Transformational Leadership and Managerial Effectiveness - Coursework Example

Manager leadership assessment Student’s Name: Course Code: Lecture’s Name: Date of Submission: Manager leadership assessment Different managers employ different forms of leadership within which there are successes and failures in the execution of their duties. As a result, the various forms of leadership backed by their theories elicit interest in evolution of the abilities of managers in their leadership practices. The above makes the goal of this report to assess, based on observation, the leadership abilities of the observed manager. With this, the theory in use involves transformational leadership and its application in the leadership skills observed. It will also look into the strengths and weaknesses of the theory employed in the assessment of the manager’s abilities as a leader, as well as the effectiveness in application of the assessment in a bid to offer insight to the leadership abilities of the manager. The manager observed applied leadership based on the abilities of the various employees under his authority in the manufacturing organization. As such, the leadership schemes he employed to his over fifty employees working in a single department involved a collective role for both employees and the leader. At all times, leadership in his case involved the use of five significant aspects of both management and leadership, and that are common for most organizations. As such, the organization employed humanistic, scientific and Ouchi’s theory Z in management, while leadership involved transformational and situational leadership. In leadership and management, separation of the two concepts becomes impossible since the two remain intertwined in the aspects that make them up. With this, the manager under observation appeared to have clarity and order in execution of his duties as a leader by having the role of each employee set out for him or her depending on the area of work. This is to say that there was minimal interference by the manager towards the employees in directing their behaviour since their job description was clear. Similarly, there were aspects of consultation in decision making between and amongst the employees and their overall manager to make decisions affecting the running of the department towards the greater organizational objectives. In some instance, the manger delegated is role in decision making to the various team leaders available at the workplace to ensure there was effective running of the tasks at hand. This means that only in few instances were there active consultations between the employees and the manager, but rather there were numerous interactions on leaderships between team leaders and the manager in questions. In addition, the manager offered critical leadership skills in the workplace through looking after the needs of the employees. This was basically with regard to incremental perspectives involving staffing for the benefit of the employees to have more time to finish their tasks qualitatively rather than quantitatively. Implications are that the thought process was radical in performance of the right activity at the right thing and in the right manner for best results affecting both the department and employees collectively. With the delegation of some leadership roles, the manager was able to focus on leadership roles at a higher level in terms of offering guidance and providing room for personal development amongst team leaders and employees working under them. As a leader, the manger was also able to liaise with the employees directly when the need arose due to the need for a present leader and to promote positive organizational behaviour, as well as culture. The presence of the manager close to the employees also assisted in enforcing the rules of mutual respect between the manager and employees through close-knit relationships for all employees to follow. With this, the manager also actively participated in the tasks assigned to the employees in an effort to assist and have the workers relate to him and his post as a readily available leader. Transformational leadership Transformational leadership is style in which leaders and followers elevate each other to levels above present in regard to morality. In order to account for power, influence and leadership in transformational leadership, it is based on four components and influence is exerted on followers or workers according to how admirably the leader behaves (Goleman et al, 2002). This, in turn, has an influence on the followers on whether they would like to emulate them (Hoffman et al, 2011). In the aforementioned case, transformational leadership stands out as an effective theory in explaining the conduct of the manger as a leader in his leadership model. This is because it allows the leader to act as a role model, thus serving as a form of motivation towards the psychological wellbeing of employees, who are otherwise demotivated and professionally challenged under other models (Munir et al, 2012). By the appeal of the leader to the values of employees under the mentioned manager, there is little discomfort in having an overall leader. In addition, transformational leadership applied explains the manager’s actions in that the presence of the manger in the workplace and directly interacting with employees job satisfaction through the presence of organizational citizenship behaviour, which is discretionary and cannot be observed or viewed overtly (Podsakoff, 2000). As such, the manager, as a leader directly attempts to influence the actions and values of the employees into following the objectives of the organization. Studies indicate that when transformational leadership is applied, workers tend to have better job satisfaction in spite of challenges at work in that there are better relationships between leaders and employees (Wang et al, 2012). Transformational leadership also explains the action through delegation and indulgence with team leaders in that there is no intimidating decision-making process, but rather inclusive opinion seeking. This makes team leaders and the manager trusted individuals and that can easily appeal to the values of the employees for success of the organization as it offers motivational inspiration by giving meaning to work. This is seen through improved quality and quantity of work and higher success rates in tasks assigned to workers in the sector, as sense is made clear to them on the importance of following certain procedures at work such as safety training and compliance to work ethics (Mullen & Kelloway, 2009). As a result, the mode of leadership promotes overall benefits to employers, employees and leaders by appealing to their state of being and making each party see the importance of the tasks assigned. The model is also beneficial by putting some degree of responsibility and authority on all employees meaning that the workers feel involved in leadership. As a result, the workers tend to take their work more personally as there is adequate reason to do it right since they make decisions that allow them to take over the jobs they do. In addition, according to Munir et al (2012), transformational theory serves as a guide for the manager’s actions in that direct liaisons with employees serve as trust cultivators and inculcate organizational citizenship behaviour based on harmonization of personal and organizational goals (Lian and Tui, 2012). Managerial effectiveness The manager, as a leader, has well managed to control and guide his employees through their scheduled tasks into success for the department. A look at the relationship between humanistic management and transformational leadership indicates that transformational leadership based on humanistic management inspires employees and managers to go the extra mile for the sake of the organization through owning ideas and concepts used in the work process (Coetzee & Schaap, 2005). As such, the manager was able to treat the needs of his employees personally whenever the team leaders were not able. Similarly, as a manager and a leader, he arranges for the leave times of each employee and seeks suitable replacement until resumption of duties, which occurs rarely. Based on humanistic management, transformational leadership states that the looking out for the needs of the employees first allows the employees to offer loyalty and commitment to the organization regardless of the situation. With this, the manager under observation stands out as effective due to his interpersonal relationships in the workplace and fraternizing during work to give a friendly atmosphere to the employees. This yields the highest performance for the organization due to organizational commitment and promotion of organizational culture, as well as a close-knit relationship between management and leadership making him an evidently capable and effective leader (Hooper and Potter, 2000). With regard to decision-making, the manager can be deemed as successful due to the inclusive and integrated nature of seeking opinions. Ryan and Deci (2000) mention that for transformational leadership to be effective, leaders must be in a position to explain the objectives of the organization to their employees. With this, the presence and prevalence of the manager’s involvement in decision-making depicts the manager as knowledgeable on the skills of each employee and their capabilities, thus is in a position to guide them in the event of difficulties. The decision making process that incorporates the employees ensures that the abilities and difficulties of each employee are known and how each decision affects them. As a result, transformational theory advocates an effective leader as one who looks after the needs of his employees and this can be achieved through promoting personal growth and development (Hoffman et al, 2011). Based on this, there is the organizational goals do not involve the stagnation of employees’ careers, but their further qualification, meaning that transformational leadership support this ideology and manager’s principles in directing employees. Entrenching personal values upon employees also serves as an effective means of ensuring progress towards personal development and organizational goals. However, in the influence of personal objectives, there exists a blur factor influencing employees negat9vely deeming the manager partially ineffective. Tepper and Taylor (2003) suggest that the conduct of the manager under observation fails in employment of transformational leadership since his influencing depicts employees as followers with little will power to engage in that which they feel is best for them. As such, the manager fails in leadership through sheer disregard for ethics and personal opinions, as well as values for the benefit of the organization. As a result, this ruins the possibility of employees seeking their own goals and could lead to mistrust affecting the leadership style employed by the manager and bring the company to its knees. However, in spite of the aforementioned effectiveness of the manger according to transformational leadership, the manager can be observed as ineffective. As per Tepper and Taylor (2003), delegation of supervision and decision making by the manager puts the team leader in conflict with personal interests possessed by the employees. This creates a mistrust situation sine the team leaders are perceived as the enemy by the employees, while as the manager comes to employees’ level, they relate to him positively. The above classically depicts reversed psychology situations on the manager’s part seeking loyalty and commitment at the expense of effective management by team leaders. This makes him an effective leader, but a poor manager at the same time, while there exists room for him to be both. Swot analysis There are disadvantages of transformational leadership, especially where ethics are concerned due to the presence of shared decision making and authority. In these cases, leaders tend to violate ethics of the work place by appealing to the workers in order to get the best of all situations including where the decisions they make are wrong (Grint, 2005). This is in addition to overreliance on top-down communication, which leads to problems in communication and a breakdown in productivity. As a result of these transformational leadership tends to contradict productivity in the workplace due to confusion of instruction and largely inhibited down-top communication (Hayes, 2007). The leadership model also requires the employee to be highly cautious and wary of the leaders so as to recognize how far they are supposed to go in regard to execution of their duties. This is because the model relies on leadership's appeal to the morality and emotions of their employees, which leaves them prone to abuse, translating to that leaders may take advantage of employees if they are not careful (Caruso & Mayer, 2004). Another demerit of this leadership model is that it contains other sub leadership models that are dangerous to the performance of workers owing to lack of capacity to influence workers in any way. This is especially so in laisse-faire leadership aspect of transformational leadership as it tends to be passive and conflicts occur, as well as breakdown of communication although it is not severe in confrontation between leaders and workers. This means that although there is disruption of services, it does not occur regularly and workers continue to render their services adequately. Strengths Some of the strengths of transformational leadership theory lie in the ability to inspire employees through a consistent vision and values (Pandey & Pandey, 2013). The theory, therefore, appeals towards giving a sense of purpose to each employee and to each task. With that, it becomes possible for employees to relate to the assigned tasks, thus boosting morale. As strength, it promotes teamwork with fewer conflicts, as compared to other theories of leadership, while boosting commitment and loyalty. Similarly, it promotes positive organizational citizenship behaviour amongst employees by appealing to the challenges offered by the work process. As a result, there are reduced costs of labour and human interactions between employees and employers, and the commitment serves as a motivating factor. In addition, it follows innovation, where it seeks novel ways of problem solving in an organization, where in this case the role of the team leaders and manager in decision making demonstrate this aspect (Bryant, 2003). With this, there exists room for employees to critique their leaders on their mistakes and offer solutions, which the allows the manager or leader to come up with new was f solving problems. One of the most influential merit of the theory lies in the consideration of personal needs and is based on humanistic management with leaders mentoring their employees (Pandey & Pandey, 2013). Implications are that employees follow their leaders according to his or her conduct and attitudes towards organizational objectives and those that the employees bear. As such, there exists a mutual respect and trust between leaders and employees since it is the role of the employees to choose their own attitudes and align them in accordance to the organization. Conclusion Altogether, the observed manager in his application of transformational leadership stood out as an effective leader though with hints of ineffectiveness. In being effective, the manager dictated leadership duties to team leaders and looked after the needs of his employees. Similarly, he worked with his employees directly in directing their activities, as well as ensuring that they performed as expected. With regard to his failures as per the theory, the delegation of duties to team leaders created a sense of mistrust between the employees and the team leaders. This misgiving is grave in that it misdirects the potential of achieving goals and ruining interpersonal relationships. In addition, effectiveness in leaders points to decision-making and interpersonal relationships, which are portrayed positively in the form of loyalty and commitment. 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