Critical Review of Leadership and Management - Essay Example

? Critical Review of Leadership and Management Question Management in business organizations is a critical process that contributes its failure or success. It leads to the coordination of employees to accomplish the set goals and objectives. Firms have to come up with various principles of management to help them in their operations (Griffin 23). They include planning, leading, organizing, staffing, coordination and control of the organization. Additionally, for management to be successful, they all the principles have to be involved in the management process. Globalization has led to the increase in the entry of new firms into the market leading to increased competition (Minkova 25). For a firm to make it and obtain a larger market share, the organization has to employ a perfect and skilled management. Management operation managers are the leaders of most of the roles in the organizations. These leaders have to be chosen wisely since they are the core of operations that determine the failure of success of a firm. The level of technology also affects the type of management and their approaches to help they attain the set goals and objectives (Saxena 25). However, the main observed management competence is communication. It involves communication skills involved in the conveying of messages from one department to another. Management systems include human action that is taken to employ various strategies such as redesigning the workplace to come up with a better management system. To be a manager, one has to manage him/herself before managing the other employees. These are part of the work and leadership ethics. According to most economists, they contribute to the growth an expansion of a business or organization. Management competences have to be put in place to help in the management process in an organization. This is due to the network of senior and junior employees who all have to contribute to help in the success of the organization. The observed management competence in the organization is communication since it has contributed to most of the successes of the organizations. Communication may between employees of the same rank or different ranks. It may also be between employees, customers, suppliers and the external environment (Schmid 48). Communication is a major aspect of success. For high competence levels, firms should employ good communication skills in the management systems. Communication may be oral or written. All channels of communication should be able to be accessed by the workers. Channels of communication include those from the same rank (also known as horizontal communications channels) and those from staff in the different rank (also known as vertical communication channels). Vertical communication channels between the junior and senior staff should be put in place to make sure that they interact freely. This will create room for brainstorming and provision of new ideas and innovations that will help in the success of the business. In most cases, it is used as a competitive strategy. Managers should be able to pass information without any barrier to the junior staff issuing them with the right duties. Horizontal communication channels on the other hand include passing information between staff members of the same rank. It happens after information is received from the higher management systems. Duties are shared among the staff members, and the results sent back to the managers. From observations in the organization’s management, the communication levels between employees were not in the right manner. This is because most of the members did not have proper communication channels. They relationship between the employees acted as a communication barrier. When employees are not in good terms with each other, they tend not to talk or communicate with each other in any manner. Due to these reasons, the managers are not able to pass on information to their juniors in the expected channels. In the end, it contributes to the failure of the company. Communication as a management competence should also be emphasized between the employees and customers. For a business to maximize profits, it has to have strategies to increase the number of customers. However, to keep the high number of customers, firms have to invest in good communication skills between the management and the customers. Customer care service should be put in place where customers can interact with the employees and report their problems and complaints. Customer care personnel should be trained on how to handle customers even in cases where the customer is rude. Socio-grams are the links set between various employees at the work place. They help in the flow of information and analyse the preferences that a group may require. In modern day organizations such as this one, there is the tendency in employees to come up with links or groups at the department level (Chen 44). Communication as a competency of management has been boosted by these socio-grams. The type of communication also affects the type of leadership style that is used by the management. Direct communication indicates an autocratic type of leadership. The leaders apply direct information to the employees that in most cases are strict. Personal journals have also been used to analyse the type of information obtained from the organization’s management. They include day to day activities that the workers go through while at the organization. From the journals, one can tell the type of duties allocated by the management and their reactions after allocation the process. The use of videos to tell the type of communication strategy used in the organization was also used. This is through recorded interviews with employees who are asked to tell the type of communication channels between them and the management (Morden 56). It also addresses the type of leadership style used by the department managers. Question #2 Leadership and management competencies have a major contribution in the success of the business (Tripathi 23). They are involved in most of the organization’s operations. To check on the issues of competence in the firm, there is a report on how the organization should handle communication ethics in future. It includes the following: In most cases, communication was not perfect due to the low level of technology use in the organization. After collecting and analysing research data from the questionnaires, it was evident that the level of technology in the organization was below average. This compromises the firm’s success due to increased competition. Globally, advancements in technology have led to the better transport and telecommunication facilities (Bolton 55). To ensure profit maximization, the organization should adopt the perfect level of technology which will create a better communication environment at the work place. The organization should come up with various technological changes and adopt tools that will enhance both vertical and horizontal channels of communications. Organization communications should be adopted to help in passing of information between the organization and other firms. These include those that provide inputs for the organization. It will also help in influencing others on the type of duties and roles allocated. However, this will go hand in hand with the type of leadership style used by the managers. Democracy is the best leadership style where both parties are involved in decision-making processes. Since communication also leads to risk management and problem solving, the firm should employ better communication skills among the employees (Bjerke 25). It will help in problem solving since it will facilitate passing of information between the employees. Good communication channels help in the elimination of any problems at the work place. It also helps strengthen the relationship between employees leading to close employee relationships. Through these bonds, employees are able to share any problem with their leaders. Conflict management is also a product of good communication skills and channels. Any conflicts at the work place will be solved through good communication between the employees and management without fear. The organization should also provide training for employees to provide them with the required communication skills that would help them at the work place. Listening is part of communication where employees should be taught listening skills to help their relationship with staff in higher ranks. Customer feedbacks are also part of communication that helps the management to learn ways to serve customers in a better way. Communication also ensures continual learning between the employees since they get new orders daily from their managers. While working of these orders, they could learn something new. Finally, the organization should also check on the barriers affecting the management competence that in this case is communication. They may include language, writing and technological barriers. To overcome these barriers, the organization should have training sessions for employees to advise them on how to use various tools at the workplace (Best 15). It should also adopt technology through computer software that converts languages according to the worker’s preference. They may also be used in cases where customers do not speak the same language as the workers or customer care personnel. Question #3 Competence situations may be converted into employment opportunities (Gennard 24). To come up with good decision-making procedures, self-control should be employed to help in the communication as a competence strategy. The best practice to help in the competence is the use of advanced technology in to help in communication. In the United Kingdom, there are high levels of technological advancements that have led to the establishment of market gaps by technological firms. According to researchers, there are still high cases of bad communication skills in most of the organizations in the country. Additionally, the work culture in the country does not accept some levels of technology. Technology could provide employment opportunities since there has to be the presence of trainers and experts to help the employees on how to use advanced technology in communication (Afuah 12). Organizations may employ more employees with skills in communication to provide education through training sessions and seminars. This will boost the organization’s profit maximization rates. Appropriate corporate ethics, technical skills and management skills should be carried out to help success of the organization. However, the skills may range due to various factors ranging from political, social, technical, interpersonal, conceptual and diagnostic factors. The type of culture may also cause a variation in the type of leadership skills used by the top-level managers (Balsara 18). In cultures where the military and dictators have been in power, the managers are bound to use autocratic leadership where the decision made is final. There is no room for change or discussion from lower level employees. However, due to the increased organizations protecting employees, leaders have been compelled to use democratic styles of leadership where all employees are included in making decisions. Transfer of the competence into a work organization will lead to creating of jobs and maximization of profits (Adizes 22). Management competencies such as good and viable communication will lead to good interpersonal relationships between workers and customers. The managers will also be able to address problems using the appropriate approach of communication. Works Cited Adizes, Ichak Kalderon. Management/Mismanagement Styles: how to identify a style and what to do about it. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Adizes Institute, 2004. Print. Afuah, Allan. Innovation management: strategies, implementation and profits. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print. Balsara, Nauzer J.. Money management strategies for futures traders. 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