Questions
Traits and attributes that gave influence
Leaders are always working to help themselves and the others to do what is right. Leaders always set the direction that build inspiring vision as well as creating something new. Leadership is all about coming up with a map of the direction that you want to for either as an individual or as a team. Effective leaders always motivate and inspire the others and always seek to make the others more efficient in meeting the organization’s vision and objectives while at the same time improving the skills and abilities of the team (Avolio, & Luthans, 2006, p64).
Michael the analyst is a hard worker and also a determined character. Despite being a leader he finds it important to participate in the team work so that the results will be in line with the organization’s goals.
The Husband possesses the traits of courage, open-mindedness and he is also outspoken. This can be traced after their training. He is courageous enough to start a conversation regarding a new supplier even when he truly knows that the vice president will not under any circumstance agree to that idea (Balthazard et al., 2008, p23). He is also persistent, it is after persisting that the others join in the conversation and pour their ideas.
Margarita strongly is an advocate of development. She is strongly believes that managers should be evaluated on the basis of their ability to develop and grow their subordinates. Margarita is result oriented, tolerant, and patient and a good trainer (POPESCU & JEAN-VASILE, 2015, p34). That is why she is successful in developing the abilities of Nicholas to present and eventually Nicholas performs as it supposed to be.
Developing leadership effectiveness
The supply chain division senior vice president exercises authoritarian leadership traits. Authoritarian leadership theory posits that the persons in charge have total authority and control as far as decision making is concerned. By the virtue of their leadership positions and their job responsibilities, such leaders not only control the efforts of the teams they supervise but also monitor their activities for the completion of their tasks (POPESCU & JEAN-VASILE, 2015, p43). Their leadership styles are reminiscent of the earliest empires and tribes. This type of is best applied in the situations where complete control is vital, precisely, when the conditions are too dangerous. Rigid rules are important at times because they will always keep people out of some probable harm (MULLIGAN, 2004). Rigid organizations mostly apply this type of leadership style. Authoritarian leadership is only effective when the staff is unfamiliar with the kind of work that seeks heavy oversight. It is also effective where the subordinate staff is in experienced. Authoritarian leadership best suits the military, construction and the manufacturing sectors.
When exercising authoritarian leadership style, it is usually difficult to balance the morale of employees with the authority. The senior vice president can enhance his effectiveness when acting as an authoritarian leader by respecting his team (employees). As much as it is easy to end up being rigid with the rules that the senior vice president tries to enforce, it is also vital that the senior vice president stays fair and acknowledges that every employee in that division even if they don’t call the shots (POPESCU & JEAN-VASILE, 2015). Making every employee realize that he (senior vice president) respects them and their thoughts/ideas keeps their morale up and their resentment low. The thing is every efficient team is based on mutual respect.
The senior vice president could also enhance his effectiveness as a leader by explaining the rules to the division’s work colleagues (MULLIGAN, 2004). This will help them know them know the procedures they are supposed to follow and also helps them to do a better job especially when they know why they are doing so.
It is also important that the senior vice president to be consistent. If at all the senior vice president is there to see that the role of the team is geared towards enforcing the division in line, he has to apply the rules fairly and consistently (POPESCU & JEAN-VASILE, 2015, p54). The rationale here is, it is hard to build trust on someone who applies the same policy differently in similar circumstances, but easy to respect an objective leader. This way the senior vice president will improve his effectiveness as a leader.
The senior vice president should also learn to educate the team before he enforces. Having everyone in the room understand all your anticipations upfront will mean that you will meet fewer surprises down the road as the leader (MULLIGAN, 2004, p47). This also helps eliminate the miscommunications and misunderstandings as the leader.
The senior vice president should also learn to listen to his juniors even if he will not change. Everyone wants to feel like his/her opinion matters and is appreciated, even when they are not going to be implemented immediately. Being the leader, the senior vice president should try to consider the opinions of the other colleagues. All these will enhance the effectiveness of the senior vice president as the leader.
The senior vice president’s style is brought clearly. When the husband initiates a discussion on the prospective supplier, the head of purchasing gets nervous, this raises the thoughts that perhaps the head of purchasing has received some cold treatment in the course of his duties by the deputy vice president (POPESCU & JEAN-VASILE, 2015, p51). The senior vice president also is said to hate the company and we are told that under no circumstance would he allow them to use that supplier. The husband is convinced that there was no need to have attended the training because all that they were taught during the training is not applicable; not in their division (MULLIGAN, 2004, p78). The authoritarian leadership theory thus suits this case very well.
The manager B in the case study who is having a conversation with manager B puts in to practice the concepts of participative theory of leadership. It is also known as democratic leadership. This is the kind of leadership that the leaders welcome the other employees to take part in major decisions; the leaders also will come in handy in solving the problems that the other colleagues including the subordinates are facing (POPESCU & JEAN-VASILE, 2015, p65). In this type of leadership, the leaders will always facilitate a sober conversation, the leaders also encourage other people to share ideas, the leaders also try to come up with the best conceivable solution and communicate the solutions to the other groups. Participative leaders always work to make every workers feel valuable, such leaders encourage their teams to work together. Those under such leaders always perform better since they put more commitment to achieving their goals and meet the objectives of their organization. This type of leadership always proves to be effective because it leads to increased employee’s morale.
This theory fits the case study because we see the manager B puts all efforts that will see the conflicting production manager and the commercial manager solve their issues. Manager A is optimistic that the two managers will resolve their problems (POPESCU & JEAN-VASILE, 2015, p54). The manager does not think that firing the conflicting managers will resolve their issue, he thinks of engaging the two in a consultative conversation that will resolve the issue.
Leadership power and ethics
The term ethics basically refers to doing right. There are various contexts that can be used to define ethics. Situational ethics for example, refers to the act of doing right depending on the context or the situation. This means that what is right in one situation may be wrong in another.
Ethical leadership refers to leadership that is directed by respect for the ethical beliefs, values as well as the dignity and the rights for the other people. All the leaders do know what they value most (MULLIGAN, 2004, p36). Leaders also recognize the value of ethical behavior to an organization. Leaders exhibit ethical leadership by demonstrating ethics in their leadership styles. The ethical leadership of a particular leader is demonstrated by his/her day-to-day actions.
In this case, the manager that suggests the two conflicted managers in Prague should be fired for not working well together demonstrates unethical leadership. Ethics is established with the values and morals that a leader finds to be appropriate or desirable. In this particular case, the manager A fails to show some core ethical leadership traits. Ethical leadership is manifested by the act of justice, something that manager A fails to demonstrate from his argument (POPESCU & JEAN-VASILE, 2015, p41). An ethical leader is a fair leader they don’t show bias. Firing the two managers just because they had a conflict does not demonstrate fairness and justice. Ethical leadership is also demonstrated with humane acts. Ethical leaders will always demonstrate humane acts like what the manager B shows. Firing the two managers because they engaged in a conflict is not humane at all. Ethical leadership is also demonstrated by team building (MULLIGAN, 2004, p61). While the manager B is for the idea of arbitrating the two conflicting managers the other manager insists that the two should be fired. This does not demonstrate team building and therefore it is abuse of power. Ethical leadership is demonstrated by value driven decision making. Manager B’s decision to fire the two managers fails to demonstrate ethical leadership.
Only to some very little extent that we can consider manager A’s utterances to demonstrate ethical leadership, an ethical leader is known to lack tolerance for ethical violations. An ethical leader expects his employees to do what is right all the times and not only when the situation is convenient for them (POPESCU & JEAN-VASILE, 2015, p76). Ethical leaders are not known to overlook the ethical violations by the fact that these types of leaders are of such high morals and values. Arguing by this fact only is when we can deem the manager A to demonstrate ethical leadership; otherwise the manager A to a large extent demonstrates abuse of power.
The other case where the senior vice president hates a company and won’t have them as a supplier demonstrates the abuse of power. This is because despite everyone finding the company a suitable supplier, only the vice president is subjective on the issue and he will not under any circumstance allow the company to be their supplier. The extent of his abuse of power is demonstrated when the husband initiates a discussion on the prospective supplier, the head of purchasing gets nervous, this raises the thoughts that perhaps the head of purchasing has received some cold treatment in the course of his duties by the deputy vice president. The senior vice president also is said to hate the company and we are told that under no circumstance would he allow them to use that supplier (MULLIGAN, 2004, p25). The husband is convinced that there was no need to have attended the training because all that they were taught during the training about allowing other employees an opportunity to give some suggestions is not applicable; not in their division (Avolio & Luthans, 2006, p86). The VP could be demonstrating ethical leadership only under the condition that in history, the company in reference has ever violated the ethical relations that to some extent, the company demonstrated lack of trust and unreliability.
Conclusion
In general, all the three topics give hint of the acts of various leaders and how they go about their duties and tasks.
Bibliography
Avolio, & Luthans. (2006). The High Impact Leader: Moments Matter in Accelerating Authentic Leadership. New York: McGraw-Hill
Balthazard, Waldman, & Atwater. (2008). The mediating effects of leadership and interaction style in face-to-face and virtual teams. S Weisband , 127-50
MULLIGAN, J. (2004). Dancing on the waves: Romania's orphans and the Grand Canal. Cork, Collins Press.
POPESCU, G., & JEAN-VASILE, A. (2015). Agricultural management strategies in a changing economy. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=907725.
