Developing Leadership and Management Assignment Sample

Developing Leadership
and Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background to case study organisation..................................................................................1
Evolution and shaping of leadership and management theories............................................1
Critical evaluation and application of leadership and management approaches/theories......3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
A company consists of a large number of persons who work together in coordination and
cooperation in order to accomplish a specific objective. The foundation of organisational
structure is based on culture, values, norms and beliefs prevailing within the premises of
company. This can be exhibited only with the help of enigmatic as well as intellectual
management and leadership. This provides assistance to company in ensuring that that the
conduct of individuals and teams operating within the enterprise is in accordance with the
common goal of company. A healthy and optimistic working atmosphere can be facilitated only
with the aid of dedicated leaders and self-directed managers who intend to take the enterprise to
new heights by motivating the workforce in an appropriate manner. The present management
report is conducted upon the leadership and management analysis of USAID which is an
independent agency of US federal government that is involved in administration of development
assistance and civilian foreign aid. The following report contains critical evaluation of relevant
leadership theories along with design, execution and evaluation of appropriate leadership
development interventions.
Background to case study organisation
USAID has been selected as the organisation for this assignment. USAID stands for
United States Agency for International Development which is one of the biggest official
financial aid agencies across the globe, having an overall budget of approximately $27 billion.
This governmental agency accounts for over 50% of the United States foreign aid. This entity
has been prevailing since the year 1961, when this was developed under Foreign Assistance Act.
This is found to be an official inclusion of US foreign policy whereby the organisation
functions in accordance with the supervision of Secretary of State, President and National
Security Council. The respective agency has missions within almost 100 nations, especially in
Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. By the year 2016, the total
employees in USAID were 10,235 inclusive of 3,059 within Washington DC headquarters as
well as 7,176 within the field missions.
Evolution and shaping of leadership and management theories
The behavioural and operational conduct of workforce is constantly being studied by
researchers for a considerable period of time. The investigation as well as understanding of this
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conduct resulted in a field of study named managerial thought. Large scale production systems
within America during 1800 empowered companies to transform a large quantum of raw
materials into finished goods at a much low cost than past times. Improvement taken place
within sequential construction system innovation lead to the development of a broad assortment
of material merchandise. Such mechanical headways happened at such a rapid speed that a
certain extent of disorderly conduct took place. Majority proportion of industrial framework
during the ancient period viewed it as national productivity issue. Industrial companies were thus
found not to be as proficient as they should have been. Three problems lead to this. The first and
foremost was the issue of joint effort amongst personnel as well as machines. A number of
assembly line operators displayed concern over the possibility that substitution of machine
control with human handling would lead to disposal of several occupations. Workforce was
excessively physically apprehensive of big and loud risky production plant machinery. Second
reason was general lack of ability to run and operate significantly sized production plants
together with the companies that could lay out a large quantum of articles in order to ensure
reduction in per unit costs. As the proprietors as well as workers was not experienced in carrying
out work within the large setting, diverse set of expert structures were needed. In this relation,
standard types of working techniques were required to be designed as well as formulated.
Whatever efficiencies such strategies realized were balanced to a great magnitude by a general
profound personalization within the working atmosphere. Bigger business entities as well as
industrial corporations were simply found to possess much more drastic issues. As more and
more managers started to recognise the extent and magnitude of such problems, the more
scanning was done to develop solution for countering this. The scanning for solution gave rise to
the development of four effective and efficient ways for tackling the managerial decisions. These
are, namely, the classical approach (1800), the behavioural approach (1900), the systems
approach (1930-40) and lastly the contingency approach (1960).
Just as managerial approaches have their evolution owing to certain situations and
conditions, leadership approaches also have a prolonged history of evolution and development.
Both, approaches associated with leadership as well as management came into existence in order
to provide guidance and supervision to enigmatic leaders and managers in any company to
significantly deal with complex situations arising in the business environment of entity. In this
relation, the diverse set of approaches of management and leadership are taken into account by
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