Leadership at Every Level - Assignment Example

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Synopsis: The Leadership qualities provided through Educational Institute will guide the toSucceed in top decision making in organization. Usually Board of Directors in an organization takes broad policy decision or should get them involved in detailed operational aspects of management. The people who are in this position should be well versed in taking decision and should have a leadership quality in implementing it. The top management should contribute for the welfare and progress of the company. It is important that the chief executive of the company should provide information to the members. If we take the functions of the Top Management it includes 1. Setting the objectives of business 2. Establishing Policies 3. Assigning Responsibility 4. Selecting and developing key personnel 5. Integrating people’s effort’s in achieving Company’s objectives 6. Stimulating creative thinking 7. Measuring and evaluating results Thus by considering the above functions it is required a proper leadership quality and that will help in attaining the various top level functions of the organization. “Merely possessing management skills is no longer sufficient for success as an executive in the business world. Modern executives need to understand the difference between managing and leading and know how to combine the two roles to achieve organizational success”. (Modern Management, Samuel C.Certo, 7th Edition, Chapter 15, Leadership page no. 350) Strategic decisions is always depended on the leadership quality of a particular person. A leader always knows in which way he has to direct the subordinates. Like wise the top management clearly knows the way it has to direct the organization. So a good leader in the organization takes various decisions which will clearly direct the organization into success. The study also focus on the tool SWOT analysis for understanding the various factors that are affecting the organization. Thus the company through SWOT analysis will be able to sort out problem and will lead to success. Introduction:- Leadership is the process of directing the behavior of others toward the accomplishment of objectives. Directing in this sense means, causing individuals to act in such a way to follow a particular course of action. Leadership is considered as a prerequisite for attaining success. Leadership style is the behavioral pattern a leader establishes while guiding organization members in appropriate directions. Educational Leadership plays an important role in the modern era. “When working with individual students, large-scale school systems, and everything in between, Appreciative Inquiry provides an orientation and methods to build on the best of the past and present to create the best possible future.” (NEW HORIZONS FOR LEARNING, Leadership at Every Level: Appreciative Inquiry in Education, by Rich Henry.) (http://www.newhorizons.org/trans/henry.htm). An emerging international initiative to apply various principles and practices in education is the positive change corps. To support schools and youth in relationship and building their capacity by using strength based appreciative systems and approaches to promot them. “Strategic management  can be used to determine mission, vision, values, goals, objectives, roles and responsibilities, timelines, etc.” (Strategic Management, Management FAQs ) (http://www.pim.com.pk/faq.htm#str%20Mgt.) Educational leadership and strategic management plays an important role in the organizational context, both of these terms are interrelated. “This module will promote an understanding of leadership and strategic management issues in a variety of cultural contexts and will help students to become more effective leaders and managers.” (UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER, MASTERS PROGRAMS, Educational Studies and Educational Leadership- Strategic Management ) (http://www.le.ac.uk/education/maprogrammes/educationalstudies/educationalleadership.html) COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF STRATEGIC TOOLS :- Every organization must have a rolling strategic process with a clearly setout goals. With a clear strategy we can better understand that what actually impacts the strategic plan either positively or negatively. “Tools are quite simply methodologies, techniques and analytical software that can be applied to increase efficiency or develop an improved understanding of the business.” (SHARED XPERTISE FORUMS, The Strategic Value of tools and processes used in Shared Services and BPO) (http://www.sharedservicebpo.com/file/1272/the-strategic-value-of-tools-and-processes-used-in-shared-services.) The widely used Strategic Tools are playing a vital role in attaining the level of success in an organization. Strategic planning is a method for positioning an organization to take advantage of its future by capitalizing its opportunities, addressing its challenges, providing the kind of leadership. Strategic planning incorporates an in-depth planning; through this community involvement is possible. Strategic Techniques will helps in operational focus, creating and building strategic values through under business strategy and facilitating strategic debates. SWOT ANALYSIS:- The term SWOT Analysis is important in an organization’s point of view. A scan of an internal and external environment is an important concept in strategic planning. Internal environmental factors are ‘Strength’ and ‘Weaknesses’; where as external environmental factors are ‘Opportunities’ and ‘Threats’. Such an analysis of Strategic Environment is referred to as a SWOT Analysis. They are briefly explained below:- STRENGTHS – “A firm’s strengths are its resources and capabilities that can be used as a basis for developing a ‘Competitive Advantage’ “. (Quick MBA, Strategic Management, SWOT Analysis, Strengths. ) (http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/ ) The Strengths of the Organization are 1) Patents. 2) Strong Brand Names 3) Good reputation among customers 4) Favorable access to various distribution network The Weaknesses of the Organization are 1. Lack of faith and protection 2. Weak Brand name 3. Poor reputation among customers 4. High cost structure Opportunities 1. Market Share 2. Experience 3. Financial Strength 4. Good Products 5. Low Cost 6. Introduction of new technology 7. Removal of International trade barriers 8. Development of Business regulations Threats 1. Market Saturation 2. Shift in customer taste away from products 3. Competitors Market Power 4. Economic Uncertainity 5. Emergence of substitute products 6. Development of new regulations SWOT Analysis is very subjective in nature. SWOT Analysis is extremely similar , sometimes it simply looks at the negative factors first inorder to turn them in to positive factors. So use SWOT as a guide and not as a prescription. SWOT can be used in conjunction with the other tools for audit and analysis, such as PEST Analysis, Porter’s Five Forces Analysis etc.. The main problem that we may encounter with SWOT are its ‘Flexibility’. The SWOT analysis help the organization in determining the strategic position by considering whether or not the present strategy of the firm is capable of dealing with the changes taking place in the business. The method typically used in SWOT analysis is related with the strength and weaknesses of the organization based on the internal audit of the firm’s capabilities against the opportunities and threats thrown up bu the analysis of the external environment. For having a proper SWOT Analysis there are certain steps which has to be followed. The company should identify the current or existing strategy in the organization. Then it should identify the key changes in the Company’s environment. Then it should find out the key capabilities that is the strength and weaknesses of the organization. Then the various problems or issues the company is facing should be sorted out. Conclusion: From the above analysis it is clear that Educational leadership concentrates on these aspects and a proper evaluation is made. Apart from that there are various tools used to measure about the internal and external environment effecting business. This will in turn helps to find out the various problems the company is facing and how to solve them. Thus SWOT analysis is one of the important tools in Strategic Management used for evaluation. The Educational leadership should thus generate and train good people who are able to take a wide range of strategic decisions and lead the organization into success. WORK CITED Modern Management, Samuel C.Certo,7th Edition, Chapter 15,Leadership page no. 350 NEW HORIZONS FOR LEARNING, Leadership at Every Level: Appreciative Inquiry in Education, by Rich Henry.) (http://www.newhorizons.org/trans/henry.htm ) Strategic Management, Management FAQs ) (http://www.pim.com.pk/faq.htm#str%20Mgt UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER, MASTERS PROGRAMS, Educational Studies and Educational Leadership- Strategic Management ) (http://www.le.ac.uk/education/maprogrammes/educationalstudies/educationalleaderhip.html) SHARED XPERTISE FORUMS, The Strategic Value of tools and processes used in Shared Services and BPO) (http://www.sharedservicebpo.com/file/1272/the-strategic-value-of-tools-and-processes-used-in-shared-services.) Quick MBA, Strategic Management, SWOT Analysis, Strengths. ) (http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/ Read More