Features of Leadership Assessment - Essay Example

Leadership Assessment Introduction The leadership style that an organizational leader chooses to adopt will be dependent on the needs of the situation, the employees in the organization and the challenges that the organization faces. However, there are leaders who opt to incorporate different leadership styles and make them work together. Leaders need to realise that leadership is not about their personal needs but rather the needs of the workers of the organization one is leading. One cannot just try any leadership style as they decide but needs to analyse and recognize the needs of the organization before settling on a particular leadership style (Bonnici, 2011). In the organization I worked with, the C.E.O was a visionary kind of leader. A company looking to move in a new direction mostly adopts this kind of leadership. In this form of leadership, there are no limitations to the dreams and ambitions that the leader hopes the organization will achieve. The organization’s management makes the best use of the available assets in order to achieve the goals and objectives set. The main advantage of this form of leadership is that the leaders inspire the employees to be the best at what they do. This gives employees the motivation they need to perform their jobs. This form of leadership is bound to achieve the best results as all the workers get to chip in and gives their views. In addition, the employees get to exploit to their full potential and innovation and creativity which helps in coming up with new and better ideas on how well t run the business and gain competitive advantage over your competitors. Organizational structure can be described as how job tasks are divided within an organization, and how the jobs are grouped and co-coordinated. Some of the main factors that influence the kind of organizational structure chosen include strategy employed by the organization, the kind of technology used, the global implications, the size of the company and the setting in which the company is located. In the organization, the form of structure in place was departmentalization in which the business unit were dividing into different departments depending on their functions. This is beneficial in ensuring that each department focuses on a key area and works towards realising a particular goal and objective set for the department (MacKenzie, 1997). Organizational culture can be described as principles and behaviours that add to the exceptional emotional environment of an organization. It is highly based on the unwritten rules within an organization that determine how employees within an organization relate to each other. The organizational culture does not only affect how employees relate with each other within the organization, but also with the outside world. In the organization, employees freely shared their ideas and expressed their opinions without the fear of what top management would think. In addition, how the employees work as a team to achieve the organizations goals and objectives shows the kind of culture in the organization. Teamwork is imperative in any organization in order to achieve the long-term goals and objectives set in the strategic plan of the organization. Any leader looking to develop an effective team in the organization should consider the twelve C’s for team building. These include commitment, clear expectations, context, competence, control, collaboration, charter, communication, creative innovation, cultural change, coordination and consequences. If the organization’s leader ensures to incorporate these into the team, the team is most likely to perform efficiently (Bonnici, 2011). Leadership Values and Ethics An organization with the kind of leadership, which holds high values and ethics, is likely to perform better than an organization in which the management lacks any professional ethics. Leaders need to let their values and ethics reflect on how they run their organization. The minute employees lack any form of trust on their leaders, there is an unlikelihood of any kind of productivity in the organization. If the leader holds his values and ethics in the way he runs the organization, it helps in building trust with the employees enough for employees to trust the decisions the leader makes. The ethics that leaders employ in dealing with their employees will in turn affect the morale and loyalty of the employees. In addition, when leaders employ ethics in dealing with their employees, it sets an example for employees to follow in dealing with each other hence creating an organizational culture. The organization’s leadership can reward employees who follow the codes and ethics set for the organization in order to follow in the same suit. As for the organization, since healthy corporate culture in turn impacts on the employees morale, this will in turn reflect on the organizations overall productivity. In addition, employee turnover will reduce and hence reducing the financial implications this may have on the organization (Bredeson, 2012). Employee Motivation The principal for success for any organization is happy and well-motivated employees. However, the main challenge with this is that employees are their own individuals and what makes one employee happy may not necessarily apply to another employee. This therefore has necessitated the need for employers to fully understand their employees and come up with a universal method that applies to all the employees in the organization (Thomas, 2009). Some of those methods just to mention a few include: Communication The management should take it upon them to communicate effectively any information that could help the employees perform the tasks assigned to them better. Employees need enough information to help them make better decisions pertaining to the job and do their work to the best of their capability. There should not be a case where some employees in the organization get information while others are kept in the dark. Good Relation between Senior Management and the Other Employees Employees need to feel appreciated as members of the organization since they also play an important role in the general productivity of the organization. There have been several instances witnessed where the top management gets all the credit for the work done by lower level employees in the organization. The senior management should not look down on the other employees but from time to time interact and socialise with them. Most employees find that interaction and communication with the senior management motivated them to perform better at their work. Remuneration The remuneration offered by the organization should match the tasks assigned to the employees. When employees feel oppressed, there is likely to be a high employee turnover in the organization, which in the end will cost the organization heavily. Other than the salary, the organization can include other benefits such as health care benefits and retirement benefits, which will likely encourage them to stay longer at the organization. In addition, the organization can offer bonuses and promotions to appreciate work well done. This will motivate employees to do their work to the best of their ability. Diversity at the workplace Diversity at the workplace exists when there are different people from different groups, cultures and background sharing their ideas and experiences. A good leader should know how best to manage this diversity and use it to benefit the organization. In the past, workplace may have been viewed to be a financial burden rather than an investment. However, today, organizations that embrace employees with diverse cultures and backgrounds are seen to have an advantage in the competing economy. Advantages of Workplace Diversity Diverse Experience Employees with different cultural backgrounds bring to the table unique and differing experiences to the group. Management can incorporate these experiences such that it benefits the organization in the end by strengthening the group’s overall efficiency and receptiveness to changing conditions. Given the different cultures and backgrounds, the weaknesses and strengths of employees will vary from one to the other. The management can take advantage of the situation and use this factor to their advantage such that they leverage the strengths of each worker to complement the weaknesses of each other (Jackson, 1992). Learning and Growth Diversity at the workplace is as a chance for an employee’s personal growth, especially professionally. Exposure to different cultures can give an employee new perspective and ideas. In addition, it may help them gain a better understanding of their environment and their place in this world. Consequently, employees will turn out to be well rounded and be more tolerant and understanding of the different cultures and perspectives. Challenges of Diversity at the Workplace Whether or not diversity works for an organization is highly dependent on management’s strategy. There may be instances where the management fails to incorporate diversity at the workplace the right way leading to conflicts and chaos at work. Some of the challenges associated with diversity at work include: Integration Issues Workers may decide to form cliques and groups depending on one’s social background. The prime problem with this is that it is beyond the managements control and management can do little or nothing about it. This is especially so when new staff are introduced into the organization. There is no certainty that they will be willing to mingle and share ideas with the other workers in the organization. Although there is nothing essentially wrong with this scenario, it still hinders sharing of ideas and knowledge at the workplace. Inevitably, the organizations overall production will be impacted on. Communication Issues Diversity can deter communication between employees within the organization due to the different cultures and backgrounds. It may take a long term to train the employees in order to break down the communication problem in the organization brought about by the clashing of different cultures. Consequently, this may affect negatively on the organizations general productivity and in some instances lead to the eventual downfall of an organization. Strategies to Manage Diversity Challenges at the Workplace Employees should be trained on the need to accept and understand each other at the workplace despite the different cultures, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, physical appearance and socioeconomic status. There should be strict policies set up in the organization against any kind of discrimination that may take place at the workplace. The training should not only focus on making people tolerate each other, but more on making them embrace the differences and use them to their advantage (Jackson, 1992). References Bonnici, C. A. (2011). Creating a successful leadership style: Principles of personal strategic planning. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education. Bredeson, D., & Goree, K. (2012). Ethics in the workplace. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning. Jackson, S. E., & Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (U.S.). (1992). Diversity in the workplace: Human resources initiatives. New York: Guilford Press. MacKenzie, K. D. (1978). Organizational structures. Arlington Heights, III: AHM. Thomas, K. W. (2009). Intrinsic motivation at work: What really drives employee engagement. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Read More