Leadership Approach - Essay Example

 The purpose of this paper is to understand the complex problem that I face as the finance manager of a veterinary college; with me being in the unenviable position of having to work under extreme duress of ever increasing costs and deceasing revenue streams, a greater stress on profitability which comes in complete contrast to the ideals of the institution and most importantly to motive and influence and already unenthusiastic overworked team to produce better and more intelligent results and move towards optimality and synergy. The Staff: Herein, the first and foremost step is to understand the existing conditions of the team at hand. There are a total of four staff members who are deputed in the Central London and the Hertfordshire campus and the need for leadership is noticed across two major sections; the need for proper skilled professionals for the training and development of students who aspire to become healthcare professionals in this field in the years to come as well as the need to provide excellence service and assistance to all relevant stakeholders of the college, both internal and external i.e. the aforementioned students, the animal owners who seek the services of the veterinary college as well as the clinicians. The Problem: Given the considerable job descriptions of the staff, coupled with the lack of resources and the need to provide excellent services, the staff finds itself in the classic low morale conundrum; too much work and effort required for a job description that is become less enviable by the day. This, in short, can be categorized as the crux of the problem that I face under the leadership aspect of my role as the finance manager. (Open University, 2010) The need of the hour: Moving Competencies and Creating Synergies The moving competencies concept is basically defined as the ability of an organization to successfully and optimally channel its resources and creativity from one genre of production to another based on different reasons. Now, the major strength of the moving competencies concept is the fact that it allows firms to optimally allocate its resources at all times by allowing it to move its resources freely and inexpensively into different manners of production. Therefore, we can say that firms have little in terms of sunk costs and all their costs are largely variable costs which allow them to freely change their structure of production. The major weakness of this concept is ironically related to its major strengths in that the rather malleable nature of production does not allow the firm to establish a solid ground in any of the different businesses that it participates in i.e. its becomes somewhat of a jack of all trades and master of none. Due to this lack of immovability, the firm is not able to continue a specific production practice for a large period of time, hence, is unable to ascertain best production practices and any other cost cutting techniques, thus, it always produces at a level that has to be considered in optimal for the firm. (Yinghong, 2006) McDonald’s is a pertinent example of the correct use of moving competencies as they have been able to strike the perfect balance between the usability of moving competencies and defining their basic company objectives and areas of expertise. Therefore, despite the fact that McDonald’s is expanding both is scale of operations and in its product range, it is still intrinsically a fast food joint which it has been able to maintain due to its best practices and strong adamancy on quality assurance. From this description, it can be easily surmised that the need of the hour for the manager is to implement the system of moving competencies in a way that would oversee the creation of synergies and the institution of best practices in the form that ‘every job is done by that specific person who does it best’. Therefore, the creation of conjoined skills development becomes a necessity and the onus lies on the finance manager to institute the change that is needed for the creation of an open learning and development culture in the facility. (Levitt et al, 1988) The Type of Leadership required: Given the analysis that has been conduced and the importance of the role of the finance manager, it has critical to ascertain the way I must now conduct myself in order to move the staff towards the desired structure and for this matter I propose that the best form of leadership for my team is the people-oriented form of leadership. In the medium term i.e. the next two years, I must take a people oriented approach by offering great autonomy over process inception, implementation and improvement (whichever is applicable) and creating an open source environment for personal development, better practices and lesser human attrition due to greater influence of the staff on the matters of the college. Explanation of the Action Plan: This section would first oversee the many times of leadership traits and will then explain why the people oriented approach has been taken to be the most applicable type of leadership requisite for this case. Types of leadership styles The bureaucratic leadership style as explained by Max Weber in 1905 explains of a leader that is extremely structured in the approach towards management and incessant on following the operating instructions to the letter and not shifting from the established work practices. This form of leadership usually has no room for exploring new avenues and allowing creative work practices as the emphasis is on productivity, optimality and execution. Usually, leaders of the bureaucratic style of leadership are found in influential positions in educational institutions, hospitals, financial institutions and governments where the need for ensuring execution takes greater precedence to experimentation for creation of better practices as the utmost importance is ensuring quality, increasing security and decreasing corruption. Leaders who try to institute a change in these settings usually face frustration and anxiety. (Blake et al, 1964) (Thaker, 2011) In the works of Max Weber, another type of leader is found, perhaps one which is most easily identified by the masses: The charismatic leader. This leader operates by infusing energy and eagerness into their team members by sheer will of persona and the allure of an extremely magnetic character. Such a leader finds themselves in a specific position for the long haul; to infuse energy on the back of one’s personal charm cannot be done at the flicker of an instant; rather it requires time for the people to be committed enough to take action. Due to their rather palpable persona, the success of a team is often mistakenly attributed to the leader which makes it difficult for the organization to regain the trust of the workers after they have committed themselves to the magnetism of a charismatic leader, in case the leader moves away from the organization. (Heifetz, 1994) (Thaker, 2011) The third type of leader to be discussed in the autocratic leader as explained by Lewin, Lippitt and White. These people are given the power to undertake the decision making process alone without any external influences and total autonomy. This style of leadership is particularly effective in the cases where the workers require constant and close supervision to complete their required job objectives. Creative employees and team players particularly abhor this style of leadership as they consistently find themselves unable to create better processes or hasten decision making; usually resulting in job dissatisfaction and subsequently employee attrition. (Hemphill, 1949) (Thaker, 2011) Lewin, Lippitt and White also described another form of leadership which was quite in contrast to their earlier description: the democratic leader. This form of leadership allows the generation of creative ideas wherein they study the options in great detail and then finalize the applicable choice. However, the power of the final decision lies with the autocratic leader. By increasing employee engagement with regards to decision making processes, the workers feel a sense of ownership and satisfaction as they feel that their opinions are not worthless. This form of leadership is particularly effective in change management scenarios as the changes that have to be incorporated are integrated into the system with a greater ease than other forms of leadership. A major obstacle faced by this form of leadership is that the decision making process can rarely be expedited and situations where a decision is required in a short span of time or even immediately usually suffer due to this. (Hersey et al, 2008) (Thaker, 2011) The laiss ez-faire ("let do") leader; also presented to the world by the worlds of Lewin, Lippitt, & White, is an unusual form of leadership which is only rarely seen due to the complex nature of the workers as the leader only provides intermittent feedback or supervision to the workers who are highly skilled and admirably experienced to complete the task at hand and achieve the required results without much intervention. However, this genre of leadership is attributed (sometimes mistakenly) to the leaders who do not lead at all and leave the operations entirely to the whims of the workers and failure on their part leaders to lack of control and higher costs, bad service or failure to meet deadlines. (Miner, 2005) (Thaker, 2011) The people oriented leader as discussed in the works of Fiedler is a leader that creates effectiveness and efficiency by supporting, training and developing their subordinates in a way that augurs greater job satisfaction and genuine interest of the workers with regards to their jobs. These people are able to understand the needs of their workers and attach them to the requirements of the job with great dexterity to create a harmonious work environment. (Tittemore, 2003) (Thaker, 2011) Fielder also discussed the task oriented leader; a person who takes a systematic and operations based approach towards work by emphasizing his/her energy on the tasks that have been assigned to specific workers and the completion of these said tasks for ultimate goal achievement. This form of leadership encompasses some of the same issues that are faced by the autocratic style of leadership which also oversees minimal employee involvement and engagement. Much alike the autocratic leader, this form of leadership requires the close supervision of the employees and effective controls to ensure expected results. Rowley & Roevens have coined another name for this type of a leader: the deal maker; which finds its origins in the first phase in managing Change, enhance, according to the Organize with Chaos approach. (Thaker, 2011) Greenleaf came up with another form of leadership which is a hybrid of the democratic form of leadership i.e. the servant leader. This leader eases the progress of goal completion by allowing the workers any and every requirement requisite for their productivity. This type of leadership is reactive as opposed to being proactive as the leader is merely a tool for the employees to ascertain their goals instead of being an authoritative figure that brings forth the requisite change. As explained earlier, this style of leadership is not much dissimilar to the democratic leadership style as the time frame required to reach a decision is usually larger but the level of involvement of the employees is distinctively higher. Burns came up with two distinct styles of leaderships: the transaction leader and the transformation leader. The transaction leader is a person who has the power to implement specific tasks and may reward or punish the workforce based on the results. It allows the manager an opportunity to manage the men, and the team agrees to follow his leadership to achieve a predefined objective in return for something else. In contrast the transformation leader focuses their energy on motivating the team to be effective and efficient by making communication the basic building block of goal achievement and focusing the team in the direction of the final desired outcome or goal attainment. The transactional leader has the power to judge, amend and develop the skills of the workers when the productivity levels are not up to the required mark as well as well as recompense excellence when the desired outcome is achieved or even surpassed. Transformational leaders, however, hinge their attention to the macro and require key individuals who can pay attention to the micro details. These leaders are always looking for ideas that move the organization to reach the company’s vision. (Thaker, 2011) Dr. Shailesh Thaker, Renowned Corporate Management Guru, Management Thinker, HR HRD Trainer And International Motivational Speaker in India, offers insight on other type of leader as described in the works of Carmazzi: “The environment leader (Carmazzi, 2005) is the one who nurtures team or organizational environment to influence the emotional and psychosomatic image of an individual’s position in that team or organization. A comprehension and deployment of team psychology and dynamics is critical for this style to gain efficacy. The leaders utilize the organizational culture and norms to motivate the group members, and enhance leadership at all levels. This style of leadership depends on the creation of an educational matrix whereby teams learn through interactive sessions and the fundamental psychology of group dynamics and culture from one another. The leaders utilize this psychology, and complementary language, to create an impact towards the direction via the members of the inspired team to do what is required for the advantage of all.” (Thaker, 2011) After looking at the different styles of leadership, it can be easily surmised why the choice of the people oriented manager is applicable for my case. As it can be seen, the staff is overworked and feels under rewarded for their efforts and due to the financial constraints that is faced by the institution, the simple solution of hiring more workers and expanding the work force does not seem to be applicable here. Therefore, as described earlier, the need of the hour is the creation of synergies and moving competencies in order to create a better work environment. For this matter, I have to work in association with the staff and try to gather their input on the matter. It is essential for me to understand the criticality of the processes and try to structure these processes in a way that the more important issues come to the fore and are handled in preference to those who have a smaller impact on the macro view. By liaising with the team, I must completely ascertain the skills and preferences of the workers and then try to match them to specific functions e.g. A worker with better interpersonal skills can take greater responsibility of the customer service piece which requires customer interaction whereas a more analytical or methodical in nature could take forth the education portion of the veterinary college and work closely with the students. Furthermore, by clearly discussing and analyzing the work functions, I can reduce bottle necks and ensure that the resources are being consumed as optimally as possible which could lead to a decrease in the load on the staff as some ineffective or futile activities can be specifically altered or eliminated completely to hasten the work flow. This will also provide greater autonomy to the staff and will lead to an increase in employee engagement and commitment and a decrease in employee attrition in the medium term. (Open University, 2010) Bibliography: 1. Blake, R.; Mouton, J. (1964). The Managerial Grid: The Key to Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.. 2. Fiedler, Fred E. (1967). A theory of leadership effectiveness. McGraw-Hill: Harper and Row Publishers Inc.. 3. Heifetz, Ronald (1994). Leadership without Easy Answers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-51858-6. 4. Hemphill, John K. (1949). Situational Factors in Leadership. Columbus: Ohio State University Bureau of Educational Research. 5. Hersey, Paul; Blanchard, Ken; Johnson, D. (2008). Management of Organizational Behavior: Leading Human Resources (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. ISBN 0130175986. 6. Levitt, Barbara and James G. March (1988), “Organizational Learning,” Annual Review of Sociology, 14, 319–40. 7. Miner, J. B. (2005). Organizational Behavior: Behavior 1: Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe. 8. Thaker, Shailesh, “Types of Leadership Styles”, Available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/6327744/Types-of-Leadership-Styles [Retrieved on 14th April, 2011] 9. The Open University, (2010) ‘Block 5 Planning your leadership’ The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA 10. The Open University, (2010) ‘Block 4 Leadership action in context’ The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA 11. Tittemore, James A. (2003). Leadership at all Levels. Canada: Boskwa Publishing. ISBN 0973291400. 12. Yinghong (Susan) Wei (2006) “Market orientation and successful new product orientation: The role of competency traps” Oklahoma State University Read More