The Ideal Characteristics of a Candidate for a Top Management Post - Term Paper Example

Critical Thinking is Needed in Management Practice As much contemporary views about management practice demonstrates, one that should be dismissed immediately as nonsensical is the view that a good manager can manage anything. This notion begs for deeper study to no end. Thus, this research hopes to resolve what is beyond that – evaluating management skills that a good manager or leader should possess, such as critical thinking. As to this objective, this researcher is aware that this requires working on a tool to identify why critical thinking is one among the ideal characteristics of a candidate for top management post or a key aspect that will differentiate who have significant leadership potential from those who do not. Leaders’ Roles in the Practice of Management Generally, people view a person with the role he carries or the title attached to his or her name. The same is true with a leader in an organization. In Managing Behavior in Organization, Greenberg (2003) defined leadership as a process or approach through which a person may use in influencing others to achieve a particular goal. From such definition, it can be discerned that leaders need followers to carry out his role or duty. Thus, it should be noted that the leader and follower relationship create a two-way mutual process, whereby a leader uses his influence to the follower, and vice versa. Moreover, the leader is in charge with several important aspects of management practice that are essential in creating the mission and vision of an organization, strategic direction, and the means to implement such. Then in management practice, a leader is aware that problems are part of managing. As John Maxwell (2003) put it, the way up to the leadership ladder means that fewer but more important decisions will have to be made. He stressed that leaders must sharpen his or her problem-solving skills since every decision becomes a major decision. Hence, managing involves a host of disparate activities such as making plans, allocating resources, solving problems, making decision, directing and maintaining operations and control. Understanding Management Theories on Leadership and Management Practice The evolving definition of leadership and management are constantly shaped by several theories that aim to determine a successful leader’s attributes and characteristics. Understanding these concepts will help us resolve our assumption that certain attributes such as critical thinking are needed in the practice of management. From the earlier theories such as the “Great Person Theory of Leadership” which asserted that leaders are born and that they possess the so-called “personal qualities” that qualifies them to lead (Pierce & Newstrom 2003) to the more contemporary-held theories that considers personality attributes as one of the factors in determining an emergent leader, studies such as these further emphasized the complex nature both of leadership and management. Considering the fact that managing is a complex process that involves social relationships, wide range of factors constantly influence or affect the leader’s ways or approaches in leading in several ways. These factors may be the leader’s characteristics, attributes, behavior, relationship with followers and vice-versa, among others. However, significant progress in the study of leadership qualities later on focused on the influence of the behavior of the one leading on the follower’s performance and the satisfaction of needs. However, a more later studies on management practice asserted that leaders should be shaped toward a more production- or relationship-oriented type. The latter observation holds true to leaders who are concerned with planning, scheduling, coordinating, implementing, and other processes. Likewise, some theorists asserted that leaders may be said to be relationship-oriented when they are concerned with expressing and showing respect, trust, confidence, and by being understanding of the needs of the followers (Shani and Lau, 2000). On the other hand, in a situation where there is a constant change in the general landscape and environment, risks and confusion may likely occur as a result of the uncertainties in the workplace. Hence, people tend to want and seek leaders with whom they can expect to identify with and can provide what they need to successfully deal with such change. Basically, these theory became useful in times of crises and should be adapted to any situation they are needed. Given such, a leader or supervisor can either be thinking about tackling constructively the problem at hand to dig for opportunities; and addressing the obstacle at hand without retreating. Management skills and the critical thinking dimension of a leader, compared Let us first inspect the management skills and functions checklist that leaders should possess prepared by Keenan (1998). Keenan (1998) grouped into three levels the different management skills that earlier theorists introduced. These are – 1) Analyzing skills or the practice of solving problems and making decisions; 2) Communicating skills or the practice of disseminating information, holding meeting, and writing reports, and; 3) Influencing skills or the practice of leading, motivating, and delegating. On the other hand, managing any undertaking involves a group of key functions which need to be performed if the desired objectives are to be realized. Also, a good proportion of time is required from a manager or the one managing to be spent in carrying out some or all of the following functions – 1) Planning. This process involves defining goals, forecasting, and working out schedules so that the right things are done in the right order; 2) Organizing. This means deciding what is required and who should do what; 3) Directing. This means instructing, co-ordinating, motivating, and leading, and lastly; 4) Controlling. This function is about keeping an eye on things to check that everything is going according to plan. By the look of it, the management function is a circular process; everything is held in balance and each function depends on the others being successfully executed. They form part of a cycle which is continuously repeated. In order for one to become proficient at managing, he or she needs to apply these functions in order to achieve your objectives. But for the purpose of this research, to judge whether leaders possess critical thinking attributes, we deemed it necessary to use some criteria in the process. This means looking more closely at the subtleties of behavior that differentiate those who have significant leadership potential from those who do not. To do that requires some way of examining the behavior of prospective candidates. There are no agreed-on criteria that psychologists, personnel people and executives are subscribed to in determining or classifying based on behavior what will make for an emergent leader or manager. However, for the purpose of this study, the most significant standard set was the one formulated by Harry Levinson in his Harvard Business Review Book article titled “Criteria for Choosing Chief Executives”. Levinson (2006) proposes to organize 20 personality dimensions into three groups (thinking, feelings and interrelationships, and outward behavior characteristics) according to psychological themes on what he deemed should be used as criteria in judging a potential leader or manager. Since managing is almost always a part of any situation that a leader or manager is in, it is said it is best to examine the skills that a leader should develop and the functions of managing in light of the practice of management. By acquiring an understanding of such, a leader can be expected to deliver results effectively, including how to make the best of all available resources to achieve a particular goal that was set. In their seminal book, Art of Japanese Management, Pascale and Athos (1983) examined the problems or situations managers or leaders will encounter in their practice. They identified these as – 1) Delegating responsibilities and organizing efficiently, and 2) Motivating staff and controlling resources to achieve the goals set. Then by using Levinson’s psychological theme criteria on thinking, we will analyze why critical thinking is necessary in management practice vis-à-vis the different management functions. These are – 1) Capacity to abstract, to conceptualize, to organize, and to integrate different data into a coherent frame of reference. Leaders as critical thinkers are expected with the analyzing skills to help him or her break down complex tasks and ideas into their component parts in order to examine these items in detail. When problems occur, a leader who is a critical thinker, will not be intimidated by these. But, he will be the one who is more confident about deciding what needs to be done. In management, problems constantly arise which need to be resolved or remedied. When a leader or manager possesses the critical thinking skill, several characteristics should manifest, including his ability to think concretely, item by item, fact by fact. He can also organize facts into patterns and sequences, relate theory to management problems, criticize theory and use it for long-range thinking about business, and such can organize and integrate creatively principles, values, concepts, and information from diverse fields. 2) Tolerance for ambiguity, can stand confusion until things become clear. This dimension is still part of the thinking part of a leader. With most management concepts in view, a leader who is a critical thinker can cope with things and get them done well enough to ensure a successful outcome particularly in his management practice (Maxwell, 1993). From this principle, it can be surmised that attainment of goal is never made by chance but by design. As the situation may be or call for a leader to act or decide, leaders or managers with this critical thinking dimension may be one who need to keep focus on one defined project at a time, while the other who can handle several projects can deliver but with stress. Some leader of this type can be given with vague project guidelines, however, he or she must be provided with concrete structure or approach, and another type is the one can work with unspecified goals and uncertainty as long as can return to concrete orienting point occasionally. Lastly, there are those who can tolerate ambiguity for years, doesn't get anxious waiting for long-term plans to come to fruition. 3) Intelligence, has the capacity not only to abstract, but also to be practical. However, some theorists assert that the leader or manager should be compelled to develop basic management skills to effectively manage. Intelligence should be one among the qualities that a leader should possess especially in making decisions. Since decision-making is an active process, it involves making choices between alternatives. In times like these, the leader who is a critical thinker can decide on practical terms what is required of him such as separating the urgent from the important. When a manager has a good programming of lined up projects from the most important to the least, he can effectively organize, manage and save on resources. In addition to this, making decisions requires a good leader to make them – to fix on an action and do something – rather than let things occur through hesitancy or inaction. 4) Sound judgment, knows when to act. This aspect of a leader is still part of his thinking dimension. Leaders who critically think about problems do not immediately rush to render judgment without further thinking matters or items carefully. Boverie and Kroth (2001) named the activities that leaders, with sound judgment, can use his critical thinking skills. These are – planning, organizing, staffing, leading, controlling and evaluating, coordination, problem solving, and representing. In terms of functional skills, however, the supervisor must be equipped technically, humanistically, and conceptually. Technical skills of a manager refers to his ability to sense and carry out the tasks of the others being supervised, while human skills is the ability of a manager to handle others through the attitude, sensitivity and self-awareness he possess, and an good manager should be flexible enough to adjust to any given situation. Last is conceptual skills which is concerned about how a manager sees the whole picture or scenario in any given situation. Critical thinking is needed in management practice, my reason for agreeing In any industry or organization, a leader will have to deal with diverse sets of issues, and different kinds of people. Hence, proper managerial skills is a joy and gaining the right amount of leadership attributes a challenge. The two complements each other, creating a complete package that a leader need. Without the other skills a leader should be equipped with such as the critical thinking aspect of managing, a leader will perform inadequately, find it hard to lead a team or people, and in turn lose better chances of realizing a vision or goal. Since managing is almost always a part of any situation that a leader or manager is in, it is said it is best to examine the skills that a leader should develop and the functions of managing in light of the practice of management. By acquiring an understanding of such, a leader can be expected to deliver results effectively, including how to make the best of all available resources to achieve a particular goal that was set. That is why in this study, management skills and leaders’ traits are deemed valuable and necessary that managers should possess since in the practice of management because managing entails problem-solving, analyzing the allocation of resources, and many others. Critical thinking is also a required trait for leaders or managers who manages people because having these follower – who mostly rose from diverse background and ages – need understanding and motivation to remain cooperative and participatory in the achievement of goals. Functional managerial skills, on the other hand, would be a supervisor’s tool that he will use in putting into practice the attributes or qualities of a leader to be an effective leader. Works Cited Druckers, Peter. (1972). 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