Business and Organisations in Management - Case Study Example

Evaluation and Analysis Case Study Student ID: Unit: Tutor: Institution: Date: Table of Contents Introduction 3 1.Traits, skills and behaviors associated with successful leaders 3 Discussion 4 Conclusion 5 2.Challenges of leadership 5 Introduction 5 Discussion 6 Conclusion 6 3.Sources of power 7 Introduction 7 Discussion 8 Conclusion 8 4.Effective leadership 8 Discussion 9 Conclusion 10 Reference list 11 Introduction This essay is going to analyze a case study by Michel de Percy from the University of Canberra. The analysis of the case study will be divided into four distinct sections based on the four questions asked. The four sections will be divided further into introduction, discussion and conclusion. 1. Traits, skills and behaviors associated with successful leaders According to Bartd et al (2011, p. 319), there exists three types of leader namely autocratic leaders, democratic leaders and laissez-faire leaders. Autocratic leaders consists of those people who make unilateral decisions, limit worker’s knowledge of goals to the next step, give feedback that is punitive and dictate methods of working. Democratic leaders are those leaders who involve groups in the decision making process. They allow these groups to make overall goals and decisions on methods of working. These leaders use the feedback they get from these groups for coaching. Laissez-faire leaders give freedom to their subordinates. They provide all the materials needed and they only seek to participate in answering questions. They do not give feedback to their subordinates (Cronk et al 2000, p.83). Studies have been carried out to find out which type of leaders are the best by analyzing which leaders produce the best work outputs that are of quality. Lewins researchers have trained many people in these three leadership styles. The trained leaders were then put in charge of groups. The groups that were led by laissez-faire leaders had the worst performances compares to democratic and autocratic leaders. The quantity of work from groups led by democratic and autocratic leaders was equal except the fact that democratically led groups produced quality work and the members were satisfied (Bartd et al 2011 p. 319). Discussion According to the case study, Bill possesses the traits of both a democratic and autocratic leader in conducting his leadership duties. As a democratic leader, we see that Bill routinely handled more than ninety jobs which included the ones with the most demanding technical problems. Working and training with the manager enabled him to be diligent and handle these jobs with few mistakes and complaints compared to other technical specialists. He would clear all his jobs earlier than the other specialists and still offer them assistance when they had difficulties in clearing their backlog. The feedback he got from technical specialists under him was that they handled only forty to fifty technical support jobs. From this feedback, he decided to coach the other specialists by offering to give them assistance in doing their work. He is very helpful. As an autocratic leader, Bill tried to act in an authoritative manner by harshly insisting on new procedures to be used and that rostered hours be worked. He was then met with hostility. Bill was excellent in carrying out his duties and this made him to be named technician of the month more than once. Bill had excellent relationships with all of the customers. He was the one who conversed with customers whose internet had been disconnected. Conclusion Bill portrayed most of the characteristics of successful leaders. From the case study we can see that Bill was competent, helpful to others, he was a democrat and partially authoritative when his subordinates did not respect his leadership. He also had good interpersonal communication skills and developed good relationships with customers , and other technicians by socializing after work. 2. Challenges of leadership Introduction The task of being a leader constantly brings challenges to the leader as a person and also to the leader’s abilities. Challenges are brought about by changes and this does not matter whether a person has excellent leadership capabilities or not. A person in leadership is defined by how well he/she handles challenges that come their way. These challenges can be in the form of obstacles that prevent people from achieving objectives or in the form of people who are the problem. At times, challenges can be confused with problems (Waldock et al 2004, p.14). This is not always the case because some positive situations can present the greatest challenges. This is beneficial because when great challenges are overcome, significant progress is made and people can now move onto the next stage. It is not always that leaders are born with their skills. People sometimes become great leaders after they rise to challenges of leadership while at the same time recognizing and learning from these challenges. Some people do not follow orders and break rules from time to time. It becomes hard to deal with such people since they do not recognize authority or conform to their duties. Discussion From the case study, Bill had problems in trying to make changes and maintaining discipline because his subordinates did not recognize him as a figure of authority. Bill and all his subordinates had been friends for a very long time. The transition from being a colleague to being someone else’s boss is very hard because your colleagues still see you as their friend and not their leader (Waldock et al 2004, p.22). This is the case for Bill. It is beneficial for Bill to maintain good relationships with his friends since it will create favorable working conditions to boost the performance of people. However, it is far more important that Bill’s friends do not take his friendship for granted by neglecting their duties. Another reason why Bill has problems in making changes is because his subordinates are used to Bill doing their work for them whenever they are behind schedule. They have the mentality that Bill will always be there to come to their rescue whenever they cannot accomplish tasks. This is seen when Bill accomplishes more than 90 tasks and goes on to help the others in completing theirs. Conclusion In conclusion, Bill is a very good leader except the fact that he does not have the authority to ensure that all tasks are completed on time by the relevant people. The only setback or main reason for lacking power to command others is that he likes doing most of the work himself. He makes decisions unilaterally without involving his subordinates in decision making processes. 3. Sources of power Introduction Many leaders of today encounter numerous problems in trying to mobilize a group of people towards achieving the desired results. Different leaders posses different forms of power which determines their level of success in achieving objectives. Some of the powers possessed by great leaders include coercive, reward, legitimate and expert power. Coercive power is the ability to force people to do something against their will by use of physical force. Other means of exerting coercive power include the use of threats or blackmailing people (Kouzes & Posner 2007, p. 21). If coerced people do not show compliance, demonstrations are illustrated to show the harm that will be inflicted on them. Leaders posses reward power. Whatever others find desirable can be used as a reward in their favor. As a leader, a person has the ability to reward others by giving them what they want in exchange for them doing things for that person. This is reward power. Their role as leaders also gives them legitimate power which may sometimes arise from coercive power. Leader are experts in whatever they do. This is one of the reasons they hold leadership positions. They are able to share knowledge to others on their areas of expertise. This is known as expert power. Another form of power is informational power. This is a form of power whereby the person holding the leadership position provides information to others that results in these people acting or thinking in a different way than they would have. For this information to be enough, arguments must be provided to support it and make other people believe in it. This induces acceptance. Discussion The reason why Bill had difficulties in making changes and maintaining discipline in the workplace as the new leader was because he did not have informational power. Although he provided suggestions about the work performance of some of the technicians, no attention was paid to him because he did not provide convincing arguments to his suggestions. Even if he had expert power, legitimate and reward power as their new leader, he lacked the coerciveness to dictate the duties of his subordinates. He did not demonstrate the negative consequences that would arise if his subordinates did not comply with his instructions. Conclusion In order for Bill to implement the changes he desired as the new leader, he should have explained to his subordinates why the new procedures needed to be used by showing them the benefits that would be realized. He was excellent in exercising his expert power by providing assistance to other workers in their tasks. He should have motivated his subordinates by providing rewards for work well done. 4. Effective leadership Effective leadership is a key element for groups of people or a person to become successful in their business endeavors. Being in a leadership position does not make people good leaders. A leader cannot automatically be respected or accepted by their subordinates. They must have a positive influence on others. Over the years, many leadership theories have been identified. It has been made clear that one style of leadership cannot be used for all situations and occasions. Different situations require application of different leadership skills in order to be effective and successful. The most effective style to be chosen for a particular situation depends on the member’s willingness to take on different responsibilities. Leadership theories such as the Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory has been used extensively and it is widely accepted because it states that leader’s behaviors must change (Bartd et al 2011, p. 33).The behaviors must change with respect to readiness of followers and the situation at hand. The two main behaviors that this theory focuses on include task and relationship behavior. Task behavior is the extent to which leaders give out responsibilities and duties to people. Relationship behavior is the extent to which leaders use multi-way or two-way communication channels. This behavior includes facilitating, listening and supportive behaviors by the leader. This model of leadership shows situational factors which affect the extent of favorability or control of situations for a leader. Another model of leadership is the Trait model which focuses on identification of personal characteristics which are associated with effective leadership. For a leader to be effective, he/she must possess personal qualities that separate them from leaders who are ineffective (Waddell and George 2011, p. 178). This theory does not talk of personality traits but rather the skills, expertise, knowledge and abilities of leaders. Discussion Not all leaders can posses all the traits in Trait theory but the effectiveness is reduced when some of these traits are missing in a leader. According to the Trait theory, a leader must be persuasive and persistent in trying to meet objectives or in giving out duties and responsibilities (Northouse 2006, p. 58). In order for Bill to become more effective in trying to convince his subordinates to follow his new procedures, he must become persuasive and persistent. He must also be patient and understand that change takes time. He should start motivating his subordinates and develop the ability to make people to start working together and helping each other in areas where one person is better skilled than the other. Therefore, Bill would not need to continuously finish other people’s tasks. Adopting new behaviors such as persistence, patience and being persuasive is in line with Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory whereby Bills behaviors must change based on the readiness of his subordinates and his current situation which is failure of the technicians to adopt new procedures. Conclusion In order for Bill to become more effective in leading other technicians in his workplace, he must start by making them feel important and needed because followers lose enthusiasm in leaders when the leader’s decisions and goals are self-centered. He must show his subordinates a clear vision of where he is leading them instead of trying to bring new changes haphazardly. He must show them why that vision is of value to them. Word count: 2025 Reference list Bartd, K, Tein, M, Mathews, G, Sharona, B, and Scott-Ladd, B., 2011, Management Foundations, Sydney, McGraw Hill Cronk, T, Kirkwood, L, Ryan, C and Stanley, T., 2000. Business and Organisations in Management, Sydney, Nelson. Kouzes M. & Posner Z, 2007.The Leadership Challenge, John Wiley & Sons, Inc Northouse , P. G., 2006. Leadership theory and practice. Sage, Thousand Oaks. Waddel, D, Jones and George, J., 2011. Contemporary Management, Sydney, McGraw Hill. Waldock, Trevor, and Kelly-Rawat., 2004. The 18 challenges of leadership. A practical, structured way to develop your leadership talent. London, Prentice Hall Read More