The Concept of Groupthink - Coursework Example

Blog Diverse Teams Produce Better Results As William Cowper put it, “variety is the spice of life”. Todays society in all nations is one that hasencouraged people of all social, cultural and racial backgrounds to integrate into a wide framework of social and cultural affairs and matters. This blog will examine the importance of diversity and analyse and describe how diverse teams produce better results than homogeneous teams. After the Second World War, homogeneity lost its hold. The United Nations was formed with various reasons, including the protection and preservation of human rights (Watson, 2010). The effect of this is that global polity and affairs were modified to integrate and accept all peoples through the acceptance of human rights. This has led to the creation of laws that protect the minorities and allows people of all backgrounds to operate within societies. This has led to the creation of multicultural and multiracial societies around the world Naturally, diverse societies mean diverse markets. And the implication is that a bank will be serving customers of diverse backgrounds. Thus, diverse teams used in the banking sector implies that consumers are not going to be of one single background. Typically, a bank in London will serve not only Anglo-Saxon customers including English, Irish, Scot and Welsh customers. In the 21st Century, there are customers with diverse origins including Indians, Arabs, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese, Africans and a wide diversity of people. There is therefore the chance and opportunity for a diverse team to produce better results through the operation of a service that considers and integrates all people and all communities. Thus, in terms of marketing and income generation, diverse teams have a much better chance of surviving and producing optimum results ahead of non-diverse teams. In the technical sense, diversity in teams involve the presentation of people from diverse occupation backgrounds. This involves people who have different expertise and different competencies. Due to this, a leader is likely to have a pool of different competencies and different thinkers. This allows the team to get a wide range of people who can add up to a rich and a diverse group of conversations to deal with matters in a positive sense and manner. A common problem in the banking sector is what the experts term groupthink. Groupthink is defined by Johnson and Scholes (2012) as a situation whereby all group members tilt towards a given solution and members fail to think and analyse things critically before giving a decision. As long as there is diversity in a team, there are bound to be different points of view. Different people will see the same thing differently and this will lead to a spate of proactive questioning and decision making which can lead to more robust and much better decisions and actions. Multi-skilling refers to a situation where people in a given group have different skills and different competencies. Based on this, there will be various skill sets that can be contributed to a diverse group. This will prevent unnecessary breaks, interruptions and other difficulties which come with monolithic groups. Such groups will need to import ideas and expertise from outside the team. However, in the case of a diverse team, different views and skills needed to deal with issues and matters can be sourced from within. This will help the team to work faster and much more efficiently because there is the likelihood that the group can build internal competencies and involve internal problem solvers who will not take support from external entities. Diverse groups are also likely to have linkages to a wider framework of components and units within an entity. This is because different people have different linkages to the entity. Thus, it will be much easier for a diverse team to get access to different units and different components of an organisation. In conclusion, the banking sector is a sector where diverse teams play a significant role. This is because the banks of most countries are now prone to dealing with people of different backgrounds and different origins. This is because the markets are diverse and hence, teams with a rich background of diversity are likely to provide solutions that will affect the people on the markets better. Secondly, diversity provide a rich pool of people who can analyse things more critically. Diverse team members are less prone to groupthink and stereotyping. They bring different skills to the fore and this can help to provide more efficient and quicker solutions to problems and issues. Diverse group members are more likely to have linkages and connections to other parts and components of the business and this can help to resolve matters much more quickly and more effectively as the team operates. References Watson, A. (2010) World History after 1945 London: Heinemann Johnson, G. and Scholes, K. (2012) Exploring Corporate Strategy New York: FT Publishing. Blog 2: Most Effective Leadership Style to Manage the Work of Subordinates In organisations, authority is given to the directors by shareholders or the other variations of owners. This grants authority to directors to use the resources of the firm and also take decisions that will benefit the firms. Directors appoint senior managers and middle-class managers are placed ahead of supervisors and the working staff. Due to this, they give instructions and expect them to follow. Hence, the managers play a leadership role in organisations. This blog examines the most effective leadership style that can be used to manage the work of subordinates like supervisors and workers in the banking sector. Leadership is defined as the approach to influencing subordinates to move from one point to another (Daft, 2008). This means that a leaders role is to influence followers to attain specific results through various kinds of guidance, control and communication. However, the main essence of leadership in the banking sector is to attain results that will help a company to attain its ends and desires. There are different facades and different views of leadership. In other words, there are various ways through which leadership can be perceived. However, the modern perception of leadership which defines what is good leadership and what is not is the classification into transactional and transformational leadership. And amongst these two, transformational leadership is the best approach to leadership. Transactional leadership is a form of leadership that focuses solely on results (Kruger, 2009). To this end, the leader seeks to extract results and only results, nothing else. This is what McGregor described as a slave master. In this scenario, the leader only uses subordinates to work and only cares about the results produced by subordinates. Other personal matters and issues are not considered by the leader. The leader only seeks to meet targets and that is it. In this case, the subordinate is seen as nothing but a means to an end. McGregor stated that transactional leaders have concern for results, and no concern for people. Transactional leadership is strongly linked to autocratic leadership. This is because the leader is likely to set standards and targets and impose them on the subordinates. Thus, the inputs of the subordinates is not respected. Only the results and following of instructions matter to the leaders. There is little or no concern for the subordinates. Transactional leadership is bad because it focuses on exploiting workers. When workers thrive in such an environment, they are unhappy and discontent. Apart from mechanically attaining results, they have absolutely no connection and identification with the firm. That is the reason why transactional leadership has been replaced with transformational leadership which is the best way to lead and run an organisation, including a bank Transformational leadership is a form of leadership where the aspirations and wishes of a firm is tied to the personal desires and expectations of the subordinates (Burns, 2010). Thus, transformational leadership is about a situation where the leader gets subordinates to attain results, however, in the process, they find out the best interest of subordinates and work with them to attain results. Transformational leadership links the desires and expectations of subordinates with the expectations of the firm. Thus, in a transformational leadership setting, a subordinate works for the entity and also sees himself as working to attain his own personal goals. Due to this, followers are willing to work hard and put in all their efforts. This is because they know that as they attain results for their organisation, they will also attain their personal goal. This puts motivation at a high level and they are willing to automatically do their best and contribute more to the companys wellbeing. Transformational leaders see workers as an end in itself, not only as a means to attaining results. They believe in growing with the employees to become better entities and better persons in the society. Transformational leadership is also democratic in outlook. Unlike the elements of transactional leadership which goes back to the era of the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s where businesses operated only to enrich their owners and exploit workers, transformational leadership promotes a system where the needs and expectations of workers are considered and integrated into operations. It helps to promote motivation and enhance the way employees contribute to the organisations success. In conclusion, transformational leadership is the best way to manage subordinates in the banking sector of the 21st Century. Transformational leadership links the desires and expectations of employees with the firms growth. This is in contrast with transactional leadership which seeks to exploit employees. References Burns, J. (2010) Transformational Leadership. New York: Jossey Boss. Daft, R. L. (2008) The Leadership Experience London: Thomson Learning. Kruger, J. (2009) Management and Leadership Mason, OH: Cengage Blog 3: Managing Change Change is an inevitable aspect of life. No society grows and thrives without changing. However, change can be destructive and it can create serious consequences to an organisation. Hence, there is the need for a banking sector entity to be conscious of change and assess the best ways of managing change as and when it occurs. This blog will examine the core and fundamental elements of change management and how it can be applied the banking sector. Change management is an evolving field of management and organisational behaviour. It seeks to examine the core elements and core aspects of organisations and how it can best deal with internal changes and other structural reforms. In order for change management to be successful, it must be clearly and unambiguously defined. In order to define change and manage it successfully, the proposition must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely (Reed, 2010). There must be a specific statement of what is going to be changed and how it is going to be done. In order to do this, the management must identify the issues related to the change and come up with a clear resolution of a framework for the entire change process. With the declaration of what will be changed, there is the need for the identification of targets and a roadmap for the change. These targets must be measurable and they must also be realistic, in other words, attainable. The implication is that the targets must be clearly measurable and hence, there must be a description of how this must be done. In order to be realistic, all issues and matters like anxiety and resistance by factions in the organisation must be addressed. There must be negotiations with the people going to be affected and there must be a major presentation of facts and figures to ensure that all groups accept it and are realistically tuned towards supporting the agenda at hand. Once all these matters and issues are resolved, the change can be clearly defined and a timetable can be drawn. This will provide a framework for the attainment of specific milestones at different stages in the change process. After that, there is the need for the implementation of the change management plan. The Lewin model indicates that change management is implemented in three phases: unfreezing, moving and refreezing (Pugh, 2012). Each of these stages will aim at getting the firm to collapse old structures, formulate new structures and consolidate them. Unfreezing refers to a situation where a firm gets rid of the old system and the old thing that merited change. This is done by closing down a relevant unit and/or dissolving the unit. This must be done in a way and manner that is sensitive to all stakeholders and persons affected by the old system. This is to take into account the affected persons and all affected infrastructure. The management must come up with a comprehensive implementation that will deal with all the relevant issues and matters. Once the old system is no more in place, there is the need for the company to set up new infrastructure and systems to deal with matters and issues. The new system could sometimes be set up during the unfreezing period. This is to ensure that it is tried, tested and evaluated appropriately before it is set in motion. During the unfreezing period, the movement could begin and this could overlap with the movement period. The movement period will involve the usage and changeover to the new system and this will involve setting up new infrastructure which in most cases, overlap with the old system and infrastructure. When the move is done, a number of things are going to change. And this involve the hard and soft elements of the organisation. This phase is known as refreezing because the new system must be consolidated and made productive. The hard elements involve the changes in infrastructure and the maintenance of the new system to ensure that it operates efficiently and effectively. The soft elements involve the modification of the culture of the firm in order to deal with the issues at hand. This will ensure that a firm is operates appropriately after change is implemented. In summary, change management involves the modification of the systems through an expressly stated plan and methodology that will change specific areas and aspects of a bank. This must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. In the process, there must be an unfreezing of the old system, movement to a new system and refreezing to consolidate the new system. References Pugh, L. (2012) Change Management in Information Services Surrey: Ashgate Publishing. Reed, R. J. (2010) Extraordinary Leadership: Creating Strategies for Change London: Kogan Page. Blog 4: Ethical Leadership The banking sector, like all other sectors require rules, regulations and standards to ensure that moral and legal considerations are integrated into management and control. Leadership in the banking sector needs to be ethical to ensure that the firm operates in a way and manner that is accepted by the wider society and also fair by absolute standards. In order to do this, there must be ethical leadership and this must be done by maintaining an appropriate system of rules and regulations. This blog examines ethical leadership in the banking sector and how it can be infused for optimal results. Banks are institutions and they are run by rules that emanate from the top, which includes members of the entity related to corporate governance (Hailey, 2009). This implies that an organisation will have to ensure that it has the right structures and the right framework for the attainment of its ethical framework and systems. In doing this, ethics are central. This is because organisations are like all persons in every nation. Hence, there is the need for organisations to set up a system of ensuring that all the members work and operate in a way and manner that is in sync with the belief of the owners and directors. Thus, the corporate governance system must set the framework for ethical leadership in an organisation and deal with them. The ethical framework provides the tone for the normal and mainstream approach to dealing with ethical issues an matters. Thus, leaders must adhere to these ethics. The process is to be achieved through the presentation of an ethical system and an ethical structure through which a leader must operate. Failure to adhere to the firms code of ethics makes a manager or leader of a bank liable to sanctions by the organisation and in extreme cases, the law of the land. In practice, though, it is common for managers and leaders to face ethical dilemmas in their operations and affairs (Trevino, 2003). This is because a leader has different components of stakeholders who seek different interests, expectations and desires. Hence, a leader will have to come up with various option and various elements and structures to deal with issues and problems. In spite of this, there is always a new situation and matter that might be out of the context and a leader will have to deal with the matter in order to ensure that all stakeholders are satisfied. In order to attain ethical leadership, a leader will have to examine and evaluate the facts of the situation or circumstance at hand (Trevino, 2003). This must be done by critically assessing the extent of the ethical matter and the implication of matter at hand. Through this, the manager will find various options that can be used to deal with the ethical dilemma. The manager or leader will have to evaluate each option according to various ethical implications and impacts. This will lead to various solutions and various possibilities in dealing with the issue and matter at hand. The evaluation of each option according to ethical standards will culminate in the identification of the impacts of each option in relation to relevant stakeholders. Based on this, a leader must come up with the best way of dealing with the matter and select the best option that can be used to deal with the matters at hand. When an ethical leader comes up with a solution and a way of dealing with a matter, that leader must sometimes consult his superior or in some cases, have a discourse with a professional like a lawyer to ascertain the best option (Anderson, 2009). This will help a leader to come up with a balance that can bring the best and optimal results that will be carried out to deal with a particular matter. After that, the individual must seek consultation with stakeholders and affected parties and where possible, come up with a range of solutions that can be attributed to a given matter and situation. In conclusion, ethical leadership is about leading an entity according to the relevant rules and regulations. These ethics are sometimes institutionalised and they are integrated to the fabric of the organisation. Some of these ethics are imposed by the external environment. However, in some cases, ethical dilemmas occur outside the normal scope of rules and regulations that are upheld by an organisation. In this situation, it is incumbent on a leader to assess the conditions and options available and come up with a solution that provides the best results to the entire organisation and its component parts. References Anderson, T. (2009) Multicultural Restructuring, Interculturalism & Small Economies London: Routledge Hailey J. (1999) “Localization as an Ethical Response to Internationalization” in International HRM London: Routledge Trevino L. K. (2003) Managing Ethics in Business Organizations. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. Blog 5: Why Should Anyone Be Led By Me As a blogger, I have come across a lot of questions and a lot of issues relating to leadership. Personally, I accept the definition of Daft (2008) who understood leadership to mean influencing people and getting them to move from one point to another. In this post, I put forward my competency and capabilities as a leader. This blog explains why I should be considered for a leadership position and leadership slot in an entity. Leadership is perceived from three main facades: innate, circumstantial and acquired. Innate leadership relates to a skill that a person is born with. Circumstantial leadership involves a situation where a person finds himself in a situation that requires him to act as a leader. Finally, acquired leadership is a leadership that is studied and learnt by experience. In terms of individual leadership characteristics, I have a constructive view of life and I have encountered various situations where I have shown my natural ability to lead. This include group discussions in school and other affairs in class where I emerged naturally to coordinate affairs and the control affairs. These situations were such that I was able to do things that automatically put me in a position where my colleagues and friends unanimously accepted me as the leader. This shows that I have an inborn quality and an inborn ability to lead. My biggest gift is respect for other peoples rights and democratisation of groups that I lead. This is because I believe every human being and every stakeholder deserves some degree of respect and sensitivity. Thus, I always do my best to ensure that different people in my group are all accepted and embraced. Human conscience is such that the people I work with also believe that other peoples rights must be recognized. This is because I always consult my followers and integrate their views in order to come up with a decision that reflects the entire group. Circumstantially, it appears that I am bound to take up a leadership position. This is because my course of study in Coventry University has been focused on leadership. With my degree, I am bound to apply for a top job that will eventually see me taking a top position in an organisation. This will definitely lead to a situation that will make me a leader. The main reason for this is that I have studied the art and science of leadership. And this gives me some degree of expert power in my field. Hence, I will have to coordinate affairs and steer the affairs of subordinates. As such, my subordinates have to work with me and they should be willing to cooperate with me in order to attain the obligations and affairs of any organisation I might end up working in. Also, I have learnt a lot in terms of leadership as a science. This is because my course has taught me various elements and aspects of leadership like types of leadership, motivation, coordination, communication and others. Due to this, other people who work with me are likely to attain the best results since I have been trained to provide synergistic results for all the members of the group I have worked with. Due to this, I think others should be willing to cooperate with me and work with me to attain common results and common goals. Experience, they say is the best teacher. As an individual, I have some experiences in leading people and working with others. In this process, I discovered myself and I learnt important lessons about how to deal with and how to treat other people. This has culminated in a wealth of experience that can help me to actualize the many things I have learnt in my course. Hence, I look forward to working with other people and operating with them to attain the right results. Due to this, I think others must be willing to work with me. This will help us all to learn further and improve our lot and competencies in whatever we do. This will also help the organisation we work for to attain the best and optimal results in whatever task we are assigned to complete. In conclusion, I have natural leadership qualities and abilities. I have also learnt a lot by way of leadership and this puts me in a position to work with others to attain synergistic results in whatever we do. I believe in transformational leadership and I believe in helping people to help themselves. Due to this, I feel that I must be able to put my skills and theory learnt in my degree programme and experience to work. This will enable anyone who works with me to attain the best and most appropriate results in whatever we do. This will invariable create a win-win situation for me, my subordinates and group we all work for. Reference Daft, R. L. (2008) The Leadership Experience London: Thomson Learning. Read More