Impact Of Organizations Culture Values On Strategic Leadership Management Essay

Organizational culture is created by the strategic leadership provided by an organizations founder or top management. An organization’s founder is particularly important in determining culture because the founder designates values and management styles on the organization that lasts for a long time. This may be good for a certain period but it can also be stifling over the long haul. For example, Walt disney’s conservative influence on the company he established continued until well after his death. Managers were afraid to experiment with new forms of entertainment because they were afraid Walt wouldn’t like it. It took the installation of new management under Michael Eisner to turn around the company’s fortunes and allow it to deal with the realities of the new entertainment industry environment. The leadership style established by the founder or top management is transmitted to the company’s managers, and as the company grows, it typically attracts new managers and employees who share the same values. Thus, a company’s culture becomes more and more distinct as its members become more similar. The virtue of these shared values and common culture is that it increases integration and improves coordination among organizational members. For example, the common language that typically emerges in an organization because people share the same beliefs and values facilitates cooperation among managers.

When organizational members buy into cultural norms and values, this dynamic bonds them to the organization and increases their commitment to find new ways to help it succeed.

The primary responsibilitiy of strategic leadership is to create and maintain the organizational characteristics that reward and encourage collective effort. Perhaps the most fundamental of these is organizational culture

An organizational culture represents the shared sense of the way we do things around here, a critical factor in guiding day to day behavior and shaping a future course of action”. Handy (1986) believes that it is these last two forms of culture, role and task, which are most frequently found in organizations. Handy’s categorization of types of culture is useful for giving a picture of different organizational cultures. It serves to highlight both the difficulty of clearly defining cultures and the profound implications of the cultural approach to organizations.Organizational Values can help employees find meaning and purpose in their work and link their individual efforts to those of the entire company. Our culture is the theatre in which we play out our lives. It is a major part of who we are. Robbins (1989) describes the culture of an organization as performing a number of functions within the organization as follows

1.It provides a boundary defining role separating one organization from another.

2. It conveys a sense of identity.

3. It enhances social system stability. Culture is the social glue that helps hold the organization together.

4. It serves as a sense making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behavior of employees. Organizational culture defines the rules of the game.

1.2 Discuss the organizational specific , legal , regulatory and ethical requirement impact on strategic leadership demands.

Each company, business and organisation must by law have a policy in place, based upon the law regarding equality, diversity, and discrimination they must, hand in hand with these, also have a policy on company procedures of how they are to be implemented should an employee wish to bring a complaint based on any one or all of these premises. both policies must be freely available to employees, whom should be informed of their existence available as on request or as part of their contract

.

The legal status of your organisation may affect how you can use different types of finance. It is therefore useful to briefly review the limitations that different legal

structures impose on the use of debt or equity finance.

Many social enterprises are structured as companies

limited by guarantee, as this is the most widely used

structure for a registered charity.

1.3 Evaluate current and emerging social concerns and expectations impacting on strategic leadership in the organisation

In today’s competitive business climate, it is imperative that executives know how to make key decisions quickly and decisively. Strategic decisions often entail considerable risks and can have long-range implications for the organization. In this course, participants will learn how to apply formal decision-making processes in order to reduce risk and choose the best course of action for their organization

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Organizations that understand the creative process and foster this with employees find themselves at the top of their industry. They know how to harness the creative power of their workforce to develop new products and services. Creativity, however, is as much a matter of technique as intelligence.

2.Be able to understand strategic leadership styles.

2.1 Evaluate the relationship between strategic management and leadership.

Strategic management is the art of managing employees in a way that maximizes the potential of achieving your business objectives. Good managers start with a personal agenda and use their leadership skills to spread it throughout the organisation.

One of the important aspect in strategic managemement is Evaluation and control.It consists of performance data and activity reports .The information must be relevant to what is being monitored, one of the barriers to effective control is the difficulty in developing appropriate measures of important activities and output.

Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can focus on the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.

Managers have subordinates

By definition, managers have subordinates unless their title is honorary and given as a mark of seniority, in which case the title is a misnomer and their power over others is other than formal authority.

Authoritarian, transactional style

Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the company, and their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told. Management style is transactional, in that the manager tells the subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this not because they are a blind robot, but because they have been promised a reward (at minimum their salary) for doing so.

Work focus

Managers are paid to get things done (they are subordinates too), often within tight constraints of time and money. They thus naturally pass on this work focus to their subordinates.

Seek comfort

An interesting research finding about managers is that they tend to come from stable home backgrounds and led relatively normal and comfortable lives. This leads them to be relatively risk-averse and they will seek to avoid conflict where possible. In terms of people, they generally like to run a ‘happy ship’.

Leaders have followers

Leaders do not have subordinates – at least not when they are leading. Many organizational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers, and following is always a voluntary activity.

Charismatic, transformational style

Telling people what to do does not inspire them to follow you. You have to appeal to them, showing how following them will lead to their hearts’ desire. They must want to follow you enough to stop what they are doing and perhaps walk into danger and situations that they would not normally consider risking.

People focus

Although many leaders have a charismatic style to some extent, this does not require a loud personality. They are always good with people, and quiet styles that give credit to others (and takes blame on themselves) are very effective at creating the loyalty that great leaders engender.

2.2 Evaluate the leadership styles and their impact on decision making.

Leadership Styles

Rao (1986) has classified the leadership styles, on the basis of the earlier research at the Indian Institute of Management, into the following:

A Benevolent or Paternalistic leadership style in which the top level manager believes that all his employees should be constantly guided treated with affection like a parent treats his children, is relationship oriented, assigns tasks on the basis of his own likes and dislikes, constantly guides them and protects them, understands their needs, salvages the situations of crisis by active involvement of himself, distributes rewards to those who are loyal and obedient, shares information with those who are close to him, etc

A Critical leadership style is characterized as closer to Theory X belief pattern where the manager believes that employees should be closely and constantly supervised, directed and reminded of their duties and responsibilities, is short term goal oriented, cannot tolerate mistakes or conflicts among employees, personal power dominated, keeps all information to himself, works strictly according to norms and rules and regulations and is highly discipline oriented.

A Developmental leadership style is characterized as an empowering style, where the top manager believes in developing the competencies of his staff, treats them as mature adults, leaves them on their own most of the times, is long term goal oriented, shares information with all to build their competencies, facilitates the resolution of conflicts and mistakes by the employees themselves with minimal involvement from him. developmental style by nature seems to be the most desired organization building style. However some individuals and some situations require at times benevolent and critical styles. Some managers are not aware of the predominant style they tend to use and the effects their style is producing on their employees.

Results

Relationship between Leadership Style and Subordinate Feelings and Reactions

The coefficients of correlations obtained between the three leadership styles taking into account all the nine situation and the six type of feelings or emotional climate generated by each of styles is presented below:

Benevolent style

Benevolent or paternalistic style was correlated with feelings of loyalty and dependence of subordinates on the manger. (r = 0.51)

Benevolent style was also related to feelings of dislike for the boss and tendency to avoid work ( r = 54)

Benevolent style was negatively related to feelings of development, empowerment, growth and independent thinking ( r = -0.5), learning (r = -0.4), morale (r= -0.5) and satisfaction (r = -0.4)

These indicate that those who are close to the leader develop dependency on him/her while those who are not close to him/her develop resentment and other associated negative feelings.

Critical Style

Critical style highly and positively related to resentment and dislike for the boss and work (r = 0.75)

It was moderately and positively correlated with dependency and personal loyalty (r = 0.47)

It was negatively correlated with empowerment and growth (r = -0.6), learning (r= -0.5), morale (r= -0.6) and satisfaction (r = – 0.6)

These indicate hat critical style also is not a desirable in general and leads to disastrous consequences.

Development al Style

Developmental style was positively related to empowerment, growth and independence (r = 0.73), learning (r = 0.77), morale (r = 0.85) and satisfaction (r = 0.84)

It was negatively correlated with dependence (r= -0.4) and feelings of resentment or dislike for the boss or work (r= -0.7)

The findings make it clear that developmental style is the most desired style in terms of creation of a growth oriented, developmental, and learning culture.

These data indicate that it is the developmental style that creates most positive emotional climate. This is in very similar to the findings of McClelland on the characteristics of an Intuitional Leader.

Relationship between situational style and the overall style

Item total correlations were computed between each of the items and the overall style across all the nine styles. Table 1 presents details. The coefficients of correlations are indicative of the predictive ability of each situation for the overall style of the candidate.

The table indicates that all except one of the items dealing with management of mistakes have a reasonable high predictive ability as indicated by the item total correlations. The coefficients of correlation re rather high.

Table 1: Coefficients of correlations between the style shown in each situation and the overall style scores across all the nine situations.

S. No.

Item Content or situation

Item total correlation between the item dealing with the style

Benevolent

Critical

Developmental

1

Goal setting or assignment of tasks

.79

.57

.75

2

Information sharing

.75

.59

.83

3

Managing mistakes

.05

.68

.86

4

Managing conflicts

.52

.61

.78

5

Rewarding or recognizing good performance

.81

.71

.89

6

Decision taking

.7

.76

.86

7

Performance monitoring

.75

.76

.81

8

Resource and support giving

.81

.74

.82

9

Responding to  failures

.74

.67

.84

2.3 Discuss why leadership styles needed to b adapted in different situation and evaluate the impact on the organization.

There are many different ways to be a good leader and studies conducted have identified several distinct “styles” of leadership. These can be categorized in a variety of ways, each using different methods, techniques and tools to achieve the same result of providing direction, implementing plans and motivating a group. Each leadership style will have varying degrees of success in different situations and their effective use will also depend on the personality and personal skills of the “leader” involved.

Leadership styles are commonly divided into 3 major types:

Authoritarian Or Autocratic

Leaders using this style will have total authority over any decision making and will basically tell their followers what needs to be done and how the tasks should does have its place and its uses it is particularly effective when time is limited, such as in an medical emergency, when it is vital for someone to take charge and prevent any chaos or confusion. It is also good for groups that need close supervision and would not necessarily have much useful to contribute to any decision-making process, such as when dealing with young children or very inexperienced employees.

This style can also work well in a normal workplace setting if your employees already well-bonded and well-motivated – and have trust in you as their leader. However, it is not generally recommended to use the autocratic style all the time as this can lead to loss of motivation from followers, as resentment builds. This is particularly true when dealing with creative employees and team players, who may be keen to participate in the decision-making processes.

Participative or Democratic

This kind of style prioritizes team participation and because each member is

allowed to contribute his/her ideas and feels that their input is considered seriously, there is increased employee satisfaction and ownership.

The democratic leader will listen to his group’s ideas and give them fair consideration, although the ultimate authority for the decision will still rest with him.

This style is often used in the workplace when the leader has some of the information needed and the employees have the other necessary parts, so that a better decision can only be taken when everyone’s input is considered. It is especially effective when you have knowledgeable and skilled employees. However, one drawback of this leadership style is that it can make it difficult to make quick decisions when time is short or there is an immediate urgency to a problem.

Delegative Or Free Reign

This leadership style is also often called “laissez-faire” leadership, meaning that followers are effectively given free reign to make decisions and do what they think is appropriate. There is no continuous supervision or feedback from the

leader to the group. Although this sounds risky, this leadership style can work if team members are highly-experienced and require little supervision to achieve the expected outcome. It is also useful because a leader isn’t always able to do everything and often needs to delegate certain tasks, therefore, this style of leadership works well if the leader is able to trust and have confidence in the abilities of the people below him/her.

Leadership Styles In Real Life…

In reality, most good leaders will use a combination of these main 3 types of leadership styles to achieve the best result in each specific situation. Naturally, one style may be more dominant or more often used than others, due to the leader’s personality and personal skills, but often, the situation and environment will also dictate which style is more suitable.

In some cases, all three styles may be used at the same time – such as a leader informing the group that a current procedure is not acceptable and that a new one needs to be established (autocratic), then asking for their ideas in creating a new procedure (democratic) before finally delegating certain tasks to different team members, for the implementation of the new procedure (delegative).

3.Be able to secure achievment of organization involvment and objectives through strategic leadership.

3.1 Develop a culture of professionalism, mutual trust , respect and support within the organization.

Matching individuals to organizations is a crucial part of success for any company. The match between people and the companies for which they work is determined by the kind of organizational culture that exists.A culture of professionalism is essential for the progress of any organization. The degree to which an organization’s values match the values of an individual who works for the company determines whether a person is a good match for a particular organization.

The collective rules by which an organization operates define its culture. These rules are formed by shared behaviors, values and beliefs. Culture forms the basis for how individuals operate within the context of the organization. In large organizations, vision statements, mission statements and statements of values are often formalized to describe the company’s culture.

On the most basic level, culture is observable as a set of behaviors. Examples of culture at this level include the degree of formality with which employees conduct themselves, the organization’s dress code, and the type of technology used. Beneath the level of observable behaviors are the values that underlie behavior. Though these values determine behavior, they cannot be directly observed. At an even deeper level are the assumptions and beliefs that determine values. While an organization or individual’s values may remain within awareness and can be stated, assumptions and beliefs often exist beneath the surface and out of conscious awareness.

Being aware of an organization’s culture at all levels is important because the culture defines appropriate and inappropriate behavior. In some cultures, for example, creativity is stressed. In others, the status quo is valued. Some cultures are more socially oriented, while others are task-oriented. In some company’s teamwork is key. In other’s, individual achievement is encouraged and valued. An organization’s culture also determines the way in which employees are rewarded. Management tends to focus on a dominant source of motivation, such as pay, status, or opportunity for personal growth and achievement. The accessibility of management and the ways in which decisions are made are reflections of an organization’s culture as well.

It is important for individual values to match organizational culture because a culture of “shared meaning or purpose” results in actions that help the organization achieve a common or collective goal. An organization will operate more productively as a whole when key values are shared among the majority of its members. To that end, employees need to be comfortable with the behaviors encouraged by the organization so that individual motivation and group productivity remain high. High functioning organizations are comprised of individuals whose overt behaviors are consistent with their covert values.

All of this is of crucial importance to managers. Senior executives usually set the tone by exerting core values that form the overall dominant culture shared by the majority of an organization’s members. So, if management does not take the time to understand the culture that motivates an organization, problems are inevitable. New procedures and activities will be very difficult to implement if they do not mesh with the organization’s culture

Steps to ensure that individual are responsive to the goals and operating procedure of the organization start with the hiring process. Managers can foster the development of a positive culture by employing people who share the same values and vision that the organization represents. To do this, employers can spend time with prospects before they enter the organization as new employees. Once new hires are indoctrinated with the organization’s values, they will form an objective perception of the environment that will solidify the organization’s personality or culture

2 Evaluate the impact of a strategic leader’s clear focuss in leading the organization in the achievement of objectives.

The benefits of good organisational skills in a leader will performance of the workforce.. An effective leader will be able to steer a course around and through these challenges leading to successful implementation of service improvements. Leaders must have a clear understanding of both the formal and informal aspects of their organization as well as all their responsibilities for strategic development and change management. Then they will be able to get the most out of the organization and its workforce.

The formal organisation includes the hierarchy and accountability arrangements, information systems, committee structure and meetings, employment and pay issues. The informal features include relationships, the kinds of behaviours that are expected and reward, communication, distribution of power and how conflicts are handled.The development of a learning culture is a practical measure to enable the work force to regularly polish their skills and knowledge and address their organisation’s objectives through their delivery of high quality services. The destructive influence of hiring someone who does not share the same set of values, goals and commitment employed by the organization will weaken a strong chain of links and bonds. An employee’s performance depends on what is and what is not proper among his or her peers, which in turn affects that individual’s behavior and motivation to participate and contribute within the organizational framework. An effective means of keeping employees aligned with the values and goals of an organization is by developing a culture that encourages employees to focus on a higher purpose for their work. Values that support this kind of cohesive operation include the idea that people Creating an environment where people enjoy and value their work is key. To do this effectively, leaders must be sure to communicate clear expectations for every member of the organization. These expectations should be supported by the words and actions of managers who regularly let people know how their work is important to the organization. Individuals should be given assignments that are consistent with their strengths and interests, and opportunities for continued learning and growth should be provided as well.

Strategic leader provides the vision, direction, the purpose for growth, and context for the success of the corporation.

The two important parts of strategic achievement are formulation and implementation. While both parts are essential to achieving superior organizational performance, the implementing strategy is where most companies succeed or fail. Strategic skills are necessary in order to define and achieve specific goals and objectives. Strategic thinking involves the ability to identify a relevant desired state, assess the starting state, and then establish and navigate the appropriate path of transition states required to reach the desired state. A key element of effective strategic thinking is determining which operators and operations will most efficiently and effectively influence and move the present state in the direction of the desired state.

Successful leaders know and accept themselves and are able to be present in someone else’s world without judgement. They are people who see linkages and trends in situations, to trust themselves,and are able to think multi-dimensionally, being focused and expansive at the same time. They can manage ambiguity, they can enter a situation at any point, easily cope with future requirements.

Another level of process involves the strategies, skills and capabilities by which the organisation or individual selects and directs actions within their environment i.e. how they generate and guide their behaviours within a particular context. For an individual, capabilities include cognitive strategies and skills such as learning, memory, decision making and creativity, which facilitate the performance of a particular behaviour or task. On an organisational level, capabilities relate to the infrastructures available to support communication, innovation, planning and decision making between members of the organisation.

3.3 Analyze how strategic leader support and develop understanding of the organization’s direction.

Leadership is an interactive process, the collective energy of a group, organization, or nation is focused on the attainment of a common objective or goal. Through leadership, clarity of purpose, direction, and means is achieved. There is also a perception of shared commitment by members. However, leadership tasks at the top of a large scale organization are different from those at lower levels because the nature of work changes as an individual moves up through the hierarchy of an organization

The major functions performed by increasingly higher levels of the organization are increasingly indirect, complex, and ill-defined. The lower levels deal with well- understood procedures. The resource requirements are modest, and expectations of performance are clear. Leadership is “direct”; leaders are expected to influence the course of events by their own actions.

At higher levels, requirements are less clear, problems are less defined, and there are situations where developed procedures or precedents do not exist. Leaders at higher levels must be creative in problem solving, more innovative in their thinking. They must also be more proactive, in the sense of looking further forward more perceptively to set directions that play out over long periods.

Organizational leaders may influence several hundred to several thousand people. They do this indirectly, generally through more levels of subordinates than do direct leaders. The additional levels of subordinates can make it more difficult for them to see results. Organizational leaders have staffs to help them lead their people and manage their organizations’ resources. They establish policies and the organizational climate that support their subordinate leaders.

Organizational leadership skills differ from direct leadership skills in degree, but not in kind. That is, the skill domains are the same, but organizational leaders must deal with more complexity, more people, greater uncertainty, and a greater number of unintended consequences. They find themselves influencing people more through policymaking and systems integration than through face-to-face contact.

Organizational leaders focus on planning and mission accomplishment over the next two to ten years. Getting out of their offices and visiting the parts of their organizations where the work is done is especially important for organizational leaders. They must make time to get to the field to compare the reports their staff gives them with the actual conditions their people face and the perceptions of the organization and mission they hold.

STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP

Strategic leaders are generally responsible for large organizations and may influence several thousand to hundreds of thousands of people. They establish organizational structure, allocate resources, and communicate strategic vision.

Strategic leaders work in an uncertain environment on highly complex problems that affect and are affected by events and organizations outside their own.

Strategic leaders apply many of the same leadership skills and actions they mastered as direct and organizational leaders; however, strategic leadership requires others that are more complex and indirectly applied.

Strategic leaders, like direct and organizational leaders, process information quickly, assess alternatives based on incomplete data, make decisions, and generate support. However, strategic leaders’ decisions affect more people, commit more resources, and have wider-ranging consequences in both space and time than do decisions of organizational and direct leaders.

3.4 Discuss how strategic leadership styles are adapted to meet changing needs, and to enable organizational development and commitment.

In order to determine what the effective leadership styles are, it is essential to have a basic understanding of what leadership is.

Various Types of Leadership Styles

You may discover that some of the following are effective leadership styles that you can use in managing people.

Charismatic Leadership

Some believe that charisma is inborn. This is the characteristic of a person who inspires without trying very hard. He or she appears to have a natural ability at leading others. This is such a leadership style that can inspire others. This is usually associated with demagogues. Charismatic leaders need to focus on leading others to attain the objectives of the organization. If they are not careful, this ability may go to their heads.

Participative Leadership

This style is important in making teams work effectively. The leader is both leader and active participant.

Contingency leadership

This is the type of leadership where plans are made in taking care of any possibility that something may go wrong. Risk management is part of this.

Autocratic Leadership style

This involves use of position, power and authority. Simply put, “What I say is the law