Leadership Style Adopted by Rose Gray and Ruth Rodgers - Book Report/Review Example

Leadership, Team Building and Communication Leadership Style Adopted by Rose Gray and Ruth Rodgers at River Café Success of an organisation depends highly on the leadership style adopted by the leaders. A leader is one who has the ability to inspire others to achieve a common goal (Ohio University, n.d.). Depending on ones own nature and personality, leaders adopt a particular leadership style, hence there are many leadership styles but none of the leadership style can be called the best one. So as per the organisational environment, leaders often follow more then one leadership style (Clegg, et. al., 2005). To identify the leadership style of Ruth and Rose, one has to critically analyse the extract on River Café written by Roger Lewin and Birute Regine. The environment of River Café is very much like a home where everyone has certain degree of freedom. The employees have the right of participate in any kind of task as there is no role description available. The leaders in River Café never explain to the employees their specific job responsibility. As and when the employees find any job which needs to be done, they come up and actively finish it out. The employees also have full liberty to take crucial decisions like selection of menu. The chefs decide within themselves what to cook and how to cook. By undertaking all these fact one may feel that Ruth and Rose are less bothered about Café's day to day activities and they rely too much on the employees. But it’s not true. Rose and Ruth always verify the menu and approve it before it comes into action. They had played immense role in setting the homely environment in River Café. Both the leaders in River Café interact quite personally with their employees; as said by one of the staff, Rose and Ruth often help their employees when they face problem in their personal life. They also try to spend some time with them where all the employees can share their problems, views and suggestion with the leaders. On the basis of this analysis it can be said that Rose and Ruth tries to develop their employees to take crucial decisions themselves. Hence it can be said that both the leaders have the ability of transforming their employees to fit in the organisational environment and to actively participate in achieving organisational goal. The leadership style of Rose and Ruth is very much similar to the leadership style adopted by transformational leaders. Thus it can be said that Rose and Ruth follow “Transformational Leadership” style. Characteristics of Transformational leader can be summarised as follows: They are charismatic and have the ability to inspire their followers (Piccolo et al., n.d.). They have the ability to motivate their followers and make them actively participate in achieving organisational goal (Liu, 2007). The leaders posses intellectual stimulation and assist the followers to solve problem when they face an odd situation (James, et al., 2002). As said by Stone, Russell & Patterson (2003), “the transformational leader articulates the vision in a clear and appealing manner, explains how to attain the visions, acts confidently and optimistically, expresses confidence in the followers, emphasizes values with symbolic actions, leads by example, and empowers followers to achieve the vision” (Hay, n.d.). In the extract it has been found in many places that both Rose and Ruth try to maintain a social bond with their employees, for example the way Ruth way having a informal communication with morning staff before they leave for the day, the way Rose and Ruth care for their employees and assist them to solve their personal problems clearly reflects that leaders in River Café also follow Shared leadership. The shared leadership enables the leaders to reduce the gap between the employees working together and allows them to know each other in a much better way (Meindl, et al., 2002). The emotional intelligence (EI) competencies that support the leadership style Emotional intelligence is not necessarily a matter of innateness but it can be developed with appropriate application of the effort. This kind of intelligence serves as an indicator of success of an organization (Ramo, 2008). For many years different psychologists like Edward Thorndike (1920s), David Wechsler & R.W. Leeper (1940s) and Albert Ellis (1950s) have made immense research related to social intelligence and emotional factors and thought; these factors are still a matter of research for many modern era scholars (Kench, 2007). As per Goleman (1996), Emotional Intelligence (EI) competency model is based on four elements which are self awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management. As identified by Hirokawa, DeGooyer & Valde (2000), EI of the leader often influences the whole team (Stubbs, 2005). The emotional intelligence deals with management of one's own feeling and also monitoring the feelings of others and to control ones thoughts and activities.(College of Business and Economics. n.d.). EI of Rose and Ruth can be analysed under two sections, firstly as personal EI and secondly as social EI. People who have high EI can have better control on ones emotional and can easily identify emotional clues of others. It has been found that while taking to the writers, Rose used the term “feel of domestic” and “feel like family”, such words were used to show her emotional attachment with the employees of River Café. This indicated she is smart enough to use proper words to create the desired impression on the listeners. The way she glorified her café by indirectly naming all the celebrities who visited River Café also reflects her ability to influence others feeling. One thing is common in both Rose and Ruth, and that is their power to motivate employees and to make them feel that how much the owners care for their well being. The ladies (Ruth & Rose) has a strong decision making power which is visible at many places in the article. Gardner and Stough (2002) conducted a research and concluded that leaders with high EI, have the ability to understand emotion of other more accurately (Modassir & Singh, 2008). On basis of this it can be said that Ruth has a strong EI as she understand the fact that an employee with bad mode will never be able to provide good service and the bad mood of a staff member will have an influence on the other workers as well on the customers. The way Ruth was communicating with morning staff members after their working hours were over, is an example that she knows how to keep the staff motivated by creating an emotional bonding. Both Rose and Ruth seems self managed as they have higher self awareness regarding their strength and weaknesses which make them trustworthy in the eyes of their staff members. The way Rose and Ruth interact with their employees indicates that they are quite efficient in relationship management which is also a component of EI. Nicholls (1994), defined that a transformational leader should have the ability to inspire others and change people's way of thinking. This is only possible if one has the ability to touch others heart and mind. Again a person with high EI has better understanding of ones emotional strength and weakness and can also understand others' emotion, so a transformational leader poses have high EI. As Rose and Ruth have high EI so this indicates that they have the ability to be successful transformational leaders (Modassir & Singh, 2008). Evidences for informal rather than formal team working Different organisations prefer different structures for their working team. Basically the two types of working team structures are formal and informal. Both of these structures have their own advantages as well as disadvantages (Erasmus, et. al., 2004). To identify whether the organisational structure of River Café is formal or informal, certain criteria has to be verified like presence of hierarchy, mode of communication, role task and role responsibility specification. In the extract, it has been found that duties and job responsibilities are not well defined between the staff members so there is no hierarchy. As per the organisation's value, whenever anyone finds that a work needs to be done, the person should do it. On the first day at River Café when both the writer had a talk with one of the staff member, he said it very clearly that there exists no hierarchy; again on the next visit to the River Café, another staff member said the same thing that here people are differentiated on basis of their experience in the River Café, instead of their position. Rose said to both the writers that River Café is more like a community where everyone shares value of a family. Such value system indicates that the management firmly believes in maintaining an informal working environment. There are certain explicit and implicit information given in the extract that clearly indicated that The River Café has an informal team working organisational structure. In River Café there is no formal mode of communication like top to bottom or bottom to up, i.e. a unidirectional communication channel is absent. Whenever the employees want they can directly approach Rose and Ruth to discuss the problem. The organisation has a flat structure, so there is no formal mode of communication, which is one of the characteristic of an informal organisation (Zenger, et al. 2001). There are many explicit and implicit information given in the extract that clearly indicated that River Café has an informal team structure; like the serving staff actively participate in food production process, they actively help the cooking staff in collecting certain ingredients from garden, the decision regarding menu can be set by any chef, there is no such hard and fasts rule that who will be authorised for taking such crucial decisions, employees always chant, laugh and sometime even sing in soft tone. Taking all these facts into consideration it can be concluded that the cafe is like a big family. Everyone is equal and no differentiation exists. It has been found that the organisation's structure is influenced by many external and internal factors and the factor which has direct relation with organisational structure is the leaders' leadership style existing in the organisation (Bilharzia, n.d.). As said by Rose and Ruth, River Café is a community and people have respect for themselves and for others, they all work like a team to provide best food through best possible service. The flat organisational structure, informal mode of communication, a strong team spirit and lack of departments indicated that River Café has an informal team work environment. Teamwork competences present in the staff of The River café Success of an informal organisation depends on its teamwork competency (Hellriegel et al., 2002). After analysing the team work competency in River Café it was found that two important competencies prevailing in the River Café are “communicational competency” and “emotional competency”. Communication Competency refers to the ease with which employees can communicate among themselves (TAMU, n.d.). River Café is a place where the employees are free to communicate with their co-workers as well as with Rose and Ruth. They often crack jokes, laugh and even sing together. In the extract it has been found in many places that employees are free to convey their thought irrespective of their age and experience. This free communication often comes out as a good way to solve problem at crucial time. Competency acts as a bond and keeps the employees mentally attached. The second component of team work competency in River Café is the emotional competency among the employees and with their employers. As said by Rose, both of them (Rose and Ruth) had great passion toward good Italian food, and such emotional attachment toward food is visible through out the organisation. Rose and Ruth try to maintain an emotional bond with their employees, as maintained in the extract, Ruth was sitting with the morning shift and was discussing some casual views. She was tiring to be quite informal as she kept her hand on the shoulder of a staff person. This posture indicates that the main motto was to show that there is no formal boundary between employers and employees. River Café is just like a big family or a community where every one cares of each other. To make the customer more relaxed and comfortable, the helping staff communicates with them and share their experience of working in River Café. Through such communication customers can come to know the café's core value system. This communication competency acts as a bond and keeps the employees mentally attached. Both emotional and communication competences are the strong pillar of a teamwork and they plays a great role in success of River Café. Challenge to the article by Lewin and Regine regarding River Café and its value system Communication is a very strong tool to express ones' own views and thoughts. In the article “River Café” both the writers tried to prove their own view in a strong manner. As per the article, the employees in River Café share a strong value toward their work place and toward their employers. But the article can be challenged by undertaking discourse. Discourse is an instrumental way of communication which determines not only what has been said and how it has been said, it also determines what has not been said by the author or by the speaker. This instrument assists us to determine and convey the hidden meaning with the help of words, symbols and sometime though metaphors (Johnson, 2005). This will be a great tool to analyse the article written by Lewin and Regine on River Café. For example when both the writers has a communication with one of the staff member in River Café, at first glance they realised that employees have high involvement with their café. They respect the way in which their employers care for them. Even Ruth said, she want the restaurant to be a big family. But on next visit to River Café while having a talk with Alex, she said the lines “Oh bloody hell, its going to be one of those days”. This line reflects the frustration and tension prevailing within the employees. It’s not the fact that tension and misunderstanding does not exist in River Cafe, but they are not allowed to be vocal in front of customers or other visitors. Axel explained to the writers that many a time the menu set by them does not came up as successful as it was planed. This leads to tension among the staff. Alex said that both Rose and Ruth are kind enough to help their staff members, but they never tolerate bad mood of the employees being shown at the work place. So the motto to help the employees is just to keep them free from their personal problem and to motivate them to pay full attention toward their work place. The Employees in River Café said that there is no hierarchy, no one comes to specify their job responsibility and to tell them what they are suppose to do, but on the other side the helping staff mentioned that as they often participate in collection of herbs from country yard, but they should not do it on regular basis as it might add extra burden on them and it need slack time. This reflects the fact that employees are already under pressure and such activities add to their job responsibility. Sam said that everyone is equal and has the right to give suggestion as and when one feel like, but no one feel that somebody is looking over the shoulders. From these words one can sense a feel of arrogance and attitude. It was said by a staff member that people are positioned as per their experience, so in a hidden way their existing hierarchy. Charlie said to both the writers that it is not an exceptional place, often co-workers have to face tough time with each other. If one can adapt to the environment, then it is fine, otherwise that person is asked to leave. This creates a feel of insecurity among the workers and willingly or unwillingly they try to show as if they are a part of the family. Ruth said to the writers that she and Rose had a plan to develop a place which has a feel of community and a social network, but the information given by Ruth's husband was quite contradictory. He said River Café is a part of his business community can it was his plane to give it a feel of community where business people can relax, talk, exchange their views and can have a feel of being at home. Ruth said that she gives same food to the employees what is being offered to the customers, but the truth is employees get the food after the lunch or the dinner section is over. This helps the company to utilize the waste food. 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