productivity of the organization due to bias, complaints and legal suits against the company (Devoe, 1999). Negative behaviours and attitudes among the team can damage working relationships and lead to reduction in their productivity (Ibarra and Hansen, 2011). The conflicts of interests may also be detrimental to the success of the organization (Mullins, 2013). 

The skill of managing diversity is important in the computer industry. Leaders must be able to unite people from diverse cultures, backgrounds, generations and disciplines and have the skills to leverage the potential of these teams to increase productivity in their organizations (Ibarra & Hansen 2011). Managers must understand forms of discrimination and the consequences of discrimination (Buckingham, 2005). With the non-discrimination policy, HP has managed its diverse workforces to succeed in innovation (HP, 2015).

Additionally, the ability of the manager to understand the best action to be taken by the company based on the dynamics of the team and teamwork by including everyone in the organization (Mullins, 2013). Both IBM and HP emphasize inclusion of all employees in the work place to contribute to improving the companies’ performance (HP, 2015; IBM, 2015). Managers should always train the team to change their behaviours.

HP has an open door policy whereby employees share their challenges to one another and are able to help one another and improve the performance of the company. In IBM the shared values of the workforce from different backgrounds that emphasize information which has led to the success of the company (IBM, 2015). These companies have performed due to the efficient management of diversity underscoring the argument that the skills of managing diversity are important in the computer industry.

Leaders can use the knowledge of managing diversity to boost performance in their organizations. This can be achieved by ensuring that the team shares the values and goals of the organizations, the people relate well with one another and keeping a personal touch with the team (CIPD, 2010). This enables the members of the organization to focus all their efforts towards a common goal. However, having common goals for the team may hamper the creativity of the employees who may feel like their efforts will be contravening the goals of the company.

It is also important for leaders to cultivate the spirit of collaboration among the team to enable the team to work as a unit, trust one another, resolve conflicts and succeed (Buckingham, 2005). Resolving conflicts enables an organization to benefit from the conflict by increasing cohesion in the team and boosting a team spirit. However, trying to resolve conflicts may make the leaders to deviate from the important goals of the company and lead to poor performance.

To improve performance, the leader should introduce performance as a measure of success in the team and always review the progress of the team in achieving their objectives (Mullins, 2010). When employees know that their performance is appreciated, they will all contribute to the success of the company. However, introducing performance will cause members to compete with each another and have more conflicts.

References

Buckingham,  M. (2005). ‘What Great Managers Do’. In Harvard Business Review, Vol. 83 Issue 3, p70-79

CIPD Publishing (2009) Leadership qualities / actions [online] available from  30 December 2014.

Devoe, D. (1999). Managing a diverse workforce. San Mateo, CA: InfoWorld Media Group.

HP (2015). Managing Diversity. [Online], Available at: www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-information/about-hp/diversity/index.html, (Accessed: 06 April 2015).

Ibarra, H. & Hansen, M. (2011). ‘Are You a Collaborative Leader?’ Harvard Business Review, 89, 7/8, pp. 68-74.

IBM (2015). Diversity & Inclusion. [Online], Available at: http://www-03.ibm.com/employment/us/diverse/, (Accessed: 05 April 2015).

Mullins, L.J. (2013), Management and Organisational Behaviour, 10th  Edition, Harlow: Pearson Higher Education.

Solomon, C., (2010), The challenges of working in virtual teams.  RW3 CultureWizard.

Wright, P., Ferris, S. P., Hiller, J. S., & Kroll, M. (1995). ‘Competitiveness through management of diversity: Effects on stock price valuation’. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 272–287.

Ethical Leadership

Ethical leadership is when leaders conduct themselves appropriately through their actions and in interacting with others, and through their communications promote the good conduct to their followers (Rubin et al, 2010). It is the role of the leader to identify a set of values, goals and beliefs for the organization and influence others to direct their efforts to achieve them (Mullins, 2013). Ethical leadership involves doing a right thing that benefits the stakeholders in the long-tern whereby a leader sets a balance between the short-term and long-term goals of the organization to achieve positive results for the stakeholders in their decision making (Oates and Dalmau, 2013).

There are two principle theories that help define ethical leadership: teleological and deontological. Deontological theories argue that ethical leadership is based on rules, that is, the duty of leaders and followers is emphasized regardless of the results, whereby each individual knows the dos and don’ts in the organization (Rossouw and van Vuuren, 2010). Under this approach, actions are emphasized and the moral law is given great importance. Teleological theorists argue that good leadership is evaluated by the consequences of the actions of the followers and the leaders (Rubin et al, 2010). Here, the impact of an action is what measures the effectiveness of a good leader. That is, the action that benefits more people, whether good or bad, is accepted. In this kind of leadership, rules are not given significance as opposed to results meaning that values and beliefs are not given prominence over the actions that are taken by the people. As a consequence, the organizations will have a better performance but their efforts on sustainability and responsibility will be little (Rossouw and van Vuuren, 2010). Thus, the deontological approach of leadership better explains ethical leadership because actions are important in ensuring performance and sustainability.

There is evidence that the good conducts of leaders can positively impact the effectiveness of both the individuals and organizations under their leadership (Rubin et al 2010).  For instance, Mullane (2009) illustrates a case in University of Georgia whereby Jan Kemp publicly criticized the University’s actions of allowing student athletes to participate in sports even after failing remedial classes and was fired. She then sued the University which led to reforms in the University that led to academic standards for college athletes being raised in the University of Georgia and nationwide. Another case of ethical leadership is illustrated by Tesco PLC which contributes to the sustainability of the community by providing 1% of the pre-tax profits for corporate social responsibility projects and sets fair prices to the customers (Tesco, 2013). This has enabled the company to remain competitive and grow its profits.

Often, unethical behaviour by a leader may enable a business to succeed in the short term but in the long-term may back fire (Mullane, 2009). An example of unethical leadership is illustrated in the case of Enron. The managers of the company managed their accounts to show that the company was growing and for six years, 1995 to 2000, the annual revenues of the company rose from $9 billion to more than $100 billion. Upon realizing the unethical practices, the financial statements for the company were revised reflecting a loss of $586million. As a result the share prices dropped from $90 per share in 2000 to around $1 per share in 2001 causing losses of $11 billion to the shareholders. Finally, by 2001 Enron was declared bankrupt (Li, 2010). This case shows that the unethical actions by the leaders at Enron, though it led to improvement of the share prices in the short-term, they were exposed resulting to losses to the shareholders.

In conclusion, ethical leadership is important to an organization has it enables a company to improve its reputation, gain a competitive advantage and also leads to the improvement of performance of organizations. Therefore, leaders should act in an ethical manner and always motivate followers to act ethically. This can be achieved by doing right things and upholding integrity in the organization. It is important for leaders to conduct themselves in an ethical manner as they set the tone for their organizations.

References

Li, Y. (2010).  ‘The Case Analysis of the Scandal of Enron’. International Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 5, 10.

Mullane, S. P. (2009). ‘Ethics and Leadership’. White Paper Series. University of Miami.

Mullins, L.J. (2010), Management and OrganisationalBehaviour, 9th Edition, Harlow: Pearson Higher Education.

Mullins, L.J. (2013), Management and OrganisationalBehaviour, 10th  Edition, Harlow: Pearson Higher Education.

Oates, V. and Dalmau, T. (2013). ‘Ethical leadership: a legacy for a stronger future’. Performance, Volume 5, Issue 2.

Rossouw, D. and van Vuuren, L. (2010). Business Ethics, Oxford University Press.

Rubin, R, Dierdorff, E, & Brown, M (2010), ‘Do Ethical Leaders Get Ahead? Exploring Ethical Leadership and Promotability‘, Business Ethics Quarterly, 20, 2, pp. 215-236.

Tesco, (2013). ‘What matters now: using our scale for good’.Tesco and Society Report 2013. [online], Available at: www.tescoplc.com/files/pdf/reports/ar14/download_annual_report.pdf, (Accessed: 30 March 2015).