Teamwork Competencies Required by a Small Business Owner - Essay Example

'Based on a review of the current literature, describe the management, leadership and teamwork competencies required by a small business owner to be effective in their role'. Introduction Organizational management is defined as the four-function based approach to managing the work environment in a business organization. There are four functions that a manager has to perform in this environment. They are planning, leading, organizing and controlling or coordinating. On the other hand organizational leadership is defined as the ability based on specific skill of an individual to lead his/her subordinates in a manner that pre-planned organizational goals could be achieved within the defined time-frame. According to Burns (1978) and Bass (1985) transformational leadership has a set of category constructs such as values, morals, farsightedness, long term goals, principles, acute awareness about the dividing line between causes and symptoms, mission statements, strategic perspectives and human resources. Similarly they identify a set of category constructs in the transactional leadership also. For instance concentration on the task at hand, short term goals and tactics, confusion concerning causes and symptoms, too much involvement in power relations, politics and statistics, fulfillment of expectations based on readily available systems, reliance on human interrelations and the persistent support for organizational structures, systems and relations. Analysis Warren Bennis (1995) holds the view that less hierarchical more democratic institutions with the ability to adapt to the unfolding environment are the best. A competency-based contingency framework or model like this requires a series of sub-level functions or competencies to be outlined as of consequence though such heterogeneous elements which lie outside the functional domain of the manager's/leader's tasks could be avoided with convenience. For example the manager's/leader's common competencies are always inclusively treated in the theoretical framework for the purpose of reference. This is illustrated by the following diagram. The above diagram (Fig. 1) illustrates the minimum number of competencies for each functional area and thus the fully-fledged framework identifies and addresses the management/leadership competencies and issues that correlate with each other to produce an integral system of reference and analysis (Covey, 2004). For instance the vision & mission of the organization are identified with the long term corporate and business goals, irrespective of the size of the business. Such goals or objectives are essentially strategic in nature because they necessitate a degree of dependence on the organizational culture and leadership to bring about the appropriate environmental characteristics to achieve those long term objectives. Theoretical outline of the competency framework David Kolb's Experiential Learning teaches the manager to take experience as the source of learning (Kolb, 1983). On the other hand the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is based on an evaluation of psychometrics that is designed to assess the different psychological behaviors concerning perceptions and decision making preferences of individuals (Myers, McCaulley, Quenk and Hammer, 1998). The manager/leader is a functionary whose primary function/competency to determine the organizational goals is set out in the mission statement and the annual reports to its stakeholders. Thus organizational goals will have to be achieved by utilizing and organizing the available resources and combining them with people or employees in a manner to maximize both output and minimize costs. Towards this end the manager seeks to combine supplies and provisions and then integrate suppliers and creditors into the whole process of management. Next, he needs to adopt methods in order to build integrated networks or process for easy control and execution of strategy (Williams, 2002). Leadership theories and teamwork models Trait theories of leadership focused on the innate psychological traits of people and basically they sought to identify positive and creative traits such as liberal mindedness and independence in leaders as essential characteristics to lead their subordinates to achieve organizational goals. McCall and Lombardo (1978) were some of the first writers among those to establish a confluence of ideas on organizational success/failures and trait theories. They concentrated on emotional stability, good interpersonal relations, admission of mistakes and intellectual capacity. Subsequently researchers began to place greater emphasis on behavioral tendencies of leaders (Thomas, 2002). These theories seek to identify leadership skill with education and training. In other words according to them leadership qualities are not inherited at birth but acquired in later years through education. These theories are more or less focused on the need for the leader to lead his followers towards organizational goals by concentrating on behavioral tendencies such as positive encouragement and achievement. Next contingency theories of leadership are concerned with the choice of environment. A particular environment might be more suitable to produce certain outcomes than others. Thus these outcomes are determined by the qualitative variables such as the leadership style, approach to labor relations and understanding of the situation (Northouse, Editor, 2006). Situational theories of leadership focus on the choice of the best situation such as in exceptionally well suited circumstances for the achievement of organizational goals. The situational leadership would identify the kind of environment for result oriented decision making and seek to adopt an appropriate strategy accordingly (Blanchard, 1997). Next relationship or transformational leadership theories focus on the positive links between the leader and his followers (Bass & Riggio, 2006). Transformational leaders are able to inspire and motivate their subordinates in a manner that the latter would have all the freedom to achieve organizational goals performing on a team spirit. Since transformational leaders act in conformance with high ethical standards subordinates would have the potential to contribute towards organizational goals. Participative theories of leadership concentrate on the leader's need to identify and acknowledge the level and quality of contribution by each member of the team. Thus there is a greater element of democratic participation by members of the group in the overall decision making process (Bush, 2003). However there is also an element of control exercised by the leader by retaining the ultimate power in his hands to decide on the member's capacity to contribute or not. The management or transactional theories of leadership, which highlight the need for supervision of subordinates' activities, give prime importance to the organization and team performance. These theories are basically determined by rewards for achievement and punishments for failures (Bush and Coleman, 2000). For many people entrepreneurial success depends on this approach because businesses either succeed or fail depending on employees' ability to generate profits or not. Thus teamwork is an integral part of the transactional theories though they place emphasis on performance only. Finally instructional leadership is associated with the leader's functions including the delegated functions. Small business environments require democratic but transformational leaders to achieve organizational goals (Blase, 2003). While there can be a substantial amount of delegation in the work environment, there can also be much less clarity by way of defining goals except to focus attention on performance related metrics such as the sales volumes and profits thus leading to unnecessary confusion among employees. The instructional leader is essentially the one who identifies the complex circumstances of the competitive environment and accordingly advises his staff. This is a team effort based on the prior identification of skills among subordinates as in a small school. The need for a broader analysis than this is necessary because there are as many leadership styles/theories as there are types of organization. However the small business setting and its resultant implications would take up the greater part of this analysis. This paper successfully outlines the theoretical and conceptual model on leadership suited to the small business environment. The background to the leadership and teamwork analysis is replete with many aspects of theoretical significance. Leadership styles in small business environment acquire a prime dimension, i.e. the style itself is of deterministic importance to the organizational outcomes in that the entrepreneur as the leader in this instance would not be prevented from performing a dual role both as the leader of the team and the chief manager (English & Anderson, 2004). Conclusion Different leadership theories have been put forward under different circumstances of the internal organizational environment. It's essential to identify a set of leadership characteristics or norms including some variants and elements of the transformational leadership and instructional leadership in a particularly small business organization context. In other words the team work relationship ought to be positively influenced by these leadership traits. This is particularly important when teams are headed by democratic leaders as in consultancies. The leader has to help his staff in various ways including giving rewards and motivating them by promoting senior staff members. These activities are directly related to the transformational leadership and therefore there is a degree of co-opting behavior for the staff given by the leader in the decision making process. This participatory element in the decision making process of the work environment adequately identifies and addresses most of the most important and pressing requirements of the staff in order for them to perform well. Teamwork models or leadership models as explained above are the most theoretically and conceptually appropriate ones for the small business organization and its work environment. REFERENCES 1. Bass, B. M. & Riggio, R. E. (2006). Transformational leadership (2nd ed). New York: Routledge. 2. Bass, J. & Fullan, M. (2006). The Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership (Jossey- Bass Teacher). New Jersey: Jossey-Bass. 3. Bennis, W. G., (1997), Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge (2nd ed.). New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 4. Blanchard (1997). Situational Leadership. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. 5. Blase, J. R. (2003). Handbook of instructional leadership: how successful principals promote teaching and learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press. 6. Bush, T. (2003). Theories of educational leadership and management (3rd ed). California: Sage Publication. 7. Bush, T. & Coleman, M. (2000). Leadership and strategic management in education. California: Sage Publication. 8. Covey, S. R. (2004). The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness: Stephen R. Covey (Author) > Visit Amazon's Stephen R. Covey PageNew York: Free Press. 9. English, F. W. & Anderson, G. L. (2004). The Sage handbook of educational leadership: advances in theory, research, and practice. California: Sage Publications. 10. Goethals, G. R. & Burns, J. M. (2004). Encyclopedia of Leadership. California: Sage Publication. 11. Kolb, D.A., (1983) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of learning and Development: New Jersey, Prentice Hall, Inc. 12. McCall, M. W. & Lombardo, M. M. (1978). Leadership: where else can we go North Carolina: Duke University Press. 13. Myers, I.B., McCaulley, M.H., Quenk, N.L and Hammer, A.L, (1998), MBTI Manual(A Guide to the Development and Use of TL Indicator, (3rd Ed.), California, Consulting Psychologists Press. 14. Northouse, P. G. (Editor). (2006). Leadership: Theory and Practice. California: Sage Publications. 15. Thomas, D. C. (2002). Essentials of international management: a cross-cultural perspective. London: Sage Publication. Read More