Understanding and Philosophy of Management, Leadership, and Stewardship - Essay Example

SELF-REFLECTIVE PORTFOLIO Name: Professor: University: City: Date: Self-Reflective Portfolio Pre-subject reflection Over the years the concept of managing, leading and stewardship have been entirely foreign not until I realized its relevance in the professional scene. Initially, my perceptions of the idea were limited to the fact that I portrayed rebellious nature towards people who were offered any leadership roles. I believed that managers were people who had unique skills that could not be adopted by an ordinary person. The idea that managers were chosen because they were more knowledgeable by default and their skills were acquired once they were born limited my ability to try and grow the innate desire to become a manager. The society played a relevant role in building my perception since it failed to create a platform for the locals to develop their abilities. I did not know the difference between managers and leaders as their roles were quite similar. Such perceptions built the epitome of a confused and unstructured concept of the issue. However, as I developed regarding knowledge and experience, I had the opportunity to reflect on the innate abilities of people and relate them to the levels of success that they display when exposed to different situations. The array of challenges that organizations across different supply chains display dictate the number of theories and models that would yield desirable results. Each time I would think of a group or read publications as well as listen to the news, I would wonder why some businesses experienced failure or closure. The most common themes that were mentioned in the writings was the dismembering of the management and leadership because of inability to ensure desirable stewardship. I was able to make nebulous connections between the postulations that were made in news reports and the initial information that scholars delivered. Students also have their set of challenges when working with groups on different issued projects. Working with teams involve opening up to issues such as diversity, time management, task allocation, resource distribution and theoretical as well as model-based approaches. The differences between team members may limit the ability of the team to work in unison to achieve a particular goal. However, a more important aspect of the team is the selection of a team leader, a manager, or a steward. Selecting a credible and considerable leader will denote evaluating their position during times of challenges and in making decisions that will affect the performance of the organization. Since reading the articles and listening to the many postulations that were made regarding fruitful and unsuccessful teams, I have become interested in learning on the constructs that comprise management, leadership, and stewardship. Considering the intrinsic values and beliefs that I hold dearly, I believe that this course will be instrumental in the growth and enlargement of my skills and abilities in management, leadership, and stewardship. I think that the information that is relayed through this course will expand my professional knowledge in different fields in case I pursue a leadership or management position. The concept of ethics and responsibility based on various situations forms a significant contribution towards the success of a team or organization. Expository information that will be relayed through this course will establish high morals within me, and any approach towards positive behavior will improve significantly. By the end of this course, I expect to be able to pursue management, leadership, and stewardship across different levels through the theoretical and model-based structure while approaching moral and ethical challenges. Mid-subject reflection The introductory part of the course was quite intriguing. The initial step was to accept that my interpretation of the issue was vague and invalidated and any move towards improving was accepted. Working in groups has always been a daunting dispute. I had to adjust to the requirements and accommodate the variety of members from diverse cultural backgrounds and locations(Christensen, & Raynor, 2003). The mission and vision of the group had to be coordinated if it was to become effective. It was quite challenging to come to terms with the fact that I would work with people who may not share the same sentiments I did but had to ensure that I tried and worked past my perceptions. The second step was among the most educative. I had the opportunity of making sense of management, organization and the organization theories. I learned that the organizational principles are used to solve issues that may arise from the operations of the organizations. The effectiveness may be achieved through entire application or combination of the principles(Cunliffe, 2014). They also postulate different advantages and disadvantages based on the scope of implementation. For instance, the agency theory masters an economic approach to various institutions while the institutional theory concentrates on the social orientation of the business. First, the reading on Management, Management Studies, and Managerialism offered a clear and akin elucidation on the historical perspective of theory and practice. While a manager is someone who coordinates the activities of the organization to achieve a particular objective, management is the process of overseeing the work activities of others so that their activities are completed efficiently and meritoriously. I learned that they work under certain constraints that include making decisions, exchanging information, influencing people and developing and maintaining relationships (Cunliffe, 2014).It also helped me understand that power is shaped by culture and social orientation that plays a significant role in management and leadership for success. By the end of the lecture, I was able to develop a distinction between managers and management. Case studies formed an extended part of the learning process. It is equally important to offer students and teams with the opportunity of reflecting on real life events that are occurring across the globe. The lecture on Welcome To Managing, Leading & Stewardship was quite an elucidation of the previous week since it supplemented all the information offered through reflecting on actual happenings across the globe. It was an appeal to the responsible and accountable nature of people that would yield ethical and moral management, leadership, and stewardship(Christensen, & Raynor, 2003). I learned that as much as some businesses had recorded tremendous profits, their organizational strategies are failing drastically. For instance, British Petroleum has been connected to the Oil spill impact on Mississippi Delta April 2010. I found this information quite informative and opened the opportunity to identify additional issues that have been happening involving undesirable and unethical business practices. The lesson on fairness has been expanded significantly in this course as an aggregate constituent of the concept of ethical and moral business operations. Arguably, the notion of downsizing the workforce has been evaluated highly over the years even as more organizations continue to employ the concept as a measure of improving profits and controlling some costs that they incur. Consistency within the layoff practices has been questioned by practitioners and economists in abid to understand the importance and implications of managers, employees and the organization (Brockner, 2006). Accordingly, it highlights a three system fair process that includes the input granted to employees in the decision-making process, the making, and implementation of the decisions and behavior of managers. Considering employees as significant contributors to the success of the organization will build their satisfaction levels and improve trust (Fleming, 2014). It questions the relevance of organizational power, notably through theconcept of biopower in creating credible and performance oriented team members. Strategic management has always been a challenging theme for me. I fail to understand how managers, leaders, and stewards have the time and ability to engage in strategic management when facing various challenges and issues. However, this theme is highly captured in the reading Strategic Management As Distributed Practical Wisdom (Phronesis) (Nonaka & Toyama, 2007). The lesson was more than informative since it developed the concept of wisdom as a distinct quality that managers are required to display throughout their activities. Because of this reading, I was able to expand my knowledge of the postulation Aristotle makes vaguely known as “phronesis.” Managers and required to create value through thinking differently from other members of the organization. They consider the importance of strategy as a practice, process, future-creating process and distributed phronesis. Such aspects assist in judging goodness, share contexts with the members and a capability to clench the quintessence of precise issues. A conceptual understanding of stewardship is also exposited under the course. It develops a concise understanding of relational and motivational leadership behaviors that are displayed by managers and promote a sense of personal responsibility as well as stewardship in their organizations. The success of most organizations may be associated with the way leaders inaugurate an optimistic cycle of intergenerational mutuality throughout their period of operation to ensure that employees and group members become stewards (Hernandez, 2008). I believe that literature studies on stewardship formed a significant aspect of information gathering on the piece. Evidently, acquisition of such information offers an overview of the considerations that leaders made, among them being concentration on others and not the self. It also eliminates any form of hierarchical conformity and enables the workers to have a different attitude towards the operational environment (Steers, Nardon & Sanchez-Runde, 2013). Furthermore, organizations can raise up a culture that can survive any challenges by enabling them to employ implicit models based on a global strategy. Organizations have the ability to maintain a collectively responsible business by ensuring that they involve the different people at the various levels in the decision-making process. More often, collective responsibility starts with group responsibility. The concept has been explainedregarding integrative unity that considers the importance of the worker to the employer as well as the value that is drivenby the employee (Follett, 2011). This lesson raises the need to reflect on the relevance of coordination based on the understanding of each worker regarding the philosophical opinions and issues. Working out the relationship between constructs of the organizations enables the employees to cultivate a culture that is built on trust and coordination. The administrator, in this case, may be the manager, leader or steward has an obligation to integrate the interests of all parties. It fosters a certain level of competition but at the same time ensures that the goals of the workers are aligned. The stakeholder theory as well as rethinking social responsibility was among the most challenging themes that I encountered during the entire course. My knowledge of the issue was limited because of my lack of exposure to aconcept related to social responsibility that surpasses the objective of profit maximization and ensures that the business considers the community, stakeholders, as well as the shareholder value. Although the case of Whole Foods may have been an interesting case, I believe that it is necessary to be conversant with the notion of making philanthropy out of obscenity as purported by Michael Freidman. Managers, leaders, and stewards in capitalism and corporations are often misunderstood because of their rigid ideas on corporate responsibility (Freeman, Wicks and Parmar, 2004). It becomes an issue of consideration while expanding knowledge in the business scene. The final weeks opened an avenue to understanding new concepts. Among the most elucidating was the notion of the toxic triangle that consists of the destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments. Such a combination of issues creates destructive and dangerous leaders that imply poor performance and unmet objectives. It makes logical connections between the intentions leaders often display assuming various behaviors may be inherently harmful. Under the triangle, destructive leaders take into account characteristics such as “charisma, personalized use of power, narcissism, negative life themes, and an ideology of hate” (Padilla, Hogan and Kaiser, 2007). Susceptible followers are distributed into colluders and conformers, while conducive environments take into account unpredictability, apparentperil, cultural standards, and deficiency of checks and balances and institutionalization. Post-subject reflection After the first lesson, I learned that a group is an integral part of the learning process. It improves the methods in which people concentrate ideas and interpret information that is acquired in class. Diversity within the group is equally relevant since it develops an understanding of the various communication patterns, cultures, and values that may shape judgment (Christensen, & Raynor, 2003).I believe that it acts as a catalyst to understanding the postulations made by different group members reducing time spent in problem-solving. An overview of management and managers developed different attitudes towards the scope of their roles and jurisdictions granted. It opened my thoughts to the possibility that managers may acquire their skills and expertise from constant exposure and training. My research on the managerial, leadership and stewardship issues was limited to successful organizations(Cunliffe, 2014). However, week twolectures allowed me to be wary of the news releases and articles involving diminishing and unethical practices to acquire a wider scope of understanding. From that lecture, I sought to expand my skills with the purpose of pursuing a managerial position. Week four readings were quite informative since they deliver an elucidation of the importance of fairness within the organization across the different management levels. The concept is quite familiar since it is possible to identify some employees and cases where they have been unfairly dismissed(Roberts, 2001). Similarly, it warrants the thought of why some organizations fail. For instance, although the manager may be involved in making fundamental decisions, it is important to consider the input of the workers. Managers have been granted the power and opportunity to represent the desires and wishes of the organization and the employees. Therefore, any decision that they make has implications one way or another. Although I am not surprised that accountability and responsibility are two different concepts, managers are obligated to maintain both aspects of their decision-making process to ensure that they conform to the moral and ethical requirements (Ghoshal, 2005). Similar to the idea of living well as covered in week six, I obtain the notion that practical knowledge builds value rationality that creates an upright and moral behavior. The lesson on stewardship changes my perception of the concept since it delivers a rather critical aspect regarding placing the interests of others above personal issues. Steward leaders and managers have the opportunity to change how their employees approach problems and challenges in the workplace by ensuring that they understand the broader perspective and objective of the business. I learn that trust is a critical enabler of stewardship since it reshapes the psychological orientation that managers and leaders show. The global business environments require leaders and managers who can be stewards to their employees. Stewards possess ethical and moral business ideas that applyto the interests of the stakeholders, shareholders, consumers and the workers despite the changing organization theories and structures. Although week eight was quite challenging, I was able to grasp a few points that I believe will be the driving force towards understanding shareholder value and corporate social responsibility. I believe that teamwork approach, in this case, will be the most applicable and useful method if this topic is to be understoodin a broader sense. The different opinions that group members may issue regarding the core objective of business will improve my understanding as well as enable connections to be made particularly regarding the topic. Week nine relieved the tension that had been created in the previous lesson. It led me to think more about leadership and made clear postulations on what it implies to be a leader in the contemporary and changing society (Kellerman, 2012). I now believe more than ever that leadership is static and can be taught once a person shows ahigh levelof desire and will. The lesson on the toxic triangle triggers attention to the notion that as much as leaders may have the upper hand in dealing with challenges and making decisions, it is the role of the employee to determine whether the moral nature is validated. Some people behave unethically because they blindly follow people who have no sense of moral principle and value (Palazzo, Krings and Hoffrage, 2012). I believe that every person can make sensible decisions in contextual and activity-based issues. I learn an interesting point regarding the case of Enron Company that may have failed drastically because of bad leadership that led to deviant and corrupt behavior. The final week seems to offer a remedy for morally degraded issues among leaders. I realize that managing the “self” helps in building morally upright leaders. Conclusion This course has shaped my understanding and philosophy of management, leadership, and stewardship. I believe that such factors are indicative of a fruitful and integrative organization that is based on moral and ethical drive. My beliefs and guiding principles have changed drastically since the introduction to this course as I am now able to integrate issues related to the team and organization into measurable and realizable goals. Among the action-guiding principles that I have acquired throughout this course include organization, dedication, consideration, and confidence, optimistic, sociable, and decisive. Such principles will guide my future by ensuring that I develop a plan and implementation action for any management, leadership and stewardship action that I will pursue. Dedication and confidence will instill discipline and consistency within me that will assist with following the plan and delivering based on the requirements. An optimistic approach will help in surpassing challenges while a sociable character will improve my interaction with teams. Evidently, this course has been quite illuminating. References Brockner, J., 2006. Why it’s so hard to be fair. Harvard Business Review, 84(3), pp.122-129. Christensen, C.M., and Raynor, M.E., 2003. Why hard-nosed executives should care about management theory. Harvard business review, 81(9), pp.66-75. Cunliffe, A.L., 2014. A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about management. Los Angeles: Sage. Fleming, P., 2014. Review Article: When ‘life itselfgoes to work: Reviewing shifts in organizational life through the lens of biopower. Human Relations, 67(7), pp.875-901. Follett, M.P., 2011. Business as an Integrative Unity1. Sociology of Organizations: Structures and Relationships, Sage, Thousand Oaks, Calif. Freeman, R.E., Wicks, A.C. and Parmar, B., 2004. Stakeholder theory and “the corporate objective revisited.” Organization Science, 15(3), pp.364-369. Ghoshal, S., 2005. Bad management theories are destroying good management practices. Academy of Management learning & education, 4(1), pp.75-91. Hernandez, M., 2008. Promoting stewardship behavior in organizations: A leadership model. Journal of Business Ethics, 80(1), pp.121-128. Jaques, E., 1991. In praise of hierarchy. Grahame Thompson & ea (Eds.), Markets, Hierarchies & Networks: the Coordination of Social Life, pp.108-119. Kellerman, B., 2012. The end of leadership. New York, NY: Harper Business. Nonaka, I. and Toyama, R., 2007. Strategic management as distributed practical wisdom (phronesis). Industrial and Corporate Change, 16(3), pp.371-394. Padilla, A., Hogan, R., and Kaiser, R.B., 2007. The toxic triangle: Destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(3), pp.176-194. Palazzo, G., Krings, F. and Hoffrage, U., 2012. Ethical blindness. Journal of Business Ethics, 109(3), pp.323-338. Roberts, J., 2001. Corporate governance and the ethics of Narcissus. Business Ethics Quarterly, pp.109-127. Steers, R.M., Nardon, L. & Sanchez-Runde, C.J. 2013, Management across cultures: developing global competencies (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 107-149. Read More