Situational Analysis of Shared Leadership in a Self Managing Team - Research Proposal Example

RESEARCH PROPOSAL The research proposal aimed by this paper is situational analysis of shared leadership in a self managing team’. This proposal aims at finding out whether leadership sharing is the answer to leadership management and skills needed in organizations (Bradford & Cohen, 1998)? This is because leadership is difficult but the research is going to explore the issue of self managing teams and how their shared power is significant in bringing out the best in them and their projects. I will answer my research questions by conducting interviews, using observation method and using questionnaires to find out the answers (Talmy, 2010). In this research I will be using Alveson’s situational approach theory as it will enable me get an in-depth view and perception on meaning of leadership sharing (Alvesson, 1997). Introduction My proposal topic is ‘situational analysis of shared leadership in a self managing team’. This topic means that some people have no leaders at their workplace thus share leadership roles among themselves especially in self managing teams (Hicks & Bone, 1990). The aim of this proposal is to identify how self managing teams define leadership in their work meetings and work plans. In addition, this proposal aims to show how self managing teams determine the direction of the whole team towards their project and also the self managing team’s relationships, team identity and individual’s team member’s identities. Furthermore, the proposal aims at identifying the constraints faced by self managing teams by different factors like social factors, gender, cultural backgrounds and ethnicity. Leadership is a very tricky affair especially for self managing teams as they are bound to be conflicts. However, according to Alvesson (1996), situational approach gives leadership the team accomplishment which does not follow the norm of doing what the leader proposes (Alvesson, 1996). What makes this proposal interesting is the idea that leaders have always had a problem with leadership. There have been cases of suicides, failed projects, lost money and dysfunctional cases in many organizations. This negative situation befalls these companies because of their leaders and their leadership skills. In this proposal I will be doing a literature review, I will formulate some research questions, discussing methods used, and a conclusive conclusion. Background The proposal research will take up to two months of research and two hours per day for the two months. I have narrowed my research to a particular team of family run food joint. This family owned food joint serves the whole area of the west coast. The family consists of a fifty year father, forty five years old mother, two sisters aged twenty five and twenty one and three brothers aged twenty three and twenty seven twins. Since it is a family run business no person is the sole leader as every member of the family can make decisions on behalf of the business. This food joint member hold meetings every evening after close of the food joint to discuss the days progress, profits, losses, areas of improvement and the next direction for tomorrow. I plan to attend these meetings and watch how they discuss their strategies and plans for the next day and the future. The meetings last around thirty minutes as finances balancing take time and need careful planning. I plan to attend these meetings and watch how they interact, argue and come up with ideas as they are a self managing team. I also plan to visit the food joint during their day operations and watch how they serve customers, how they handle tough customers, how they interact with their customers and their relationships at work. I plan to come at the food joints at different times of the day so as to get the true picture of the self management team. This means that I will come in the morning sometimes in the afternoon and sometimes in the evening. On some days I will come at two different times in one day like in the morning and in the evening. I plan to conduct intensive interviews of all the seven family members. I plan to interview the family members at least once every two weeks which makes it twenty one interviews in total. Literature Review For this proposal I will be using Alvesson’s theory and his interpretation of situational approach in self management team. I chose Alvesson’s approach because I believe that this approach will enable me to get the meaning, interpretation and perspective of leadership (Sveningsson & Alvesson, 2003). Through Alvesson’s situational approach I can have an unbiased interpretation of leadership in relation to their relationships first hand. This approach also gives me the choice to pick and specialize on one issue and explore it in depth. In addition, the fact that I will interview the family members individually, as a whole and by watching them operate in their business means that I will get to know the constraints and difficulties that shared leadership comes with. This situational approach will also enable me get real insights about sharing leadership and family differences in a conversation mode which implies that I will get the in-depth interpretive perspective on how shared leadership gives different meanings of leadership (Jepson, 2009). Leadership is hard enough and has been a source of conflicts in several organizations. Leadership is good but if abused can cause irreparable damage as witnessed in several reported cases. Bad leadership can change the whole outlook and outcome of a project and even bring to its knees a reputable company. On the other hand, families are always full of conflicts and most families almost all families are dysfunctional. Therefore, blending leadership and family is tough especially sharing leadership in family businesses where they are self managing themselves. Alvesson states that once power and leadership is shared perspectives and meanings of situations and things change. This mean that when an individual has been put in place where they were a self managing team and they shared power and decided where the project in question was going together their perspective on the meaning of leadership changes from the norm to a more personal and specialized term. In that self managing teams perceive leadership as a realistic accomplishment that is achievable and can be done by anybody who ahs the knowledge and will as opposed to stereotypical thinking that leadership is doing what the selected leader does. This proposal ‘‘situational analysis of shared leadership in a self managing team’ is significant and will be substantial to business people and organizations. Furthermore, this proposal will give careful and intensive descriptions of naturally occurring event s and relate them to shared leadership or self management. In self management teams no particular person is in charge of anything and decisions are made in unison and everybody tales a fall for negative consequences as well as positive ones too. This is because this proposal will answer the following questions. Is shared leadership as effective as the normal leadership where one person is appointed to be the leader and everybody else does as the selected person direct or command (Yeatts & Hyten, 1998)? Does shared leadership bring members together unlike normal leadership? Does shared leadership make work faster, accurately and more profit oriented since many heads are put together? Is shared leadership the answer to most of the failed organizations around the world? The answers to these questions determine the significance of this proposal. This proposal will give insight to organizations and companies globally on how to solve leadership issues in the work place. In work places cases of people who quit their jobs, commit suicides and fall sick like getting depression or stressed up because of the failed leadership management. Moreover, leadership is the only tool that can be used to revive the failed organizations and reverse the trends and number of people who quit, commit suicide or fall into depression. Methodology In order to come up with an effective proposal I have come up with a methodology plan (Punch, 2006). First, I will heavily do observation work at the family food joint in secrecy at specific times and sometimes with their knowledge I was observing them. Secrecy will stop the family members from acting out as I want the reality of shared leadership especially from a family run and managed business. Moreover, I want to get the real feeling of acting out when I observe with their knowledge. As stated earlier I will b observing the family at different times in the day and sitting in all evening meetings. My main focus while observing this family business will be their daily interactions, relationships, identities of the members, conversations at evening meetings and work ethics (Lumsden, Lumsden & Wiethoff, 2010). Secondly, I will do a writing review on management and communications in self managing teams (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2007). This will give me the necessary information that I will use as guidance while doing this research. Different authors have written different articles on self managing teams and how they perceive shared leadership. This is important in that I will have the needed information that pertains to leadership sharing and self managing teams before conducting interviews or doing my observations. Moreover, the review will shape my research and answer some of the fundamental questions underlying g the leadership sharing fact. Thirdly, I will be conducting interviews to all family members once every two weeks. I will interview every family member individually. Also, I will interview them as a group to get the group dynamics and interactions in relation to socialization and interactions. Furthermore, this will give more in-depth to the idea of leadership sharing and the family member’s perceptions on this power sharing. Dewulf et al states that leadership sharing focuses on how parties negotiate the meanings of issues in a social situation (Dewulf et al, 2009). I will structure the interviews in a very informal way like conversing to ensure I capture the real meaning and perception in regards to self managing teams and leadership sharing (Manz & Sims, 1993). In fact before conducting the interviews I will be conversing with the family members on their topics of interest or what they love about the business. This is to relax the interviewees and to create interest and bring out trust and honesty in them (Bryman & Bell, 2011). I will start with social broad based subjects them slowly and narrow down my questions to more personal ones. Furthermore, I will asks one questions in more than one way so that I can get the interviewees meaning and perception and avoid putting my thoughts in their worlds by completing their thoughts for them. In general I will be asking questions about their take on share leadership, how their conversations end up or how they start and how they feel about their situation. Lastly, I will conduct a situational study based on the interviews I will have gathered on the field. I will use Alvesson’s theory to act as my guidance on this analysis (Graen & Graen, 2006). Furthermore, I will also do a comparison on my research and other researches. Therefore, overall, in methodology I will get my data from the family members and other literatures that I will do a review on. I will gather this data by conducting interviews, observation and questionnaires on the family members. I will be interviewing the seven family members who run their food joint. The best part in my methodology plan is that they are legal and ethical as I will not be trespassing or using anyone in any way and moreover, they methods are valid and reliable. Conclusion In conclusion, there are a number of things that my research proposal might find out. First, my research proposal aims to find out whether power sharing in self managing teams is the answer to failed organizations and businesses because their leadership systems are a failure. In addition, the proposal aims to find out whether shared leadership is better than the normal stereotypical leadership style. Moreover, the proposal aims at finding out whether shared leadership is more effective than normal leadership style and finally the proposal aims at finding out whether shared leadership brings people together in an organization. However, I may face some issues that can be barriers to my research for example the family members are bound to be busy during the day and tired in the evening thus not very good for consisting interviews. Questionnaires may also go an unanswered as they do not have the time to answer such a detailed questionnaire. Furthermore, the family could view me as invading their privacy especially in the evening when they are counting the day’s proceeds. People do not feel safe with their money especially in front of strangers thus they may deny me their permission. I despite of this issues I have some contingency plans to curb this issues. I will make the interviews and questionnaires as brief as possible and as interesting as possible. Moreover, I will only ask to be around their meeting when they have finished counting their money and kept it away and request only to be told the results. This will sure help the research method. References Alvesson, M. (1997). Leadership studies: From procedure and abstraction to reflexivity and situation. The Leadership Quarterly, 7(4), 455-485. Alvesson, M. (1996). Communication, power and organization (No. 72). Walter de Gruyter. Bryman, A. & Bell, E. (2011). Business Research Methods. OUP, any edition. Bradford, D. L., & Cohen, A. R. (1998). Power up: transforming organizations through shared leadership. New York, Wiley. Dewulf, A., Gray, B., Putnam, L., Lewicki, R., Aarts, N., Bouwen, R., & Van Woerkum, C. (2009). Disentangling approaches to framing in conflict and negotiation research: A meta-paradigmatic perspective. Human relations, 62(2), 155-193. Graen, G. B., & Graen, J. A. (2006). Sharing network leadership. Greenwich, Conn, IAP/Information Age Pub. Hicks, R., & Bone, D. (1990). Self managing teams: a guide for creating and maintaining self- managed work groups. Los Altos, Calif, Crisp Publications. Jepson, D. (2009). Studying leadership at cross-country level: A critical analysis. Leadership, 5(1), 61-80. Lumsden, G., Lumsden, D. L., & Wiethoff, C. (2010). Communicating in groups and teams: sharing leadership. Australia, Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Manz, C. C., & Sims, H. P. (1993). Business without bosses: how self-managing teams are building high-performing companies. New York, Wiley. Punch, K.F. (2006) Developing Effective Research Proposals, London: Sage Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2007) Research Methods for Business Students. Pearson, 4th ed. Sveningsson, S., & Alvesson, M. (2003). Managing managerial identities: Organizational fragmentation, discourse and identity struggle. Human relations, 56(10), 1163-1193. Talmy, S. (2010). Qualitative interviews in applied linguistics: From research instrument to social practice. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 30(1), 128-148. Yeatts, D. E., & Hyten, C. (1998). High-performing self-managed work teams: a comparison theory to practice. Thousand Oaks, Sage. Read More