Human Resource Management in Organizations - Literature review Example

RUNNING HEAD: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Human Resource Management Submitted by: XXXXXXX Number: XXXXXXX of XXXXXXX Leadership plays a very essential role in every organization. Leaders act as change agents within organizations. They motivate as well as build the trust and confidence of the people within the organization. The three articles that have been chosen for this study include: a) Serwer, Andy’s - Gates On Gates. Fortune International (Asia); Vol. 160 Issue 1, p40-40, 1p b) Robert T. Keller’s - Transformational Leadership, Initiating Structure, and Substitutes for Leadership: A Longitudinal Study of Research and Development Project Team Performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 91, No. 1, 202–210 c) San Bolkan and Alan K. Goodboy’s - Transformational Leadership in the Classroom: Fostering Student Learning, Student Participation, and Teacher Credibility, Journal of Instructional Psychology; Dec2009, Vol. 36 Issue 4, p296-306, 11p The company that has been chosen for this study is Microsoft. Bill Gates is the current chairman of Microsoft Company and has been ranked to be the wealthiest person in the world. He has been known to be one of the biggest revolutions in the computer industry. Bill Gates has built a strong image for himself and has grown to be recognised as the best entrepreneurs in the world. He has set down examples, is admired by many as well as has been criticized for his style of business (Lesinki, 2006). There have been mixed views on his style of working and he has been criticized of being anti competitive. Summary and Critic of Articles: This section will provide a summary and critic of the articles that have been studied and will provide an overview of the information provided by the authors. The first article by Andy Serwer is an interview with Bill Gates. The interview provides an overview of the leadership style implemented by Bill Gates for Microsoft. The article provides an insight into the life of Bill Gates and Senior Gates. There is a clear conversation where the duo expresses their views on the working style of Bill. There is also a clear expression of the various mentors that Bill Gates has had and how it has impacted his style of working. The article provides a statement which reads, ‘Id say one of the most interesting is how he [Mentor Warren Buffet] keeps things simple. You look at his calendar, its pretty simple. You talk to him about a case where he thinks a business is attractive, and he knows a few basic numbers and facts about it. And [if] it gets less complicated, he feels like then its something hell choose to invest in. He picks the things that hes got a model of, a model that really is predictive and thats going to continue to work over a long-term period. And so his ability to boil things down, to just work on the things that really count, to think through the basics-its so amazing that he can do that. Its a special form of genius’ (Serwer, 2009). Bill Gates falls into the analyzer kind of communicator. Although he does show traits of an authoritative leader, his communication is one of an analyzer. His communications are clearly focuses a lot on the ideas and the future. He is seen to be a person with big dreams and ambitions which are well set out and clear (Gates, 2000). He generally presents all his communication in a big picture and encourages the people to imagine and be analytical while dealing with any aspect of the business. He also strongly believes in the need to present all data with a logical and solid analysis (Gates, 2000). Bill Gates communication however concentrates a lot on the objective data than on feelings of the people. This brings out his nature as a leader as well which is mostly transformational. Bill Gates has a clear distinction in terms of his behaviour and communication and is clearly a transformational style of leadership. He creates a positive environment everywhere he goes and tries to ensure that there is a positive and valuable change among his followers and their working style. The second article that has been chosen for this study is the study by Keller, ‘Transformational Leadership, Initiating Structure, and Substitutes for Leadership: A Longitudinal Study of Research and Development Project Team Performance’. This article provides a detailed explanation of the transformational leadership and provides an insight on the importance of leadership and the impact of transformational leaders on their followers. It is clear that the author has tried to provide a clear section which explains the positive impact that transformational leaders have on the team performance. According to Weber: charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which s/he is set apart from ordinary people and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader. He also says, ‘resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him’ (House & Howell, 1992). The article reinforces the theory and the practical perspective of this behaviour and leadership style. The research has undertaken a study where the author has conducted a study with 118 projects based on which the results have been presented. Overall this is a very effective paper which provides an insight on the theory of transformational leadership along with a clear insight on the effectiveness in the real business world. The third article that has been chosen for this paper as the topic of this article is very different from the rest. The authors have written a study based on the implementation of transformational leadership in colleges and universities. This theory is a very impactful one in the new genre of leadership theories and the theory concentrates on four essential leadership behaviours. This includes achievement – oriented, directive, participative and supportive. The author explains that there are several similarities between the charismatic leaders and transformational leaders. The most essential and basic difference is their focus. The transformational leaders focus on transforming the organization and in some cases the followers as well, while the charismatic leaders prefer to let things remain the same and do not want to change things. In the case of charismatic leaders it is quite easy for the followers to get carried away while talking to the person because of the strong aura that they have, while there are strong chances that when they are not around followers will be back to the details that they provided just to realize that the conversation did not make any sense at all or is flawed. The article overall is very effective and efficient and has brought out a different mode of the transitional leadership. This provides a different perspective of the topic and allows the readers to realize the use of transformational leadership in the light of different organizations. Conclusions: The main purpose and reason for choosing the above articles is that each of these provide the information of transformational leadership yet, each of them provide a different perspective in which this theory can be understood. There is a clear explanation and understanding of the concept in terms of a business which is well known across the world and also explains the usefulness of the same theory in a very different scenario and perspective. References Bolkan, S., & Goodboy, A. K. (2009). Transformational Leadership in the Classroom. Journal of Instructional Psychology , 296 - 306. Gates, B. H. (2000). Business @ the speed of thought: Succeeding in the Digital economy. Business Plus. House, R., & Howell, J. (1992). Personality And Charismatic Leadership. Leadership Quartely , 3: 81 – 108. Keller, R. T. (2006). Transformational Leadership, Initiating Structure, and Substitutes for Leadership: A Longitudinal Study of Research and Development Project Team Performance. Journal of Applied Psychology , 202–210. Serwer, A. (2009). Gates On Gates. Fortune International (Asia) Vol. 160 Issue 1 , p40-40, 1p. Read More