Free Custom «Case Analysis» Essay Paper

Leadership traits, skills and behaviors Bill's outstanding trait is value of personal and interpersonal relationship as well as peaceful work place co-existence. For example he had "excellent relationships with all of his customers". Though he needs to ensure that the organizational goals are met, his traits reveal that he is not ready to severe his friendship with the colleagues. There is no doubt that there are cases where leaders may be faced with a situation where their personal values are contrary to the vision or aspirations of the subordinates.In such a case, as a leader Bill must compromise and adopt values that have been presented by an organization; this is often complex considering that low appreciation of value or even organizational vision by a leader is often picked by his followers even if he does not state explicitly that he is not for given values.Bill's behavior is characterized by intense loyalty to the system. According to the case, Bill "had demonstrated his desire for the promotion by volunteering for overtime and working all over holiday periods". Some personal behavior and conduct lead some people to become better leaders than others (Hersey & John 2008, 20).As such, behavior-wise, Bill appears to be a sober leader who was also an insider in the company. As such,, Bill has an opportunistic trait as he worked hard ostensibly to secure promotion. To achieve goals through others, Bill had to first of all trust his colleagues and then practice participatory leadership. Bill possesses humane traits and shrewd communication as well as positive social relations skills. He is depicted as a friendly person who 'frequently assisted other technicians in clearing their backlog', and also socialized with colleagues. This shows that he is a motivating person. The leadership trait of Bill thus describes the process of motivating people to achieve common goals through social influence. Such principles of leadership shows the relevance of leadership in guiding human interactions particularly human behavior in group visions, inspiration and individual intelligenceBy 'volunteering' and helping his colleagues do their tasks, Bill was portraying the traits of a functional leader. The functional theory focuses on group and team leadership. Proponents of this theory identify the functions of a leader in guiding a team to achieve certain goals. It is therefore imperative that this theory measures the performance of a leader in terms of what the team achieves. Most specifically, the leadership qualities include the ability to organize, plan, control, and monitor. This involves motivating the team and providing guidance, as shown by Bill before promotion.Bill problems in making changes and maintaining discipline

 

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One reason for Bill's failure and problems making changes and maintaining discipline when he was first promoted to a position that required leadership was inability to communicate effectively. For example, he acted in an 'authoritarian manner and harshly insisting on the new methods' of work schedule. Communication refers to the exchange of information between parties. The relationship between the leader and the follower is determined by the effectiveness of communication. Also, by failing to inform and involve the employee is decision making, Bill had problems with management of leadership informing tasks. Informing function of leadership is about communicating to clarify the tasks and the method to achieve objectives. This function relies heavily on the communication process. A feed back mechanism must be effective to ensure that this function is well articulated. It is therefore imperative that communication is defined in terms of the choice of words, physical actions and tone of voice. Had Bill applied these, the employee resistance could have been almost non existence.Secondly, Bill did not take into account the factor that diversity in work place. He treated different situations equally. However, in management, especially contingent approaches to practices, every situation requires a unique intervention. This requires emphasis on task requirements, technical capability of the team and the overall competency of the team it perform. Under the Contingency theory of leadership, it is assumed that each situation requires a particular intervention which calls for the application of a unique leadership characteristic. Under this theory there are other inherent principles like the strategic theory and the principles about the least preferred co-worker model.Bill also had problems in ensuring that proper control and coordination took place. This entails planning, taking into account social factors, being informative as well as evaluative. Leadership is about defining the social structure for the team. This structure plays a vital role in enhancing communication and efficiency within the group. Most importantly, the social structure helps to generate synergy hence accomplishment of goals. Bill however failed do or had problems in executing Controlling functions, that is, the responsibility to maintain group standards by ensuring that the team keeps focus on objectives. Leadership is about prodding a team to action.Bill, because of inability to differentiate among authority, responsibility, power and friendship had problems in influencing employees. He could neither influence them not make sure that the teams were on time or motivated to achieve the desired outcome at the specified standards. However, good leadership acumen tests consequences of proposed tasks evaluates capacity to undertake tasks and helps individuals to achieve more. As such Bill failed the test of a basic function of leadership which involves influencing a group or a team to achieve desired goals.Bill's leadership situation and sources of power

Bill could not use his social influence power to make employees tore the line. Leadership is based on character and individual behavior more than personal attributes. It is therefore apparent that leadership is built on trust, confidence and effective communication. Had he applied this power, he could have managed to understand the employee behavior and social aspirations. The leader must understand each member of his team as well as knowing the weaknesses and strengths of both the team and the individual. In addition, the team leader must also have an understanding of the strengths and capabilities of the whole team. In particular, the leader must be able to evaluate motivation for each team member, evaluate competence in the team as well as the communication process.Bill also failed to use legitimate power to enforce the organizational goals. According Petress (n.d., 2), legitimate power "results from one are being elected, selected, or appointed to a position of authority", as the case with Bill's appointment. Though he had all the legitimate powers, he could not command the employees and his juniors into action. Based on legitimate power, a leader must understand who he is, what he knows, what he doesn't know and what he can do. Most importantly, the leader must understand that his ability to lead the team is determined by the people he leads.Bill shouldn't have used coercive power as this led to resistance to his managerial skill by the colleagues. By acting in "authoritarian manner and harshly", Bill failed to live unto expectation of his subordinates.How Bill could become an effective leader in his new positionOne initiative that Bill should strive to have is developing of a leadership Vision. Conventionally, the role played by innate abilities can only be attained if the leaders are self conscious on their abilities and are presented with avenues through which they can reflect on their abilities and weaknesses. This self reflection is critical in ensuring that Bill as a leader develops a clear vision that is representative of what they can actually attain and would like their followers to attain. It is worth noting that though a thorough understanding of personal ability is critical it is not sufficient in developing a vision that will ensure leadership goals are attained. Bill should also continue with his on job training ostensibly to acquire new skills and competences. Education and the knowledge acquisition would be critical in determining Bills leadership abilities as well as capability to understand most of the general issues in the business. According to the transformational theory, individuals may deliberately choose to pursue leadership by undergoing training and mentorship which is referred as leadership development.Another key consideration that has to be put in mind when developing a vision is to ensure that the vision developed has an impact on the followers. The role of vision at both personal and organizational level in ensuring that motivation and excitement is developed is irreplaceable. It is further evident that a clear understanding of the organizational vision and the leaders' appreciation of its implications play an important role in determining the effect that leaders will have on an organization.Additionally, Bill needs to find a way in which he can sell his managerial practice as well as supervisory vision to the subordinates. One of the aspects that are critical to determining the level of success that transformational leaders attain is their efforts to ensure that the vision is sold. Bill needs to appreciate the fact that selling a vision is a continuous process and as long as leaders and an organization exist then the process should be ongoing. Bill also needs to be accommodative and proactive delegation of duties. He needs to delegate duties to his juniors and let them make certain decisions when necessary. Team work can also be employed where decisions are held and a team assigned a duty to carry out. The team should be independent and accountable for all its actions.Further, Bill can employ hi good social skills and practice positive tenets of charismatic leadership. Another area that has to be accurately examined is the role played by charisma in ensuring that leadership goals are driven at. Charisma is considered an important characteristic that leaders should display though its necessity does not necessarily imply that it is sufficient in ensuring leaders meet their goals. The effect of charisma under transformational leadership is to invoke emotions that cause followers to want to be identified with transformational leaders (Hacker, & Roberts 2003, 129). It is worth noting that the only mechanism through which charisma can lead an organization into gaining value depends on if the values that a leader oozes are relevant to ensuring attainment of organizational goals. Leaders who plan successful strikes relay the same level if not greater charisma than leaders who aid organizations into meeting their set milestones; the difference however is the value that the leaders have that impact on the direction that the motivation of their followers is channeled to.Technology can help Bill advance his leadership vision and enhance the organization's revenue streams. He can have computerized work scheduling where all the tasks assigned to the employees are indicated, when they will be done and the responsible supervisor. At the same time, having the systems automated would help in integration of the entity's information system and creation of a data base that both departments can use. This will promote interdependence and sharing of resource as well as interactions, thus augmenting organizational cohesiveness. However, if such technological changes are not implemented carefully, there can be counterproductive results such as change resistance. Technology can also help in the communication process. He can send messages electronically and fast, have reports and feedbacks sent and the employees' queries replied. By employing modern communication systems, the Internet service provider (ISP) can design an electronic data interchange that would allow for "collaborative transaction processing, data base Management, and data warehousing, mining and knowledge management' thus make their system automated (Andriole 2006, 9). Rapid communication can also help in receiving alerts such as possible tensions that can be quickly solved.