The process of achieving organisational goals

The term ‘management’ encompasses an array of functions that are different undertaken to successfully accomplish a task. Management is all concerned with ‘getting things done’ in the simplest of terms. But it is the method and the process of how one gets one’s target or goals and it is that management is regarded as an art and a science in this respect, too.

The term management may probably be defined recently. However, when men began to learning the art of organizing, strategizing (during wars) and/or simply planning, it existed at this time. Management was quintessentially considered as an art of ‘managing men’ and therefore the term “manage-men-T” at the core of it.

There are four major functions in the process of achieving organisational goals: PLANNING, ORGANISING, LEADING, and CONTROLLING

PLANNING is the process determined what is to be done by the organisation or any part of it that is particular.

It involves:

Forecasting – predict conditions in the future by analysing known information;

Goal setting – determine what the organisation hopes to get in the relevant time period.

Decision making

ORGANISING can determine and note to achieve the objectives of the undertaking activities that are needed, group these and assign such groups of activities to manager, ensure delegation of authority effective to enable activities to be executed and offer co-ordination of relationships which is authority

LEADING is stimulating people to be better performers. It directs, motivate and communicate with employees, individually and in groups.

Close day-to-day contact with people is involved, helping them to be guided and inspired toward achieving team and organising goals.

CONTROL is the process to ensure that the plans and goals of the organisation are conformed by monitoring and regulating performance

Continuous monitoring are needed

Managers usually see that things are not working out as planned when implementing their plans. In order to make sure that the goals are met, the controlling function is used

Taking the corrective action properly is also included to ensure that what actually happening is coordinate with the planning process that is expected

Question 1: Leadership

(a) Explain what ‘charisma’ means. Is it an inherent trait or can it be acquired? If an individual who is not charismatic, can they be an effective leader? Give justifications to your answer.

There are many similarities between the Charismatic Leader and the Transformational Leader. That is, the Transformational Leader may well be charismatic. The main difference between them is their basic focus. The Transformational Leader is responsible for transforming the organization and the Charismatic Leader which is their followers may not like to see anything change possibly.

Though their charm and apparent concern, the Charismatic Leader may well be more concerned with themselves than anyone else to some extent. “…supporting, managing, developing and inspiring academic colleagues.” (P4. Rams den, 1998)

When you are talking with them, a typical experience is that they are so convincing that it is like being surrounded by a warm and pleasant glow. “…leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation” (Burns, 1978:20) yet you may begin to question what they said (or even whether they said anything of significance at all) when you ask the sunbeam of their attention is transferred to other places afterwards.

The Charismatic leader’s values have high significant. “Not until the structural components of academic work and the organizational system have changed, can leaders work to change peoples’ attitudes and beliefs” (Williams, 1992)

They can elevate and change an entire company if they are well-intentioned to others. However, if they are selfish and Machiavellian, they can make cults and rape the minds (and potentially the bodies) of the followers effectively.

Even when they have received enough warning from others, they can believe that they are infallible easily, and hence their followers are lead into an abyss by them because their self-belief is very high. Their self-absorption or desire for admiration and worship can lead to their followers questioning their leadership because the self-belief can also lead them into psychotic narcissism.

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It means that no successors are exists when they go away because they may also be intolerant of challengers and their irreplaceability (intentional or otherwise). “It is not necessarily true that such leaders will have the personal power and authority, vision, trust and leadership to lead staff through institutional restructuring” (Feeney, 1998)

I think transformational leader is good for the development of the company. Because they can transform the organization whenever the external environment changes. There are many risks for the organization. If the manager only uses his fixed way to conduct the company, he would probably fail to follow the changing of the environment. Therefore, a good manager is the person who is willing to transform the organization whenever it is necessary. “In reality the number of academic staff who embrace the vision of quality teaching, including responding to the strategies that the leader might employ, such as modeling best practice, encouraging collaboration and teamwork, and providing the means for professional development” (Ramsden, 1998), are few. “Rather, what is needed is a strategic approach using a framework which incorporates aspects of the collegial model of organizational structure” (Bush, 1997)

Transactional Leader:

Approaches followers with an eye to exchanging one thing for another. Burns pursues a cost benefit, economic exchange to met subordinates current material and psychic needs in return for “contracted” services rendered by the subordinate. Bass

Transformational Leader:

“recognizes and exploits an existing need or demand of a potential follower… (and) looks for potential motives in followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower” … Burns

The leader who recognizes the transactional needs in potential followers “but tends to go further, seeking to arouse and satisfy higher needs, to engage the full person of the follower … to a higher level of need according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs” … Bass

As exactly said by Bass – “the transactional leaders work within the organizational culture as it exists; the transformational leader changes the organizational culture”.

Following table shows difference of transactional and transformation leadership[1].

QUESTION 1B

Is charismatic leadership the same with transformational leadership? Are both leadership concepts similar or different from each other? How does transformational leadership differ from transactional leadership? Provide evidence to your answers.

Charismatic leadership and transformational leadership cannot be the same, this because in transformational leadership can be said is the ability and also to motive people to achieve certain results greater than the initially planned. Whereby Charismatic leadership is be a person who is dominant, self confidence, convinced of the moral righteousness of his or her beliefs, and also able to arouse a sense of excitement and adventure in subordinates, example of charismatic leader: Ferdinand Marcos, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Sukarno, Walt Disney.

Charismatic leaderships and transformational leadership may be similar in a way that a transformational leader may as well be a charismatic one, vice verser. But actual difference lies on their ability and focus. What makes then different is that when a transformational leader actually or basic focus to certain field, basically the leader will change the system or will transform the organization. Likewise the charismatic leader actually may not want to change anything from the organization and that what makes them different.

Well, when it comes to a transformational leader, the leader must put his or her people first (followers), and is a priority and objective to set every of his or her people in motion to achieve certain goals. This leader sets out to achieve the objective and in the process embed self-actualization onto his or her people rather than just security and assurance of achieving the goals. When it comes to charismatic leaders their make the followers feel safe and secured also make them enjoy working towards a certain goal in return for a transformational leaders provides with engorgement and motivation for hard work and then rewarding on thir certain achievements, therefore as far an organization is concerned, a transformational is said to be much better than a charismatic leader.

Transactional Leadership

Transformational Leadership

Leadership depends on the leader’s power to reinforce subordinates for their successful completion of the bargain.

Leaders possess good visioning, rhetorical and management skills, to develop strong emotional bonds with followers.

Leaders rely on standard forms of inducement, reward, punishment and sanction to control followers.

Leaders are distinguished by their capacity to inspire and provide individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation and idealized influence to their followers.

Leaders are conscious of the link between the effort and the reward to be achieved.

Leaders arouse emotions to their followers, which motivates them to act beyond the framework of the stated objectives.

Leaders motivate followers by setting goals and promising rewards for desired performance.

Leaders create learning opportunities for their followers and stimulate followers to solve problems on their own.

Leaders rely on standard forms of inducement, reward, punishment and sanction to control followers.

Leaders are distinguished by their capacity to inspire and provide individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation and idealized influence to their followers.

QUESTION 1C

With reference to relevant academic publications, discuss what strong culture means and whether it leads to higher level of business performance. What types of organisational culture identified by academic authors are considered to impede business progress?

Strong culture describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values (personal and strong culture) of an organization. The constituents of culture are so immense that in the business world, it is recognized as an external business environment. “Culture is an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning”- Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn 1952.

Organizational culture is the shared patterns of perception, representation and response that surround the internal and external operations. It is very static and concrete in terms of changes once established and in turn dictates how an organization performs its tasks. As had as it may sound, it serves for several functions in an organisation such as:

Control of the human resource: the business success is about taking right people to the right place on the right time, for instance you should develop a strong bond amongst the employees and creating a workplace with benefits that ultimately result in improved business performance.

Increase in sales: for instance business bodies such as entrepreneurs, stockholder, employees and other investors enjoy a high level of performance when backed up with strong culture.

“The major factor identified in the literature that impedes creative performance is control ( Amabile, 1998; Angel, 1989; Kanter, 1983; Oldham and Cummings, 1996). It could be control in decision making, control of information flow, or even perceived control in the form of reward system that put too much emphasis on increasing extrinsic motivation”.

This culture hinders business progress when there is a need for the organisation to become more versatile and responsive to different changes in the business environment; employees tend to be rigid and inactive to the effects of the changes imposed.

For instance each culture has its advantages and disadvantages but depending on how it is used by an organisation but certain cultures have been highlighted to have a negative effect on business performance, for example certain culture may be futile if the focus of making decision is limited to a few people. When an organisation operates by bringing forth innovative ideas then it becomes limited since less people are contributing and deprives the employees to be productive knowing their extraordinary input might not be appreciated.

Information on Charismatic Leadership, Accessed October 15th,2009 from http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/charismatic_leadership.htm, Web

Information on Transformational Leadership, Accessed October 15th,2009 from http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Transformation-Vs-Transactional-Leadership/184540, Web

Details on Organisation cultures and business progress, Accessed October 15th,2009 from http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/theory/theory–corporate-organisational-culture–322.php, Web

Examples of impedance to business progress , Accessed October 15th,2009 from http://www.acumenintl.com.au/pdf/fact_orgCulture.pdf, Web