Introduction
This paper highlights how leadership, communication and team building could impact a company. The company considered for this paper is the well known IT firm i.e. Microsoft. Examine traditional, contemporary, and emerging leadership theories and interpersonal forms of power. Create a profile of the ideal leader for the company you researched in which you describe the most appropriate leadership characteristics in terms of leadership style and interpersonal forms of power; and how these characteristics impact organizational performance.
- Leadership Theories
Leadership challenges differ from company to company, but several of the highly common ones have to do with encouraging, motivating and efficiently managing employees. Leadership has several distinct theories varying from the contemporary and traditional theory to the emerging ones. Leadership in companies simply refers to the concept of directing and guiding the conduct of individuals within the work atmosphere (Hersey, et. al., 2008). The behavioral theory is basically a traditional theory which recognizes individuals with leadership styles. Moreover, the three behavioral styles include autocratic, laissaz-faire and democratic. Autocratic leadership style is when a leader has absolute authority or power over their staff members (House, 1996). The autocratic leader might make use of intimidation or coercion to accomplish their objectives. Democratic leaders work together with employees and motivate them to cooperate. Democratic leaders allow followers to talk about any factors, which would impact particular decisions (Hersey et. al., 2008). Laissez-faire style of leadership is one that involves no actual power in controlling followers. The contemporary theory employs the leadership grid to recognize what kind of manager an individual is. Moreover, the emerging theories of leadership are LMX (leader-member exchange) as well as inspirational leadership. The LMX theory highlights two distinct groups that are present in a company i.e. in-group and out-groups. Firstly, the in-groups are likely to recognize with the leader since they have like features as the leader. Secondly, the out-groups refer to the outsiders.
- Interpersonal Powers
Moving ahead, there are five distinct types of interpersonal power to evaluate. The five distinct types of power used by the managers include reward, legitimate, coercive, referent and lastly, expert. Firstly, the reward power enables the managers to reward staff members for particular desired behaviors or outcomes (Hersey et. al., 2008). The rewards include bonuses, salary increments, promotions, verbal approval, encouragement and praise. Secondly, coercive power is adopted as a means to punish an individual so as to get the preferred outcome (Tittemore, 2003). Thirdly, legitimate power refers to the power that a leader holds because of their position within a company. Fourthly, referent power prevails when the followers view leader as somebody who holds the skills that they value and would wish to hold (House, 1996). Lastly, the expert power is when an individual is competent of influencing other people within the company by having some specialist understanding within their area.
- Profile of the ideal leader
The ideal leader for Microsoft Company would be somebody who holds a democratic style of leadership and holds both referent as well as expert power. Corporations having strong leadership skills develop deep pipelines of expert managers and executives and frequently enjoy a diverse competitive edge. Microsoft has several different spheres that they operate in and they must be capable of having that open communication along with collaboration with their staff members. Technology is advancing at a speedy rate and Microsoft needs to have individuals, which could have an input and are familiar with the fact that their views are important (Hersey et. al., 2008). Microsoft offers exceptional hardware and software solutions to the customers. As technology advances so would the techniques of developing products and services and their features. They must have an open discussion with the staff members to integrate new ideas. Moreover, the ideal leader also must hold expert and referent power so as be admired and taken seriously like a leader.
Based on your research, analyze the organizational stressors (e.g., task demands, role demands, physical demands, and interpersonal demands) to determine their likely impact on organizational performance as well as how those stressors could be addressed.
At work, a person faces stress when there is a mismatch between the resources or capabilities and the demand of the job. However certain stress at workplaces is normal but when it exceeds the limit, stress affects a person’s professional life as well as personal life. It reduces the productivity of the employee and often affects the health condition. Microsoft has several work demands, which take in task, interpersonal, role and physical demands. As Microsoft is a worldwide firm this could result in several task demands. The task demands take in adapting to transformation and the stress which comes along with it. Since the corporation expands so do task demands and at times downsizing took place (Hersey, et. al., 2008). This could result in performing more work, that to with less individuals. A few ways that could trim down the stress include prioritizing tasks, time management and involvement of management in managing stress. As Microsoft has positions which are temporary this could result in particular role demands. The company appoints individuals temporarily at the time of any product or service launch. Temporary hires could experience role uncertainty as they are hired only for a short time-period. The ways of reducing the stress which comes along with role uncertainty is to summarize exactly what this individual must do on everyday basis (House, 1996). Additionally, there are at all times distinct interpersonal demands within the workplace. Individuals must feel that they could trust the leader within the corporation. As Microsoft is a global organization this could result in physical demands. The staff members might need to travel a lot and this could put high stress on them (Hersey, et. al., 2008). They could decrease the stress which travel puts on the staff members by providing periods of rest between traveling.
Analyze critical elements for effective group and work team performance to determine the steps you would take to develop an effective team or work group within the company you researched.
There are various critical elements in deciding the steps for an effective group as well as work team performance at Microsoft. Microsoft is a worldwide corporation and as a result it works with a diverse group of individuals. This could result in effective performance within the workplace since everybody they bring in a huge pool of fresh and new ideas. The diverse group could also communicate with each other more efficiently by appointing one individual for that particular position. They could collaborate on all distinct operations and bring a wider standpoint to the group.
Identify potential sources of conflict within the group or work team. Evaluate the five (5) conflict management styles (e.g., competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodating) and explain which style of conflict management is most appropriate for the potential sources of conflict described above.
As the Microsoft is such a diverse corporation this could also result in some conflict. Communication could be regarded as a type of conflict for this organization due to language obstacles. Also cultural differences might result in some conflict since the employees might not agree on what is regarded ethical (Hersey, et. al., 2008). This might also result in people offending somebody even if they do not intend to since something might be unpleasant as per their culture. Moreover, there exist five different types of conflict management styles which could help in dealing with particular conflicts which occur. Conflict management styles include avoiding, competing, accommodating, compromising and lastly, collaborating. Firstly, the avoiding style of management is just as it sounds to keep away from the conflict and expect that it works out itself (Hersey, et. al., 2008). At times not getting involved could help in solving a issue since nobody else is taking sides as well as making the issue worse. Secondly, the accommodating style of management is when one individual is highly concerned for the other individual achieving their objectives (Tittemore, 2003). Such type of individuals really doesn’t bother for their own objectives. In case if one individual is wrong, then this approach might work effectively to enable the other individual to achieve their objectives. Thirdly, in the competing style an individual is just concerned with his/her own objectives and security. They attempt to contend with other staff members so as to try and find who is much better at a particular task. This kind of management style is best suitable if adopted during an emergency situation. Additionally, leadership might require somebody who is competitive in making speedy decisions. Fourthly, the compromising style of management is when two groups form a mutual contract at the cost of something (Hersey et. al., 2008). During such situations both parties may form a temporary decision in order to accomplish the overall objectives. Lastly, the collaborating style of management is when everybody is involved in solving the issue through discussing it and forming a solution (Tittemore, 2003). Such style is highly adopted when both groups could sit down and peacefully discuss the disagreement and form a mutual solution. Further, the management style, which would prove to be appropriate for Microsoft are collaborating and accommodating. The accommodating types would work effectively during situations where an individual might be upset by other due to cultural disparities. The individual doing the offending could accommodate the other individual since they are familiar with the fact that they are not right. The collaborating management style would work effectively since both groups could bring a distinct solution forward and form mutual agreement.
Determining potential barriers to communication
The possible barriers to communication are language and cultural diversity. It might be difficult for one individual to be competent of communicating with leadership due to cultural disparities. One culture might consider it offensive to oppose manager so they do not communicate what they believe (Hersey, et. al., 2008). Additionally, language could make it difficult to interact with others. One individual might say something to somebody who is familiar with English however their home language is French than the message might not get across in the similar manner it was proposed. Also words/messages do not mean the same thing at all times to distinct individuals. The ways in which managers could prevent such potential obstacles is to organize training in order to help everybody comprehend how to interact with people belonging to distinct backgrounds. There is a need for companies to offer training on good manners as well as ways of showing respect to coworkers (House, 1996). It is also essential for individuals to make use of direct and simple language to converse with people who do not speak or are less familiar with English. There also exists the need to offer employees a briefing of cultural differences. Further, all the employees irrespective of their cultural background should be treated alike and no particular culture should be preferred over the other.
References
Hersey, P., Blanchard, K. & Johnson, D. (2008). Management of Organizational Behavior: Leading Human Resources, 9th ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education
House, R. J. (1996). Path-goal theory of leadership: Lessons, legacy and a reformulated theory, Leadership Quarterly, 7 (3), pp. 323–352
Tittemore, J. A. (2003). Leadership at all Levels, Canada: Boskwa Publishing
