Reflecting on Leadership, Management, and Change Strategies

This report provides a detailed reflection on leadership and management styles, focusing on the benefits of participative management. The author discusses their personal experiences working in a group, highlighting how participative techniques enhanced their skills and problem-solving abilities. The ...Read More

Leadership and Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
MANAGEMENT STYLE...............................................................................................................1
LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CHANGE.......................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

MANAGEMENT STYLE
Concerning my aspect over the benefits of working in a group is very wide and in deep
sense. It enhances the individuals' skills and ability to present their innovative ideas and belief. It
helps in expanding the boundaries of knowledge along with the increasing the level of cognition.
I, myself has attained a good level of knowledge and experience by working as a member in a
group. It maximizes my ability to handle the situation and act positive during critical condition.
Group working was a great experience for me and was privileged for me being as an efficient
group member (Ichijo, 2006). During my college semester, my group of five members were
assigned with a presentation on a topic. Earlier we were very nervous that who would be
responsible for the respective task, whose duties is to give the presentation or who is going to
compile the tasks in a presentation, what would be the matter, etc. It generated various questions
in our mind which was not answerable at that moment. But soon when we gathered together and
participated in the group meetings, all the duties and responsibilities were defined as per a set of
plans. The tasks were divided as per the capabilities and skills of the members. The deadline for
accomplishing the tasks were soon decided by all the members. In the group meetings we used to
exchange our ideas that increased our level of thinking and generating innovative thoughts over
the assigned tasks. The management style we developed for working in a group was participative
technique (David, 2007). It proved very helpful to me and other members because our
participation in group meeting sorted our queries and problems with the other members. Further,
the sorted problems was critical by every member of the group and soon, we got the technique to
clear all the questions.
From this I have developed that participative management allows individuals to take
responsibility, accountability and authority over their assigned task or work in a group or an
organization. This leadership strategy is focused on empowering qualified individuals and allows
head member to focus on strategic planning while other members manage daily operations of
executing the projects. I acknowledged that effective leaders in a group establish a clear mission,
vision and set of objectives before deferring managing and controlling the group. It helps all the
members of the group to communicate the organizational goals and describes their expectation in
terms of results (Freeman, 2010). Along with this, we focused on encouraging each member
efficiency to think creatively to solve problems and figure out how to improve performance. We
have established a performance measurement criteria for learning, understanding and completing
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the task. However , as per concern the leaders can use participative management strategies to
their advantage. We found that the participative management style was one of the appropriate
and helpful trait that assist us in assigning, solving, sorting and completing our project (Hitt,
Ireland and Hoskisson, 2014). Using participative management strategies, we found that it was
beneficial to encourage us to identify performance gaps and set our own paths to complete the
tasks by using available resources, including formal education, presentation skills and self-paced
courses. We have used assessment tools to identify our strengths and weaknesses for achieving
the presentation goals. Then, we individually created a step wise plan and review it with others.
This enables our confidence level to create a customized actions plan for improving our skills.
This empowering process helps us to assess our competency level and ability to establish a plan .
However, leader of the group has guided us in completing all the tasks and provides a supportive
atmosphere in which we developed our skills necessary to present the objectives attained by us in
the projects.
According to my reflection over the questionnaire filled by me at the start of the semester
regarding the management styles being used by me was found related and positive. Earlier my
approach over the management style was participative and I still find this approach in myself. As
per my concern participative management is an effective style of management which was present
in me. During the procedure of filling the questionnaire, I was quite impressed from the
participative management style. I also had use participative style of managing the group in my
various functions and completing groups (Ricceri, 2008). From this, I have attained an
understanding that I would not change my management style for accomplishing or completing
the assigned tasks. Participative management improves the members' confidence level for
encouraging their participation skills, presentations skills and public speaking skills which are
very useful in many aspects of work and life. However, I have a perspective that participative
management is the only style which develops an effective presentations and public speaking
skills of an individual that are important in business operations like sales, training, teaching,
lecturing, and generally feeling comfortable while speaking in a group. There are many benefits
of participative management as per my perspective but the main among them is it increases the
confidence and capability level of an individual in order to provide good presentations and
ability to stand up in front of an audience and speak well (Barney, 2005). The participative
technique has also extremely helpful in generating competencies which is necessary for self-
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development and acting over the social situations. I found that participative technique is very
useful for me and for that reason I would not change with any other style.
LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CHANGE
With the rapid development and dynamism in the market conditions, each organisation is
prone to the fluctuations. Organisations and other business entities operating in this scenario
encounters changes in different portions of its working such as production, human resources,
marketing and other working domains (Dhar, 2013). At the time when I was working as the
member of group, there was laissez faire style of leadership used which made the members of
my group more relaxed and liberal. As in this style, group members are free to take decisions
without any consultation from the leaders or senior authorities. I have realised that, It is
imperative to bring adaptability with the changes occurring in the external environment of the
organisation. For that purpose, it demands changes in the management. Management refers to the
set of activities adopted by the senior authorities of the organisation to utilize the resources in the
optimum manner along with maintaining synchronized co-ordination among different
components. Effective change management is the essential need of the organisation to establish
its prominent position in the market. In that respect, in order to make the group more productive
and lucrative I felt the need of change in leadership from one form to another. It can be improved
by changing it from laessez fairre style to participative. In place of ow degree of association
between leaders and group members as in laissez fairre style, in participative style decisions are
taken with mutual consent and cooperation. Aspiring to work in the health and social sector, I
have in built myself with the knowledge and information of the working in the related field.
Through that I have inferred that it is the dynamic industry that keeps on changing with the very
fast pace (Ukpere and Van Rensburg, 2014). Hence, it is seemed that pragmatic approach is
required to proceed further and bring adaptability.
Change management is the systematic and structured way of planning in which proper
approach is adopted to bring variations in the positive direction. Earlier my knowledge was
confined to the limited area. According to my prior knowledge, change is the natural phenomena
that occur at its own pace depending upon the changes in the other factors affecting the particular
process. But making the study and going through different modules I have developed the
understanding that it is executed in the systematic manner. For that purpose, different theories
are proposed by the authors in which scientific approach is mentioned that are used by different
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organisations as per their suitability. For the purpose, Lewin theory of change management is
used.
In organisation, change is brought by bringing variations in any of them or all of the
factors such as goals, leadership styles, focus, process, reward system and use of consultants.
These are the components of organisation which are approached differently in all the
organisation (Hayes, 2014). In order to bring the changes there all factors are targeted in the
appropriate manner. As per the suitability different approaches are required to be adopted by the
management. To bring transition from one form to other, leadership style is the fundamental area
that is required to be changed. In the process of changing the manager with different style group
is communicated is the appropriate manner. Such as in the given aspect, I have processed it
through a set of activities in which at the initial stage strengths and capabilities of group
members are identified. Fundamentally the change in the organisation is brought by bringing
difference in the goals and objectives set by the management. Such as the organisation in which I
was working as the group was earlier focussed on increasing the economic parameters such as its
profitability, sales and revenue generation (Chiaroni, Chiesa and Frattini, 2011). To make
paradigm shift in the working of the organisation, now goals are oriented towards the increment
of the organisational capabilities. It aims towards the enhancement of the productivity of the
employees and the efficiency degree of the organisation. Hence, steps are taken in that regard by
the management. Further, I have learned that next factor that bring change is the change in the
leadership style. It is the base through which all the working is processed by the employees and
are coordinated to each other to execute the plans and fulfil the objectives. It has brought
significant change in the working style of the organisation. Earlier autocratic style was in use by
the senior authorities of the organisation. But after realising the need, in the due course
participative style was adopted. According to these changes are brought. Apart from these two
factors variations in focus areas, process that plans and implementation styles, reward system
and relational constructs with consultants are brought.
The change management process is well explained by the Lewin. He states that this is
processed in three stages: Unfreezing, change and refreezing. Unfreezing refers to the process of
unfolding all the existing activities to bring transition in the working of the organisation.
Fundamental step associated with it is realising the need of change. This is the most crucial one
with regard to the attainment of organisational objectives. Management adopts methods to make
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them employee know about the internal and external situation of the organisation and
requirement of variation in different aspects (Cummings and Worley, 2014). It is well supported
by vision and strategies build by senior management to accomplished the desired targets. The
next step is the process of change which is executed with the series of activities focussing on
different dimensions of the working of the organisation such as goals, leadership, principles and
many other related. Lastly is the process of refreezing. It is the process in which all the changes
made are restored with respect to the working of the organisation in different fields of are. It
refers to the process of bringing adaptability with the change and bring adjustments. It is
executed in the health and social care by training and development sessions organised to help
them imbibe the knowledge and information about the adaptations made.
From the above report I have learned that change management is the structured way of
proceeding towards bring paradigm shift in the working of organisation. I have figured out the
learning process very difficult. It refers to the identification of different traits and strengths of
group members. It requires the precise and accurate results to proceed effectually. With respect
to different attributes and grounds such as time keeping, communication styles used and the
fundamental structure there is the need of participative style of management to let it work more
productively. For that purpose, different approaches are adopted by different business entities as
per the suitability and resources available (Burke, 2013). Moving from the limited knowledge
with respect to the change management to the broader perspective, I have learned the theories of
change management used. One such theory is Lewin theory stating three stages of change
management that are unfreezing, change and refreezing as the base of these three process change
is brought in different dimensions.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Burke, W. W., 2013.Organization Change: Theory and Practice: Theory and Practice. Sage
Publications.
Chiaroni, D., Chiesa, V. and Frattini, F., 2011. The Open Innovation Journey: How firms
dynamically implement the emerging innovation management paradigm. Technovation.
31(1), pp.34-43.
Cummings, T. and Worley, C., 2014.Organization development and change. Cengage learning.
Dhar, S.K., 2013. Derivative Trading in India: A New Perspective of Risk
Management. Financial and Commodity Derivatives, Rohtak Matcom Education Society.
Hayes, J., 2014. The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Jupiter, S.D., Cohen, P.J., Weeks, R., Tawake, A. and Govan, H., 2014. Locally-managed marine
areas: multiple objectives and diverse strategies. Pacific Conservation Biology. 20(2).
pp.165-179.
Ukpere, W.I. and Van Rensburg, A. J., 2014. Application of grounded theory in career research
reviewed.
David, F. R., 2007. Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Pearson Prentice Hall.
Freeman, R. E., 2010. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Cambridge University
Press.
Hitt, M., Ireland, R. D. and Hoskisson, R., 2014. Strategic Management: Concepts:
Competitiveness and Globalization. Cengage Learning.
Ichijo, K., 2006. Knowledge Creation and Management: New Challenges for Managers: New
Challenges for Managers. Oxford university press
Ricceri, F., 2008. Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management: strategic management of
knowledge resources. Routledge
Barney, J. B., 2005. Should strategic management research engage public policy
debates?.Academy of Management Journal. 48(6). pp. 945-948.
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