Impact Of Autocratic Leadership Management Essay

Shop Right is a successful home improvement store based in Portsmouth, UK. SR has been in operation for forty years, and has shown the ability to adapt to changing conditions. Within the past ten (10) years SR has developed a cautious and successful expansion programme. Their focus is on providing the customer with a competent service in terms of shopping experience, advice, and product reliability. These core values have lead to an organization that aims to provide customer with the products as well as the knowledge to carry out improvements in their home with confidence. They also provide telephone advice for customers to call if they have questions about either the products or how to use them.

Impact of “autocratic” leadership on motivation and performance

Autocratic leadership otherwise known as a authoritarian leadership, is a leadership style deem by individuals as control over all decisions and little input from group tem members. Autocratic leaders are generally persons who make choices based on their own in sting and judgments thus rarely accept advice or ideas from others. Autocratic leadership involves absolute, authoritarian control over a group.

Autocratic leadership can be beneficial in some instances, such as when decisions need to be made quickly without consulting with a large group of people. Some projects require strong leadership in order to get things accomplished quickly and efficiently.

Thou beneficial at times, there are also many instances where autocratic leadership style can be problematic. People who abuse or frequently adopt an autocratic leadership style are often term as bossy, controlling and dictatorial, which can lead to resentment and conflicts among team members. Because autocratic leaders make decisions without consulting the group, people in the group may dislike that they are unable to contribute ideas. Over the years researchers have found that autocratic leadership leads to a lack of creative solutions to problems, which can ultimately hurt the performance of the group.

In an organization where management is deem as bossy or controlling and employees have absolutely no say or input which by extension provides little or no room for motivation. Motivation is complex influenced by perceptions and strengthened by multiple factors. Individuals are also motivated by different things at different times. An overly controlling style de-motivates and results in poor delivery. Therefore for any individual or group to perform at their best such a person or group has to be motivated in some way. According to (Frederick Herzberg’s Hygiene Motivator Theory), “motivators are tie to the job itself”. Thus, if staff members are motivated then they will produce more and customers will in turn be pleased. On the other hand if employees get the feel that they are respected and have a say in decision making they will more valuable to the company they work for, thereby motivated to go above and beyond.

Flexible Workforce

In the model of the “flexible firm “Atkinson propounded the concept of “core” versus “peripheral” workers. Core workers are a permanent component of a firm’s workforce who delivers functional flexibility through their capacity to undertake a wide range of tasks. The flexible firm approach involves a reorganization of a firm’ internal labour markets and their division into separate components, wherein workers’ experiences and employer’s expectations are increasingly differentiated.

According to Bryson (1999) while concepts such as the flexible firm can be useful in shedding light on changes in the nature of work and work organization, they may be less useful in explaining the issues facing managers in organizations regarding how best to manage and utilize labour to achieve organizational objectives.

Three (3) flexible resource choices according to Atkinson (1984) model of the flexible firm are job sharing, short term contracts and part time.

In relation to job sharing, it is important to recognize that there is a significantly higher take up and availability of such arrangements in the public service, compared to the commercial sector. According to Fynes et al only an estimated 5% of private sector companies offer job-sharing. Interestingly

According to surveys private sector employers were more likely than public sector employers to see or experience any advantages as it relates to job sharing. To conclude such is likely to be a reflection of the longer and greater experience within the public sector of job sharing. It is said that within the public service, jobsharers are predominantly female, concentrated in the lower grades and are usually at a particular phase in their working/family lives. Those who opt to job sharing usually do so due to the following:

To pursue other interest

Educational reasons

To combine work and other responsibility

Problems with children

Part-time working is an increased feature of many advanced economies, which in turn reflects the increased participation by women in the labour market. In the context of family friendly policies, it has been argued that from an equal opportunities point of view, the primary advantage of part-time working is that it facilitates the combination of paid and unpaid work (Plantegna, 1995). At the same time, part-time working also presents disadvantages, for example in reinforcing the unequal distribution of unpaid work between men and women, since in most advanced economies, the majority of part-time workers are women. Additionally, other concerns regarding part-time working have been raised, including the comparatively weaker legal status and quality of work of many part-time positions (Plantegna, 1995).

Part-time working is more significant in the private sector than in the public service. In recognition of this growing trend, legislation was enacted in 1994 to afford part-time workers the same degree of protection as full-time workers, for example in relation to unfair dismissals. Even so, concerns have been expressed at trade union level regarding the exploitation and discrimination that are often associated with atypical working practices such as part-time working. Findings suggest that the introduction of part-time forms of work in the private sector is often driven by increased demand by potential employees for part-time work. Reductions in labour market supply within the economic climate make it less possible for employers to dictate the hours of work available. Ultimately, flexibility in hours of work or arrangements relating to part time work must support business requirements.

A short term contract is a legal document so to speak, it means an employer can set you on as an employee, for a short term of say a week, or longer term up to say eleven months, it depends on the duration of time you are required, you may be covering for people who are on holiday, or a person on maternity leave.

It really means that you are being employed by a company on contract rather than giving you a full time permanent job.

Absenteeism

Absenteeism is a habitual pattern of absence from a duty or obligation. Traditionally, absenteeism has been viewed as an indicator of poor individual performance, as well as a breach of an implicit contract between employee and employer. For most companies, the responsibility for managing absenteeism has fallen primarily on immediate supervisors. These supervisors are often the only people who are aware that a certain employee is absent. They are in the best position to understand the circumstances surrounding an individual’s absence and to notice a problem at an early stage. Therefore, their active involvement in the company’s absence procedures is pivotal to the overall effectiveness and future success of an absence policy or program.

Five recommendations:

Implement disciplinary procedures to deal with employees who are caught in this practice, which could include subtracting money for time absent from work.

Maintain appropriately detailed, accurate, and up-to-date absence records for their staff, (e.g., date, nature of illness/reason for absence, expected return to work date, doctor’s certification if necessary).

Ensure that all employees are fully aware of the organization’s policies and procedures for dealing with absence.

Motivated and help employees overcome obstacles to make it to work.

Conduct return-to-work interviews.

Reduce Formal Employee Training

Employee Training and Development is essential to the ongoing success of every organization. Employee training and development enables employees to develop skills and competencies necessary to enhance bottom-line results for their organization. Employee Training and Development is a key ingredient in performance improvement. However, the first step in designing an employee training and development program is to identify the training needs. The training needs are based on what is needed to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives.

While there might be gaps between what employees need to know versus what they actually know, four informal development approaches that management at Shop Right could consider are:

Training should be an ongoing process starting with induction, continuing through probation, and then beyond, into the constantly monitoring of the need for improvement.

Managers should be constantly looking to identify any gaps in performance, and closing those gaps. A key element in a manager’s remit is enabling staff to do their job well.

Formal training courses are often seen as the solution and they have their part to play. They would certainly be of value for professional and technical training, particularly where formal qualifications are required.

Coaching is where training is carried out on a one-to-one basis. It is sometimes referred to as ‘on-the-job’ training. Once the need has been established (see above) a plan needs to be put in place. The manager needs to think about how best to carry out the training, as well as setting aside the necessary time for it to take place.

Concerns

Both employees and union are concern that the proposed changes may negatively influence the organization. It is however, important to note that Human Resource Management (HRM) policies and practices do affect performance within an organization. These include:

Human Resource Management relationships motivating employees to act towards achievement of organizational objectives.

Human Resource Management policies foster innovation in the organization.

Human Resource practices help to providing right kind of working environment to employees that promotes higher efficiency and satisfaction among employees.

With Human Resource policies and practices improves leadership effectiveness in the organization.

Human Resource Development (HRD), is the frame work for helping employees develop their personal and organizational skills, knowledge, and abilities. Human Resource Development includes such opportunities as employee training, employee career development, performance management and development, coaching, mentoring, succession planning, key employee identification, tuition assistance, and organization development.

The key factors that are central to thereby linking Human Resource Management to Performance are as follows:

Conclusion and Recommendation

 Most people tend to resent being treated a certain way. Because of this, autocratic leadership usually leads to high levels of absenteeism and staff turnover. Also, the team’s output does not benefit from the creativity and experience of all team members, so many of the benefits of teamwork are lost. Formal Training enhances success within the work place.

Ultimately, human resource development is a series of activities which an organization performs to ensure that its members are adequately empowered through formal and informal training and development initiatives.  Human Resources Development can be in-room group training, tertiary or vocational courses or mentoring and coaching by senior employees with the aim for a desired outcome that will develop the individual’s performance. 

Usually, is not the individual workers alone that need development. Organizations also undergo structured development in order to attain its mission. This is why human resources development (HRD) is inseparable with organizational development.

Recommendations:

To be successful, HRD practitioners must understand global trends and the issues that matter most to their stakeholders.

The focus of all aspects of Human Resource Development should be about developing the most superior workforce so that the organization and individual employees can accomplish their work goals in service to customers.

Motivation should be considered a key tool for Human Resource.