Investigating Leadership Development practices in Private Sector in Oman - Case Study Example

Investigating Leadership Development practices in Private Sector in Oman The development of leadership strategies in the private sector is one of the most pressing problems in Oman and this is mainly because of the fact that a large number of the leaders in the private sector do not have the knowledge necessary to run their organizations in the highly competitive twenty first century business environment. Among the top leadership factors that challenge the success of organizations in the private sector are issues of cultural integration and communication. It has been suggested that in order to effectively implement large scale changes within the organization, it is important for the leader to first understand the fears of the employees as well as anticipating their questions (MacKenzie, 2013). It is this understanding which will assist in the leader gaining support for a change instead of opposition which might lead to the failure in the structure of the organization. The leader has to realize that organizations that are successful in enforcing change do so through embracing strategic value of communication with employees. The leader should ensure that communication takes place before the change is implemented, during the change process, and after the transition of the organization. Therefore, it is essential that throughout the entire transition process of the organization, to constantly have communication. It has been claimed that in order for a leader to be effective, the first strategy that he should have in mind involves focusing on issues related to the people (Cashman, 1997). In such a scenario, the leader can focus solely on convincing the most talented people within the organization as well as those who hold key positions to accept his vision for the organization’s future. The need to convince such individuals is based on the fact that they are the ones who are most likely to offer resistance in case they are not convinced of the strategies being adopted by the leader. Therefore, continuity should be ensured through an understanding of the business and the leader’s realization that his vision affects the successful future of the organization (Harris & Cole, 2007). If a leader does not put this understanding into consideration when making decisions, he might face a challenge where a pivotal talent does not exist. The presence of communication between the leader and key employees; his ensuring that employees are empowered and the creation of a culture that enables them thrive are an integral part of focus on people during integration. The effective communication from the leader throughout the decision making, transition and integration cycle is imperative, and this should start from the very beginning, so that the leader is able to have a high degree of control over the entire situation until such a time as his vision is implemented in the latter (Grojean, Resick, Dickson & Smith, 2004). However, it is essential for the leader to realize that announcing the highlights of the change process to employees is not enough and that communication should also anticipate the key issues and concerns that affect the stakeholders of the organization. These concerns must be addressed directly to each of the stakeholders, not only during the change process, but also long after the process has been completed. The manner in which the leader builds and maintains trust among the organization’s stakeholders during the implementation of changes or in its daily activities may be constant, sometimes chaotic, or come out as a challenge for the diverse activities affecting the organization. Moreover, for a leader to foster a successful deal, strong leadership and communication play a critical and powerful role (Day, 2001). This is because it allows the leader to be aware of the concerns and fears that the employees might face and this ensures that the leader has answers or is able to proactively communicate the answers in a transparent way, hence building trust. In most cases in Oman, the leaders of private organizations tend to assume that they are the only best placed people capable of designing and implementing strategies for the business and most do not often realize that the projects and strategies will likely only succeed if all employees are involved in the development and implementation of the strategy (Li, 2011; Mabey, 2012). The leader involving employees will most likely foster acceptance amongst the employees, and besides this, they will also be motivated to participate in the investment of their time and effort in the activities taking place. In this way, the leader’s decisions will to be pushed to lower levels of the organization since this is the best way to ensure the development of a culture of strong support for the leader. Therefore, it is especially important for employees to be included in those decisions which need their full cooperation. Moreover, the leader should leave the development of key messages used in the description of the change to be formulated by the human resource department (Alsughayir, 2014). In addition, it is also essential to ensure that other employee groups act as a sounding board or focus groups for testing those ideas that the leader has but have yet to be put into practice in the market. The leader should adopt a strategy of using change agents to deliver information to employees in the organization and this will be the test pulse of the organization where the feedback regarding the change will be collected so that the leader can know how it is perceived. It is a fact that change agents often have either formal or informal influence in the organization. Because of this, they also enjoy the challenges posed by the new role and this ensures that the leader’s allowing the use of change agents makes the agents part of the change process and this empowers them to perform important roles in the change process (Jones, 2009; Pater, 2011). In situations where employees are supposed to have the opportunity of submitting their concerns as well as asking questions, the leader should make use of the diagonal slice approach in collecting feedback can be employed (Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm & McKee, 2014). This approach allows cross-sectional employees from all levels of the organization be brought together as one focus group. The focus groups will provide ongoing feedback while at the same time act as an objective resource for all employees during the transition process. The leader must ensure that there is a personal communication between supervisors and the employees to the degree that all the participants are able to stay close to each other in terms of figures as well as literally (Cable & Judge, 2003; McCollum, 1999). Similarly, organization conversation will require leaders to minimize distance present between the institution, attitude and even the spatial attitudes that often differentiate the employees from the senior managers. With the prevalence of conversational intimacy, individuals that have decision making authority can seek and earn the trust of the employees. They can do this by cultivating the art of listening to the employees at all levels in the organization and trust can be enhanced by speaking directly to the employees in an authentic manner. Therefore, it is essential for a leader to have mental and emotional proximity to the employees. A leader that steps down from the high corporate posts in terms of conversation and steps up to the encounters experienced when communicating personally with the employees transparently becomes an adept leader (Wray and Fellenz, 2009). However, the leader should also realize that intimacy in communication with employees does not exist where there is no trust, and the reverse is true for a practical purpose. No employee can drive to a heartfelt exchange of views with a senior manager having hidden agendas or expresses hostile attitudes. Discussions that develop between two people can be satisfying and practical to an extent where each of the participants in the discussions takes the other at face value (Keisler and Noonan, 2012). A leader plays an important role during the daily running of the organization by acting as a role model in conducting all the processes within the said organization. It is therefore important that a leader should only direct a process, but not contribute ideas. A leader, during important challenges, should be able to guide the workers and direct employees in order to establish the goals of the organization. These can be achieved by the leader clarifying the various roles and tasks that are to be done in order to accomplish the goals set. Through a leader’s filling the organization with admiration, committing to assisting the workers and building confidence in them is the best way for a leader to build trust in the workplace. Being a leader, it is important to have an appropriate orientation of defining tasks and management of interpersonal relationship in order to build and maintain trust. If all these are implemented, all the workers in an organization will be confident in taking on new challenges since they are all assured of his intentions in the achievement of goals. During the communication of things that are important, a leader should not use nonverbal communication such as wordless communication, use of body language or facial expressions. A leader should look, listen and react to feedback of employees in a way that tells them how the leader is feeling in a better way than the use of words. Understanding and using nonverbal messages helps the leader in relating with employees, expressing thoughtsamong others. References Alsughayir, A. 2014, "Human Resource Strategies as a Mediator between Leadership and Organizational Performance", International Business Research, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 91-100. Cable, D.M. & Judge, T.A. 2003, "Managers upward influence tactic strategies: The role of manager personality and supervisor leadership style", Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 197-214. Cashman, K. 1997, "Seven strategies for mastery of leadership from the inside out", Strategy & Leadership, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 53-55. Day, D. 2001, Leadership Development: A Review in Context, The Leadership Quarterly, vol. 11 no. 4, pp.581-613. Day, D.V., Fleenor, J.W., Atwater, L.E., Sturm, R.E., & McKee, R.A. 2014, “Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25 years of research and theory.” The Leadership Quarterly, vol. 25, pp. 63-82. Grojean, M.W., Resick, C.J., Dickson, M.W. & Smith, D.B. 2004, "Leaders, Values, and Organizational Climate: Examining Leadership Strategies for Establishing an Organizational Climate Regarding Ethics", Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 223-241. Harris, S.G. & Cole, M.S. 2007, "A stages of change perspective on managers motivation to learn in a leadership development context", Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 774-793. Jones, R. 2009, “Personal knowledge management through communicating.” Online Information Review, vol. 33 no.2, pp. 225-236. Keisler, J. M., & Noonan, P. S. 2012, “Communicating analytic results: A tutorial for decision consultants.” Decision Analysis, vol. 9 no.3, pp. 274-292,294-295. Li, W. 2011, "Discussion on Strategies of Internal Leadership in Chinese Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs)", Asian Social Science, vol. 7, no. 12, pp. 201-205. Mabey, C. 2012, “Leadership Development in Organizations: Multiple Discourses and Diverse Practice.” International Journal of Management Reviews, pp. 1-22. MacKenzie, B. 2013, “Leadership Paradoxes.” Journal of The Association for Management Education and Development, vol. 20 no. 3, 15-22. McCollum, B. 1999, "Leadership development and self-development: an empirical study", Career Development International, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 149. Pater, R. 2011, "Six Safety Leadership Strategies", Professional safety, vol. 56, no. 10, pp. 16-18. Wray, T., & Fellenz, M. R. 2009, Communicating change - changing communication? towards a model of communication in planned organizational change. Rochester: Social Science Research Network. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1353950 Read More