Introduction
Leadership in the business plays a critical role in offering the direction to the organization, motivation to the workers, and in fostering internal relationship and smooth production (Adrian, 2011). The management plays the dual roles of structural and systematic directives as well as leadership roles along the socio-cultural perspectives. The roles and effective responsibilities of the directorship in the organization is critical in improving the business response and crisis management. Crisis may arise in the firm because of various reasons that can be centered in the internal enterprise operations or from the external factors associated with the industry operations (Wempe, 2009).
The organizational leaders may respond and manage the crisis facing the firm by employing various management and leadership approaches (Alan & Stuart, 2011). The paper will examine the roles and effective functionalities of the mangers in improving the institution`s response and crisis management. The author will investigate the various dimensions employed by the directors to improve crisis management and their efficiency. The writer will investigate the management competencies required to attain the desired leadership traits essential to enhancing the business response to disasters.
Purpose of the Study
Business crisis arise from time to time because of various reasons centered in the internal and external business operations and relations (Andre, 1999). The success of the organization in the face of the changing customer perspectives, tastes and preferences, technology, and the legal and ethical requirements depends on the ability of the business to respond to the changes and manage the crisis occurring owing to these changes (Wei, Chen, Yang, C & Yang, C. C., 010). The ability of the organization to respond to the changes will depend on the type and size of the industry, the manner of the change, and the firm`s structure (Akçetin & Yurtay, 2015). However, management function plays a critical role in the respond and management of the disasters facing the industry (Victor, 20110. The leadership influences the organizational culture and climate that affects effective communication that is critical in responding to crisis in the firm (Veit, 2008). The study will investigate the various roles played by the business leadership towards improvement of the business response and disaster management.
Relevance of the Investigation
Crisis in the organization are critical issues that may incapacitate the organization and lead to extinction. The effective coping of the firm to the disasters ensures it survival, competency, and its ability to satisfy the shareholders and attain its mission (Aykan & KKanungo, 2014). Various factors influence the ability of the organization to respond to the crisis. Among the various factors are the types of the industry, size of the factory, employee relations and Company culture, as well as management function (Tom, 2012). Understanding of the roles of the leaders towards improving crisis management in the business would be critical in determining the competencies required by the business leaders to play those roles (Timothy, 2015). Understanding of the various strategies employed by the leaders towards the effective disaster management would be critical for the future and the current directors to identify the relevant skills to employ when faced with crisis in their Companies (Battilana, Gilmartin, Sengul, Pache, & Alexander, 2010).
Study Question and Thesis Statement
The research will be to investigate how the business leadership improves organizational response to disasters. To research about the topic, the study will investigate the various management functions and their influence to the business response to disasters (Turner, Balmer, Coverdale, 2013). The research will evaluate the different approaches employed by the business directors in response to challenges and their efficiency in managing the situations (Beaver, 2000). The study postulates that the business management plays a significant role towards improvement of the organizational response and management of problems (Chen & Hsieh, 2006). However, the effective disaster management in the organization is a multidimensional phenomenon that depends on a number of correlated factors such as type and size of industry, business cultural and climate, as well as organizational structure (Takeda, 2011).
Leadership Strategies
Crisis in the business can be managed by various management strategies. One of the various leadership strategies is the use of drastic changes approach (Chini, 2006). The drastic methods are designs employed by the top directors to respond to an immediate threat that risks the extinction of the business (Sparacio, 2009).The method entails the senior managers deciding on the course of immediate action to rescue the business. The decisions are passed down to the middle managers and the staff to be executed promptly (Skilton & Bernardes, 2014). In this approach, the top managers do not involve the other employees in designing the effective desired actions as the disaster lacks time to undertake intensive and extensive consultations within the organization (Church & ware, 2009). However, effective management in the lens of drastic strategy and other approaches depend significantly on the communication within and between the organization and the external environment (Senol, 2011).
Effective communication by the leaders plays a significant role in the business response and disaster management (Rezvanian & Mehdian, 2002). Communication is essential in the entire decision making process. The managers may involve the employees in the decision-making process. The effective involvement of the staffs will depend in the communication channels available in the organization fostered by the management functionalities (Etro, 2014). For the changes desired to be effective, appropriate passage of the information from the decision makers to the other stakeholders is critical (Parthasarthy & Gopinath, 2011). The ease, accuracy, and the rapidness of the passage of the designed plan of action to the stakeholders improve the efficiency of the adoption and implementation of the determined crisis management strategies. One of the critical aspects that foster effective communication and the relevance of the crisis management decisions is the level of involvement of the workers in the critical decisions making processes (Ian, Jamie & Graham, 2009).
The laborers in the organization play a critical role in the adoption and the implementation process of the determined crisis management designs. The decisions made by the business leadership should incorporate the opinions and concerns of the workers (Neubaum, Dibrell, & Craig, 2012). The staffs are the people on the ground and in most cases tend to understand the critical issues affecting the business at the bottom levels. Since the factory production processes are continuous operations broken down to series of tasks, a problem manifested at one of the stages of the production may have resulted from other departments (Mcabe, 2007). If the managers were to address the issue without appropriate evaluation of its implication to the entire manufacturing process, the solution may manifest as another problem in another department within the system (John & Elizabeth, 2014).
As the business operations are a series of continuous processes assigned to different departments, the successful management of crisis depends on the effective collaboration between and within the different production sections (Müller, Tolujew & Kienzle, 2012). In the light of this, teamwork leadership functionalities play a critical role towards improvement of the organization response and crisis management. The business managers provide teamwork and motivation to the employees by offering a link between the different departments that unites all the laborers in the unity of the common purpose. Without the critical link, all the departments would work independently without consideration of one sectors influence to the other. The approach would result to conflicts within the organization hindering its ability to manage crisis (Jurewitz & John, 2001).
Effective communication, teamwork, and employee voice in the business play a critical role in improvement of the business response and disaster management. However, all these factors are influenced significantly by the Company structure and the management functionalities (David, 2012). A business with a tall management structure with many layers of leadership influences the communication within the organization significantly. In addition, the hierarchical approach limits the information and the decisions that can be made at various levels. The type of management approach does not involve all the employees in the decision-making process when modeling the styles to be used to manage the eminent disasters. On the other hand, firms with an organic organizational structure and a flat leadership foster effective communication and involves all the workers in the decision making process (Kumar, 2003).
For effective response and disaster management in the business, the practical and operational skills possessed by the employees play a critical role. In the organic type of management structure, the workers specialization and professionalism are eliminated and replaced with accountability and responsibilities (Datta, 2012). The laborers are trained in the various business sections so that the they can perform at the various production sectors as the need demands (Marquis & Houston, 2014). The ability of the workers to perform at the various sectors improves the organization response to the crisis. The enhancement of the creativity and innovation in the organization improves disaster management by providing opportunities for diversified solutions to the problems facing an organization.
Research Methodology
The study methodology for the investigation will entail qualitative descriptive/investigative tests. The research will rely significantly on the secondary available information in print and in electronic form about the management function and the responsibility in managing crisis in the organization. The investigation will employ quantitative design through the survey done to the top managers in the one of the leading technology industry to assess the managers` opinions about the management responsibilities towards improving crisis management. The development of the survey questions was developed in special consideration of the anonymity and absolute confidentiality where applicable. In addition, the questionnaire was designed to include only the information related to the management response to disasters in the business (Don, 1998).
Sources of Data
The investigation employed various sources of primary and secondary data sources. Available secondary information both in print and electronic form that was considered relevant was employed for the research. The test employed information from the peer reviewed articles and journals, Government publications, and prints from other accredited bodies such as the business schools, World Trade Organization reports, and other related accredited business management schools. The quantitative study relied on the information obtained from the senior managers in the leading technology Companies. For the articles to be included in the study, they had to contain key words such as Management responsibility in crisis management, drastic changes in the business, and types of management, organization response to crisis, effective management, and qualities of a good business manager. Other articles that lacked those words but upon evaluation indicated that they were primarily focusing on the methods of dealing with disasters in the business were included in the study (David, David, L. Levy & Ans, 2002).
Data Analysis and Presentation
Data analysis was done using statistical and computational analysis designs that tied the survey results mapping them to the findings from the secondary resources/ qualitative studies. Quasi and Chi-square analysis were employed to find the direct influence of the various management functionalities to the crisis management. In addition, correlation extrapolation designs were employed to establish the association of the various leadership aspects in the disaster management in the business. The results of the investigation was represented in the excel spreadsheet.
Results and Findings
The analysis of the data from the investigation found that drastic changes were a critical management tool that was employed in the improvement of the business response to disaster. The approach was significantly effective in the large business with a tall and hierarchical management structure that would hinder the effective changes communication in the organization. The limitation of effective communication in the organization limited the ability of the management to involve all the employees in the decision-making process. When the large organizations faced drastic disasters, the management making decisions and issuing them don the management hierarchy as directives to be followed without failure improved the response. In so doing, the business was able to respond rapidly to the looming dangers that threatened to stop its functions (Li, S., Liu & Bandyopadhyay, 2010).
The study established that leadership styles that involved the laborers in the critical decision-making processes played as significant role in improving the firm response and disaster management. When the managers involved the workers in designing strategies to cope with the eminent disasters, the solution reached was inconsideration of all the various aspects of the business operations. In addition, all the workers knew their responsibilities towards attainment of the required changes in the organization that fostered their collaboration at various levels towards the attainment of the common goal (Maliwonski, 2011).
The study established that effective communication in the organization played a significant role towards improvement of the enterprise response to the calamities. The Leadership aspects that fosters involvement of the workers in the decision-making process is significantly improved by the appropriate communication styles in the industry. In addition, teamwork that enabled the entire collaboration of the various manufacturing sections towards attainment of the critical changes in the organization depended on the communication structure within the business. Therefore, it was established that, the leadership functionalities that focused towards the improvement of the communication channels within the business and between the firm and the external stakeholders influenced significantly the organizational response and crisis management.
The results indicated that the type of the skills and the professionalism possessed by the workers in the organization influenced the ability of the business to respond to the eminent calamities (Gupta & Lonial, 2009). The skill s and the level of the professionalism of the workers was fostered by the leadership styles that recognized laborers` training and career development as part of their motivation strategy (Grey, 2013). In addition, the organizations that had the organic structure and homogenous management functions had the workers acquiring skills to perform effectively at the various sections along the production line (Olhager, 2002). When the workers were qualified to operate at the various sections of the production process, the business was more flexible and responsive to the desired changes towards crisis management. In addition, the leadership strategies that encouraged innovation and creativity in the business gave the opportunities for the workers to devise innovative methods to respond to eminent disasters facing the industry (Porter, Lyman, & Edward, 2007). The various innovative and creative designs postulated by the workers improve the enterprise response to crisis. However, the drastic changes strategy may not improve significantly the respond of an organic, medium enterprise owing to its lack of involvement of the other employees in the decision-making process (Colin et al, 2010). The decisions made by the top management may lack appropriate consideration of the various organizational manufacturing processes. In the light of that, the solutions offered may be the source of calamities to the other production sections (Patil, 2014).
Conclusion and Summary
Leadership practices play a significant role towards improvement of the institution`s response and crisis management. Leadership aspects such as drastic changes strategy improve the large and complex enterprises crisis management. However, the drastic changes are not effective in the small and medium enterprises owing to their lack of incorporation of the staffs’ voice in the decision-making processes. Effective communication in the industry influenced significantly the effective adoption and implementation of the management strategies to manage calamities. For the effective management of the disasters in the firms, leadership strategies that fostered effective communication within and between the organization and the external stakeholders was critical. Teamwork, involvement of the employees’ voice in the decision-making process, training and career development, as well as encouraging creativity and innovation in the organization improved business crisis management. Hierarchical and complex management structure hindered organizational response to change while flat management
Limitations of the Study
The study was limited by the sampling technique that used predetermined organization to survey (Clowes & Tapp, 2008). The use of the information gained form one organization may not represent the entire formation in the industry sector. In addition, the organization selected for the study was chosen along the technology providers (Dovalina, 2011). The management and operations of the field may be different from the other trades. Moreover, the one time-survey study lacked the control measures that limited the external validity of the information. Access to the senior managers was a challenge owing to their busy schedule and the number that responded to the survey was a significant few top managers. The number of the respondents was low and thus the conclusion based in the findings may not represent the situation in the entire technology industry (Edmonson, 2010).
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