Leadership and Management as Facilitators of Sustainability - Coursework Example

College: Leadership and Management as Facilitators of Sustainability i. Introduction Most organizations emphasize on sustainability as one of their core objectives; however, establishing the depth of sustainability by these corporations is always hectic as they are very limited and sometimes, no utter way for achieving this (Gitsham 2008). Relatively, most business organizations today believe that being sustainable revolves around factors such as corporate social responsibility, a successful brand and performance development and management; however, very few organizations take leadership and management as crucial like these factors. Naturally, leadership and management are the key aspects for sustainability, even for initiatives such as CSR to be effectual. For instance, corporate social responsibilities define the lawful actions that extend some social goodness to the community, business environment and employees; additionally, programs in social responsibility include actions to make a better environment for the society and stakeholder’s lives in an organization. Critical analysis of this definitions shows that the main link between the society, organization and employees is the managers and other organization leaders such as heads of departments. Another example is that of the notion that successful products determine the success of a brand and the sustainability factors. Most organizations focus on initiatives related to the products and long-term strategies ignoring the fact that power is a requirement for fuelling the ideas, controlling the product’s developments, alterations and generally, authority. Candidly, managers and organizational leaders have significant roles to play such as performance management and development; however, most organizations and the managers themselves limit their contribution to authority and supervision (Yuki 2012). Concurrently, there are multiple ways that managers and organizational leaders affect the sustainability of a corporation depending on the comprehension of the leadership and management aspects. Extensively this essay uses theories of leadership and empirical case studies to evaluate the fact that organizations need leadership and management for sustainability. ii. Overview of Leadership and Management for Sustainability Multiple organizations consider sustainability among their core objectives today, this because of the different variations in climate, markets and the society, creating the urge for development initiatives. Moreover, most companies incorporate modern and traditional strategies because they are many organizations that dominate the economy, having more than a decade as leaders. Considerably, this ascertains the sustainability of companies such as Coca Cola that started by introducing new guidelines, measures and management systems. Evidently, each of these factors contributes to the access by the management and leadership is the most apprehensive because very few companies, even those that are successful consider this. Most companies rely on CSR teams and sustainability experts as the main determinants of positive change and development. Companies such as Coca Cola and Apple have had different leaders over time but they continue to flourish; relatively, many people will argue that individual leaders are the facilitators of these companies’ success, expecting the company to experience a downfall after they have left. However, it is transparent that the successful organizations understand all about leadership and management as a whole, from all top levels of management to the lowest ranked staff. Obviously, were it not for these concepts being part of culture, sustainability would have been out of question with the multiple alterations in management (Fullan 2002). Today, most corporations believe that they have a clear comprehension of leadership and management while referring to other leading companies or individuals that made great impact in the economy. Moreover, some claim to know that effectual management has a lot of significant impact on how the organization performs. One cannot argue with these facts but shockingly, these notions are from past evidence and not from these organizations. Most organizations have the necessary knowledge in many facets of leadership and management but the implementation is the hardest step. Some people that extensively used their leadership skills to achieve sustainability of the organizations include Richard Branson, Anita Roddick among others. Relatively, the two managed their companies yet people refer to them as leaders, making the whole idea contradicting. Essentially, one can say that they were able to manage and lead their corporations to success. For most organizations, leadership and management bases on implementing things that people such a Richard Branson initiated. Despite, the idea being rational, it is the main contributor to the narrowed understanding about the relationship between leadership and management. Naturally, the notion of implementing common models of management constricts the ability of most leaders in companies to innovate. Most companies, especially in the United Kingdom, have sustainability and development challenges, more than those in the United States do because the organizational leaders and managers focus on studying past theories and strategies applied by business gurus. Appreciably, this might work for a while but after sometime the organization will face challenges; the best thing is putting effort in comprehending the link between the leadership and management, and later on come up with original ideas. Whenever people talk about business sustainability, managers/leaders that stand out are part of discussion depending on their impact, as some have a good reputation and others are popular for taking down international companies. Most managers stick to administering by referring to fellow colleagues or using existing strategies; however, leaders come up with ways that influence the employees in a particular organization and the society helping them learn and make sense of the working environment as a way of creating balance between challenge and support (Lopez 2014) . According to the understanding of a number of theorists, the manager’s work bases on maintenance, but the development work is for the leader; agreeably, there is a major connection between the two and it is clear that in most of these theories the leader looks superior (Chapman 2014). For instance, managers are there to ensure that the organization’s employees are up to standard relative to behaviour and performance. Leaders do not stop here because they base on nurturing what is there to make it better; definitely, this is attitude will survive in the competitive economy that is there today. Originality is the key aspect expressed by these theories but it does not mean that leadership is better than management. Commonly, most organizations focus on specializing on one, neglecting the other; however, leadership and management depend on each other when it comes to sustainability (Enock 2006). Leadership of an organization does not end with management; in fact, management is the basis of leadership. Mainly because skills such as risk management, performance development are essential for all managers but it does not end here; naturally, leaders use them to formulate ways that will transform the fortunes of an organization (Yuki 2012). Solely, management alone would only work in an economy with minimal or no developments because then, organizations would not need any extra effort to stand out. Extensively, there is a lot to leadership and management, and most organizations try to develop the best managers but not for the purpose of sustainability but for other reasons. Most managers are very strict and organizations’ staffs are tense when addressing them because their main agenda is controlling everything. Relatively, leadership and management capability to drive performance to success requires trust rather than relying on control (IES 2012). The first step to achieving sustainability through leadership and management is distinguishing the correct relationships between the two from the existing theories and concepts. There is a lot of disparity in integral features of management and leadership. iii. Case Study James has been the leader of the top American Chemical Company for over ten years and how he achieved this is impressive. His first job at the organization was a deputy product manager dealing with the containers, after some time he got a transfer to China. The company was starting a new company in Asia and James had to set up the unit not as the overall manager but as the product manager. He did not consider this a promotion because it was a start-up business and after a while, he replaced the sales manager because of the poor sales. The position worked out well for him because two years down the line he took up the marketing and sales position in the United States branch, giving him control over America, the Middle East and Africa. Not long after this, he became the Vice President of marketing and sales giving him the responsibility of several lines of products and more than 150 other executives. Soon after he was the President of this unit governing over 2500 employees around the globe. It was intentional that the organization gave him a small company as his first major task as a foundation for the overall leadership rather than the management of sales and marketing. This was a great advancement because everybody knew that he was a good manager though not sure how he would fare as the vice president. He worked alongside experienced executives who gave him the necessary support in implementing his leadership skills. The idea was flawless but James faced challenges and pressure in his new positions because they asked for more input, everything was different. Moreover, the future of the company was in his hands with more responsibility but his experience as a manager served him a great deal. iv. Discussion For utter sustainability, an organization must establish both leadership and management; nevertheless, very few understand that they are different entities. However, they have a harmonizing link meaning that they try to get the same results but none can do so without the other (Watkins 2012). A professional manager without leadership skills is inefficient just like a business leader without management skills. Different people have dissimilar descriptions of the differences depending on personal perceptions but many of them agree that the manager is a generalist focusing on aspects of organization, planning and coordination while a leader is a specialist playing the roles of innovating, inspiring and motivation. The specialism of these two concepts is the foundation of organization sustainability and the incorporation into strategies is its attainment. From the case study, James core task was changing from governing a single unit to superintending a combination of units with multiple business functions. The challenges in the beginning made him feel out of place and less assertive in his decision-making capabilities. Most people in his position would focus on managing the areas that they are broadly conversant with, undermining other areas; additionally, one can also opt to exploit the staff members since control is automatic as a manager. Significantly, as a manager one does not need that extra knowledge about the different departments or areas they are in charge of; moreover, the deputy and other executives such as department heads are in more control. Clearly, leadership and management should be about corporate heads being experts of all business functions, and through this management, supervision and control is easier because, an executive has more details on the different modules of an organization. Apart from this, the only other way that sustainability can surpass for an organization is when a leader rotates through different roles before they come to the main project. There are certainly many ways to shift from a generalist to a specialist but it requires more effort than shifting from a specialist to a generalist; all the same, a sustainable organization must assimilate both. Corporate decision-making and evaluation of talent is not all about management because once these processes are over, the next require leadership skills i.e. knowing what to do with the decisions and developing the talents. Generally, leadership endows management making it better and there is no way that only one can apply to achieve sustainability (Jones 2014). Conversely, leaders are always a step ahead and specialising does not necessarily mean that they take up courses for all the corporate areas; it can also entail applying the correct metrics in the evaluation and recruitment of people to manage the different areas. v. Conclusion Resolutely, there is no doubt that organizations need both leadership and management as factors of sustainability, and one person cannot achieve this; typically, the best move is incorporating this and making it part of the organizational culture (Watkins 2012). The first step would be capitalizing unswervingly in producing consistent appraisal structures for every utility; corporations can guarantee that new corporate frontrunners take the time to comprehend all the individual facets. Secondly, establishing strong relationships through motivation, inspiration and acceptance creating good environs for leadership and management that facilitate the sustainability of an organization. Works Cited Chapman, A. 2014, ‘Management and Leadership Theories, Models and Gurus’: Leadership/Management, Business Balls, viewed 28 November 2014, http://www.businessballs.com/leadership-management.htm Enock, K. 2006, ‘Basic management models and theories associated with motivation and leadership’: Health Knowledge, viewed 28 November 2014, http://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/organisation-management/5c-management-change/basic-management-models Fullan, M. 2002, ‘Leadership and Sustainability’: Principal Leadership, vol.3, no.4, pp.1-9, http://www.michaelfullan.ca/media/13396047460.pdf Institute of Employment Studies (IES). 2012. ‘Leadership and Management in the United Kingdom’: Department for Business Innovation and Skills, viewed 28 November 2014, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/32327/12-923-leadership-management-key-to-sustainable-growth-evidence.pdf Gitsham, M. 2008, ‘Leadership for Sustainable Organizations’: The Ashridge Journal, viewed 28 November 2014, https://www.ashridge.org.uk/Media-Library/Ashridge/PDFs/Publications/LeadershipForSustainableOrganisations.pdf Jones, D. 2014, ‘What is the Difference between Leadership and Management?’ The Wall Street Journal, viewed 28 November 2014, http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/what-is-the-difference-between-management-and-leadership/ Lopez, R. 2014, ‘The Relationship between Leadership and Management- Approaches and Its Connections to Organizational Growth’: Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, Vol.6, no.1, pp.98-112, http://jbsq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/September_2014_7.pdf Michelson, B. 2012, ‘Leadership and Power Base Development’: Journal of Leadership and Organization Development, vol.3, no.2, pp.193-199, http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au-24/michelson.pdf Watkins, M. 2012, ‘How Managers Become Leaders’: Career Planning, Harvard Business Review, viewed 28 November 2014, https://hbr.org/2012/06/how-managers-become-leaders Yuki, G. 2012, ‘Leadership in Organizations’, 8 ed.: Prentice Hall Publishers, Albany. 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