Management Skills for Effective Leadership

This article discusses the soft skills required for effective leadership and management in organizations. It covers topics such as effective communication, team roles, and technology in human resource management. It also explores the legal and ethical responsibilities of stakeholders in organizations.

Running head: Management skills 1
Management skills
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Proper management comes from the adoption excellent leadership skills. To interact with
team members positively, a good leader has to possess some soft skills. In candidates hired for
leadership roles or positions, these are the skills that their employers do look during a job search.
A leader who applies these skills to his leadership can gain the trust of those around them hence
being of significant influence. People would also tend to love a leader with such excellent
leadership skills. Those article discusses some of these soft skills that a person needs to have so
as to be a good leader. However, the list of skills is so long and this text only focuses on a few
that are of importance (Crossbie, 2005). These management skills could help a business to rise
above its competitors as they foster unity in the company. A good leader should be one who does
not have to be probed every now and again because of some irregularities or unethical practices.
He should be a person with integrity and can protect the image of the organization at all costs.
Effective communication is a necessary tool that can help people work together in the
quest to achieve more. According to Belbin.com (n.d.), teams can work effectively in leadership
development, management training, and conflict management as well as employee engagement.
Formulating the constitution for effective teams can be enabled by their defined roles which
include social, action-oriented, and thinking roles. In an organizational context, the roles of the
teams provide directions on what is required of the team members. Therefore, establishing
leadership is the primary factor that can help foster trust through transparency and honesty. The
idea will enhance the judgment of leader hence prompting employees to have effective teams
with practical skills.
All business organizations are required always to maintain an effective communication
because every party needs to understand what message is being transmitted to them. For
instance, the leadership or management team in an organization are well equipped with

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communication skills to enable them always make the right moves when it comes to
communication (Evans et al., 2017). As a result, they ensure to engage in listening, manage their
stress and assert themselves in a manner that is respectable. This provides that their issues do not
affect their conveyance of the message.
According to Meredith Belbin, for teams to achieve their goals and objectives, it is
essential for all the team members to have well established and clearly defined responsibilities to
perform effectively (Belbin, 2010). To establish a more balanced team, organizations should
make sure that their team members understand their roles. Belbin suggests that particular roles
played by team members within an organization tend to be more extraverted while others are
introverted. According to Meredith Belbin, personal profiling system within an organization
depends widely on various factors such as alignment of organizational and individual goals,
leadership influences and reward systems among many others.
Through established team roles, a leader should try to learn and build relationships with
the team. The concept entails learning the motivational factors, personality trait the get the full
potential from individual workers. As a result, assigning roles among the team members,
especially the social roles will be enhanced to guarantee effective teams. Additionally, fostering
teamwork through encouragement and sharing of information can help strengthen the team and
discover weaknesses. Therefore, Belbin team roles can be used to identify the talents and the
roles of a team through analysis that enhances their effectiveness (Belbin, n.d.). Also, the
instrument of Belbin team roles can take a team to a higher level through identifying areas of
individual development which can result in a productive discussion with new insights.

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Arguably, it is not easy to show the relationship between the roles of team with a specific
personality of an individual within an organization. Also, despite having well established and
defined roles within a team, interaction between different people within an organization can lead
to conflicts. However, this can be avoided through embracing people’s diversity and differences
within an organization.
For organizational to be successful there is need to reorganize the workforce, system,
processes, and structures. In the change initiative experienced, the organizational budget had to
be restructured to accommodate the new initiatives. The workloads in the different departments
of the organization also had to be adjusted for successful execution of the initiative. If not well
implemented, adjusting the workload may be met with resistance from some members of the
workforce. The change initiative required information and data related to the organization. It
was, therefore, essential to adjust the systems to provide accurate information and analysis to
facilitate the improvement of data and information technology infrastructure.
Alignment of the change initiative required stakeholder commitment at all levels and the
management had to adjust the system of governance. Finally, it is important to note that change
initiatives come with considerable ambiguity and uncertainty. As such, the costs of the project
may not be defined precisely whereas the organization may be in doubt as to whether the change
will be successful. Other areas that culture affects change are the emotional impact on
employees’ habits and social dissatisfaction.
I will use the foundation of management skills in my future career in the field of
psychology. For instance, I will use organizational management to work in my future career in
the field of psychology. These are important because they will equip me with the ability to solve

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organizational problems and lead the company into success. I will also apply effective
communication by ensuring that I am more open about my opinions which may help in the
decision-making process. Working in groups will also strengthen me and lead to the success of
the company. Lastly, whenever conflicts arise between employees, I will use the resolution skills
to solve all problems and ensure each employee is comfortable in their working area.
Human Resource Management
Human resource management is an umbrella and a contemporary term that describes both
the management and development of employees in a company, organization or business. HRM
involves the overseeing of everything that relates to the management of an organization's capital.
Human resource management, therefore, entails a number of operations which include; staffing
and recruiting, benefits and compensation, learning and training, organizational development and
employees' relations. Human resources professionals are faced with a number of challenges in
their environments of work, and it is upon them to be prepared to handle the issues. Human
resource managers in today's business world must, therefore, understand how things work so that
they can be in a position to speak comfortably the language of business leaders which gives them
an impact that is measured and proven on the business objectives (Delaney, 2014).
The effectiveness of an improvement plan for human resource management
There has been a heated debate on the linkage between human resource management
practices and performance. It is widely believed that human resource management practices are
linked to employee performance via various human resource outcomes, for instance,
commitment, engagement, motivation, and competence. Nonetheless, linking human resource
outcomes directly to human resource practices is quite simplistic.

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The first step towards the implementation of these changes is the identification of these
shortcomings whether systemic or process related; the second stage will be looking for measures
and plans that address these shortcomings (Jackson, 2007). In analyzing these measures to be
taken the practitioners have first to ensure that these procedural changes indeed lead to the
desired outcomes, they also have to guarantee that these measures do not affect other sectors of
the system. The above ensures that the systems adopted are valid and reliable something that has
been advocated for by many organizations.
These measures are made possible through support from committed organizational
leaders who are involved both physically and financially. Organizational boards who are the
leaders, in this case, should work together with the necessary authority be it the government or
the civil society in a bid to ensure that there is a nationwide quality improvement. The patients
should also be included in these processes by being given a platform to give their feedback on
the quality of service delivery from the practitioners.
Impact of technology on Human resource management
It’s not long ago; business management solely depended on manual physical and
mechanical ways of doing things. According to Melville and Kraemer 2004 fundamental
dynamism have been witnessed from the way traditional businesses operate, relate and engage
with their both current and potential clients. Discovery of internets, mobile platform technology
and robust communication protocol which are affordable and seamless across all platforms: they
have created endless potential opportunities; they can be applied, thereby outcompeting and
occasionally outdating working structures that have existed for a long time.

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Times have gone where one had to visit the HR Office for accounting his or her work
done, time to arrive and leave the workplace and many more. With a button click or a phone call,
the HR can confirm any task pertaining to his or her office without leaving the office. In
addition, employees and client also enjoy similar benefits as well. In reference to Ulrich 2011,
technology is daily changing, influencing how businesses in the world operate. Its impact is
experienced in all aspects of the day to day operations of the business (Ulrich, 2011).
Communication inhibitors within the business world that have existed are being eliminated by
this revolution both commercial and technological.
Structural unemployment is often caused by advancement in technology which replaces
workers with robots, leaving them to retrain for new skills and positions. When this does occur,
the workers being replaced by these robots ought to get training in computer operations if they
want to continue working in the same industry. Most of them end up managing the robots in
doing work that they used to do. It is worth noting that not all of these workers are in the position
to access further training to continue carrying their duties and earning an income. As a result of
this, they completely lose their jobs and have to start all over again in search of something to do
which is always a tough thing to do.
Structural changes, therefore, may cause temporary to long-term unemployment due to
lack of skills by those who are experiencing a new world of technology. This forces many to
look for some training in other fields or train for new jobs. Even in situations where new jobs are
created, they usually land to those who are more skilled and educated. It, therefore, means that
whenever there is unemployment that has been as a result of technological advancement, the
effects are usually irreversible and hence many members of the society end up suffering in the
long run.

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Legal and ethical responsibilities affecting human resource management
In various degrees, the world of business will interact with the legal realm in some ways.
Law is essential in this world since different laws will affect the business operation. For
example, the Law of Contracts will have a considerable impact on business since business
relationships will need to be sealed through the use of a contract. There are various laws which
still have an effect on business, for example, the government laws such labor laws, tax laws, and
regulatory laws and so on. With this in mind, there are various skills which will be essential for a
non-legal person in the world of business and as an employee.
Legal training will be highly beneficial to a business person since for every business
transactions law will be involved. The legal training that the businessperson should have to make
firm decisions will focus on ethics and laws. Some various persons will fail to make the right
choices, and hence they will face ethical issues and legal issues as well. Ethics will be based on
what is morally right. For the legal part of the training, the training should highly focus on the
contract law since, in every transaction, a relationship shall be made.
The relationship can only be formalized through a contract. Understanding the basic rules
of a contract which will involve concepts such as an offer, acceptance, consideration and legal
capacity will be highly essential. The legal training will also include the training of government
laws which will have a significant impact on one business. Legal training in this sector will
prevent legal issues from arising, and the knowledge in these various laws will be helpful in
solving the legal problems plaguing the business.
There are various characteristics of stakeholders which include; a stakeholder is a person
who stands to gain or loss upon the failure or success of the organization. At any times, an

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organization may be faced by a crisis which may expose it to financial constraints. In this
situation, a stakeholder maintains his/her position of supporting the organization's activities until
the time it will catch up. Secondly, another characteristic of the stakeholder is being accountable
for the organization. In this case, a stakeholder should be accountable for whatever mess he/she
commits in the organization. This requires him/her to be questioned and therefore face the
repercussions in every mess they have committed.
Also, another trait of a stakeholder is participating in the project. Every stakeholder is
required in this case to give his/her input in the project whether he/she is not or is contented with
the project (Herremans, Nazari & Mahmoudian, 2016). This applies irrespective of the
stakeholder being happy to work with a project team or not. Besides, another characteristic of the
stakeholder is being affected by the output of the project. This means that a stakeholder is
responsible for the poor output of the organization and therefore, his/her becomes the center of
questioning or congratulatory if the organization has failed or has succeeded respectively.
Managers usually play an important role in encouraging employees in an organization as
well as supporting their managerial inventiveness. Research on the subject of managerial
administration has laid bare the necessity for managers to understand the culture and climate of
their organization in the achievement of organizational objectives. According to Nahavandi
transformational leadership concepts builds a competent and professional leader able to exhibit
and implement specific approaches by developing a motivating vision for the success of an
organization.
The practice of making ethical decisions is based on the shared values in the society. A
company must be in a position to adjust its moral code putting in consideration the several

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cultures that exist. This process would ensure that the company can easily fit into the
environment in which it executes its operations. The concept means that the society, as part of
the stakeholders must be significantly considered in the process of strategic planning for eased
operations. Also, an administrator has a role in making choices based on discretionary such as
charity, volunteerism, and philanthropy (Octotutor, 2014). Participation in voluntary activities
contributes to social responsibility directly.
Strategic, operational management provides procedural methods of outlining an
organizations objective, developed rules and having agenda to attain the set ideas and be able to
correctly allocate funds to enable implementation of the set policies and aims of the organization.
For an organization to be able to achieve its set out goals and ideas, strategic management ought
to be well planned and considered for the better running of the organization. Often, the managing
director of organizations interact with the employees and hear their view on what to do to better
the activities of the organization and comes up with a plan that may include short and long-term
goals to be achieved by the organization.

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