Managenent and Leadership - Assignment Example

?Management and leadership In ‘Future Shock ‘Alvin Toffler used the word Transience to describe how the increasing pace of change effects our lives. Describe how this pace of change has affected the employee relationship with the organization and suggest ways you as a manager could mitigate the impact of ‘Transience’. Change is a constant phenomenon, perhaps the “only constant” in this universe (Chance, 2008). Everything that is part of this universe goes through a change, be it an individual, an era, a product, or any other variable, change is fate of everything residing on this planet. No single living element can exist in same state. If any does so, it becomes obsolete and part of past. The human being undergoes different phases from childhood to adult age to old age, similarly the animals experience the same phase and process. The trees that look stagnant and are ages old, goes through the same evolutionary process and though they might age slowly, but surely do. The concept of transience is of importance in five spheres of the human life and its activities (Taylor, 1970). The essence of transience: Transience in a way is a continuation and chain of existence, without it everything would get into a stale mode with no change, no improvement, no replacement and hence no growth. All the technology and advancement that we see around us is the courtesy of transience and variability. What was not being achieved by the past generations has been done so by the present ones, and the chain and cycle would continue in coming ages. All the men of past, present, and future are equal men and human beings, no one is superiorly capable over another, yet it’s the transience, the process of evolution, change, progress that has resulted in all what we have today. In other words, transience is the name of life and this universe. Without it the mere existence would fall into jeopardy. Transience is the short lived interaction, short lived response or experience with one of these five elements namely an ordinary place, an individual, the working place, environment or any concept that is of some spark to the mind. Permanence is a transient phase which lasts only for a brief while. This concept is being advocated by many proponents of the field notably Edward Albee, Harold Clurman and various other people who have tried discovering the aspect of transience (Taylor, 1970). The incumbent concept is merely taken as elementary and goes unnoticed however the entire spectrum of human life and this universe revolves around the transience. With such a reach, it influences the manner in which relationships are taken, and their due tenures. The author is of the believe that with pacing change has resulted in the reduction of tenures of relationship between individuals. Relationships that would last longer in past are subject to various adverse factors due to the pace attained all over. Organizational relationship is one of those variables and it is equally undergone the transience in a fast paced manner. According to the author the pace of this phenomena has beefed up in recent times and as a result the variables that are subject to this phenomena are equally adapting themselves and hence pacing up the modes and means of operations and conductivity. Impact of transience on the organizations: The work place environments that are driven by the technology and state of the art tools, is largely reformed in comparison to its existence nearly a century ago. As a result the human behavior, the employees’ relationship, their approach, attitude and aptitude has seen a shift in its display. Long term customer and employee loyalty cannot be guaranteed any more. What runs and rules the industry is materialistic approach and achievements. The social relationships are reduced a great deal with modern design structures of the office work places. While the commitment to organizational loyalty lasted many years in past, they are merely limited to contracts and projects, all gifts of ever fast paced transience and technological domination. Concept of obsolesce: What is a common trend in this age is replacement. Every product is mobile, and replaced every few months, in such situation; the organizations are forced and challenged into adopting methods and means for change, even if it is at the expense of individuals, relationships, and at times actions that were once termed as the values and moral working ground. Obsolesce is in trend just because there are too many items in the background that are roaring to be launched and released. Its scope does not encompass to individuals and their personal life only, rather the manner in which they undertake the social aspects, the interaction with other people, the society itself, the environment and earth, their behaviors in work with one another in the different places, notably public places and other social gathering locations all fall under the paradigm of transience and its relative speed. The Week Days relationships: With such a situation at hand, people end up spending more time with their colleagues than the family members, however that too only the physical presence and does not have to have any bond between them. It is all subject to the work, the throughput, and despite having spent lots of time in same work place one would not even remember a person from last working place just because of the nature of work at other places, and how demanding everything has become. An individual corporate person gets to travel more in a month than would a person do on average in an year in past. What drives each of the individual is career success, a good pay check at the end of the month and other social security aspects. The author terms them “Monday to Friday” friends The trend de facto- Turn over: Turnover of the employees as well as the products is a fade in market. Loyalty is a trend of past and what is being chased is productivity, more profits, throughputs and high stakes values returns. Alone in Europe, the job turnover rates are ever high and they are clear signs of run after the material pursuits and the requirements being produced by the technology and transience that force an individual into changing their work places, which for many can be seen as change of loyalty. This trend is not just limited to a few organizations in particular, it can be exhibited in the communication field, the science field and other fields which would have least seen replacements in past. The pace at which technology is shaping up, the gurus of the field predict more turn over in coming days. The inner logic behind the turn over: The turn over means new work place, new incentives, new colleagues, new office, new ambiance, all in all sum up to one thing, the ever transient nature of human beings in modern times that has been imbibed into the body and mind of present day man by the too much fast paced transitions all around. “The throw away Trend”: Material pursuit is a key trait and gift of modern day fast paced transience; it has someone put the emotions, sentiments, and attachment and long term affiliations in the back seat. An example of the Barbie doll is being quoted in an apt manner by the author (Reference, Barbie doll), where a new model doll has replaced the old one. The technology, desire for new things, color of modern times has subdued the sentimental frame. Managerial approach towards reducing the transience syndrome: Transience- a fade all over, which would take something extra by the managers to eradicate or possibly mitigate this syndrome. What can be done best is to lead by example at best. The preaching of the concept that not everything is encircled around pecuniary gains. This trend is more than an individual act now; it has engulfed the society, psyche, mind of every person. The ability to say no to new offer and stick to old one should be thought and induced in the society, work places, and individuals. Creation of stable zones is the order of the day in order to mitigate the jungle fire of transience. Dr. Gerjuoy advocates the concept through establishing of groups that work on similar lines of stability all around. Equally considering all the possible reasons why an individual relies and gets attracted towards transience need to be addressed by the managers. The financial aspect, the element of susceptibility and various other factors that contribute towards it need to be weighed carefully by the mangers in order to overcome this nuisance. The family feeling and working as a unit with consideration of the social, personal, emotional aspects can win the employees heart and as a result reduce the percentage occurrence of the shift over and limited loyalty to the firm. The necessary evil: With so much technology and digital dominance, transience cannot be avoided, nor can be resisted. Resistance can lead to stagnation and as a result obsolesce. What can be best done in such a situation is balance out the element of change and the human factor. Find the middle line solutions that incorporate progress, change for the good and improvement as well as the human values intactness. Using your knowledge of leadership and critical analysis, critically analysis a leader of your choice. What makes them a great leader? What are their strengths and where would you say they, need to develop. Warren Buffett is chosen as a leader in this question! A good organization, project and a team is subject to the presence of few important factors. There is no important factor than the leader and leadership. Leader is the captain of the ship who navigates the ship through thick and thin and eventually reaches the milestone. However leadership is not an individual effort, rather a collaborative effort that requires contribution from other members of the team. The scope of leadership: The field of leadership is perhaps the widest one in the frame of management and organization. The domain of leader includes many factors namely the nature of work, the material and resources, the employees, the team building, the communication and the rest. The essence of leadership: In short without leadership the unit would be a roof less, directionless, and without a mission and objective. It is the leader who defines, and guides through his motivational spirit and practical demonstrations. The recipe of a good leader: Leader ought to have set of qualities that define and differentiate them from the rest. There is a visible mark of demarcation between the leader and the rest of the team, not on the basis of any discrimination but because of his abilities, his vision and wisdom, his decision making power, his ability to convert impossible into possible. Hence bring the best deal out of what is at hand and which others might not be able to achieve so(Drucker, 2002). It is the inborn abilities that make up a leader; it is not the born talent and parental pedigree that would guarantee a leader. What makes a good leader is self believe, hard working, endurance, defiance, innovation ability, ability to think out of the box and ahead of time, ability to maneuver the situation in one’s advantage. The variables of leadership: To many proponents, the skills of leadership come in a set of variables which are Ability to grasp an opportunity: Looking at the brighter side of the case Good at negotiations Has a record of achievement up his sleeve Self reliant Strategy deviser. All the notable achievers and leaders can be traced to exhibit at least a couple of these qualities (Goleman, 2008). Warren Buffett is a prime example in this case and his personality and persona can be attached and attribute to quite a few of these generic features that a leader ought to possess. Warren Buffett can be taken as an example and epitome of model leader. He has emerged through the long period of time as a model and symbol. His ways can be adapted to the finest measures and achievements in the field of leadership and success. Many easily term him the guru of successful investing strategies (Morio, 2011). The manner, in which Warren Buffett initiated his entire career and a step into stock exchange market, was a sample of the above mentioned traits of a generally followed leadership skills. He was innovative, courageous and daring enough to believe in his abilities and launch something that had promise to it. He had self believe, and the ability to transform his vision into reality. Motivation: Out of many tasks, where communication is termed as important, motivation is another one that is of high value and can turn crude into gold. Motivation pays large dividends and enables the team members achieving what could not be achieved otherwise. A flip sided strength and weakness: Many a team the too successful leaders, are driven by the over confidence and self believe. This can serve as the factor of strength and weakness at the same time. This trait can be attributed to Warren Buffett himself since too much of success has led him to believe that all his policies are nearly there, to some of his colleagues it is a tough patch when things are not all smooth and in that case he is the one making decisions. This individual might not be victim of such a problem; it comes naturally with too much success in the field when one is associated with it for more than three decades (Greer, 2009). Warren’s salient rules: According to him and his philosophy ( though not presented in any documented official form and based on deduction from the manner in which he has undertaken his life, the projects, success and strategy) , the first step to becoming a leader is knowing yourself and knowing your weaknesses and strengths. Knowing these two facets enables you “working to” your strengths and at the same time “working on” the shortcomings in bid to overcome them. Other feature that encompasses his ideology is that of full devotion to the task at hand, since it involves other stakeholders and hence their success, failure and their entire life. What is at hand might not impact the leader but it certainly does impact the entire crew and others who might have a point to prove from it and might have stakes up from it. To the master of the ring, the basic rule is practicing and sticking to the basics. The golden rules of managerial success will remain same and constant now, and even a century from now and they are steadfastness, discipline, professionalism. All the factors that are taught by the book hold true and firm for a successful managerial operation and would be true for everyone with slight adjustment as in terms of the variables which differ from place to place and organization to organization, but in case of management and organizational success, as for the basic rules, what is true by the sun light would be true by the lamp light. Synergetic effect: The concept of synergetic effect can be reflected from the works and success of Warren’s approach. It is the idea of focusing on the strengths of individuals and mitigating the weaknesses. This is a genuine trait of any professional leader; he would rely on the strengths on individual and would work on enhancing them in bid to bring the best out of them. The concept of synergetic effect applies mostly to a team work unit and can be of large help in such cases. What does it take to be a Leader? Leader does not have to be an out of this world personality; he or she is an equal human being and has weaknesses. Many a times leader is subject to the help of his companions, the granule of weakness can lead to sympathy and consolidation as a unit. A leader may adopt different modes of leadership styles. While some believe in authoritative methods, others believe in casual, informal methods, others believe in stick and carrot approach, all in all each has its pre requisites and are equally effective but the basic bottom line of any effective leadership journey is following the professional lines(Coffee & Jones, 2000). The perquisites of a good leader: One cannot become a leader just because he is being selected so. Even if it happens, it might not be long lasting and not to the true spirit of leadership field. It takes something special to be a leader. For an individual to be a leader in true sense, a set of pre requisites must be followed and achieved. These pre requisites entitle an individual as the rightful owner of the seat of leadership. Since leadership is a responsibility and duty in itself, it is not without conditions. The ability to be a good communicator, team leader, considerate, passionate, devoted all these are few of the set of requirements and individual must possess in order to become the leader in real sense. The need for communication in the leadership process: Communication is possibly the only tool that can make or break the entire project and course of leadership process. Communication is a path way between two ends and two people. While the leader stands at the top level, his members and unit team at other, for this there is an effervescent need of communication channel. Proper channels and modes must be explored to ensure the purposes and objectives are being met. Communication can be either intrapersonal or outside the organization. They can be either individual communication skills or collective communication means needed to impart and convey the necessary message to the corridors of stakeholders. Through Warren’s practices it can be deduced that communication, respect to the employees, cordial relation between the top management, middle and lower management as well as the smooth flow of information all hold good for a successful strategy and best practices. Conclusion: The leadership is a separate discipline in itself and has its dos and don’ts to it which must be fulfilled and considered in order to reap the rewards of the seeds sown. Many individuals can be researched to see how they made use of the principles of leadership. Warren Buffett was one of them who in modern times serves as the role model for business enterprises and those who want to achieve something out of their ideas. Works cited: Coffee, R., & Jones, G. (2000). Why Should Anyone Be Led By you. HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW. Drucker, P. R. (2002). What Makes an Effective Executive. Harvard Business Review. Chance, P. (2008). Learning and Behavior: Active Learning Edition. Cengage Learning. Goleman, D. (2008). What Makes a Leader. HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW. Greer, M. (2009, November 9,). Interview With Alice Schroeder: Buffett's Biggest Weakness. Retrieved from http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/11/09/interview-with-alice-schroeder-buffetts-biggest-we.aspx Morio, A. (2011). Warren Buffett: An Illustrated Biography of the World's Most Successful Investor. John Wiley & Sons,. Taylor, A. (1970). Future Shock. Bantam Books, Inc. Read More