Leadership Styles And Their Role As A Strategic Manager Business Essay

INTRODUCTION:-

This study is based on leadership styles and their role as a strategic manager and impact of these leadership styles on the overall performance of the organization.

Through this study, we will also come to know that how different kinds of leadership style are adopted by strategic managers to attain their organizational goals and prospective.

LINK BETWEEN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP:-

Leaders are the persons who actually made strategies for the company. They set objective, goals and future prospectus of the company. They are dealing as a strategic manager and leader at the same time. In other words they are the major stakeholders due to heavy investment in business. After making strategies, leaders forward their decision to their subordinate team members and they make strategies how to achieve those goals.

LITERATURE REVIEW:-

“a leader is someone who exercises influence over other people.” (Huczynski and Buchanan,1933)

“Leadership is a lifting of people’ vision to a higher sight, the raising of their performance toa higher standard, the building of their personality beyond its normal limitations (P.F.Drucker,2001)”

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“the leader must have infective optimism. The final test of a leader is the feeling you have when you leave presence after a conference. Have you a feeling of uplift and confidence?” (Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, 1956)

In 1986 Peters and Austin highlighted the characteristics of leaders and also compared it with managers (Non-Leaders).

LEADERS

MANAGERS

Provide necessities to people

Provide consultancy/solutions to everyone.

Flexible to adjust among people

Don’t put their selves into formalities

Provide solution at doorstep

Work more than others

Keep in contact with everyone

Listen everyone

Easily access by common people

Fair dealing with all

Make good decisions

Don’t make any discrimination

Happy to deal with tough problems of people

Persistent to outcome

Provide simplify directions

Tolerance in attitude

Make close relations with people

Strong faith

He trusts people

Ambassador of people for critical issues

Don’t waste time on unproductive works

Don’t like to praise himself by others

Takes blame for any mistake

Happy to give credit/reward to others

Provide effective feedback to improve efficiency

Good command on business and getting work by employees

Don’t get into formal discussion

Happy to work under pressure

One face person

Open minded

Try to reduce paperwork environment

Encourage own staff to be promoted

Make promises and honour these

Don’t have luxury office

Priority is company’s success

Don’t shy to learn from mistakes

Supervise more people

Give instructions to employees about work

Don’t happy to live among people

Put himself into formalities

Staff cannot access him easily

Work less than others

Don’t like to get involve with inferior groups

Good communication skills

Biased among employees

Seek support by groups

Overconfident

Good command to dodge people

Hesitate to take decisions

Mostly confused

Having less patience

Does not create close relations with people

More flexible for seniors

Create paper environment

Holds decisions and information

Waste time on un-related works and sources

Prominent

Keen to find culprits

Always find ways to take credit

Always search information

Biased while assigning work

Hatred to all staff members

Evaluate business for his/her benefit only

Try to find out new ways to handle employees

Write lengthy formal letters

equivocates

hold tactics to handle situation

have mysterious life style

involve more paperwork

find better alternatives in other organizations

lack of making promising

seeking for luxury office

give priority to him/her self

scare to find and learn from mistakes

Leadership and management are key players of an organization. Both play a tremendous role in the progression of the company. The below are some key features of leadership and management working together to achieve strategic objectives.

Vision & Strategy:-

Leaders define vision and make strategy for future goals and prospective. But on the hand, it is the responsibility of manager to make strategy to attain vision set by leaders. He has to look after all the operational activities of the organization and make staff more productive and efficient.

Change and stability:-

Whenever leaders feel, they bring changes in organizations and managers arrange stability in changing environment of organization and make tasks more smooth and optimistic.

Energizing and monitoring:-

Leadership boost up employees to improve their performance and the manager keep an eye on employee’s performance and utilize human resources in best possible way.

To be a successful company, it involves managers and leaders at the same time. But manager should be leader and leaders don’t have to inevitably be manager.

National council for education in Management & leadership published a research project under the title of leadership development: best practice guide for organizations (2001). in this publication, they highlighted nine principles of best practices under three heading.

STRATEGIC IMPERATIVES:-

Leadership development, to be effective, must be driven from the top with specialist support. It should be designed to support and drive the business, cultural differences and different approaches to development.

STRATEGIC CHOICES:-

An articulated framework for career development.

Variable amounts of formal and informal development.

‘Grow your own’ senior people or hire them in.

The value of competency frameworks and performance management.

Retention and reward strategies.

EVALUATION:-

An explicit and shared evaluation process:-

Now a days, organization we find different people withholding different kind of powers. They perform their duties but they act of behalf of leaders of the company.

They use power to be more productive and result oriented. There are five kind of powers we find in most of the organisation.

Legitimate power:-

The person who holds this kind of power is because of his/her position in organization.

Coercive power:-

This type of power mostly production managers hold because they use it to control people and produce result according to set schedule.

Reward power:-

Leader has the ability to give benefits and rewards to result oriented employees.

Expert power:-

These people enjoy power because of their skills, expertise and knowledge. They also treated in organization as benchmark.

Referent power:-

There are some people who have desirable resources and qualities.

ANALYSE THE IMPACT OF MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP STYLES ON STRATEGIC DECISIONS SABRI GROUP OF COMPANIES

Sabri group of companies was established in 1960 and now it has largest distribution networks in signage media all over Pakistan.

It is one of the most diversified businesses in Pakistan. This is also the first company in Pakistan who fixed manufacturing flex substrate plant.

Organizational chart

http://sabrigroup.pk/

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGERIAL STYLE IN SGC:-

It is very settled organizational structure. Although it is a family business and the most eldest person is assumed to be the main decision maker of the organization especially when heavy amount of funds are required.

If we analyse the structure of Sabri Group of Companies (SGC), then we realized that it fits in one of the structural form of Henry Mintzberg which is ‘Simple Structure’. Small companies operate like this structure and SGC is one of them. Owner his self makes most of the main decisions but he also gets consent of his team managers. By having this simple structure, management can respond quickly to any problem.

Although it is not very big organization but it has established its decision making structure. Their decision making structure is involved the following principles;

Extent of control

Centralization

Dissect ion of labour

Departmentalization

By having extent of control, the total number of people will be determined according to the size of the work so they can be effectively managed. All subordinates have been assigned their tasks and they perform their daily tasks according to given format. This activity leads to little interaction between employees and supervisor and supervisor can supervise more employees in same time.

All the staff members have been assigned their tasks and jobs very clearly and they perform their work more effectively and well organized way.

As management needed, it assigned some departmentalization tasks and people having same kind of skills in one department work together. They also share their experiences and learn from others.

TASK 2

A VISION OF LEADERSHIP TEAM WORK

AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP:-

Management observed that market is going to very diversified and versatile then it decided to go for diversification. It took very bold decision and decided to launch new brands and it also rebranded all its existing products. By analysing future growth, company took this step and company put pressure to team members to product positive results.

THE PERSUASIVE:-

As company has taken the decision at its own; now it felt that it has to motivate its team members to produce good results. It put a lot of efforts to share its vision and future prospective with employees. Without having a clear picture of company’s objectives, team members cannot produce as per desired level.

THE CONSULTATIVE:-

Although leader has to authority to take final decision. But it seems to be looking better to get consent from other team members. By this exercise, the morale of the whole team gets high and everyone feels proud to be a part of new strategic decision. These activities also result in to develop nurturing self-esteem, developing mutual trust, inviting participating.

DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP:-

This organization’s leadership strategies are very much close to democratic leadership. While launching new or revise existing policies or deciding to go for diversification, it discusses with its group/ team members and get their consent. All the team members play a very vital role to attain the future prospective of the company because all know the importance and worth of these prospective. Through this company can’t only come out with effective decision and policies but also it know the implementation of the decision? All members have already taken precautions and threats to attain this target. All the group members become very much enthusiastic and perform in positive ways. Everyone feels that his act is very important to company that’s why his sense of responsibility increases and perform for the betterment of the company.

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP:-

According to situation and importance of the task, leaders appointed other persons as a leader for a specific task. By doing this, not only they handle situation with very positive way but also they set examples for other that they can also lead other people if they have the ability to do so.

MIAN MUHAMMAD MANSHA YAHA FROM PAKISTAN

He has established 40 companies. He owns the Muslim Commercial Bank is also setting up a $ 17m paper mill. He is one of the richest Pakistanis around.

NISHAT GROUP

It is a group which established and developed by Mian Mansha. Nishat group is a leading organization which is serving in Textiles, Cement and Financial Services. It has assets of over Rs.300 billion (US$ 5 billion), it is also one of the top five leading companies of Pakistan. It has the privilege to be largest and trend setter player in each sector stated above.

Common goal:-

Nishat group has established group of people who work for them. They clearly shared their vision and goals with team members. They prepared them so well to accomplish task collectively.

Broad knowledge and prospective:-

All team members of this company are very skilled persons. They use their skills to make task easier and also share ideas for future tasks. All persons are very supportive to each other.

Improved return on change investment:-

They are very innovative persons and in true sense they are the key players for implementing strategies. They always in search of finding ways and means to make positive change in organization. They also seek ways to reduce company’s investment and use current resources in better ways.

Better use of facts and data:-

Team members effectively use available facts and data in very efficient manners and make realistic policies. They try to reduce hypothecation environment. They use data as reference and make future strategies accordingly.

Faster response to challenge and opportunities:-

They are very flexible to modify themselves according to situation. They are happier to face new challenges and enjoy opportunities. In their opinion it is a way to enhance and utilize our interpersonal skills. Not only they work for productivity of company but also at the same time they grow themselves.

Bring solution:-

They are the actual representatives of leaders. They always bring solutions rather than contacting leaders and seeking for solution. It is their duty to handle situation without wastage of time. The progress of company is very much dependant on their turns.

Behavioural approach:-

The leadership of this company is very much close to behavioural approach because most of the decisions are based on real time situations and leaders are keen to solve problems by interacting others. Leadership is also interested to understand other people behaviour and convert it for productive purpose. It may be related to interpersonal skills by directing and providing them proper training. Leaders proof themselves as roll model and motivate employees to be like them.

Management grid:-

Task orientation:-

Management is very much concerned about its tasks completion and productivity. They have zero tolerance in this regard.

People orientation:-

This organization knows the importance of teams’ members and it tries to establish very good relation with its co-workers / managers. Sometimes it get involved with its staff members by creating emotional environment and giving them thought that they are the main key players for the organization and people work as its their own company.

This organization is the mix of different kind of leadership styles. Top management changes its leadership style according to the need of the company.

KEY TASKS OF CORPORATE LEADERS:-

Sharing vision and objectives:-

Mian Mansha has developed a team who works according to his vision and action plan. Although his prospective is very broad but he shared and explained it with his team members to make it more effective and realistic.

Determining and overseeing the courses of action:-

He does no let people free to do all the tasks at their own. He also evaluate all the tasks and give opinion on them. He also help subordinates to make their action plan more effective and efficient.

Leading a continuous organization process:-

Being the leader of the organization, he gets involve themselves in all the processes of the organization. He is a keen researcher to dig out methods to improve procedures.

Promote and Manage valuable knowledge:-

He is very much concern about managing employees. He encourages and promotes efficient employees. He has made retention policies for productive employees.

Achieving a quality of life in the organisation:-

He tries to develop quality culture in his organization. He believes that quality culture leads to produce quality employees. Although it is not easy to establish quality environment within organization but he still treat it at priority.

Partridge observed (1989, p205) that

“Managerial work across all levels… is characterised by pace, brevity, variety, and fragmentation…it is hectic and fragmented, requiring the ability to shift continuously from relationship to relationship, from topic to topic, from problem to problem.”

THE FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT:-

Every management has 5 main functions to establish. If he/she successfully develop these areas then they are on right track towards their goals.

Planning

Organising

Commanding

Co-ordinating

Controlling

MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES (MBO):-

This idea developed by Peter Drucker (1940s and 1950s) and he stated this in his book “the practice of management (1955)”.

Setting objective for the organisation

Organizing the work

Motivating the employee

Job measurement

Developing people

Set out their clean objectives

Make plans to enable objectives

Implement those plans

Monitor and evaluate

WHY DO LEADERS ADOPT DIFFERENT STYLES?

In 1976, F.Fielder argued that

“it is easier to change someone’s role or power, or to modify the job he has to do, than to change his leadership style.”

P. Hersey and K.H. Blanchard argued that

“A leader’s strategy should not only take account of the situation, but also thee maturity of those who are led.”

The leaders have TASK BEHAVIOUR OR RELATIIONSHIP BEHAVIOUR. On the following grounds, leaders decided that which leadership sytle they have to use.

Delegating

Participating

Selling

Telling

Wright and Taylor in 1984, developed a checklist to help leaders to improve employee performance.

What is the problem?

It is the responsibility of leaders to take necessary action to find out the problem. It should be considered the know the background of problems then get some solution.

Is it serious enough to spend time on?

Management evaluate problems then take actions accordingly. If management find out to solve this problem is useful for company and it is not wastage of time then they treat it as most important task and solve it as early as possible. Because employee performance is directly related to production.

What reasons may there be for the problem? How can it be solved?

They also highlighted some alternatives for the problems solving and implement one best to fit it.

Evaluating of the leader’s performance:-

There is also a need to evaluate leader’s performance. Because they also have to assess their selves with the passage of time. They develop strategies to grow and establish themselves. They are the persons who create directions for whole organization.

Emotional intelligence:-

Companies conduct 360 degree of employees before sending him/her on any training. As companies know their employees better ways then they motivate their values, and goals. Their goals should be settled in encouraging environment and there should be supportive policies to attain personal goals and objectives. There is also a need to provide models to employees to enhance their interpersonal skills and increase morale.

According to Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence is

“The capacity or recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.”

“The ability to perceive, to integrate, to understand and reflectively manage one’s own and other people’s feelings.” (John D.Mayer, quoted in people Management (28 october 1999):49)

BOOKS REFERENCE

Business studies as level, third edition, by Dave Hall, Rob Jones, Carlo Raffo, edited by Lan Chambers and Dave Gray 2004,2005

Build your own rainbow, by Barrie Hopson and Mike Scally,3rd edition, 1984

Business studies now for GCSE, second edition, by Karen Borrington and Peter Stimpson, 2002

Cultivate a cool career, by Ken Langdon, 2004

Business the ultimate resource, A Bloomsbury reference book, created from the Bloomsbury business database, 2002

Business studies, by Peter Stimpson, 2002

Introduction to management by Tony Dawson, 1998

Learning and development, by Rosemary Harrison, fourth edition, 2005

Leadership coaching by Graham lee, 2003

Managing for results, 2nd edition by Gillian Watson and Kevin Gallagher, 2005

Managing your time by Julie-Ann Amos, 1998

Management skills by Patricia Buhler, 2001

Management by Stephen P. Robbins & Mary Coulter, 7th edition, 2001

Management and organisational behaviour by Laurie J Mullins, sixth edition, 2002

Management development strategies and action by Alan Mumford and Jeff Gold, 4th edition, 2004

Modern business administration by Robert C Appleby, 6th edition, 1994

Managing activities by Tina Stephens and Richard Pettinger, 2005

Operations and quality management by hodder and Stoughton, 1999

Putting the one minute manager to work by Kenneth Blanchard & Robert Lorber, 1994

Personal effectiveness, by Diana Winstanley, 2005

Time management by Polly Bird, 2008

Time management and personal development by John Adair and Melanie Allen, 1999

The six sigma leader, by Peter S.Pande, 2007

ONLINE REFERENCES

http://www.nishatpak.com/history-and-development.html (24-03-2011,16:41)

http://www.buzzvines.com/pakistans-super-rich-people (24-03-2011,16:39)

http://sabrigroup.pk/(24-03-2011:15:47) http://worldwork.biz/legacy/www/downloads/Personal_Development_Plan.pdf (08-03-2011:13:01) https://online.businesslink.gov.uk/Horizontal_Services_files/PDPSample.pdf (08-03-2011, 13:00)

http://www.diycommitteeguide.org/article/monitoring-and-evaluation (26-03-2011; 11:48)

http://www.umanitoba.ca/student/u1/lac/media/Learning-Styles-06.pdf (26-03-2011; 13:26)