Reflecting On Skill Development In Module: Tests For L01-L04

Organizational management comprises planning, organizing and prioritizing the work efforts in order to accomplish the objectives within the business organization. The management style is a specific way through which the managers accomplish their organizational objectives and goals. Moreover, it encompasses different ways of making decisions, planning and organizing works and most importantly, how they exercise the authority. The styles of management vary from company to company and even from an individual to individual. According to Carmody-Bubb, Duncan and Ree (2015), a good organizational manager has the power to adjust the style of management in order to suit various environments as well as employees.

The management style of an individual can be shaped by several factors involving the external and internal business environments. Moreover, how an individual views the job role also affects the style of organizational management. There are several styles of management namely; autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. The autocratic management is considered to be the most controlling of all other styles of management. Laissez-faire however, involves little or less interference from the management (Cunningham, Salomone and Wielgus 2015). Different organizations follow different styles of management and therefore, their leadership styles also vary. Several organizations prefer democratic management and leadership style and regard it as one of the most efficient styles of organizational management (Hislop, Bosua and Helms 2018). 

Democratic management can also be referred as participative management, which is a type of organizational management style. In this type of management style, the organizational members play a participative role in the overall procedure of decision making. Every member is provided with the opportunity of participating, which in turn, assists in generating more and more creative ideas. Moreover, the organizational members are able to exchange their ideas more freely and group discussions are encouraged (Goetsch and Davis 2014). In addition to this, the democratic style of management focuses over the group equality as well as free flow of the ideas. 

However, in this type of management, a group lead is still present in order to offer with proper guidance as well as control. This encourages team engagement, participation and engagement. Furthermore, performance preferences of the members are well acknowledged as well as honored. Democratic leaders yield more followers along with high team morale, where the members are highly motivated to offer and generate creative solutions. In addition to this, it helps in producing an organizational atmosphere of team spirit as well as cooperation (Solomon, Costea and Nita 2016). 

Democratic leadership can be referred to as participative leadership and it is a prominent type of management style. In this particular style of management, the members of the group initiate a participative style in the process of decision- making. This management style is better than the other styles of management as it provides equal opportunity to everyone for participating, exchanging ideas and encouraging free opinion from everyone. Among different styles of management, democratic style is considered open and a collegial form of running a team. There is free flow of ideas and all the issues are discussed in the open forum (Castrogiovanni et al. 2016). 

Democratic management style is a significant factor in the ever changing and dynamic work environment, where there is least scope of a constant factor. Such a rapidly emerging work environment needs to keep all the options for further improvement or else, there is a risk of falling out of date. Democratic style of management allows open conversation and interaction among all the members and thereby selecting the best possible information available for making effective decision. It is the responsibility of a democratic leader to communicate the decision properly in the group in order to maintain unity in the group (Huang et al. 2016). 

According to Bamiatzi et al. (2015), this particular style of management is mostly used when there is frequent change in situation by offering a lot flexible options to implement new ways of working. However, there might be certain cases when the structure might result in taking slow decisions. Therefore, it can be stated that although this method is better in implementing new ways of working but the outcome not prove to be very quick. It is the best style of management in extracting the brilliance and excellence from a professional team. The skills and talents of the members are enhanced as they get the platform to share their views and opinions (Szelagowska-Rudzka 2015).

To improve this style in a better way, certain factors need to be emphasized by the democratic leader. For instance, there should be an open scope for communication along with focusing on discussion of the individual members. Commitment is very important in case of democratic leadership and the leader must be ready to respect the idea of others. If he is not satisfied with the idea of others, then he should explain the matter instead of apologizing or behaving in a rude manner (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider 2015). 

Reference

Bamiatzi, V., Jones, S., Mitchelmore, S. and Nikolopoulos, K., 2015. The Role of Competencies in Shaping the Leadership Style of Female Entrepreneurs: The Case of North West of E ngland, Y orkshire, and N orth W ales. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(3), pp.627-644.

Carmody-Bubb, M.A., Duncan, P.A. and Ree, M.J., 2015. Emotional intelligence and personality predict conflict management style: examining relationships and factor structures. Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business Volume.

Castrogiovanni, G., Ribeiro-Soriano, D., Mas-Tur, A. and Roig-Tierno, N., 2016. Where to acquire knowledge: Adapting knowledge management to financial institutions. Journal of Business Research, 69(5), pp.1812-1816.

Cunningham, J., Salomone, J. and Wielgus, N., 2015. Project Management Leadership Style: A Team Member Perspective. International Journal of Global Business, 8(2).

Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Hislop, D., Bosua, R. and Helms, R., 2018. Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford University Press.

Huang, W., Li, Y., Wang, S. and Weng, J., 2016. Can ‘democratic management’improve labour relations in market?driven C hina?. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 54(2), pp.230-257.

Iqbal, N., Anwar, S. and Haider, N., 2015. Effect of leadership style on employee performance. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 5(5), pp.1-6.

Solomon, I.G., Costea, C. and Nita, A.M., 2016. Leadership versus management in public organizations. Economics, Management and Financial Markets, 11(1), p.143.

Szelagowska-Rudzka, K., 2015, October. Management Style as Determinant of Employees’ Direct Participation in ICT Industry: Case Study. In Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Management Leadership and Governance 2015, Academic Conferences International Limited, Reading(pp. 478-486).

The group was led by involving a more democratic approach. This means that the employees were given many opportunities to participate regarding group activities. As stated by Laudon and Laudon (2016) democratic leadership can help employees to remain motivated in an organisation and at the same time participate for its success. However, in this case, the certain changes needed to be made in the group so that the leadership style and the manner in which the management dealt with the group can be rectified. Therefore, change management theories need to be applied so that the group can maintain rectify the management and leadership style.

As stated by Kerzner and Kerzner (2017) in order to be successful in an organisation it is necessary that changes be brought about. These changes can be in the form of internal or external management that helps in bringing about significant improvement. For example, it is necessary that changes be brought about in the manner in which the group activities take place. Democratic leadership may provide employees with an opportunity to be creative in the organisation but at the same time, it is necessary that strict actions regarding any flaws be taken. Therefore, it is important to understand the talents of the members present in the group.

For this reason, it is necessary that a proper change management theory be applied so that sudden changes in an organisation or group do not affect its functioning. Hence, in order to change the style of leadership that exists in the group, it is necessary that theories related to Lewin’s change management be applied. According to Carnall (2018), Lewin’s change theory focuses on maintaining and managing change in an organisation using three steps. These steps need to be followed in a synchronised manner so that the change that takes place in an organisation does not affect employees or group members.
   

The first stage of Lewin’s change model is unfreezing. The application of this particular stage in the group includes finding a method that helps in analysing the method required to finding old pattern and remain counterproductive. As stated by Antonakis and Day (2017) the necessity of individuals to resist changes may lead to driving forces behind the application of change. The group members can resist the change that takes place as the democratic style of leadership provides them with an opportunity to remain focused in the work. Therefore, it can be said that the first stage that exists in the change management model focuses on identifying the need for change and the factors that help in driving changes throughout a group.
   

At the second stage, the change in a group can take place directly. This particular change is referred to as the change that involves moving on from the old customs (Hayes 2018). In the case of the group, the change that needs to take place involves moving on from the old leadership style that exists in the group. Therefore, the democracy style of leadership that exists in the group need to be changed for the betterment of the employees. The changes made can be in the form of being a bit more autocratic so that the employees are not provided with excess freedom to take decisions.
   

The final stage involves refreezing in which the change is established as a new habit. As stated by Tourish (2014) the application of the change and the ability to continue its existence in a group is required for an organisation. In the case of the group, it is necessary that the employees remain adjacent to the changes that take place so that they can remain accustomed to the autocratic leadership style. This can help them to understand the expectations from them and at the same time work towards improving the operating procedure of the group. As stated by Kuipers et al. (2014) without the existence of the final stage the possibilities of the group going back to the original state increases.
   

However, the application of Lewin’s theory has been criticised by the fact that it provides less reaction time for the employees. The employees need to understand the reasons for the changes that are taking place and the manner in which they can contribute to the organisation by keeping in mind the changes. In the case of the group, the resistance towards the change can be more as the number of people in the group is more and therefore, the sudden change in the leadership style can bring about a lot of criticism. Hence, it is important to analyse every step that are involved in the implementation of change.
   

Hence, it can be said that the effective application of change can bring about a sense of improvement in the group. Despite the initial resistance, the manner in which autocratic leadership can bring about proper changes in the group can help it to gain success (Cameron and Green 2015). Lewin’s change model can help in analysing the changes and ensure that the group gets to apply the changes in a systematic manner so that it can learn new things while working as a team.

Reference

Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V. eds., 2017. The nature of leadership. Sage publications.

Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.

Carnall, C., 2018. Managing change. Routledge.

Fairhurst, G.T. and Connaughton, S.L., 2014. Leadership: A communicative perspective. Leadership, 10(1), pp.7-35.

Fayol, H., 2016. General and industrial management. Ravenio Books.

Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management.

Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Kuipers, B.S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J. and Van der Voet, J., 2014. The management of change in public organizations: A literature review. Public administration, 92(1), pp.1-20.

Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education 
Tourish, D., 2014. Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), pp.79-98.

Decision making can be defined that the managerial functions win which apex managers in the business organizations form decisions which apply to the entire organization. Hammond, Keeney and Raiffa (2015) point out that decision making takes place in the middle level management under the leadership of departmental heads. The apex management makes strategies pertaining to various crucial areas like finance, marketing, human resource management and customer management. This departmental heads then breakdown the part of the organizational strategies which pertain to their department among their subordinates as well. For example, the marketing departmental head breaks down the marketing targets among the marketing staff members. The departmental head allocates the target among his subordinates on the grounds of their skills, experience and knowledge level. Sharma, Mithas and Kankanhalli (2014) point out that this decision making actions of the apex managers and the middle level managers from indispensable components of the management and leadership in the business organizations. The achievement of departmental targets in turn catapults the organization towards achievement of its overall targets. Grayson and Hodges (2017) further point out in this respect that leadership style of the departmental heads have a deep impact on the achievement, thus ultimately effecting the effectiveness of the decision making. 

Clinton (2018) points out that there exists a close relation between leadership and decision making. The middle and the lower level employees who mainly deal with the stakeholders like the customers, investors and suppliers gain information about their expectations from the company, which obviously varies from stakeholder to stakeholder. The customers convey information regarding the attributes which they expect the products of the company to have in the future. The investors similarly communicate their expectations regarding increase the percentage of dividend they gain on the investments. The lower and middle level employees convey this information about stakeholders’ expectations to the management. The management includes these feedbacks in forming the future strategies to the extent possible. For example, the customer expectations are considered during forming product strategies. Similarly, the demands of the shareholders are considered while making financing and investment plans.  

McHugh et al. (2016) mention that the leadership style adopted in the organizations the apex managers and the middle level managers have direct impact on the decision making. The apex managers of most of the multinational companies follow participative leadership style while there are organizations where the apex managers use authoritative style. The apex managers following participative leadership style and encourage employee empowerment. Saleem (2015) points out in this respect that managers in these multinational companies recognize decision making power among their subordinates as significant for appraisal. These managers recognize the training needs and train their subordinates. The subordinates armed with proper knowledge and legitimate decision making are able to deal more effectively with the stakeholders. These employees are as a result able to serve customers better and create trust and satisfaction among the latter. The customers as a result perceive these employees as efficient and inform them about their expectations regarding the future products of the company. These subordinates as a result are able to communicate more varied feedback iof the customers to the apex management. There are organizations where apex management follow authoritative styles of leadership and merely expect their subordinates to follow instructions. Such organizations do not take any initiative to train their employees to empower them to take decisions while dealing with stakeholders. These employees due to their limited knowledge and power are not able to serve customers effectively and gain crucial knowledge about their expectations. These employees as a result are not able to provide appropriate feedback to the apex management. This analysis shows that organizations following participative leadership can gain more stakeholders’ feedback compared to the organizations following authoritative leadership style. Thus, the former is able to make more effective decision due to abundance of more stakeholder feedback. Thus, it can be inferred that leadership has direct implications on the decision making. 

Goetsch and Davis (2014) point out that leadership and decision making are closely linked with management. The management bodies of the multinational organization follow diverse management policies to manage different areas of the business. For example, in case of financial management, these companies invest in different types of securities and hedge funds. This earns them appropriate buffer against the economic fluctuations which at times lead to fall in the values of specific securities. Again, in case of marketing management, the incorporate customer feedback to make appropriate marketing mixes. The appropriate marketing management aims to maximize the revenue generation of these companies. The apex management of these companies also form marketing strategies to diversify the business losses which they incur in some markets over the revenue base earned from other markets. Similarly, the human resource management aims to acquire, maintain and manage highly talented staff to strengthen the operations of the business organizations. It can again be pointed out that business organizations require to apply participative leadership style and empower their employees to take appropriate decisions. Thus appropriate decision making and leadership enables organizations to manage their business  

Reference

Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Clinton, R., 2018. The making of a leader: Recognizing the lessons and stages of leadership development. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc..

Dunn, C.J., Calkin, D.E. and Thompson, M.P., 2017. Towards enhanced risk management: planning, decision making and monitoring of US wildfire response. International journal of wildland fire, 26(7), pp.551-556.

Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Grayson, D. and Hodges, A., 2017. Corporate social opportunity!: Seven steps to make corporate social responsibility work for your business. Routledge.

Hammond, J.S., Keeney, R.L. and Raiffa, H., 2015. Smart choices: A practical guide to making better decisions. Harvard Business Review Press.

Hoefer, R.L. and Green Jr, S.E., 2016. A rhetorical model of institutional decision making: The role of rhetoric in the formation and change of legitimacy judgments. Academy of Management Review, 41(1), pp.130-150.

McHugh, K.A., Yammarino, F.J., Dionne, S.D., Serban, A., Sayama, H. and Chatterjee, S., 2016. Collective decision making, leadership, and collective intelligence: Tests with agent-based simulations and a Field study. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(2), pp.218-241.

Saleem, H., 2015. The impact of leadership styles on job satisfaction and mediating role of perceived organizational politics. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 172, pp.563-569.

Sharma, R., Mithas, S. and Kankanhalli, A., 2014. Transforming decision-making processes: a research agenda for understanding the impact of business analytics on organisations.