Leadership and Management: Theories, Roles, and Ford Vietnam Analysis

This report delves into the critical components of management and leadership, exploring their significance in both private enterprises and national economic growth. It defines and differentiates between leadership and management, examining their respective obligations, functions, and characteristics. The report presents various leadership styles and managerial roles, including interpersonal, informational, and decisional responsibilities. A significant portion of the report focuses on a case study of Ford Vietnam and Mr. Quang, the Production manager. It analyzes Mr. Quang's application of leadership and management roles, tasks, and responsibilities, and assesses the efficacy of different leadership theories, such as situational and contingency leadership, considering their strengths and limitations in the context of Ford Vietnam. The report compares and contrasts leadership and management, highlighting their interconnectedness and the importance of both for organizational success. The report also includes discussions on key management functions such as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and offers insights into the effective integration of leadership and management practices.

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Table of Contents
I. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
II. Major findings....................................................................................................................3
1. Literature and theories......................................................................................................3
1.1. Leader..........................................................................................................................3
1.1.1. Definition.............................................................................................................3
1.1.2. Roles....................................................................................................................4
1.1.3. Characteristics..........................................................................................................5
1.2. Manager.......................................................................................................................6
1.2.1. Definition.............................................................................................................6
1.2.2. Roles....................................................................................................................6
1.2.3. Functions..............................................................................................................7
1.2.4. Characteristics......................................................................................................8
1.3. Comparison and theories.............................................................................................9
2. At Ford Company Vietnam............................................................................................10
2.1. Mr Quang current roles and functions......................................................................10
2.2. Theories applications to the case................................................................................11
2.2.1. Situational leadership............................................................................................11
2.2.2. Contingency leadership.........................................................................................13
2.3. Discussion..................................................................................................................15
III. Conclusion........................................................................................................................17
IV. References.........................................................................................................................18
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I. Introduction
Management and organization are critical components of both private enterprises
and a nation’s economic growth. The organization’s objective is to encourage and
promote individual cooperation and group effort. Such activity, however, needs
entrepreneurial and professional management - money exchanging regulations cannot
"control" business activity itself. The invisible hand should have fingertips able of
operating in harmony These researches identify management and leadership, explicitly
their obligations and functions, and differentiates their distinguishing characteristics.
Additionally, a specific situation involving Ford — the company's Company Vietnam
and Mr Quang, Production manager – is examined. His application of various leadership
and management roles, tasks, and responsibilities will be thoroughly reviewed, as will his
penetration into using several theories to assess the efficacy of the approaches, taking into
account both the strengths and limitations of each theory.
II. Major findings
1. Literature and theories
1.1. Leader
1.1.1. Definition
Leadership is the process through which a person persuades a collection of others
to work toward a shared objective (Swanwick, 2019). Additionally, Winston (2006)
asserted that the leader fulfills this effects by humbly communicating a prescient vision
of the company in plain language which resonates with the member(s) beliefs and
qualities in a comprehensive way and interpret the future as present-time project
milestones.
Northouse (2018) asserts that a leader motivates people to action while also
guiding the method in which they perform. They must be ethically obligated to address
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the wants and needs of followers (Harvard business review, 2021). Hersey (1982) defined
leadership style as a leader's approaches and actions while guiding, inspiring, and
managing people. Styles of leadership appear on such a range, spanning from dictatorial
at one end, where subordinates are compelled to work through the threat of discipline and
penalties, to laissez-faire at the other end, where subordinates are given little or no
instructions and are free to set their own goals and make all their own decisions, with a
variety of styles in between. Other well-known leadership styles include autocratic, when
decision-making is concentrated in the hands of leaders, and democratic, akin features to
its name.
1.1.2. Roles
Rather than just commanding, leaders are held to a higher standard for their jobs.
To place their enterprises to battle and win in the competitive environment of the twenty-
first century, Dess & Picken (2000) proposed an ideal concept of leaders' responsibilities
in this ever-changing twenty-first century: top executives, leaders must reduce their
dependence on conventional structures and governs and instead focus on five critical
priorities:
 Motivating and inspiring others with strategic vision: A compelling strategic
vision is one that is clear, compelling, and presented in such a manner that it drives
and inspires a comprehensive sense of corporate plans and objectives.
 Empowering workers at all levels: Rather than considering themselves as resource
directors and authority brokers, leaders must actually see themselves as adaptable
resources capable of assuming a variety of (sometimes unfamiliar) roles in
response to their staff' demands.
 Accumulating and sharing internal knowledge: Ideal leaders have mastered the art
of leveraging their investment in internal knowledge by (1) transmitting and
receiving information and ideas across the institution; (2) stimulating and
cultivating informal pieces of knowledge; and (3) leveraging technology to
facilitate the input-output process of information.
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 Collecting and interpreting external information: Recognizing possibilities and
risks in the external world is equally critical. The efficiency with which an
organization acquires, analyses, and integrates pertinent external data into its inner
decision-making activities has a significant impact on its rivalry performance.
 Challenging the status quo and fostering creativity: Leaders must stimulate
employees' interest by posing intriguing questions. Furthermore, they must support
their organizations in incorporating diverse perspectives, which stimulates
innovative thinking and enables new forms of collaboration through the use of
emerging technology.
Whereas Kotter (1988) simplifies it to three fundamental tasks of a leader:
 Creating a sense of direction: It occurs as a result of discontent with the existing
vision. Leaders develop a vision for something distinct in this position.
 Communicating the vision: Leaders must meet both conscious and unconscious
demands of people. Additionally, they should attempt to establish trust for their
following.
 Energizing, inspiring, and motivating: This term refers to leaders who transform
vision into reality via the stimulation of others. They must fulfill employee needs
and solicit their input in order to maintain a positive work environment.
Additionally, leaders establish the work flow that enables individuals to
concentrate on objectives.
1.1.3. Characteristics
While there are several qualities classified as "leadership traits," Dess et al. (2006)
claimed that all directors have five similar features:
 Achievement-oriented: Leaders establish clear targets and are willing to go to
extraordinary measures to achieve goals in order to create outcomes and motivate
others.
 Achievement-oriented: Leaders establish clear targets and are prepared to go to
great lengths to accomplish them in order to generate results and inspire others.
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 Influential: As the heart of every team, being energetic enables leaders to
successfully manage multiple responsibilities, inspiring other teammates.
Tenacity: Patience and solidity are necessary for leaders to overcome adversity.
 Ethical and civic-minded: Great leaders evaluate the ethical implications of their
actions – for their clients as well as their workforce.
 Self-Awareness: Effective leaders, Picken asserts, prioritize the improvement of
emotional intelligence. Leading members who work to strengthen this trait are
more adaptive, durable, and responsive to outside advice. Moreover, they are
receptive to feedback and adaptive.
1.2. Manager
1.2.1. Definition
Management, the same as leading, is a well-established term that is extremely
adaptable – apply to a broad range of contexts. Armstrong (2009) described management
as the process of selecting what to accomplish and carrying it out effectively through the
utilization of varied resources. Managers are accountable for completing tasks with the
assistance of others. The primary management functions are often defined as planning,
organizing, leading, and controlling, according to Kotter (2001).
1.2.2. Roles
As per renowned author and professor Henry Mintzberg (1990), there are ten
primary managerial responsibilities that may be classified into three categories:
interpersonal, informational, and decisional.
The interpersonal responsibilities of a manager include the position of a
figurehead, in which a manager serves as an official representative of his company at
social activities and events. The second job is that of leader. This position is connected to
the inspiration of others. A manager's role as a leader is to coach, assist, and guide his or
her subordinates. Finally, a manager is expected to serve as a liaison and establish
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relationships with all stakeholders. Managers should be responsible for networking
activities that extend beyond their enterprise 's boundaries.
Additionally, the informational cluster contains key tasks such as communication,
monitoring, management, and distribution of information at all dimensions. Managers
should seek knowledge both within and outside the workplace in their capacity as
monitors. This will assist them in evaluating their division from both internal and
external perspectives, identifying relevant issues, and resolving them in a timely manner.
They must distribute greater authority when appropriate and provide critical information
to their staff in particular as a disseminator. Additionally, they serve as a spokesman, as
a manager, one should convey information beyond the office, acting as a brand
ambassador.
The decisional component comprises the following responsibilities that require the
use of data. Managers should act entrepreneurially by spearheading the adoption of
fresh ideas. As a disturbance-handler, managers are accountable for preventing any
disturbances that might hinder them from attaining the desired goals. Additionally,
managers must be resource allocation specialists, delegating and administering a range of
financial, technical, and human resource operations. For the responsibilities of a
negotiator, who is tasked with the job of conducting critical discussions within his or her
department and company.
1.2.3. Functions
Managers, according to Koontz and O'donnel (1986), perform four primary
functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Managers use the four aspects
to increase the performance of their employees, processes, projects, and organizations as
a whole. A manager is responsible for the succeeding tasks:
 Planning: Management must establish a schedule and present a detailed design
outlining how the task will be accomplished, including all pertinent details..
Additionally, the manager ought to have a backup plan in place in case this doesn't
function properly.
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 Organizing - Managers must integrate and distribute physical, financial,, and
human resources, as well as foster effective relationships between them, in order
to meet the company's objectives. The work that has to be done must be organized
into roles and tasks within the authority and communication structures.
 Staffing - In the simplest terms, it is the process arranging individuals into distinct
teams and assigning them distinct duties. The primary goal of staffing is to match
the appropriate person to the correct position.
 Directing/Leading - It is the manager's obligation to assist personnel in all
circumstances to prevent disagreement and delays in completing the assignment.
The manager's role is to guide the staff toward a common understanding of what
needs to be done and how it should be done.
 Controlling - Control's objective is to ensure that all activities are carried out in
compliance with predefined criteria. It entails assessing accomplishments against
specified requirements and correcting deviations, if any, in order to guarantee the
organization's objectives are met.
1.2.4. Characteristics
According to Peter Drucker in 2017, "the responsibility for work productivity is
not the worker's, but the manager's." He also noted that the characteristics of a great
manager are contingent on the company, its tactic, and the crew that administrators will
supervise, and consist of three primary qualities:
 An outstanding ability to communicate: A great manager must be able to interact
effectively with others. Managers should interact with their staff and take time to
comprehend and adjust to what staff and consumers have to say. Without
communication, managers cannot ascertain their employees' qualities and
shortcomings.
 Problem-solving ability: Managers must possess problem-solving abilities.
Additionally, they accept responsibility for difficulties rather than assuming they
are the fault of others.
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 Be results-oriented: A competent manager must be results-oriented and relentless
in their pursuit of their objectives. A competitive mentality and satisfaction in their
accomplishments motivate effective managers to succeed.
I.3. Comparison and theories
According to the opposing school of thinking, leadership and management are
inextricably linked and difficult to distinguish. Many believe that, although these
responsibilities are unique and distinct, they are entwined in several ways (Kotter, 1990).
The two responsibilities are tightly linked and mutually beneficial, as leaders manage or
managers lead some occasions (Bass, 1990; Kotter, 2006).
Both managers and leaders have a unique perspective on work. Both are
responsible for three tasks: determining what needs to be done, establishing networks of
individuals capable of completing an assignment, and ensuring that people finish the job
(Kotter, 2006). They are trustworthy, motivated, and capable of working tirelessly to
accomplish a goal. Most importantly, they are self-assured and understand that the path to
success is paved with hard work and perseverance. Managers and leaders understand how
to oversee a team and guide its members toward the goal. Additionally, they use
assessment to maintain order and are adept at resolving problems. Having the same
qualities, they both rely on their superior communication abilities to maintain control of
their teams. They are seen as being somewhat strict with their other employees.
Additionally, they possess superior problem-solving abilities, as well as great planning,
decision-making, organizational, and time management abilities.
While managers and leaders have certain characteristics, they each have their own
unique characteristics. Bennis and Nanus (2007) make a clear distinction between these
two roles: "Managers are people who do things properly, whereas leaders do the proper
thing." As they mention in their "Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge," leadership
seeks change that is also sustainable, while administration seeks to preserve order that is
also profitable. Second, leadership establishes authority by mental fortitude and
interpersonal influence, while management relies on positional strength and institutional
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hierarchy to carry out commands. Thirdly, leadership empowers others, while
management enforces authority on others. Simonet and Tett (2012) have shown that
absolute dependence on either leadership or management is ineffective in achieving
organizational objectives or promoting successful cooperation. As a result, businesses
need leaders with management acumen and managers who possess leadership
characteristics. By combining leadership with management, businesses may achieve
sustainable development and a long-term market power via skilled leader–managers.
At Ford Company, employees are divided into teams with specialization and a
leader. Each member has more than one accountabilities and participates largely in the
whole process by taking the snap decisions when needed, encouraging motivation, and
showing a democratic but hierarchical working system. Additionally, feedback sessions
with performance analysis are required to ensure the quality of work.
2. At Ford Company Vietnam
2.1. Mr Quang current roles and functions
The production manager is the person responsible for the product, decides what
features are required for the product, works with development staff, UX UI designers
to plan on building features and so that the product can achieve the highest success
rate (Sohal, 2011). Most of the day, the Production Manager's job will be to identify
problems, make decisions, and solve problems quickly and efficiently. In large
enterprises, the person also has close relations with other roles, including marketing,
finance, and strategic management.
From information acquired from the brief, Mr Quang excelled in his functions
as a manager but didn’t meet the expectation of a leader:
In terms of the functions of a manager, Mr Quang has excelled in his
organizing responsibility. Ford Company Vietnam has headquaters in Hanoi, Saigon
and a factory in Hai Duong with a production capability of 14,000 automobiles per
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year and an overall private investment investment of 125 million USD to date. With
only 600 employees in combination with aforementioned resources, Mr Quang
succeeded in exploiting the most out of them to generate the most productivity,
noticeably in the year 2015 with 20,700 products to customers in Vietnam. Moreover,
the brand’s outputs are outstanding with accreditations from several certifications
such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and QS 9000,... This ensures not only the excellent
quality of the product but also reflects the Production Manager’s delicate controlling
schemes. Therefore, Mr Quang’s planning role in this circumstance performed
impressively well-thought and detailed, serving as the premise for the following
accomplishments.
From a leadership perspective, Mr Vu, CEO of Ford Vietnam has crafted a
democratic working environment by encouraging employees’ involvement in the
company, as a sense of direction. The involvement turns out to be a lever to
motivating the staff. In addition, communicating effectively the goals in
combination with the quality working span has strengthened the employee-employer
bond throughout the process. Mr Quang as a subordinate of Mr Vu ,on the other hand,
projected a contradicting image of a “leader” in such he failed in all of the required
roles for not only passing down the wrong company vision (high bureaucracy), giving
uninspiring tasks but also created conflicts with his employees. Specifically when
Hoang with most of the workers reported that there is vaguely a hint of motivation
and usually no room for them to raise queries, give opinions, grow their abilities,...
2.2. Theories applications to the case
2.2.1. Situational leadership
Known more specifically as Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership
Theory (1979), this context approach places a premium on the leadership behaviour and
the development of those being led. According to situational leadership theory, leadership
styles are determined by four behaviors: telling, selling, participating, and delegating.
Mature levels vary from ineptitude or a refusal to execute the work to a desire and skill to
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undertake. As illustrated in the image below, a skilled leader will adapt his or her
leadership style to the maturation level of the team under consideration on a situation-by-
situation basis. It can be observed that the S portions are designated for
leaders/managers, whilst the D sections are designated for workers.
Figure 1. Situational Leadership Model
Putting into Mr Quang’s case, he is in the S1 area where there’s a high directive
and low supportive behavior, which can be seen as he didn’t allow members into the
decision-making process, not excited for innovations, and bureaucratically focused.
Meanwhile, his employees, namely Hoang and many other enthusiastic workers, are
willing to dedicate, eager to learn with average competence standing at D3. The
imbalance in leadership style and maturity of workers is responsible for poor
management and dissatisfaction. There’re 2 solutions that Mr Quang can apply:
(1)Replace all of his subordinates to D1s or (2) Adjust his leading style. Apparently, the
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