Leadership and Management Theories - (BS4S16-V1), Essays (university) of Leadership and Team Management

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Leadership and Management Theories

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BS4S16-V1 - Leadership and Management Theories Leonidas Efthymiou March 1, 2020

Table of Contents

Table of Contents................................................................................................................................... 1

1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................... 1
2. Management theories....................................................................................................................... 5 Classical Management.............................................................................................. 5 Scientific Management.............................................................................................. 5 Administrative management......................................................................................................... 8 Behavioural Management....................................................................................... 12 Contingency Management Theory.......................................................................... 17
3. Leadership theories......................................................................................................................... 19 Trait Theory............................................................................................................. 19 Situational Theory.................................................................................................... 22 Transformational...................................................................................................... 25
4. Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 28

1. Introduction

Terms of Reference

The intent of this paper is to critically analyse management and leadership theories and its application in my current organization. We will begin by clearly defining and

Since we have defined and differentiated management versus leadership, we will explore throughout the rest of this essay, management theories from its initial conception to theories that has developed over time, from the classical management theories and its development to behavioural and contingency management theories that are evident in today’s contemporary organization. We will discuss the relevance of its application in the organization I have chosen to focus on. We will explore leadership theories with focus on trait, transformational and situational leadership, to delve into the characteristics of each leadership theory, by defining, critiquing and evaluating each and further determine how it applicable they are to the chosen organization or specific individual operating in a small start-up company. We will dissect both management and leadership theories, review the work of the contributing authors, outline the strengths and criticisms and justify relevance of each theory to the modern workplace, looking at what works and what does not.

Context

Advancements in technology has afforded companies the opportunity of a distributed workforce, allowing their workers to operate remotely. Garnering the talents of many across the globe working toward the common goals and objectives of the organization. We will examine, criticize and evaluate the management and

leadership theories and its effect on the modern workplace. I have chosen to focus on my current organization Company Inc. Company Inc started as a SAAS (Software as a service) start-up offering VOIP (Voice over IP) solutions to customers, giving them the ability to have a second phone number without carrying around two cell phones. All that is required is a reliable internet connection and your cell phone. Once the app is installed on the customer’s device they are up and running. The service is offered across different platforms and services are offered on a subscription basis. The company’s headquarters are located in Hollywood California and services are currently offered to the United States and Canadian region with plans to expand reach to Europe in the coming quarter. Company operates allowing workers to work from home remotely with employees from Russia, Jamaica, United States and Canada. Company has since been acquired by Parent company X global in 2018, however I will focus this study on Company before its acquisition as I believe the uniqueness of a start-up company, that has a culturally diverse remote workforce is a perfect organization to use in this case study. Additionally, I chose to focus on my direct Manager Manager, Customer Support Manager to critique theory versus practice.

Structure

This paper consists of four sections. The first section is the introduction which consists of the terms of reference, context and structure. The second section focuses on Management theories. Within management theories, we will look at 3

Lillian Gilbreth and Henry Gantt. Mahmood et al. (2012)’s article explains that Taylor sought to solve a labour issue with the conceptualization of scientific management that was meant to address workers’ inclination to do their job at their own pace or style, this Taylor referred to as “soldiering’. Taylor broke down tasks into time and motion in order to improve productivity and efficiency on the production floor. He believed that managers should oversee and enforce the work flow and workers would simply do the work. He also believed that the more output produced by the worker the better they should be remunerated and derived a piece-rate incentive plan. Underperformers would be released from the company. Building on Taylor’s Scientific Management, the Gilbreths went on to improve on Taylor’s theory. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth contributed to scientific management by breaking town tasks into even smaller sub-tasks in finding the “one best way” to perform these tasks. They also focused on reducing the amount of motion taken to complete a task thus the term “therbligs” was devised. (Mahmood et al., 2012, pp. 517). The major differences between Taylorism and the Gilbreths was that Taylor focused on time study while the Gilbreths focused on motion study. The Gilbreths were concerned about worker welfare while Taylor deemed profit as more important. Henry Gantt was also a major contributor to scientific management and worked closely with Taylor. His contributions are still used in today’s modern contemporary organizations. One major contribution widely used today is the Gantt chart which tracks the scheduling and work flow of projects. Scientific management had some positive impacts which included the effective utilization of the labour force and tools used in the shop in order to achieve organizational objects. Companies saw major profits and became competitive in the industry. Due to the standards set, particularly that of Taylor’s, these have been

utilized in the overall management process across companies at the time. Taylor’s incentive plan which was attached to the work done, allowed workers to make more money essentially improving their lives. As with any theory however there are several drawbacks. Scientific Management was found to be more focused on profits than the welfare of the workers. Workers felt that the methods used to achieve efficiency was harsh and dehumanizing. Close supervision was a cause for discomfort for both the workers and their superiors and was found to also result in unnecessary interference. (Barrett, 2012, pp. 28-35). Evaluation and Application Working in the ICT industry, it is evident that classical approaches to management are being applied to daily operations. Whilst adapting an encouraged collaborative style of management, the customer support department is always conceptualizing ways of improving the way we communicate with our customer base and the turnaround time it takes in resolving issues. Email support is the primary method of offering assistance at Company Inc. In order to combat days with unusually high volumes of support tickets Manager (Customer support Manager) empowered the team to always invent the best way to complete a task in the most efficient manner. We came up with a concept of “how many clicks”. How many clicks it takes to complete one task and how we can break this down to one motion as in the case of Taylor’s Scientific Management where he broke down each task into motion and time to determine the best way to be efficient at work. For example, the customer database is a standalone application while the ticketing system is another. If a customer writes in, then the agent has to copy the customer’s phone number from the ticket then paste into the customer data base and search for

on the shop floor. There were many drawbacks to scientific management which we discussed previously. Administrative management theory was therefore conceptualized to address the administrative functions of an organization. Administrative theory was developed by Henry Fayol in 1916. Fayol was a formally educated French industrialist in the coal mining industry and was a successful manager. With the experience he gained, it led to the development of his theory. He focused on the core activities of the industrial sector which includes technical, commercial, financial, security, accounting and Managerial activities. We then see how Fayol broke down managerial activities into planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, controlling and how this foundation has led to todays definition of management functions. He further derived 14 principles of management which essentially broke down the functions of management into smaller and more specific details of what managers should be doing. He wanted to ensure these principles allowed room for flexibility and could be applied across different lines of business. (Barrett, 2012, pp. 41-47). Fayol focused on the overall management of the company. Like Taylor, Fayol believed in the division of work and specialization to ensure the best people are chosen for specific types of job functions. We see the similarity in view concerning authority and chain of command. As outlined in Huczynski and Buchanan (2017) Fayol was more concerned with formalizing an organization’s structure and presented clear processes for managers. Unlike Taylor who focused on the micro level i.e. the worker’s job process. Fayol’s theory however faced criticisms where principles essentially did not fit every situation or organization structure and didn’t allow for flexibility as was initially

proposed. The principles also exerted strict rules which were considered militaristic, and there was no room for changes to accommodate unforeseen events. Tight control also demotivated staff as they were unable to deviate from the principles and this was evident in Taylorism as well. Lastly Fayol’s theory was based too much on his own experience rather than extensive research and empirical data. Not withstanding we do see Fayol’s theory as the foundation of management principles that’s have been extended upon and practised today. In an attempt to present the historical importance of classical management theory it is worth mentioning Bureaucracy to show the evolution of Management theory. Huczynski and Buchanan (2017) illustrates Max Weber’s belief in what he termed “legitimate authority” i.e. power based on the position held in a company and not so much based on any natural assumption or right. Like Fayol, Weber also believed in a clear chain of authority and the exertion of rules and processes to ensure the company operates effectively. This he deemed as Bureaucracy or “rule by office or officials”. He also believed in documenting these rules and processes to ensure continuity to each successor. Evaluation and Application Both Administrative Management and Bureaucracy is evident at Company Inc. Being a start-up company Manager created knowledge base articles and uploads them to an internal “Wiki” where all employees have access to the online database. It references our standard operational procedures and code of conduct or in our case, we call it our “brand voice”. These are rules and polices in place used to govern the

who are trained and specialize in the particular area of work then executes tasks set out by the managers.

Behavioural Management

Classical Approach to management was very appropriate at the time of its conception in the industrial revolution. However, the major limitations were the fact that workers were operating as though they were machines, which caused them to become demotivated. This gave rise to discussions regarding a more humanistic approach and have influenced in depth research in recent years. According to Macefield (2007) the Hawthorne studies began in the 1920’s by Elton Mayo at the Hawthorne Works, a company that produced electrical equipment. These studies were conducted to explore the impact that environmental factors have on productivity and workers. Researchers concluded that working conditions didn’t increase productivity but rather indicated that the fact that people were under observation affected the results of the study. The very presence of the observers made participants feel important and felt motivated due to the attention they were receiving. Additionally, under normal circumstances workers had no contact with management, and as a result of being observed, they exerted more effort regardless of the conditions the experiments were conducted under. Griffin (2012) highlighted that workers in the Hawthorne experiments attributed more value to being accepted as part of a group and deemed less importance to the piece rate system proposed by scientific management. Collectively as a group, workers decided on an acceptable level of output. To this effect, Mayo (1933) wrote:

“The desire to stand well with one's fellows, the so-called human instinct of association, easily outweighs the merely individual interest and the logic of reasoning upon which so many spurious principles of management are based.” The Hawthorne experiments is seminal work to the human relations movement and suggests that workers responded to the social aspects of the workplace, group dynamics and interpersonal relationships. The human relations movement substantiates the belief that employee satisfaction and workplace productivity correlates, which could result in improved performance. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is another significant contribution to behavioural studies and motivation. In 1943 Abraham Maslow theorized that there were 5 need levels of motivation as illustrated in the chart below. Figure 3.0 Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. Robbins (2005) highlights in his book that satisfactory achievement of lower level needs results in the dominance of the next need in Maslow’s hierarchy. Needs start

Figure 4. Comparison of Maslow’s needs hierarchy and Herzberg’s hygiene/motivator theory, adapted from Plunket and Attner (1983) Introduction to Management Massachusetts: Kent, p. 292 Griffin (2012) indicates that behavioural management emphasizes the importance of motivation in relation to group dynamics, and other interpersonal processes in organizations and implications for managers who aim to motivate their employees. It brings light to the view that employees are valuable resources rather than mere cogs in a machine as was the case with earlier classical management approaches. Additionally, it proposes that workers sought self-fulfilment over extrinsic factors such as those Maslow deemed low level needs or Herzberg’s hygiene factors.

Lastly, human behaviour is complex which makes it difficult to predict an individual’s behaviour or their motivational stimuli. Barrett (2012) further explains to this point that human motivation takes into account a variety of needs that includes intrinsic and extrinsic and these behavioural theories may not apply to the changing economic, social and cultural environments. Diverse environmental factors must be considered and would call for further development of behavioural studies. Evaluation and Application The Behavioural management approach is evident in Company’s organizational structure. Though we are a distributed workforce, the company is team-centric as mentioned and illustrated in the organizational chart. Team building exercises are conducted quarterly to understand and share cultural differences and is deemed important to boost cohesiveness to ensure each employee is treated with respect and fairness. Managers are expected to have “one on one” meetings with team to discuss not only performance but also opportunities for improvement. Additionally, future endeavours and growth plans for each employee are discussed and feedback is provided. The importance of recognition is evident based on performance targets set by managers. Once these goals are achieved a performance incentive is provided other than salary in our case, we received amazon gift cards and recognition in our monthly general meeting called “All Hands meeting” if we were successful in meeting these Key performance indicators. These included highest customer satisfaction rating (CSAT) and Highest solved tickets with the least number of responses. There was a drawback to this effort as there were certain employees that were consistently

management and considers the situation so as to produce and recommend desired solutions. The limitations of contingency management theory consist of the difficulty to determine all factors of any situation to arrive at the best solution, especially if there are constraints involved such as time, money and resources available. This method does not apply a set of universal principles like other management theories and as such places the responsibility of the resolution on the manager. Lastly there is no theoretical framework and is simply the incorporating of other management approaches. (Barrett, 2012 pp. 110-111). Evaluation and Application Company is a technologically driven organization. We find solutions that will make our customers happier and our product better. There is no one best fit in managing an organization especially being a start -up. With Growth comes change. It is why the managers along with the CEO have “Retrospective meetings” that outline changes to policy, product or even operational procedure in each department to find the best solutions and best practices for the organization. We also conduct a post- mortem meeting after a critical mishap or service disruption to address areas of improvement and preventative measure. It is also imperative to adhere to changes that are imposed by external factors, such as changes by third parties, trends in the industry, competition and new technology brought about by the upgrade to the platforms and devices we support. Therefore, we must adapt to environmental and economic factors to remain relevant and profitable.

3. Leadership theories

Trait Theory

Bass (1981) Suggests that trait theory is the belief that a leader is born with certain innate qualities that separates him from his followers. This coincides with Northouse (2004) which presumes that leaders have a natural superior characteristic than the average worker. Ray Stogdill begun the start of the scientific study of leadership and conducted two surveys (1948 and 1974) in an attempt to identify traits that could possibly determine characteristics of a leader. Stogdill (1948) emphasized the importance of considering the situation in which a person may assume and act like a leader and may not in another scenario. Insert citation Though Stogdill begun seminal work on trait theory there were others who contributed to research on this approach. Northhouse (2013) outlined the following contributors Man (1959) Lord, Devager and Alleger (1986) Kirk Patrick and Locke (1991). There were several advantages to the trait approach in that it is appealing due to the perceived notion that leaders possess a special skill set that is consistent among “gifted” people. It has been extensively researched; therefore it has relevance today and fosters confidence in the approach where others are lacking due to an abundance of data on the subject. Trait approach focuses on the leader as a part of the leadership process with aim of gaining in depth understanding of a leader’s personality and its impact on the leadership process.