(LMC, 2008)
Mintzberg’s roles can help categories managers into areas of their strength which would enable them to know which areas to develop. This theory suggest that managerial roles can be particularly varied and often contradictory in its demands, therefore it is not always the role of managers but the complexity of individuals which can trouble managers at work
Progressing onto leadership, according to McCauley & Van Velsor (1998) leadership development is recognized as expanding the collective capacity of organisational members to connect effectively in leadership role and processes. Leadership roles are the expectations and responsibilities that are obtained with and sometimes without formal authority. Leadership development focuses on developing skills and builds capabilities so that the select group of people can handle unpredicted situations (Keys &Wolfe, 1988), usually with a clear and level headed approach.
Conceptual context is the idea that leadership is an individual level skill, the idea of developing leaders versus developing leadership. The transformational leadership theory advocates that the transformational leader should have Charisma being trusted, admired and respected by his/her followers (Bass, 1985). This approach makes a distinction between the ‘leaders’ and the ‘followers’ which generally means that to evaluate the development of the ‘leader’ the followers would be questions on how well they think the leader is doing and so forth. Through this theory, training individual, intrapersonal, skills and abilities are all thought to be way in which leaders develop. However, this development method appears to ignore years of research which indicated that leadership works more efficiently with a designated leader and the social & organisational environment (Fiedler, 1996).
As with many theories there are two sides to every argument, sometimes even more and this is no different for leadership. Scholars have two opposing observations about Leadership: one of which is that people need to work hard to develop qualities before they can emerge as leaders (Henrikson, 2006; Kakabadse, 1999; Kakabadse and Myers, 1996), whereas Grint (2002) holds the belief that leaders are born.
Strategic HRM
Strategic human resource management (SHRM) is considered to be relatively ‘new’ strategic approach to manage human resources of an organisation (Wei, L. 2006) in spite of being continuously modified over the past years.
‘Fit’ is the characteristic that is known by scholars that with application within human resources can help with achieving organisational goals. According to Wright and McMahan (1992: 298), fit means “the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable the firm to achieve its goal.” There are believed to be two kinds of fit these are horizontal and vertical. Delery and Doty (1996) refers to horizontal as “the internal consistency of the organisation’s HR policies and practices.” The Vertical fit refers to the “congruence of the HR system with other organisational characteristics such as firm strategy” (p.804). If SHRM is to effectively increase performance as well as decrease turnover, organisations must utilize both types of fit rather than using both individually.
For successful implementation of strategic fit not only is it necessary to use both horizontal and vertical but it is necessary to use the skills as well as the abilities of the organisations employees. Organisational members are important for triumphantly accomplishing strategies and goals (Lado & Wilson 1994) as HR practices that have been properly implemented can have a positive impact on a company’s performance. The achievement of business strategy is only really realized through the management of people which is why the HR system and practices are crucial in the current working environment.
Scholars have studied the link between HR practices and strategy (Wright & McMahan 1992, Wright & Snell 1998) conversely due to a lack of quantifiable evidence it would appear that this link is comparatively unconvincing in comparison to the relationship among internal HR practices.
According to Mumford, Bedell-Avers and Hunter’s (2008:397) hypothesis, women and men differ in negotiation intensity, and managers, whether intentional or not, allow these pay and promotion differences to continue. Non- coordinated HRM policies continually allows bias of managers and those hiring to negatively affect groups of employees. When managers have more freedom, in terms of less oversight and less discretion a manager receives from the organisation, the larger the opportunity for bias will appear.
Women in Management
As already mentioned, within the review there is an incessant dispute over the alleged differences between leadership and management. Yukl (1998) believe that management and leadership are different but interrelated concepts. According to Kotter (1996) a manager develops a plan whereas a leader creates a vision. Women and ethnic groups in executive and managerial roles or any senior leadership status have been found to be under represented (Townley, 1994) which is demonstrated in most literature and leadership research. Even though Townley could be deemed outdated by critics it is evident 18 years on that equality on management level has not been achieved and may never be.
For years scholars have been debating which sex is stronger in management between the masculine or feminine approach to leadership (Orser, 1994; Bruni et al., 2004; Priola, 2004) with men dominating the board rooms around the globe with only 5 to 20 percent of directors of significant companies are women (). Although there is an increasing level of women in entrepreneurial endeavors, academics have maintained that entrepreneurship remains a masculine concept (; ; ).
‘98’ (The Independent, 2011) is the number of years estimated that it will take female executives to have equality in pay with men at the current rate. A common theme illustrated in the literature appears to be is a pessimistic view of women in management; however, this is focused on the difficulties and challenges women face in the business environment. It is claimed that women are burdened with organizational barriers to advancement (Galinsky et al., 2003) including few role models and gender stereotypes as well as being disproportionately under represented at management level (Broadbridge, 2006) especially at senior level.
It is alleged that gender equality in management and leadership can improve the performance of a company especially as women managers can “bring a wider range of perspectives to bear in corporate decision making, contribute team-building and communication skills, and help organisations to adapt to changing circumstances” (OECD, 2009: 31). The downside to this opportunity is at what cost are the women will to get the managers positions? The commitment of management entails delaying or foregoing child bearing and marriage. In societies where women are primary responsible for the household and raising the child, the consequence of the workload may result in potentially over exhausted women leading to negative health outcomes. Furthermore, the stress and the late hours would not be good for their families (Harenstam and Bejerot, 2001).
Conclusion
Management and leadership development are two different entities despite what some scholars might tell you. Although elements within management and leadership can overlap and integrate with each other such as training and developing leadership skills they are still two separate units. Management and leadership have been around for decades but the principles and theories are still used from when they were first written. Outdated may not be the right term to use however a ‘revamp’ of the management theories are necessary to bring they theories up to date.
Strategic Human Resource Management is beneficial in helping towards making a business more productive and crucial to the modern working environment positively impacting the company’s performance. Although bias in the workplace caused by HRM when hiring managers could be one of the main reasons for why women are struggling to enter management.
There is much debate surrounding women in management with a lot of feminist approaches being written, as well as predominately male ones. The only way for women to succeed in higher positions in businesses is for the stereotyped ideal of what a manager or executive should be to be wiped out of people conscious, however this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
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