The Relevance of the Leadership Program: the Organization Leadership - Research Paper Example

Executive Leadership Development Program Part 1 Introduction The Organization leadership is very essential for its success. Rather than looking at the top management, leadership should be infiltrated to all employees in the organization to become part of organization’s culture. According to Barnard (1968, p. 18), “the role of a leader is to influence, inspire, and drive people to a common goal.” This study focuses to assess the leadership development program applied at PepsiCo Inc. The company’s philosophy is putting the “responsibility of continued business growth on the heads of the company’s anointed future top leaders” (PepsiCo Inc. 2014). The program aims to assist the organization in identifying potential leaders and build their capacity with essential skills to achieve the present and future leadership requirements. Leadership training programs are essential for the organization because they enables the management to evaluate the efficiency of their operations, increase competency, empower employees and satisfy the organizations’ current and future leadership requirements (Morse et al., 2007). In addition, it enables the organization to achieve improved value for products and service due to improved efficiency, reduced cost of operations and improved satisfaction of the stakeholders. 1.2. Literature Review Developing and retaining competent leaders in an organization are one of the most challenges organizations are facing today (Wart, 2012). The leadership development programs should have the capacity to satisfy current and future needs of the organization leadership (Cleveland, 1985). Despite the importance of leadership development in creating value for the organization, most managers consider building leadership talent as the most challenging practice. Organizations continue to face challenges of getting suitable candidates to fill the top leadership positions despite the rising unemployment in the labor market (Barnard, 1968). Successful leadership development requires the managers to recognize the organization plans, and the necessary leadership approaches appropriate for executing that plans (Wart, 2012). The managers should start by reviewing the organization best strategies in order to recognize the leadership needs as well as the qualities appropriate for the required leadership in those particular areas (Drucker, 2009). The best practices to be reviewed include formal development programs, and feedback/ multi-source rating of performance, executive coaching, job assignments, mentoring, reflection, action learning, and outdoor challenges (Velsor et al., 2010). Leaders obtained from within the organizations achieve better organization performance faster than externally acquired leaders due to their familiarity with organization culture and structures essential for improved performance (Wart, 2012). Getting external leaders is expensive and time consuming hence detrimental to the organization (Velsor et al., 2010). Leadership development programs will enable the board of directors to coach potential leaders within the organization and be able to evaluate their performance by allowing them to run the organizations independently (Barnard, 1968). Also, the organization can use the program to recruit external future leaders using the same parameters they use for internal leadership development in order to supplement its needs for future leaders (Velsor et al., 2010). Sometimes some leaders may leave the organization with or without notice, and if the organization did not have any effective succession plan that move may inconvenience the organization severely (Morse et al., 2007). However, effective succession plan can assist the organization to get the relevant candidate to fill the vacancy left by the departed leader with minimal interruptions of its operations (Drucker, 2009). Therefore, leadership development program can assist the organization to plan for succession and can be able to fill that position any time one or more leaders leave the organization. That can be attained by determining critical leadership roles in the entire organization and equipping potential leaders within the organization with adequate skills to conduct those roles (Wart, 2012). Although most of the large organizations have established successive plans they have concentrated on top executives and have not taken interest on medium and lower leadership positions (Murphy & Riggio, 2003). Various organizations use different approaches to develop the current and future team of leaders. The procedure leadership development adopted by specific organization depends on various factors such as organization culture, leadership roles, size of the respective organization (Murphy & Riggio, 2003). Coaching and mentoring is emerging to be a common approach for developing leadership skills in the modern economy (Morse et al., 2007). Mentors and coaches are persons with much expertise in a particular area thus they consistently share the knowhow with less experienced young and potential leaders cost effectively. However, the organization should use both internal and external coaches and mentors in order to ensure effective leadership training (Barnard, 1968). Although internal mentors are highly knowledgeable and cost-effective, sometimes they are mean with information and rarely discloses all in required information unlike external coaches who may not have anything to hold back (Wart, 2012). 1.3. Relevance of the leadership program to current and future development of leadership knowledge and practice. Leadership involves having desired appropriate qualities to influence the organization activities in order to achieve desired results in line with organizational policies and goals (Morse et al., 2007). A leader should have particular characteristics that will enable them to achieve the desired performance. The leadership development programs enable the organization to equip participants with relevant skills and traits considered relevant in the organization leadership (Cleveland, 1985). The basic leadership characteristics include communication skills, self-confidence, decisiveness, willingness to take the risk, innovative, etc. the leadership development program will enable the organization to identify the relevant leadership traits exhibited by various participants of the program and assist them to develop their skills to achieve the organization goals (Drucker, 2009). Leadership development is an essential practice in the organization because it helps the organization with a solution to the leadership problem either at present or in the future (Morse et al., 2007). Leaders are very critical to the success of the organization. Since organizations are expanding their operations by opening new branches or starting new ventures there is a need for new leaders to lead those operations (Murphy & Riggio, 2003). Also, since the leaders are not permanent in the organization it is imperative for organizations to develop a culture of developing leadership capacity who can take over after the present leaders quit the organizations (Cleveland, 1985). Therefore, leadership programs enable organizations to satisfy the needs for leaders in the organization currently in the time to come. The employees and clients issues are complex and dynamic (Murphy & Riggio, 2003). Therefore, organizations should improve the leadership efficiency through leadership development programs in order to ensure the leaders have the capacity to understand and solve clients and employees problems. This will help the organization to achieve better employee retention and customer satisfaction (Velsor et al., 2010). Organizations should assist their employees in career planning and advancement opportunities in order to attract competent workers and increase retention rate of the employees (Barnard, 1968). A company that fails to offer its employees opportunity for future growth and career advancement risks losing its employees to other organizations that offer the same. Offering career advancement and employee growth simultaneously enable the organization to improve employee competence by developing strategies that can help them pursue personal and organizational goals simultaneously (Wart, 2012). Implementing leadership development program that that involves employees at all levels is likely to boost employee morale and performance thus increase workers retention rate in the organization (Drucker, 2009). Finally, the increasing global competitiveness requires the organizations to build leadership capacity order to compete effectively with other organizations (Lawson, 2008). This implies that the organization will have to upgrade the knowledge of its leaders and provide capacity for leadership innovation in order to meet the current market demand (Morse et al., 2007). The first-line supervisors are in contact with employees in all divisions within the organization thus it will be easy for an organization to diffuse knowledge in the entire organization by closing the gap between top leaders and junior employees (Cleveland, 1985). The leadership development programs will enable the organization to develop a leadership training culture at present and in the time to come. PART 2 2.1. The significance of the proposed idea The project is to develop a category of executive leaders at first-line supervisors in all divisions of the organization such as marketing, production, engineering, research and development, etc. in PepsiCo (PepsiCo Inc., 2014). The proposal for leadership developing program will help in creating a leadership culture in the organization that will offer organizations a blueprint for establishing leadership requirement, assessing its present and future leadership capacity, match training requirement with organization’s outcome and ensure constant leadership development (Velsor et al., 2010). In addition, the program will assist the management to evaluate the success of the leadership training in the organization. Pepsi Company is a food and beverage organization with operations across the globe. The company’s mission is to offer convenience and be a leader in food and beverages across the globe, offer the investors’ growth for their investments and offer growth opportunity to their employees, their business partners and the society where they operate (PepsiCo Inc., 2014). The quest for sustained growth is achieved at company’s level and at individual level. The leadership of the PepsiCo commits to implementing activities that will result to growth of the stakeholders, the company, create a sustainable environment and satisfaction of the consumers (PepsiCo Inc., 2014). The proposed development program shall involve equipping first-line supervisors with executive leadership skills in order to ensure the organization has sufficient leadership capacity at present and in the future. The aim of the program is to assist the organization identify potential leaders within the organization and build their leadership capacity through aligning the leadership skills with the organization needs. The approach will enable supervisors to make independent decisions and stop relying on top leaders in decision making (Velsor et al., 2010). However, the decisions of the new leaders should be approved by senior leaders in order to promote harmony in the organization an avoid conflict of interest. 2.2. Project contribution to leadership Knowledge and development of future leaders. The leadership program will enable the organization to develop all rounded first-line supervisors with capacity to lead the organization in the absence of the top executives (Murphy & Riggio, 2003). Instead of concentrating their effort on specific department or division in the organization, the participants will be involved in other issues that pertains the entire organization and direct the activities of the organization at all levels (Velsor et al., 2010). This will ensure the leaders have adequate knowledge about the entire organization as opposed to the present state whereby supervisors are only involved in matters pertinent to a specific division (Murphy & Riggio, 2003). The aim is to ensure in case one of the top executives leaves the organization or in case the organization is in need of a top executive they can obtain a leader from within the organization since the first-line supervisors are already familiar with the organization structures and all leadership activities of the organization (Velsor et al., 2010). 2.3. Detailed presentation of proposed Material 2.3.1. Plan for developing executive leaders. The project shall focus on assessment of the leadership development programs utilized in PepsiCo and examine the current and future leadership requirement capacity in the company. By matching the existing capacity with the requirements, the study will establish the existing leadership deficit in the company (Murphy & Riggio, 2003). Finally, the study shall evaluate the success of the leadership programs used by the company at employee, company and community level. 2.3.2. How the program will be implemented. The organization should identify its current and future requirements for leadership and compare the requirements with the existing team of leaders in order to determine the leadership gap and the potential time when those gaps should be filled. After the organization has identified its current and future potential leaders it should develop a blueprint for future leaders that support formal and informal learning activities to improve the leadership skills of the leaders (Velsor et al., 2010). The employee development plan should be able to maintain informal activities such as project leadership, mentorship programs, rotational tasks, coaching, etc. The participants should be able to identify individual employees with relevant leadership skills and align them with organization’s objectives in order to achieve the desired outcome. The traits considered essential for a leader includes, communication skills, ability to take responsibility for one’s actions, decision making ability, potential to influence others, self-confidence, etc. The implementation of the program shall be carried out by the PepsiCo University in collaboration with the PepsiCo top managers within a period of 24-working days and during that period participants will be required to come up with projects for implementation within the following three months. The university has been involved in offering training to top PepsiCo leaders thus they are familiar with external and internal organizational requirements (PepsiCo Inc., 2014). The top leaders of the PepsiCo will bring in expertise in the program due to their long-term experience with the operations of the organization. The implementation will take place at PepsiCo head office in US, and the same will be adopted in other branches in the future. In order to avoid disrupting the operations in the organization, the training of participants shall be conducting for two hours every day between 4pm and 6pm. However, apart from education activities the practical activities shall be carried out whereby the participants shall come up with individual and group projects and implement them under the supervision of the top leaders. 2.3.3. Content materials for training The program will utilize situational leadership development approach that is based on the fact that different leadership qualities can be applied in a particular situation to influence change and achieve desired results (Wart, 2012). The aim of the program will be empowering leaders to set attainable goals, provide them with relevant training, expertise to implement tasks and capacity to take responsibility for their decisions. Having the capacity to make decisions and influence change the managers can utilize their knowledge in any situation and achieve the desired outcome (Morse et al., 2007). Furthermore, the organizations demand changes with time thus leaders should capacity to work in various situations in order to remain competent. The program will be democratic in order to enable leaders utilize their capacity without influence from other leaders because it is the only way in which the leaders can exploit their full potential in decision making and influencing change (Lawson, 2008). 2.3.4. Cost of the program The estimated cost of training all the participants is estimated at $1,100,000 for a period of one month, and the cost shall be borne by the relevant organization. The program is meant to benefit the organization and thus it will be appropriate for them to bear the cost. 2.3.5. How you will evaluate the success of such leadership development program. The evaluation of successfulness of the program shall involve assessing the rate at which internal leaders qualify for executive positions (Wart, 2012). Using the same parameters to gauge internal and external leaders capable of filling an executive leadership position can give a clue as to the extent in which the program has achieved its goals. Increase in the number of internal candidates qualifying for the top leadership positions is an indicator of a successful program (Lawson, 2008). After the training, the participants will be evaluated using analytic skills to establish the rate of transfer of knowledge. The key issues to be assessed include the ability to make independent decisions, willingness to take responsibility, rate of creating new projects, ability to influence others and the participants’ confidence in execution of the projects (Morse et al., 2007). The evaluation of customer satisfaction shall be conducted through assessment of customer feedback and compare with the previous records (Wart, 2012). Finally, the program is expected to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of operation of the organization. The evaluation of organization performance and cost of operations shall be conducted after implementation of the program to establish an improvement in performance. Conclusion The leadership program proposed to train first-line supervisors at PepsiCo is aimed at building leadership capacity to satisfy the current and future leadership needs of the organization. Its implementation within 24 days will be conducted alongside ordinary duties of the participants. The organization in collaboration with PepsiCo University will be responsible for implementing the program. Using situational analysis, the program will tap various characteristics and utilize them in the business environment to achieve their targets. An assessment of the program successfulness will involve assessing client’s successfulness, efficiency of operation, cost reduction, rate of leadership transformation and individual leadership capacity. References Barnard, C. I. (1968). The Functions of the Executive. Harvard University Press. Cleveland, H. (1985). The Knowledge Executive: Leadership in the Information Society. Truman Talley Books: 1-266. Drucker, P. F. (2009). The Effective Executive. HarperCollins. Lawson, K. (2008). Leadership Development Basics. USA American Society for Training and Development Morse, R., Kinghorn, M. & Buss, T. (Eds.) (2007). Transforming Public Leadership for the 21st Century. United States of America: M.E. Sharpe. Murphy, S. & Riggio, R. (Eds) (2003). The Future of Leadership Development. Psychology Press. PepsiCo Inc. (2014). PepsiCo. Retrieved on 23rd July 2014 from Http://www.pepsico.com/ Velsor, E., McCauley, D. & Ruderman, N. (2010). The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development. John Wiley & Sons. Wart, V. M. (2012). Leadership in Public Organizations: Introduction (2nd Ed.). United States of America: M.E. Sharpe. Read More