Management and Leadership - Essay Example

The internal behavior of an organization differs from one firm to another. This is a behavioral pattern that also occurs in the way people behave in different countries due to discrepancies in cultures. Professionals in the organizational behavior field determine that each company has its own unique organizational culture. Corporate culture is defined as a system of shared actions, values and beliefs that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members (Schermenhorn & Hunt & Osborn, 2003, p.262). The culture itself of a company is created through the interactions of the employees of the company, but founders of companies and its subsequent managerial staffs are the ones that influenced corporate culture the most. The purpose of this paper is to study and analyze the effect management and leaderships have on a healthy corporate culture. In order to determine what are the particular roles managers and leaders play in the enhancement of a healthy corporate culture it is essential to differentiate between the concepts of management and leadership. The role and responsibility of management is to promote stability or to enable the organization to run smoothly, while the role of leadership is to promote adaptive or useful changes (Schermenhorn, et al. 2003, p. 286). A manager is directly responsible for the jobs tasks and supervision of its employees. This person can influence the corporate culture a lot thought his particular management style. A relaxed and easy going manager is a person people can open up for ideas. Good communication is a very important element of a healthy corporate culture. In a job environment in which there a lot safety issues the corporate culture should be about paying attention to work without any distractions, the managers job in these scenario is be an authority figure and implement a disciplined work environment. Managers are supposed to display leadership skills, but leadership in itself is a characteristic which any person can possess within the organization. There are two types of leadership categories: formal leadership and informal leadership (Schermerhorn, et. al., 2003, p.287). Managers are considered to have formal leadership since the company gives them a certain level of authority over the staff. The fact that the manager holds this type of leadership capability does not make him necessarily a good leader. Informal leaderships comes from within and people that have this trait are leaders by example which people look up to because they have special abilities or a charismatic personality. These types of leaders utilize their abilities to help other employees and become influential figures within a workforce. The contributions of both types of leaders help form the values of a company thus they are enhancing and transforming the corporate culture through their contributions. Manager and leaders can help in the creation of a healthy corporate culture by applying the following three effective leadership concepts: Providing opportunities that reflect a culture of ongoing learning Provide constant performance feedback that encourages the achievement of excellence Instill promotion practices that ensure the best qualified candidates advance in order to retain the best employee in the firm (Kulesa, 2007). Managers and leaders are the figures whose function is like that of an artist to the corporate culture, since they can shape and alter the corporate culture to transform it into a different shape by influencing the different elements of the structure. Managers can help transform a business culture though policy changes, job design, changes in work flows and work loads, interpersonal relationships with employees and with their supervisory & management styles (Oxfordleadership). Leaders that are not part of the management team also have the power to influence culture, but these characters realize the function through interpersonal relationships and leading by example. People place their trust in leaders; they are encouraged by their words and many times are inspired by the job performance of these special leaders. There are certain principles of management which help foster a healthy corporate environment. These principles are: Treat employees like adults, not like teenagers Quality is as important as quantity outputs Encourage autonomy, self-actualization and participation in order to give employee empowerment Cooperation is important Encourage choice and change in the workplace (Oxfordleadership). On the other side of the spectrum there are action which a management team can perform which hinder and negatively impact the corporate culture of an organization. Three negative practices that hurt the corporate culture of an organization are: inadequate cultural shift planning, lack of employee involvement and flawed communication strategies (Hodges, 2007). The management field has four basic functions that describe the basic duties of professionals in this field. The four functions of management are planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Hodges mentioned that inadequate cultural shift planning can be detrimental. Imagine a multinational company that plans launching its product into a new market such as Switzerland. In order for the company to implement changes to succeed they must perform a cultural analysis of the target market. Important factors to consider are levels of income, population, traditions, longevity, general attitudes, religion and purchasing behaviors. Not only does the company have to plan its move into the market, it also has to plan the impact the new culture will have on the corporate culture of the company. The management team must determine if the staff values are aligned with the new culture, especially if the entrance into the new market includes a physical facility in the foreign territory. A second function of the managerial process is organizing. Organizing affects the corporate culture of an organization since it entails grouping employees in teams, preparing their work schedules, the maintenance work within a factory among other things. Organization is very important since it provides structure and a systematic form to complete work. Organization is a characteristic which fosters a healthy work environment. Organization starts at the top, thus managers must be organized in their work duties and expect the same out of their employees. In today’s changing work environment the importance of organization has reached new heights since now many employees do not even have a physical space to work. There are new types of employees called telecommuters which perform work for companies either on the road or at their homes. These types of employees must be very organized in order to succeed. These people require special attention from management in order to find the right work-life balance and to keep them motivated and to perform according to the values of the corporation. Leading is a manager function whose importance is self-explanatory. Leading is the essence of a person in a position of responsibility or a person with leadership skills. The factor affects the corporate culture since the way managers lead their staff is an image of the final product or service the company offers. An irresponsibly lead staff within a company is a place where there is likely to be a lot of defects in the production of the company. The fourth management function is controlling. Controlling entails tracking and monitoring the financial and human resources of an enterprise. The purpose of controlling human resources is to maximize the overall production of the employees. Controlling is a healthy corporate function as long as the company implement controlling measures to raise productivity without attempting to control an employee’s every move as if they were prisoners. There are two broad strategies for managing corporate culture which managers can utilize. The first strategy is the utilization of observable culture, shared values, and common assumptions to modify the corporate culture, while the second strategy involves the use of organizational development techniques to modify elements of the culture (Schermerhorn, et. al. 2003, p. 273). Both strategies are very effective at transforming the culture of a company. The difference between the two strategies lays in that one attempts of slowly change the culture of an enterprise based on the common beliefs, while the other, organizational development, is utilized to implement radical changes in organization culture in a short time span. Organizational development (OD) is one of the main strategies companies utilize to manage corporate culture. The strategy is more suitable for situation in which external factors create scenarios which force companies to adapt to new situational factors in order to stay competitive. An example of a company which utilized organizational development to implement change lead by the management and leaders of the company was Takeda Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese firm in the pharmaceutical industry with a rich history of over 225 years. This company was a very traditional company whose organizational culture is based on the norms of its society. Japan is a country whose culture has values such as loyalty, respect for authority figures, long term perspective, masculinity, family values, collective values, self-respect and respect to others (CultureGrams, 2007). A corporate culture such as Takeda in which tradition has ruled for many years, resistance to change is high possibility. The company in 2004 started a process to expand its operations and enrich its corporate culture by learning from one of its US subsidiaries and integrating that culture with the Japanese culture of the corporate headquarters. The managers involved in this venture had to utilize the four different managerial functions to facilitate the entire process. Planning which is the initial managerial function was very important for this transformation. Part of the strategic reason for the need on the integration was an expansion the executives of the company were planning in the near future in the US market. The Japanese executives wanted more exposure of the US traditions in order for its executives on Japan to successfully lead the expansion of the company. The CEO of the US subsidiary determined that one of the fist steps was to address the training and development needs of team to determine what types of leadership trainings sessions were needed to enhance the talents of the managerial staff (Kjar, 2007). I work for a company in the meat processing industry. Since I started working for this company the corporate culture has not change much, but since I started with the company the supervisors and managers have always place a lot of emphasis on the history of the company. During employee team meetings the managers reference the productivity benchmarks of the past. There are pictures of decades of employee of the month awards in the employee conference rooms. Any achievement or recognition the company ever received from the press, local government or any organization is in a visible place in the building. There is a myth in our company of an employee who worked for the company years ago who supposedly worked only two months for the company. During his short stay the employee broke all individual productivity records for an employee in this company for eight consecutive weeks, and then he disappeared into thin air like a phantom. The company I worked for is utilizing a building and reinforcing corporate culture strategy in order to integrate the employees into its corporate culture. Any changes that have occurred in the corporate culture of the company have been minor and have taken years to manifest themselves, so when they did occur the employees did not even realize it. The culture of a company is the characteristic that defines an enterprise. It is important for employees to demonstrate pride in the work and the company they represent. A vivid and lively corporate culture instills high levels of energy and good spirits to the employees. Companies who are able to create a healthy corporate culture have a higher chance of succeeding in the competitive business environment of the 21st century. A study of the managerial staff of 209 multinational companies worldwide revealed that the 29 top performing companies in the study all had the same common characteristic of having healthy corporate culture in which employees had ascension opportunities and the lines of communications were open at all managerial levels with the employees (Kulesa, 2007). People feel better when they are surrounded by people who share the same interest and are working towards common goals. The purpose of a healthy corporate culture is to ensure this occurs. References CultureGrams (2007). Japan. Retrieved September 2, 2007 from CultureGrams database. Hodges, G. (2007). Barriers to Change. Strategic Finance, 88(2), 17. Retrieved September 3, 2007 from EBSCOhost database Kjar, R. (2007). A Time of Transition: Lesson in Global OD from a Successful Japanese Firm. Organizational Development Journal, 25(3), 11. Retrieved September 3, 2007 from EBSCOhost database. Kulesa, P. (2007). Learning Cultural Differences Success: Lessons from Employee Opinion Surveys. Chief Learning Officer, 6(8), 48. Retrieved September 3, 2007 from EBSCOhost database. Oxfordleadership.com. Culture Alignment and Revitalization. Retrieved September 4, 2004 from http://www.oxfordleadership.com/MgmtConsult/mcCulture.asp?cbomenu=54 Schermerhorn, J.R. , Hunt, J.G., Osborn, R.N. (2003). Organizational Behavior (8th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Read More