Leadership styles + Management styles: Convergence and differentiation

Retrieved from: http://culturewav.es/public_thought/98606

There are some differences between being a leadership and being a manager, both disciplines involve a set of characteristics that could complement each other.

Management is associated with the art of leading or conducting task inside a company or an organization as well as tasks in the normal life and this implies to follow some paths or programs in order for the manager to be effective and successful. Leadership is a process in which a person (leader) influences other to achieve goals and objectives in both an organization and in life.

So, in summary we can say that to manage is to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge of or responsibility for, to conduct and to lead is influencing, guiding in direction, course, action and opinion.

Kotter said in 1990 the differences of management and leadership in a short phrase listed below: ““Management is responsible for maintaining order; leadership is responsible for producing change or movement.”  According to the definitions I gave earlier, we can say that management is required when there are present a leadership attitude where Effective leadership produces useful

Changes and Effective management controls complexity giving as results healthy organizations.

In the leadership process there are 4 kinds of leaderships and are:

1.    Leadership (the process of guiding & directing the behavior of people in the work environment)

2.    Formal leadership (officially sanctioned leadership based on the authority of a formal position)

3.    Informal leadership (unofficial leadership accorded to a person by other members of the organization)

4.    Follower leadership (process of being guided & directed by a leader in the work environment).

In the modern organizations there are a layout of the organization such a vision, mission, values but there is a missing factor nowadays that is the purpose that is aimed to solve “why we do what we do?”

In the leadership process are an early Trait Theories of Leadership that Attempted to identify what physical attributes, personality characteristics, and abilities distinguish leaders from other members of a group as well as some evidence that leaders are more intelligent, verbal, cooperative, and have higher level of Scholarship all this by 6 theories explained below:

·         Authoritarian (Manager retains as much power & decision making authority as possible)

·         Consultative (talk to everyone involved in or affected by a task to get their views and ideas)

·         Democratic (Keeps employees informed about things that affect their work and shares decision making and problem solving responsibilities

·         Laissez-faire (It is one in which the manager provides little or no direction and gives employees as much freedom as possible)

·         Ohio State Studies

·         Michigan Studies

new leadership researches has shown that there are 3 personalities that takes place in nowadays acts, this are:

1.    Transformational Leaders (Leaders who inspire followers to transcend their self interests and achieve exceptional performance)

2.    Charismatic Leaders (A leader’s use of personal abilities and talents in order to have profound and extraordinary effects on followers)

3.    Authentic Leader (A leader who is guided by explicit values that emphasize collective interest)

Do you (or would you want to) work in an autocratic, democratic, or consultative work environment? What might be the advantages

And disadvantages of each?

Due to the company I work for, I can say I work in a consultative environment because we discuss every change or take of course we are willing to follow in order to improve the current situation of the company. There are more advantages than disadvantages because by talking with the person in charge or involved in the task, managers can get different point of views and solve the problem or implement the necessary changes.

Democratic		consultative		authoritarian
Advantages	Disavantages	Advantages	Disavantages	Advantages	Disavantages
Participative style	Some person could not participate in the process	everyone involved in the consultive process	They are not included in the decision-making process.	Manager retains as much power & decision making authority as possible	Do not consult staff, nor allowed to give any input
Keeps employees informed	Exists the possibility of corruption	Everyone is in constant communication with the consultative leader			Staff expected to obey orders without receiving any explanations
shared decision making and problem solving responsibilities

Bibliography.

·      Bennis, W. G. (1989). On becoming a leader. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

·         Brilhart, J. K., and Galanes, G. J. (1989). Effective Group Decisions.

·         Dubuque, IA: William C Brown Publishers. p. 201-203.

·         Kotter, J. P. (1990). What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review, May-June, p. 103-11.

·         Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. (2010) Organizational Behavior: Science, The Real World and You. South-Western College Publication, 7th. Ed.

·         Northouse, P. G. (2001). Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage.

·     http://www.leadership501.com/definition-of-management/21/

Decision making + Ethical behavior in international business.

RetrievedfromJanuary2011: http://coffeequill.blogspot.com/2009/12/writers-angel-and-devil-aka-giving.html

This is a very important topic inside a company because people is constantly facing decision-making situation and this situations can be divided in two branches such: programmed decisions and Non-programmed decisions.

·         Programmed decisions: A simple, routine matter for which a manager has an established decision rule.

·         Non-Programmed decisions: A new, complex decision that requires a creative solution.

There are 8 steps that lead to a successful decision making and are:

1.    Recognize the problem.

2.    Identify the objective of the decision.

3.    Gather and evaluate data and diagnose the situation.

4.    List and evaluate alternatives.

5.    Select the best course of action.

6.    Implement the decision.

7.    Gather feedback.

8.    Follow up.

And the models of the decision making are:

1.    Rational model: Describes how individuals should behave in order to optimize some outcome.

2.    Bounded rationality model: a theory that suggests that there are limits upon how rational a decision maker can actually be. It was proposed by Herbert Simon.

3.    Garbage can model: a theory that contends that decisions in

Organizations are random and unsystematic.

Decisions are taken base on the type of risk managers are willing to take, they are categorized in 2 ways:

1.    Risk aversion: the tendency to choose options that entail fewer risks and less uncertainty.

2.    Risk takers: accept greater potential for loss; tolerate greater uncertainty, more likely to make risky decisions.

When managers took a decision, there is certain probability to get into an escalation of commitment situation in which they tend to continue to

Commit resources to a failing course of action.

Participative decision making:

Decision making in which individuals who are affected by decisions influence the making of those decisions.

Groupthink: this theory by Irving Janis states that there are some deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment resulting from pressures within the group which its consequences are: Incomplete survey of alternatives, Failure to evaluate the risks of the preferred course of action, Biased information processing, failure to work out contingency plans and The overall result of groupthink is defective decision making.

Techniques for group thinking:

1.    Brainstorming.

2.    Nominal group technique.

3.    Delphi technique.

4.    Devil`s advocacy.

5.    Dialectical inquiry.

And for finish, I will define some important term of the ethics and theories.

·         Morals: the values and principles that distinguish right from wrong

·         Ethics: behavioral norms and rules. Do the right thing.

·         Social responsibility: obligation of an organization to behave in ethical way in the social environment in which it operates

Ethical Theories

·         Consequential Theory–an ethical theory that emphasizes the consequences or results of behavior.

·         Rule-based Theory–an ethical theory that emphasizes the character of the act itself rather than its effects.

·         Character Theory–an ethical theory that emphasizes the character, personal virtues, and integrity of the individual.

As a summary we can say that manager should take an ethical Behavior (Acting in ways consistent with one’s personal values and the commonly held values of the organization and society.) in order to lead the company in a right direction being respectful with all laws and policies that regulates the good living in society.

How can organizations effectively manage both risk taking and escalation of commitment in the decision-making behavior of employees?

Organizations should encourage the participative decision-making inside the company in order to motivate employees to make their job well done and make them feel there are important assets of the company, but organizations have to limit the responsibility and control employees have implementing those ideas in order to avoid the escalation of commitment due that the ultimate decisions should be made by the managers.

References:

• Mintzberg, H. & Westley, F. (2001, Spring). Decision making: It’s not what you think. MIT Sloan Management Review, 42(3), 89 –93.
• Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. (2010) OrganizationalBehavior: Science, TheReal Worldand You. South-Western CollegePublication, 7th. Ed.
• Wong, K. F. E., & Kwong, J. Y. Y. (2007). The role of anticipated regret in escalation of commitment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 545–554.



The rise of multinational corporations

The corporations are legal entities which got many of the same rights of normal citizenships. 150 year later, corporation were insignificant entities that trough years have become more and more relevant in our daily world an nowadays is the dominant institution of the present. The documentary of Michael Moore called “the corporation” analyzes the nature, evolution, impact and the possible future of the modern business corporation.

Today, there are several terms that are related to the form of operation of the corporations such Capitalism, Legal institution, Externalities and Limited liability. I will explain them based on the topics of the corporations.

1.    Capitalism: is a social system based on the principle of individual rights. The term capitalism is used here in the broader philosophical political sense, and not in the narrower economic sense.

2.    Legal institution: refers to a entity that got rights and trusts under the legal policies of a country, the term trust, as the documentary shows lead to an antitrust era. Antitrust are those set of laws which alleged protection of competition in order to avoid monopolies.

3.    Externalities: refers to facts outside the company that affects the normal operations of the corporations, I mean, incidents that change the course of actions. In the documentary Barry Commoner said: “‘Our economic system treats environmental degradation as an externality—a cost that does not enter into the conventional arithmetic that determines how we use our resources’. Meaning that corporations doesn`t take into account the costs to external factor inside their operational costs.

4.     Limited liability: liability is a term that means the legal responsibility and debts a company gets during the course of operations. Limited liability is that corporations only respond for certain amount of debts that arise for the operations in order to protect the shareholders.

One of the criticisms in the movie is “without externalities, no manufacturing industry is sustainable”. Do you agree? What could be done in this phenomenon?

I`m very agree with this statement, because according to the sustainable development model supported by the United Nations, we should think in exploiting our resources in order to fulfill the current needs of the society while preserving the environment to meet the future need for generations to come. This is very important to achieve because if companies spend all the resources nowadays, in the future would be a scarcity and companies are willing to finish their operations.

In this phenomenon what we should do is to teach all the new generations to protect and preserve the scarce resources there are in the world in order to guarantee enough raw materials and maintain the environment.

References:

• "YouTube - the Corporation Trailer." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. February 26/2011 http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the corporation trailer&aq=f.
• capitalism. (s.f.). Recuperado el 26 de 02 de 2011, de capitalism.org: http://www.capitalism.org/
  
  

Motivation.

Source: http://georgiatechdopp.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/buzzword-motivation/

The word motivation means according the Business dictionary internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested in and committed to a job, role or a subject, and to exert persistent efforts in attaining a goal.

There are 3 motivation theories and are listed and explained below:

1.    Internal theories: give primary consideration to variables within the individual that give rise to motivation and behavior.

2.    Process theories: emphasize the nature of the interaction between the individual and the environment.

3.    External theories: focus on the elements in the environment.

Inside this topic of motivation there are other important terms that influence and lead to motivation acts like needs that are states or conditions within an individual that generates movement toward some outcome or reward and it`s related with motivation based on this two aspects:

1.    Intrinsic motivation: internal needs.

2.    Extrinsic motivation: external incentives.

Also, we can find many theories about the motivation needs and are explained briefly as follow:

1.    Theory X (Lower order needs): Physiological and safety Set of assumptions on how to manage individuals who are motivated by lower order needs.

2.    Theory Y (Higher order needs): Social, esteem and self-actualization,

Set of assumptions on how to manage individuals who are motivated by higher order needs.

3.    ERG theory (Clayton Alderfer): Workers pursue multiple needs simultaneously

Source: http://mkhanpmp.blogspot.com/2009_10_04_archive.html

4.    Regression hypothesis: When frustration is experienced at meeting needs, individuals return to the next lower level and intensify their desire to satisfy those needs.

5.    McClelland’s needs theory: David McClelland proposed that and individual`s specific needs are acquired over time and are shaped by one`s life experiences, most of these needs can be classified as either: achievement, affiliation or power.

6.    Two-factor theory: it was proposed by Frederick Herzberg and says that there are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction. One of the Motivation factors could be psychological growth and of Hygiene factor could be avoidance of pain.

7.    My two cents worth: You as an employee or as a manager have the RIGHT to be dissatisfied about your work conditions but also you have the RESPONSIBILITY to communicate your dissatisfaction and work to help improve the conditions and continuously improve the work conditions within your control.

8.    Stacy Adam’s theory of inequity: People are motivated when they see themselves in risk, or in a position they believe is unfair, also the tension motivates a person to act.

In multicultural organizational contexts what could be a good strategy to keep people motivated towards a common task?

Here in Colombia a good strategy (I think) is to give monetary and recognition incentives apart of the minimum wage in order to encourage the motivation of people toward a common task, obviously this isn`t the only policy a company should implement because in this way people only work not thinking in the main purpose of the task but thinking in the incentive, companies should create good environment inside within employees in order to create an ownership feeling and for them to work efficiently and happiness.

References:

• Nelson, Debra L. and Quick, James Campbell. 2010. OrganisationalBehavior –Science, the Real World, and You. South-Western CengageLearning, Mason, USA. Chapter5.
• Viorel, Lefter, ManolescuAurel, Marinas CristianVirgil, and PuiaRamona Stefania. 2009. "Employees Motivation Theories Developed at an International Level".
• Business Dictionary (2010). Definition of motivation. Retrieved on January the 5