Changing Perspectives in Managerial Leadership - Essay Example

Changing Perspectives in Managerial Leadership Introduction In the era of rapid globalization and fast changing pace of the technology, an in-depth study and understanding of the organization and organization’s behavior has become important as its people comprise of different race, color and culture. The human behavior has became more formal and often less predictive and therefore, the corporate strategy has started incorporating the changing human behavioral pattern and taking into account the collective decision making and participatory approach to corporate decisions. The role of leaders, managers and the administrators of the organizations becomes more challenging when new strategy and policy decisions are introduced in the organizations. The research paper is designed to study the imperatives of fast changing perspectives in managerial leadership within an organization and to study its impact on the performance outcome of the employees and organization, as a whole. 2. Body 2(a) Background of the organization A medium size company ABC Corporation was taken up which is a pioneer in wireless broadband technologies and related products and services that have huge scope in the emerging market if tapped timely. In the current cut throat competitive business environment, Acme urgently needs to widen its market through strategic business partnerships with global business entities and venture capitalists that can facilitate market its products and services. The organization currently employs around fifty employees at various levels of administrative and non administrative posts. The employees come from different race, culture and color but are observed to work amicably. The company has a decent growth graph but needs to expand its areas of operation to maintain a competitive edge over its rivals. 2(b) Focus of the study The research was focused on the managerial leadership of the organization and the organizational climate. The workforce along with their leaders are important part of the organization who work together to achieve their organizations’ goals and objectives. The research has made concerted efforts to study the organizational behavior and communication within the company and has studied in depth the impact of implementation of management theories, especially, McGregor’s theory of management. The changing times have made the businesses more competitive, thereby making it obligatory for them, as well as for the working force to become more flexible and swiftly adapt to the changing technologies and work environments. 2(c) Literature review The changing socio-economic environment made it imperative that more consideration be paid to socio-cultural and political environment so that the requirements of the people became the focal point in the development of strategy. McGregor has been emphatic that proactive participation of the workforce in the decision making is imperative for sustainable growth of any organization. He said, ‘The effectiveness of organisations could be at least doubled if managers could discover how to tap into the unrealised potential present in their workforces’ (McGregor, 1960). McGregor’s theory of X and Y Management Strategy is highly relevant in the contemporary times when the changing dynamics of business compulsions require better understanding of human nature, within an organization. Eminent scholars have maintained that ‘we approach managerial leadership as a relational, ongoing social construction process rather than as a single clear cut phenomenon’ (Sjostrand and Tyrstrup). It was also realized that ‘strategies rather than operative planning and decision making, became the main factor of managerial leadership’ (Chandler, 1962; Ansoff, 1965; Andrews, 1971). Leadership encourages innovation of ideas and adaptability to changes. Sederberg claims that in organization the power belongs to those who can define or describe circumstances in ways that convince others that things are as they say they are’ (Sederberg, 1984). 2(d) Research methodology The qualitative and quantitative research methodology was adopted. Questionnaires and interview schedule were used to record the personal observations and opinions of the workforce, regarding wide ranging issues like work environment, work culture, salary structure, motivational strategies, management inputs and expectations etc. 3. Discussion The research was carried out within the organization and interaction with the workforce gave ample indications of the organizational culture and behavior. Observing the management style at close quarters was also very revealing because it gave important insight into the management approach to issues and conflict resolution techniques. The research was extremely helpful in finding out the management strategy and practice. It was found that the multicultural society with its wide ranging issues and cultural differences has made significant impact on the organizational culture. The emerging field of ‘issue management’ and ‘crisis management’ had become very important in the arena of corporate strategy. ‘Issue management’ was a priority and immediate steps were taken to identify and resolve the events and misunderstandings within the organizations that may have create conflict and have adverse effect on the overall performance of the organization or corporate body. On the other hand, when the issues and events place the organizational goals and objectives under immediate threat, they come under ‘Crisis management. Such issues were resolved urgently and with sensitivity so that they did not leave long term repercussion. These were normally taken up by the senior management who have the power to implement immediate decision which may be required at the time. The administrators and managerial staff did not use effective communication to disseminate information about the changes that needed to be made and made only half hearted efforts to create barrier free work environment. The barrier free atmosphere and friendliness testify mutual respect and easy accessibility of management facilitating better understanding and individual growth. The shared beliefs and value system of the organizations encourages creative productivity that can be easily observed in the organizational behaviour and performance. The organizational culture promoted mutual trust building and therefore, the satisfaction level of employees was not very good regarding various issues like salary, promotion and personal and professional growth opportunities, within the organization. 4. Analysis The company is indeed successful and has shown a healthy production and profitable balance sheet. But it is equally relevant to state that the organization lacks the fundamental principles of corporate management which are vital for the realization of long term mission and vision of the organization. Employees are very important part of organizational culture and their welfare is an intrinsic part of corporate responsibility. In the era of advancing technology and rapid globalization, it is imperative that the workforce is encouraged to share mutual knowledge and ideas but they must also be involved into collective decision making to work towards common goals. The organization needs to change and develop its unique organizational culture with well defined vision and mission statements which are effectively communicated to their employees. The shared vision promotes better understanding among the employees and provides impetus for improved performance and easy changeover. The shared learning must become an intrinsic part of the work methodology, characterized by the stability provided by the system and the integrated approach of the workers. The analysis of research has shown that the management has effectively used McGregor’s theory of X and Y Management Strategy. The amalgamation of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ approach has been used innovatively. While the demands of the ‘hard’ approach are not only rigid in the era of fast globalization, but the implementation of this approach in labor deployment becomes exceedingly difficult, the soft approach, on the other hand is totally ‘human oriented’ that disregards the administrative and managerial compulsions of the business and corporate houses. The company had used demand a mix of the two approaches in the labor deployment and administration. Strategic controls with flexible approach had been timely realized as the need of the hour. Strategies and policies had incorporated the changing nature of the society that is increasingly becoming multicultural and focused on training and development of human resource to meet the challenges of the global competition. The management needs to promote strong organizational leadership. Peer leadership and administrators must take up the role of leaders because both of them have the capacity to wield considerable influence among the employees and employers alike so that they give their best. The management must be able to inspire them and instil self confidence. It is especially relevant in the context of multi cultural society where staff learn to interact with each other without racial prejudice. They learn to develop attitude and behaviour which is conducive for a mutually benefiting and tolerant society. Corporate leadership was a strong tool for promoting independent thought and actions with good analytical and rational approach towards issues and people thus facilitated in building a congenial and encouraging environment that helped produce better performance outcome. The management needs to accept the challenge of creating a cohesive and encouraging atmosphere so that the workers could get effective learning environment. They are provided with a wider scope for professional growth in the area of core competencies. They are also responsible for advocating and nurturing a high standard of ethics and quality work while fostering a good relationship amongst them which includes the administrators, management and entire customer base. The organizations efforts were really praiseworthy because it had inculcated corporate social responsibilities in it vision and mission. The company along with its workforce, contributed significantly in the development of the society, especially in the areas like education, medical health and skill development programs for the under privileged. Surprisingly, the organization had effectively used peer leadership as mediators in workplace conflict resolutions. “If resolution to a conflict is to end properly, it must begin properly – by negotiating a solvable problem. Therefore, the act of successful conflict resolution begins with the way the problem is examined” (Erickson). Thus, the best way to tackle workplace conflicts is to provide a neutral platform to the involved parties and thrash out the differences with a mediator with clear intention of solving it. The mediator had facilitated easy communication between two warring groups or individuals with a well planned strategy. They were assertive without being aggressive and confronted the problems with an open mind which inspired confidence of the individuals involved. They helped to provide an atmosphere that eased tension among the participants and promoted a proactive session where people were able to put forward their opinions without the threat of a backlash. 5. Conclusion One can therefore, conclude that the working within the organizational climate with well defined parameters and values would promote and facilitate the organization to strive for its long term mission with short term goals and objectives. It is important to realize that the compulsions of emerging globally competitive business environment is having an effective managerial leadership that encourages innovative business strategies and creative practices to overcome the challenges of fast changing technologies and dynamics of economy. The organization must incorporate more aggressive but people friendly management strategies that encourage trust building amongst the work force so that they are inspired to improve and improvise their performance to achieve better organizational results. Reference Ansoff, H Igor. (1965). Corporate Strategy: An Analytic approach to business policy for growth and expansion. NY. McGraw Hill. Andrews, K.R. (1971). The concept of corporate strategy. Homewood, IL. Chandler, AD (1977). The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Erickson, Milton H. Available: http://www.conflictresolutionusa.com/conflict_resolution_process.htm> [10 December, 2008]. McGregor, Douglas.(1960). The Human Side of Enterprise. McGraw-Hill. Sederberg, Peter C.(1984). The Politics of Meaning: Power and Explanation in the Construction of Social Reality. University of Arizona. Sjostrand, S and Tyrstrup, M. (2001). Recognized and unrecognized managerial leadership’, in invisible management – The social construction of leadership. S Sjostrand, J Sandberg and M Tyrstrup (eds.). Thomson. pp 1-27. Read More