Leadership - different perspectives
The term leadership refers to "the dynamic process in a group whereby one individual influence others to contribute voluntarily to the achievement of group tasks in a given situation" (Pettinger, 2000, pg.120). Good leadership is essential to the organizations to help members defining their goals and finding ways to achieve them as well as to influence the activities of the followers through altering communication process and allocating resources in order to achieve corporate objectives (McShane & Travaglione, 2003, pg.466). In order to achieve organizational success, leaders must have a good understanding of employee's values, perceptions and attitudes. By analyzing the case study 'Managing like a Man', we can see how employees' values and perception affects their attitudes. This essay will discuss employees' attitude towards work/life balance, consultation and inclusion at work, and leadership style. This essay will also discuss Sally's attitude which is influenced by her values and perceptions and relate it to discrepancy theory. Recommendations to improve Sally's leadership style will be identified.
EMPLOYEES PERSPECTIVE
As mentioned above, value influences someone's attitude. According to Wood, Wallace, Zeffane, Chapman, Fromholtz and Morrison, (2004, p. 111), values are "global beliefs that guide actions and judgments across a variety of situations". Value is about someone's perception towards certain conditions. It contains a judgmental element in that they carry an individual's ideas about what is right, good, or desirable. Values are important to organizational behaviour because they are the foundations of employee attitudes and motivations and influence their perceptions.
In the "Managing like a Man" case study, the employees have high values towards work/life balance. It was showed from the fact that the employees are unhappy with the new decision to change the working hours. Previously, employees have to work 10 hours per day, and now they have to work 8 hours with the same salary as before. The problem occurred as the 8 work hour was divided into three shifts (6 a.m.-2 p.m., 2 p.m.-10 p.m., and 10 p.m-6 a.m.). For the employees, the only sensible time for work is from 6 a.m.-2 p.m. because employees have responsibility towards their family. The employees believe that balancing the demand of work and family is important. Balancing the dual demands and responsibilities of work and family roles has become increasingly widespread problem experienced by employees and employers (Graham and Crossen, 1996). If the balance of the demands is not equal, then it would become a work-family conflict, "an incompatible pressures arising simultaneously from the intersection of work and family roles (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985 in Parasuraman & Simmers, 2001, p. 556).
In the case study, the employees believe that the new system should have been discussed with the employee before she implemented it. Communication is an ongoing process. By incorporating activities that inform and involve workers, employees' behaviour will be motivated. Effective communication is strategic, 'leader driven' and seeks to build an understanding among employees about the vision and direction of the business. 'Walking the talk', that is leading by example is imperative if a manager is to develop trust within an organization. In the case study, Sally is making the decision without any consultation with the employee, as the result the employee is dissatisfy with their job. The employees believe that Sally only thinks about how to increase productivity without considering the employees situation.
The employees also think that Sally is a bad manager with lack of leadership capabilities. They describe Sally as a task-oriented leader who is more oriented to the productivity than people-oriented who is more oriented to the relationship between manager and the subordinates (McShane & Travaglione, 2003). The employee also believe that as female manager, she has to be more participative and considerate to the employee than a male manager. According to Pettinger (2000, p. 128), the characteristic of participative management style is "the decisions made by the group, by consultation or vote, all members bound by the group decision and support it, all members may contribute to discussion, development of coalitions and cliques, and leadership role is assumed by Chair"
Attitudes are defined as "the cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings and behavioural intentions towards an object" (Mc Shane and Travaglione, 2003, pg.119). Attitudes are an important component of organizational behaviour. Attitudes are influenced by values, but they focus on specific people or objects. Employees' positive or negative feeling about their job as a result of the participation it allows is an example of attitude. It is important for leaders to understand people in terms of their attitudes, because strong attitudes are very likely to affect behaviour (Perlman and Cozby, 1983, cited in Tosi, Rizzo and Carrol, 1990).
The attitude that the employee showed about the problem is they complained to the General Manager about their dissatisfaction with the current workforce. Dissatisfy workers often complaint to their supervisor about their labour workforce before decides to leave the job (Lee & Mitchell in Greenberg, 1994).
SALLY'S PERSPECTIVE
From Sally point of view, she believes that what she does to the company is right. Her values and perception influence her attitude towards the company and the employee. When she was in Asia, she implemented the exact system and it turned out to be very successful ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
The attitude that the employee showed about the problem is they complained to the General Manager about their dissatisfaction with the current workforce. Dissatisfy workers often complaint to their supervisor about their labour workforce before decides to leave the job (Lee & Mitchell in Greenberg, 1994).
SALLY'S PERSPECTIVE
From Sally point of view, she believes that what she does to the company is right. Her values and perception influence her attitude towards the company and the employee. When she was in Asia, she implemented the exact system and it turned out to be very successful and she did not get any complained from the employees. She tried to implemented the system in Australia, but it turn out that even the productivity increase in such a short time, but the employees are dissatisfy with the work environment. The basic problem that Sally faced is the culture differences. Sally was used to work in Asia, which has a quiet different culture with Australia. Culture is "the learned and shared ways of thinking and doing things found among members of a society" (Wood, Wallace, Zeffane, Schermerhon, Hunt and Osborn, 1998, p. 73). Another problem that Sally faced is Sally felt that she did a great job by increase productivity up to 20 percent but in return the company not valuing her. Theoretically, the situation that Sally faced related to discrepancy theory, "a theory that partly explains job satisfaction in terms of the gap between what a person expect and actually experience in the job" (McShane & Travaglione, 2003, p. 129). Sally expected that she would be highly valued since she put a lot of effort to increase the productivity for the company, but in reality her senior management and employees not happy with what she did. Sally also has to deal with stereotyping from her employee. Stereotyping is "the tendency to make generalizations about people from different cultures" (Wood et. al., 1998, p. 562). From the case study, Sally's employees stereotyping her as a female manager, who suppose to be more participative and concern about the employees circumstances than a male manager.
To the organization, a situation between Sally and the employee could be a big problem in a long term perspective. According Wood et. al. (1998, p. 85) there are six things that employer can do to minimize the possibility of performance problem such as,
"carefully recruiting and selecting employees who have the appropriate skills and motivation to go abroad, providing adequate training and orientation in preparation for life in the foreign culture, encouraging language training if the posting involves a foreign language, actively supporting employees while on assignment abroad, particularly during the first few months, paying careful attention to the needs of employee's spouses and families, since many failures are due to their inability to adapt to the new country, and providing a mentor back in home organization to maintain contact with the expatriate while on foreign assignment".
Sally's attitude towards her situation is that she seriously began to consider leaving the organization to start her own consulting business in cross-cultural management.
LEADERSHIP IMPROVEMENT
To be a good manager, Sally has to have good leadership skills. Sally can improve her leadership skills by having a better understanding about leadership and leadership styles. As been mentioned, leadership refers to "the dynamic process in a group whereby one individual influence others to contribute voluntarily to the achievement of group tasks in a given situation" (Pettinger, 2000, pg.120). There are three leadership perspective such as, Behavioural perspective, Contingency perspective, and Transformational perspective.
In behavioural perspective of leadership, it identifies two clusters of leader behaviour: people oriented and task oriented. According to McShane & Travaglione (2003), People-oriented behaviours include showing mutual trust and respect for subordinates, demonstrating a genuine concern for their needs and having a desire to look out for their welfare. Task-oriented behaviours including assigning employees to specific tasks, clarifying their work duties and procedures, ensuring that they follow company rules and pushing them to reach their performance capacity. It is recommended that Sally takes into consideration of both people-oriented and task-oriented behaviour in her leadership style. By taking into account both styles, Sally is able to satisfy both the organization and employees.
In Contingency (Situational) Perspective there are four different types of leadership model. The first one is Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership. This theory focus on readiness of the followers (Refer to Appendix 1). Readiness is "the extent to which people have the ability and willingness to accomplish a specific task" (Wood et. al., 1998, p. 512). This theory argues that it is the job of the leader to give guidance and direction and to provide socio-emotional support (Wood et. al., 1998, p. 512) according to the readiness of the followers. It is Sally's job to understand the working environment of SilkQueen and implement the appropriate leadership response. She should be more relationship-motivated rather than task-motivated.
The second is Fiedler situational leadership. (Refer to Appendix 2) This theory believes that "leader effectiveness depends on whether the person's natural leadership style is appropriately matched to the situation". Fiedler's model assumes that group performance depends on leadership style, described in terms of task motivation and relationship motivation and situational favourableness. He suggests that it may be easier for leaders to change their situation to achieve effectiveness, rather than change their leadership style. If Sally adopted this leadership style solution, it is better for her to move to another department in which she can implemented her current leadership style to improve the productivity of the organization.
Third is the path goal theory. (Refer to Appendix 3) McShane & Travaglione (2003, p. 472) defined path goal theory as "a contingency model of leadership that effective leaders influence employee satisfaction and performance by making their need satisfaction contingent on effective job performance". Robbins (1997, p. 147) stated that "a leader's behaviour is motivational to the degree that it [1] makes subordinate need satisfaction contingent on effective performance and [2] provides the coaching, guidance, support, and rewards that are necessary for effective performance". It is suggested that Sally should adopt a combination of supportive, participative and achievement-oriented behaviour in her leadership style. Sally should support her employees to increase group satisfaction and performance as well as involve employees in the decision making process. At the same time, challenging goals are set and high performance is encouraged. By adopting these leadership styles, Sally should be able to achieve high productivity while taking into account of employees' values, need and wants.
The fourth is Leader Participation or often called Vroom-Yetton Leadership Model. This model suggests the selection a leadership style for making a decision. There are five decision making styles, [1] Autocratic 1 - Problem is solved using information already available, [2] Autocratic 2 - Additional information is obtained from group before leader makes decision, [3] Consultative 1 - Leader discusses problem with subordinates individually, before making a decision, [4] Consultative 2 - Problem is discussed with the group before deciding, [5] Group 2 - Group decides upon problem, with leader simply acting as chair (Robbins, 1997). As mentioned above, Sally should involve the employees in the decision-making process. She should discuss problems with the employees before making a decision. This is to achieve a better outcomes for the productivity and job satisfaction.
Transformational Leadership is "a leadership perspective that explains how leaders change teams or organization by creaing communicating and modeling a vision for the organization or work unit, and inspiring employees to strive for that vision" (McShane & Travaglione, 2003, p.478). Transformational leaders display attributes including charisma, intellectual stimulation of followers, and individualized attention and consideration toward followers. This leadership style adopts the "walking the talk" system (McShane & Travaglione, 2003). It is better for Sally to adopt the transformational strategy since it involves the employees more in decision making process. As been mentioned, the employees expect Sally to be more cooperative and concern about the employees' conditions. Sally will satisfy employees' expectation that can lead into better performance from the employees.
CULTURE
In order to have a better understanding about leadership, Sally has to know about culture differences between nations. Culture has many definitions. All people in the world and every aspect of human life is touched and altered by culture. Culture affects everything people have, think and do as members of their society because material objects, ideas, values and attitudes, and normative or expected patterns of behaviour make up culture. (Usunier, 1996) Culture cannot exist on its' own and is always shared at least by two members of a society (Onkvisit & Shaw, 1993).
It is possible that an individual shares different cultures with members of several different social groups of which he/she is part of. In a particular situation he/she switches into the culture that is operational at that moment. (Usunier, 1996). "Culture is the one that defines the boundaries between different groups" (Hall, 1976, p. 16). Culture also prescribes the behaviours that are considered acceptable in a social group (Onkvisit & Shaw, 1993).
Hofstede (1980, p. 21.) defines culture as "the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another". This definition covers what he has been able to measure, i.e. systems of values, because nearly all mental programs are affected by values. Values are the most fundamental components of national cultures. Values are the facts that make cultures different. Values determine what is required and forbidden, what is good and bad, and what is right and wrong. They also determine the way an individual thinks and are partly unconscious. The knowledge of values that prevail in a culture is important because individuals behave according to them and in business life they have an affection for example on "the willingness to take risks, the leadership styles and the superior-subordinate relationships" (Usunier, 1996, p. 96). In order to be able to understand successfully the organization's environment, it is important for Sally to examine cultural values of both one's own and the other party's cultures (Ferraro, 1990, p.92).
There are four values that have been received the most attention and seem to account for a large portion of the differences in the way people think and act across the culture. First is Power distance, "the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally" (Hofstede 1991, 28). Hofstede (1980) assumes that the larger the power distance, the more centralised is the control and decision-making structure. In the larger power distance countries, decicions are made and accepted by the top authority. In these cultures, employees are seen afraid of disagreeing with their bosses as well as approaching and contradicting them. Bosses are seen as autocratic or paternalistic. In contrast, the lower the power distance, the more participative the manager and the employees in decision making. The power distance in Asia and Australia is different. In Australia, the culture tend to be low power distance, while in Asia have high power distance. (Refer toAppendix 4)
Second is Individualism vs. Collectivism. This dimension describes "the relationship between an individual and his/her fellow individuals, the collectivity which prevails in society" (Kalé, 1996, p. 23). In other words, it describes the degree to which the individuals are integrated into groups and reflects the ways in which people live and work together. Collectivism have very loose ties between individuals, and everyone is expected to look after their own self-interest, while individualism have very strong ties between individuals that form the in-group and socially disengaged emotions.
Third is Uncertainty avoidance, which means "a lack of tolerance for ambiguity and the need for formal rules"(Kalé, 1996, p. 22). It indicates "the extent to which certain culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured, new, unknown and surprising situations" (Hofstede & Usunier, 1996, p. 122). The two extremes of this dimension are weak and strong uncertainty avoidance societies. Uncertainty avoiding people have higher job stress and greater generation gap. In the higher level positions the average age is higher. They think that managers should be selected on the basis of seniority and that managers should be experts on the field they manage (Hofstede 1980, 132-140). Low uncertainty avoidance countries do not feel threatened by ambiguity and uncertainty and they do not feel a need to control environment, events and situations (Kalé 1996, 23).
Fourth is Masculinity vs. femininity. Sex roles between cultures vary a lot. This dimension has to do with "the extent to which societies hold values traditionally regarded as predominantly masculine or feminine"(McCall & Warrington, 1984, p. 83.). A masculinity index describes how far people tend to adopt goals more popular among men or women. "Masculine goals include assertiveness, respect for the super-achiever, and the acquisition of money and material possessions while feminine goals are characterized by nurturing, concern for the environment, and championing the weaker" (Hofstede & Usunier, 1996, p.122) (Refer to appendix 4), Australia is less masculine than countries in Asia region. It means that Australia emphasize more solidarity and modesty. Feminine cultures have closer relationship with managers and they prefer working in a friendly atmosphere. They also find employment security important.
CONCLUSION
As values, beliefs and perception affect attitude, a good manager has to be aware of the employees' values and must be able to align it with his or her leadership style. In addition, manager must adopt leadership style that is effective to the situation and the follower. The case of "managing like a man" proves that there is a close relationship between culture and leadership style. As every culture adopt different values, manager must be able to adapt his or her leadership style to the culture and environment of the organization. The effectiveness of a leader can be increased through experience, education, and training. Effective managers are the ones that incorporate effective points of various leadership styles and approaches as well as continuously re-evaluating themselves, others, and their environment.
Reference List:
McShane
Wood, J., Wallace, J., Zeffane, R.M., Schermerhorn
Robbins
Pettinger
Greenberg
Parasuranam
Boss
Mamman
Tosi
Graham
Ferraro, Gary P. (1990), The Cultural Dimension of International Business, Prentice-Hall: New Jersey.
Hall, Edward T. (1976), Beyond culture, Anchor Books/Doubleday: New York.
Hofstede, Geert & Usunier, Jean-Claude (1996), Hofstede's dimensions of culture and their influence on international business negotiations, Pergamon, Elsevier Science Ltd: Oxford.
Hofstede, Geert (1980), Culture´s consequences - International differences in work-related values, Sage Publications: London
Hofstede, Geert (1991), Cultures and organizations - software of the mind, McGraw-Hill Book Company Europe: London.
Huczynski, A.A. & Buchanan, D.A. (1991), Organizational Behaviour, Prentice Hall: New York.
Kalé, Sudhir (1996), How national culture, organizational culture and personality impact buyer-seller interactions, Pergamon, Elsevier Science Ltd: Oxford.
McCall, J. B. & Warrington, M. B. (1984), Marketing by Agreement - A Cross-Cultural Approach to Business Negotiations, John Wiley & Sons Ltd.: Chinchester.
Onkvisit, Sam & Shaw, John J. (1993), International marketing, Macmillan Publication: New York.
Usunier, Jean-Claude (1996), Cultural aspects of international business negotiations, Elsevier Science Ltd: Oxford.
Appendix 1
Figure 2. Hersey and Blanchard Situational Leadership Model
Source: http://www.commerce.usask.ca/faculty/ewetzel/Robbins_CW/chapter98/medialib/blanchard.pdf
Appendix 2
Figure 3. Fiedler Contingency Model
Source : http://instruction.bus.wisc.edu/obweb/lectures/leader.web/sld018.htm
Appendix 3
LEADERSHIP FACTORS
Leadership Behaviour Options:
CONTINGENCY FACTORS
Subordinate Attributes:
CONTINGENCY FACTORS
Work-Setting Attributes:
SUBORDINATE OUTCOMES
Motivational Behaviour:
. Directive
Authoritarianism
Internal-external orientation
Ability
Task
Formal Authority System
Primary Work Group
Expectance that effort leads to performance
Instrumentality that performance is path to valued rewards
2. Supportive
3. Achievement Oriented
4. Participative
Directive - When task is unstructured, complex or novel or subordinates lack skills, then be the directive leader because they need your instruction and you to remove any obstacles in their path.
Supportive - When task is unambiguous, boring or stressful, be this leader to increase satisfaction of your subordinates.
Achievement Oriented - When task is unstructured, you can be achievement-oriented by challenging followers so as to increase their self-confidence and satisfaction.
Participative - When task is unstructured then your style is to call for participation.
Figure 4: Path Goal Contingency Theory
Source: http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/teaching/338/situation_and_contingency.htm
Appendix 4
Table 1: Scores on four dimensions for 50 countries and 3 regions (rank numbers: 1=lowest; 53 = highest) (based on Hofstede - Usunier 1996, 123.)
Source: Hofstede, Geert - Usunier, Jean-Claude (1996) Hofstede's dimensions of culture and their influence on international business negotiations. In: International business negotiations ed. by Pervez Ghauri and Jean-Claude Usunier, 119-130. Pergamon, Elsevier Science Ltd: Oxford.
MGW 2630 ANDIKA PRATAMA
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 18789193
