Leadership Styles And Their Effect On Organizational Productivity

Future Profession

Describe about the Leadership Styles and Their Effect on Organizational Productivity.

Future profession:

The selection of future profession is crucial for the effective development of professional career. It actually help to direct people to focus on the areas where they need to improve for developing proper professional career. Now, I want to hold a management position in the engineering domain to a reputed organization. As per the article by Simonet and Tett (2013), engineering is among the most dynamic job role that can create major impact on the overall revenue level of the organizations. For that reason, organizations often look to develop specific engineering team so that all the critical activities can fulfilled in an appropriate manner. Furthermore, as organizations are looking to enhance its reach in the global market, engineering professionals has to deal with several challenges associated with differences in culture and values. Thus, it is extremely challenging profession that require continues improvement. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for any individuals to fulfil all the responsibilities in an appropriate way (Gillies, 2013).  For that reason, I believe selecting engineering management as future profession will help me to grow in both personal and professional aspects.

As per the article by Reeve, Sacks and Rottmann (2015) professionals need to have high ethical standards and also need to have superior level of knowledge regarding the responsibilities. Now, becoming professional in the engineering management domain requires superior level of practical knowledge and experience of different critical situations. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for any individuals to provide effective guidance to the fellow employees. Now, mechanical engineers will have to perform several complex tasks on a daily basis for fulfilling all the provided responsibilities in an appropriate way. Therefore, as an engineering manager, it is necessary to demonstrate supportive attitudes towards the employees so that they can able to give their best at the workplace (MacIntyre, 2016). In addition, man management is another important aspect that any engineering manager needs to perform for keeping talents associated with organizations for a long period of time.

As per the article by Lampinen (2015) as an engineering manager, it is necessary to provide effective support to the employees so that they can able to create work-life balance in an appropriate way. Thus, it is necessary for the engineering managers to have in-depth knowledge and supportive attitudes so that employees can feel motivated towards the responsibilities of the organization. Manager in the engineering domain also needs to develop strong communication with other departments so that the entire provided responsibilities can fulfilled in an appropriate manner. Furthermore, as a professional, engineering managers needs to focus on the effective development of communication skills both with junior and senior level employees. Otherwise, entire process will not create desired impact for the effectiveness of the organizational operational procedure. In addition, engineering management professionals need to have effective project management skills so that the entire operational process of a complex project can be communicated to the senior management level. It is also necessary for the engineering management professionals to estimate the kind of revenue an organization will able to achieve after successful completion of any engineering projects.

Critical Review of ‘Become a Professional’ in the Engineering Management Domain

Background and research issue:

Leadership is an extremely important aspect that organizations try to develop for fulfilling all the responsibilities of the operational process in an appropriate manner. Proper utilization of leadership allows organizations to schedule or plan different responsibilities of the organizations that eventually help to achieve sustainable growth in the market. Now, mechanical engineering department has to deal with several complex and difficult responsibilities for fulfilling all the requirements of the operational process. For that reason, employees working in the mechanical engineering department require expert support or guidance from the senior management. Otherwise, the entire productivity of the department might be reduced largely.  

The research study focuses to deal with the impact of effective leadership on the overall productivity of a mechanical engineering department of an organization.

The research study has focused on the following objectives:

• To analyze the extent to which effective leadership can have impact on the effectiveness of the engineering department
• To highlight the benefit level that appropriate utilization of leadership style can have on the engineering department

The research questions are as follows:

• What is the outcome of implementing effective leadership style on engineering department?
• How the appropriate utilization of leadership style is enhancing the performance level of engineering department?

As highlighted by Bryman (2013) effective utilization of leadership style is necessary for fulfilling complex business responsibilities of the engineering department. However, there are no specific guidelines for the organizations for the appropriate utilization of leadership structure. For that reason, organizations look implement innovative leadership style, which is likely to suit present work culture. Now, handling multiple and complex requirements at the same time is one of the prime responsibilities of mechanical engineers (Hall, 2013). Therefore, they often require expert help from the senior management of the organization. For that reason, organizations focus on recruiting senior personnel with superior knowledge for the engineering department. However, Storey (2016) has highlighted the fact that leaders in workplace need to have few more additional skills apart from the knowledge of the operational process. For instance, employee management is among the prime skills that leaders in the engineering department need to have for fulfilling all the requirements in an appropriate manner. As mechanical engineers have to perform several complex responsibilities as a team, it has to face different conflicts among the employees within the team (Jian & Fairhurst, 2016). Therefore, leaders of the engineering department need to handle the employees in such a way so that all the employees can able to work towards single organizational objectives.

Hogg, Van Knippenberg and Rast (2012) have highlighted different leadership styles like autocratic, democratic and transformational that organizations utilize for fulfilling all the requirements of the operational process. Now, engineering department often requires combinational efforts from different level of employees. Therefore, it is necessary for the organizations to focus more on the democratic leadership approach so that employees feel motivated towards their responsibilities. Furthermore, Hargreaves, Boyle & Harris (2014) have highlighted that leaders need to have influential skills for handling a group of skilful individuals in such a way so that all the objectives of the organizations fulfilled in an appropriate manner. Thus, charismatic attributes can have major impact on the overall productivity of the organization. On the other hand, Tung (2014) has mentioned that leaders need to have superior quality of communication skills so that they can able to share all the information about the roles and responsibilities of the employees in a detailed way. As a result, it will reduce any possibility of confusion at the workplace, which also will help to increase overall productivity of the organizations.

Project Proposal

Literature gap:

The above discussion has highlighted the fact that organizations need to focus on several factors for enhancing the productivity in a major way. However, there is no specific way provided for the organizations that can help to maintain the productivity at the optimum level. Thus, it highlighted the significance of research study, as it looks to provide clear picture regarding the impact of leadership style on organizational productivity.

As per the article by Mackey and Gass (2015), selection of research methodology is crucial for fulfilling all the research objectives in an appropriate manner. Proper selection of methodology allows research study to focus on the systematic implementation of the procedures so that it can be completed within the provided timeframe. Now, research philosophy, research design and research approach plays a significant role to direct the research study to its desired destination. For instance, research philosophy will help to enhance the quality of the collected information regarding the impact level of leadership on overall productivity of the organization. Positivism, realism and interpretivism are the type of research philosophy that research studies utilize for successful fulfilment of the entire objectives (Silverman, 2016). In this study, the focus will on the positivism philosophy, as it will help to collect in-depth information about the research topic. On the other hand, deductive and inductive are the two most popular research approaches that research studies utilize for successful fulfilment of all the objectives. In order to evaluate the impact of leadership on organizational productivity, deductive approach would be selected, as it will allow the study to include various types of theories related to the topic. Therefore, it will help to add value to the entire outcome of the research study. On the other hand, explanatory, exploratory and descriptive are the type of research design that studies utilize for fulfilling the research objective (Flick, 2015). In this study, focus would be provided on descriptive research design, as it will help to include close analysis for fulfilling the research objective.

Now, in order to evaluate the impact of leadership on organizational productivity, the research study would consider both secondary and primary data collection technique. The study would consider different journals, newspapers, business magazines and trusted websites for capturing in-depth secondary information. In addition, the study will also focus on primary data collection technique to capture practical information. The study would consider both quantitative and qualitative research technique for the appropriate collection of primary data. Online survey technique would be considered for quantitative data collection process whereas qualitative data would be collected through face-to-face conversation. The study would consider 35 executive level mechanical engineers for the collection of quantitative data whereas 5 engineering department managers would be selected for capturing in-depth qualitative information about the research topic.

From the above discussion, it can be assessed that the research study will highlight the significance of effective utilization of leadership of the organizational structure. It is expected that the research study will highlight effective development of leadership is necessary for encouraging engineers to give their best for the appropriate fulfilment of the organizational responsibilities. Thus, the research study is likely to highlight that leadership does have major impact on the overall productivity of the organizations.

References:

Bryman, A. (Ed.). (2013). Leadership and organizations. Routledge.

Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. Sage.

Gillies, D. (2013). Educational leadership and Michel Foucault: Critical studies in educational leadership, management and administration. Educational Leadership and Michel Foucault: Abingdon: Routledge.

Hall, D. S. (2013, January). LEADERSHIP: THEORIES, STYLES AND VISIONING. In NAAAS Conference Proceedings (p. 36). National Association of African American Studies.

Hargreaves, A., Boyle, A., & Harris, A. (2014). Uplifting leadership: How organizations, teams, and communities raise performance. John Wiley & Sons.

Hogg, M. A., Van Knippenberg, D., & Rast, D. E. (2012). Intergroup leadership in organizations: Leading across group and organizational boundaries. Academy of Management Review, 37(2), 232-255.

Jian, G., & Fairhurst, G. T. (2016). Leadership in Organizations. The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication.

Lampinen, J. W. (2015, January). EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP OF CONTINGENT ENGINEERING WORKERS. In Proceedings of the International Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Management. (p. 1). American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM).

MacIntyre, P. (2016). Advancing Leaders in Engineering: Ways of Learning Leadership. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning Journal, 8(3).

Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2015). Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge.

Reeve, D., Sacks, R., & Rottmann, C. (2015). A RESPONSIBILITY TO PROMOTE LEADERSHIP: ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURS SPEAK BACK TO RESISTANCE. Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association.

Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.

Simonet, D. V., & Tett, R. P. (2013). Five Perspectives on the Leadership–Management Relationship A Competency-Based Evaluation and Integration. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 20(2), 199-213.

Storey, J. (Ed.). (2016). Leadership in Organizations: Current Issues and Key Trends. Routledge.

Tung, R. (2014). Requisites to and ways of developing a global mind-set: implications for research on leadership and organizations. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 21(4), 229-337.