Contemporary Leadership Skills Required for a Large Multi-Department Organisation - Essay Example

A critical evaluation of contemporary leadership skills required for a large multi-department organisation Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Part 1 3 Part 2 6 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Leadership is as Bennis defines social process in which an individual generally guides his or her entire team towards a series of developed goals and objectives. An effective and successful leader never implements leadership styles based on a theoretical approach. It is the demand of a situation that influences a leader to adopt and implement a particular and appropriate leadership style as explained by Bennis (Bennis, 2007). This study critically evaluates the contemporary leadership skills that are required for a large multi-department company. In an addition, this assignment determines several leadership skills that are implemented by contemporary leaders to overcome different contemporary issues in this world. Moreover, this essay recommends some effective leadership skills that are required for leaders in order to overcome several contemporary issues in this current business environment. Finally, the study concludes by summarizing the major discussions that are discussed in this essay. Discussion Several leading organizations in this world are trying to capitalize on potential business opportunities in order to enhance their business growth rates. It is true that human resource department can be considered as an important department in multi-department organizations (Parris and Peachey, 2012). Part 1 Global business environment is becoming highly competitive as several leading organizations within a particular industry are trying to develop and implement unique strategies in the business operation process in order to gain potential competitive advantages (Hirschhorn and Gilmore, 1992). First, it is important for a leader to consider the environmental context in the business environment in order to be a successful (House and Aditya, 2009). Intense market competition and market saturation are influencing some organizations to adopt and implement several unique strategies in their business operation processes in order to overcome contemporary business issues (Avolio, Walumba and Weber, 2009). An effective leader needs to consider the business as well as workplace environment in order to meet the company’s goals and objectives. It is difficult for a leader in a multi-department organization to control such a large team (Kelley, 1998). Therefore, it is important for the leaders must develop effective relationships with the employees and top level management of the organization (Meindin, 1995). In addition to this, leaders should enhance effective communication between the employees of several different departments in order to ensure effective collaborative workplace performance (Kellerman, 2007). An effective leader also tries to influence the top level management of an organization to support the employees. According to modern day leaders, such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, effective and competent employees are the real assets of an organization (Bolden, 2011). Further, an effective leader tries to maintain horizontal structure and a decentralized decision making process within the organization in order to ensure high employee motivation and a conflict-free workplace environment (House and Aditya, 2009). The implementation of change management can overcome contemporary issues, workplace conflicts, lack of employee motivation and inadequate collaborative workplace performance within the workplace. It is true that the adoption and implementation of change management processes are required by leaders in order to overcome issues such as effect of the economic downturn on business performances, the effect of inadequate workplace diversity on workplace performance and effect of inadequate motivation processes on the business performances of organizations (Ireland and Hitt, 2005). Therefore, a true and effective leader always adopts and implements change management process in the business operation activities based on the demands of the specific situation so as to maintain organizational business performance sustainability. The relationship between leaders and followers can be divided into two parts such as transactional leadership and transformational leadership. According to Kotler (1990) Steve Jobs the co-founder of the Apple Inc. always adopted and implemented transformational leadership theory (Kotler, 1990). His good relationship with employees and other sub-ordinates is the example of the transformational leadership activity (Bass, 1990). Steve Jobs always tried to influence his employees and sub-ordinates in order to perform effectively. Moreover, he always took care of both personal and professional needs of employees. His effective transformational leadership style helped Apple Inc. to gain potential competitive advantages in this saturated global business environment. In contrast, the leadership activities of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi can be considered as an example of transactional leadership according to Bass (Bass, 1990). His leadership style includes negative reinforcement, corrective criticism and negative feedback. It is known to all that the effective transactional leadership skills of Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi helped India to gain freedom after long 190 years. He had able to influence millions of Indians who can fight for freedom and independence. His skill of corrective criticism and negative feedback helped young followers to follow his developed ideology i.e. non-violence. Both of these leadership characteristics are quite important for modern day leaders to overcome the contemporary issues and challenges from the organizations or workplaces (Bennis, 2007). In recent years several organizations failed to motivate their competent and skilled employees as the managements of those organizations only think about business profit. However, effective transformational leadership skill will influence the modern day leaders to motivate the talented and experienced employees. This aspect will help the organizations to maintain a strong business growth rate. In contrast, the transactional leadership skills are also important for the modern day leaders. It will help the followers to follow exact and appropriate pathways that can provide them success in both personal and professional life. In modern day organizations, it is highly important for leaders to maintain good relationship with their followers (Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1991). A leader needs to lead the team from the front and set an example before the sub-ordinates in order to motivate the team. In addition to this, it is also important as Hirschhorn and Gilmore (1992) further notes, for leaders to understand both the professional and personal needs of his or her followers (Hirschhorn and Gilmore, 1992). These aspects will help the followers to stay motivated towards effective workplace performance. Moreover, a leader always needs to adopt and develop an ethical pathway for the followers to follow because as Kellerman (2007) notes, it helps the leaders to maintain a good relationship between himself and the followers within an organization. Most importantly, it will help to avoid the possibilities of several workplace conflict related issues. A good relationship between the leader and his or her followers will enhance transparent workplace communication. Effective and transparent communication between leader and followers will help the organization reduce the possibility of communication gap. The followers will be motivated enough to complete a particular task. It will benefit both the followers and the organization. Ultimately it will result a conflict free workplace environment. Part 2 It is important for the leaders to have good leadership skills in order to build effective LMX. LMX stands for leader-member exchange theory. First of all, it is important for the leaders to stay focused on two way relationships between the sub-ordinates and supervisors because as Bolden (2011) explains. This type of two-way relationship is considered by Caldwell (2003) to be dyadic relationship and this is important because it can help the employees or sub-ordinates of a firm or an organization to communicate transparently with the supervisors (Caldwell, 2003). In an addition, it is highly important for the leaders to influence supervisors to motivate the employees and so that they can take care of the needs of the employees as Bjugstad, Thach, Thompson and Morris (2005) note and also apply to sub-ordinates. These skills help leaders to maintain effective relationship between the supervisors and sub-ordinates within an organization and it is also important for the organization to maintain effective workplace environment within a multi-department organization because as Kent (2005) posits. It will help the supervisors to give respect and values to the sub-ordinates. It will automatically increase the self-confidence of the sub-ordinates. As a result they will be motivated enough to perform effectively. Transformation leadership skills are considered as effective and valuable leadership skills that help a leader to become successful leader (Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1991). Under the transformational leadership style, leaders should have the skill of strong visionary skills and imaginary power (Conger, 2004). This is because, it is highly important for the leaders to understand current market demand effectively, and to develop and implement leadership styles accordingly (Kerr and Jermier, 1978). The development of transformational leaderships are also important in allowing leaders to identify and develop the skills needed in order to overcome contemporary issues in the multi-department organizations. First of all, it is highly important for the leaders to understand both the personal and professional needs of employees as these can help the individual as a transformational leader (Caldwell, 2003, pp. 285-293). In addition to this, a leader should have the ability to implement change management in the business operation process. It is important that inadequate decision making and communication process within the organization can affect the entire workplace environment. Implementation of effective change management process can help a leader to maintain conflict free workplace environment. It will enhance conflict free collaborative workplace performance. This is important because inadequate adoption and implementation of change management process can create several critical issues, such as workplace conflicts and cultural barriers among the employees of different departments (Parris and Peachey, 2012). Authentic leadership is also considered as ethical leadership by Bennis (2007). Leaders must maintain honesty and ethics in their relationships with followers and sub-ordinates in order to ensure the implication of authentic leadership style in workplaces. Commenting further, Bennis (2007) suggested that it is highly important for a leader to maintain honesty, integrity and ethics in his or her leadership style and decision making process in order to become loyal and transparent to the employees (Gardner, Cogliser, Davis and Dickens, 2011). Skilled and competent employees are considered as the real assets of the organization and thus employee poaching in this competitive business environment in order to ensure strong and competent human resources (Hirschon and Gilmore, 1992). Honesty and integrity in the leadership style will help the leaders to motivate employees to perform effectively. In present era of globalization, several organizations experience inadequate and biased workplace environment. Several organizations are suffering from this issue. Therefore, it is highly important for the organization to appoint leaders who can maintain ethics and honesty in the leadership and decision making process. Performance appraisal and compensation distribution can be considered as effective motivation drivers for the employees in organization. Leaders should be honest enough to appraise the performance of the employees quite effectively. Biasness towards a particular group of employee during the performance appraisal process can affect entire workplace environment. It may hamper self-confidence and motivation level of the competent and skilled employees. In addition to this, each and every employee in an organization should be taken care of in a similar way. Discrimination during the rewards and compensation distribution may rise to several types of workplace conflicts. It can affect the motivation level of the skilled employees. In addition to this, possibilities of job-left can hamper overall business process of an organization. Therefore, it is important for the leaders to maintain ethics and honesty in leadership styles. However, it is quite important for the organizations to consider both transformational and authentic leadership styles as employees will be loyal to the organizations and perform well (Raisch and Birkinshaw, 2008). This helps the organizations to maintain or improve their market position and brand image. Conclusion It is clear from above discussion that organizations are trying to adopt and implement an effective leadership style in order to maintain an effective workplace environment and gain potential competitive advantages in this competitive business environment. A leader should as has been noted by Gardner, Cogliser, Davis and Dickens (2011), have the ability and skill to understand the demands and needs of the situation and implement leadership style accordingly. Transformational leadership style can be considered as one of the important leadership styles that help the leaders to guide entire team towards the developed goals and objectives (Bolden, 2011). 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