Effective Leadership and Knowledge Management

The provided text revolves around organisational development and change management. It suggests that acquiring firms should focus on job security to motivate employees, who are a valuable asset, to utilise their skills and knowledge effectively. The text also emphasizes the significance of leadership in leading organisational change and implementing strategic talent management practices. It draws from various sources, including books, journals, and online resources, to provide insights into organisational development and employee engagement.

Leading and Managing
Organisational Resources

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report is based on the acquisition which is done by a big corporation. Co. A is facing
the problems relating to retrenchment because of change in leadership. Their are different
challenges in integrated leadership but this does not means that one should not ignore
opportunities. Situational leadership is adopted by Co. A in past but new leaders have adopted
autocratic leadership. Change in leading style create confusion among employees and
stakeholders also. Matching model and people performance model are applied in this case. Prior
one is not very effective because it ignore key issues like work-life balance but later one can be
used for attaining the goal of best use of available resources. Acquiring company should focus on
two key areas, one is training to employees and other is addressing the issue of job security.
SPEAR team has proven their effectiveness in past along with situational leadership style and
same strategy can be adopted for upcoming time in order to gain desired result. Acquiring
company should think about tactic of “why fix it when its ain't broken”.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................1
Challenges and opportunities in integrated leadership and operational management................1
Theories and models which assist in decision making and improving performance..................2
Evaluation of cases by applying relevant theories......................................................................4
Knowledge, skills, ability and approaches required for effective utilisation of available
resources......................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Managing resources is now considered as one of the biggest challenge which is faced my
many multinational and small organisation. Earlier these companies were more concerned about
how to they get necessary assets for operating in market but now the are coping up with the
problems of optimum utilisation of available resources (Renz and Herman, 2016). Co A is a 200
year old engineering enterprise who is running their business in Asian countries like India, China
etc. They are also running their operations in USA and UK also. This assignment is based on a
site where company is working. Around 120 people are part of this project which is present at
Luton, Bedfordshire. Ca A is acquired by another big corporation. This project will discuss about
challenges and opportunities for new enterprise along with the issues relating to leadership. It
will also cover some theories and models for removing obstacles and improving performance of
whole organisation.
Particular set of skills and approachers is necessary for assuring that company uses their
resources in best way possible. Finding and explaining this knowledge is another aim of this file.
Resolving organisation problems is important because they make a negative impact on revenue
of enterprise. Most of the employees resist changes due to fear of uncertainty. It is human nature
but it can be changed by adopted an effective and consistent approach. Understanding the impact
of changes in organisation structure is significant for maintaining the same progress and attaining
long term objectives of big corporation.
ANALYSIS
Challenges and opportunities in integrated leadership and operational management
Their are various forms of leadership like democratic, autocratic, situational etc. As
mentioned earlier, human being do not support change in most of cases because they think that
present position is the best place and if someone will make some alterations then they may fail to
learn new thing or adopt new working style (Doppelt, 2017). Below are some challenges relating
in integrating leadership, operations management and contribution of information system in
process of decision making:
Resistance from the side of employees – When there is a major change in leadership,
worker and other assets of an organisation get severe impacted by it. Employees raise voice
against new against new leader because he/she has different working style which is normally out
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of the comfort zone of many personnels. Unionism can be considered as a big threat in this case.
Gaining confidence of human resource and motivating them is a big challenge in integrating
leadership.
Confusion and problems with stakeholders – When two companies merge with each other
or one organisation acquire another enterprise then a major change happen in procedure and
process of working (Sparrow, Hird and Cooper, 2015). It is happens because of organisational
culture and philosophy. Changes in operational management may negativity impact relationship
with stakeholders. It is an issue which covers various areas like technological alterations,
changes in values etc.
Opportunities in integrating leadership and operations
 Their is no doubt that two types of leaders will work together then problems will generate
but one should also focus on positive side of this challenge (Anderson, 2016). When a big
corporation acquire smaller one then they try to remove all the shortcomings and
restrictions which is may hinder acquired firm in performing according to the expectation
of big corporation. Merger and acquisitions allow both companies in removing the
problem regarding scarcity of resources. Every leader has his/her own leadership style.
When worker work under different kind of leaders then they learn more things. Integrated
leadership can play crucial role in creation of new leaders.
 Whenever there is a change in leadership style, it also affect operations and financial
management of a company. Productivity of an organisation may increase when two firms
work together and understand each others operations (Strategic Management:
Formulation and Implementation, 2014). When employees has to work under different
organisational culture then they learn more things and can be seen at the time of
performance appraisals. Cost of business of a company can go down by eliminating flaws
which are present in operational management. It is essential for increase profits.
Theories and models which assist in decision making and improving performance
Manager of different organisations understand that they have to use and apply different
models and theories for attaining desired results. Below are some concepts which help in the
process of decision making and improving performance of employees:
Matching model – This is a framework which is popular for less humanistic approach.
This theory argues that workers should be treated like other assets. They must be recruited at less
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salary and spending money on them is not a good idea. Co A was focusing on welfare of their
human resource but after acquisition, employees have to work under autocratic leadership and
company has started following matching model. They are firing workers because and disbanded
SPEAR teams. Mentioned framework focuses on four key areas i.e. selection, appraisals,
rewards and development. Co. A is facing the problem of losing talent because acquiring
company only want to recruitment those people who fits in new jobs. They are not considering
the options of training current personnel because they are working on matching model.
Expenditure on employees is equal to wastage of money for them (Wehrmeyer, 2017). At the
time of performance appraisal, they are only checking the actual work which is done by a
worker. They do not care about advice and experience of personnels.
Autocratic leadership is adopted by a leader when he/she think that his/her subordinates
do not possess much skills and leader has more knowledge compared followers. This harder
approach has gained lot of criticism and its application will not support acquiring company in
complex decision making. Mission, vision and strategies of both companies differs.
Organisational structure and human resource management will get affected by external forces
like political and economic changes (Jain and Moreno, 2015). Acquiring organisation may be
making decisions of firing employees in order to cope up with external changes. Performance of
current employees will improve if they will get the message of ''perform or perish''. Fear is
another kind of motivation which can increase efficiency of worker and force them to expand
their limits. One can say that it is less humanistic but it is difficult to raise questions on its
effectiveness.
Another model which can be applied in this case for supporting decision making process and
positively improving performance of employees is People and Performance model:
This model basically has four parts, training and development, performance appraisal, career
opportunity and job security. They are connected to each other. Below is critical analysation of
these points:
 Training and development – At the time of recruiting new employees, Co. A has to focus
on ability and skills of potential candidates. They have fired few worker because they fail
to adapt the change or their was a big question mark on their learn-ability. Autocratic
approach would not work for acquiring company for a long time. They have to
concentrate on increasing job satisfaction of current employees but motivating (Omotayo,
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2015). If personnels will get opportunity to participate in decision-making process like
old time then may not raise the issues relating to working life balance and new challenges
at job.
 Performance appraisal – Checking performance of employees in regular interval of time
is important for company and personnel also. Their are few areas which are considered
for evaluation of work done by human resource like implementing, enacting, leading and
controlling.
 Career opportunities – Every employees in Co. A want to succeed in his/her career but
recent acquisition by big cooperation shows that existing workers have to work on their
ability and develop a High Performance Working (HPW) culture in the firm. HPW is a
concept which can play significant role in increasing the trust between management and
employees. It may result in involvement of worker at the time of making important
decisions.
 Job security – This can be considered as the biggest issue for human resource of Co. A.
Workers can never give best result when they have concerns about job security. In order
to improve performance of personnels, acquiring firms need to concentrate on assuring
every worker that they job is secure and they will not be fired even if they fail to deliver
expected results (Evans, Dalkir and Bidian, 2015). Currently assurance of employment is
stopping employees from expanding their limits.
Evaluation of cases by applying relevant theories
If employees will fail to understand the reason behind change in leadership then they will
never cooperate with management and problems of redundancy will not end. In present scenario,
management is do not want to keep those employees in the organisation who do not possess
required skills. Below are some theories which can be used for evaluation of complex cases:
Situational leadership – This approach of leadership states that every leader has to make
essential changes in his/her leadership style in order to assure optimum utilisation of resources
and attaining better results. This model is inspired by contingency theory which argues that there
is not a single strategy which can be used for resolving every kind of problem (Matthews, 2015).
In present situation, autocratic leadership is hampering organisational performance because
instability in workforce is stopping employees from concentrating on their targets. Earlier,
employees were happy with situational leadership even if autocratic style is adopted. But now
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they do not support present leader. If this model of leading an organisation is adopted again then
optimum level of performance can be expected from the side of workers and proper
synchronization can be done at the time of utilising available resources.
Knowledge, skills, ability and approaches required for effective utilisation of available resources
Acquiring company should get basic knowledge about the current working style of
employees so they can achieve desired results. Co. A should get information about organisational
process and people who are working in this company (Gomes, Barnes and Mahmood, 2016).
They should try to understand nature of workers as it differs from person to person. Current
workforce required skills relating to handling pressure. Change in leadership has impacted their
working and they must learn some tricks regarding how to manage workload and work is
different condition. Human resource is the most important assets which is present in this
organisation. Past success of this firms shows that impressive work by employees raised their
valuation and helped then in earning more revenue. By providing training to workers and
involving them in the process of decision making, acquiring firm can make sure that they utilise
available resources in best manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that Co A was doing well until they were
acquired by another company. Most of the problems are occurring because of changes in
leadership style. Earlier Co. A was operating under situational leadership but now new leaders
are not considering options of employees at the time of making any decision and they have
adopted autocratic leadership for running organisation. These issues are resulting in redundancy
which is not good of this company in long run. Job security is a major concern which is creating
hindrance in proper use of available resources. If employees do feel their importance in the
company and they always have a fear that they can become an obsolete asset anytime then they
will not fail to focus on their work and it will hamper their performance. This will ultimately
result in failing to use human and other resources in best way possible.
Resistance from the side of employees happens when they are not considered in the
procedure of making decision. This is a big challenge for a leader because earlier organisation
was gaining better results when principles of situational leadership was followed but now
autocratic leadership has created various kind of hindrances. Integrating leadership generate
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more opportunities to an enterprise but at the same time it can generate more challenges to an
organisation like for Co. A. This report proves that integrated leadership can create hurdles at
initial stage but if situational leadership is adopted and views of employee are taken in account
for making major decisions then aim of company can be attained and optimum utilisation can be
assured.
RECOMMENDATION
Acquiring company should check the reasons behind past success of Co. A. They must
leave autocratic leadership style and think about adopting situational leadership because it was
main reason behind past success of the company. They should create SPEAR teams for every
project in order to increase productivity of employees. If worker will get proper training and they
will be included at the time of taking significant decisions then it will motivate them to use
organisation resources in better way. Employees are also an important asset and acquiring firm
should make sure that they utilise them in best way possible. In present scenario, organisation
should concentrate on job security of workers because they are this can be considered as the key
reason behind poor performance and uselessness of personnel.
Same workers has given surprising results in past but fear of loosing jobs is restricting
them in improving their productivity. Leader of acquiring firms should communicate the a
message that job of every employee is safe. Once they will not have issues relating to job
security then they can focus on their work and manage organisational resources including
themselves in better way. If big corporation, who has acquired Co. A, want to increase
knowledge and skills of employees then should providing training to them and motivate them to
do hard work instead of announcing them useless.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Anderson, D.L., 2016. Organization development: The process of leading organizational
change. Sage Publications.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Evans, M., Dalkir, K. and Bidian, C., 2015. A holistic view of the knowledge life cycle: the
knowledge management cycle (KMC) model. The Electronic Journal of Knowledge
Management. 12(1). p.47.
Gomes, E., Barnes, B.R. and Mahmood, T., 2016. A 22 year review of strategic alliance research
in the leading management journals. International business review. 25(1). pp.15-27.
Jain, A.K. and Moreno, A., 2015. Organizational learning, knowledge management practices and
firm’s performance: an empirical study of a heavy engineering firm in India. The
Learning Organization. 22(1). pp.14-39.
Matthews, J.R., 2015. Assessing organizational effectiveness: the role of performance
measures. The Library Quarterly.
Omotayo, F.O., 2015. Knowledge Management as an important tool in Organisational
Management: A Review of Literature. Library Philosophy and Practice, p.1.
Renz, D.O. and Herman, R.D. eds., 2016. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and
management. John Wiley & Sons.
Sparrow, P., Hird, M. and Cooper, C.L., 2015. Strategic Talent Management. In Do We Need
HR? (pp. 177-212). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Wehrmeyer, W. ed., 2017. Greening people: Human resources and environmental management.
Routledge.
Online
Strategic Management: Formulation and Implementation. 2014. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://www.introduction-to-management.24xls.com/en105>.
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