Management People and Organizations: Leadership and Sustainability - Term Paper Example

Management: People and Organizations - Leadership and Sustainability In the world of present times, the role of principle position holders with management is of utmost significance. Same is the case with leaders, managers, employees, workers, third party members and so on. The role of a manager is a difficult one. This person has to take with him the whole company and mesh the different processes so that he could get instant results. (Hall, 2002) He is a team leader right from the onset of his job. He needs to get work done from the different people who are working under him. The end result has to be a single goal, one that drives their efforts towards the financial success of the said organization. In doing so, the manager encounters a lot of hindrances, difficulties and hurdles. He has to face a lot of pressure from the top most management, the people who are senior to him even. He has to be accountable to the publics of the organization, which could include the customers and the stakeholders as well since the latter are the people who have invested within the company’s shares and they want a quick buck out of the whole investment drive. Leadership is concerned with influencing other people in the organization to accomplish a process or a task. It entails itself with directing an organization in that it becomes more coherent as well as cohesive. Leadership style can therefore be described as an approach in the line of providing direction. It includes motivation in the sheer sense of the word. There are various leadership styles that exist in management nonetheless. They include authoritarian or autocratic, participative or democratic, delegative as well as free reign leadership. (Newstrom, 1997) The basic difference between a leader and a manager is within their working domains. They are basically doing the same job of managing people but in slightly different capacities. Whereas the leader looks at forming instructions of his own which he will forward to the middle management, the middle line managers basically aim to ‘manage’ people in the real sense of the word. This means that managers have a duty of understanding the deep rooted values of the organization and the same cannot be compromised no matter what happens. These need to be aligned in a proper fashion with the activities and tasks of the team that the manager is heading. It would be fair to comment that the managers have a lot going for them and it is their will and determination to bring out the best from the whole team and indeed the entire process that they are working upon. Managers have a responsibility to play within an organization, no matter how large or small it is. Leader has to lead and that too by example. He has to show no compromise in his actions, saying and principles whereas the manager could be a bit lenient from time to time in his policies and undertakings. So the basic difference between a leader and a manager arises here on all counts. (Ibrahim, 1996) There are occasions when a manager has to take up the leadership role as well. This could include his team building tactics, getting the work done out from individuals who might have pretty different backgrounds and diverse educational capabilities, smoothening of the whole process of business management within several units spread across the company’s horizon, motivating the employees and being accountable for their tasks and activities, living up to the values of the organization. (Heath, 1994) But a leader would stick to his already formed principles and would not stray from the set course of action. He would have to demonstrate his oneness in decisions and actions that he undertakes and there would be no compromise on this aspect all said and done. A leader must remain proactive in all his decisions while a manager can articulate and change his decisions from time to time in order to suit the need of the workers and the employees working under him for a set task or objective. The role of a manager is one that evolves over a period of time and the pivotal thing here is to fathom that this is something which requires a balanced head on the shoulders and more than anything else a clear vision, deep insight into the relevant knowledge circles and expertise to back them all up. The manager focuses on the strong points that the employees have learned from their past colleagues and best case examples are also something that they can touch upon in the long run. (Day, 2004) On the flip side of the coin, leading is quite interpersonal in nature. It is not just the manager in an organization that is supposed to lead. It can even exist between employees. It has to do with mutual influence. All these are normally based on different theories and assumptions. Any style that is incorporated in management can be based on combination of preferences, values and beliefs. Organizational culture also plays a big role in influencing the leadership style used by management. (Minter, 2000) Leadership style used by management plays a big role in affecting the success of the organization. A leader has to clearly understand the different types of leadership styles and their impacts on the organization. Good leadership always includes incorporation of all the leadership styles. Bad leadership just sticks to one style. Indeed for a group to become a high performance team, it needs to have a set form of morals and ethics in place and then go about implementing them at different stages of the assignment or the process that is at hand. For this to take place, each one of the group members should be accountable to the entire team as well as be asked to come out clean and clear in front of all and sundry over an issue or matter that arises at some point in time. Team performance in essence comes up if the whole group works as a coherent and solid unit and if it does not stray from the set path of action. (Michaelsen, 2002) Similarly, we find out that cultural diversity can pose a number of problems for the group members but it is the duty of the leader of the group to make the group members hailing from different cultures to feel comfortable within the group and contribute to the best capacity they can, both as an individual and in the form of a group as a whole. At different stages of one’s career, an individual has to exhibit certain set of skills and qualities, which make him, stand out like nobody else. He has to portray the best of his character and bring out what is not present in the rest of the populace. He has to lead by example, a thing which people of present times usually lack and which is not that easily found in our society. It is extinct to say the least. Diversity therefore could be pinpointed in the area of managing these people well with the help of a manager who not only takes care of them but also acts as a person who is professional and knows how to get work done from his specialists, technicians and other sub-ordinates present at various levels within the very company. (Rahim, 2001) This manager thus not only plans their work that they have to carry out within a specific period of time but also organizes their routines, looks after them both from the company and the human perspectives, and not to forget his integration skills which are deemed so very necessary for involving people and their commitment towards their assigned tasks and jobs over a period of time. Lastly, he also measures their performance that they have done over this time period. This measurement tool goes against a number of managers in the work environment of present times as it is usually very difficult to get a hang of because employees feel that the managers were the one to guide them along and hence they should also be held accountable in cases of extreme failure where the burden only falls on the person who carried out a task or a job. This is pretty much true of the negative aspects related with managing people and treating them fairly. (Kotter, 2000) There is a need to properly devise the nonverbal signs and symbols as well and not to forget the need to align the same from a perspective which is barred from the racial and/or gender bias issues and which is in line with the societal norms and ethical behaviors so to speak. Similarly, it is a case in point that leadership qualities are neither inborn nor inherent but they have to be developed with the passage of time and thus one needs to understand the fact that it requires strenuous exercise and a certain set of power that is needed by the people who have the will to make it big within the related domains. Indeed the leadership qualities require of a person to give his best shot within the group no matter how hard and trying the circumstances turn out to be at the end. A formal organization takes into account the role of leadership at the top and the manner in which this leadership is basically carried about, both in the interests of the people within the company as well as the company itself so that the end result is one on which everyone solemnly agree, that is to make the company thrive from a revenue-generating angle and image building aspect in the long run. Thus it is significant that the top management has a sense of inculcating the subject of working within teams rather than being as a lonely player in different projects, thus leading to an end result which is a clear manifestation of the people with their respective efforts and dedication levels that are exceeding what were expected of them in the first place. Top management needs to understand its due role here and consult with all and sundry as to how the employees need to work hand in hand in the form of teams and bring about the best result possible. The informal structure of an organization lays the foundation for the formal hierarchy, as people are more easily able to relate to each other as well as to the company for which they are working day in day out. (Guarrero, 1998) In the end, it is important to ascertain that the mileage a leader gets is indeed in proportion to what his vision is. If he thinks from a very defensive mindset, there are more chances that he and his group might not succeed in the long run and thus the aspect of sustainability crops up for all the wrong reasons. This sustainability could only be attained if leadership understands and analyzes its due role in the related contexts and goes about doing things the attacking way. This will put the organization in nice stead of things which will come within the future as well as shape up the processes that may so arise within the coming times. Managing people and organizations requires a great deal of perseverance and this does not come about in an overnight fashion. There is a great deal of hard work and commitment that is put into the whole machinery that one knows as organization before the output could be extracted in benefiting proportions. Lastly, what has been discussed within the length of this paper holds true for a number of different organizations around the world more so because every organization or business entity requires astute leadership capacities to exist within their ranks and thus the end result is one which is there for the taking for one and all. All said and done, the role of leaders will continue to become stronger by the day since visionary skills and decision making abilities are not available in every employee that an organization hires. Bibliography DAY, David V. (2004). Leader Development for Transforming Organizations: Growing Leaders for Tomorrow. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates GUARRERO, Chris A. (1998). The Leadership Challenge. Security Management, Vol. 42 HALL, Mary-Jo. (2002). Aligning the Organization to Increase Performance Results. The Public Manager, Vol. 31 HEATH, Robert L. (1994). Management of Corporate Communication: From Interpersonal Contacts to External Affairs. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates IBRAHIM, Hilmi. (1996). Leader or Manager? JOPERD--The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, Vol. 67 KOTTER, J. (2000). A Force for Change; How Leadership Differs From Management. The Free Press MAUNDY, L. (2001). An Introduction to Human to Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice. Macmillan, Palgrave MINTER, Stephen G. (2000). Safety Manager or Leader? Occupational Hazards, Vol. 62 NEWSTROM, W. (1997). Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work. McGraw-Hill, New York RAHIM, M. Afzalur. (2001). Managing Conflict in Organizations. Quorum Books Word Count: 2,010 Read More