Management & Leadership Essay

The way the world now developed through the industrial revolution from the twentieth century has a great background with many driving factor involved. The scheme that is cost-effective and has a good impact on social welfare of society, and those living in the society, is considerably dependent on the effective and resourceful piece of organizations of all kinds, which depends on satisfactory or excellent management and leadership potential, and which can be learnt and extended, would be acknowledged by many. This is the reason different government and government agencies nationally or internationally, organization of all kinds, investing in their own development, behaves as the basis of this belief that they make considerable investment in management and leadership training, development and education. There was a report in November 2006, Yahoo manager Brad Garlinghouse issued memo that directly challenge the senior management. He accused the Yahoo’s leadership lacking strategic direction. Their competitor Google had beaten Yahoo in terms of revenue, advertisement and the share price fallen nearly a third since the start of the year. He suggested to have a change in their strategy. Off course it is very difficult to change the strategy for any organization but to survive in the competent world a change should be made when needed. It was Mr. Garlinghouse great management and leadership skill that he diagnosed the problem and gives his organization a direction to move. Apart from what he observed and analyzed, the main part is that he made a decision to apply the change. He might have adopted different style for management as well as leadership, according to the organizational structure of Yahoo, and would be aware of what impact would be coming in applying the decisions. It would have been Autocratic or Paternalistic or it might be the Democratic one but what actually he identified was the lack in the management and leadership directions. Waka International is a multinational organization making FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) all over the world and for the last few years making its way up but not with a pace with which it has to moving over with good management and leader but still the HR management asked junior researcher to compile a report on how the managers can lead their team using different styles of management and leadership and how these styles going to impact on the strategic decision, and this is what good organization do to look what changes they need or things that can be adopted like Yahoo manager Brad Galinghouse did. There is a good saying by someone that there is one thing constant and it is â€Å"change† and researchers have made efforts to put forward some suggestion what style we should adopt in different work situation within a team in Waka International to meet the challenges on different stages. Management is been described as the process of setting objectives and making most efficient use of financial, human and physical resources to achieve these objectives, in which main task include planning, organizing, controlling and coordinating. The resources may include the organizational assets which may be people, machinery, raw materials, information, skills and financial capital to measure the organizational performance i.e. how efficiently and effectively management use these resources to satisfy customers and to briefly explore or examine management and in this report will be looking on the management theories of two recent writers. First researcher tried to sketch the attempt of Peter Drucker for his work to describe and comment upon what managers do and he identifies three tasks: Satisfying the goals or mission of the organization. Enabling the worker to achieve and focus on productivity. Managing social responsibilities. He suggested in simplified manner that managers are required to set objectives; organize; motivate and communicate; measure and develop people. Secondly to mention the influential work on management of Henry Mintzberg in which he details his observations of what managers actually did. He examine that managers were not found to spend most of their time planning, organizing, coordinating, commanding and controlling and suggested ten roles managers often attempt logically in the pursuit of their objectives and divided these roles in three stages as building relationship with the employees, yielding the quality information and finally the allocation of decision making, objective and resources to the employees. On the other hand leadership can be suggested as, the part of management to drive the organization to achieve its goals by utilizing potential influence with group efforts. Leadership in the organizational role involves establishing and sharing a vision, providing information, knowledge and methods to realize that vision so others can follow willingly. If we link management and leadership we can say that leadership is an essential part of effective management, which emphasis upon the building an environment in which everyone has the opportunity to develop and excel skills. This link between management and leadership shows that managers must have traits of a leader. While learning about leadership researcher describes two types of leadership which are Direct Leadership & Indirect Leadership. Direct leadership is something about imposing orders to your followers and maybe enforcing them to accept you as a leader, where followers used to see the leader regularly face-to-face. Or it can be said that the leaders who are able to get to know those they are working with and influence them on an interpersonal basis are direct leaders. While those having thousands of followers without possessing the role of leadership is the indirect leadership. It may also be believed that the indirect leadership has to do with influencing others and making them your followers indirectly by inspiring the followers through your character, charisma etc. Leadership is not about ruling people like subjects and taking it for granted; it’s about presenting yourself as someone who people think should be followed for guidance. It’s about winning the minds and hearts of people. If we like to differentiate between management and leadership we can come up with the idea that Managers perform roles in organizations and hold a specific, formal title and fulfill a role well Leaders aim to influence and guide others into pursuing particular objectives or ideas of the future and to motivate them into wanting to follow. In Waka International the management has the best quality leadership hence the reason, management asked their junior staff for such an important part to look on it, since the organization is willing to move up and each management is leading its team in a good way, with a good pace as well, in a better management and leadership style. Leadership style is the way in which the functions of leadership are carries out, the way in which the manager typically behaves towards members of the group. Different leaders have different behavior which might produce different effects, so researchers began studies on successful leaders and began to develop different styles of leadership. Also how to become a good leader one should be aware of his leadership style. There are many theories on leadership styles; these are summarized into three dimensional theories which describe different leadership styles: The concept in this style is of leader and followers, where leaders have got all the high power, authority and control; they make the decisions in a one way communication and direct their followers with minimal participation of followers. All the planning and thinking is done by the leader and the team’s role is to follow the orders and motivation to the followers only comes from the leader’s status, charisma, expertise and power to reward and punish. An example of authoritarian styles is John F. Kennedy and one of the many things that John F. Kennedy is remembered for is his vision concerning the United States’ space program. On September 12, 1962, while speaking at Rice University, President Kennedy said: â€Å"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He then went on to talk about â€Å"metal alloys that had not yet been invented† that are â€Å"capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced.† He had a vision of sending a man to the moon and back safely. He even explained how it was going to be accomplished. John F. Kennedy was exhibiting an authoritative leadership style that mobilized the resources of an entire nation towards this single goal. When we are talking about democratic leadership, it does not refer to a leader who holds political office or background, such as senator or parliamentarian. It talks about a leadership style that exhibits democratic characteristics. This idea of leadership involves running a business on the basis on the majority of decisions i.e. leader encourage the involvement of employees to take part in decision. Many of the great organizational leaders did use this style, Bill Gates is well known for his democratic management style at Microsoft. He actively involved employees in key management and strategic decisions. He was always interacted with the employees of Microsoft and customer and devoted his time for them by staying in contact via e-mail. In the democratic leadership style, we see a balance in the decision-making process. Employees or followers are allowed to participate in the decisions – their opinion counts just as much as the leader’s. Now this might sound like the optimal way to lead but every ways got some pros and cons in it. In this type of leadership managers observes that employees are working well on their own and consciously make a decision to pass to the member to allow them freedom of action and not to interfere and is always available to help in need. The leader may also set some example but nobody has to follow it if they want to. They leader don’t try to motivate their subordinate or it can be said that motivation only comes from the fact that the individuals are free to do what they likes and no one has to waste time explaining their actions. This leadership style may work with individual people like academics and artists who need to be free on work in their own way, and don’t like teamwork, they would like to like what they want, and not ask for guidance or permission. Researchers suggested that a specific leadership style cannot be constraint to a particular situation rather any styles can be adopted at any situations. Researchers also suggested that the autocratic style may be suitable when large numbers of un-skilled employees are involved and when quick decisions are a matter of life and death and have to be made quickly. Motivation is just a name which comes out from the personality of the leader that is the reason followers struggle to please or satisfy the leaders. So this style may be adopted when there is a need of urgency in Waka International and when a particular objective is achieved a different style can be implemented, and this is what management is all about, â€Å"the change†. Since in the democratic style, employees or followers have an equal say in the decision-making process, they are more dedicated to the desired outcome. The collaborative environment created by this style often results in more comprehensive solutions to problems. If Waka International is looking for better and long term result democratic style would be a better choice as most of the renowned company focus on the democratic style so it would be valuable for long term objectives and goals. Laissez-faire type of leader may inspire or motivate people or plan ideas but do not make any efforts to ensure that the team follows it. This kind of leadership can only work with academics or artists, who don’t like team work and emphasis to work freely. So many researchers don’t suggest adopting this style of leadership and it will not be driving the organization to its objective quickly. But this style is has good result if professional and experienced followers are in the workplace. From the report it can be concluded that management and leadership are two different aspects, but on a broad vision if leadership has not become the part of the management, this may lead to disastrous result. Coping up the resources and not leading in a good direction without an effective leadership may show short-term good result but it would not demonstrate a good impact on the organizational objective or goals and without the right leadership, organizational strategies will remain as ink on paper. Getting the right leadership to implement business strategies takes careful planning and dedicated effort, and often substantial investment. Like the sports coach whose mediocre team never wins a championship, the CEO can’t hope to achieve bold new strategies without giving thought to his leadership team and leadership culture. Too many organizations have become unworried with their existing leadership programs, instead of making certain that they are linking their leadership strategies and development investments with their business strategies and taking full advantage of the learning opportunities that accompany strategic change. With learning and research it can also be concluded that the planning methods are useful in meeting the challenges of any situation and developing leadership skills. Leadership traits can be learnt and developed to meet the strategic needs. This report has the relevance for handling complex situation of the present competitive business world by utilizing leadership skills in making strategic decisions to achieve the stipulated goal. The different styles mentioned earlier can be used depending upon the organizational needs and objectives, to achieve the goals.