Implications On Leadership And Management Essay Example
Implications On Leadership And Management Essay Example

Implications On Leadership And Management Essay Example

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  • Pages: 4 (1073 words)
  • Published: September 12, 2018
  • Type: Case Study
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The problem in Will Taylor’s leadership style is that this does not fit the needs and objectives of business operations, particularly sleeping bag production, which is Will’s supervisory assignment.

Will applies authoritarian leadership since he imposes his standards on the quality of the sleeping bags and the manner of making sleeping bags (Hitt et al. 2007) leaving no room for interaction or participation from the workers under him. Will has a record of excellent performance with twelve years of experience in production (Hitt et al.2007) so that he targets the achievement of the other workers of the same level of quality as his work by imposing his way of doing things.This leadership style could work in some business firms but not in this case. First, the other workers are also highly trained and well experienced.

An authoritarian leadership works best in organisations where th

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ere the leader is the most experienced and the followers rely on this expertise for decisions. In this case, even while Will is well experienced, so are the other employees, which mean that they meet quality standards.Moreover, the employees under Will have likely developed strategies or techniques in meeting the quality standards of the company while at the same time meeting their quotas since their performance prior to the assignment of Will, as supervisor, was already excellent. Second, although the employees assigned to the production of sleeping bags have to meet quotas, there was no indication that there is a contingency requiring the unitary decision of the leader for immediate implementation by the employees.Authoritative leadership works in contingencies requiring immediate decision-making and implementation but in this case, there were no interruptions, errors, delays, complaints

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or other problems that could justify Will’s imposition of his way of making sleeping bags. In fact, Will was rejecting finished sleeping bags that meet quality standards of the company just because it was made another way.

By applying authoritative leadership in a firm, that did not need this style of leadership, Will became an ineffective leader.As a leader, Will’s role was to influence the employees under him to meet high quality standards or perfection and make new records for best production as he was able to do. This requires two things, one is the imposition of the level of quality standard set-up by the company and the other is room for the employees to innovate on best production strategies to make new records. Will failed because he was able to achieve the first requirement but stifled the fulfilment of the second requirement.Will was able to comply with his management role of enforcing organisation and control but even so, he failed because of ineffective leadership by applying a leadership style that did not match the contemporary management roles developed in the firm and meet the needs and objectives of the firm that affected his effectiveness as a manager. Scott Davis may have also failed in his management decision to delegate Will Taylor as the supervisor.

While it is true that Will has set the best production record of the company so far, this does not necessarily mean that Will’s leadership style meets the requirements of production.It is possible that Scott considered the traditional management roles of organisation and control in selecting Will as the manager since Will exercised these traits in his work and successfully created a

best record without recognising that the style of leadership is also important in effective management. 3. 3 Solution to the Leadership Dilemma The solution to the complaints of the employees under Will is to change his leadership style.

This is so because it is clear that authoritative leadership cannot support the production goals of the company.The appropriate style of leadership could be combination of democratic and delegative leadership. Democratic leadership works in decision-making processes involving the group since the leader is able to influence the employees through discussions with the leader having the last say, especially in case of conflict. Will and the employees can have a insightful discussion because they are all highly trained and experienced so each can contribute to the decision- making process.Implementation also becomes easier since the employees have reached a consensus about this and they know exactly what is expected of them in implementation. Participation also boosts the belongingness of the employees much like belonging to an in-group that develops in them a sense of recognition of their value and contribution to the firm.

This then translates to job satisfaction and commitment. In the area of innovating on best practices, delegative leadership best applies since this provides the employees with the widest room for innovation.By combining these styles, there remains a stable leadership structure but there is also a wide allowance for innovation and creativity. As such, after the meeting with the employees, Scott Davis has to assume a leadership role because he needs to inform, constructively, Will about the complaints in order to influence a change in leadership style as part of human resource management.

This is difficult to do since Will

is an excellent and expert employee and he obviously takes pride in his way of doing things.However, through participative leadership, Will can even end up suggesting the change in leadership style. Participative leadership enables Scott to make Will to become part of the in-group to prevent any feelings of antagonism that could lead to resistance to change.

CONCLUSIONS

In theory, the different leadership styles influence, in part, management roles and effective management with authoritative leadership closely fitting the tradition management roles of organisation and control and participative and delegative leadership more aligned with the expanded or contemporary management roles.

In practice, one or the other leadership styles do not lead to effective management per se because of the need to consider the fit between leadership style and management role in the specific context of the firm.

REFERENCE

  1. LISTBorgelt, K & Falk, I 2007, ‘The leadership/management conundrum: Innovation or risk management? ’, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 24, no. 5, pp.
  2. 122-136. Caldwell, R 2003, ‘Change leaders and change managers: Different or complementary?, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 285-293.
  3. Davidson, P, Simon, A, Gottschalk, L, Hunt, J, Wood, G & & Griffin, RW 2006, Management: Core concepts and skills, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, Qld. Eagly, AH, Johannesen-Schmidt, MC & van Engen, ML 2003, ‘Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: A meta-analysis comparing women and men’, Psychological Bulletin, vol. 129, no. 4, pp. 569–591.
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