leadership and management assignment level 6, london school of international bussiness

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Leadership and Management

Eleftheria Karavokyri

London School Of International Bussiness

Leadership and Management ii

Table of Contents

Introduction....................................................................................................................................................1

Task 1.............................................................................................................................................................1

1.1 Analysis of the Concepts of Leadership and Management..................................................................1

1.2 Evaluation of the Key Management and Leadership Theories............................................................3

1.3 Assessment of the challenges of leadership and management practices.............................................3

Task 2.............................................................................................................................................................5

2.1 Analysis of the key motivational theories and how they influence organisational success.................5

2.2 Analysis of the contribution of performance management techniques as organisational processes. . .6

Task 3.............................................................................................................................................................8

3.1 Evaluation of the role of leadership and management in employee motivation..................................8

Task 4.............................................................................................................................................................9

4.1 Analysis of the development of teams.................................................................................................9

4.2 Analysis of the roles and models of team leadership.........................................................................10

4.3 Evaluation of the role and usefulness of teams within the organisation............................................11

References....................................................................................................................................................13

Leadership and Management 1

Leadership and Management

Introduction

The practises of leadership and management are regarded with being as useful to the

success and effectiveness of individual and an organisation as a whole. For this matter,

organisations are carrying out serious efforts that are focused on enhancing the application and

functionality of the leadership and management practises. Among a wide and diverse range of

roles and responsibilities of a leader and a manager, some of the primary roles are promoting

motivational factors among employees, enhancing the team work, communication and

coordination, problem solving and above all understanding the needs of employees in order to

successfully attain the organisational objectives. The primary purpose of this paper is to

undertake the management of a small group in a large corporate organisation and thus for this

matter, it important to develop familiarity and understanding of the leadership and management

practises, roles and responsibilities in managing individuals and teams.

Task 1

The discussion in this section maintains its focus on understanding the concepts of

leadership and management backed up by relevant theories and aids in catering the challenges

that are faced by leaders and managers.

1.1 Analysis of the Concepts of Leadership and Management

Leadership is related with the process through which an individual influences and

empowers others in order to aid in the attainment of objectives and provides guidance and


direction to others and organisation as a whole. The development of effective leaders is

dependent on the consistency of self-study, training, education and experiences (Bolman,

2014).Besides the fact that leadership is learned, the necessary knowledge and skills that are

possessed by a leader can be influenced by the relative personality traits and attributes, such as

values, preferences, beliefs, ethics and norms. Whereas on the other hand, managers are seen as

key players and are responsible for not only carrying out the practises of recruitment and

selection, but the responsibilities of a manger also involve in the provision of assistance to others

in order to achieve organisational tasks and objectives (Nahavandi, 2016). The practises of

management are associated with the accountability of company’s business activities along with

setting business objectives, assuring the attainment of business objectives by effectively

managing individual workers and ensuring the maintenance of corporate values.

Management is contained with the elements of leadership, thus leadership is regarded

with as a key function of management and it is included in the five management functions which

are, Planning, Organising, Staffing, Leading and Controlling. The role of management and

leadership are both tied with the relative interactions among individuals and for this matter, the

containment of personality traits and characteristics are integral requirements. Moreover,

management and leadership are reflected and practised at every level of management; along with

certain variations as per the management hierarchy (Shriberg, 2010).It is the constant deliverance

and utilisation of knowledge and skills that contributes to the process of management and

leadership. The process of management and leadership in an organisational setting regards with

the development of organisational vision along with the alignment of people with that vision

through adequate levels of communication and motivating individuals. Leadership helps in the


creation of uncertainty and change in an organisation, whereas management practises involves

budgeting and planning, staffing and organising, monitoring and problem solving.

1.2 Evaluation of the Key Management and Leadership Theories

The management and leadership theories are regarded with being as a critical element

that helps in the description of the duties and responsibilities of a manager and leader (Derue,

2011). The management theories such as contingency theory and chaos theory help in

determining the action plans that a manager or management as a whole have to take into account

in order to effectively and efficiently cater the diverse range of business issues and situations.

Whereas on the other hand, the leadership theories such as great man theory, trait theory,

situational theory and participative theory are all in response to the roles and characteristics and

personality traits that a specific leader is supposed to carry along or carries when following

leadership and management practises. As a matter of fact, the business situations are constantly

changing, so do the issues and problems arising from these situations. For example, in a

contingency theory of leadership or management maintains its focus of attention on the fact that

which style of leadership needs to be adopted in order to successfully address the specific

variables associated with an environment and that best suits the situation (Antonakis, 2013).

Thus in order to successfully and effectively respond to and cater the varying business situations,

a leader is required to possess the characteristics and traits that are in line with those situations.

1.3 Assessment of the challenges of leadership and management practices

Leadership and management practises are exposed to a wide range of challenges that

affect their functionality. The nature and type of challenges varies and is dependent on the size


and nature of an organisation. The challenges that can be faced by the management and

leadership practises can range from scarcity of human and capital resources, inability to

effectively attract and retain workforce to ineffective recruitment practises etc. For this matter it

is highly important for leaders and managers to anticipate the challenges that a business is

expected to face and carry out the activities of developing prevention strategies against those

challenges (Northouse, 2012).The managers and leaders are not only responsible for projecting

the possible solutions to the changes that may have a direct influence on the organisation when

carrying out necessary changes, but they are also responsible for having a clearer vision of the

key objectives of an organisation and possess the ability to guide and direct the organisation to

attain these, carry out the organisation and motivation of employees to accept changes and

challenges and thus assure the stability and prevention of disruption. In addition to this, other key

challenges that a leader and manager are highly likely to be exposed to are related with the

employees of an organisation.

Low productivity levels, increased turnover rate, the need for training at an adequate time

period and addressing ethical issues are some of the other challenges that are needed to be taken

into account by managers and leaders (DuBrin, 2015). In order to effectively cater to these

challenges managers and leaders go about by designing relevant compensation and benefits

programs and necessary increases in pay, developing counselling sessions for employees,

redesigning jobs, redefinition of job roles and job enrichment. Furthermore, in order to

successfully respond to these challenges, managers and leaders also contribute in restructuring

the reward systems, communication systems, budget and stock monitoring, informational data

and reporting systems. Thus management and leadership practises are subject to an increased and

varying levels of challenges from their external environment which includes competitors and


governmental restrictions and as well as from the internal environment which includes

management of employees, development and maintenance of organisational policies and

standards and recruitment and selection of employees.

Task 2

This section maintains its focus on discussing the significance of understanding

motivational theories and their relative influence on the organisational performance. Moreover,

this section also highlights the utilisation of performance management techniques that are of high

significance to the organisational success.

2.1 Analysis of the key motivational theories and how they influence organisational success

It is of utmost importance for organisations to consistently seek for ways to motivate its

employees, since it’s the workforce that helps in the attainment of organisational objectives and

brings revenues to the business. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, McGregor’s motivational

theory X and Y, McClelland’s needs theory and Herzberg’s two factor motivational theory are

some of the theories that explain motivational needs in an organisational setting. These theories

are in response to the specific elements that motivate individuals and in explaining the factors

that drives individual behaviour (Miner, 2015).Whereas other motivational theories by Vroom

and Porter help in explaining the process theories of motivation and focus on the thought

processes that contribute to influencing behaviour.

The organisational success is highly dependent on the efforts and performance of the

workforce, thus the management practises of an organisation needs to undertake the motivational

factors that indirectly tie employee’s efforts with performance. The decrease in motivational


levels is highly likely to lead towards the reduction in employee’s effort and commitment with

the organisation. A long term view suggests that lack of employee motivation leads to the

increased absenteeism, increased disputes among industries and decreasing productivity levels

and profit for an organisation.

For this matter, an appropriate level of familiarity and understanding of the motivational

theories listed above will help in understanding the diverse need of employees and their relative

intrinsic and extrinsic factors of motivation. This concept can further be explained by taking

account the Herzberg’s motivational theory. Herzberg’s theory is in one way linked with the

provision of job enrichment (Herzberg, 2011). This theory helps in differentiating between the

provision of factors that lead to satisfaction and their absence will lead to dissatisfaction, the

entire cycle in turn will either lead to motivates or demotivated employees and will be reflected

into their performance. This can further be explained by the fact that the adequate maintenance

of pay factors and working conditions within the organisation will result in the elimination of

employee dissatisfaction.

2.2 Analysis of the contribution of performance management techniques as organisational

processes

The practises and techniques of performance management are used by managers in order

to effectively test and assess the working status of an employee on a periodical basis. By

carrying out the necessary assessment of employee’s performance, an organisation is enabled to

measure the overall effectiveness and performance of its workforce and is able to identify the

level of organisational output that helps in the attainment of objectives (Gruman, 2011).In order

to increase the effectiveness of the performance management techniques, the assignment of roles


to individual employees for the improving their relative strengths serves to be as a crucial part.

The activities related to workforce optimisation is associated with planning in order to keep the

right people in the best roles of job which further helps in the maximisation of work output. By

carrying out regular appraisal practises, the leaders and managers find it easy to track and

identify the performance of employees and helps in suggesting the training needs and on whether

or not these employees will assure increased productivity with additional varying

responsibilities. Among a wide variety of performance management techniques is the application

of a compensation package.

A wide majority of employees are extrinsically motivated, thus the effective utilisation of

compensation package as a performance management technique will help in increasing employee

morale and they will view this process as fair (Guest, 2011).The effective utilisation of the

performance management techniques helps in providing clarity to managers and leaders

regarding the lack in employee performance and thus aid in the development of strategies and

redesigning structures to address the issue. The application of performance management

techniques also aids in the provision of a performance tracker through which employees in one

way become liable to direct their focus of attention on the attainment of their job roles that are

assigned and helps them in identifying their lack of performance efforts. Thus this practise will

lead employees in the direction of improving their work performance in relation to the relative

lacking.


Task 3

The discussion carried out in this section relates with the role and impact of leadership

and management practises that have a direct impact on either increasing or decreasing employee

motivation.

3.1 Evaluation of the role of leadership and management in employee motivation

As mentioned earlier in the discussion that it is of utmost importance for managers and

leaders to seek out ways that aid in satisfying the needs of employees. For this matter, the

organisations have discovered that despite of the provision of adequate pay and existence of

good working conditions, employees still carry along concerns that regard with their need for

employers to motivate them. The element of motivation is crucial because of the fact that it is

highly associated with implicit motivation of employees and this is what employees are seeking

constantly (Zhang, 2010). Employees highly require their leaders and managers to associate them

with key organisational assets, indulge them in organisational decisions and consistently follow

the implicit and intrinsic ways of motivation. Thus, in order to attain organisational success as a

whole, the leaders and managers need to put a greater emphasis on employee motivation efforts.

There exist a number of ways that reflect on the implicit ways that leaders and managers adopt in

motivating their workforce, such as doing late sittings with an employee in the provision of

moral support is one example.

In addition to this, the relevant investments in employees serve to be as vital, because it

will not only be related with providing employees with the best and greatest resources in the

organisation but it would also mean that they appreciate the efforts of leaders and managers and

feel privileged to work under the care and supervision of organisational heads (Griffin, 2013).It


is the responsibility of both, the leaders and managers to assure that employees are directed

towards the attainment of and receiving the courses of full training. Furthermore in order to

assure the effectiveness of the training sessions and courses and ensuring the satisfaction of

employees with the assigned job roles and increasing employee motivation levels, an adequate

system for feedback should be developed, so as to gain deeper and meaningful insights into the

improvement that has been achieved.

Task 4

This section of the paper carries out the discussion on the development and functionality

of teams within an organisation. This section undertakes the significance of team development,

role that team leadership plays and the relative significance of organisational teams for an

organisation.

4.1 Analysis of the development of teams

The organisations are consistently making efforts in order to improve the motivational

and productivity levels of individual employees working in teams and groups. The underlying

concept of development of teams is related with the planning and carrying out the systematic

processes that are designed in order to improve the efforts of individuals that work in a

group/team so as to successfully attain the goals (Griffin, 2011). Furthermore, the idea of teams

is referred to as the internal organisation of individual sets along with the assignment of specific

roles for each individual in order to achieve a goal, whereas the group is related with the

collection of individuals which possess a common element, such as sharing similar interests.


The successful and effective teams consist of an appropriate mix and blend of individuals

that perform a different set of tasks. This concept can further be explained as the development of

a controlling and evaluation team. Thus, each of an individual player in the team is responsible

for perform their assigned job roles that are directly related with carrying out the job tasks of

monitoring, controlling and evaluation. Each individual employee has preferred set of roles/role

and thus in order to lead to the effectiveness of a team’s functionality, one or more roles are

required to be filled. The concept of team development and team functionality can be further

understood by comparing it with the group formation and its performance (Shuffler, 2011).

Unlike groups which possess increased number of individual members, the individual

members in the team are highly likely to be influenced because of their assigned roles. As a

result each individual employee is provided with an opportunity to participate in the relative

attainment of the objective of a task. The effectiveness of the team is highly dependent on the

diverse mix of skills and expertise possessed by individual team members. The idea behind the

development of teams is in order to improve the organisational performance; the individual

members of the team must be enabled to work together by coordinating activities.

4.2 Analysis of the roles and models of team leadership

It is the responsibility of team members to enable the effective coordination and

communication among the individual members of the team. A leader of the team possesses wide

range of roles that are important to come into play. The primary role of a team leader is to enable

the organisation of joint projects or to enable some level of exchange among the individual

employees of the team (Klein, 2011). The leaders of the teams are required to work together and

exchange these roles with other members in order to be effective for this approach. Furthermore,


in order to enhance the working spirit among individual members of team, it is of high relevance

to increase effective communication and promote swap of team member’s roles. The effective

practises of swapping team members will lead to the enhancement of social interactions among

individual team members in an organisation.

The effective attachment, coordination and communication with other team members and

other teams help leaders, managers and overall organisation in the attainment of meeting the high

standards of performance. It is because of following this practise that individual employees in the

team depict increased level of efficiency in carrying out their roles and are also able to

effectively discover the relevant informational data that is related to their job role, their co-

members and the organisational culture and structure as a whole (Lee, 2010).The leaders of the

teams are held responsible for the carrying out the consistent activities of learning and practising

that are related with the existing issues of the team. This practise in turn helps team leaders in the

creation of activities that are practical, attainable and that promote individual participation.

4.3 Evaluation of the role and usefulness of teams within the organisation

The primary of the team leader in an organisation is to focus on the development of a

group and team that is highly efficient and effective. It is because of the ability of a team leader

that is responsible to effectively motivate its team members to work hard and perform efficiently

in order to successfully achieve team objectives and assure the development of pride among the

team members and thus this practise aids in contributing towards the creation of job satisfaction

for both, the leader of the team and the individual members of the team in an organisation (Sung,

2012).When teams are provided with the necessary resources in terms of capital resources and

assigned team leaders which aid in the enhancement of the communication and coordination


among team members results in depiction of team members that are highly motivated and

increasingly willing to participate in the job tasks and contribute towards the attainment of

objectives. In addition to this, the introduction of diverse range of effective teams and units in an

organisation results in the increased contribution for the attainment of objectives and goals

(Fransen, 2011).

Furthermore, as far as the factor of employee motivation is concerned, the individual

employees in the team are regarded with being as more motivated and satisfied in comparison to

individuals that are performing in traditional regimes and thus in turn the team working has a

positive influence on employees, their identification and their level of commitment. Moreover,

the utilisation of teams and overall team work is also associated with being as a source of gaining

a completive edge over other competitor organisations.


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leadership and management assignment level 6, london school of international bussiness

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