Leader and Organizational Behavior - Admission/Application Essay Example

Leader and Organizational Behavior After thorough research and extensive self-evaluation, I have concluded that I would be a valuable asset to your company “Forever 21, Inc.” The job I had my sights on was that of the Vice President of Operations and I have great faith in my abilities as a leader that I would fare well in the position in question. For one, I am greatly impressed by your organization and having followed its growth extensively over the last two years. I strongly believe that your organization’s mission statement and goals greatly coincide with my personal ambitions, and ours could be a relationship fruitful to both, your organization and me. I maintain that I am the ideal candidate for this job because I am sufficiently educated and possess the adequate qualities that would help me greatly in filling this position. A typical Vice President of Operations of a company as large and progressive as yours would be entitled to be a committed worker. I understand that the duties include creating and upholding the vision and overall direction of the company, and supervising and evaluating the work of other top position-holders, such as department directors, operations managers. Moreover, a Vice President would play a crucial role in the approval and laying out of the day-to-day operations of the company, aiding and assisting subordinates should the need arise while identifying potential areas of improvement. In addition, at times, a Vice President could be required to coordinate with the directors of different departments. Lastly, a Vice President would, of course, be required to analyze a company’s overall performance by reviewing financial statements, customer feedback and sales and activity reports. In general, a good Vice President of Operations would have to be sharp and in control of the operations at hand while maintaining a cohesive work environment to maximize productivity and eliminate internal conflicts. If I were to be awarded this position, I would be fully committed to being hard working and dedicated to the company and, in particular, to my job. In my experience, I have learnt that I work best in demanding conditions by being organized from the get-go and assigning myself goals and aims from the beginning of the project (Smith, 1992). I have found that goal setting helps me greatly because it allows me a sense of focus as opposed to being distracted by unnecessary objectives that should not be given precedence. Simply put, lacking a goal could disperse my attention over all the possible, yet needless, objectives in a certain circumstance. Moreover, because it has been found that the more challenging the goal, the greater the motivation to achieve it, I believe my work quality would improve dramatically as I would be more inclined and persistent to work harder. Furthermore, setting goals would help me in using my time more productively by allocating it to the pressing tasks at hand (Wilson, 2008). In addition, I would be using my resources most efficiently (with the least waste) to productively aid the company. I believe setting goals helps in personal growth, all the while motivating you to work harder and more diligently to strive for what you set out to achieve. Setting targets for myself would show me clearly the vision I aim to uphold and would push me harder and harder until I successfully achieve it. For someone in a position as demanding as that of Vice President, some direction is necessary. I feel that setting goals such as being prompt with my work, or being thorough in my reports would better motivate me into becoming a good Vice President for the company and would give me a sense of confidence once these goals are realized. In the past, I have worked for various companies and have had to deal with demanding circumstances such as rushed deadlines, miscommunications in the chain-of-command, and conflicting behavior of coworkers and lack of cooperation from my superiors. While all these scenarios have proved to be sufficiently stressful, I have always prided myself in having dealt with them well. I am a very calm and collected person and have never been reduced to panic or tears during a crisis. That being said, I do not undermine the severity of problems or crises but I do have a levelheaded approach when it comes to dealing with unforeseen situations and I believe that as Vice President of this company, I would be employing the same tactics. Needless to say, Vice Presidency of any organization, let alone a large one such as Forever 21, Inc. is a taxing position and naturally comes with a certain level of stress and anxiety. While it is natural and inevitable that as Vice President I would have bouts of stress, I aim to reduce them as much as possible and have ample ideas on how to overcome it and deal with stressful situations at work. For one, outside the workplace, for years I have been a devout practitioner of Yoga, which helps me relax and cleanse my mind of worries. Furthermore, I have never been a workaholic and have juggled my social life and career remarkably well in the past. I have steady support from my friends and family and they are my outlet for frustrations, which means that I would be attending to my duties at work with a cool mind and no-pressure attitude. However, seeing as this new position would be way more demanding than my previous work experience, I would take a few more steps to make sure the stress does not get to me. For example, I would make an effort to go to the gym and release my frustrations on the treadmill. Another step I could take would be to maintain good relationships with my coworkers so that in the face of a crisis, I would have support in the workplace in the form of complying subordinates (Sims & Quatro, 2005). I would also make sure to get enough exercise, not overwork, eat healthy, and meditate regularly. Moreover, should situations arise where orders have to be cancelled, or production lines have collapsed, I would be a quick thinker and assess all the possible routes we could take to combat the problem. I am good when it comes to dealing with pressure situations because, as I mentioned before, I do not panic. I understand that every organization has internal conflicts at times. It would be idealistic to assume otherwise, but I also realize that conflict and friction within the workplace only harm and hamper the progress and productivity of the company at hand. Therefore, I believe that if I were Vice President, I would take adequate measures to both prevent and react to conflicts that will surely arise during my tenure (Winkler, 2009). More often than not, it can be found that after analyzing the cause and root source of most of these conflicts are miscommunications between employees or between a supervisor and an employee. Either way, a conflict ensues and hurts the company and the general temperament of the workplace and workforce. Other employees pick sides, and sometimes if the conflict escalates, even trade unions get involved. Differences are the foundation of conflicts in a workplace. Differences in ways of thinking, differences in ways of looking at a problem, differences in prioritizing the company’s needs and demands. Additionally, conflicts between employees can result from differences in ethnicity, or differences in education, or even differences in salaries and pay packages. While all these disparities are unavoidable, if I were Vice President, I would work hard to destroy any negative impact they would have on the company, I would try to put an end to conflict not by snubbing it, but by bringing it out in the open and helping to resolve it. As Vice President, I would instill in employees the fact that differences could be useful in the working environment especially when ideas and strategies are exchanged. I think that listening is the key to solving a conflict and so, I would organize individual or group talks with the employees to bring issues out in the open so that they don’t end up becoming violent both verbally or physically in the workplace. Furthermore, I would try to understand the needs of the various people involved in the conflict so as not to let anyone feel neglected no matter how low or how high their position is in the organizational structure of the company. When voices are heard and concerns are brought out in the open, it paves the way for resolution and consequently, a happier workforce. Other than conflict between employees, clashes occur between leaders and their subordinates as well. In such cases, it is the leader’s responsibility to create a pleasant working environment for their employees and that is exactly what I would do if I were Vice President to avoid barriers in communication as it is widely known and accepted that conflicts in the workplace lead to broken communication often with lapses of control in the chain-of-command. Obviously, these lapses in communication are undesirable and hamper the progressive working of the organization, and so I would play an active role in curbing these internal conflicts. As Vice President, I would adopt a cooperative style of leadership wherein I would create and encourage bonds to form between the employees in the company while also maintaining a professional relationship so as not to transcend into employees’ personal space (DuBrin, 2012). Furthermore, as leader I would aim to set an example of selflessness and commitment to the organization by staying overtime when other workers are required to stay, to let them know that I am willing to put in the same amount of effort as they, and also to show them that I recognize the difficulties they face. In addition, I would value my subordinates by encouraging them to come forth with new strategies or ideas to improve sales, and I would strongly recommend them to contribute to the planning part of the business as well. I would work hard on recognizing my employees’ skills and talent and using their strengths to build a strong, productive workforce comprising not of individuals, but of valuable teams. Another thing I would definitely do as Vice President would be to enroll employees in mandatory training sessions to give them support and exposure to their work instead of throwing them right into it without any knowledge. Overall, I would adopt a democratic leadership style, having the final, firm hold on the company but also motivating employees to get involved and contribute with their skills. I would also strongly encourage feedback from the employees to help steadily improve the working conditions of the company, as they directly influence worker productivity, which, of course, would be our ultimate goal. References DuBrin, A. J. (2012). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Cengage Learning. Sims, R. R., & Quatro, S. A. (2005). Leadership: Succeeding in the Private, Public, And Not-for-profit Sectors. Springer. Smith, S. L. (1992). Setting Goals. Rosen Publishing Group. Wilson, S. B., & Dobson, M. S. (2008). Goal Setting: How to Create an Action Plan and Achieve Your Goals. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Winkler, I. (2009). Contemporary Leadership Theories: Enhancing the Understanding of the Complexity, Subjectivity, and Dynamic of Leadership. Springer. Read More