Adopting A Leadership And Management Development Programme For ABC Company

Concept Of Leadership.

Banerjee (2015) states that a good leader is made and not born, he or she develops through an ongoing process which incorporates training, education and various experiences obtained in multiple leadership positions. According to Bolden (2016) leadership is the ability to inspire action among the people. The direction is the process where an individual has an influence on his subjects on pursuing a given course of action for the achievement of the set goals and objectives (Billsberry, 2016).

According to Carter (2018), a leader plays the following roles in the organization: Organizational representative. The leader represents the organization on various occasions such as seminars, Workshops, conferences and even the general meeting. Collaborates personal goals with organizational goal .He or she ensures that all the individuals give their various roles in the organization priority for the effective operation of the organisation.Enhances support from external stakeholders. In the circumstance where the organization is facing some challenges especially on financial matters for establishing some of the major projects, the leader requests for support from financiers such as the government.

The leader supervises and communicates to employees regarding the plans from the top management to practical implementation.

The leader comes up with the course of action to be pursued for various matters within the organization

The leader measures the performance of the organization against the set objectives over a given period

This is because he utilizes his intelligence and experience gathered from various aspects of authority to facilitate action among the employees hence the achievement of the organizational goals and objectives.

There various challenges associated with leadership hence a good leader should know how to endure these challenges (DE Matthews, 2016). They are as discussed below:

A leader must maintain a sense of personal balance where has to ensure that he balances between the duties bestowed upon him by the organization and his family life.

A leader cannot fight back those who mock him since he should maintain a high sense of humility always.

People shall always have to talk negatively about a leader because he cannot impress everybody.

Effective leadership requires continuous learning and development which might be a problem due to a lot of commitments by a leader.

Leadership comes with sacrifice where a leader should put the interest of the people first always.

A leader has a lot of plans that the organization as a whole depends on him to facilitate their implementation where up to 80% of the strategic plans never achieve execution according to the research done.

Resistance to change within the organization hinders leaders to be creative and innovative within the organization.

According to Ciulla (2017), the following are the qualities of a successful leader:

A successful leader should always major on more significant prospects and should avoid destructions for efficiency.

A leader should believe in himself that he can and not allow anyone to look down upon his ability.

He should be open in all his dealings with his subjects to win their trust.

Successful leaders usually portray a high degree of integrity in their dealings

The Role of a leader in the organization

A successful leader should be in a position to translate his ideas into action to enhance the success of the enterprise.

Successful leaders never give up no matter how difficult the situation might be but will press on until he realizes his dream.

A successful leader should be in a position to make wise decisions especially on sensitive matters regarding his subjects.

A successful leader is usually in a position to motivate others to maintain a specific desirable behavior

Have the power to make people understand the vision and mission of the organization and work towards the achievement of the vision and the mission (Kotagal and Pellegrini, 2018).

Successful leaders do not overload themselves with responsibilities but rather delegate duties.

This refers to the process of planning, leading, organizing, staffing and controlling of various activities by the employees within the organization (R?ducan and R?ducan, 2014). A manager is a person who oversees all the management functions within the organization.

According to Hatchuel and Segrestin (2018), there are six essential managerial functions by Henri Fayol as discussed below:

This is the process of been prepared for the prospects within the organization. Fayol says that workers should be organized efficiently and be aligned with the organizational activities for the achievement of predetermined goals and objectives within the organization. He says that managers must evaluate the future operations and formulate strategies for achieving those goals.

He says that managers must effectively organize the employees through assigning them tasks according to their skills and abilities which shall enhance good performance among the employees hence the general organizational growth and development.

The managers have the responsibility of giving instructions to employees to enhance the performance of tasks within the organization in an efficient manner.

Managers facilitate various procedures and duties carried out by the company for the practical achievement of the set goals and objectives.

The managers control various tasks to be undertaken in the organization to ensure that they are conducted in line with the vision, mission and objectives.

The manager plays a crucial role in ensuring the organization has got a right number of employees, at the right time, doing the right jobs according to their level and skills and knowledge (Spellman, 2017).

According to Solomon, Costea and Nita (2016), the following are the distinctions between leadership and management

BASIS FOR COMPARISON	LEADERSHIP	MANAGEMENT
Meaning	This refers to the ability to influence action on a group of people	This refers to the art of organizing and coordinating actions in a systematic manner in the organization
Foundation	It is built on trust where people trust their leader and follow his advice.	It is built on controlling of various activities in the organization
Area of emphasis	Inspiring people to follow a specific course of action.	Involves managing employees through supervision to enhance task performance.
Type of power	Uses influence as a method of achieving support from his subjects.	This function is enhanced through ruling over the employees where instructions are given and a response is awaited for.
Area of focus	Promoting change in a given environmental setting	Aims to enhance organizational stability by ensuring that all the activities are performed well.
Strategy	Proactive since the leader do not deal directly with individuals	reactive because the manager is always available to provide guidance to each employee in case of any concern
Formulates	Various principles and guidelines for effectivity.	Various policies and procedures which directs all the organizational activities.
Perception	Has a long range perspective since the subjects are given hope for the future by the leader.	Has a short range perception since there usually short term goals that need to be achieved in the organization.
Group	Deals with both formal and informal groups since the leaders are for the general society.	It’s only for the formal and organized group of people who have various skills and abilities for various functions in an organizational setting.

According to Lorinkova and Perry (2017) these are the distinctions between a leader and a manager.

LEADERS	MANAGERS
Create visions since they visualize ideas and inspire their subjects to turn the vision into a reality.	They focus on setting, measuring and achieving various goals and objectives.
They are usually the change agents in a given environmental setting.	They stick with what works best for them through making the existing systems, processes and structures better.
Each leader is usually unique in his own way since each one of them tries to be himself and built a brand of himself	They copy the effective strategies applied in a different setting so as to establish whether they shall work for them in the urge to achieve a given set of goals and objectives.
They are risk takers because they always willing to try new ideas even if they may fail.	They usually work to minimize the risks as much as possible through controlling the problems rather than embracing them.
They deal with long term goals since they are usually motivated towards something big.	They usually work with short term goals for employees’ motivation.
They are able to access their progress in learning new ideas as they are directly involved in various tasks to influence action among the people hence determine the working ideas.	It is quite tricky for them to determine whether they are learning new ideas to enhance performance since they usually rely on the proven ideas to accomplish various tasks within their work environment.
They build relationships since they focus on the people	They build systems and processes because they focus on the structures for the achievement of set goals and objectives.
They coach their subjects as they perform various tasks.	They give directions and leave the employees to work

According to Hartnell et al. (2016):

Both supervise teams or groups of individuals.

Both evaluate their employees

Both are responsible for the actions

Both have various methods of measuring performance

Both rely on effective communication in the accomplishment of tasks.

Various theories have been developed to discuss the situational aspects of leadership. Each method tries to bring out its idea on how leadership can be very successful in different situations. Some few critical situational ways of administration are as discussed below.

According to McCleskey (2014), this leadership approach suggests that there is a need to align the leadership style of a leader and the level of preparedness of the followers (followers’ maturity). From this theory there are four main approaches to leadership which are:

Leadership Challenges

It is an authoritative and directive approach where the leader is the key decision maker and instructs the employees the course of action to be pursued in various circumstances

The leader is the key decision maker where he persuades the employees to do something rather than directing them.

The leader involves all the people in decision making hence democracy is the cornerstone.

The leader decentralizes the decision making responsibility to the team members, but he monitors their performance.  

According to Reichenpfader, Carlfjord and Nilsen (2015) there are four levels of followers’ maturity in addition to these four leadership approaches, and they include:

M1 LEVEL- Low competence and commitment.

M2 LEVEL- Low competence and high commitment

M3 LEVEL- high power, low commitment and confidence

M4 LEVEL- High strength, determination and determination.

 In ABC Company, the manager applies each of the four styles of leadership depending on the employees’ level of maturity as illustrated below:

Best used when leading the M1 level employees (Low competence and commitment).

Best used when leading the M2 level employees (low competence and high commitment)

It works best with employees at the M3 level (high power, low commitment/confidence)

Best applicable for M4 employees with high competence, commitment/ confidence.             

This theory describes various types of leaders which the leadership style they apply under different circumstances (Thompson and Glasø, 2015).

He sets goals and drives the employees towards the achievement. Works best for a skilled, motivated team where quick results are required.

Provides goals and direction to the team and expects compliance and works best when the team needs to achieve a specific target.

Works with the aim of creating an emotional bond between people in a given environmental setting. Best applicable where the people seem to be stressed and traumatized.

The leader should purpose to help individuals develop their skills and competencies in a given area of specialization. Best works when the workers need guidance and are willing to listen and learn.

Involves his subjects in the decision making process through decentralizing the decision-making activity. Used best when the employees are skilled and require minimal supervision.

He usually does everything to ensure that his subjects comply with his demands and sometimes he even applies pressure on them. Can best be used during a crisis when a particular course of action has to be pursued by the group.

Fred Fiedler developed this theory in the year 1958 when he was researching the effectiveness of a leader when dealing with groups. He stated that the leaders should exercise various styles depending on the situation at hand (Fiedler, 2015). This theory says that there is no one best style of leadership and furthermore, a leader is useful when his leadership style fits with the situation. The manager at ABC LTD usually applies participative leadership when he needs to obtain the employees’ views regarding a given aspect. He also asks autocratic style when employees seem to resist change that is vital for the organizational growth and development.

This type of approach focuses on various types of systems within the organization; the leader then ensures that all the systems that enhance employee performance are operating well. For ABC Company the manager have assured that all the systems are working efficiently. Hence the employees have no reason for not meeting the set goals and objectives. The manager controls the working of the employees making them work according to the needs of the organization.

References

Banerjee, D., 2015. Building on the concept of leadership: An individual-focused perspective. Journal of Leadership Education, 14(2).

Billsberry, J., 2016. Once learned, never forgotten: Effective leadership development with social construction as a threshold concept. Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, 30(6), pp.24-26.

Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organizational development. In Gower handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.

Carter, K., 2018. Promoting self-concept and leadership competencies among frontline nursing staff. Nursing management, 49(9), p.7.

Ciulla, J.B., 2017. Trust and the future of leadership. The Blackwell guide to business ethics, pp.334-351.

DE Matthews, D.E., 2016. Competing Priorities and Challenges: Principal Leadership for Social Justice along with the US-Mexico Border. Teachers College Record, 118(8), p.n8.

Fera, M., Fruggiero, F., Lambiase, A., Martino, G. and Nenni, M.E., 2015. Production Scheduling Approaches for Operations Management. Operations Management, pp.113-139.

Fiedler, F.R.E.D., 2015. Contingency theory of leadership. Organizational Behavior 1: Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership, 232, pp.01-2015.

Haksever, C. and Render, B., 2018. Service and Operations Management. World Scientific Books.