Leadership and Management: Managing Workplace Project

The report discusses the impact of different leadership styles in managing the workplace. It defines and compares the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager. It explains Joan Pearson's management style and leadership style and examines examples of how the role of the leader and the functions of a manager apply in different situational contexts. The report concludes that Joan needs to adopt contingency theory and change her approach as per the suitability of situations.

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Managing Workplace project
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Executive Summary
The leaders persuade others and inspire them with positive approach which helps to fulfil desired
goals. Further, functions of a manager includes ability to delegate which helps to add value to
overall operations as well as supports in effective attainment of tasks. In this report, different
roles of a leader and functions of a manager are discussed. Also, case of Joan Pearson’s
management and leadership style is highlighted for better understanding. Additionally,
situational contexts and theories are applied for better illustration.
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................2
Contents.......................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Part One...................................................................................................................................................4
Part Two..................................................................................................................................................5
Explain Joan Pearson’s management style and leadership style..............................................................5
Examine examples of how the role of the leader and the functions of a manager apply in different
situational contexts. You should make references to Joan Pearson and use examples of why her
approach may not be appropriate, thus assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the different
approaches used by her............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................................................7
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Introduction
According to Turner et al. (2019) leadership in business world is perceived as a crucial
management function contributing to efficiency maximization and achievement of goals of
organizations. The key purpose of this study revolves around comprehending the impact of
different leadership styles in managing workplace.
(Source: psychlopaedia.org)
Part One
Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and of a manager.
According to Wen, Zhou and Lu (2017) roles of a leader is to provide vision to Soft Company’s
team for ensuring that employees are more focused and contribute to their individual roles. Also,
other roles of leader is to set up well defined organizational structure including an organizational
chart which outlines chain of command and effective communication protocols, inspire and
motivate teams, delegate and empower right people to right jobs and manage time effectively.
According to Srivastava, Prasad and Mishra (2016) key characteristics of a good leader is being
flexible, ability to delegate and communicate clearly, confidence, tenacity and patience in
dealing with people and tasks, being committed and responsible. Multiple roles are played by a
manager such as interpersonal roles, informational roles and decisional roles.
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Fig: Role of Manager
(Source: iedunote.com)
According to Huang and Pang (2016) leadership, experience, communication, knowledge, time
management, organization, reliability, delegation, confidence and respect for employees are the
key characteristics of manager. In given scenario, the management and leadership style of Joan
Pearson is autocratic wherein decision-makings and performance management are done
unilaterally sans any participation of employees.
Part Two
Explain Joan Pearson’s management style and leadership style
Joan’s management style is directive or autocratic where she makes the decisions and others
must follow into line, which is not well received by her subordinates. Because of this approach
there is little room for error and Joan isn’t afraid to deliver threat in case of failed standards.
Whereas, Joan demonstrates assertive leadership style because of her military style of command
where all authority is held by her and she does not consults employees while taking decisions.
Decisions are made, communicated and she expects prompt implementation with little flexibility
which results into complaints from employees.
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Examine examples of how the role of the leader and the functions of a manager apply in
different situational contexts. You should make references to Joan Pearson and use
examples of why her approach may not be appropriate, thus assessing the strengths and
weaknesses of the different approaches used by her.
The role of a leader and function of a manager is to ensure that business advances in desired
direction to fulfil of objectives of Soft Company. For example in different situational context
such as increased competition, rising cost of raw material prices etc. effective implementation of
functions of a manager such as knowledge and delegation helps in planning and executing
adequate strategies. This in turn helps to handle production costs and increase company’s sales
and revenues. Similarly in these situational contexts, the roles of a leader like effective
communication and ability to motivate followers helps in guiding the employees towards tasks
with clear objectives, which therefore ensures desired fulfilment of organisational purposes
during different situations.
There are different management theories and leadership models that can be applied such as
embracement of situational leadership model would help in changing leadership styles in-line
with different situations (increased competition, rising raw material prices etc.) that are being
faced time to time (Langford, Dougall and Parkes 2017). Employee’s actions can be controlled
by applying systems leadership besides conveying prevailing company situation to them. It
would ensure that employees work in-line with current needs by adopting operational changes.
Contingency theory, focuses on changing strategies in context to varied situations and depends
on optimal arrangement for contingent situations. This will help Soft Company in influencing
employees and bringing productive changes in production for meeting current market challenges
and would be best suitable. According to Raisiene (2014), numerous management theories
implied with leadership skills ensure growth of organizational operations so, to reduce
production cost for example, contingency theory of management and contemporary leadership
approach can be applied by Joan to plan strategies such as in situations that involves suppliers’
selection to procure low cost raw materials. This will even help to effectively retain quality of
products at low cost as compared to competitors.
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Joan’s military style of command and assertive approach may not be appropriate for employees
who are already skilled and motivated as it impairs their morale, negatively affects their
performances and productivity. Though Joan’s autocratic leadership approach contributes to
quick decision-makings and is effective when there is need of strong and directive leadership,
which are her strengths, but Joan’s take-control approach results into ignoring creative solutions
and expertise from subordinates as well as results into lack of employees’ participation, which
are certain weaknesses that are demonstrated by Joan’s management and leadership approach.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that leadership plays an important role in execution of organizational
activities, hence Joan needs to adopt contingency theory and change her approach as per
suitability of situations. This would help to build effectiveness and coherence amongst her
employees and would reduce their dis-satisfaction.
References
Huang, Y. and Pang, S. (2016). The role identities of university academic-managers in a
changing environment. The Asia - Pacific Education Researcher, [Online] 25(2), 185-194.
Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40299-015-0248-z Accessed on 5/3/2019
Langford, P. H., Dougall, C. B. and Parkes, L. P. (2017). Measuring leader behavior: Evidence
for a "big five" model of leadership. Leadership & Organization Development
Journal, [Online] 38(1), 126-144. Available: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1866059898?
accountid=30552 Accessed on 5/3/2019
Raisiene, A. G. (2014). Leadership and Managerial Competences in a contemporary organization
from the standpoint of Business Executives. Economics & Sociology, [Online] 7(3), 179-193.
Available: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1636736189?accountid=30552 Accessed on
5/3/2019
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Srivastava, A. R., Prasad, A. K. and Mishra, N. (2016). Leadership - A journey from a manager
to a SuperManager. International Journal on Leadership, [Online] 4(2), 1-9. Available:
https://search.proquest.com/docview/2117187864?accountid=30552 Accessed on 5/3/2019
Turner, J. R., Baker, R., Schroeder, J., Johnson, K. R. and Chung, C. (2019). The global
leadership capacity wheel. European Journal of Training and Development, [Online] 43(1),
105-131. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-07-2018-0061 Accessed on 5/3/2019
Wen, L., Zhou, M. and Lu, Q. (2017). The influence of leader's creativity on employees' and
team creativity. Nankai Business Review International,[Online] 8(1), 22-38. Available:
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1872561286?accountid=30552 Accessed on 5/3/2019
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