Leadership in an organization
Leadership
Overview
Leadership in an organization is an important factor when trying to build a successful business. The University of Phoenix e-Resource textbook defines leadership as "influencing others to work willing toward achieving objections, a trait that works well for businesses with employees who want to follow their leader. The leader has the ability to plan, campaign, organize, and implement programs within company's or outside of the company in any given situation. The best leaders will always know the people that work for them, and they always know how best to motivate them into doing their job and performing beyond their expectations. This is the type of leader employees and managers will follow at Hawaii e-Grocery and Delivery warehouse, one that will be able to work well with everyone and motivate other managers to get their jobs done.
Leadership Styles
The Hawaii e-Grocery and Delivery warehouse uses three different styles of leadership in our organization and depending on the department or situation, we will implement one or more of these leadership styles. Our organization will utilize one or more of these leadership styles:
* Participative
* Transformational
* Production/Job Centered
The first style is the participative leader, which our company's managers will set the stage for the employees to maintain some control, and then allow the employees to participate in the decision-making process. The participative leadership style is one of the more popular styles of managing organizations because it creates positive attitudes among the employees and it allows the managers to be effective leaders. The textbook defines the participative leader as a leader that shares the problem with their subordinates as a group and evaluates possible alternatives as a group to reach an agreeable solution. This style of leadership will benefit our managing staff at HEGD because we will hire professional and knowledgeable managers and employees who will be able to grow with our company. In effect, Hawaii e-Grocery and Delivery warehouse will use these leadership styles to mold and shape future leaders to keep with our organization or to take with them to their future destinations.
Advantage
The textbook's example of a participative leadership style is if employees are able to participate in setting their own goals, most times those goals might be higher than the expectation of the leader's goals. By using the participative leadership style in our organization, we are allowing our employees a chance to get involved in the decision-making process of "what to do" and "when to do it." The advantage of this style of leadership is it promotes responsibility for our employees and is a sign of strength, which employees will come to respect in our leaders. This type of leadership is especially effective when the employees are knowledgeable in some areas and are able to contribute that knowledge to our organization. Our leaders will give these individual employees a chance to be a part of the team and participate in our company's overall decisions although the final decision is in the hands of the manager. Our leaders will also be able to motivate our employees and give them the opportunity to do well in their efforts to complete their tasks.
Disadvantage
The disadvantage of utilizing the participative leadership style comes if the leader loses control of a situation and employees start to make all the decisions. This situation can leave our employees with the thought that our leaders are weak, that they are not effective leaders, and they may lose respect for that leader or manager. The manager must be able to take control from the beginning before allowing the employees to be involved with the decision making process of the company's present and future plans. Without setting the rules and controlling the meetings from the beginning, ...
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Disadvantage
The disadvantage of utilizing the participative leadership style comes if the leader loses control of a situation and employees start to make all the decisions. This situation can leave our employees with the thought that our leaders are weak, that they are not effective leaders, and they may lose respect for that leader or manager. The manager must be able to take control from the beginning before allowing the employees to be involved with the decision making process of the company's present and future plans. Without setting the rules and controlling the meetings from the beginning, situations can get out of hand and the leader will no longer be in control of the decision-making process.
The second style is the transformational leader, defined in the course textbook as the process of influencing major changes in the attitudes and assumptions of the company's employees. One must first understand exactly what transformational leadership is in order to use it in the workplace. Transformational leadership is a process that changes and transforms individuals to build a commitment for the organization's mission, objectives and strategies (Dessler 440). To some extent, a transformational leader has the ability to make people to want to change and improve to better their situation as well as the company, and to respect and allow the manager to lead them to a successful future. This process involves evaluating our employees' motives within the organization and to satisfy their needs by putting a value on those needs. Therefore, a transformational leader could make our company more successful by addressing the needs of our employees and placing a high value on those needs.
Our organization can benefit by hiring managers who have these leadership styles, especially the transformational leadership style which will help to build motivation and commitment within our employees, effectively guiding them toward fulfilling the organization's mission, objectives and strategies. The manager with this leadership style will be responsible for leading the company into restructuring and creating new visions for the future success of our organization, our managers, and our employees.
There are four factors of transformational leadership, which are a charismatic leader, an inspirational leader, a considerate leader, and a stimulating leader, and the following explains each of these four factors:
* Charismatic leaders display conviction, emphasize trust, take stands on difficult issues, present their most important values, and emphasize the importance of purpose, commitment, and the ethical consequences of decision.
* Inspirational leaders articulate an appealing vision of the future, challenge employees with high standards, talk optimistically and with enthusiasm, and provide encouragement and meaning for what needs to be done.
* Considerate leaders deal with others as individuals; consider their individual needs, abilities and aspirations, listen attentively, further their development, advise, and coach.
* Stimulating leaders question old assumptions, traditions, and beliefs. They stimulate in others new perspectives and ways of doing things, and encourage the expression of ideas and reasons (Northouse).
Advantage
As with any theory or approach to leadership, advantages and disadvantages become evident. Advantages are widely researched using well-known leaders, effectively influence employees on all levels from one-on-one to the whole organization, and strongly emphasize employees' needs and values. Disadvantages have many components that seem too broad, treat leadership more as a personality trait than as a learned behavior, and have the potential for abusing power (Northouse).
Transformational leadership is a vital role for effective managers because leader effectiveness determines the success level of the organization. Organizations that take the time to teach leadership are far ahead of the competition. By becoming familiar with the transformational leadership styles and combining the four factors, managers can become effective leaders in the business world. Transformational leadership can be applied in one-on-one or group situations. Using this approach, the manager leader and the employees are transformed to enhance job performance and help the organization be more productive and successful.
Production/Job Centered (Advantage and Disadvantage)
The third leadership style is the production/job centered leader, which, in order to be an effective production/ job centered leader, we need to focus the needs of our organization and strive for consistency between the organization's capabilities and the competitive advantage being sought by our organization. As a leader in the development of our company, competitive advantage will occur, through the implementation of our company's strategy. Those strategies are as follows:
* Effective utilization of scale economies
* Concentration of learning in our store one plant or in a small number of plants
* Integration of operations
* The coordination or the concentration of activities to support production and product development
* The development and application of effective manufacturing policies
* The pursuit of quality
The successful adoption of concepts such as total quality management (TQM) will depends on the total company's commitment. Such a program will reduce input requirements and will enhance output, but for optimum effect, TQM will be a part of my program to develop competitive advantage through the creation of market satisfaction. Furthermore, as a production/job centered leader, the retention of our company's customer base is a big competitive advantage associated with improved quality.
Our company's operating profits will improve along with productivity, as quality levels rise as well as improve customer satisfaction and retention. In the twenty-first century, greater product quality is the best way to build consumer satisfaction levels. Improved quality costs money in the short run but for the long run, improving quality generates greater profitability. Poor quality means poor sales over a long period of time and if HEGD cannot take corrective action, the company could find itself in great debt or even bankruptcy. Therefore, expenditures of the organization are not additional costs on quality control but are, instead, an integral production costs whether the product produced is goods or services.
Also our responsibility as leaders is to make sure the reduction in costs throughout the operation chain and the compression of time within the supply chain make it possible to gain more of competitive advantages in (1) price, (2) product innovation, (3) quality, and (4) service. The cost and time compression is obtainable by adopting a company strategy that is greater than that, which can be obtained by our completion. As a production/job centered leader it is also possible to organize and coordinate the company structure on an island-to-island basis, that way our company can to take advantage of cost and technology.
Healthy Organizational Culture
The HEGD managerial levels are responsible for maintaining a healthy organizational culture within our company to improve the capabilities of our company's subordinates. In order for our organization to create a positive culture we need to be sure we hire the right people to do the job and make certain all levels of management are of the same mission and goals as the company. Employees who follow their leaders will eventually adopt their style of leading which is why it is important for our organization to set the right culture. Using these leadership styles within our organization will benefit us in the long run because leaders will know their subordinates and know the appropriate time to use one or more of the leadership styles in our organization. They will know when to be participative leaders, when to be transformational leaders and when to use the production and job-centered leadership style to get the employees to work proficiently and effectively.
Leadership Theory
Based on our conclusions as to the types of leadership styles our organization will adopt, we decided that the situational leadership theory would best describe our company's managing level. The situational leadership theory (model) describes four leadership styles that are appropriate only in certain situations:
* The delegating leader lets the members of the group decide what to do themselves.
* The participating leader asks the members of the group what to do, but makes the final decisions himself or herself.
* The selling leader makes the decision himself or herself, but explains the reasons.
* The telling leader makes the decision himself or herself, and tells the group what to do.
Because of the diversity of our organizations functions of products and services, the situational leadership theory of a leader being able to succeed in one area may not guarantee success in another area stands true. With the different departments in our organization, our leaders cannot manage the company using the same style of leadership and expect to be successful in all departments. We need leaders who can adapt to any situation and apply the best leadership style for that given situation in order to implement the best decision.
Works Cited
Dessler, Gary. Management: Theory, Practice and Application. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson, 2003.
Northouse, Peter G. Leadership Theory and Practice. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA.
Sage Publications, 2001.
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