Leading, Organizing and Delegating - Report Example

of LEADING, ORGANIZING AND DELEGATING Word count: 1555 Introduction In order to carry outactivities effectively and efficiently, every organization/company has to perform four main primary activities; planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Through these management processes a company sets their targets, establishes strategies, overcomes their weaknesses and achieves their targeted goals. Within this report, however, we are going to analyze only two primary functions; leading and organizing. We are going to implement these two management process to an organization; Rite Aid. Moreover, in this report we are going to state the benefits the company will gain when leading, organizing and delegation will be applied. Description Of Company Rite Aid Corporation is U.S. third largest drug store operating in 31 states, having more than 4900 stores and it employs 109000 associates. It started its operations in 1962 but became a public limited company in 1968. Since then, it has flourished and achieved new heights and made a remarkable name in the whole US (Rite Aid, 2010). But in 2007 when they took over its competitors; Brooks And Eckerd they faced severely. They failed to manage this acquisition and thus they are today loaded with huge debt. In 2009 they were ranked among the 15 most unprofitable companies because their stock prices declined to approximately 92% (NewMan, 2009). Leading Within an organization it is a manager who is mainly responsible for carrying out these primary activities and it is his leadership qualities that entail him to produce flourishing results. He directs, motivates, and resolves conflicts among its subordinates. He also makes decisions regarding what tasks are to be done and then he further delegates those tasks to others to produce effective and efficient outcomes (Robbins & Coulter, 2006). Thus, a manager has to be effective and efficient in his administration; he has to be a good leader and should have leadership qualities within him. He should not only direct his employees but should also help his subordinates achieve the organization’s goals and targets. It is a general prediction that leaders are born with expertise and talents but there are certain skills that if any individual acquires, he or she can be a successful leader. According to researchers and philosophers there are different theories that are associated with leadership; Trait Theory, Contingency Theory, And Style Theory. Some state that there are certain qualities and skills that are found within the personality and behavior of an individual. Trait theory identifies that a leader holds a particular personality, behavior characteristics and certain traits that distinguish him from others. He holds those qualities within him, i.e. he is born with leadership qualities. He is not only competent and visionary but is intelligent, knowledgeable, self-confident, environment sensitive, has good communication skills, and has the ability to perform outstanding even in critical time periods (Robbins & Coulter, 54, 2006). But according to contingency theory, no particular leadership variable or leadership style can be applied in a situation because success depends on multitude variables. Thus a leader should have the capability to tackle all kinds of situations, and should have the ability to adjust in changing circumstances as well. Thus leadership styles, situation factors, and quality of followers are all important variables in leadership (Cherry, 2010). As already mentioned above, Rite Aid experienced a downturn in its business and faced management issues especially after its expansion. They did not only started losing their customers but also faced huge loss in their shares. The customer reviews were terrible due to poor customer services, and its demand also deteriorated day by day (Kevin, 2009). Thus, the company’s management should apply leadership in its business and hire competent leaders. It is a leader’s job to manage all situations effectively and efficiently. Not alone trait qualities help, but a manager should manage all tasks in all situations. Even though, the 2009 recession had lead companies out of business, but some others survived and prospered as well. These companies applied leadership in their business through effective decision-making because it is a task of an effective leader to make prompt decisions. But among all, the CEO should possess an important leadership characteristic; visionary outlook. After all the CEO is the main leader and thus it is his leadership qualities that his employees will follow. Before he had taken any expansion decision he should have properly researched whether his business would be able to handle such an expansion or not. Furthermore, the company should offer incentives and bonuses to employees so that they could be motivated to work harder. They management should adopt a democratic style of leadership in which every employee should be given equal leverage to speak. This way they can get to the root cause of this turmoil because the biggest asset of an organization is its employees. The management should have assessed the needs of individuals and thus should have formed such groups where the employees could work together as a team. And a very friendly, competent and qualified leader should be appointed to such groups; someone who has leadership qualities and has the ability to communicate and motivate its team members. It is a leader who has to look beyond and has to move the business ahead. Organizing and Delegating Organizing and delegating are equally important management tools within an organization. Organizing not only determines what tasks are to be done but also decides who will perform those tasks & how will they be executed. Therefore it provides a complete guideline, so that tasks can be completed successfully. Organizing is also a process of creating organizations structure, i.e. organizing helps to formulate a formal structure through which tasks are grouped, divided and coordinated. Organizing helps organizations in departmentalization and manages subordinates and employees through chain of command and span of control. Delegation is one of the processes of organizing, as it helps organizations in dividing the authority, responsibility, power and empowerment within employees so that effective results can be achieved. Within delegation the senior manager or leader divides his tasks and responsibilities and thus transfers his powers and authority to his subordinates. Departmentalization is a process through which individuals/employees are grouped together in different groups under different respective departments to perform work activities effectively. These departments perform activities according to their own specific way. There are different forms of departmentalization, such as; functional departmentalization, geographical departmentalization, customer departmentalization, product departmentalization, and process departmentalization. Chain of command is one principle of managerial organizing, also known as the Scalar Principle. This determines the line of authority from the upper level to the lower level within in an organization. This helps in determining the hierarchy; and through this, management has a clear understanding about all employees’ authority, responsibility and their unity of command. Span of control is also another tool of organizing an organization, as it helps in elaborating the hierarchy and entails number of subordinates under a specific manager. Through this the management can easily identify the organizations’ levels, and moreover changes in the structure of an organization can be easily made. Organizations can be divided into two forms, flat and tall. Thus tall organizations are those who have numerous levels but have narrow span of control, while flat organizations have few levels but wide span of control. Thus if Rite Aid implements these two managerial principles then it can gain a lot of advantage. Organizing Rite Aid, into an organizational structure with the help of a chain of command and span of control would help in dividing the tasks and assigning responsibilities. Furthermore, it would help in coordinating diverse organizational tasks and establishing relationships among different individuals, groups, and departments. It would also assist cluster jobs into units, allocate and deploy organizations resources, and it would also help in establishing formal lines of authority. Delegation on the other hand would help the company in assigning responsibility and authority to different employees to achieve the objectives and targeted goals. The burden will be shared and this will not only assist the manager but also employees self respect and confidence would be attained. But while delegating, the company should make sure that it should keep the main tasks and responsibilities within its own hands. The main decisions should be taken by the CEO and the top management while other decision power could be given to them but to a certain level. Furthermore, the team leaders should ensure that the subordinates are not overburdened with work and that they equally understand the task, otherwise the situation can turn worse and affect the company’s profits as well (Bittel & Newstrom, 152, 1992). Delegation is effective but only if certain considerations and limitations are kept in mind. Conclusion Every company faces downturn at least once in its business period, but effective managers and leaders those who overcome these moments with care. Some of the most prominent examples of effective leaderships are Southwest Airlines, Toyota Starbucks, IBM, TDI Industries, Toro Manufacturers, and others (Murillo, 2010). They all had faced severe turmoil moments in their business but through effective leadership strategies they overcame this phase as well. They not only applied leadership skills but also in some way organized their tasks, looked into their problems in detail and then delegated tasks to different individuals so that effective results could be achieved. Thus it can be stated that whatever problem a company faces, if leadership, organizing and delegation are applied then any problem can be overcome. REFERENCES Bittle, Lester R & Newstrom John W, 1192, What Every Supervisor Should Know: The Complete Guide To Supervisory Management, McGraw Hill Professional, Edition 6, Illustrated. 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