Importance of Leadership Functions - Lab Report Example

? Process and Importance of Leadership Functions within an Organization Process and Importance of Leadership Functions within an Organization Successful organizations require visionary and exemplary leaders. These leaders will provide service to the organization by providing guidance and direction. Service in any leadership position requires the leader to have leadership tactics. These are crucial during leadership processes. Various authors and researchers have described leadership as a process of social change or influence. In this case, they consider leadership as a process in which an individual can enlist support and aid of others during the accomplishment of common tasks. The process of leadership occurs as the organization of people in order to facilitate the achievement of common goals. The leader may use informal or formal authority in order to realize social influence. Various studies on leadership have led to the production of theories of leadership. These studies have also identified leadership traits, functions, situational interactions, values, visions, powers and behaviours of leaders (Pierce & Newstrom, 2011). A leader can be considered as a person that others can follow. This person has the capabilities to direct or guide others. Leadership processes are vital variables that affect the performance of an organization. Leadership development is a crucial process during the guidance of people because it expands the capabilities of an individual to increase effectiveness in leadership processes and roles. These processes and roles are crucial because they aid in setting directions, maintaining commitment and creating alignment in people sharing common tasks and goals (Pierce & Newstrom, 2011). Most organizational leadership studies are based on developing individual-based skills, abilities and knowledge related with formal leadership roles. The process of leadership functions therefore develops through investments in human capitals. Process and Importance of Leadership Function within an Organization The importance of leadership functions within an organization is transformation. Leaders have a crucial role of ensuring the transformation of their environments and culture. Senior leadership teams evolve new mindsets. Additionally, teams, individuals and organizations grow, adapt and prepare for future outcomes and challenges. These entities learn to change their actions and procedures for performing their actions, making it simple to solve organizational problems. The organizational need to adapt during turbulent financial and economic times leads to operational problems (Pierce & Newstrom, 2011). It is essential to note that leadership functions cannot force change by using technical approaches only. They need different leadership capabilities that will facilitate the reframing of dilemmas and reform operations. Additionally, these new capabilities will reinterpret options. The process of organizational change is usually inevitable. Economic and operational worlds are rapidly changing and shifting towards effective and efficient operational methods. These include the use of technological tools to advance operations and economic outcomes. Additionally, leadership has changed to a multi-disciplined activity. The process of leadership tries to cope and apply knowledge to the processes, structures and systems that need completion (Pierce & Newstrom, 2011). Conventional leadership wisdom states that the right business approaches and structures will provide innovation, agility and efficiencies that an organization requires for successful and sustainable operations. Organizations with inefficient leadership face several problems because leadership functions are not fulfilled. For instance, they face problems with the integration of systems and collaboration with partners. These organizations also face challenges with the coordination of supply chains. In these organizations, innovation is thwarted or haphazard (Packard, 2008). Additionally, customer focused strategies are usually uncoordinated and implemented unevenly. In such a case, the organization is stuck and the employees do not move operations forward. The development of an effective leadership process requires the identification of a balance between leadership developments and individual competencies. Additionally, the organization should have collective capabilities of groups, teams and organizational leadership. Different leadership cultures lead to different leadership processes. These serve different purposes, and they lead to the creation of a hierarchy of cultures with each advancing culture having the capabilities to deal with different complexities. Additionally different leadership cultures have different approaches towards commitment and strategy formulation. As organizations face changes, they should invest in leadership cultures that can match unfolding challenges. The beliefs that drive or push leadership behaviours need to change and align to an organization’s business strategy (Packard, 2008). In the absence of these alignments and changes, the leadership process that facilitates the functioning of leadership will have unfilled gaps. Individual leadership skill sets will not have the tools and strategies required for collective organizational leadership capabilities. It is vital to note that when an organization’s leadership changes its leadership culture, the leadership process is rewarded with significant and sustainable outcomes. The process of leadership functions achieves several advantages such as the acceleration in the ability to implement successful business strategies. Additionally, the leadership will have increased speed, ability and flexibility, which will allow the organization to respond to changing operational environments and challenges. The organization will have new and strong core organizational capabilities and achieve improved bottom-line results. Most importantly, the organization will have improved abilities to create shared alignments, directions and commitments throughout the organization. Growth will occur at an organizational level instead of individual level (Packard, 2008). This will result from improved capabilities in collective leadership. The leadership of the organization will have an ability to grow a culture and talent while implementing different business strategies. Change in organizational culture toward a culture that favours leadership processes will lead to genuine organizational innovations for products and services offered by the organization. The organizational system will also improve toward sustainability. Additionally, the organization will have effective cross-boundary collaboration and working relationships. This will enable the organization to deal with changes and complexities that might arise in its operational environment. These changes will lead to effective and increased engagement between employees and an organization’s top leadership. The organization will achieve a re-humanized workplace that balances operational and technical expertise with experience and beliefs (Packard, 2008). Organizations that undergo operational and cultural changes will achieve organizational transformation, which is a crucial role in advancing the processes of leadership functions. Process of Transforming an Organization The transformation of an organization is the leading function of leadership. The process of transforming an organization starts with the leadership. The leadership of an organization is responsible for ensuring that an organization is transformed and its processes confer competitive advantages. The next step in the transformation of an organization is the mobilization of organizational resources towards the transformation process (Harto & Koopman, 2011). Additionally, the organization is required to provide a roadmap that will guide the transformation process. It is vital to note that the transformation of an organization is usually a continuous process. Mobilize Executive Leadership Transformational and organizational changes begin with the executive leadership of the organization. The first step during this process is the redefinition of the organizational strategy in line with the organization’s current conditions. In most cases, strategy begins with a financial objective. This includes an improvement or increase in return on investments. It is fundamental to note that a financial goal is not enough in facilitating organizational transformation. The organizational executives must have the resources and capabilities to devise strategies that facilitate the adaption of the business to its environment (Harto & Koopman, 2011). This means that the organizational executives must comprehend, improve and simplify organizational infrastructure and processes in order to improve the agility of the organization. Most importantly, the organization requires the involvement of its stakeholders during the transformational process. Translate Strategy into Tangible Terms This step in the transformation of an organization requires the creation of a balanced scorecard. The organization must be able to translate its strategies to tangible terms. The organization must also be able to communicate its strategies to its stakeholders. The best way to achieve translation is through the creation of a balanced scorecard that will help the organization to define its strategies using four inter-related perspectives. These are the financial, customer, internal process and infrastructural perspectives. The financial perspective requires the identification of financial objectives that the organization must accomplish in order to satisfy its stakeholders. Customer perspectives refer to customer needs that will lead to the achievement of the financial perspectives. Internal process perspective refers to the business processes that are critical to the satisfaction of the organization’s stakeholders and customers (Harto & Koopman, 2011). The infrastructural perspective refers to equipments required in order to optimize and improve critical processes. It is essential to identify critical business processes and tools required by the organization. The identification of critical business processes and equipping of the organization with effective infrastructure occurs at the employee and mid-management levels. The customer and financial perspectives are developed and implemented at higher management levels. Aligning the Business and Support Units The transformation of an organization requires the alignment of the organization’s business and support unit. After the identification of the processes and systems that are critical to the success and performance of the organization, it is vital to assign performance and metric indicators to the outputs of the core processes. For instance, in case the organization engages in the manufacture of products, the core processes will be research, development, marketing, sales, purchasing and manufacturing. Each of the processes has outputs that are measured using relevant performance indicators. The same applies to transactional organizations, which include government agencies, hospitals, banks and hotels. The output of service-based organizations may be less concrete. However, it is vital to measure the output in order to track the organization’s ability to achieve optimal service levels (Harto & Koopman, 2011). This requires the alignment of the organization’s infrastructure and processes to the strategy in order to monitor and identify the performance and metric indicators that support the strategic goals of the organization. Motivation The fourth step in the process of transforming an organization is the motivation of employees in order to facilitate the effective implementation of transformation. Motivation is crucial because it links and rewards performance. The transformation process of an organization should focus on the people component of the organization. The transformation process should have the abilities to motivate the organization’s employees. Additionally, organizational leaders must have the abilities to convey the organizational strategies and support organizational objective in an empowering manner. This requires the management of others while guiding them towards the goals of the organization. Additionally, this means directing reports through projects and activities that enable the organization to meet its specific goals while sustaining its daily operations (McGuire, Palus, Pasmore & Rhodes, 2009). The motivational aspect of the transformation process requires an array of leadership skills. These include the ability to act, provide directions, identify, and eliminate distractions. These will help the leadership to motivate employees, which will facilitate organizational success. It is essential for leaders to empower their employees. This will enable the employees to increase their understanding and improve their simplification of the organization’s core processes. The organization must assign resources towards the professional development and training of its employees in areas such as performance excellence, leadership development and innovation. The leadership of the organization must support commitment towards organizational stability and process improvement (McGuire, Palus, Pasmore & Rhodes, 2009). Additionally, the organization should deploy and implement motivation throughout the organization. Strive For Perfection Striving for perfection is the last process during the transformation of an organization. The transformational cycle must be integrated into the organization. Additionally, the organization must embody the cycle at all levels. The organization should ensure that it has implemented the first four steps, and continually pursue for the perfection of the organizational goals. It is essential for the organization to show its employees the importance of contributing towards the transformation of the organization (McGuire, Palus, Pasmore & Rhodes, 2009). The organization should focus on ensuring that employees make different choices and decisions. A powerful momentum will motivate organizational change. With each cycle of the five steps, the organization will increase its stability and improve its operations. Human Service Leadership is a crucial variable that affects human service. Leaders are given opportunities to lead in order to serve humans. Because of its effects on human service, leadership can affect organizational performance. It is essential to note that leadership affects human service through the facilitation of service delivery, cultural change and organizational performance. Additionally, leaders exhibit administrative behaviours, which are crucial to human service. These behaviours, practices and attitudes ensure effective service outcomes. It is essential to note that the main function of leadership is to ensure that a group of people focus its resources towards the achievement of collective goals. The achievement of these goals leads to human service. In the context of human service, leadership is a crucial factor that aligns and coordinates organizational processes (McGuire, Palus, Pasmore & Rhodes, 2009). Leadership focuses on organizational performance and effectiveness, which will lead to the achievement of desired outcomes. Leadership affects management capacity to serve because of its influence on the design of organizational systems. It is essential, to note that leaders are involved in processes that assess contingency factors that occurs within an operational environment. Additionally, leadership assess the characteristics of its staff. Leadership uses the leader-member system to shape organizational climates and cultures (McGuire, Palus, Pasmore & Rhodes, 2009). Additional factors such as service delivery modes and program capacity, in addition to client characteristics, will affect organizational outcomes. Leaders can influence service delivery by using evidence-based practices during the design of a program. In this case, the satisfaction of customers is an intermediate outcome that affects the effectiveness of an organization. In order to comprehend the effect of leadership on human service, it is essential to consider leadership at several levels. These levels are programs, groups, teams, agencies and communities. This case focuses on agency and program leadership because it focuses resources towards organizational leadership in order to achieve organizational performance. A crucial aspect of leadership in human service is the emerging emphasis on evidence based approaches and practices. Leaders should use evidence-based practices and approaches during the design and implementation of programs. Additionally, evidence based principles and approaches are vital during the assessment of theories, guidelines, and models and practice that direct leadership (McGuire, Palus, Pasmore & Rhodes, 2009). It is essential to note that though leadership involves rational activities, it relies on powerful contextual factors such as politics, agency policies, social, economic and technological factors and internal dynamics. These internal dynamics include organizational politics and powers that influence the effectiveness and behaviours of leaders. The leader must have the capabilities and resources to deal with complexities that affect human service. Process of Human Service Organizations that focus on human service usually have value addition processes. These organizations eliminate instances of duplication that could affect the operations of the organization and its target on human service. Organizations that serve humans provide opportunities for being proactive. These organizations have the capabilities to be proactive because they recognize the needs of their societies and communities (Higgins, 2010). Elements of organizations that focus on human service can be implemented on their own merits in order to improve the main aspects of the organization. These elements are risk assessment, teams, strategies, organizational alignment, sustainability, communication, employee development, training and continual improvement. Organizational Assessment The process of leadership function of human service requires organizational assessment in order to identify the effectiveness of the organization in serving its community and customers. The first step in human service is to create benchmarks of the current organizational state. In this case, the organization is assessed throughout in order to understand leadership commitment, human resources alignment, program requirements, risks and strategic directions involved in human services (Higgins, 2010). Organizational assessment enables the organization to determine its implementation of processes that accomplish organizational and community needs. The main element of success in human service is the alignment of human resources towards the strategic objectives of the organization. The alignment of human resources ensures that organizational resources work in synergy towards the needs of the organization (Higgins, 2010). This will enable the organization to avoid the need for allocation of resources to human services that do not add value to the organization and humanity. Risk Assessment The process of human service requires the performance of risk assessment. In this case, risk assessment includes activities such as performance assessment, effectiveness analysis, process efficiency and organizational baseline assessment. These assessments are focused on ensuring that the organization achieves its mandate of human service (Higgins, 2010). Strategy The next step in the process of human service is the development of organizational strategies that facilitate effective human service. The strategy minimizes risks that might interfere with human service. The strategies also institute strategic objectives that move the organization towards high performance, efficiency and effectiveness. The organization needs to update its strategic plans in order to ensure that its delivers services. The leadership of the organization is involved in the formulation of a strategic plan that incorporates the vision and mission of the organization (Higgins, 2010). Once complete, the leadership will define and communicate organizational objectives and implement a balanced scorecard. The organization’s management documents and maps the strategic plan in order to ensure year-to-year sustainability and service delivery. Organizational Alliance An organization’s ability to align human resources towards service delivery and the strategic objectives of the organization is crucial for success. The organization should ensure that all resources work in synergy with the requirements of the organization. The organization’s performance objectives rely on performance metrics that are developed in order to spot opportunities for process improvement (Higgins, 2010). An analysis of the process metrics leads to effective implementation of process improvement. Teams This step in the process of facilitating service delivery requires the formation of highly effective, performing and empowered teams. The organization will identify team members from a cross section. The team should have multi-disciplined and functional members. Multi-disciplined and cross-functional teams are highly effective in service delivery and implementation of improvements within the organization (Higgins, 2010). Communication This is a crucial aspect of service delivery. External and internal communication is a key aspect in service delivery. In most cases, customers and employees may be unaware of the organization’s performance, direction and strategy. A successful organization that has desirable service delivery needs to ensure that all stakeholders identify the organization’s performance (Pierce, & Newstrom, 2011). This means that the organization must have a communicated plan, strategy and process for external stakeholders and employees. Sustainability This step is designed to ensure that the organization trains and mentors its employees to deliver services and focus on customer satisfaction. During the risk assessment phase, the organization focuses on business continuity. It is vital to focus on this aspect because it relies on the perspectives of customers. In case the organization does not offer services to customers, the organization risks its sustainability. It is vital for the organization to develop its sustainability plan in order to ensure that its operations target customer service (Pierce, & Newstrom, 2011). The organization needs to assess its current skills and focus on ensuring that it identifies key resources that can help in the development of contingency plans. Employee Training and Development This is a crucial step in the leadership function of human service. Successful organizations need to implement training and development programs for their employees. This ensures that all employees are efficient and productive. Employee development and training covers crucial aspects such as human resources, team development and leadership (Pierce, & Newstrom, 2011). Performance Monitors The main process in human services is performance monitoring. This involves the implementation of strategic plans that align the organization’s resources with service delivery. In most of the cases, the organization should align its human resources to meet the requirements of new strategic objectives and plans. This is a vital process in service delivery because it ensures the achievement of the organizational goal of service delivery (Pierce, & Newstrom, 2011). Organizations face challenges whenever employees take up tasks that do not add value to their operations. Performance monitoring ensures that the organization addresses customer needs in a timely manner. Challenges This study faced several challenges especially in the collection of information. The main challenge that the study experienced was the definition of leadership. The study settled with the definition of leadership that states that leadership is social influence that focuses on the achievement of common or shared goals. The choice of the topic was also challenging. It is essential to note that a research topic functions as the foundation of a study. This topic was focused on providing insights into leadership functions and the processes that lead to the leadership functions. Additionally, the topic provided insights into the importance of the leadership function. The study faced challenges in maintaining motivation and work plan. This was an internal challenge that affected motivation. Challenges with the work plan resulted from personal commitments and obstacles such as financial constraints and uncooperative study participants. Analysis Visionary and exemplary leaders are required in order to drive an organization towards success. These leaders provide service by providing guidance and direction. Service in any leadership position requires the leader to have leadership tactics. Leadership is a process of social change or influence. In this case, leadership is a process in which an individual can enlist support and aid of others during the accomplishment of common tasks. Within an organization, the process of leadership occurs as the organization of people in order to facilitate the achievement of common goals. Leader may use informal or formal authority in order to realize social influence. This study focused on two leadership functions, their processes and importance. The first leadership function was organizational transformation. The process of organizational transformation occurs in five steps. The first step is the mobilization of the organizations executive leadership. The second step is the translation of strategies into goals and the third step is aligning the business and support units. The fourth step is the motivation of organizational stakeholders and the last step is striving for perfection. Transformation is important to an organization because it focuses on improving the operational activities of the organization. The second leadership function is human service. This function is important because it focuses organizational resources towards service delivery. Recommendations Leadership functions should focus on the improvement of organizational processes. Leadership functions should focus organizational resources towards organizational processes and operational activities. This will enable the organization to achieve its objectives and goals. Leaders should have the abilities to motivate their employees to work towards organizational goals. The organization should provide appropriate tools and structures that will support leadership. This means that the organization should discourage disruptive activities such as politics. Leaders require resources in order to perform activities such as motivation and team building. The organization should have an environment that favours communication and interpersonal interactions. These are crucial aspects in effective leadership. The organization should understand its leadership culture in order to facilitate change and transformation. Additionally, this will enable the organization to develop strategies that enable service delivery. Understanding leadership culture is crucial because it will provide leaders and employees with tools required for the definition of organizational problems. Lessons Learned Four lessons were learned from this experience. The first lesson is that organizations need processes and people that can keep pace with rapidly changing operational environments. The second lesson is that change requires adjustments in skills and mindsets. The third lesson is that hidden assumptions should be unearthed in order to ensure that decision-making is not based on assumptions. The fourth lesson is that organizational change should start with organizational leaders. Organizations need new approaches in dealing with operational challenges because of rapidly changing business and social environments. Organizations need to provide resources and platforms that ensure that leaders advance their collective and individual skills. Most importantly, unexamined beliefs and notions affect an organization’s ability to undergo meaningful leadership and organizational change. References Harto, D., & Koopman, P. (2011). Leadership in Organizations. Handbook of Industrial, Work and Organizational Psychology. Vol. 2. Higgins, R. (2010). Organizational Transformation. What Is It, Why Do It and How? Summit. McGuire, J., Palus, C., Pasmore, W., and Rhodes, G. (2009). Transforming Your Organization. Global Organizational Development. Centre for Creative Leadership. Packard, T. (2008). Leadership and Performance in Human Services Organizations. Pierce, J. L., & Newstrom, J. W. (2011). Leaders & the leadership process: Readings, self-assessments & applications. New York: McGraw-Hill. Appendix Work Break down Structure Gantt chart Start Date completed in hours Task 1 7/9/2013 2 8 Task 2 9-Aug-13 4 8 Task 3 9/9/2-013 3 9 Task 4 10/9/2013 13 11 Task 5 11/9/2013 12 12 Task 6 12/9/2013 6 18 Task 7 13/9/2013 5 19 Task 8 14/9/2013 0 24 PERT CHART A. Background 0.5 day B. Introduction 0.5 day C. Process of Transforming an organization 1 day D. Human Service 2 day E. Challenges 1 day F. Analysis 1 day G. Recommendations 1 day H. Lessons Learned 1 day Read More