Management Environment and Leadership - Essay Example

Management Environment and Leadership (Client to fill here) of (Client to fill here) Level of Education: Client tofill here) Date: (Client to fill here) Introduction Management is about coping with complexity. Its practices and procedures are largely responses to one of the most significant developments of the twentieth century: the emergence of large organizations.  Without good management, complex enterprises tend to become chaotic in ways that threaten their very existence. Good management brings a degree of order and consistency to key dimensions like the quality and profitability of products. Leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change. Part of the reason it has become so important in recent years is that the business world has become more competitive and more volatile.  WU, B. (2013). Faster technological change, greater international competition, the deregulation of markets, overcapacity in capital-intensive industries, an unstable oil cartel, raiders with junk bonds, and the changing demographics of the work-force are among the many factors that have contributed to this shift.  The net result is that doing what was done yesterday, or doing it 5% better, is no longer a formula for success. Major changes are more and more necessary to survive and compete effectively in this new environment. More change always demands more leadership. What is the difference between management and leadership? Management makes systems of people and technology work well day after day, week after week, year after year. Planning and budgeting Organizing and staffing Controlling and problem solving Taking complex systems of people and technology and making them run efficiently and effectively, hour after hour, day after day Leadership creates the systems that managers manage and changes them in fundamental ways to take advantage of opportunities and to avoid hazards Creating vision and strategy Communicating and setting direction Motivating action Aligning people Creating systems that managers can manage and transforming them when needed to allow for growth, evolution, opportunities, and hazard avoidance Motivational and inspirational quotes, poems, posters, motivational speakers and stories, team building and activities, all develop employee motivation for sales and business staff in all kinds of organizations. Motivational and inspirational experiences improve employees attitudes, confidence and performance. Good leadership demands good people-motivation skills and the use of inspirational techniques. Motivational methods are wide-ranging, from inspirational quotes and poems, to team building games and activities, as ice-breakers, warm-ups and exercises for conferences, workshops, meetings and events, which in themselves can often be helpful for staff motivation too. People playing games or competing in teams learn about each other, they communicate better and see each other in a new light. Mutual respect grows. People often enjoy events which include new non-work activities, especially when bosses and superiors take part in the same teams as their junior staff, which also helps cohesiveness and can-do culture. Inspirational quotes, stories and poems all help motivation too. Powerful positive imagery stimulates visualization in the conscious and sub-conscious brain, which encourages self-motivation, developmental behavior, confidence and belief. Playing games enables people to experience winning and achieving in a way that their normal work might not. People become motivated to achieve and do better when they have experienced the feelings of success and achievement, regardless of context. This is why fire-walking and outward-bound activities have such powerful motivational effect. All of these ideas, and more explained below contribute to improving motivation, inspiration and performance. Here is the theory of how team building games, activities like juggling develop motivation, positive images in quotes and stories, inspirational posters, quotations, motivational speakers, team workshops and brainstorming, etc., all help to strengthen relationships, build understanding, increase motivation and improve performance: Also, using activities and references that take people out of their normal work environment creates new opportunities for them to experience winning, achievement, team-working, learning and personal development, in ways that are often not possible in their usual work context. Experiencing these positive feelings is vital for the conscious and sub-conscious visualization of success and achievement, essential for broadening peoples horizons, raising their sights, setting new personal standards and goals, and increasing motivation. The use of role playing games and role play exercises is an especially effective motivational and visualization technique. Despite peoples normal aversion to the practice inspirational references, stories, quotes and examples also help the life coaching process. Conflict Resolution Diversity Effective teams embrace and are constituted by a diversity of cultures, talents and personalities. Diversity can promote creativity and innovation, and raise awareness of and respect for differences, which will support effective teamwork. By contrast, teams that lack diversity can find it difficult to solve particular problems; it is much harder to find innovative solutions when all of the team members think about problems in the same way draw on similar experiences for support and come to the same conclusions. The merits of diversity noted, difference also raises the potential for conflict within teams, which can be harmful if not managed properly. Communication Effective teamwork is facilitated by clear and open communication. All team members should be on the same page with respect to targets, responsibilities and timelines. This cohesion is facilitated by effective communication. POLIFKO-HARRIS, K. (2004). Academic commentators such as Sarah Holland, Kevin Gaston and Jorge Gomez have suggested that consistently effective communication is supported by the prevalence of organizational protocols which determine particular methods and mediums of communication in specific circumstances (emails, one-to-one meetings, group talks, etc.). All team members should feel comfortable asking questions regarding the clarification of jobs and responsibilities, and they should feel free to make suggestions when they feel they can advance the teams objectives. When a challenge or conflict arises, effective teams will engage and overcome it with effective communication, rather than avoiding the issues or participating in gossip. Leadership Teamwork is supported by effective leadership. All teams benefit from one or several sources of inspiration and direction; leaders can support collaboration by coordinating the efforts of team members and encouraging team members to speak their minds during team meetings. They can ensure the team projects stay on track by checking in with different contributors and measuring daily/weekly progress against overall timetables and objectives. Additionally, they can work to motivate and discipline team members to ensure that everyone is performing to their highest potential. According to Gary Yukl, professor of management and leadership at the State University of New York, questions of the desirable traits of leaders in business have been a popular source of research since the 1950s, and the common or characteristics of effective leaders highlighted by contemporary studies are urgency, conscientiousness, agreeableness, adjustment and intelligence. Yukl also notes the importance of energy levels, stress tolerance, self-confidence, internal control orientation, emotional maturity and integrity. Team-Building Exercises Effective teamwork is developed through shared experiences and practice. The use or avoidance of team-building activities can be an important factor in determining the development of effective teams; in the age of advanced technology and fast-paced business environments, some team members would never see one another face to face if they did not make a point to do so. Team-building exercises can be targeted to improve particular aspects of team performance such as communication, problem-solving or creativity. Games and drills are an effective way to bring people together to build relationships, boost morale and promote mutual understanding of interests, personalities, strengths and weaknesses. Impact of technology on team function Technology The use of new technologies can improve and in some cases hinder team functioning. As technology improves teams must update and maintain their knowledge in order to function effectively. Technologies which have improved team functions e-mails, mobile phones, blackberry, groupware, computers e-mail allows asynchronous communication which means team members do not need to be in the same place at the same time in order to communicate effectively. E-mail also has its negative aspects in terms of managing e-mail and the misuse of e-mail. Mobile phones have come a long way from the yuppie bricks of the 1980s and there are now more mobile phones in the UK then there are people. Mobile phones allow teams to communicate even when team members are out of the office, on the road or otherwise unavailable. KELLY, P. (2012). Sometimes having always access to team members can hinder team functioning. Phone technologies such as blackberry and 3G data cards allow team members to work and communicate remotely and this out in the field or with clients. Groupware enables teams to plan meetings, collaborate, delegate all within a virtual environment which can often be accessed remotely from anywhere in the world. Personal computers allow team members to carry out various tasks and communicate more effectively. Laptop computers allow you to do this anywhere. They are now lighter, more powerful and a longer battery life. RENZ, D. O. (2010). Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) now have much of the same functionality as their bigger cousins, but are smaller, more portable and have a longer battery life. Many PDAs now have Wi-Fi as standard and some are also phones (and some phones have many PDA features). “Classical approach of management professes the body of management thought based on the belief that employees have only economical and physical needs and that the social needs & need for job satisfaction either does not exist or are unimportant. Accordingly it advocates high specialization of labor, centralized decision making & profit maximization.” Classical approach is the oldest formal school of thought which began around 1900 and continued into the 1920s.Its mainly concerned with the increasing the efficiency of workers and organizations based on management practices, which were an outcome of careful observation. Classical approach mainly looks for the universal principles of operation in the striving for economic efficiency. Classical approach includes scientific, administrative & bureaucratic man SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT focuses on the “one best way” to do a job. ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT focuses on the manager & basic managerial functions. BUREAUCRACTIC MANAGEMENT focuses on the guidelines for structuring with formalization of rules, procedures and a clear division of labor. References WU, B. (2013). New theory on leadership management science. POLIFKO-HARRIS, K. (2004). Case applications in nursing leadership & management. Clifton Park, N.Y., Thomson/Delmar Learning. RENZ, D. O. (2010). The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass. http://lib.myilibrary.com?id=291403. KELLY, P. (2012). Nursing leadership & management. Clifton Park, NY, Cengage Learning. ROUSSEL, L. (2013). Management and leadership for nurse administrators. Burlington, MA, Jones & Bartlett Learning. Read More