Reflective Account: Leadership and Management Strategies & Decisions

This report provides a comprehensive reflective account of leadership and management practices within a team setting. It begins by examining the management styles employed, focusing on the democratic approach and its effectiveness, supported by an analysis of Theory X and Theory Y. T...Read More

LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT
REFLECTIVE
ACCOUNT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Section 1...........................................................................................................................................3
Management style adopted by the group....................................................................................3
Analysis of the management style adopted.................................................................................3
Reflection on the ‘management style’ questionnaire..................................................................4
Section 2...........................................................................................................................................5
Change in ways for managing and leading the group.................................................................5
Kurt lewin's theory of change.....................................................................................................6
Key principles of change.............................................................................................................6
Section 3...........................................................................................................................................7
Decisions taken while working with the team............................................................................7
Power...........................................................................................................................................7
Barriers to effective decisions ....................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the process through which a leader leads a group of individuals for
accomplishing their desired goals. Effective leadership style is necessary for effectively leading
the individuals. The leaders needs to have suitable leadership skills and management skills so
that the assigned work can be executed effectively in an efficient manner. This report assignment
will discuss the right management style which is necessary for teams to accomplish their goals
along with the analysis of the management style which is used by the team in given case. Further
this report will cover the key principles and theories of change. In the end, this report will also
critically evaluate the decisions taken by the team along with the types of power used by the
leaders and their followers.
Section 1
Management style adopted by the group
While working with my team, several management styles were used by me during the
various phases of executing the assigned work. The main management styles used by me is
Democratic management styles for involving the team members in the decision making process.
Through this styles, I was able to take the views and suggestions of my team members in taking
the decisions for ensuring that taken decision was in favour of the employees. Through this style,
the impact of the taken decisions on the workers was identified easily due to considering their
ideas and because of their suggestions, the decisions were proved beneficial for the team. The
democratic management style was proved useful for my team in accomplishing their desired
team goals as each member of the team get the proper support from other members which helped
them to accomplish their goals by executing their work in an effective manner.
Analysis of the management style adopted
The democratic management style is chosen by the group due to the its flexibility in
adopting the proper way for doing the things when situations changes frequently. Democratic
leadership style is important in bringing out the best from the team as it capitalizes on the skills
and talents of team members by letting them share their views and opinions (Gonos and Gallo,
2013)1. Through this style, different areas of knowledge can be gained by the members for
1 Gonos, J. and Gallo, P., 2013. Model for leadership style evaluation. Management:
journal of contemporary management issues. 18(2). pp.157-168.

contributing their full efforts in the cases when the decision to be taken is very complex and
broad. Through this style, my team members were capable of resolving the issues among the
team members by contributing their support and ideas to resolve the issues in an earliest manner.
Also the members used techniques such as Brainstorming for determining the suitable ideas for
resolving the problems faced by them.
Theory X and Y
These theories was given by the McGregor and these refers as the two styles of
management authoritarian (Theory X) and participative (Theory Y). These theories were useful
for my team members in achieving their goals due to the rewards and punishment given to them
based on their performance.
Theory X states that there are several workers who does not like to perform their work
due to the dissatisfaction, disliking of work, demotivation. My team also has some such members
who does not perform their work with the required efficiency due to which team performance
may get affected. For controlling such members, I used the rewards and punishment system
based on their performance in executing the work. Through this, such members tries to improve
their performance for taking the rewards in their improved performance as well as to avoid the
punishment on their bad level of performance.
Theory Y states that there exists some people in an organisation who are self motivated
and happy to work which encourages a more collaborative, trust-based relationship among the
team members and managers. The leader has the responsibility to develop the skills of their team
members and suggest improvements in the weak areas for further improving their performance.
This theory was also used by my team for motivating them to improve their weak areas in which
improvements are needed. I used the rewards system in this theory too so that the employees can
stay motivated in their working due to the rewards provided to them. Also due to the motivation
by the rewards, motivated members supported each other for executing the work of each other
which also assisted me in maintaining healthy relationship among the members.
Reflection on the ‘management style’ questionnaire
A questionnaire was filled in the starting of this semester for determining the suitable
management style. The result obtained from the questionnaire was that the Democratic style of
management is suitable to use in the teams for performing their work. Respondent stated that this
style is suitable to use because through this style, team members can provide proper support to

their co-workers in order to execute their assigned team work in proper manner effectively. First,
I was thinking to use Autocratic style but due to having some negative impact on employees such
as Forcefully executing the work, dissatisfaction among employees etc (Ojokuku, Odetayo and
Sajuyigbe, 2012)2. I ignored this style. I used the democratic as a result of questionnaire which
helped me in completing the desired work effectively.
Section 2
Change in ways for managing and leading the group
While working with my team, democratic style of management is used by the team. This
style was useful for the team in executing their work within the assigned deadlines. However,
Blake and Mouton managerial grid is useful for me to lead and manage the team in different
manner as discussed below:
Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid: This was developed by the Robert Blake and
Jane Mouton in the 1960s in which a graphic portrayal of leadership styles through a managerial
grid is shown. This managerial grid depicts two dimensions of leader behaviour, which are
concern for people on y-axis and concern for production on x-axis (Thrash, 2012)3. Some
leadership styles were used in this which are discussed below:
Country Club: This is a collegial style in which the leader is focused on fulfilling the
needs of the team members which leads to a friendly and comfortable environment at the
workplace. When such treatment is provided to the employees, then it results in self-motivation
which is helpful for employees to work hard.
Team Management: This style is based on the theory Y of McGregor and is a very
effective style. In this style, leaders thinks that empowerment, commitment, trust, and respect are
the key elements for maintaining a proper team atmosphere which will automatically result in
high employee satisfaction and production.
I can choose these both country club and team management style given by the Blake and
Mouton for managing and leading the team effectively in a different way. Through these styles, I
can understand the needs of the employees and fulfil them accordingly so that they stay
2 Ojokuku, R.M., Odetayo, T.A. and Sajuyigbe, A.S., 2012. Impact of leadership style on
organizational performance: a case study of Nigerian banks. American Journal of
Business and Management. 1(4). pp.202-207.
3 Thrash, A., 2012. Leadership in higher education. International Journal of Humanities
and Social Science. 2(13). pp.1-12.

motivated for working hard. Also when these styles were used by me, I can maintain a healthy,
trust-based, respectful environment among the team which will assist the team in performing
their work in proper manner.
Kurt lewin's theory of change
This theory was developed by Kurt Lewin, a social scientist and a physicist in the 1950s
which provides a simple framework for understanding the process of organisational change
(Shirey, 2013)4. This theory includes three Stages which are Unfreeze, Change and Freeze.
Unfreeze: It is the first stage which states that the organisation needs to adapt the change
for building a new way to operate. In this stage, I need to motivate the team members to adapt to
the change. Also I needs to provide them the importance of change in performing their work
properly.
Change: Through the information provided by the leaders regarding the importance of
the change, the team members starts to look for new ideas of doing their work in this stage. Team
members determines the benefits of change in doing their work due to which they adapts the
change in their working (Bakari, Hunjra and Niazi, 2017)5.
Freeze: The changes are incorporated in this stage for maintaining the consistency in the
working of employees. The team members started to adopt the change while working in team
and the leaders ensures that the change is used in all the activities at a regular basis.
Key principles of change
There are several principles of change which are necessary for ensuring that the change is
successful. These principles are discussed below:
Crystal clear communication: Communications plays a major role in communicating the
change to the employees for better understanding (Wisner, Tan and Leong, 2014)6. The
management of the firms needs to ensure that the change is communicated to the all level of
4 Shirey, M.R., 2013. Lewin’s theory of planned change as a strategic resource. Journal
of Nursing Administration. 43(2). pp.69-72.
5 Bakari, H., Hunjra, A.I. and Niazi, G.S.K., 2017. How does authentic leadership
influence planned organizational change? The role of employees’ perceptions:
Integration of Theory of Planned Behavior and Lewin's three step model. Journal of
Change Management. 17(2). pp.155-187.
6 Wisner, J.D., Tan, K.C. and Leong, G.K., 2014. Principles of supply chain
management: A balanced approach. Cengage Learning.

employees. Through this principle, I informed the employees about the importance of change
and implemented it based on the benefits.
Culture: The management needs to determine the shared assumptions, values and
behaviour of employees while considering the change. Management needs to ensure that
business goes through a period of change is by preserving the aspects of the current culture of
employees. Before implementing, I determined the impact of change on the culture of employees
and organisation which helped in reducing the impact.
Create accountability: While adapting the change, leaders or managers needs to set clear
roles and expectations for their staff members and needs to hold them accountable for their
actions. I assigned the different role and work to team members based on their skills so that they
can finish their work effectively.
Measure the success: The managers or leaders needs to determine the success rate of the
tasks after implementing the change (Doppelt, 2017)7. Through this, managers can determine
whether the implemented change is good for the firm or not.
Through these principles, organisation can successfully manage the change and ensures
that the change is successfully implemented and the employees are adapting to the change
properly.
Section 3
Decisions taken while working with the team
Leadership and management has been recognised as major term, in case of doing any
group projects for longer period of time. It is necessary to use reflective account to analyse role
of leadership and management and decision required to make it relevant for longer duration of
time. While working with group, I have taken several critical decision such as training activities
to team members in order to boost their confidence and motivation level to work with defined
roles and purpose to perform designed roles and responsibility for work based task or long term
activities (Wrong, 2017)8. I was noticed that leadership & management was ineffective along
with lack of set of defined goals and targets, so that employee's would work with some defined
set of goals. In case of working in a group, it is important to have common relationship between
7 Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide
for business, government and civil society. Routledge.
8 Wrong, D., 2017. Power: Its forms, bases and uses. Routledge.

team member's who must not dependent on each other and they should have some defined and
certain set of goals in mind to work effectively. I was noticed that influence of power has major
impact on credentials of leadership, which has caused major flux in work form basis. Power has
creates burden on each person, who are not either responded to it or not aware over this.
Power
In my point of view, power is required to maintain flow of work with satisfaction to each
and every person in team to accomplish desired goals & targets for longer duration or power. I
realised that in my team group power are not anywhere linked to decision making, but in reality,
it is necessary to have power links to decision making for enhancing positive environment in
team group to have better and co-relate work based relationship for longer and higher duration of
work (Thornborrow, 2014)9. In response to this, I have taken various critical decisions such as
implementation of work ethical and law based consideration to led member's work with equity
and trust for long duration.
Barriers to effective decisions
Before implementation of these decision, there has been found various barriers such as
lack of group co-ordination, less support and freedom is missing to the members, so that I would
take effective decision making along with implementing longer term relationship with team
leadership. This will be best explained through group think theory which is not just a theory, but
a critical talking over barriers to effective decision making into the role of leadership or work
culture. This theory has shown that organisational faults such as directive leadership, lack of
formal procedures or lack of social diversity in a decision team and also a reason of challenging
decision environment that could stress from external threats, time pressure or moral dilemma.
Group think is an occurrence, where by a group comes to a unanimous decision about a
decision about a possible action despite of an existence that points out of the correct course of
action. As, I am aware of this theory, hence it is necessary to have common goals setting along
with understanding of each and every needs to know what are major consequence of decision
making and what steps can be taken to avoid as such (Haji-Kazemi, Andersen and Klakegg,
2015)10. The major aim of this theory is to realise how group of an individuals came up with an
9 Thornborrow, J., 2014. Power talk: Language and interaction in institutional discourse.
Routledge.
10 Haji-Kazemi, S., Andersen, B. and Klakegg, O.J., 2015. Barriers against effective
responses to early warning signs in projects. International Journal of Project

excellent decision making. Through this model, it was found that organisational faults are some
of the major barrier such as use of autocratic style of leadership along with higher use of
informal power. In my context, I was also realised that lack of formal and behaviour culture are
found as some major barriers, which has caused source of ineffective working or decision
making to the team work.
As. Previously, I told that formal power is necessary in team work, so as to maintain team
work flow along with distribution of work from one person to another. French and Raven five
form of power is the best suitable form of power, which in reality deals with five different forms
of power such as coercive, legitimate, reward, referent, expert power. I was realised after being
known about ineffective decision making in team group, with mutual consent and understanding,
it was decided that referent power will be most suitable to implement in team group to led
effective and work based functioning into the team group.
In my point of view, referent power is based on right of some to offer or deny tangible,
social, tangible or kind of spiritual influence to others for doing what is wanted from someone
along with what to be accomplished (Hopkins, 2012)11. Also, reward based is helpful to enhance
confidence of the team members along with identifying their needs and wants in order to
generate the moral vision or mission of each and every team group, in order to fulfil their desired
targets and goals in given period of time. In response, this power is major solution to overcome
barriers to decision making in an effective and co-related manner.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that change is necessary for an organisation
and its employees for improving their performance and productivity. Also democratic leadership
style is useful for the leaders and its team members for smoothly executing their assigned work.
Kurt Lewin model of change is useful for the leaders in encouraging their team members for
adopting the change in their working. Also reward power is used by the team members and
leader for finishing the team work in an efficient manner.
Management. 33(5). pp.1068-1083.
11 Hopkins, A., 2012. Disastrous decisions: the human and organisational causes of the
Gulf of Mexico blowout. Sydney: CCH Australia.