Effective Leadership And Management In Engineering And Industry

Analysis of Effective leadership and Management

To run day-to-day activities in industries requires a very high-level set of skills in leadership and management. The engineering management can be considered as one of the most complex structures where the production cost and quality are increasingly becoming of the most crucial issues which require effective leadership styles and management. Prior to the understanding of leadership as a single force, organization leadership should be focused on creating efficiencies in the entire chain of command (Campbell & Reyes-Picknell, 2015). Also, with the increasing changes in innovation and technology in industries, effective leadership and management play a very important role in the adaptation of changes and development of talents.

Analysis of Effective leadership and Management

Effective leadership should be constructed on a solid platform where the character traits of the people and organization reflect on humility and integrity. With the effective application of integrity, industries and businesses can be able to build and portray respect, trust, loyalty, and honor (Campbell, Jardine, & McGlynn, 2016). In order to achieve effective leadership, several leadership qualities should be considered which include having incentives and building team spirit, maintaining a good relationship, self-motivation and development, understanding of group dynamics, and effective use of authority.

Unlike in management, the qualities are significantly important in the enhancement of leadership abilities. In the reflection to engineering, engineers and managers have complex roles which they play in leading teams and projects (Ait-Kadi, Duffuaa, Knezevic, & Raouf, 2009). Resource accountability and/or human relation are some of the vital elements that have been considered as significantly important in engineering fields. From personal experience, creativity as leadership quality is one of the most important elements where one must be able to solve challenges and hardships which are predominant in most of the engineering projects.

Business operations require a wide range of activities which require effective management strategies and styles an example is the maintenance of relations between all the industry stakeholders which include employees, customers, suppliers, and the public in general. Majorly, managers are responsible for team building, and accountability of assets and budgets.  Management role in industries is very important where they are centered with the main attention of ‘making things done’ i.e. projects (Vaccaro, Jansen, Van Den Bosch, & Volberda, 2012).

Effective management should be able to portray several important characteristics which comprise conflict resolution capabilities, efficient industry knowledge, self-motivation, good human relation, and the ability to lead and coordinate team development. With the above characteristics, leadership is also considered a very important part in effective management. Generally, organization management systems are responsible for the realization of company goals, objectives, and majorly all the minor projects. However, engineering management is considered one of the hardest departments of management where it’s also considered to have a very short supply in engineering managers (Campbell et al., 2016).

Analysis of the Challenges of Leadership and Management Practice

Some of the most common challenges faced in the leadership and management practice include complex policies and directives, talent management and retention, low funding, and majorly coping with continuous changes in industries (Turner, 2014). In engineering management, the issue of challenges can be viewed in a bit different perspective where unlike in normal business management, engineering management require substantial results at the end of every project.

Analysis of the Challenges of Leadership and Management Practice

In accordance with the workplace analysis which I was an intern, the engineering field has constant change which requires a regular update of the current application and standard parameters. This also requires continuous improvement in the entire team skills. Having a competent team is one of the challenging issues for most managers. The ability to build and maintain talent is, therefore, one of the challenging parts in leadership and management practice. This has majorly been perceived by the increase of employee turnover today (Eisenbeiß & Giessner, 2012).

Analysis of the Key Motivational Theories and their Influence in Organization Success

Employee motivation is one of the vital items in most organizations today. Some of the motivational theories that can be applied to improving motivation approaches include Maslow, Herzberg, McClelland, and McGregor. The main emphasis of these theories is to understand factors that influence behavior and how they affect employees differently. Currently, most of the employees are considered to work under the influence of fear and implications that might occur in the event of poor performance (Vaccaro et al., 2012).

Despite the approach may give out the needed outcome, its considered that the performance rate is degraded by the lack of employee motivation. Due to a lack of motivation in leadership and management practice, it can lead to poor performance and productivity, industrial disputes, and high levels of absenteeism. According to Herzberg motivational theory, employee recognition is considered to be very important (Turner, 2014). With this, the organization staff always feel more committed and satisfied with their respective roles in the organization development. This is mainly achieved through enhanced remuneration and honorary titles.

Evaluation of the Different Roles of leadership and management in Military and Industry Practice

Military leadership and management styles normally emphasize on concepts which include strict guidelines that help in the coordination of daily activities and putting in place of high discipline practice. The management style in the military can be considered as more of Command Management style where individuals or military men and women have very little ‘say’ on the operation of day-to-day activities. On the other hand, industry management and leadership role tend to reflect more on teamwork development and an enhanced emphasis on self-motivated character (Gloppen, 2009). In the industry setup, leaders and managers must attain different characteristics which would help them to lead effectively and maintaining uninterrupted operations. 

Activity 4B- Project Management Techniques

In this activity, I have chosen to discuss project management due to the fact it that is one of the major tools and skill any engineer manager or individual should have. Project management can be considered a very complex task especially in the engineering field where outcome requirements, cost, and time management are very essential factors that should be considered. Basically, the main steps in project management include project definition and scope, technical design, financing, contracting, implementation, and performance monitoring (Hornstein, 2015).

Elements of Project Management

Generally, elements of project management include scope, resources, cost, and time. Managing resources is one heavy task in project management. An effective project manager must be able to account for the resources assigned on the project which majorly includes limiting the cost of the project within the budget limit (Chen, Law, & Yang, 2009). Human capital management is also an essential factor that should be considered. This basically means developing an effective team with the right skills. The issue of time management is one of the main factors which have a very huge impact on every project management. Unscheduled time always led up to unwanted outcome in the project and bloated budgets.

Analysis of the Key Motivational Theories and their Influence in Organization Success

Project Management Life Cycle

Identification of components can be considered as the first step of the project cycle. The main two approaches to identifying components include the analysis of internal and external factors. Internal identification majorly comprises the audit of day-to-day activities and some of the energy-saving approaches that can be utilized. External identification is mainly undertaken by energy companies in the search of energy saving approaches (Zwikael & Ahn, 2011).

The initiation part of the project is important since all the involved stakeholders of the project must be assured of the basics of the project and measures taken to complete the project successfully. The part of project planning basically includes how to address the basic elements of project management i.e. scope, quality requirement, timing, and cost (Ptak & Schragenheim, 2016).

Execution and control are important areas where at this points the project manager must assure everything goes as planned and timing of the deadline is maintained. Measuring and monitoring is a vital aspect that should be carried effectively thus to minimize the risks and any unexpected interruption of the project. The final step of the project life cycle includes project closeout. The closeout is done when the all the intended project goals are met and the client has expressed his or her satisfaction. Project closeout is mainly characterized into two basic groups which are administrative closure and contract closeout (Martinelli & Milosevic, 2016).

Project Planning Techniques

Gantt Chart

Gantt chart is a graphical representation of activities which are plotted against time or cost. The graphs are one of the most commonly used tools today in monitoring events or progress of activities during a project (Clarke, 2012). Normally, each bar used in the chart is used to represent an activity or a task whereas the length of each bar is representation time taken to complete each task. The advantage of using Gantt chart in a project management is that it’s easy for anyone to understand and also make any necessary changes.

Fig 1: Gantt Chart Sample (Clarke, 2012).

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Critical Path Method is majorly used in a situation where there are a series of projects which are must be undertaken sequentially or parallel with other tasks. With this, CPM is used to determine a network which can be followed to complete the projects successfully and with minimum cost. The steps involved in planning a CPM include identifying individual activities, determining the sequence of activities, designing a network diagram, estimating the completion time, identifying the critical path (longest path through the network), and lastly updating the CPM with the continuous changes in the project (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).

Fig 2: Critical Path Method (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).

Some of the advantages involved in using CPM include it’s easy to predict and estimate the time of the project, identifies critical features, and provides an enhanced graphical view of the project. The limitation of CPM majorly comprises that is only suitable for complex activities and it does not consider time variation.

Evaluation of the Different Roles of leadership and management in Military and Industry Practice

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

PERT chart is commonly used like a CPM in cases where there is high uncertainty. PERT majorly utilizes “probabilistic time estimates” which is referred to as Three Point Estimating. The Three Point Estimating include three which are optimistic, pessimistic, and discrete duration estimate. The optimistic idea is used to assume time by considering the project will go according to the plan without any hindrances (April & Abran, 2012). Pessimistic approach is considered in the event where there might arise a series of difficulties and extend time which might be required. Discrete duration is normal time estimation which can be allocated by any project manager. Therefore, the application of PERT in projects is considered to be very effective in scheduling time, identifying risk, and decision making processes (Verzuh, 2015).

Fig 3: PERT Chart (April & Abran, 2012).

            In summary, through the analysis of the above report, project management can be considered as a very delicate topic which must be well understood and applied. As a practicing engineer, I believe this traits and information will significantly help in future and my daily work activities. Through the application of tools such as Gantt chart, CPM, and PERT chart, planning and implementation of projects is easier and with fewer risk chances (Martinelli & Milosevic, 2016). Some of the important elements that any project manager should be able to account include team development, resource management, and time management. With effective implementation of the above elements, I believe there will higher chances of the project success with very minimal disruptions. 

Activity 4D- People Empowerment

Through the increasing competition in industries which have been led by the continuous increase in demand in the quality of the products and services, employee and/or staff empowerment is considered as one of the most essential parts of industries today. In the past, most of the emphasis on improving organization performance was mainly concentrated in management levels since they seem to control most of the outcome variables due to their power in decision making (Humborstad & Perry, 2011).

Due to this approach, most industries have diminished their ability and influence in promoting creativity and innovation. This issue has been one of the challenges in the engineering world where employee’s abilities have been majorly focused on utilizing current knowledge with a little emphasis on the development of new strategies. This is why IT growth is considered to be more effective than the general engineering departments (Jones, 2012).

Evaluation of Effective Employee Empowerment

According to my experience in management, effective employee empowerment is largely dependent on management strategies to communicate effectively on the primary objectives and goals of an organization. To achieve this, management should be to offer employees the required resources which majorly include relevant information and training, money, time and other incentives that will help develop the skills and characters of the employees. With this in mind, it’s therefore obvious to state that employee empowerment is a very beneficial approach to the industries but it also comes with a cost (Mendes & Stander, 2011).

However, the application of employee empowerment is considered by most market analysts to be very crucial where if it is wrongly applied it can also cause problems in the organization. Some problem issues may include conflict arising between team members thus decreasing the productivity rate and innovativeness, bad decisions making by the employees who are not well-trained, and high training cost (Zhang & Begley, 2011).

Some of the benefits associated with employee empowerment in the workplace comprise of increased creativity which also reflects on high productivity rate, enhanced product, and service quality since the workers are able to identify and solve challenges individually, and effective teamwork development through the increase of exchange in ideas and information. In the aspect of introducing various empowerment approaches, management must understand the importance of high self-esteem and human potentiality (Jones, 2012). On the same note, the application of the same approaches in engineering field requires a continuous update on the latest data and current changes that should be implemented.

People empowerment is considered to be more effective if the involved group of people is considered in part of planning the change, decision-making process, creating team leaders, changing the support system, and effective education and training. Another important feature that should be considered in the application of people empowerment id the organization structure (Baird & Wang, 2010). The compatibility of various industries and organizations are considered to always differ especially in the consideration of the ‘system culture’ and other dynamics such as the attitudes towards change. Therefore, the approach of employee empowerment should be mainly integrated into the basic findings of individual organizations.

Practices of Empowerment

One of the majorly used approaches in implementing people empowerment is through the use of psychological perspective. This means the introduction of the criteria is directly related to how the respective individual feels in relation to the subject analyzed. Generally, psychological perspective is applied in the consideration of major four items which include the ability of a person to understand his or her role, the enhancement self-belief, increased determination, and ability to control environmental dynamics (Zhang & Begley, 2011).

The influence on one’s judgment or perception is considered a very significant tool in implementing empowerment approaches. Through the psychological perspective, an individual is able to learn his or her major strength and weaknesses and how to improve with more effective tactics. With the right confidence, one can be able to improve on the output quality and quantity through the ability to control changing factors in the environment (Zhang & Bartol, 2010).

The second method that is widely used in the implementation of power is the relational perspective of empowerment. The approach is majorly based on the organization structure and culture which must be effectively developed to support efficient empowerment implementation. The main idea to focus on the environmental competence and the ability to identify complexities in power relation and interest (Lashley, 2012). As stated earlier, industries and organizations tend to have different structures and cultures which also reflect on various outcomes.

In general, the approach of relation perspective empowerment is majorly focused on how a group of employees or people can be able to benefit from one another through creating mutual connection and fulfillment and also focus on using the created bond to achieve empowerment. The relational perspective is considered as a very important element where organizations face a wide increase of issues of low self-esteem and it’s considered to help in the improvement of job effectiveness and the reduction of stress at work (Manzoor, 2012).

The issue of focus in self-empowerment has been one of the main issues today where its considered like in organization aspect, people also have different takes in various things thus even if a group of people shares an environment the empowerment strategies cannot be applied using a common approach (Nikkhah & Redzuan, 2009).

With this in mind, the approach of individualized self-empowerment is one of the most effective introduction methods that I have to experience till today in the workplace environment. The achievement of this effort has displayed a lot of success in various organizations where personally I have also contributed to the use of the method. Through individualized empowerment, one is assured that he or she can be able to perform much better and has also the ability to also improve in time. 

Activity 4E-Continual Improvement

A continuous improvement is mostly applied to change and improve how things are conducted in the workplace. The main strategies of the application of the theory can either be achieved by implementing small bits or by concentrating on large projects. With effective implementation of continual improvement, facilities in industries have the capability of maintaining their continuous advantages in the production process (Manzini, Regattieri, Pham, & Ferrari, 2009). The main five ideas or theories of continuous improvement that going to apply in my workplace improvement include Lean Continuous Improvement, Kaizen, Value Mapping, Total Quality Management, and Total Productive Maintenance.

Lean Continuous Improvement

Lean Continuous Improvement is mainly designed to eliminate or remove waste in the organization. The meaning of waste of this aspect mainly comprises some of the major items which are considered as non-beneficial to the industry. One of the main reason for choosing this theory is because of its benefit in the process industry. In relation to my previous assessment at the workplace, the introduction of lean continuous improvement can significantly help to minimize some of the continuous engineering shortcomings which include seeking to identify and describing the value of the mainstream, creating pull production and perfection, and lastly developing a flow in the system (Singh, Garg, Sharma, & Grewal, 2010).

Through effective application of the approach, an industry will be able to eliminate some of the costs which mainly occur due to the misuse of resources such as water and electricity, inefficiency in equipment’s, and disruption of the system control. I would greatly like to see the application of lean continuous improvement in the workplace environment where it will have a significant advantage to the respective industry especially in water and energy consumption which are some of the major costs today in the production process (Singh et al., 2010).

Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Mapping can be considered as one of the best approaches which can be utilized by industries to improve efficiency and flexibility in the production stages.  VSM is mainly applied through major three approaches which include analyzing phase, redesigning process, and implementation as the final phase. In this context, the main VSM aspect that is going to discuss is the value of Value Network Mapping. The application of VNM is to remove any limitations coming from obsolete methodologies when they are interacting with other multiple processes (Manzini et al., 2009).

VNM mainly use algorithms which are able to analyze the entire value chain layout unlike how it’s done by VSM which requires the extraction of an important part for analysis. The reason for suggesting this approach is because it will be able to enhance the evaluation procedure in the workplace and thus eliminating some of the major engineering challenges today (Chen, Li, & Shady, 2010). Through the use of VNM, industries will be able to map multiple products of different materials, measure economic value, and enhance layout flexibility.

Kaizen

According to Imai (2012), Kaizen is characterized as a continuous improvement system in which it integrates quality in company culture, processes, leadership, technology, and safety. Kaizen was introduced by the Japanese during the second world war and since then it has gained numerous achievements in the application of organization or industry improvement and maintenance. The main reason why I would like to see “Kaizen theory” applied in the workplace setup is due to its ability to engage the entire management i.e. from senior management to cleaners (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). The criteria followed in Kaizen implementation include introducing the required changes and monitoring while still implementing the required changes.

In the aspect of innovation, the Kaizen approach emphasizes the application of small ideas which are considered to be effective even during implementation phases. On the same note, the issue team development and individual empowerment are considered as one of the main focus in Kaizen accomplishments and due to this, it’s also one of the main reasons why I would like to see Kaizen introduced in the workplace (Deming, 2018).

Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a continuous improvement approach which is designed to improve the standards of operation of industries and business by focusing on the change of environmental culture. However, due to this aspect, TQM has majorly been considered as a failure in the engineering field where the corporation of highly educated personnel has been hard to capture (Schweitzer & Aurich, 2010). Despite this, I believe that through the application of TQM in engineering processes and industries it can greatly enhance the quality standards of various areas.

Some of the advantages involved in the integration of TQM in industries is the improvement of cross-cultural function, increased job satisfaction and commitment, reduction in cost, and increase productivity (Chang, 2009). By tackling this challenges, industries will have the control of the environmental dynamics and with this, it can highly improve on the required innovation and adaptation in change. In the approach of continuous improvement, I believe TQM will solve some of the challenges in engineering management through the enhancement of cross-functional teams of workers and improved standards in the workplace.

Total Productive Maintenance

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is majorly used to improve equipment efficiency in the production process by enhanced employee motivation and participation. TPM is majorly based on three specific principles which are “zero defects, zero accidents, and zero breakdowns (Almeanazel, 2010). The implementation of the strategy is achieved through effective action planning which comprises the creation of an autonomous maintenance program, the design of the plant management system, employee training, and finally establishing a planned maintenance system.

The reason for choosing this theory is because of the challenges that I observed to occur in mechanical industry maintenance. Through effective application of the theory, it will significantly cut down cost and losses caused by the inefficiency of machines and technology today (Wakjira & Singh, 2012). It will also help in the integration of information and skills which is a requirement of the continuous improvement process industries and engineering departments.

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