Leadership and Management Development Strategies for Restec

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management development (LMD) within the context of a case study involving two merging companies, Leyland and BDM, forming Restec. It begins by defining the roles of leaders and managers in the new organization, emphasizing their importance in achieving organizational goals. The report delves into critical issues in LMD, such as ineffective planning, lack of employee guidance, recruitment challenges, employee-related problems, and communication barriers. It examines the specific issues faced by Leyland, including lack of employee initiative, motivation, and appraisal methods, and contrasts them with BDM's strengths in innovation and employee focus. The analysis extends to the challenges arising from the merger, including communication and cultural differences. The report further explores Restec's strategic goals, focusing on revenue growth, brand image, and team integration, and proposes strategies such as a flexible management structure and employee engagement. Ethical and professional considerations in planning approaches are also discussed, along with an evaluation of the most appropriate LMD methods for the organization. The report concludes with recommendations to improve overall organizational performance and achieve the stated objectives.

Leadership and Management
Development

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Defining leaders and managers in the new organization.............................................................1
2. Issues of LMD..............................................................................................................................2
3. Major issues in the organization..................................................................................................4
4. Company strategy........................................................................................................................5
5. Ways to fit approaches to LMD strategy.....................................................................................6
6. Ethical and professional consideration made for planning approach..........................................6
7. Issues in choosing certain LMD method.....................................................................................8
8. Most appropriate method.............................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
For the success of any organization, Leadership and management training holds high
importance. Leaders are very important for in the organization as they are helpful in motivating
and inspiring employee's. On the other hand, manager are helpful in preparing plans,
coordinating projects and organizing which is very essential in achieving the organizational goals
and objectives. Managers are responsible for constituting selection and recruitment of candidates
who possess skills which will help the organization to grow (Carmichael and et.al., 2011). On the
other hand, leadership development helps in developing qualities like confidence, flexibility,
effective communication and in motivating employees which helps the firm in achieving the
goals and objectives. Leaders focus on providing combining all management personnel working
in the organization. The stated line was given by kotler. Leader do not only focus on improving
employees reliability and credibility, but they also focus on building skills which are required in
leadership and also focus on developing their capacity in order to promote leadership in the
future for the organization. Present report is about based on a case scenario which mainly focuses
on leadership and management development. Further, it also includes the issues which arises in
LMD, ethical and professional considerations which should be made for planning approaches.
Moreover, it also covers issues around choosing certain LMD methods. Lastly, it covers the best
method which can be adopted in LMD.
1. Defining leaders and managers in the new organization
Leader is a person who provides guidance and proper support to its members so that they
become capable enough to achieve the desired goals. Leaders are like inspiration under whose
guidance individuals can learn the way to enhance their skills (10 Roles of a Manager, 2010).
There are many types of leaders who have different types of skills and can adopt different types
of styles in order to achieve their desired goals and objectives (Herman, 2011).
Manager is a person who has got the responsibility to control as well as administer the
group or staff present within an organization (Simkins, 2012). For this purpose there are different
managers who set objectives, organize, motivate, establish targets, etc. In addition to this, they
are the one who are involved in recruitment and selection process (Trehan and Pedler, 2009).
Moreover, they provide over all direction to the employees or to any level. They set up goals,
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mission, vision and objectives. In simple words, they set up strategies which would help the
organization to grow. Over it can be said that they work for the betterment of the firm so that
they could provide satisfaction to their customers by understanding their needs and wants (10
Common Leadership and Management Mistakes, 2011). Further, they also adopt different
strategies which will be help in using the resources in such a way that they could provide high
quality services with the help of limited resources.
With the expansion in other countries, leaders and managers of Leyland holds a very
critical role concerning to the increase in productivity and sale of the organization. The
researchers inspite of knowing the fact that motivational level of employees are low; they are
trying their best (Anderson and Anderson, 2010). The leaders are very efficient but the managers
are not adopting any kind of effective strategy which would help in motivating the employees.
All the managers in this firm are demotivated and are not performing their job efficiently.
Owing its origin in UK, BDM – an organization of industrial research and development
has strength of 800 employees with its major branch being India. One of the main strengths are
around identifying new product opportunities in emerging markets and developing products to fit
these. BDM employees have been expected to be innovators, entrepreneurs, team builders,
adaptive to change, business focused and accountable for results. But the problem is that they do
not have effective leaders who could guide and support employees so that they could enhance
their skills (Simkins, 2012).
In a crux, Leyland has inefficient managers but efficient leaders. On the other hand, BDM has
inefficient leaders but have effective managers who implements 360 degree feedback method.
This is as company take the help of the peers in order to judge the overall performance which
they have contributed throughout the year. With merger of both this firm, they will get effective
leaders and managers (Pinkerton ed., 2011).
In addition to this, it can be articulated that Leyland technologies was adopting autocratic
leadership style. According to this leadership style all the major decisions are taken by the top
management, they do not involve employees. Through this leadership style the employees get
demotivated and they have to follow all the policies or rules given by the top management. There
are many negative effects due to this leadership style. The performance of the employees is
reduced as they feel neglected from the organization as they are not involved in decision making.
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Through this leadership type the employees get highly motivated and contribute effectively
towards the growth of the organization.
2. Issues of LMD
LMD can be defined as a process in which managers and leaders help in learning with
most of the recognized opportunities which prevail in the environment and in the firm (Sullivan
and Garland, 2010). There are many issues related to leadership management development which
have a great significance on the performance of the organization.
 Making wrong plans or strategies by managers: This is the major LMD issue because of
which Leyland will not be able to function well as per their efficiency and capability
(Mendenhall and Osland, 2012).
 Lack of guidance by managers: Issues also rise when there are lack of guidance and
direction provided to the employees. They should be able to set up goals and objective
which will be helpful in developing the path through which employee's will be able to
achieve the goals. If manager fail to do so, then employees will lack the willing and
confidence in contributing for the firm.
 Issues in proper selection and recruitment: Another role of the managers is to recruit and
retention of employees. This becomes an issue when manager fail to select the right
candidate for the vacant post. It also increases the expense of the firm. Normally all the
employees selected in recruitment has to be given training and it will only be effective if
the selected candidate is capable enough or else the training will go waste. Further, if
managers do not retain employees, then this would lead to high turnover escalating the
cost of the organization.
 Employee related issues: Further, there can be employees issues in the organization
which can lead towards personality conflicts, superior issues or it may also due to the
company structure. Development sense needs to be managed by the organization in a
deliberate manner in order to resolve the issues related to LMD. Along with this it is
required for the management of th company to focus on adopting the laissez faire style of
leadership and management. According to Level 2 organization and management
development mainly focus on developing activities which can either be adhoc or isolated
tactical management which are helpful in identifying general problem.
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 Organization stress - Lack of proper Leadership management development can also lead
to organization stress when the performance of the employees are not appreciable
(Nkomo, 2011). This leads to low employee morale, absenteeism and also high labour
turnover rate in the organization.
 Communication - Among all this, communication is also an issue when the managers do
not convey the actual message. When the communication is not effective then it leads to
misguide or performing the task in a wrong way.
 Other issues - Language barriers, logistics issues and cultural differences along with
different tariffs on export and import are major drawback.
3. Major issues in the organization
Issues in Leyland
 Lack of initiative by employees - Employees do not take initiative in coming up with new
market inspite of possessing vast knowledge in technological and scientific area. In
addition to this, all the worker are successful developers and researchers which has been
given in the case. In spite of all this,
 Lack of motivation by management: It is due to the mangers who do not boost up their
employees or motivate them. As a result the motivation level of the employees is very
low and the managers within the cited firm are not focusing on boosting the worker's
morale (McGurk, 2010).
 Lack of appraisal method - In addition to this, the firm is not using any kind of appraisal
method. This type of method is very helpful in boosting up the moral and in motivating
them.
 Lack of training - Further, the firm is not taking any kind of initiative in providing their
employees training which is very essential for new employees. These are areas where the
manager has to look after but the manager of Leyland technology is not performing their
role efficiently.
Issues in BDM
On the other hand, employees of BDM are very innovative, business focused and are
adaptive to change. This is possible because the manager of the BDM are adopting strategies
which help them in enhancing their employee's skills. Concerning the performance, the manager
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adopt 360 degree feedback to identify the training areas. Also, the development areas of line
mangers are looked up onto so as to address specific development needs. The organization is
although putting efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of the coaching programme (Armstrong and
Taylor, 2014). The issue in this organization is that they do not have effective managers who
guide and support in order to achieve the organizational goals and objectives.
Issues after merger if any
After the merger, both the firm will get advantage out of it but there will be issues of
communication. Leyland technology has 600 employees and BDM has 800 employees. There
will be an issue of communication as all the employees will from different culture and
background. Managers and leaders of both the organization have to take some relevant action in
order to improve the communication process for effective functioning of the business venture.
The name of the new firm is Restec which will be performing the same job but with improved
strategies. The way of performing the task before the merger would have been different. This
will cause an issue after merger. The management has to develop new strategies through which
they can be able to perform the task with coordination even with new employees. Both the firms
will be able to perform better after the merger but high competition from India and China may
affect negatively for which managers need to adopt strategies which will help in increasing the
growth (Young and Dulewicz, 2009).
4. Company strategy
After the merger, the market share has been increased and both in India and UK. With the
merger employees working towards at common goal have also increased. Main aim of Restec is
to increase the revenue, sales and developing a brand image. In addition to this, the firm aims in
integrating the team so the effective strategies can be adopted which will be helpful in achieving
the desired goals and objectives (Abbas and et.al., 2011). Moreover, they have developed
following strategies so that the firm could provide and attract customers by understanding the
needs and wants:
 Focus on development of more flexible and superior management structure which will be
based around product opportunities. To incorporate more flexibility, organization should
ensure to have a close connection with employees. They should be allowed to share their
ideas and suggestions freely (Marquis and Huston, 2009).
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 Organization concentrates on a unified and unifying culture. They focus on developing
employees as a single unit. It is essential to incorporate such culture so that they work
together to achieve the set desired goals.
 The strategy adopted by the management need to be professional and ethical in
combination with the healthy set of leadership skills. Employees might not be
comfortable in adopting the change, they need to be flexible enough. Restec should
implement and ensure ethical and professional culture so that employees are satisfied and
give productivity at their best.
 In order to have a top notch over the competing firms, Restec ensures to have a
competitive strategic plan. Both the organizations Leyland technologies and BDM
together have productive managers and leaders who will turn to be assets to the
organization. It would be these people that will ease off in adopting strategies aiming
competitive advantages (Nkomo, 2011).
 The organization will also concentrate on forming a management team internationally.
The merger will bring in the individuals of different capabilities and different
backgrounds. So, the company should identify such people and take suggestions which
will help in taking decision effectively.
 Implementing cost reduction program. According to this strategy firm will be able to
increase their profit.
The above mentioned points will help in monitoring the performance of the employees
and impart them desired training which will aid in team coordination, in turn helping the
company in its productivity. But as in the case, after this merger employees will surely find
difficulty in relation to coordination among each other (Nahavandi, 2009). In order to solve it,
monitoring employees will be very helpful for the growth of the organization.
Through learning: Learning is a life long process it will help workers in providing knowing their
roles and responsibilities more clearly. In addition to this, it will help then in enhancing their
skills. Further, coaching employees will be helpful in knowing the efficiency of each employee
and in delegating tasks according to their skills and capabilities.
In addition to this, leadership and management development will be helpful for Restec to
achieve its objectives and goals. Leaders of the firm will help the employees in providing proper
support and guidance to their employees which will help them in enhancing their skills (Marquis,
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B.L. and Huston, 2009). Further, effective management will be helpful in developing goal which
will help the employees to develop path through which they could achieve the desired goals
efficiently.
5. Ways to fit approaches to LMD strategy
Making use of power and role culture
In order to fit to the approaches which is to provide a unifying culture. In order to achieve
it, the firm should adopt power culture and role culture. According to power culture, leaders
should focus on providing their employees with tasks and they should also focus providing them
support by guiding them and motivating them so that they could work effectively and efficiently
(McPhee and Papadakis Eds., 2012). On the other hand, role culture focus the roles and
responsibility give to them. This will be helpful in understanding the roles and responsibilities
clearly. This will also help in setting up objectives and goals and in planning ways through
which it can be achieved. This two management strategies can be adopted in order to fit the firm
in competing effectively.
Adopting democratic leadership style for motivating employees
Figure 1 Democratic leadership style
There are many leadership styles which can be adopted by the firm. Leadership styles are
very helpful in providing the employees with support and guidance. In addition to this,
leadership styles are helpful in motivating employees (Trehan and Pedler, 2009). The best style
which this firm can adopt is democratic leadership style, according to this style employees of the
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firm are involved in decision making. This creates a feeling of importance among the workers of
the organization.
Adopting functional organizational structure
Figure 2 Functional organizational structure
Further, structure of the organization is also helpful in having an effective follow of information.
The firm should adopt functional organizational structure (Tomey, 2009). According to this
structure employees are divided into different groups and each of the groups are managed by
leaders. Each of the group will be given with different tasks which they have to complete with
the given time. This will help the workers to enhance their skills according to their requirements.
Moreover, It will also be help in understanding the employees capabilities and skills.
6. Ethical and professional consideration made for planning approach
There are many ethical and professional considerations which has to be considered in
order to plan approaches. Following are few of the ethical and professional considerations:
Ethical issue regarding planning approach is that company should allow the employee's
to make trade union. These trade unions have a representative who are responsible to speak in
behalf of all the employee's. Firm can not empower any kind of strategies of the employees. If
the employees and not in favour of such kind of strategies, then the representative will bargain
towards the strategy and will try to reform it in such a way it could be employees can be satisfied
(Nahavandi, 2009). In addition to this, negotiation is done with the firm by the representatives.
All the employees should be provided with the scheduled time for work and moreover
they should be given proper break in between. This is helpful in maintaining the employee’s
interest (Jeon, Merlyn and Chenoweth, 2010). They should not feel work as burden and so they
should be given proper breaks in between and holidays which will be helpful in relaxing
employees and proper rest will help to focus more and they will be able to perform effectively.
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Employees with different culture and differences work together. Who may be have different
issues or problems. Organization should not discriminate in terms of age, gender, disabilities, etc.
further, all the employees should be treated equally (Zhang and Bartol, 2010). Organization
should be fair with all the employee and should be provided with proper wages according to their
performance.
7. Issues in choosing certain LMD method
In improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the firm Restec choose LMD method. It
is helpful to get the competitive advantage and in improving the performance of the employees.
Further, all the issues which has been discussed above will be solved with the help of LMD.
In order to have an effective team spirit and in developing coordination among the
employees, the firm can adopt leadership styles (Lussier and Achua, 2015). There are many
leadership styles which can be adopted by the firm. The best leadership style which Restec can
adopt is democratic leadership. This type of style is very helpful in encouraging and motivating
the employees. In accordance with the theory all the employees are involved in making
decisions. Workers develop a feeling that they are important for the firm (Herman, 2011). When
the management adopt any changes, then employees will be able to adopt easily as they the
change will be taken place with the concern of the employees. There are many other leadership
theories but democratic leadership style is the best one.
Moreover, they can adopt different appraisal system which will motivated the employee's.
Workers should be given appraisals according to their performance and this will be calculated at
the end of the year. In providing appraisal, dedication towards the work should be considered.
This will boost up the moral of the employees and it will help them to work with their full
efficiency or capability.
Further, managers of the firm should adopt effective communication strategy so that the
communication procedures can be improved (Ely, Ibarra and Kolb, 2011). After the merger,
there will be employees from different culture and background, so in order to communicate
effectively the firm should adopt effective communication. In order to do this, organization
should conduct training program for employees who lack effective communication. From this it
is clear that leadership and management development will be helpful for the firm to improve
their functioning as well as the overall operations.
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8. Most appropriate method
By analysing all the circumstances and problems the most suitable method for the Restec
will be motivational technique. As in merger, the employees will face many difficulties in
adducting with the new strategies and new employees. In order to solve it, the organization
should focus on motivating their employees as it is very important of the present situation. Firm
can adopt motivational theories in order to boost up workers moral and in order to work with
their full capability (McCaffery, 2010). There are many theories given by different people.
Among all the theories the best motivational theory which firm should adopt is Maslow's need
hierarchy theory.
Figure 3 Maslow need hierarchy
Maslow's need hierarchy theory: This theory is very helpful in motivating the employees as it
covers all the important areas in which workers can be motivated. According to this theory, there
are five needs, if these needs are fulfilled then employee's will get motivated. Following are the
five needs which the firm should fulfill: Physiological needs- Physiological needs are the needs which are very essential in order
to fulfill the basic requirement of the employees which are important for the human
survival and if these requirements are not fulfilled then individuals can not perform
anything efficiently (Bush, 2009). The basic needs include food, shelter and home. Safety needs- Security and safety needs includes well being of individuals, personal
security, health, financial security, etc. in addition to this, it also includes safety against
accidents and other major issues which can arise which working in the organization
(Carmichael and et.al., 2011).
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