MG204 Leadership in Organisations

Introduction

Leadership is one of the arts that are possessed by an individual regarding motivating group of people and making them act towards achieving a common objective. Among the organisation directing workers or colleagues with appropriate strategy to implement while meeting the companies need represent leadership. A leader could encourage and motivate a group of people by creating unfavourable or favourable working environment. The nature of leadership represents ability of leader to lead affectively in the ways that combine resources in order to achieve the objective and give benefit to the organisation. Leadership and management are two different concepts where leader is completely and unorganised group managers could only work in an organised group. Manager needs necessarily be a leader however leader may not always be a manager (Anderson, 2010).

The global business context has eventually increased importance of leadership and challenges that leaders might face. For instance cross cultural aspects, increase in diverse population, gender, equality, ethics needs to be acknowledged while working in international business. The international context represents different cultures working together where the individuals are from diverse nature and different culture represents different ethics. There have been various leadership theories which could be implied among the organisation in today’s world, while analysing the challenges that the leader might face (Antonakis et al., 2009).

The purpose of this report is to analyse one of the important leadership challenge identifying the global context in today’s world and represent leadership role in organisation to overcome the challenge. The report will be focusing towards right leadership approaches to be used and theories to be implement while addressing the challenges identified and identifying to examples from real cases around the world (Aschbacher & Sablik, 2019).

Leadership challenge: change management

One of the challenges that are being identified in leadership is change management practises. Change is a constant process that leads to improvement in product, service, process or structure of the organisation. However change comes with various challenges like resistance of employees, conflicts, negotiations, risk of failure, team management and offering vision to the team. This we present challenge for the leaders and also reflect the role of leader in change management practises. Current emerging industries like technology industry, retail industry justify the challenges for the leaders. For example retail industry in today’s scenario you are converting into Omni channel distribution method that is integrating technology and delivery services to the organisation. This has initiated various changes across the industry and in the organisation leading a major challenge for leaders that is resistance from the employees. Other than this, Technology Company has been facing constant changes in technology and changing process that lead to manage conflicts, Negotiations, directing the team and implementing the change in the organisation (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016).

Change requires appropriate leadership to be introduced successfully and sustain. This includes combining the understanding and translating vision, strategy and values along with the inspiration in order to promote sustainable change approach within the organisation. Moreover selection of appropriate leadership style is one of the challenges while implementing change management. It can be said that a leader could be appropriate in various situations, however may face challenges when it comes to adopting change and implementing the same with support by the employees in the organisation. The change process could be challenging for a leader specifically managing the employees. Some of the commonly identified challenges for leaders while managing change include handling resistance with patience (Asamani et al., 2016)

Managing resistance is one of complexity while implementing change. It has been identified that the human nature reflect that they or not ready to give up what they have learnt since years or what process they have been following since years and change to the another process. This might come with various personal challenges for the employees that lead to resistance to change. A great leader is only when he or she is able to overcome those resistance with patience and appropriate strategy to imply. As a leader it is very important to identify and manage the resistance within the organisation before actually impacting the productivity and harmony of the organisation. Encouraging vigorous dialogue, communication issues are concerned with the group. Lack of communication or communicational issues could be a major factor responsible for these challenges and increasing resistance by the employees (Boyle et al., 2016).

Managing multiple teams

The global and international context has increased the challenge of managing multiple teams while implementing change. For example a multinational corporation implementing organisational structural Change will not only impact the parent organisation but also the organisations in the home countries. Therefore this includes managing multiple teams by the leaders while implementing change. More importantly, these teams might integrate various cultures working together, where resistance to change could be different according to their ethics and beliefs. For example a culture might be adaptable to the change, while another culture individual might resist to the change because of setback attitude. Therefore it also becomes the challenge of cross-cultural teams and managing those teams for implementing change affectively (Boyle et al., 2016).

Multiple simultaneous changes

It has been identified that in an organisation where major change like new technology integration has been implemented, it comes with simultaneous changes. The changes might occur in structure, culture, and process altogether. This increases the challenge for the leaders to juggle and manage the multiple simultaneous changes. This represent need to implement change with incoming Material, designing that needs to be updated, inception of the materials, supplier oversight, labelling and packaging requirements, lower level management issue, updating technology at all levels of the organisation. This represents the challenges of multiple changes and managing through the harmonised process. Moreover the challenge also comes to track the control change, and communicate the same among the organisation (Brunes & By, 2012).

Managing ineffective change

Another challenge that has been identified is managing ineffective change. It has been identified that change while implementing is not always a successful Strategy. This represents that implementing change or decision related to change might be a issue and needs to be monitored and control afterwards. This leads another challenge for the leaders that is to appropriately identify if the change implemented is right for the organisation or not, and in case of any deviation identify among the plan and the actual change implementation it needs to be controlled appropriately. However this ineffective change after implementing becomes a major challenge for a leader to rectify or reverse a problematic situation. For example a company dementing a new system might lead to introducing new Software, modifying the process. However in case of any ineffective change or inability of the organisation to perform the same as solution looking for roll back the functionality act as major change for the leaders (Bennis & Thomas, 2002).

Suitable ways for leader to address the challenge of change management

Implementing transformational leadership approach

The first appropriate way for a leader to address the challenge of change is implementing transformational leadership style. A transformational leader is an individual enabling his organisation to make a dramatic shift. He is the one who is inspiring and motivating the employs by establishing appropriate future state and clear vision and defining the steps or objectives that require achieving. This represents leadership trait that is associated with confidence, weakness and courage as transformational leaders. The type of business leader that appropriate we anticipate is the demand of market, create competitive products and introduce disruptive ideas in the real world function leads to the example of transformational leaders (Bottani & Galli, 2017).  

Transformational leadership approaches representing a theory where leaders is working with team to identify the requirement of the change, creating appropriate vision and guiding the individuals to go through the change with appropriate execution and inspiring employees. This is implementing change on a regular basis with committed members of the group and internal part of leadership model. Transformational leadership has been acknowledged and abilities that represent reducing the resistance to change. The major reason for considering this leadership approach to implement change is its ability to reduce change resistance by the employees by inspiring, offering vision, offering steps how to implement the innovative idea. Moreover transformational leader is also open for the employees to come up with new ideas, brainstorming activities and encouraging the employees to come up with new ideas to implement as change in the organisation. It has been identified that change management leads to resistance to change as already identified from the challenges above that hinder the sustainability and effectiveness of change implementation. This resistance could be reduced with The right amount of communication and inspiration by the leaders. Considering transformational leadership approach it has been identified that employees are reducing the resistance level among the organisational change. The transformational leadership approach is found to be appropriate in the large-scale change as it needs to instil employees for the trust and confidence. Transformational leaders are supporting all the employees at various stages of the change process that make sure that the change is being implemented deeply rooted and The chances of refreezing to the original process is reduced. Moreover transformational leader is actually implementing the change in depth of the new culture of the organisation that is aligned to the evolutionary process of change (Caillier, 2014).

Four different components are being identified as part of transformational leadership which must be implemented for change management practises by the leaders. The first is intellectual simulation that represents encouraging creativity among the followers. The leaders are encouraging followers for looking out for new ways to doing things that is innovate the process and new opportunities to learn. The second component is individualised consideration. A transformational leader is involving him to offer encouragement and support to the employs and followers. For fostering supportive relationships, these type of leaders or considering communication to be open, employees or feel free To communicate with the leaders and share ideas without any resistance and has direct recognition with the unique contribution among the project (Mishra, 2016). Third component is inspirational motivation. Implementing inspirational motivation and lead this type of leaders to have a clear vision and communicate the same to the followers. The leaders are helping followers with experience the same motivation and passion to fulfil the objectives and goals. The fourth component identified from the theory is idealised influence. Being a transformational leader they are serving as a role model for the employees. They are creating respect and trust for themselves among the followers to emulate internalise ideals (Carton, 2014). 

While evaluating transformational leadership and its suitability for the challenge identify it can be said that some of the advantages that has identified for transformational leadership is united with the common cause. Since the transformational leader is working towards a common objective, implementing change over the multiple levels and functions becomes easy and appropriate. Transformational leaders are found to stand out and represent the ability for quick analysis of the current situation of the company and creating the vision for growth and improvement. Moreover with the help of influence and passion as their trade communicate the vision to the employees and everyone over the board even if it’s different level of the management. This represent that they are able to represent organisation with productivity gains, optimising performance while pulling everyone in the same direction despite of multiple teams and organisations and present big picture along with united common cause (Clarke, 2010).

Another important advantage of transformational leadership approach is creating and managing change appropriate. For the companies that are evolving with time it and willing to embrace change, it is important to implement transformational leadership style. As this will reduces the resistance among the employees with appropriate communication, and reduce the skinless of being unknown to the new situation by acting as a role model for all the employees. While implementing change the transformational leader will create inspiring new vision and also helping them to implement into everyday life while deeply rooted changes will be adopted as the process of change management practises. This represents offering positive impact of the changes for the organisation and community as a whole for the greater good and asks people to contribute for the same and embrace the change in the organisation (Koryak, 2015).

However Evaluation of transformational leadership approach also comes with some of the disadvantages that is higher risk involved and disruptive change. Transformational leaders are not responsible for small changes; rather they are looking for disruptive changes like change in technology or completely new process. The problem with change is when it becomes disruptive this increases the challenge for the leaders and increase the unnecessary risk. The transformational leaders could specify with the goal of creating and managing change however the risk of inability to implement the same at the end is being increased for the transformational leader. In case a transformational leader is not successful to objectively assess and implement the change at the right time the organisation could not be appropriately respond sing the production could lead negative outcomes. Another disadvantage is increase in employee burnout. Considering the transformational leadership approach it can be said that feeling inspired by the leader could be one part of the organisation, however feeling the presence of constant pressure could be another side of transformational leadership. As the transformational leaders are putting major focus on authenticity, change in values and cultures in the organisation and constant push. This grand vision might come to lead in demotivation as well for some of the employees and lead to employee burnout situation in the organisation (Miner, 2015).

Example of transformational leadership approach

Jeff Bezos is one of the famous transformational leaders in today’s scenario. Founder and CEO of Amazon are found to be one of the famous transformational leaders that has led to appropriate change management practises. Amazon being one of the top technological company and e-commerce Company has led to transform the industry from offline platform to online platform (entrepreneur, 2017). The inspiration, innovation is being the key and base of the organisation that has been exemplified by the transformational leader that is Jeff Bezos in the organisation. He is one of the role model in the organisation that lead to major changes in the company depending on the demand and changing consumer needs. The company is constantly been changing as initiated with an online bookstore and today has reach to every possible consumer goods through e-commerce platform. This has led to constant changes in the organisation and opportunity for the company to grow, however comes with various challenges for the leaders to implement the change across the world in various teams. He has been able to transform the retail industry and impact on the community as a whole with his transformational leadership traits of inspiring offer vision, creating open communication, listening to all the ideas and brainstorming activities in the organisation (smartbrief, 2021).

Implementing situational leadership model

Situational leadership is one of the models that are allowing leaders to manage their style or adjust your style based on the direct reports or followers. This could be different from change management practises however focusing guidance to the employees on the everyday basis while managing the large-scale change as a team. This represents that the recommended leadership model will be helpful for the leaders to overcome the issue while implementing change on the everyday basis. According to this model the leaders could effectively utilise for leadership style and change the implementation of leadership style based on the circumstance. In the situations where the course of action or authority is required or it is important to offer guidance authoritative leadership style could be adopted. However in the situations where the leaders believe that delegating the authority is more convenient and appropriate for the team to be clarify among the goals and achieve them they might adopt democratic or participating leadership style (Hill, 2016). The four important behaviours that are identified as part of situation leadership model include delegating, selling and coaching, participating in supporting, telling in directing. Managers using leadership style of delegating represent prioritising the work of employees by their own while delegating the task as required. Considering the participating in supporting behaviour the leaders in the situation of leadership are offering minimal supervision to the employees while being confident on the employees work and authority. Telling and directing behaviour of leadership style represent manager to be defining the task to the employees and providing clear instructions while working closely. This is appropriate to be implementing on entry-level employees while they understand the role for the first time. Selling and coaching behaviour represents leaders assigning task and defining roles while still being receptive towards input from the employees. This is developing subordinates for the future course of action however still believe in lack of self-esteem while performance of the work (leadershipcenter, 2018).

After evaluating situational leadership approach, it can be said that it comes with some of the advantages and disadvantages. For instance, it is easy to grasp for a leader. This represents that basic tenant of this model act straightforward and simple. The leaders are not focusing towards various variables and could implement and adjust according to the situation that eventually increases the flexibility for the leaders as well as for the followers. Another advantage is that the focus is completely on employees of the leaders. This actually represents that the followers are the basic core of the style. The leader is considering a particular leadership style depending on the followers, their characteristic, the maturity level and the requirement. This represents the actual focus of the leaders or on the followers instead of other factors (Frich et al., 2015). Therefore it requires closer attention towards weaknesses, strength, motivation level and morale of the employees. The leaders are expecting to improvise the maturity level among followers so as to indulge in a leadership style that is more convenient for leaders and for the organisation creating stronger team relations. Another advantage is improving overall productivity. The situation leadership approach represents the equal participation among the task oriented and people oriented approach. This represents that the leaders with adjustment and flexibility of leadership style could improve overall productivity of the team. The followers having levels of capabilities and motivation could be identified and implement the leadership style accordingly so as to offer better chance and maximise the output. Switching the approaches by the leaders will help individual or team to increase the overall productivity of team and offer positive leadership style (Brenner, 2015).

However this also comes with some of the criticisms that is the disadvantages. For example situational leadership approach is eventually creating confusion for the leaders. As this is offering flexibility, this is at the same time creating confusion among the leaders which leadership style to be adopted. In case the leader is not able to adapt the right leadership styles this may lead to failure in change management practises. Another disadvantage is grading the team is not always easy. Identifying the maturity level, or factors that are responsible for selection of the leadership style is not easy. In the real-world application this could be a challenging issue while implementing change (Edelman, 2017). The focus of leaders must be on change management practises, rather they need to identify and great their followers and adapt the leadership style accordingly. This could not only increase the time consumption of leaders and followers, but could also create chaos while managing change in the organisation. Maturity could define with work experience, skill set, and motivation level of each employee, which eventually increases the task for the leaders. Another disadvantage is focus of situational leadership style is too much on the short-term basis. The change practice is for long-term; therefore it is important to focus on the long-term output rather than short-term perspective (DuBrin, 2016).

Considering the example to implement for situational leadership approach, it can be said that the implementation of new organisational values or cultures represent leaders to acknowledge leadership style like delegating leadership style. However in case the change that is to be implement is new technical approach, it is convenient for the leader to consider authoritative leadership style or telling and directing behaviour so as to offer training and mentorship for the employs and identify their task and roles appropriately (Dustershoff & MacGregor, 2014).

Conclusion

From the report it can be concluded that leadership is a practice to motivate others and getting things done from individuals and teams. There are various roles and responsibility that the leaders adopt in an organisation. Identifying the contemporary models there are large number of leadership styles that could be identified and implement by the leaders. However leaders are different from management, where it has been identified that a Manager has to be a leader, which is not true for vice versa. One of the challenge that has been identified among the report for leaders is to practice and implement change management practises. It has been identified that with the increase in global platform and international business, it has increased the challenge of change for the leaders.

Managing large number of teams, cross-cultural teams and implementing change among those teams act as a major challenge for the leaders. The recommended two strategies to adopt for addressing the challenge of change management include implementing transformational leadership style. Considering the example of CEO of amazon.com that is Jeff Bezos , it can be said that transformational leadership style is justified style for implementing change on the constant basis. Innovation is the key in today’s global context, therefore the organisations in retail and technology industry are implying transformational leadership style to influence and motivate the employees for getting new ideas and implementing change constantly. Another recommended leadership approach situation and leadership approach, where leaders could flexibility change their approach according to the situation or circumstance required on the level of change implied in the organisation.                    

References 

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