My Vision of Leadership

This blog will provide a overview of leadership based on the first four blogs, also critically define my version of leadership. Though the ten weeks learning of leadership, now I have a comprehensive perspective of effective leadership.

Leadership is setting a new vision and aligning people to the vision. For achieve the definitive goals, leader should have a communication, motivation and inspiration with their followers. (Hall. 2010). What exactly makes a great leader? Do it relation to the personality traits? When we look at the leaders around us, we could identify there are many different kinds of leadership. However, they have a lot of similarities in their process of leading, such as self-assessment. It means leaders periodically take stock of their personal strengths and shortcomings. When the leaders know the weakness about themselves, they are able to delegate to others who have those abilities, in order to achieve the common goal. (Siyli. 2013). Another viewpoint I want to say is that in order to have an effective leadership, the leader must knowing the organization and be responsive to the group’s needs. Full knowledge about the organization can assist the company in setting a competitive goals. (Vadim. 2011). Moreover, James O’Tool, a noted management theorist proposes a new vision of leadership in the business world. (James. 2009). It argues that the effective leadership based on the leader’s ideas and values and understanding of the differing and conflicting needs of their followers, also they have the ability to energize followers to pursue a better goal. Bedsides. (James. 2009) Therefore, my version of effective leadership is: building a strong team and setting a standard for followership and motivate them to have a common goals. All in all, increase the profits margin by improving the individuals performance.

Steve jobs, who is a great leader inspired me most. At the first day I studied the Leading course, I asked myself a question: what type of leader I am? After the ten weeks’s study, I found the nature of myself is to create and want to break the shackles. The leadership of Steven jobs suits me best. Leadership be explained as the influence relationship between leaders and their followers to make changes which reflect their mutual purposes. (Rost 2003, p.102). Therefore, He is a qualified leader that largely improve the Apple’s effectiveness and performance with his unique leadership style. (Ricky. 2013). To a large extent, the achievement that Apple has today is owing to Steve Jobs.He provides Apple the correct vision and direction that contributes to today’s grammatical growth. (Ricky. 2013). Besides, Steve Jobs’s ethical leadership has deeply influence his employees. He led his employees try their best to make the best products to meet the customers’ high expectations. (Natalie 2013). He followed his passion and believed it was a key component of success. Now, I have the answer that I should do what I love do and this is the only way to do great work. Furthermore, I should not just simply follow what the book said but develop my own leadership according to my nature and work.

Additionally, based on my experience of MBA studying life, I recognized that the feedback is an essential for effective leading. In another word timely feedback is a critical component of a successful leading program.(Race. 2007). It has positive effect on both the employees and leaders. People need to know in a timely manner how they’re doing, what is working and what is not. When effective feedback is given to employees, they will have a opportunity to improve their performance. Feedback can come from many different aspects, like the 360 degree model, it includes customers, manager, peer, subordinate.(John. 2012). In the process of my MBA learning, I always ask feedback from my peers and also provide feedback for them. When I as a group leader, I need assess my ability influence in improving the performance of a team, also receive feedback on my strengths and areas for development against a leadership criteria. Therefore, the feedback can help us have a effective communication and consistently improve our performance.

 

To conclude, by a process of learning leadership, I have a better understand of effective leadership. Besides, it enhance my perceptive leadership skills, such as the efficient communication and the critical evaluating of feedback. Therefore, I have improved my performance for a leader and now I am confident to delegate the roles of a leader. I will meet the challenges in the future.

 

List of Reference:

 

James. O. (2009). ‘Leading Change: The Argument for Values-Based Leadership’. Ballantine Books, Reprint edition.

 

Hall.K. (2010). ‘Matrix management’. [online]. Available from: < http://www.global-integration.com/matrix-management/?gclid=CN64163Cxb0CFUTHtAodZ1cAvg >. [Accessed 29/03/2014]

 

Siyli. (2013). ‘What is “Leadership” and What Makes a Good Leader?’. [online]. Available from: < http://www.siyli.org/what-is-leadership-what-makes-good-leader/ > [Accessed 29/03/2014].

 

Vadim.K. (2011). ‘Leadership Defined’. [online]. Available from: < http://1000advices.com/guru/leadership.html > [Accessed 29/03/2014].

 

Race. (2007). ‘Why is feedback important?’. [online]. Available from: < http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/engageinfeedback/Whyisfeedbackimportant/ > [Accessed 29/03/2014].

 

John.W. (2012). ‘Using 360 degree feedback in organisation’. [online]. Available from: < http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/Using360Feedback.pdf > [Accessed 29/03/2014].

 

Natalie.H. (2013). ‘Six Leadership Lessons We Can Learn From Steve Jobs’. [online]. Available from: < http://www.quantumworkplace.com/steve-jobs-leadership/ > [Accessed 29/03/2014].

 

Ricky. (2013). ‘Leadership Study of Steve Jobs in Apple Inc’. [online]. Available from: < http://www.chinaabout.net/leadership-study-of-steve-jobs-in-apple-inc/ > [Accessed 29/03/2014].

 

Ethical leadership- positive or negative?

In the current years, people tend to think more and more highly of the ethical leadership because an increasing number of companies are in troubles due to the ethical issues. Ethical leadership is a way of living life that the leader develops both in and out of the workplace. (Whitney, 2011). In other words, ethical leadership is that you live with your core values in all parts of your life to influence your organisation and employees. Rubin (Rubin, 2010) states that ethical leader behavior can positively affect both individuals and organizations. However, some people believe that to some extent, ethical leadership will have a negative impact on the organisational and individual behaviors. This article will argue the two points and offer a example from the communication industry to illustrates this debate.

 

The 4-V Model of Ethical Leadership

There is a famous framework called ‘the 4-V Model’ which can align the external behaviors or actions with the internal beliefs or values for advancing the common good. According to Bill Grace (Katie. 2012), people who want to be the leaders can make a difference from others. They claim their core values and develop a vision how to make it different. Then they come out to the commitment and use their behaviors to influence their employees. Finally, they enables all the members to fulfill their desires and dreams with their leadership. Therefore, the virtue should be at the center of Ethical Leadership.

 

Positive and negative effectiveness

Leaders are the soul of the organisations. A leader who has the ethics are able to make the best choices for his organisation and influence the behavior of his employees even the organisation’s culture. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, is a positive example for ethical leadership. He is popular among his employees for his warm disposition. He never appears angry in front of his employees but maintains calm. As a result, his associates admire him and his employees feel comfortable and interested during their work. Before Chris Cox became vice president of facebook, he considered it was a waste of time. But he clearly understood he was wrong after his interview with Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg’s vision changed his mind, which attracted him to playing the role in Facebook. (Grossman 2010). It proves that the ethical leadership will bring the positive outcomes for both individuals and organizations.

 

On the contrary, If leaders work without ethics, they will not be able to motivate their employees any longer, which will be a block for the development of the company. (Mendonca, 2007). For example, Enron was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships all over the world. In 2001, This American energy headquater announced bankruptcy due to its false accounting. At that time, it is the biggest bankruptcy reorganization in American history.

 

However, ethical leadership is not omnipotent. It has its limitations as well. One of the disadvantages is that it requires the management should be effective. If the members are lack of ethics and resist to follow the leader’s behaivors. It will cause problems. The clash will undermine the corporate culture and lead to a negative impacts on the efficiency of the organisation.

Example in the communication industry

 

Within the communication industry, There is a company named Foxconn which is a Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer might clearly clarify this concept. Foxconn has been in cooperation with Apple for a long time. Nowadays it faces some problems because their employees are pushed to work in a quite hard conditions and their salary are much less than that they should have. As a result, it has led to a multiple suicides by the employees. While, many cooperations which used to work with Foxconn have considered to cut their contracts. Although it is of benefit for their companies to work with Foxconn, they should think about the negative consequences due to Foxconn’s unethical behaivors. (Cosh 2012).

In conclusion, ethical leadership is a key for organisations’ sustainable development. To some extent, if leaders have little ethics in their work, possibly their companies will have troubles in the long-term development. Although, it needs the employees to follow and trust their leaders, it is still a good way for leaders to manage and improve the organisational and individual performance. In general, ethical leadership can bring about the positive effects both in internal and external of organization. It can help develop a ethical culture that make the employee satisfied and motivated in their work place.

 

List of References:

 

Rubin.R. (2010), ‘Do Ethical Leaders Get Ahead? Exploring Ethical Leadership and Promotability’. Business Ethics Quarterly. [online], 20, 2, pp. 215-236.

 

Whitney.L. (2011). ‘What Is Ethical Leadership?’ [online]. Available from: <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-ethical-leadership.htm&gt; [Accessed at 20 March 2014]

 

Katie.L. (2012). ‘The Center for Ethical Leadership’ [online]. Available from: <http://participedia.net/en/organizations/center-ethical-leadership&gt; [Accessed at 20 March 2014]

 

Grossman.L. (2010) ‘2010 Person of the Year, Mark Zuckerberg ’. Time. [online]. 176, 26, pp. 44-75. Available from: <http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2036683_2037183_2037185,00.html&gt; [Accessed at 20 March 2014]

 

Mendonca.M. (2007) ‘Ethical leadership’. [online] Available from: <http://capitadiscovery.co.uk/dmu/items/852754&gt; [Accessed at 20 March 2014]

 

Cosh.C. (2012). ‘Consumers are waking up to the ugly truth about how iPads and iPods’. [online] .Available from: <http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/02/07/biting-into-apple/> [Accessed at 20 March 2014]

Management & resistance to change

This blog is aiming to argue the relationship between management and the resistance to change in organisations. There are some people believing that management can do nothing about the resistance to change. They think it is all owing to the personality of individuals. The people who strongly resists on change prefer to live in the current comfortable environment. While others state management can help relieve the intent attitudes of refusing to change. (Lawrence. 2009). This blog will discuss both sides of the statement to find the reasons that lead to the opposite review. Furthermore, it will identify the role that manager play in this situation based on the results. In addition, this article will also connect the topic with the communication industry and provide an related example.

According to the research, (Tanner. 2011). human beings are more likely to prefer resistance to change, even the changes tend to be the positive growth and development direction. For example, when the new technology is coming to the world, at the beginning most people tend to reject. They prefer to look forward the trend. When the new iphone published, there are a lot of people refusing using it. But after several years, the majority of them have bought a iphone. (Coldewey. 2013). So, There is a question. Why do employees resist change? The reason is that the natural personality of human beings. They are fear about the unknown things and anxiety about the impacts that the change have on them. In fact, after analysis psychologists state that fear of the unknown things is because they need time to rethink and adjust their performance to any changes made. (Sharo, 2011).

 

Management can do little about the resistance to change in organisations.

It is not easy for an organisation to make a change. Because, to some extent, change means risk. Organisation need to take risks if they want to make a change. They need to start again with resetting their strategy and adjusting their social relationship. What is more, even if the managers are optimistic  about the changes taking place, It does not mean that their staff also do so. Kotter and Schlesinger (Riley. 2012). believe that changes are always resisted owing to the following four reasons:

• Self Interest
• Low Tolerance to Change
• Misunderstanding and
• Different Assessments

Management can have influences on the resistance to change in organisations.

On the other hand, Some people hold that the strong attitudes about resistance to change can be affected by the management. There is a famous model that called Lewin’s three steps can be used to explain that the management really can have an impact on the resistance to change. The Lewin’s three steps can be demonstrated by the sample three points. (Bernard. 2004).

 

• Unfreeze- identify the problems and persuade and inspire the employees to enable motivation for change.
• Movement- develop new strategies, change the attitude and implement the actions.
• Refreeze- stabilize the change and provide supportive mechanisms for change.

Which role do manages play in avoiding and overcoming the resistance to change.    

 

Managers should actively communicate with employees. They should play a guide to lead their employees gradually accept the changes. The managers are able to share some of their own feelings to help employees know the objectives. They need to understand the compliant of their employees as long as they are still optimistic for the future. Besides the managers also should try their best to make sure the change goes smoothly. The questions below are the things managers need to explain clearly to the employees. (Mariana. 2012).

 

• Why does the change need to happen?
• What will be changed?
• What is the final goal the company want to achieve?
• What will they benefit from this change?

 

An example of communication industry: Nokia

 

Nokia is an negative example which indicates that if the resistance to change cannot be well addressed will result in failure. (Rick. 2011). In the early 2000, Nokia was leading the mobile phone industry. It was famous for products’ excellent quality. Besides, it published the smart phone system- Symbian. It was popular during that years. But after a few years, Google published its new system- Android. Later, It has taken up the majority of the market. The heading companies all use the Android to operate their system. Nokia has faced the problem. But they persist in their old system and refuse to make any change. Finally, it failed and quit the smart phone market.

 

In conclusion, In the age of information explosion, companies are likely to face all soft of problems. They should adjust themselves with the changeable external environment. Management can assist relieve the intent resistance to change through Lewin’s three steps.

 

List of references:

 

Bernard.B. (2004). ‘Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change: A Re-appraisal.’ Journal of Management Studies. Sep2004, Vol. 41 Issue 6, p977-1002. 26p.

 

Coldewey.D. (2013). ‘iPhone 5 owners resist the call of the upgrade’. [online]. Available from: < http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/mobile/iphone-5-owners-resist-call-upgrade-f8C11566229 > [Accessed 13/03/2014]

 

Sharo.L. (2011) ‘Managing Resistance to Change’. [online]. Available from: <https://ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/7649/librarytrendsv38i1h_opt.pdf?sequence=1&gt; [Accessed 13/03/2014]

 

Mullins.L. (2010) ‘Management & Organisational Behaviour.’ 9th edn. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

 

Lawrence.R. (2009). ‘How to Deal With Resistance to Change’. [online]. Available from: < http://hbr.org/1969/01/how-to-deal-with-resistance-to-change/ar/1 > [Accessed 13/03/2014]

 

Tanner.R. (2011). ‘Organizational Change: 8 Reasons Why People Resist Change’. [online]. Available from: < http://managementisajourney.com/organizational-change-8-reasons-why-people-resist-change/ > [Accessed 13/03/2014].

 

Riley.J. (2012). ‘Managing Resistance to Change’. [online]. Available from: < http://www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/change-management-resistance-barriers.html > [Accessed 13/03/2014].

 

Mariana. (2012). ‘Forces that enhance or reduce employee resistance to change’. Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic Science Series. Jul2013, Vol. 22 Issue 1, p1606-1612. 7p.

 

Rick.T. (2011). ‘Change management need a sense of urgency’. [online]. Available from: < http://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/change-management/change-management-need-a-sense-of-urgency/ > [Accessed 13/03/2014].

Management and Leadership

There is a question that what is the difference between management and leadership? These two things are linked and complementary. To some extent, they are quite similar but not the same. (WSJ. 2012). It is necessary for managers to know and own the concept. Therefore, this blog will analyse the differences and similarities of management and leadership.

The definitions of management and leadership are:

• Management is controlling or directing people in a group in terms of the principles or values that have been established.
• Leadership is the process that setting a meaningful direction or vision for a group to achieve their goals.

From the definitions, it can be easily found that the management and leadership has the distinct differences. (Ted, 2013)

•  Leadership is likely to provide a direction or make a suitable strategy to inspire the employees. It refers to an leader’s ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to make contribution for the organization’s success. In a word, leadership is creating a vision. (Heathfield. 2010).

 

• Management is more likely to use the values and principles to achieve the goals. It consists of controlling a group with a series of rules to accomplish the goal. Therefore, their functions are different. In short, management is getting things done. (Heathfield. 2010).

It looks like these two things can be easily separated clearly. However, in the current new economy, the increasing value comes from the people’s knowledge and the workers are no not the undifferentiated cogs in an industrial machine any more. Leadership and management cannot easily be separated as before. People look to their managers, not just ask the managers to assign them a task, but require the managers to define a purpose for them. Besides, managers must organize employees, not just to maximize efficiency, but to nurture skills, develop talent and inspire results. (wsj. 2012).

Furthermore, Leadership and management are correlated. The leadership without management to consider how the direction will be processed, the employees have to work harder to make it realized. On the contrary, Management without leadership to ensure things be implemented according to the previous plans, the employees’ hard work will probably make no sense. (Steve, 2010)

 

On my opinion, I totally agree with the point of view suggested by the CMI. Because nowadays the external environment of company is changing day by day. Nothing is no longer changeless. The situations among the companies are quite different. Therefore, If we insist on just using only one kind of methods to manage all the company in the world. Obviously, It is impossible. In common, successful leaders always change their styles based on the characteristics of the people and the details of the task. (Mind Tool n.d). So, we should use different approaches to manage different companies according to the individual characteristics. No matter what kind of style it is, ‘command and control’ or ‘consultative and participative’, if it is suitable for the company, it is the best choice.

 

For example, there are 11 people in a football team. Every member in the team has his own characteristics. When they get together, the whole team will have its features. Not any coach is able to make the team have the best performance. The reason is that their managing style do not suit the team. That’s why some famous coach were fired in a good football team.

 

In my study life, sometimes I have to work with others. So, I have faced many styles of leadership. From the previous experience, I found I am the people who looks forward to the freedom. As a result, I will feel uncomfortable if the leader is too strict. However, I also found if there is nobody to motive me I will be lazy to do the best work. Therefore, I think I tend to prefer be managed not too loose and not too tight.

 

In conclusion, the appropriate leadership is the best style and can not only build up strong relationships with employees, but also can make the best result for the company. Therefore, it is more effective for leader to use a suitable leadership style based on the specific situations they are working with.

 

List of References:

 

Ted.E. (2013). ‘Movement is Life: Organizations, Management, and Leadership’. Engineering Management Journal. Dec2013, Vol. 25 Issue 4, p3-4. 2p.

 

Steve.M. (2010). ‘Leadership And Management’. [online]. Available from: <http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/leadership/management/overview/&gt;. [Accessed 07/03/2014]

 

WSJ. (2012). ‘What is the Difference Between Management and Leadership?’ [online]. Available from: <http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/what-is-the-difference-between-management-and-leadership/&gt; [Accessed 07/03/2014]

 

Heathfield.S. (2010). ‘Leadership Vision’. [online]. Available from: < http://humanresources.about.com/od/leadership/a/leader_vision.htm > [Accessed 07/03/2014]

 

Does A Diverse Team Lead To Better Results?

As the global economy comes to our life, more and more work tends to be done by cooperation. Thus, the diverse team has gradually become more important than the ‘pure’ team. (Katherine. 2012). What’s the advantages of a diverse team? Ibarra and Hansen believe that the ability to bring people together from different cultures, backgrounds and generations is essential for leaders. (Ibarra and Hansen 2011: 71). This report will argue the strength and limitations of diverse team and discuss within the communication industry.

Research has shown that diverse teams can significantly improve the innovation and productivity of a company than a homogeneous team. (Hamilton. 2004). According to Donald Fan (Diversityinc, 2013), the important foundation of innovation derives from a diverse team. Definitely, diversity can provide a wider variety of information for the team to draw the best solutions. (Frigotto. 2012). If the diverse team faced some problems, they would be able to think from different perspectives. The people who comes from different cultures and backgrounds can offer different thoughts and ideas. After the team gather all the thoughts and analyse them, they would make a better results.

However, there are also some risks for the diverse team. The biggest problem is the communication. Communication is vital for a high-efficience team. Diverse teams are likely to suffer due to individuals maybe struggle to understand, trust and respect each other from different backgrounds. If the team cannot solve this problem well, it will destroy the team. (Frigotto. 2012)

 

Therefore, it is one of the most important skill for managers to manage a diverse team. Also, it is suitable for my chosen industry- communication industry. The communication industry are more likely to work with diversity because this is industry is well-known by its high techniques. The most important thing for a team surviving at this industry is that they owns the excellent techniques. (Murphy. 2013). However, any sample or single team cannot provide a variety of techniques. So, the diverse team is also needed in the communication industry. In the same way, the skills how to manage the diverse team is required by managers in the diverse teams.Then, it comes to another question. Since the skill is so important for a manager, how should he use the diversity to lead a better results.

 

First of all, he should guide the members to accept each other and know about the different customs from different cultures. (Cora. 2009). For example, When we make a speech, American would begin with a related story. They think it is most effective way to attract the audiences’ attention and help him win some favour. But, Germany would begin his speech directly with figures, charts and other objective to support his opinion. Japanese prefer to begin with saying “apology” for not well prepared or for the bad reception or the weather, even sometimes there is really nothing to apologise for. He would apologise for no something to apologise. Besides, he should make ground rules based on the agreement.

 

Then, he should know about the common troubles when work in a divers team and he need to avoid the potential problems. For example, If someone offers a suggestion, those who do not think it is good idea even disagree with this suggestion may agree. They think they would like to avoid conflicting in order to keep peace. This is called “group think” and it usually happen in a diverse team. (Rachel, 2012). However, it is harmful for a diverse team. If members are not able to freely share their opinions, we cannot make use of the biggest advantage of a diverse team. Thurs, the manager should early predict and prevent this tendency.

 

Thereafter, the manager should obverse this team. He should know about the strength and weakness of every single member. Only fully know about these, can he know how to delegate the tasks.

 

In conclusion, a diverse team has its strong and weak points. How the team will perform in the future, to a large extent, is determined by the ability of the team manager. If he can make full use of the strong points and avoid the weak points of a diverse team, which will certainly help the team draw a better results. Therefore, the manager should develop the skill of managing a diverse team.

 

List of Reference:

 

Frigotto.M. (2012). ‘Diversity and Communication in Teams: Improving Problem-Solving or Creating Confusion?’ Group Decision & Negotiation. Nov2012, Vol. 21 Issue 6, p791-820. 30p.

 

Murphy. (2013). ‘Human Capital and Growth of Information and Communication Technology-intensive Industries: Empirical Evidence from Open Economies.’ Regional Studies. Oct2013, Vol. 47 Issue 9, p1403-1424. 22p. 11 Charts.

 

Ibarra, H. and Hansen, T. (2006). Are You a Collaborative Leader? [online]. Available from: < http://img.gotomeeting.com/g2mimages/ad/pdf/areYouACollaborativeLeader.pdf > [Accessed 20 February 2014].

 

Donald Fan. (2013). Proof That Diversity Drives Innovation. [online]. Available from: < http://www.diversityinc.com/diversity-management/proof-that-diversity-drives-innovation/ > [Accessed 20 February 2014].

 

Rachel Murdock. (2012). What Are Some Advantages of Diversity in Teams? [online]. Available from: < http://www.ehow.com/info_8543211_advantages-diversity-teams.html > [Accessed 20 February 2014].

 

Katherine.L. (2012). ‘Developing diverse teams to improve performance in the organizational setting’. European Journal of Training & Development. Vol. 36 Issue 4, p388-408. 21p.

 

Hamilton. (2004). ‘Diversity and Productivity in Production Teams’. [online]. Available from: < http://apps.olin.wustl.edu/faculty/hamiltonb/wpapers/Diversity%20and%20Productivity%20in%20Production%20Teams.pdf >. [Accessed 20 February 2014].

 

Cora. (2009). ‘Culture Notes — Different Customs In Different Cultures’. [online]. Available from: < http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=culture-notes-different-customs-in-different-cultures >. [Accessed 20 February 2014].