Leadership essay

Studies of leadership styles are quite diverse in their nature. (O’Regan, Ghobadian, 2004). Some authors even insist that we don’t actually need the term ‘leadership style’, there is really only influencing or managerial style. (McCrimmon, n.d.)

Taking into account the common knowledge of the leadership styles in the mentioned above countries I would form three smaller working groups.

The first group: Mexico and Japan

First group would include Japan and Mexico, because they both have a similar leadership styles. I would make a conclusion that their leaders are both results-oriented.

Japan has a much defined results-oriented leadership and high concern with maintaining harmony in the group’s communications. Therefore Japanese usually feel deeply reactions to people and things not readily expressed and will withhold own opinions to help the group.  

Mexico has a results-oriented leadership too, although on the contrary to Japan, its main capability is a very extravert behavior. Extravert style means that leader will solve the problems by talking. These extravert manners will not irritate Japanese leaders because of their politeness and high level of agreeableness.

I presume that Mexico will feel comfortable to take an administrative role in this group and Japan may manage strategic part of the rescue operations.

The second group: China and Czech Republic

The members of next group are China and the Czech Republic.

It was a complicated task to choose the right partners for Chinese leaders in order to form an effective rescue team.

China has a business-oriented leadership, but in this country, where introversion is the norm, leaders tend to be more introverted and they usually prefer to work individually.

Czech Republic has rather results-oriented and business-oriented leadership. In general, Central European transitional countries have inherited their leadership style from previous communist system, so sometimes they can have such characteristics as autocracy and paternalism. Although the changes in social economic life have happened, old bureaucratic leadership behavior cannot be substituted with different behavioral manners in a short period of time. (Warner, 2005).

  It means that Chinese and Czech leaders will find mutual similarities in their backgrounds and experiences and it may help them to build an effective team work. Again, we may make a presumption that Czechs will be have administrative functions and will be responsible for communications, while Chinese leaders would plan the activities.

I have to note it’s also important that indicated countries do not have any controversial political or cultural issues between them (as it would be in the case if China and the US be a one team).

  The third group: Canada and the US

The last group consists of the US and Canada.

U.S. has developed all kinds of leadership styles, such as fundamental-oriented, results-oriented, and business-oriented leadership. The fundamental-oriented style is a little bit more defined than others. (Lewis, 2006)

Canada resembles the US leadership style. Canadian leaders do not possess a well defined type of leadership, but they are probably more business-oriented. (Alanazi, Rodrigues, 2003)

Both countries’ leaders have an average emotional balance, they are rather direct, unemotional and have an average concern for group functioning.

This group would be very good coordinated, and responsibilities within the group would be divided proportionally. Though, there is a big chance the US leaders will have a general management over this group’s activites.

Challenges that companies face these days are powerful.  Obviously, global competition and constant technological development are important factors that may influence any organization. But it should be mentioned that in order to be able to respond to the modern challenges, organization should have a qualified team and strategically planned and implemented human resource policies.  How can the organization succeed in terms of its human resource policy? In the majority of cases, organizational success depends on the right choice of employees, corporate culture and wise management and inspiring leadership.

According to Chemers (1997), leadership is the process ‘of social influence in which one person can provide the support to others in the accomplishment of the certain task’. In addition, it is also ‘the ability to successfully integrate and maximize available resources within the internal and external environment for the attainment of organizational or societal goals.’ (Chemers, 1997)

This term paper is dedicated to the analysis of the best experience described in the modern studies about leadership of organizations and also to the research of the leadership and management structure of the prominent high technology Canadian company, Research In Motion.

The study of current thinking will help to understand the necessity of acquiring the leadership and management skills to be able to fulfill the work tasks. This term paper includes review of different aspects of leadership, such as leadership styles, motivation, communication, and problem solving, and stress management.

It’s utterly important for any organization to be efficient in attracting, retaining, and developing of the leadership talent. The nature of leadership in today’s complex, continuously changing environment constantly creates new challenges. Leaders have to be able to manage work teams, often across geographic and cultural boundaries.  Obviously, various theories of leadership exist. They study and review “traits, situational interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values, charisma, and intelligence, and other factors” (Chemers, 1997) It’s not true that the leadership is reserved for only a very few people. Leadership is not an ethereal trait and “it’s a myth that only a lucky few can ever decipher the leadership code.” (Bennis & Spreitzer, 2001)

Leaders should understand what should be done in order for them and for the organization to be effective; also they should know the critical processes of leadership, that is, how the functions fit together in the accomplishment of the certain task.

It should be remembered that leaders form the organizational culture. It is known that the behavior of the employees is strongly influenced by the beliefs and values of their leader. The leader’s personality becomes embedded in the entire culture of the organization. It imbibes the subordinates to its way of thinking and feeling.

1. Background

• Leadership and management

Although the definitions’ leadership’ and ‘management’ are often interchangeable and related, they aren’t equal. Management has a formal nature, while leadership is rather informal but may be supported by the formal attributes.

Leadership is about strategy and defining direction for the future of the organization; it is also about motivating and inspiring people. Vision-oriented leader clarifies direction, provides meaning, and motivates followers. Second element of leadership is the followers, because the relationship between leaders and followers are extremely important. The aim of leadership is to create the connection, the flow between leader and followers. Without the followers the existence of leadership is simply impossible. Touris and Hargie (2004) specifically note that leadership is more likely to occur in groups but it is equally important in interpersonal contexts. Management focuses on organization and order, on doing things right.

A leader is not a manager when this leader doesn’t hold any official managing position.  A manager is not a leader when a person holds managerial position but does not have true leader’s qualities. In the perfect situation, the formal manager should also be a leader, so these roles would match. Among the leadership styles the following major styles could be named: autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire style. Autocratic manager makes decisions without regard for subordinates. Democratic manager discusses work issues with his/her team and then makes a decision taking into account employee’s appeals and considerations. Laissez-faire style means the inspirational leadership style when employees have their areas and manager play a mentor’s role.

Continuous learning is important part of leadership development. It’s clear that the new ways for management and leadership should be found; and continuous learning and change will be the crucial for success. Learning competence and personal flexibility may change organizations.

Communication process is an art, and it needs to be effective; information should be appropriately shared; and we should listen to others carefully. (Sabol, 2011) Knowledge of communication styles equips person to communicate in a manner that seems open and is perceived as trustworthy. Four major communications styles were defined by researchers: the Emotive Style, the Director Style, the Reflective style and the Supportive Style. Information about communication styles could be effectively used at the workplace in order to enhance diversity, to improve the relationships between colleagues and management. The knowledge of communication styles may become a reason for success in organization, it may lead to promotion. An employee that effectively uses communication skills will be perceived as efficient in organizational communications.  This person will be able to find an approach to the various personalities and to communicate with them appropriately. The process of communication includes both verbal and non-verbal characteristics.  Efficient communicator is able to present any issue, even complex one, in an appropriate manner, using an appropriate words and verbal and nonverbal tools.

2. Current thinking

A variety of studies are dedicated to the issues of leadership and the influence of the leader on the performance of the organization.  Twenty one works were analyzed in the process of the present term paper’s preparation. The list of authors include Chemers (1997), Carayannopoulos (2005), Bennis & Spreitzer (2001), Fairholm (1993), London (2002), Sabol  (2011), Thomas & Adair (2004), Thompson (2003), Tourish & Hargie (2004), Manz & Bastien, Gambrell & Stevens (1992), Kudray (1997), Robins (2010) and others. In addition, the facts about the organizational structure and leadership approach of the researched company were gathered from two web sources including Forbes.

Effective leadership is extremely important, because chances for success of organization without effective leadership may be estimated as almost zero. Leaders should understand what should be done in order for them and for the organization to be effective; also they should know the critical processes of leadership, that is, how the functions fit together in the accomplishment of the certain task.

The following five core areas are crucial for any leader:

• Motivate team members to accomplish goals;
• Communicate assertively;
• Problem solve effectively;
• Build a team of cooperative workers;
• Manage stress effectively.

Thomas & Adair (2004) explain that motivation makes people moving forward, achieving goals and making progress in a task. The leader serves as the driving force, giving the motivation to the team. For instant, the leader may express the appreciation to the certain employee for his/her previous contribution. This way the leader will inspire this employee to work even better in the future. It will give the signs of motivation to this person, such as energy, commitment, willingness to work, and determination to achieve.

Leaders have to be able to break down complex situations and ideas into its essential components and delegate their functions to appropriate and capable persons.

Leaders are excellent simplifiers who are able to offer a straightforward solution. They are able to express the company’s strategies and directions that drive behavior in clear, crisp and unambiguous terms.

“Global business demands high quality, flexible, integrated operations. New organizational structures impose new directions for leadership. Leaders must know how to create new organizational designs to match their goals. They need to oversee the evolution of these business structures as market, economic and technological conditions change.” (London, 2002) Modern leaders have to recognize the value of new technologies and be able to communicate why they are needed. Leaders also should convey enthusiasm for the initiatives while employees are asked to do more work with fewer resources. Huge technological and economic changes, along with the expansion of the global economy, have increased the demands of the leadership role. There is more to learn, and there is a need to learn it faster than ever before.

• Team Building

Team building is the activities that help the leader/manager to make the team work together effectively. Team building may be applicable to the nurse profession. In order to succeed, the team needs to have the following attributes: defined membership, common goal, good interaction amongst its members, and dependence on each other. (Thomas & Adair, 2004)

Team properties that should be clear for the leader include background/history (or lack of it), participation amongst team members, communication, atmosphere, structure and organization and others. The factors which help a team come together are physical proximity, similar work, homogeneity (similar age, values and attitudes of team members), personality, communication, and size (smaller groups are much more likely to develop bonds between individuals). Team building can be accomplished through daily work activities by doing similar work together, or by discussing some issues together, by creating the friendly and trustful atmosphere among the employees.

• Problem solving

Problem solving is an important issue for leaders. Leaders have to be able to solve complex situation, because it’s needless to say that healthcare isn’t the easiest place to work in. Decision tree method may be a good help for the employees in solving problems. Additionally it should be noted that employees should be encouraged to solve problems on their own, using their knowledge and expertise, but in the complex cases they need to ask for their manager’s assistance. The problem solving process should include the following steps: data collection, problem statement, goal setting, intervention (discussion of the problem and possible options of solving it with the employee), and finally evaluation.

• Stress Management

Stress is an inevitable part of everyday life of any leader and any manager; therefore stress management is tremendously important method that may be used on a daily basis. Among the obvious signs of the stress, decreased performance, negative interactions, ineffective communication, inappropriate behavior could be named. There are various methods of dealing with stress that could be could be suggested to a manager, for instance, meditation, relaxation, walking.

Irrational thinking should be avoided by any manager. Irrational thinking is often based on judgments that people are making about certain situation and causes negative emotions.  Manager may use self talk method to control emotions in order to make our thinking more rational.

Irrational thinking may hinder my ability to become a good manager and a good leader by creating some negative (and also subjective) perceptions about certain things, people, events, etc. It may hide the real nature of the problem and lead to the further confusion. Irrational thinking will not help to solve a conflict or a problem, but may become a reason for both of them.

• Leadership in times of organizational change

Leadership in times of organizational change becomes a critical factor. Some authors claim that the basic skill of any successful manager and leader should be an understanding of the nature of change. Besides it, the manager should take a proactive role in the organization before, during and after the change. (Gambrell and Stevens, 1992) The major reason why the change is important is that in order to be successful in the modern business world organization should focus on constant improvement and on inevitable changing process.

What does the process of managing organizational change include? It includes the following stages:

• “Identifying the destabilizing forces
• Determining your alignment in the market
• Electing the appropriate methods to use
• Creating the most effective change strategy,
• Applying these elements in the most accurate way” (Kudray and Kleiner1997)

What are the major challenges of leaders in the process of change? The task of the top manager during the implementation of change may be so complicated. The basic condition of successful implementation of the change is, no doubt, an effective leadership. Employees should remember that the change is required from them too, not only from their leaders or head managers. The process of change should be done thoughtfully and include a proper preparation of employees. This way organization will be ready for the proper implementation of change.

• Innovative initiatives

Innovations are one of the challenges of the leaders. An innovative behavior should be demonstrated by leader in order to inspire employees and explain the values of the organization.  Innovations can be considered catalysts for shifts in decision making. Implementation or refusal from innovations may influence the competitive positions of the organization.  Leaders observe the behavior of other organizations in their organizational field, and their observation of innovative competitive activity can have various effects on their organization. Organizations with established routines and practices face a difficult task of incorporating change.   The ability to use innovations as competitive weapons gives organizations incentives to develop competencies to make their own innovations or understand those of their competitors.

Innovations suggest to decision makers that existing organizational procedures may be inadequate, which creates a problem for the organization. Routine responses are inadequate because innovations are novel, causing organizations to search for solutions through non-routine probing for information on the innovation and its implications for the focal organization. An innovation also creates decision-making opportunities by causing discussions about alternative strategies, increasing the probability that a decision to change the organization will be made.

• The ability to learn from corporate mistakes

Robins (2010) presents very educational examples of the organizations that haven’t learnt from their mistakes, although they had such opportunity, and powerful negative consequences of such decision making.  Management should always forecast the results of its strategic decisions and take the previous experience (both this company’s and competitors’) into account.

• Cultural sensitivity

The world is dramatically changing and so is the workplace.  Immigrants including expats, women, and minorities become the largest part of the global workforce. That’s is why, according to a number of reliable studies, such closely connected issues as ‘managing diversity’ and ‘cultural sensitivity’ play huge roles in the overall success of the whole organization. In order to achieve a market success, to become a leading company of its segment, organization should focus on managing culturally diverse groups and also on the efficient recruiting, training, and promotion of culturally diverse employees.  Silverthorne (2005) indicates that cultural differences play crucial role in understanding of social and organizational behavior. It means that culture is an important determinant of behavior.   Several important aspects of cross-cultural management are influenced by cultural differences. For instance, in accordance to some studies of organizational behavior, culture is significant and often defining factor in the daily life of organization.

Cultural values influence employee perceptions of the environment, expectations, and individual behavior. If people have different assumptions, then they will see events and react to them differently. People from different cultures approach problems differently and have different ways to resolve and apply solutions to problems.  Basically, the need in cooperation is even higher in the case when the company is diverse.  (Silverthorne, 2005) Therefore, the probability of failure may be reduced if organization is aware of cultural differences and cultural sensitivity. (Miller, 1994)

Leaders have to adopt the cultural sensitivity. Basically, it is an ability to accept other cultures. The knowledge about the cultural differences is an inevitable part of cultural sensitivity, because it provides the understanding what’s acceptable and what’s rude for a representative of each culture.  So, cultural sensitivity is understanding, accepting, and also awareness that cultural characteristics may affect the work relationship and the process of communication. Cultural sensitivity includes the understanding of traditions of other people, their way of living and beliefs, and excludes any prejudices and preconceptions that may be applied towards other cultures.  It should be added that the failure in cultural sensitivity may result in loss of the clients, market share, sales, and profits and finally, company’s reputation. The major skills that are needed to work with individuals with cultural differences are flexibility, ability to listen and hear others and personal commitment. An organization culture that supports flexibility is necessary so that HR specialists can manage effectively in a diverse environment

• High ethical standards

Establishment of the high ethical standards in the organization is an important condition of effective leadership.  The ethical principles of behavior may be fixed in the organizational codes of ethics that describe moral aspects of companies’ organizational cultures and ethical values. Ethic may be corporate (the ethics of the whole company) and individual (the ethics of the individual employee), but it influences all processes in organization and also it has a great impact on its achievements. Leaders need to think about ethical questions in everyday business activity and find new ways to understand and resolve the all of the conflicts, including cultural, they encounter at their work places. The appliance of the ethics and  cultural sensitivity in business means that first of all we need to be able to moral values more carefully and to understand more fully the reasons that underlie,  develop capacity for moral reasoning by learning to sort out all of the arguments that bear upon moral problems and apply them to concrete work situations. (Sims, 2002)

One key to resolving the uncertainty about what is or isn’t ethical behavior is being aware of the different ethical approaches that are used. This way leader can better understand the choices and the viewpoint of the opponent. Then, being more informed, leader is capable to resolve any conflicts.  (Scott, 1998)

3. Relationship to current/other organizations

It should be noted that the choice of the organization is not an accidental. The level of competition in the mobile telecommunications industry is extremely high. Research In Motion is known for its previous tremendous market success with its BlackBerry smartphone. But this company faced with the necessity of making the changes in the top management last year. The major reason of the changes in the company’s management was the poor market performance: it had lost to its closes competitor Apple Inc. in the U.S. in 2011. The company’s sales volumes and revenue continued to fall; and the decision of investors that demanded the change of the company’s top management was executed. New management has to introduce the new innovative approach including effective leadership aspect. As its new CEO indicates “As with any company that has grown as fast as we have, there have been inevitable growing pains,” “We have learned from those challenges and, I believe, we have and will become a stronger company as a result.”

It is known that the strong market leadership was one of the reasons of the previous success of the Blackberry-maker Research in Motion (RIM). It is also known that in 2008 this company was considered as a leader of the  local Canadian network called Communitech that involved more than 600 organizations that aimed to build a powerful technological cluster in that region.

The loss of the market share in the smart phone market by RIM is a substantial loss for the company and it has resulted in the significant decrease of the stock price of this company in the recent period. Obviously, the results like this (the loss of dominant position and the consequent layoffs of the company’s workforce in the amount of over 15,000) have some underlying reasons – they may be considered as the bad signs in terms of the situation with company’s management.  The lack of leadership skills at the stage of the recent layoffs, the lack of open discussion and the negative energy that surrounds the latest period of the company’s activity makes the assessment of the company’s management necessary.

The previous leaders of RIM Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are innovators and entrepreneurs, but the previous experience shows some lack of effective managerial skills, although directors obviously looked for balance between the entrepreneur leadership and general management leadership.

The major challenge for the company’s management is to connect the functional areas of their business activity such as manufacturing and sales and also develop better coordination in the organization in order to keep the competitive positions on the market. RIM is in the process of transferring from entrepreneur management model to more experienced and efficient leadership aimed to coordinate the internal processes in the company.

RIM’s corporate culture may be characterized by the following attributes: internet company-type; young; fast-paced development environment, casual and informal atmosphere; product-functional teams. Upper management level of this company may be described by the centralized decision-making.

It is clear that RIM is at a critical crossroad in terms of management and leadership issues, as many other fast growing startup business projects that were pioneers on the certain markets, so the situation with RIM and its problems isn’t unique. The core challenge for the company’s management is to provide a leadership shift from building the business to building the team of effective managers that will be responsible for building the business.

Researchers of the leadership indicate that corporate culture is one of the most significant factors of success, because it helps to implement the strategy, make the needed changes, and support innovative initiatives.  Without a doubt corporate culture depends on founders and executives.

According to Flannery (2012), the organizational structure of Research In Motion has been changed from a dual-CEO structure to one CEO structure. It puts this company in a stronger position along with the companies like Apple and Google. The companies with  dual-CEO structure, such as Samsung Electronics and Motorola that has a combined Chairman / CEO seems to have some governance problems.  (Flannery, 2012) According to this researcher, the less than 1% of the world’s largest companies have implemented a dual-CEO structure. Therefore a conclusion could be made that Research In Motion has adopted more efficient leadership and management model that the majority of the players of high technology market have. Also the article in Forbes mentions that the previous leadership structure of the company was heavily criticized by some of RIM’s investors.

The idea and features of the new leadership model for this organization may be taken from Google. Google may serve as example for the transformation of the organizational structure of Research In Motion. It is an outstanding multinational organization that efficiently operates in high tech fields, such as internet and complex business sectors such as advertising.  One of the reasons of its success is Google’s leadership strategy and its special management style. On the contrary to the traditional management structure, Google is characterized by an unconventional managing approach. This organization features a lean organizational structure and rotating leadership. The top management of the company believes that control is not an effective tool of the management of the innovative companies such as Google.

The leadership strategy that may be recommended for adoption by Research In Motion is transformation leadership. This concept works really efficient in such cases, because it helps to build relationship between leader of the company, middle level managers and followers. ‘It involves assessing followers’ motives, satisfying their needs, and treating them as full human beings. It is a process that subsumes charismatic and visionary leadership. In return, followers receive inner strength, guidance, and inspiration.’ (Spohn 2005)

What other recommendations could be suggested to RIM to improve the situation with management and leadership?

First of all, the attention of the company’s management should be concentrated on regaining the trust of the loyal customers and deciding who the major customer of company is: corporate customer or consumer? The second important element is the originality of product and innovations. The third element is the courage that is needed from the new RIM’s leader for strategic decision making during the time of organizational restructuring. The fourth element is the last important element is the empathy because RIM has to start to listen to its stakeholders (the relations with investors and customers are critical factor of market’s success). Among the serious weakness of RIM’s management is the issue of timing.

Sustainability, flexibility with a focus on niche product, stability, appropriate procedures support, performance, and consistency should be among the major priorities of RIM’s management in the nearest time.

Conclusion

Present term paper reviews aspects that are vital for effective leadership and management of the international company. A conclusion could be made that there are five major skills that are significant factors of leader’s success:

• Motivate team members to accomplish goals;
• Communicate assertively;
• Problem solve effectively;
• Build a team of cooperative workers;
• Manage stress effectively.

Regarding the leadership issues of the Research In Motion that are currently critical for this organization, a presumption could be suggested that it’s new organizational structure that been changed from a dual-CEO structure to one CEO structure will make its work more efficient and the new leadership approaches, and new initiatives will result in the market growth of this company.