Human Resource Management Issue - Essay Example

Human Resource Management Issue Name Institution Course Date Human resource Management Issue Introduction Leadership and management often go hand in hand but they are not the same thing. However, leadership and management are necessarily connected and complementary. Their separation can lead to more serious problems than it solves. Still, a lot of literatures have tried to delineate the differences (Chitale, 2013). The main function of a manager is to plan, coordinate, organise and control. On the other hand, the main role of a leader is to inspire and motivate. Clearly, the performance of leaders and managers has a huge significant impact on the performance of an organisation. Generally, both management and leadership are very important for a high-performance organisation (Bass, 2010). By highlighting their differences and contrasting the two terms, one is able to better balance, improve and advance these essential roles. What is then the proper way to develop leadership in an organisation? Every group has its own answer to this question and each defines its concerns about the distribution, uses and functions of power (Gold, Thorpe and Mumford, 2010). Business society has contributed to the leadership question by proving a new breed termed as the manager. At the same time, business has set up a new power ethic known to favour collective leadership over individual leadership, and the cult of group over personality cult. Leadership requires the use of power to influence the actions of people. Organisations however offer succession to power by development of managers instead of individual leaders (Bennis, 2009). While every leader is not a manager, all managers are expected to be leaders. Manager who has no effective leadership characteristics and traits will lead to the failure of an organisation. Going from being just a mere manager to a leader does not just happen overnight, it consumes a lot of time and energy in improving the management strategies and utilising more leadership traits. Running an effective organisation requires both management and leadership (Bennis, 2009). Leadership is in shorter supply than managerial competence and is more demanding and important for most people. There is a large range of literature discussing the differences that are witnessed between a leader and a manager. In general, a leader takes a larger view and directs an organisation towards required and critical change (Bennis and Nanus, 2007). This paper will analyse Human Resource Management issue concerning the factors that makes a leader different from a business manager and it will also highlight the training that could be instituted for both to survive. The research question to be detailed out is: What makes a business leader different from a business manager and what training could be applied for both to survive. Methodology The main objective of this research was to differentiate between a leader and a manager and this was done in DHL Worldwide Express Company. Data was collected and analyzed in two phases, qualitative phase and quantitative phase. Phase 1 Interview Guide Development and Pilot Testing Questions were designed to aid clarify leadership performances and styles of the directors of the company. This was done to identify the type and nature of leadership and how their leadership skills are applied to achieve objectives via decision making, and prospects of their performance exemplifying high and low performing members’ behavior. Pilot testing of the interview guide was performed with four directors chosen from different departments of the company. Various changes were made to the interview guides. These changes were based on the feedback as well as experience from the pilot contestants. Sampling Sampling for Phase 1 was conducted using 2-stage sampling strategy. First, criterion-based purposive sampling approach was conducted to distinguish the directors for participation in the study. In the second stage, 16 participants were selected, representing themselves, from a number of staff members who were willing to take part in the sampling. The 16 staff members were chosen by the directors of the company. This was done to ensure that a satisfactory sample size was collected from those who were participating in the study. Some directors came up with more than one staff participant whereas others came up with none. This was based on the convenience of interviews. Therefore, sufficient representation from both groups was very important in collection of data. Our sampling activity generated a total of 20 interviews. This came about due to successfully initiating 4 interviews from the directors and 16 interviews from the staff members of the company. Data Collection Interviews of every director together with individual staff members were conducted to generate data hence all data gathering techniques were approved as well as the documents. Interview questions were enquired to gather data related to the research objective and every interviewee was queried to define up to two crucial instances where they experienced good or poor acts that mostly affected their company. Phase 2 Questionnaire Development and Pre-testing Two sets of questionnaires were prepared for the company’s directors. One concentrated on demographics whereas the other concentrated on members’ performance evaluation. The other questionnaire was prepared for members of staff. Same as the directors’, one focused on demographics whereas the other concentrated on director leadership assessment. The directors’ questionnaire gathered data regarding the company’s member of staff performance status. On the other hand, the staffs’ questionnaire gathered data on the various leadership qualities portrayed by their directors with regard to decision making and activity level to mention a few. All pre-tested assessments were done online as they were done to actual study participants. Analytical Findings Time and funding were one of the major barriers. Nearly half of the directors as well as the members of staff brought it up during the interviews. Inadequate funding and lack of time hinders many procedures needed for a successful operation of the company. Time was also mentioned to prevent communication between the directors and the members of staff as reported by a staff member. Issues of time and funding are experienced in most positions within the company and these positions are ensured to look for more proficient methods of creating more time and acquiring more funding. Communication was mentioned to be mode through which various activities were accomplished. Finally, decision making are made by a consensus between boards, both internal and external. Barriers in relation to decision making reportedly made by the participants were time and funding as mentioned earlier. Discussion Differences between a Manager and a Leader If one is a business manager, he or she probably counts value. Managers are known to count value some even are known to reduce value by incapacitating those people that add value. However, by contrast, leaders mostly focus on creating value (Bertocci, 2009). A leader generates value above that which is produced by the team members and is also as much a value creator as the followers. Action-based leadership is founded upon the concept of leading by example and enabling and motivating people to generate value. The same way managers have a group of subordinates and leaders have a group of followers, managers tend to create a circle of power and on the other hand leaders tend to create a circle of influence. In any organisation, a leader is able to use the three forms of influence in motivating the employees and achieving the set objectives (Bertocci, 2009). For instance, compliance is used to maintain order in a work environment, such as when people are expected to conform to rules set by management. The same way, identification takes place when individuals try to imitate and follow other person’s actions that they look up to or respect. In addition, internalisation takes place when employees embrace the mission, vision and values of a leader and establish a commitment in an aim of achieving them (Bertocci, 2009). Leaders are known to use these three forms of influence to motivate the actions of the team in accomplishing objectives and achieving goals. Managers use power that may instil fear in the subordinates with the purpose of wanting them to achieve the set goals (Yukl, 2010). Managers are known to give answers while leaders are known to ask questions. Managers are associated with shouting orders at employees which tend to make the employees turn against them (Bertocci, 2009). Consequently, by allowing the group members to participate and contribute to decision-making process, a leader transforms what could have turned out to be an order into something more accepted. The type of questioning used by leaders inspires creativity, morale, motivation and autonomy among the staff members. In addition, managers tend to criticize mistake but leaders call attention to problems and mistakes indirectly (Lunenburg, 2007). Pointing out individual mistakes directly leaves them feeling very embarrassed in addition to being frustrated. Effective leaders are known to give the team members a chance to learn from the mistakes done and grow by letting them address and take care of their mistakes themselves. For example, when a project is sent to a particular client and a disgruntled message is received by the manager in return, a true leader takes the position of asking the employee about the client’s complaint and whether they were satisfied with what was provided to them. This gives them an opportunity to provide expected input and finally understand what needs to be addressed for the future (Maxwell, 2005). Moreover, managers rarely praise but leaders reward the employees even the smallest improvement (Lunenburg, Thompson and Pagani, 2010). Praise is considered essential when it comes to effective leadership approach. Leaders endeavour to find time and opportunity to recognise the employees for the accomplishment as this increases their passion in what they do and motivate them to aim high. The act of providing regular feedback and recognition by leaders is a way of showing that he or she genuinely appreciates efforts. In addition, manager’s focus on the bad but leader emphasises the good (Schein, 2010). The tendency of the managers to concentrate into the flaws of a particular project or employee does not leave any room for learning nor improvement. A leader creates sandwich effect whereby he or she starts with some type of praise then followed by criticisms and finally ends with praise (Tripathi and Reddy, 2006). A good leader also understand the importance of giving credit to the team members in an event of big win but a managers often chase after credit. This most of the times pays off especially in the long run through establishing a more positive organisational culture where the subordinates are driven towards successes as a team. Management should not be approached through power or force, but rather through motivation and influence. Management can therefore be improved through installing more leadership into it (Bertocci, 2009). Leaders think differently about goals. They are often active and not reactive, shaping ideas and not responding to them (Ament, 2007). They tend to adopt a personal attitude towards goals. A leader has the power to alter moods, evoke expectations and establish particular desires, goals and objectives that determine the direction an organisation follows. The influence of a leader has the capability of changing the way people think and act about what is necessary and possible. Managers on the other hand adopt impersonal attitudes towards goals. A manager’s goals and objectives originate from the necessities and not desires and thus are deeply embedded within the organisational culture and history (Bertocci, 2009). Additionally, leaders are referred to having emotional content. They attract strong feelings of similarities and differences, love and hate. Human-relations in a leader-dominated environment appear intense and satisfying. Such environment intensifies employee’s motivation to achieving goals (Tripathi and Reddy, 2006). A leader take into consideration the feeling of other people in the process of making decisions thus has a good relationship with the followers. However, a manager maintains a low level of emotional involvement when making decisions or creating a relationship with the subordinates. Adding to this, another thing that differentiates a business leader from a business manager is the fact that he empowers and inspires innovation while a manager makes sure that rules and regulations are followed (Khan, 2008). This is to mean that leader challenges rules, leads to the creation of vision and ultimately define purpose and managers design and implement rules, organise and highlight details and ensure compliance (Ament, 2007). A leader magnifies an individual, his capabilities and purpose while a manager magnifies corporate processes and procedures. In the same line, leadership entails the ability of a person to influence and motivate the followers to contribute towards the expected organisational success. On the other hand, management entails the control of a group of people in accomplishing goals. Influence and inspiration and not power and control fundamentally separate leaders from managers (Tripathi and Reddy, 2006). Business theories related to human resource Maslow theory of human motivation Many theorists have highlighted the importance of human resource theories. One theorist who did this is Abraham Maslow with his theory of human motivation (Maslow, 2013). In an aim of identifying what makes employees to work, he ventured into the concept of wanting to know what motivates people. Maslow established five needs that are required to be satisfied by people at one stage before transferring to the next stage. According to him, needs vary significantly from one person to another and that individuals requires their needs to be satisfied. In satisfying needs, one must first understand the motivation factor. All in all, the theory of hierarchy of needs assist organisation to understand the importance of motivating the employees in accomplishing set goals and objects (Sapru, 2013). Therefore, according to the theory, communication is very essential since managers need to understand what the employees need for the purpose of motivating them to work proficiently and productively. Therefore, in order for managers to be able to figure out the needs of the employees, they should adopt leadership characteristics in order to give them an opportunity to motivate the employees and achieve organisational goals (Mintzberg, 2013). Rensis Likert’s Participative Decision Making Theory Another important theory that relates to human resource management is called Rensis Likert’s Participative Decision Making (Buford and Lindner, 2002). Likert explored the idea of the methods used by leaders in making decisions. The ideas were founded upon the notion that managers with strong worker productivity focus more on human aspects of worker’s problems while building teams that emphasises on high achievement. In addition, Likert has established that the highly productive leaders involve the employees in decision making process (Griffins and Moorhead, 2014). From his concept of productive versus unproductive management, Rensis Likert established four distinct management styles: Exploitive authoritative, benevolent authoritative, consultative and participative. Generally, Likert believed that the leadership and management in organisation could incorporate aspects from the human resource approach and scientific management approach in maximizing organisational performance (Tayler, 2012). The theory typically supports the notion that managers should incorporate some leadership traits in order to be effective and should be employee-centred and treat all the subordinates as unique and not just as another worker. Training Programs that make Leaders and Managers more Effective For both leaders and managers, efficiency is considered to be their top most priority in running an organization or business. These training programs are as follows. They should focus on their communication skills (Bertocci, 2009). Communication is the fundamental aspect of any relation and both leaders and managers should learn various ways of how to vary communications for their receivers as well as understanding the significance of both under and over communicating as a strategy. This boosts their confidence, increases their interpersonal skills as well as strengthens their negotiation resilience. Furthermore, they are advised to be flexible when it comes to changing management. They should learn how to transform their behavior via tools of objectives and feedback (Tayler, 2012). These aid them to develop principal leadership skills that keep a business or organization at pace. In addition, leaders and managers should be able to collaborate with their peers, partners and team. These collaborations can be achieved by concentrating on sale channels, improving performances management in marketable facing team and finally increasing peer-level collaboration skills (Bertocci, 2009). Furthermore, leaders should also have power management training (Bertocci, 2009). This kind of training helps them set goals for themselves, empower themselves and also give them a sense of accountability. Self-empowerment fine balances their management and thus gives them options on how to deliver it. Goal setting helps the leaders monitor their progress as well as helps them manage their variances and last but not least accountability trains them on how to manage commitments within the organization or business. Power management training helps them consistently stretch their targets. Moreover, they reduce inefficiency related to lack of accountability which is always a huge contributor to growth hindrance. Finally, leaders and managers should look onto Strategic effectiveness overview (Bennis, 2009). This kind of training poses to them the question ‘What is strategy, what is your role?’ They should understand how strategies are set in order to accomplish a mission and which come as long term plan-of-action. They should be able to clearly understand the exact meaning of strategic management, distinguish it from ‘normal’ management and recognize for what reasons it differs from the latter (Bertocci, 2009). Additionally, they should work together with their colleagues so as to effectively manage decision making with regard to strategic management. Strategic effectiveness overview helps elucidate a much confused area into a clearer one hence serving as a vital leadership tool for success. Conclusion Management and leadership often go hand in hand and are considered vital for the organisational success. Managers have the function of coordinating, organising, controlling and planning while a leader has the responsibility of inspiring and motivating. From the research done in this paper, there are some aspects that differentiate a leader from a manager. To start with, a leader is a value creator while a manager is a value counter, leaders challenges the status quo while managers accept it and leaders lead while managers manage. In addition, a leader uses influence to motivate employees in achieving the set goals while a manager uses power to instil fear to the subordinates. Leadership involves enabling people want to do what is requires; leaders pull while managers push. managers command but leaders communicate. Managers should implement leadership characteristics in their work in order to achieve success. References Ament, L. (2007). Professional issues in midwifery. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett. Bass, B. (2010). The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Bennis, W. (2009). On becoming a leader. New York: Basic Books. Bennis, W. G., & Nanus, B. (2007). 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