Although there are many famous and inspiring leaders in the business field, I always admire and respect them. In my opinion, the one who really inspires me a lot is my department manager as I work in a luxury brand store in the UK.

Here I just call the manager as Mr. D due to the private information regulations. Mr. D is a decent, reliable and warm-hearted person which I believe as a good leader should have. At daily work, he has big smiles to every employees and customers. He takes responsibilities of the manager’s work as requires, besides, he always help his subordinates to do their work on the shop floor. I think this action will be really inspiring as he doesn’t have to do such basic work as a manager. Instead, he could just point a finger and ask someone to do it. His leading inspired me on how a good leader is not only thinking about himself, but also his people, and the dedication one can give. I think to stand on your employees’ side and try to think and understand what they are experienced is the most important think to be a effective leader in the future.

Another detail which drives me to notice that the reason why he is a very good leader and loved by his subordinates is his carefulness. In a big store which has more than one hundred employees, he can actually remember almost everyone’s shift. When he finished a whole busy day’s work, he spoke to one of his employee, “see you next Monday”. To my surprise, he got a day off after that day and he could remember the next time he would work together with that part-time colleague. I’m not sure such quality is required as this store’s department manager. However, it makes me a deep impression and motivated.

In the near future I would like to get a job as a manager where I will work to achieve the organisation’s goals by setting objectives, planning, organising, directing and controlling tasks, resources and people in an effective way (Mullins 2013). But being just a manager is not enough for me. Not all managers are leaders and I don’t want to just manage teams, I want to lead a team as I mentioned above and I believe I have the determination and personality to do so.

I believe the main purpose of a leader is to influence people’s behaviour or actions to be able to work with them as a team, inspiring and motivating them to move towards a shared vision (Mullins 2013).

Read More

“Which personal style should managers adopt to ensure success? What is the most effective approach to managing the work of subordinates? These questions have been extensively researched and debated over the last century, and while the general consensus has moved away from ‘command and control’ to management and leadership towards more consultative and participative approaches”(CMI 2013)

 

When refer to the above questions that be submitted in the argument, I found myself have no idea of each question. First of all, in my opinion, personal style is all about personalities, it could be formed by several elements. However, even psychologists cannot give a precise definition about it. How can we name one personal style to ensure any kind of success.

maybe there is no way to find the same leaves in the forest but based on the social identity theory people do share similar personalities, like you cannot find the same leaves but will be easily find something similar around. Therefore, the attitudes toward change shall differ from person to person. I like challenges while changes make me a better performance than others, which strengthen my reflexs. it’s quite reasonable that others hate the change because they have to readjust their actions to build a new reflexs to make the life easier. However, the change shall be different while the personalities are diverse. Some change may from top to bottom while the others may from bottom to top. We can’t easily judge which pattern will be strongly resisted. For instance, the change of fashion from bottom to top may bring similar resistance as top to bottom, consumers happily accept the Kate Spade and Michael Kors from nobody know to fashion brand while hollister (A&F) turning from popular teenager brand to have to cut off brand logo. Therefore, the fact of change is simple but complex as well, it heavily depends on the person themselves those personalities they have.

Indeed, the personalty is solid and hardly to influence. Based on these views, Mullins concerned little manipulation can do to solve the resistances. Actually, as I mentioned the person may unique but the identities are shared which there may find the regulations among the diverse personalities and finally track the solutions. Hashim(2013) defined change management as “when the organization decide to alter the present mode of business activities into a new one style or model to cope with rapid changes of the business world, but keep in mind the profit maximization factor” he studied this area to facilitate the management for organization, all the processes referred to change and the strategies to reduce the resistance. In his change management article, two approaches were presented. One called force field analysis approach which there is one primary force to disturb the change and managers must identify this force to reduce the resistance. Another approach called implementation tactics, they like a set of strategies to reduce the resistance, which at least one of them will work. These tactics include top management support, participation, negotiation, communication and education and coercion. I think this theory may become a good explanation to distinguish between a leader and a manager. For example, some people may have a job title as ‘manager’ in a group of people. They have to take responsibilities literally, they have to make a plan and organize how to make their plan work well. However, if the person do not have the so called ‘leadership’, he or she may be replaced by someone else who always be at the forefront, very pro active and even pro offering solutions in the group. In other words, the ‘real leader’ outstands beyond its title, the person who may inspire and motivate others.

Beneath is the “Watsons 7s framework” and a table that clearly differentiates the duties and attributes of leaders and managers.

To sum up, managers maintain and administer while leaders innovate, and develop. In a word, I believe that management is a kind of leadership, but focus on more details. On the other side, leaders have to not only manage the work and subordinates, while it requires more general management ability to balance and control the overview. Furthermore, leadership cannot be a part of management because managers do not necessarily have to lead, motivate or inspire subordinates.

Reference:

Popovici V. (2012)  Similarities and differences between Management and Leadership. University of Târgu Jiu. 2

Mullins, L. and Christy, G. (2013) Management Et Organisational Behaviour. Harlow: Pearson

Ratcliffe, R. (2013) What’s The Difference Between Leadership And Management? [online] available from <http://www.theguardian.com/careers/difference-between-leadership-management&gt; [2 June 2015]

Watson, C.M. (1983) Leadership, Management and the Seven Keys- business Horizons. 8-13

BusinessDictionary.com, (2015) What Is Authoritarian Leadership? Definition And Meaning [online] available from <http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/authoritarian-leadership.html&gt; [25 June 2015]

Theories of leadership (2015) Ten Leadership Theories In Five Minutes[online] available from <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKUPDUDOBVo&gt; [2 June 2015]

 

The media always due the diversity trend to a result of globalization, but they never pointed out the key factor behind this trend is a rise of eastern countries. Professors, managers and leaders discuss about this trend from the view of western and try to analysis the fact then find a solution. However, how many of them have ever learned the culture of eastern? They can’t figure an effective solution because they never lower down their back and have a humble attitude toward so-called subordinate culture.

Under this kind of condition, leaders tried to build some diversity teams to produce a better result, however, the results seems that they only stay on a theoretical level. McGrath, Berdahl, and Arrow (1995) defined “a diverse team is a group of two or more people and typically refers to demographic differences of one sort or another among group members.” According to a report by Australian Centre for International Business (2002), only well managed diverse teams have better performance than homogenous teams which means unmanaged diverse teams are worse than normal ones. Without proper management, the diverse teams may produce high turnover, low productivity, and low satisfaction and so on. Therefore, not every diverse team performs better.

Of course, with proper management a diverse team can produce both quality and quantity benefits. These advantages include a great pool of thoughts, networks with information and mental models. Organizations seek to form high efficient teams while a well managed diverse team performs as expected.

Hofstede’s model could help us to get deep a understanding about different national culture by 5 indicators. Especially, compare western with eastern, we can see how different culture influences an organization. As Trinadis and Singelis (1998) indicated a diverse team leader shall have at least basic knowledge about group members, but not study explore the correlation between the extent of followers’ background and team performance, refer to the last topic “ethical leader perform better” which I proposed closeness may bring better performance regardless of ethical or unethical leadership. With increasing extent of understanding about followers, leaders may promote the performance of a diverse team. However, will it be necessary for a leader? It depends, if you locate the company in the largest eastern world—China, you will find over 95% employees are Chinese and only a few conflict could attribute to diversity (Zheng, 2012). What’s worse, HR prefers to find similar employees rather than special ones. So, the ability of uniting diverse people together may not a must-have for Chinese leaders. What about western leaders? Let’s check it out in fashion industry. A recent fashion show in New York “met ball” welcome his annual theme: “China: Through the Looking Glass”. Those gorgeous dresses look perfect on ladies and reflected the understanding of western toward Chinese factors. However, from the views of Chinese, this show is full of entertainment. From the obvious factor of the Japan to exaggerate skirts, fashion designers are expressing their poor ideas about eastern. You shall never doubt that they have a team and that team consists of at least one Chinese member. Have they really considered the opinions from them or just pick some western-preferred ideas？ From this view, to learn something about diverse teams is a must-have for leaders in today’s multi-culture work context in most of world.

http://www.vogue.com/tag/event/met-gala/

Al in all, to truly build a diverse team and make a better performance than homogenous team seems will stay on theoretical level for a period. So please, don’t waste your time until one day someone can compete with you just because they embraced the diversity.

Reference

McGrath, J. E., Berdahl, J. L. and ARROW, H. (1995). Traits, expectations, culture, and clout: The dynamics of diversity in work groups. In S. E. Jackson and M. M. Ruderman (Eds.), Diversity in Work Teams. Research Paradigms for a changing Workplace, 17-45.

Vogue (2015) [online] available from New York City: <http://www.vogue.com/tag/event/met-gala/>.

Mullins, L. and Christy, G. (2013) Management Et Organisational Behaviour. Harlow: Pearson.

Sammartino, A,; O’Flynn, J and Nicholas, S. (2002) Managing Diverse Work Teams: A Business Model for Diversity Management. Australian Centre for International Business.

Hofstede, G. (2011) ‘Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model In Context’.Online Readings in Psychology and Culture 2 (1).

Zheng, M ., Chin, L., and Stoyan, T. (2012) ‘The NPD team conflict: insights from cultural diversity and geographical dispersion’. Innovative Marketing [online]8(3), Available from<http://businessperspectives.org/journals_free/im/2012/im_en_2012_03_Zheng%20Ma.pdf > [8 June 2015]

People have discussed the questions, such as “What type of style managers should obtain to lead to success?” over the last few decades. While some people believe that management and leadership can be more consultative and participative if authoritarian has been moved, there are still other alternatives vary with ranging circumstances and individual specific situation.

To start with, there are some differences between management and leadership. Firstly, the definition of two concepts is different. Management refers to the process of getting activities completed efficiently and effectively with and through other people and it tends to viewed more in terms of planning, organizing, directing and controlling the activities of subordinate staff. It is more task-oriented. Leadership, however, is a process or action that affects the actions of an organized group and pays more attention to communicating, motivating, encouraging and involving people, which is more people-oriented. Secondly, management and leadership have different ways to approach tasks. People usually use diverse strategies, rules, methods, ideas or a combination to achieve the goal under a good management. Leadership, on the other hand, is more likely depending on leaders’ personal charisma and personality to motivate and solve problems.

Having said that, similarities of management and leadership cannot be neglected. Both two sectors require good social skills, which involve the ability to direct and lead people to do things. For example, can you persuade people to your point of view without any aggressive behaviours? Regardless of management or leadership, the results of eliminating misunderstanding and solving conflicts are desired. Apart from that, management and leadership mutually influence each other. Good management reflects an effective leadership, and an effective leadership cannot leave without a good management, which are causal relationship.

The program of planned change and improved performance developed by Kurt Lewin involves the management of a three phase process of behaviour modification.

Unfreezing: This stage refers to understanding of need for change and improvement

Movement : Change is a process and at this stage where expected to the implementation of change

Refreezing : This is the last stage where stabilizing of change occurs and new principles or norms support the change.

According to Mullins these are ‘Selective perception, habit inconvenience or loss of freedom, Economic implications, Security in the past, Fear of the unknown are some of them. Organisational resistance is very different from individual ones. Organisational culture, maintaining stability, investment in resources, past contracts or agreements, threats to power or influence’ (Mullins, 2013)

Personally, I believe that the most effective approach to ensure success is managers should have very strong personality and personal charisma. The position of manager is playing key role in a company or an enterprise, due to the fact that they are the group of people most likely to make big decisions and evaluate potential encountering risks. If managers have sound personality and great charisma, employees are more likely to be influenced and encouraged by their leadership, so that the team is more united instead of lacking of motivation to achieve a goal. For instance, Jack Ma, who is the founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, understands that you will never be able to convince every single employee, business partner, and potential investor to trust you or believe what you say. Accepting that and changing your approach is another key to his massive success. Instead of uniting his company under the vision of one person, he unites them under a common goal. The vision is more important than the leader.

 

As a result, the way how managers deliver to working subordinates is essential within company’s culture. Traditionally, companies used to have authoritarian and democratic bureaucratic leadership in their cultures. Nowadays, however, it is a totally different society. People tend to communicate frequently with each other, so does an enterprise. If I was a team member, I would like the management and leadership of a company hear different voices, thereby reinforcing its structure and development. If people keep doing in commanding and controlling way, it would trigger subordinates’ negative responses, such as low motivation and enthusiasm, even worse resignation, which is not good for a company.

In conclusion, there are some differences between management and leadership, but they connect and coexist with their similarities. Leader’s personal charisma and influential personality play a vital role in a success of a company, and the way they represent to their working subordinates determines enterprise culture and the ability whether they can maintain their talented.

Reference:

8 Keys to Success from Jack Ma, Self-Made Billionaire and CEO of Alibaba, [online] available from <http://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/8-keys-success-from-jack-self-made-billionaire-and-ceo-alibaba.html>[ 20 June 2015].

Mullins, L.J. (2013) Management & organisational behaviour. 10th edn. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Leadership and management similarities, [online] available from <http://www.streetdirectory.com/etoday/leadership-and-management-similarities-clpwaa.html> [ 20 June 2015].

Leadership vs management, [online] available from aa<http://www.diffen.com/difference/Leadership_vs_Management> [ 20 June 2015].

The first thing that jumped into my mind when I heard about ethical leadership was a very famous experiment about peer pressure in social psychology. Solomon Asch (1950) was curious about how does peer pressure interact with commands from legitimate authority. The main conclusion of this experiment result was that the degree to which an individual’s own opinions are influenced by those of a majority group. In terms of conformity in business context, the term which requires us to pay more attention on should be the leadership. It may make unexpected effect on the organization, even all the employees inside.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00f8mzrwith

Based on the article of the attached statement on assignment briefing, the results showed the ethical leadership are positively related to organizational trust, satisfaction, and effectiveness (Craige, Paul, & Laurie, 2012), They supported the definition of ethical leadership by Brown, Trevino, and Harrison (2005), in this definition the leadership seems that focus on the small connection between leaders and followers, which may lead to a conclusion that direct supervisors have more influence on employees than CEOs (Craige, Paul, & Laurie, 2012). It may due to the closeness between leaders and followers, no much concern about the difference between direct supervisors and CEOs which means the CEOs could have more influence on followers. Ellis and Shockley-Zalabak (2001) supported this hypothesis that the top manager has strongest influence on followers. Which factors will be the key factor to make clear of this conflict may need more study. One hypothesis may be the closeness between leaders and followers, David Kenny, the president of Akamai Technologies, applied similar tactics called “connector” to connect diverse social worlds together (Herminia & Morten, 2011). This example may partly indicate the importance of closeness rather than direct or indirect position. Besides, although the statement described the function of communication but they haven’t explained the condition of communication, which may divide into great communication or poor communication.

At this extent, communication became another very important element which influences leadership a lot. According to Edward, effective communication contribute to build a close relationship, which means a sense of intimate may be the factor behind the consist of ethical leadership. Next time may consider the two-level of trust such as close-trust, distant-rust and two-level of satisfaction like close-satisfaction, distant satisfaction. Then test the correlation between ethical leadership and these factors.

However, as an ethical leader was proved to have a positive effect on work effectiveness will leaders ingratiate themselves with followers may extremely expand the positive effect? According to Craige, Paul, and Laurie (2012), trust, satisfaction and effectiveness are highly correlated. What if the leader try to satisfy followers and obtain more trust, will the effectiveness improve but the leader still stay unethical? For instance, Larry Ellison, unethical towards not only competitors also employees but Oracle still achieve great success. For instance, he demanded at least 100 percent sales growth of software for a period. These stressful factors are seems against the founding but the reward to employees are huge as well. Under this condition, even the unethical leaders can achieve high effectiveness. From these views, increasing the closeness may still the important factor to make a similar effect on followers and organizations, which is regardless of ethical or unethical.

In sum, the following study better figure out the confound effect from variables like closeness or rewards refer to ethical leadership. I personally believe the hypothesis that ingratiation towards followers will lead to a similar effect with ethical leadership. A very persuasive example is the culture in IBM, especially at the beginning of its founding period. The Watson family defined the origin culture in the company from their personal experience. They were decent, reliable, aspiring and smart. Although it was a kind of cult-like culture as the employees’ actions followed by leaders. IBM got a very succeed progress within their leader. The organization made a substantial profit and set up a good image across the world. On the other side, the 2008 San Lu milk scandal was a serious scandal in China. The company added something could poison infants into milk powder. When exposed to public, it destroyed the reputation and image of Chinese food exports and the trust between customers. It made more than 11 countries cancelled imports of dairy products from China and customers have to buy expensive dairy products overseas as no choices for them from local. (Zhuang,2008). It seems not only related to the leaders of dairy company, but also associated with the leaders of the quality supervision agency. The non-ethical leadership has strongly negative influences to customers and it’s really hard to recover once the relationship broken.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7720404.stm

Reference:

Craig E. Johnson, Paul M. Shelton, & Laurie Yates. (2012)  Ethical Leadership and Organizational Trust, Satisfaction, and Effectiveness. Thomas Edison State College 4(1), 3-19.

Mullins, L. and Christy, G. (2013) Management Et Organisational Behaviour. Harlow: Pearson

Inc.com, (2015) Measure (And Reward) Ethical Behavior [online] available from <http://www.inc.com/jeffrey-pfeffer/measure-and-reward-ethical-behavior.html&gt; [10 June 2015]

2015, 1. (2015) 10 Most Ethical Ceos Of 2015 | Onlinemba.Com [online] available from <http://www.onlinemba.com/blog/10-most-ethical-ceos-in-corporate-america/&gt; [9 June 2015]

ZHUANG, S. (2008) Formula For Disaster [online] available from <http://www.economist.com/node/12262271&gt; [20 June 2015]