Management: Leadership and Ethics - Research Paper Example

Leading at the Upper Echelon Introduction From time immemorial, the success or failure of an organization or any other human activity depends on the role, the leader plays. The leader is the one who can lead humans under him/her to ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’. If the leader follows a set of traits he/ she can ‘sprinkle’ success on many lives, including the workers in his/her organization. The leadership traits should be visible and should be put to effective use when the leader, as a ‘builder’ builds a group and as a ‘founder’ launches an organization. The leader can build a group, by associating individuals who came from the same ‘stable’ like friends, work mates, family members etc and by recruiting individuals with talent, knowledge and attitude. That is, as Schein (2004) said, “... best way to build an organization was to hire very smart, articulate, tough, independent people and then give them lots of responsibility and autonomy”. With this ‘living’ group, and the material things like capital, machines, infrastructure etc the founder cum leader embark on an organization. But, in most cases, a leader will normally take over or preside over or manage an existing organization. That is, the building or recruiting of the ‘group’ of workers as well as the installation of infrastructure, set up etc, would have already taken place, with the leader only leading and managing the organization. This job of taking an existing set up and managing it, brings in set of challenges, which can be taken care by formulating certain strategies or solutions. That is, challenges can be overcome by implementing leadership programs or programs implemented by a leader. These leadership duties were performed optimally by my father (name), a business leader running an oil business in India. My father runs the company Tinna Oils and Chemicals, which is headquartered in Gurgaon in the Northern part of India. Established in 1970’s, my father has been its Chairman for the past 15 years. As the name suggests, the company deals with edible oils, which is basically made from sunflower seed and soya. He has a joint venture with ADM (Archier Daniel Midland), an American company featured in the top 500 fortune companies in United States of America. With over 2000 workers employed under him, he exhibits effective leadership skills, which made the company one of the successful oil businesses in India, and this will be subject of this paper. So, this paper will focus on the key leadership skills exhibited by my father, investigating how effective those leadership skills are and how those skills fulfils the ethical aspects as well. Imposition of leader’s assumptions As leaders are the people in lead, they usually have a major impact on how the group initially defines and sets into an organization. Typically, the founders as leaders have strong assumptions about the nature of the world, the role that organizations play in that world, the characteristics that make up human nature and relationships, how truth is arrived at, and how to manage time and space (Schein, 1978, 1983). They will, therefore, be quite comfortable in imposing those views and personal cultures, on their partners and employees as the fledgling organization copes with challenges and targets in the initial stages. This initial stage imposition of leader’s assumptions, as a form of good culture is one of the good leadership traits exhibited by father. When he started as the chairman in 1990’s, he started imposing his ideas and assumptions as form a organizational and it was widely accepted by the employees. Because as the workers’ mind was fresh as well as curious about my father’s leadership, their mind was willing to make a good beginning and thus the new culture was easily adopted. “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority” (Blanchard cited by Parnos, 2008). As part of the organizational culture, my father first imbibed the importance of being punctual to report work as well as in completing work. As a continuation of this culture, employees who were punctual and who completed the work well before the deadline were rewarded through incentives and paid holidays. But, it is not smooth sailing all the way for my father, the challenge to this imposition of a new culture came in the form of experienced workers particularly in the production side one of the oil plant. As they were slugging out in the same job in the same environment, importantly in the same mindset for years, changing them to accept the new effective assumptions and work culture became a little difficult in the initial stages. However, my father made them fall in line, not by force but convincing them of the advantages of the new culture and importantly facilitating them into the new culture. This process of great working culture will always be or should always be ‘seeded’ by the leader and my father did that effectively. Getting involved in all the process Another effective leadership trait that leader should show is, getting involved in all the processes that will take place in the organization. That is, the leaders following the theory of Situational Leadership should exhibit particular leadership style according to the needs of the process. The main idea behind this theory is, leaders or managers should adapt and adjust their style of leadership according to the ability and dedication of their co-workers. This leadership style was exhibited by my father in many appropriate times. Based on this leadership style only, my father has got himself involved in many of the processes that take place at the production site. That is, while overseeing the production in one of the oil plants, one employee was not able to correct the valve that pumps the oil for refining. As the technical person, who could repair that fault, was not immediately available looking at a fault in other side of the plant, my father got involved in the process of correcting that fault. As total shutting down of the unit to correct that fault would affect productivity, with adequate knowledge about the machine functioning, he used apt tools and corrected the value malfunctioning. The role of the leader should not be limited to just starting and funding an organization, he had to become the integral part of the organization. His / hers ‘touch’ both mental wise and physical wise should be found in all aspects of an organization. He/she should not shy away from his responsibility because apart from having a negative connotation on the subordinates, it would also be a sure recipe for the failure of the company. As the role of the leader is to motivate his/ her subordinates through his/ her action, my father by taking the role of the technical person and involving himself in correcting the fault kind of motivated many employees, who were witness to it. I am saying this because, many employees were visibly happy with what my father did and with that happiness translating to motivation they did the work quickly and effectively for that day. So, if the leader involves himself/herself and ‘pushes’ himself/herself and importantly workers towards the target, the organization can achieve more success and this was clearly visible through my father’s actions. Involving the workers productively In any organization, there will hierarchical structures, with the leader, the upper management and the employees separated both physically and mentally. This separation particularly the absence of mental interaction will also affect the motivation level of the employees. That is, if mental interaction is developed by the leader and the management with the employees, it can increase motivation to high level. This was exactly carried out by my father at crucial times. This mental interaction was maximally held by my father during the decision making process particularly during the decision to go for a joint venture with Archier Daniel Midland was on the anvil. That is, during the process of decision making on whether to go for the joint venture with ADM, one of the approaches the my father tried is, putting for discussion his thoughts, targets, strategies, plans, etc, goals about this joint venture among the workers in the form of direct interaction as well as through notices. This strategy had unexpected at the same time favourable results, because majority of the employees apart from favouring the joint venture decision also came up with their suggestions on how to make this initiative an successful one. “Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results” (Patton). This skill will have favourable results, because the employees will be motivated to come up with effective suggestions and will also work harder to actualize those suggestions. That is, as specified by the Cooper model, when the workers keep on participating in all the important decision making process, they will start to understand all the intricacies of organization functioning. (Scott, 2002). So, involving and allowing co-workers to play a part in the decision-making, but at the same time being the final authority is a good leadership trait, one should cultivate and my father not only cultivated that trait but also yielded good results. Providing a perfect and comfortable working environment Another approach, a leader could practice and which could be a considered an effective leadership skill is providing a perfect and comfortable working environment for his workers. My father incorporated this trait into his company’s environment specifically in the office environment with optimum results. One of the decision, my father took as part of this motive, is to go for an open-office layout. That is, cubicles were preferred instead of offices with doors. That is, in an office set up where team work will have prominent place, my father understood that face to face interaction as part of cubicle set up would bring in more ideas, than one calling other into a closed room and having a closed discussion. Leaders should recognise the collaborative nature of leadership work and its reliance on complex internal systems and information and communications technology. (Collinson & Collinson, 2005). In the manufacturing part of the company, he carried out a minimization of the use of status symbols such as private offices, special dining rooms for executives, and personal parking spaces. This is one of the important decisions taken by my father because it gave the lower staff, the feeling that all are treated equal, irrespective of the salary, experience etc. So, instead of special rooms, many conference rooms and entertainment plus play rooms were setup to encourage employees from all hierarchy to interact comfortably and optimally. This environment made the workers stay, at the company, an enjoyable experience at the same time encouraging experience. Initiator of new approaches Another effective leadership trait is, to try new approaches and also encourage new approaches from their subordinates, which can be implemented with minimum risk. That is, after the removal of the constraints, the leaders should adopt approaches, which will accentuate the achievement of goals. My father will try to introduce new and newer approaches and technologies by travelling to various conventions and other trade fairs, where new technological innovations were displayed. It gave him new perspectives about the industry, fair idea about the market, our organization’s competitors, how the market’s and product’s future will be, etc. These steps helped my father and the organization to focus on the set goals and what needs to be carried out to grow further, even while motivating the employees. The leader is expected to challenge followers with high achievements; talk positive about the future and value the task at present. Followers should show strong will, not being reluctant but ready to act through motivation. (Bass & Avolio, 1994) This trait is also intertwined with another good trait of always being in search of new avenues. That is, my father will not settle with the thought he knows all the answers and has all the solutions. He will always try to find more and better answers and solutions to the problems that will keep on arising in an organization. Rewards as a confidence booster The motivation levels of the employees have to be kept at optimal levels, so that the profit flows into the organization’s coffers continuously. So, Allocation of rewards, incentives and promotions to the deserving and apt employees is an important trait the leader should have to keep the motivational levels at higher plane and my father exhibit this trait maximally. My father always believes, biologically, it is mind of the worker, which will make the worker ‘work’. That is, only if the mind of the worker is filled with positive thought process, it will get motivated and make mental as well physical organs work for the benefit of the organization. The strategy my father favour to motivate the employees is rewarding individuals purely on merit and not by other extraneous reasons. My father will always provide appropriate financial incentives and rewards, as well as non-financial praise for the employees’ achievement. “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it” (Eisenhower cited by Mamby, 2007). In any organization, the workers do their duties for personal motivations like money (salary), looking after their family, etc, but their motivation level will get a great boost, if they receive additional rewards as part of the organization atmosphere. So, my father will mainly provide rewards and promotions to deserving and ‘success achieved’ workers, thereby motivating them to give better results and also motivate others also, to reach that status. Providing rewards for the successful attainment of specific performance goals, enhances intrinsic motivation (Marzano et. al.) Also, my father will always reward individuals purely on merit, not on any other unethical considerations. My father knows that if he gives important posts and responsibilities to individuals who might be family members, friends, overriding tried and trusted individuals, it could create dangerous repercussion. So, even though we have some family members in the organisation, they are treated mainly on par with other employees. In India, many of the business are family owned and so we have family members in the organisation and they are also treated and rewarded equally like other employees. My father incorporates ethics in his functioning and values it optimally, so always takes unbiased and balanced decisions, keeping the employees’ motivation and care in mind. This way, he quickly gets across his as well as company’s priorities, assumptions and importantly the organizational goals by consistently linking rewards and punishments to the activities of the candidate Supporting the Staff during times of Failures Failure will be part of every one’s life and the staffs in the enterprise will be no exception to it. So, one of the most important traits, my father always practices is to support the staff during failures and positively influence them. That is, in cases of underperformance, my father is available for support for all the employees, based on the premise that the same staffs should not cause failures in the future. This same thing happened in Tinna Oils and Chemicals. A technical engineer was entrusted with the task to create new supply equipments for the oil processing purpose, by providing a lot of funds. But after the trials, my father found out that the equipment did not function successfully. At the same time, my father’s competitor company came up with the same successful equipment. However, that technical engineer and his team did not get the axe from my father. Instead, he put confidence in him and his creativity. So, he entrusted him to take on another crack at designing the product by pumping good corpus of funds. That team showed immediate success and this explains the positive influence my father has on the people he comes into contact with. This way the employees will have an unquestionable acceptance of the leader by followers, followers' trust in the leader's beliefs, affection for the leader, willing obedience to the leader (Conger and Kanungo, 1987). This, shows how my father followed the important trait of supporting the staff during the failures Incorporating ethics Normally, a leader or manager will be judged by the success he/she achieves. Judged in the sense, he/she will be appreciated, feted, discouraged, hated etc, etc… by the success or the lack of success (failure), he/she gets. In today’s world, success of an organization is mostly correlated with profits, markets share, etc. That is, many people will accept a fact that a person is a success, only if he/she achieves all the above-mentioned material things. Even though this perspective is not at all wrong, the bone of contention is how an organization or its leader or manager achieves success. Whether, they achieve it through ethical means or by fraud, illegality, etc? The primary focus of any organization is to give a clean management based on preset ethics; otherwise the repercussions will be unfavourable. My father understood this key aspect and so always manufactures products which are good in quality without any compromises or unethical practices. This importance given for quality is clearly pointed out in the company’s official website, “Tinna and ADM are committed to serving their consumers with top quality products. From a housewife who requires healthy cooking oil for the well being of her family to the shipping company that uses cargo services; to the farmer who benefits from the agro-services to the cattle & poultry owners who use Tinna's feed supplement to boost productivity, etc., each of the product reflects Tinna's hard core values.” (tinnagroup.com). Thus, the ethical issues were given top most priority and were incorporated in every aspect of organizational functioning by my father. Conclusion Finally, the organization and its leader should not stagnate and saturate. Schein (2004, p.418) pushes forward this idea by stating “that the leader of the future must be a perpetual learner”. Perpetual learner in the sense, the leader or the manager should learn new levels of perception and acquire lot of insights for running an organization. As discussed in this paper, my father always continues to learn new perceptions and come up with optimal strategies for all segments of the organization. “Leaders have been found to influence followers in many ways: among them coordinating, communicating, motivating, sharing information, and rewarding” (Yukl, 1989). So, unison of humans with an urge to usher an organization into a leading ‘utopia’ will be a successful endeavour, if the leader of the organization show undaunted, unabated and effective conduct. As my father shows all these effective leadership traits or managerial skills mentioned here, the organization of Tinna Oils and Chemicals would have a successful presence for many years to come. 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