Successful Reward Strategy Is Now More Pertinent Than Leadership Style in Successful HRM - Assignment Example

Business Name: Course: Instructor: Date: " A successsfull reward strategy is now more pertinent than leadership style in sucessfull Human Ressource Development" “The secret to leading people and living and working with them is found in the space between their ears,” is a quote from one of the books on leadership. Leadership is therefore, all about training people to think. Leadership is a process of influencing others in a manner to enhance their contributions in realizing group goals (Haslam, 2001, p. 15). There are some leadership models that advocate leadership by principles, servant leadership among others. Traditionally, leadership models were more concerned with people doing as they are told with no questions (master-servant model). However, leadership has managed to evolve to contemporary perspectives that give allowance to contribution of decisions by followers in organizations. Leaders are made and born. By being born, a leader is able to sharpen their talents through proper training and personal experiences. Leadership can also be situation for example, good war leaders of time do not transcend necessarily to being good peace time leaders. Leaders of any organization maintain the social and organizational environments and therefore, they are able to predict the future success of organizations and individuals (Mumford, 1986, p. 508). The leadership functions include establishment of direction, inspiring, motivating and aligning people in organizations. As a result, they lead the organization to adaptive and dramatic changes in today’s complex, unpredictable and dynamic business environment. Social, moral contracts of employment, psychological and top managerial challenges address outstanding elements of the organizations people, purpose and processes. Human resource is also important as a department in any leading organization because they work together with the leaders in the smooth running of the organizations activities. The HR also ensures that the leaders have all required resources in leading the organization and educating its employees. Training and motivating its employees is important because it gives them a sense of belonging and assures them of security in times of difficult economic times in the organization. Human resource development is incorporated in leadership models because they relate and have activities incorporated for the success and growth of the organization. Different models of leadership have been applied to organizations in order to come up with one that is competitive and applicable for use in the organization Montana and Charnov, 2008, p. 45). Knowledgeable practitioners, researchers and academicians coincide that leadership as a critical activity of many organizations are not limited to only those individuals holding nominated positions or in possession of traditional titles; motives, styles and competencies of people’s functional behavior in context of situations; but can be learned and experienced by individuals all over the organization in spite of their title or positions; having documented impact on performance of the organization. Modern organizations need leaders because they have a positive impact on organizations performance and effectiveness; frameworks and models of leadership; and development strategies of leadership. Contemporary models of leadership have incorporated in their tasks, leadership strategies that promote retention of employees in organizations. This has contributed in the growth and expansion of the organization because the welfare of the workforce is considered by their top management (Montana and Charnov, 2008, p. 75). The existing difference between traditional and contemporary views of leadership models is there concentration on processes of decision making engaged by consumers especially when deliberating on the products and services to buy. Contemporary leaders place their emphasis on the mental activity involved in the decision making process. The second characteristics distinguishing these models is the extensive borrowing of contemporary models from material developed in their sciences of behavior associated with the fields of psychology and sociology. . Long ago, women were not allowed to become leaders or participate in anything that concerns development or decision making in societal activities. Today, leaders are from any sex provided they have the quality and motivation power to bring success to the organization by changing the mindset of their followers to appositive one. In contemporary leadership approaches, team members experience high average levels of work contentment unlike in traditional leadership, where top managers enjoy maximum contentment and their followers experience minimum levels of contentment. Traditional models of leadership Traditional western leadership approaches have been described and identified with leaders propelled by their traits to authoritative positions over communities and even organizations. For the American Indian traditions, their concern was mostly based on community requirements rooted in their situations and not on individuals. As a result, they are more akin to heterarchies leadership styles than hierarchies: authority patterns are flexible and changing and not embedded in a bureaucracy that is formal and fixed. The role of leaders in such organizations is focusing solely on strategy aspects, systems and structures. They ensured that their kingdoms are ready for war at any time, their systems favors them as leaders and that their structures are unique from other kingdoms. Most of these leaders were not educated and thus, led the organization in a manner that is not focused and lacked direction. The advantage of traditional leadership is that the leaders had the last say and decided on what is best for their people and organization. They managed their organizations and communities in an organized and systematic manner with no confusions. The disadvantage of such leadership models is the fact that, they relied heavily on their judgment and never consulted with any follower concerning the matter. This was not good for the organization because the issues that arose were due to lack of communication between top management and workers. This hindered the smooth running of activities in the organization. Communication in an organization is very vital because it brings about cooperation between leaders and employees. It enables leaders be aware of the problems facing their followers because it rolls down to the performance of the organization. Traditional leaders use rules and regulations that relate to values and norms of traditional societies. Contemporary leadership models Contemporary model is a perspective that has placed emphasis on organizational leadership because of contributing factors like off-shoring, increasing the value of their shareholders and outsourcing (Mumford, 1986, p. 510). In this model, employees expect that their governments will cost less and work better in demonstrating leaders who are exemplified. Contemporary leadership maintains three attributes possessed by its leaders that include: a guiding vision or sense of purpose; integrity (candor, maturity and self-knowledge); and the passion and ability to communicate the same passion to other people in the organization. Adaptive capacity, voice, engaging others through creation of shared meaning and integrity are some of the competencies that contribute to contemporary models of leadership (Kouzes and Posner, 2002, p. 125). Cognitive, motivational and interpersonal factors are some of the important attributes that have contributed to the success of leaders in U.S organizations. These leaders need to validate their intuitive understanding and management of complexities in the organizations to portray their skills and knowledge in leading prominent corporations in the United States since it is a powerful state. Participants of this model use the same approaches despite their individual styles. This is because they set agendas through goal and plan establishment, development of collaborative networks of relationships, and agenda execution through network leveraging. Contemporary models of leadership are linked to transforming leadership, which is more multifaceted and persuasive since its leaders using this approach recognize and capitalize on their follower’s needs and or demands (Wright, 1996, p. 213). Leaders of the contemporary society concur that corporations are not only entities of economic value, but of importance to its society. Consequently, they must at all times, create value for its constituents. Leadership and HR management are evolving in response to globalization and competition changes yet they are at the heart of organizations pursuit for better performance (Kouzes and Posner, 2002, p. 25). The advantage of modern or contemporary leadership models is that, independence in the workplace has been encouraged and emphasized. Workers are aware of the fact that they can take alternative options since the global job market has opened up. Leaders of such organizations lead knowledgeable teams and thus, they work together and help each other in coming up with sound decisions for the benefit of the organization. These leaders teach others on how they can lead themselves by inspiring and giving them a purpose to do so. Relationships and values also contribute to this facet of contemporary leadership because they respect each other irrespective of their levels at work. Leaders in this perspective are solution focused and give room for suggestions from their subordinates in the workplace. The disadvantage of this model of leadership is that decision making took long to be reached at because workers need to be consulted for their views and opinions. Corruption is evident in most organizations because thy want to benefit from the organization especially when it comes to hiring of new members in the organization. Illegal activities are also being carried out in the organization by its leaders because they have the power to manipulate things and ideas. This lowers the reputation of the organization and eventually, it lacks customers and may lead to its closure. This will mean that many people will have to suffer on behalf of the greed of their leaders and live poor uncomfortable lives (Wright, 1996, p. 120). Traditional and contemporary models of leadership have contributed greatly to HRD because they have managed to go beyond their traditional functions and have become more involved in additional strategic responsibilities. HR professionals play the role of helping its leaders inspire their followers to walk the talk on organizations corporate values (Beardwell et al., 2004, p. 58). The values of the organizations must always filter down to all its aspects. For example, a bank achieves this by doing the following. Firstly, they gauge possible alignment of interviewees from their interviews to values of the organization. Secondly, an induction is carried out on the new recruits on values of the organizations on entering. Thirdly, the establishment of a mentoring system in the organization is of concern for the new recruits. Lastly, values of the organization are integrated with relation to formal recognition and reward systems of the bank in question. The alignment of these values will determine the rewards to be received at year end by employees of the bank. HR professionals have set standards for leaders in organizations which comprise of integrity, confidentiality, legality, professional loyalty and proficiency. All these have contributed greatly in HRD because they have given them a direction and support on the activities being undertaken in their capacities. Team spirit helps leaders propel their organizations towards desired directions in attaining behaviors and attitudes. Leaders need to be united in order to build the same spirit to their followers and hence, this brings about human resource development. This is because the training and team building seminars conducted by the HR department will have been utilized in achieving organizations vision and mission statement. HRD has been emphasized in leadership models because they al narrate the concerns of the people (Beardwell et al., 2004, p. 100). Reward Strategy A reward strategy is an alignment of reward policies and practices with the strategies of the business and human resource in the organization, its environment and culture, by providing a set of goals and intent of declaration as to the areas the organization wants to reward, and how critical issues of the reward will be addressed. In other words, it is pathway linking business needs and-the staff with organizations rewards policies and practices, communicating and amplification of the practices in the process. This development tool aims to ensure that reward programmes are driven entirely by organizational needs, rather than being based on historical and practices that are outdated, or simply reflecting fashions or fads in those practices. It also ensures that the organization has a coherent direction to reward and practices of the HR through prevention of mixed messages and having initiatives that are uncoordinated. It sets out the core principles underlying organization’s values, how it is going to reward its people, what it recognizes and rewards. The various reward practices and policies found in the organization have clarified accountability and ownership, thereby defining success and the person responsible for the aspects. Lastly, it acts as a framework in guiding reward practices in different parts present in the organization for example; it establishes how much consistency should be present. The key in achieving successful reward strategies is by tailoring approaches to goals, circumstances, characteristics and needs of an organization. Reward goals, organizational fit, total-reward approach, aligning with and involving employees and reward strategy development as a process are some of the key requirements in developing an effective reward strategy that is tailored and incorporated for an organization. In successful human resource development, a good reward strategy is now more pertinent than leadership styles because it all spills down to organizational performance. I agree with this debate motion because by having a good reward strategy enables organizations to have clearly understood and shared goals. This is paramount for any organization and can be achieved by use of gap analysis grid where one compares and contrasts critical reward goals and choices in the organization. For instance, individuals can decide to adopt high or low stance in the external market place or by operating consistent reward policies in the organization versus dissimilar practices in different parts (CIPD, 2005, p. 7). The reward tool allows organizations and processes of management to have designs that fit the systems in which they operate. Job division in organizations is made consistent by having a god reward strategy since they could also be operated locally in each business division. This tool of development also considers four major categories that include financial rewards, benefits (pension and life cover), learning and development being provided and the working environment. In short, this strategy enables employees work more because they are determined to get al the reward provisions offered by the organization (CIPD, 2005, p. 8). The other convincing factor correlating more strongly to the successful implementation of this strategy and changes is the fact that, experiences and research have shown that, leaders’ skills in developing this intended reward strategy, plus employee understanding and support. Through this, leaders are now being given training in reward management and leadership process if need be (CIPD, 2005, p. 9). This tool has been able to involve its employees and thus, understanding and trust has been built. Also, development of commitment and ensuring strategic aims are delivered in day-to-day working of the organization has been emphasized. In measuring this reward strategy, organizations use survey opinions and focus group discussions to determine the strengths and weaknesses from their members of staff (CIPD, 2005, p. 10). Reward strategies have also been developed, understood and accepted by involving employees and their representatives in a group’s project design. Group employees are also used in determining recognition scheme award winners, and commune progress against targets of bonus scheme. Technology has also been used by various organizations in better supporting decision- making payments and in communicating with employees more effectively. Lastly, training and coaching of line managers in reward process management and skills (CIPD, 2005, p. 12).Reward strategies are more pertinent because of its continuity in the process of evolving having constant interchange between policies, practices and principles. As a result, the strategy acts as a guide to further modifications, improve operations in the organization and assess to their success. The strategy engages a whole organization and identifies and addresses issues concerning the business and employees raised (CIPD, 2005, p. 15). In conclusion, leadership has been defined by many scholars and researchers, but they all agree that it all concerns the people. Traditional leadership models were used during the ancient times by most African leaders in managing their organizations. Contemporary model of leadership is one practiced by western organization managers who have been given the necessary education concerning managing people in order to accomplish the goals of an organization. Existing differences between traditional and contemporary leadership have been mentioned. Both advantages and disadvantages of theses leadership models have been dealt with in-depth in this paper. Human resource is a department in organizations that also deals with the affairs of the people that include training, recruiting, motivating, retaining and hiring employees. They collaborate with top management of an organization in helping their workers be comfortable and enjoy their work. Leaders have contributed in human resource development of organizations and should be encouraged and coached in ways that help them manage and face challenging times in the business environment. References: Beardwell, I., Holden, L. & Claydon, T. 2004. Human Resource Management: a Contemporary Approach 4th edition. Harlow UK, FT: Prentice Hall. CIPD. 2005. Reward strategy: How to develop a reward strategy. Website. Retrieved March 24, 2011 from Haslam, S.A. 2001. Psychology in Organizations: The Social Approach. London UK, Sage Publications. Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z. (2002). The leadership challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Montana Patrick J. and Charnov Bruce H. 2008. Management: Leadership and Theory, Barron's Educational Series, Inc., New York: Hauppauge. Mumford, M. D. 1986. Leadership in the organizational context: Conceptual approach and its application. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 16(6), 508-531. Wright, P. 1996. Managerial Leadership. London: Routledge. 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