ETHICAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LEADERS AND THEIR TEAMS

ETHICAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LEADERS AND THEIR TEAMS

The purpose of this blog is to assess and understand the role of ethical relationship between leaders and their teams.  Ethics is a philosophical term that originated from the Greek work “ethos” which means custom or character. (Minkes, 2009).

Ethical leadership is defined as a leadership that respects the dignity and rights of others. Since leaders are always in a position of power, ethical leadership focuses on how they make use of their power in the decisions they make, the actions they engage in and ways they influence others. (Trevino et al, 2003).

Brown defined ethical leadership as “the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement and decision-making” (Brown et al., 2005 p. 120). In analysing this definition constituently, the first cog “demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationship” proposes that the people who are distinguished as ethic leaders portray conducts that their followers believe to be normatively appropriate. (E.g. integrity, Honesty and trustworthiness, love, care, fairness, encouraging initiatives et al) making the leader a legitimate and credible role model. The next part of the definition, “promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication” suggests that ethical leaders not only draw attention to ethics and make it relevant in an organisation by strictly following it and ensuring their teams follow it, they also ensure the voice of their followers and this is classified as an interpersonally just process. The reinforcement component of the definition means that ethical leaders set ethical standards, reward ethical conduct and discipline those who don’t follow the standards and this contributes to the performance of an organisation. The final component of the definition related to “decision-making” reflects that ethical leaders consider the ethical consequences of their decisions, and make principled and fair choices that can be observed and imitated by others. Ethical leaders play vital roles in the global business context. They lead the process of creation of value for organisations as well as their constituents (employees and stakeholders) and they empower their ethics and values in the teams they lead so they can do things in the right manner. According to Freeman and Stewart, ethical leaders don’t only have good character and values: they help the people they lead to realise their hopes and dreams, construct value for stakeholders, and perform these tasks with the intensity and importance that “ethics” represents. (2006).

The ethical behaviours displayed by leaders have positive impacts on both individuals in teams and organisation efficiency. It can be seen that a leader with ethics foster and nourishes positive relationships in teams and this also provides benefits at the individual and organisation levels. At the individual level, an ethical leadership-oriented environment helps an individual as he or she goes to work everyday and engages in activities that can span from a spectrum of rewarding and fulfilling to disempowering and devastating. At the team level, ethical leadership empowers ethical relationship in teams which enables team members to be supportive in their work and relationship to each other. Supportive relationship in teams enhances improved performance and effectiveness in the team. Finally, in an organisation with immense span of communication and different responsibilities, there is the need for a bonding agent(an ethical leader) that make the people of the organisation feel they are making unique and valuable contributions to the organisation. In some unethical organisation, leaders believe they are in power and their followers are paid for their jobs so, they see no need for appreciation, recognition and making people feel special about themselves even after making effective contributions to the organisation. It can also be observed that when an ethical relationship is fostered among teams in an organisation, the teams which are the employees also demonstrate these ethics to the stakeholders (customers) of the organisation. Ethical leadership across all three levels nourishes the relationships that empower human enterprise.

An example of ethical leadership/behaviour was demonstrated by the new elected CEO of Citigroup in 2004: Chuck Prince when he publicly accepted his responsibility and bowed apologetically to top Japanese officials after firing several executives in the company.  This behaviour was not only appreciated by the Japanese culture, it also pointed towards a new era of “shared responsibility” in the culture of Citigroup. Every employee was expected to take responsibility for any decision they make that affects the company. [Freeman & Stewart from darden.virginia.edu].

In conclusion, the practice of ethical leadership in organisation creates an atmosphere where people can work together in an environment of mutual respect, where the leader can facilitate individuals in teams to grow personally, feel fulfilled, contribute to a common goal and share in the personal, emotional and financial rewards of jobs well done in the organisation

ANALYSIS OF LEADERS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS

ANALYSIS OF LEADERS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS

Bel argues in this blog argues if there is a link between innovation capability of a firm and the charisma of its leaders. To get a deeper knowledge of this, the leadership styles of two global business leaders: Sam Walmart and Richard Branson will be compared to study how they deliver innovation and develop strategy for effectiveness of their business.

Richard Branson

Richard Branson is the founder and CEO of Virgin Group. He is one if the world’s most successful, intriguing and enduring entrepreneur business leaders. Dubrin states that a leader is the figurehead of an organisation. (2010). Branson is undoubtedly the figure head of virgin and maybe even more important than the brand. He is categorised as a charismatic leader with the skills of influencing his employees and a renowned ability to create a common purpose among his followers. As a leader, he simply serves as a catalyst for the success of others.

According to Mintzberg, you earn leadership by the way you lead.(2004) He executes sense of fairness and equality in dealing with people encouraging a flat, non-hierarchal structure to run his business and this earns him respect among his associates.

Branson’s leadership style is a transformational one. Transformational leaders are often equated to those who can easily adapt to change. (Bass, 2010).  Branson demonstrated flexibility and success in adapting to changing organisational cultures as he introduced new businesses and moved into new sectors conveying his people with him and this implicates he delivers creativity and innovation by involving his employees. Transformational leadership also implies encouragement in growth and empowerment among followers and he delegates work to his colleagues and management staff and takes a step back. He backs this act up saying “the company must be set up so that it can continue without me”. Branson motivates his employees and boosts self-esteem by recognition and giving positive feedbacks.

Finally, one of the strongest themes in his leadership style is the steadfast determination to reach his goals regardless of any obstacle in his path. He impacts this passion on the people he leads and this has steered innovation and helped Virgin’s continuous growth and success despite negative circumstances.

 

Sam Walmort

Sam Walmort was the founder of Wal-Mart and the CEO until he passed away in 1992. His leadership approaches and the Wal-Mart corporate culture formed by him still trends in the company’s on-going success in the last decade. Walton was known as a charismatic leader and he made everything look easy to his employees.  He practised a democratic leadership style by appreciating his associates’ opinions and contributions and he was a good listener. This was effectively demonstrated earlier in his career: he had Saturday meetings with his employees and visited stores regularly to check on his associates where everyone had the chance to discuss core problems and he welcomed suggestions and proposed improvements. Most of the associates felt honoured and valued his visit and commented that it really boost their motivation to help the growing company. He also delegated responsibilities fairly and gave each employee the opportunity to act as leaders and according to him, “Each employee has their own cheer to boost associates morale and organizational spirit” (Sam Walton, 1992: Wal-Mart, 2012).   The Transformational leadership approach is considered a new approach and it describes how the behaviour to achieve goal is influenced (transformed) by the leader’s personality. (Fiedler 2003) Walton was undoubtedly such a leader. He had charisma, motivation skills and had consideration for individual which created a work atmosphere that enabled outstanding result even till date.

By analysing the leadership styles of these two global business leaders, it can be deduced that there is a direct link between innovation capability of an organisation and the charisma of its leader. It is evident that the leadership style of an organisations’ leader directly affects the organisation. According to  Crossland R, motivation, assertiveness, creativity, ability to stimulate change and encourage staff to innovate , fairness, magnanimity are among the features of leadership. (2002). It can be deduced the analysed leaders above exhibit these features by motivating their employees and practice magnanimity by giving feedback and credit where it is due, enhancing innovation by involving them in change and its process. They also demonstrate assertiveness by clearly delegating responsibilities and display fairness in dealing with people. These features in leaders have impacts on individuals and teams. It encourages effective performance which aids organisation performance.

LIST OF REFERENCES

Bass, B. M. (2000). “The future of leadership in learning organisations”. Journal of

Leadership Studies, 7, 3, 18-38.{online} available from < www.emeraldinsight.com>

Crossland, R. & Clarke, B  (2002). The leader’s voice: How your communication can inspire action and get results. New York: SelectBooks, Inc.

 

Fiedler, F. E. (2003). “A theory of leadership effectiveness”. New York: McGraw-

Hill

Mintzberg, H. (2004). The nature of managerial work. New York: Harper & Row.

Walton, S. & Huey, J. (1992)” Sam Walton: Made in America”  {online} available from <www.walmart.com > retrieved march 12, 2012.

 

 

CHANGE AND RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

CHANGE AND RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

This blog argues that Individuals play huge roles in change and that there is little management can do about resistance to change. However, the role of the leaders in an organisation to help employees deal with change depends basically on their approach/ method of implementation of change in organisations.

The oxford dictionary has defined change as an act or process through which something becomes different. (2012). Despite the positive outcomes change brings in an organisation, it is often resisted at both individual and organisational level. According to Atkinson, resistance to change is normal and can disclose issues that can be addressed and resolved before successful implementation of change. (2005).

The case study of GlaxoSmithKline is a good example of strategic organisational change and it will be used to evaluate the role of leaders in delivering planned changed in an organisation.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is one of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies in the world. GSK develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceuticals, vaccines, over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and health-related consumer medicines. The company is among the top 20 FT global 500 companies in the world and is headquartered in Brentford, UK. (Data monitor, 2010). The merger of Glaxowellcome and SmithKiline Beecham in 2000 is a typical example of delivery of planned change. It can be seen with the proper use of “sigmoid curve”. It illustrates how the company started a new curve before the first one declined

This merger can be illustrated as follows:

The company emphasized creativity and innovation as the ‘reasons’ for change. This was after consciousness that without these, the company was at risk in the highly competitive pharmaceutical industry with increased generic manufacturers. Taking these external stimuli into consideration, the CEO of the company: Jean-Pierre Garnier tried to reconcile the concepts of being big and think small by dividing the R&D (research and development) department into seven “centres of excellence for drug discovery” (CEDD). (FT April 2, 2001). The change can be branded as planned transformational and can be symbolised in the diagram below.

The proclaimed change influenced the culture existing at the department and changed the interaction of operations and R&D department

THE IMPACT OF CHANGE AND RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

Initially, the change process had an effect on leadership, people, resources and process, which also had impacts on the results of customers and therefore key performance indicators. As a result of the change, there were significant key management events which included the following:

• The leadership style in the CEDD changed from autocratic and task oriented to democratic and people oriented.
• Before the change process, the department had a “power culture” and after the department was divided into a grid-like structure, different teams interacted better and this resulted in a “task culture”. (Handy, 2005).

This change affected the employees and their performance within a limited duration of time. The scientists working in the R&D department described that the mergers were constraining forces in their work because they encountered budgeting issues during the merge. The motivation levels became very low after the announcement for the change into CEDDs. Some of the employees resisted the change with the impression that they were treated like sales department as a result of raising competition within themselves and some of them argued that the power culture should remain. (FT oct24, 2002).

Garnier concluded that to change the structure of the organisation, he also had to change the culture of the organisation. The challenge of the cultural change process was to motivate people and have contingency plans for this cultural change at GSK’s R&D department.

The technique Garnier used to overcome resistance to change was a four step approach for the initiation of the cultural change processes. This diagram was modified from Lewin’s force field analysis (1951) to fit the change situation in GSK. (Debra M. 2005)

These four steps cover the following four points:

Ensured that the R&D department and people understood the pressure of change: why they need to change.

Developed and shared a clear vision about where the organization and department was headed – where they were going.

Put in place the individual, departmental and organizational capabilities for change: the requirements for change.

Created a plan of action that outlined what had to be done to get it all started: what to do in work tomorrow.

The CEO also established a compensation team that recognised outstanding performance.

With the approach of John Adair’s leadership model, emphasis was laid on keeping the teams focused on the task, the equilibrium between the task and catering for individual needs. This was done by encouraging a democratic leadership style with each CEDDs.

The successful implementation of the change process in R&D department of GSK was evaluated by analysis of significant changes in terms of increased employee effectiveness, operations and cost efficiency, productivity, expansion and profitability.

In conclusion, it can be presumed in the organisation context that the leadership style used by Garnier to influence the change process is classified as the “Transformational Leadership Style”. The approach of join Adair’s model was also relevant for effectiveness of team participation. Therefore, it is arguable that leaders play a huge role in change process in organisations and the use of relevant theories in change management can be used as a benchmark for good practice in organisations.

LIST OF REFERENCES

Atkinson, P. (2005), “Managing resistance to change “,  Management Services, Spring2005, Vol. 49 Issue 1, p14 {online} available from < www.emeraldinsight.com > retrieved march 10, 2012

Datamonitor (2010), “Company profile – GlaxoSmithKline “, {online} available from Datamonitor Europe: www.datamonitor.com retrieved march 12, 2012.

Debra, M., Sivakumar, K. (2004), ” Patents and product development strategies: a model of antecedents and consequences of patent value “, European Journal of Innovation Management; Volume: 7   Issue: 1; 2004 {online} available from <www.emeraldinsight.com > retrieved march 12, 2012

Financial Times (2001), “Big Pharma sees the beauty of thinking small “, Pilling, D. Apr 2, 2001, pg. 12 {online} available from business source complete: <www.ebsco.com >   retrieved March 14, 2012

Financial Times (2002), “GlaxoSmithKline’s radical program to increase the productivity of its 15,000 scientists is a test case for the entire drugs industry “, Geoff Dyer, Oct 24, 2002, pg. 19 {online} available from business source complete :< www.ebsco.com> retrieved march 12, 2012.

Handy, C. (2005), “Understanding Organisations” 6th Ed. Reprint: Penguin Books. Retrieved march 05, 2012

Oxford dictionary (2011) “What is change?” {Online} available from <http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/change> retrieved march 10, 2012

THEORIES AND MODELS OF LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

THEORIES AND MODELS OF LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

This blogs argues that teams perform better provided they are well led and that the ability to bring people together from different backgrounds, cultures and control what they have to offer is dependent on leadership. The trait-based theory will however be used to illustrate the type of qualities a leader should possess to successfully bring people together to achieve an objective.

THE TRAIT BASED THEORY

Trait-based theoretical models of effective leadership illustrate the idea that great leaders have certain common character traits.

Trait theory attempts to evaluate blends of human personality traits to propose or identify a set of human traits that facilitate an individual to lead others effectively.

It is known that personality traits tend to be fixed and unchanging in people, trait-based theory has categorically encouraged the perception that leadership ability is inherent in leaders :this indicates that ‘good leaders are born, not made’. (Clark D, 2008) An extension of the notion is that successful leaders cannot be taught or developed.

 However, several researches began for the search of traits that differentiated leaders from their followers. Different researchers came up with a list of more than 100 different traits a successful leader must possess.

Ralph Stogdill – trait theory

Ralph Stogdill was one of the first to challenge traditional trait-based by a work he conducted in 1948. Stogdill scrutinized findings from over a hundred leadership-related studies and initiated 27 groups of factors (traits) to be possessed by an effective leader. Amongst the traits included some symbolic features such as age, height, weight, physique, appearance, health, popularity etc. However, he highlighted top 10 traits associated with proficient leadership and they include

• Honest
• Intelligent
• Great sense of humour
• Initiative, persistence, ambition, desire to excel
• Competent
• Integrity and conviction
• Responsibility
• Insight (self, others and wider environment)
• Self confidence
• Inspiring

The strengths of this model lie in the traits that have been analysed. (Shead, 2007).  To further analyse the strengths of this model in business/organisational context, the traits listed above such as integrity, honesty, intelligence and self-confidence amongst others will be well thought-out

One could give credit to a book by James M. Kouzes titled “The Leadership Challenge” (2008). The most desirable and important trait according to the book is “Honesty”. The book states that statistics has shown that honesty is indeed one best trait a leader must possess. Honesty refers to truthfulness or non-deception. Integrity means that “one is whole so that one’s action reflects in one’s words”.

Honesty is enormously crucial in leadership. After all, if we are enthusiastic to follow someone whether into a battle room or boardroom, we first want to be assured that the person is worthy of our trust.

Followers want to be completely confident in the integrity of their leaders. Inconsistency in words and actions reflects lack of integrity in a leader.

Therefore, a leader should possess the characteristics (traits) mentioned in this context to be successful in an organisation for the purpose of efficiency and achievability between the leader and followers. The explanation above indicates that the trait-based theory is still relevant in the modern business world.

Mullins states that the limitation of this theory lies within the fact the leadership researchers that try to develop the theory have been unable to agree on a shortlist of effective leaders’ common traits and there is a disagreement over which traits are the most important for an effective leader. (2010:377).  The model also attempts to relate physical traits such as height, weight, to effective leadership and these types of traits can be assessed in the military as they might be necessary to perform tasks efficiently.  In business organizations, these are not the requirements to be an effective leader. (Scouller, 2011).

The behavioural leadership theory is a huge leap from trait theory in that it presumes that leadership capability can be learned rather than being inherent. Behavioural theory focuses on the actions of leaders rather than traits. In behavioural theory, it is believed that leaders are not born. Leadership can be learned and it is not automatic. (Cherry, 2010)

Contrary to leadership as an inborn trait, behavioural leadership believes that managers’ leadership potential can be trained into effective leadership competencies. Nowadays, it is seen that companies are hiring professional trainers to train managers’ leadership potential and some have proven to be successful. Companies are eager to spend an immense amount of money to train their employees to be more effective in leadership and management.

The Contingency Leadership theory argues that every leadership styles are based on certain situations and that some people perform at the utmost level in certain places and at nominal performance when taken out of their element. (Clark .D 2008). Contingency leadership theory is an extension of the trait theory, in the sense that human traits are related to the situation in which the leaders exercise their leadership. It is generally accepted within the contingency theories that leaders are more likely to express their leadership when they feel that their followers will be responsive.

 

 

LIST OF REFERENCES

Cherry K. (2010) “leadership theories: 8 major leadership theories” {Online} available from business source complete <www.ebsco.com > Retrieved march 12, 2012.

Clark .D (2008) “Application of leadership theories, models and styles in the modern business world” {Online} available from <http://www.donclark/leader/leadershipstyles.html> Retrieved march 12, 2012

 

James M Kouzes (2008) “The leadership challenge” {Online} available from Sage Journals: <http://online.sagepub.com> Retrieved march 14, 2012.

 

Mullins, L.J. (2010: 377), “Management and Organisational Behaviour” , 9th Edition, Pearson Higher Education.

 

Scouller James (2011) “The three levels of Leadership: how to develop your leadership presence, know how and skills”. {Online} Available from business source complete: <www.ebsco.com>. Retrieved March 12, 2012.

Shead M. (2007)  “Leadership traits theory” {Online} Available from <http://www.netmba.com/> retrieved march 12, 2012.

 

 

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