Responsible Leadership For Cognizant Technology Solutions

Leadership Theory

Discuss about the Responsible Leadership for Cognizant Technology Solutions.

Leader defines a person who guides or leads other people to a specific direction to a specific place. Leader is someone acts as a pioneer to the others as the leader is largely followed by a mass. A leader is who; understand the agenda of the people and according to that design the path. A leader is who is compassionate towards the people rather than domineering.  Through which path a leader leads the people and the process of leading the people is termed as leadership (Antonakis 2017).  The idea of leadership stands for a leader who helps the others to do the right things or helps the people to recognize the right things. The leadership deals with the idea of directing and inspiring people to create more, leadership build vision for something bigger that the usual. The leadership varies from person to person and organization to organization. The leadership depends on the policy of the organization, as a responsible leadership always looks after the company policies besides employees goals. This essay deals with a particular organization named Cognizant Technology Solutions. Cognizant is an American IT company, functioning in the market since 1996. The company provides services like information technology, ITO, BPO, information security and consulting. The company depends on the global delivery model and runs from across the globe with around 255,800 employees.

The position of a programmer analyst of the IT Company like Cognizant Technology deals with the responsibility like, working with the customers related to liberty mutual insurance and Centrica plc. The key responsibilities are to support the clients in developmental needs (Daft 2014). The programmer analyst performs multiple analyses to provide best solution to the clients. Apart from the external works a programmer analyst serves the internal project works related to internal transport request management. The programmer analyst monitoring the entire team object status, analyze it and fixes the gaps if appears. The additional responsibility comes when the company recruit new employees as the programmer analyst also act as a trainer to the new team members and single handedly controls the ABAP portion of the support team.

There are several challenges that are faced by a programmer analyst. The basic problem that a programmer analyst faces that, in understanding the requirements of the user. It happens as the thinking style of the programmer analyst differs from the users. The programmer analyst think in one way but the users think in completely different way hence the contradiction occurs in the field of work (Doh and Quigley 2014). The consequence is the service which are to provided to provide to the clients cannot fulfill the client`s need. Time is another factor that affects the work of the programmer analyst. The project an analyst is working on has to be submitted within allocated time. Technology is something, which is entitled to change every day. To cope up with the new technology a programmer analyst has to have a keen interest in learning new things about the changes in technologies. The programmer analyst has to keep the pace with the change. The ramification can be attending the libraries through which an idea of task can be achieved, attending the training which is organized in regular interval about the news tools, patterns, frameworks, new techniques are taught. The communication challenge that is faced by a programmer analyst is during the project completion. The misunderstanding occurs when dealing with the projects. This communication challenge impedes the flow of thoughts between clients and the programmer analyst. The communication is something, which impedes the analyst to understand the demands of the users. The communication problems can prohibit the analyst when he or she acts as a trainer to the new team member. Without proper communication a trainer cannot explains the details of the works and about the objectives of the organization (Fairhurst and Connaughton 2014). A trainer is the one who describes the job role the trainees and explains the career growth within the organization. The primary role of a trainer is to outline the aim of the new trainers and make them understand the basic responsibility towards the organization. Theses all cannot be performed without a smooth communication skill.

Challenges Faced by a Programmer Analyst

The leadership theory evolved since ancient era. In Sanskrit literature, ten types of leaders are found. On the other hand, Aristotle postulated about the monarchy in the society.  Leadership theory largely depends on the individual and the organization as well. The Leadership theory encompasses Great Man Theory, Trait Theory, Behavioral Theory, Contingency Theory, Transactional Theory and Transformational Theory. The Great Man theory believes that a person who is entitled to be a leader is born with the leadership quality. Trait Theory also believes that leadership quality comes with the birth of a human being (Northouse 2015). To become a good leader the leadership quality has to be present in the instinct of that particular person. The Behavioral Theory came up with factors related to human psychology. The theory deals with cause and effect of the human behavior, hence the leadership varies depending on the human behavior. On the contrary, Contingency Theory leadership is proportional to certain situations. The Transactional theory evolved in the middle of the 20^th century where it is said that, leaders assign task to the followers and set organizational goals to them and for that the leader prepare a suitable environment. In this theory the leader rewards or punish according the nature of fulfillment of the tasks. The Transformational Leadership Theory deeply believes in relationship and trust, which is built through interactions.

The organizational leadership based on above six leadership theories. The programmer analyst of Cognizant Technology has effect of Behavioral Leadership theory. Like the theory the analyst has to play two types f leadership role, one is task oriented leadership role and another is people oriented leadership role. The task-oriented leader has one concern related to task. The pivotal task of the programmer analyst is to provide the customers with adequate service and support. The behavior of the leaders has to be very structured, which will not affect the work process. The behavior has to be very organized or the analyst will not be able to complete a task in the given time. The programmer analyst has to have a interest in order to gather information to perform a task. In four words, the leader has to be initiating, organizing, clarifying and information gathering. In case of understanding a task, a proper clarification is essential behavior to a leader. On the other hand, the same leader has to play people oriented leader role to satisfy the need of the people. The basic characteristics of the people oriented leader are encouraging, observing, listening, coaching and mentoring (Martins et al. 2016). The leader has to be patience enough to understand the user`s need. In cognizant the same analyst has play a role of trainers and a monitor while comes to internal project. In order to monitor and manage the internal project a leader has to be encouraging towards the team members of the project to get the project done accurately. Encouragement helps to escalate the team spirit, reduce the boredom of the task and make the employees productive. A good and wise leader has to be patient towards listening towards the subordinates or else the leader will not be able to solve the problem of the employees. It may happen that employee is facing any difficulty regarding professional arena. The duty of a responsible leader is to listen to the employees so that difficulties can be overcome which will be beneficial to the organization. While the programmer analyst performs the role of a trainer, the leader has to be observant towards the every trainee. The leader need take the note of whether any one is facing difficulties or not and whether anyone is causing any difficulty in the organization. The vital tasks of the trainer come with coaching and mentoring. The trainer is the one who describes the job role the trainees and explains the career growth within the organization (Stone-Johnson 2014). The primary role of a trainer is to outline the aim of the new trainers and make them understand the basic responsibility towards the organization. The trainer coaches the trainees how the task is done in the organization and teaches them how the communication barriers are overcome. The twist and turn of the work procedures and the organizational policy should be explained to the trainees. The ‘do`s and don’t’ of the organization should be cleared out to the trainees during the training period. A responsible leader should aware the trainees about the possible measures that the organization take if any fault happens. The monitoring of a team comes with great responsibility. To monitor a team or a project the leader has to be wise and compassionate along with strictly discipline.

Behavioral Leadership Theory and its Impact on Programmers at Cognizant Technology

It is obvious that, leader only can lead others if he or she does believe the organization and a religious follower of the rules and regulation of the particular organization. The leader has to be disciplined enough to direct others to the right path. In both of the cases, coaching and monitoring, the leader has to be wise or else he or she will overlook the flaws of the work. Not only are the flaws the new trainees always needy for help. With the proper help and proper guidance the  required work cannot be achieved by the organization. It is a duty of a responsible leader to shape efficient employees during training period. In Cognizant Technologies the Transactional Leadership model is mostly followed. The Transactional Leadership says the subordinates are bound to follow the way, which was shown by the leader. The subordinates are accountable for their works (McCleskey 2014). They are rewarded when they perform well and they are punished when they fail to perform well. The focus of the leadership revolves around management, supervision, organization and performance. In Cognizant, being multinational company benefits are given by the level of performances. Promotions depend on the performance levels and besides that, punishments are given with degradation of the performance level. In this leadership model, the leader is the one who set the goal on behalf of the employee. This leadership is effective during the crisis of any organization.

The strengths of the leadership are, Communication, through which work is smoothen both cases of external and internal. Structure is strength, as the effective leadership shapes organizational structure. The leadership takes care of the systems and the administrative part of any organization. Planning and implementation of the plan is the one of the strengths. The whole planning of the system and the implementation of the rules are largely depending on the leadership (Chhokar, Brodbeck and House 2013). The power of assessment and analysis of a task or situation or any employee`s behavior is done by a wise leader which is considered as a strength of the leadership. Listening to the clients as well as the employees can bring change or mitigate any crisis in an organization. Fixing the gap within the organization and decision making fall under the strength of the leadership (Salacuse 2017).  The most challenging thing is often faced by the leader is time. Time can improve or sabotage any situation. To understand the right time before taking any action is essential to every leader.

The leader should be the one who actually believe the organizational culture. He or she must have a clear idea about the rules and regulation of the organization. The leader has to have a clear idea about the work. The leader has to loyal towards the organization. In order to become a responsible leader first the person has to be a good performer. Without having a proper knowledge about the particular work how he or she would guide others. The leader has to have a clear knowledge about the work and the leader has to have a interest in learning new things. To play a role a responsible leader one has to keep him always updated with the up gradation of new technology (Breevaart et al. 2014). As Cognizant is an IT company, hence the company every day experiences the new changes of technology. Without keeping the pace of the changing technologies, a leader cannot become responsible towards his or her work and to the organization. In terms of monitoring the project a leader has to work as a team. A responsible leader should be respectful towards the teammates and supportive as well. This should the motto of responsible leadership. The leader should not hurt any employee in order to get a task done. Being bossy or domineering in nature is not the example of responsible leadership. The leadership is something, which makes everyone realize that everyone is part of the organization, and the organization is run by the group of people hence, everyone is equally important. The excessive projection of authoritativeness will drive away the employees from the organization. The effective leader has to be professional and compassionate towards the employees. The objective of the responsible leadership is to boost up the morale of the of the employees towards the organization. A responsible leader has to be motivational and encourage the employees, which help them become productive. A responsible leader should be good in communication or else he or she will not be able to understand the employee requirements as well as the client requirements. The responsible leadership can be achieved through these ways.

References

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