Leadership Development Programs as a Tool to Facilitate Successful Management Performance in Local Companies in Russia after the Introduction of a Market-Oriented Economy
Introduction
The management and leadership practices in Russia have drastically changed since the introduction of market oriented economy from the traditional communism. According to Bolden (2007), the change has been driven by market pressures, financial, and political and to the neglect of both pedagogical and philosophical perspectives on the nature of management, education and leadership within the contemporary community. Further, senior managers are being faced with a challenge of acquiring new knowledge and skills regarding the novel approach to management (Austin, 2002). Nonetheless, it is evident that the programs aimed at facilitating the transition of leadership and management skills to market oriented economy are lacking. This is due to the lack of programs and mechanisms of developing leadership to facilitate the transition.
Many multinational companies and large organizations operating in Russia have been able to learn the new skills through their leadership development trainings. However, majority of the organizations still lag behind in development of these skills (Bournois and Palgrave 2010). In addition, although there is a general shift from the traditional communism and formalized programs towards an experiential, flexible and a customized leadership and management practices, still, it appears that unsatisfactory attention is directed towards the understanding of leadership development programs as a tool that facilitates successful management performance in local companies. This research aims to establish how leadership development programs as a tool facilitate successful management performance in local companies in Russia after the introduction of a market-oriented economy.
Therefore, an inquiry of leadership development in management will facilitate development of new insights on the approaches used in developing leadership in management. The study will facilitate decision making and provide insights of effective methods that can be used in development of leadership for Russian companies. This study will provide an evaluation of the effectiveness of different methods and programs used to develop leadership in the global market and their applicability to Russia.
Thesis Statement
Currently, there are new trends in management and leadership development in Russian market oriented economy. Even though the change is driven by political, financial and market pressures to the relative neglect of both philosophical and pedagogical perspectives, little attention has been given to the leadership development programs and its influence on management performance. Leadership development programs have made significant impacts on the success of many large corporations. Successful performance and management of local large corporation companies in Russia after the introduction of a market-oriented economy is dependent on leadership development programs.
Scope
This study restricts itself to the study of how leadership development programs as a tool facilitate successful management performance in local companies in Russia after the introduction of a market-oriented economy. Also, it focuses only on the leadership development programs for the private sector, specifically for large corporation companies and for senior managers.
Aims
The main aim is to establish how leadership development programs as a tool facilitate successful management performance in local large corporation companies in Russia after the introduction of a market-oriented economy.
Research question
How do the leadership development programs being introduced in Russia facilitate successful management performance in large corporation companies in Russia after the introduction of a market-oriented economy?
Objectives
i. To find out the consequences of lack of leadership development programs on management performance in most Russian large corporation companies.
ii. To determine a suitable format and content for an educational or support programs for large corporation’s senior managers.
iii. To investigate the available leadership development programs that facilitates successful management performance.
Literature review
Certainly, an organization’s performance is determined by the type of leadership style it embraces. Leadership forms an integral part of any organization. This is the reason why most competitive companies find it essential to promote leadership development. Basically, various scholars have put forward what it entails. They have described the concept in quite different ways. Holden (2000) asserts that leadership development constitutes any activity that promotes an individual’s or organization’s leadership quality. Action learning and courses offered at the MBA level are some of such activities. Equally, Bolden (2006) conceptualizes that it is a deliberate effort to offer both present and emerging leaders with a chance to learn, grow and change. Basically, the core objective is to produce individuals with time, with desired skills for effective functioning of an organization. On the contrary, Alexander, (2001) describes leadership development as both informal and formal training and professional development, which is planned for organization’s managers to help them develop leadership skills and techniques to handle a multiplicity of situations. It is evident that there is an agreement in all these leadership development concepts; and that they all agree that leadership development increases the ability of individuals to effectively undertake their leadership roles within organizations.
The current trends in management and leadership development in Russia can be attributed to the growth in financial, market pressure as well as in political shift. This has led to relative neglect of pedagogical and philosophical perspectives on the nature and purpose of education and leadership within the Russian contemporary society. Basically, leadership development in Russia can be grouped into two classes: leadership development before the introduction of the market-oriented economy, and leadership development after the introduction of the same.
Czinkota (1997) notes that managers were required to attend programs intended to upgrade their skills after a defined period of time before the introduction of market-oriented economy in Russia. This is confirmed by Wiley (1994). He asserts that leadership development programs in Russia in the past were mainly focused on training leaders to manage vertically. This implies that the main concern was training managers only for the Russian market, and not for the entire globe. In essence, it implies that before the introduction of the market-oriented economy, Russia could only export a small number of managers to other countries since training of managers simply focused on the Russian market.
Ardichvili, Cardozo, and Gasparishvili (1998) note that Russia’s current leadership development has changed, particularly focusing on managing not only locals companies, but also multinationals. Additionally, it has been observed that the present leadership development in Russia is based on the Western management ideologies, which have been tailored to suit the Russian environment. Longenecker (2008) argues that following the introduction of the market-oriented economy, leadership development at the enterprise level has gained popularity, particularly following the collapse of the centralized system of governance. With the new market orientation, Western Multinationals have ventured into the Russian market, which has drastically changed the concept of leadership development in the country.
Bolden (2007) asserts that leadership development is dominated individualistic approaches to development which basically focus on five categories of principles: intrapersonal attributes, interpersonal qualities, task-specific skills, cognitive abilities and communication skills. Thus, it is factual to argue that leadership development needs to incorporate elements of typical management and self-development programmes, including delegation, project management, and time management. It is thus needless to consider that leadership development be offered to only senior managers (Bolden, 2007).
Bolden (2007) notes various approaches to leadership development as well as the various purposes they serve. He categorized them as being internal skills program, mentoring, in-company job rotation, external assignments and e-learning. It is also worth noting that the very process of leadership development serves many purposes beyond simply developing talent. Executive education can be an effective retention strategy that helps drive the motivation, enthusiasm and commitment of participants. It can serve as a reward, and can also help in teambuilding and engendering a sense of shared purpose. On the flipside, singling out certain individuals over others for involvement in leadership development can lead to unintended consequences such as disappointment, alienation and resistance (Bolden, 2007).
Elenkov, (1998) also argued that the local companies have also changed their strategies in leadership development. Currently, the companies have realized that leadership development entails more than training. In addition to training, the companies have introduced other leadership development tools, such as special projects, personal mentoring, periodic competence assessment, and job rotation. In addition, the companies have also focused on developing values, and such values are based on the current leadership development. Other features of the present leadership development system in Russian local companies include: participation of key players, seeking for the best expertise, talent flight, and committing the required resources. Ardichvili, Cardozo, and Gasparishvili, (1998) asserted that, leadership development in Russia has been also facilitated by introducing new leadership training programs in the higher institutions of learning in the country.
The authors have also acknowledged that the transition process has been easy. Leadership development in Russia has encountered various challenges. For instance, Banai and Weisberg (2001) argue that, the results of the investments in the new system of leadership development are yet to be felt. In addition, there is lack of specific skills. Most local companies in Russia lack certain specific skills within the organization, which could only be attained through experience. For example, the mentoring ability is attained with time, and given that the national culture does not support the mentoring behavior, integrating such behavior in the new leadership development system is a big issue. The other probable challenges of the new leadership development system include high dependence on owners of the companies, and lack of enough expertise. Perhaps, the best way to gain expertise is through working with people with experience in the given area. In the case of Russia, the present multinational expertise cannot satisfy the current demand in the Russian market.
There is no doubt that the existing literature has addressed most of the issues related to leadership development in Russia under the new market system setup. Most of the literatures have focused on the challenges that Russia has faced in developing effective managers, while some have focused on the possible solutions to such challenges. Even though the possible programs that could be implemented regarding the same have been looked at, there is still a gap in this particular part of the literature. Particularly, as compared to other areas, little efforts has been made in determining the leadership development programs, which can be introduced in Russia to facilitate the development of leadership skills, necessary to facilitate the transition to the new market oriented economy. Thus, in undertaking a study on this area, the study will be adding to the existing literature, in addition to offering possible solutions to the problems facing Russia regarding leadership under the current market conditions.
Methodology
This research study will adopt the use of case study approach since it will involve an investigation of effects of leadership development programs as a tool to facilitate successful management performance in local large corporation companies in Russia after the introduction of a market-oriented economy. The researcher will use case study approach since it involves in depth, contextual analyses of similar situations in other organizations, where the nature of the problem and public. It is a method of study that is in-depth rather than in breadth.
The research will make use of surveys, questionnaires and interviews as the data collection tools. The questionnaires will contain both open ended and closed ended questions. Questionnaires will be used to gain the general picture of an investigation of effects of leadership development programs as a tool to facilitate successful management performance. The questionnaire will contain questions derived from the objectives of the study. The questionnaires are structured and semi structured to ensure all information needed is captured. The semi-structured questions are basically designed to analyze respondent’s views on leadership development programs.
The collected data shall both be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively using descriptive statistics in the form of percentiles and frequency tables. Quantitative analysis will specifically be used to analyze the correlation between leadership development programs and organization’s performance. It is from this correlation that the effect of leadership development programs as a tool to facilitate successful management performance in local companies in Russia after the introduction of a market-oriented economy can be ascertained.
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