Human Resource Practices within Kelloggs - Term Paper Example

Human Resource Practices within Kelloggs Affiliation: Leadership style and theoretical analysisKelloggs has had several leaders over the years since it was started and even though they have each portrayed a different style of leadership, the most common one to be maintained and which has yielded positive results in terms of growth and profit increase has been democratic leadership. The president of the organization involves the lower level managers, supervisors and even the employees on decision making on several issues in the organization (Kippenberger, 2002, pp. 117). The final decision however in most cases lies with the president.

The president makes the final decision based on the suggestions made by the rest of the team. This leadership style is cemented by the fact that the organization employs participative theories (Northouse, 2007, pp. 65). This means that the leader works hand in hand with the rest of the team working in Kelloggs to ensure its success. Discussions are made with participation from everyone in the company as long as the issue affects those particular people including the subordinate staff members.

This theoretical involvement ensures that employees are not side lined and decisions affecting them made without their input and even consent. Evidence of using participative theory combined with democratic leadership style is indicated by the high number of managers in Kelloggs who work together to make Kelloggs as successful as it currently is, Working as a team and involving each other has created tighter bonds between them and this is evident by the way they stand together instead of blaming each other in case of any negative publicity such as scandal or lawsuits.

When the employees are included in the decision making and allowed to participate in major deals in the company, they gain ownership of the organization and hence not only work for the purpose of earning their salary but they are motivated to mould the company and make it better than their competitors. Such ownership and motivation makes the employees aim to increase their productivity, reduce their turnover rate and they engage in all manner of performance enhancing activities including bettering their knowledge and education through trainings and seminars.

All these has worked to make Kelloggs maintain a competitive edge in the food industry and continue expanding their products and countries of operation to over 35 countries worldwide and several hundred cities all over the world as well (Rogers, 2008, pp. 87). With participative theory being enforced, the majority of the decision is delegated to the different teams working in the company. The teams organized into different categories makes proposals which are then reviewed and discussed in detail by the team leaders and the managers and the final decision is left to be made by the overall leader.

Conclusion and recommendationsWith democratic leadership style, the employees might take advantage of the relaxed rules and freedom provided to them by the leader or even thinks that the leader is weak in management. In order to avoid such a notion being present in this organization, it is important for the managers to be strict once in a while and employing a bit of autocratic leadership where situation calls for a bit more force such as in case of workers slacking in their work or demanding pay increase even when the company is facing tough economic times.

The other recommendation is that leaders in organizing the employees into teams, they should pay close attention to whom to choose as the team leaders as they will be interacting with them more than the rest of the teams. They therefore need strong and sharp minded individuals. ReferenceKippenberger, T. (2002). Leadership Styles: Leading 08.04. New Jersey: Wiley. Northouse, P. (2007). Leadership: Theory and Practice. New York: SAGE Publications. Rogers, C. (2008). Leadership Skills in Policing.

New York: Oxford University Press.