Leadership refers to the process of influencing and managing people in order to achieve intended outcomes. Leaders adopt different leadership styles depending on prevailing circumstances. Leadership styles base on different leadership concepts. However, certain concepts apply to all styles.
For example, action is an important aspect of effective leadership. Research has revealed that leaders who focus on personal development and growth not only change themselves but also lead their organizations to great levels of success. The seven action logics include Achiever, Expert, Opportunist, Diplomat, Alchemist, and Strategist action logics (Rooke and Torbert, 2005). Microsoft founder Bill Gates, is an exceptional leader who has transformed the technology industry through his visionary leadership style and great skills.
According to Rooke and Torbert (2005), only Individualist, Strategist, and Alchemist action logics enable leaders to transform organizations through sustained innovation. Bill Gates transformed the world of technology through his innovativeness. He believed that innovation is an important condiment of organizational success and transformation.
When he developed the windows software, he maintained quality by incorporating innovative ideas into subsequent versions of the software. As such, he continued to develop improved versions of windows during his term at Microsoft. Innovation is a characteristic of the Strategist action logic. Gates strategy was to incorporate innovation into the operations of Microsoft and make it part of its organizational culture.
This has enabled Microsoft to withstand the unpredictable and rapidly changing technology market. Strategists capitalize on organizational constraints and perceptions in order to achieve personal development (Rooke and Torbert, 2005). In addition, they are able to lead people in ways that help them to overcome resistance to change. Gates used his strength as an effective leader to introduce change at Microsoft despite resistance and numerous obstacles.
Alchemist action logic involves creativity, open mindedness, and deviation from commonplace attitudes and values (Rooke and Torbert, 2005). Bill Gates valued change. When he was at the helm of Microsoft, he ensured that the organization changed its operations in order to adapt to changes in technology.
This is evident from the stability and success that Microsoft has enjoyed for many years despite obstacles such as patent lawsuits and stiff competition. The leadership style of Gates has enabled Microsoft to be one of the market leaders in technological innovation for many years. However, after his departure, the company was overtaken by emerging technology-oriented enterprises. This was because the new leader failed to adopt a similar action logic that Gates had adopted.
Achievers realize organizational goals through teamwork and balancing their roles as leaders and managers (Rooke and Torbert, 2005). In addition, they are action and goal oriented. Bill Gates is an action and goal oriented leader. He believes that well-defined goals are necessary for achievement of organizational success.
As the CEO, he ensured that Microsoft maintained creativity and innovation by reiterating the importance of teamwork. Teamwork encouraged open sharing of ideas and knowledge, which enhanced innovation and creativity.
Below-average leadership is characterized by Diplomat, Opportunist, and Expert action logics (Rooke and Torbert, 2005). For example, opportunists are egocentric and manipulative. As CEO, Gates never manipulated his employees and never allowed his ego to take a toll on his organization.
Moreover, he delegated leadership roles. This is contrary to opportunists behavior of controlling people and treating them like objects. Unlike opportunists who reject feedback, Gates valued feedback because it was the foundation of innovation at Microsoft. Diplomats avoid conflicts and are resistant to change (Rooke and Torbert, 2005). This is in contrast to the leadership style of Gates. He believed in change and incorporated it into Microsofts organizational culture in order to ensure organizational success.
The book Leadership Code by Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Kate Sweetman is in keeping with expectations of people who wish to develop their leadership skills. I had known through the books reviews that the authors have achieved an almost unachievable task by having examined an exhaustive amount of information on the issue of leadership. They have provided a remarkable presentation in the books seven chapters by having synthesized their findings into five core principles in calling them the Leadership Code.
I chose the book because the authors meticulously guide readers on how to make strategies, how to execute them with the involvement of people, how to create a strong foundation of creative people and how to develop with strong leadership qualities. The book is full of business expressions and is ideal for all people that wish to become powerful leaders. Dave Ulrich is amongst the most renowned authors on the contemporary business environment.
The authors have directly given the message that leaders do matter but leadership is more important. They believe that the most experienced and gifted leader engages every person in his team by using his heart, mind and feet. Real leaders are those that involve people for a cause and people follow them for such qualities.
Leadership is existent when organizations produce more than just a few leaders because it is not limited to a single individual but to the leadership building process. The authors have not raised questions about the important role of individual leaders but have asserted that a very significant obligation of a leader is to reinforce and introduce sustainability in the processes whereby high impact leaders are identified, hired, developed and retained at all stages and in all fields of the organization.
The book deals with the issue of how an organization can transform itself from being just good to great. In fact, the Leadership Code has responded to two very important issues.
First is the proportion of leadership that is the same and whether there are common standards that must be mastered by leaders in all situations. The authors have delved into issues of whether there is a specific and recognized leadership code. The second issue examined in the book is whether there are common standards that should be mastered by all leaders.
In examining such issues the authors have analyzed whether leaders are born or the can be groomed. They offer an integrated process whereby leaders can become better leaders. In outlining the five essential rules of excellent leadership, the authors have devoted a separate chapter for each one. Rule one is about shaping the future and asserts that this quality is present in the strategic aspect of the leader.
The authors hold that the strategist envisions a bright future and helps in creating it. In being futurists with a practical approach, strong leaders are able to ascertain organizational needs and test such concepts practically and logically in the context of available resources such as people, capital and organizational competence. They believe in working with their team in figuring out how to transition from the present to the required potential.
The second rule relates to how things can be made to happen. This element of execution stresses upon the issue of how the organization can ascertain the direction that it wants to take. Leaders that execute efficiently are able to transform plans into action and they thoroughly understand how change happens, how accountability is to be assigned, what major decisions are to be taken and which ones to pass on. Effective leaders are able to ensure that their team works in synergy to achieve organizational goals.
The third rule pertains to efficiently engaging the available talent. Leaders that make the best use of the available talent are able to take talented people with them in the business process after retaining the right people. They develop strong organizational, professional and personal devotion towards the organization.
Rule four deals with how the next generation can be constructively built. Strong leaders develop human capital by assisting and guiding future leaders to develop high competencies and to become successful. The fifth rule asserts that one should invest in oneself because personal efficiency forms the core of the leadership code.
The competency of strong leaders cannot be limited only to what they know and implement. An important trait of strong leaders pertains to what kind of humans they are and how much they can achieve through their team members. Leaders are characterized as being learners from their experiences with life, people, failures and success.
The authors have approached readers on two distinct though interrelated issues in the context of the requirement of effective leadership and how others can be helped in becoming strong leaders. In citing the example of Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, who spends considerable time counseling his executives, the authors have written, modeling the rules of leadership ensures that you lead well, but helping others master those rules guarantees success (Ulrich et al, 2009, p.64).
The styles used by the authors pertain to establishing and then sustaining a cordial and direct rapport with readers. The book deals in detail about the leadership issues in virtually acting as a mentor for readers. The authors hold that the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. As you communicate, you need to consider your audience, tailoring your message differently for the boardroom and the lunchroom, and learn to succeed in both.
You need to share your emotions and self, not just your intellectual ideas (Ulrich et al, 2009, p.85). They hold that in building the next generation leaders have to transform into developers of human capital and that personal proficiency is the eventual canon of strong leadership, which begins with knowing oneself.
Obviously, it can be understood that these revelations are not theoretical but are practical steps to imbibe strong leadership qualities. The book is so meaningful in exhaustively dealing with leadership that the reader is forced to think that it is specifically written for him or her.
The book provides considerable information in 180 pages and examines all the five essential elements exhaustively that are thoroughly explained in using practical examples. In the final chapter the authors have explained how strong leaders succeed in adding value to the organization.
They introduce a clear theory of leadership that can be adopted by organizations in identifying future leaders in terms of their competence levels. They have suggested the areas in which organizations can make investments to develop leadership at different organizational levels. The authors also provide a framework whereby such principles can be properly aligned in the organization.
They have pointed out that this leadership code, like any other code, provides both structure and guidance, and helps you know not only what to do to be a better individual leader, but also how to build better leadership capability (Ulrich et al, 2009, p.94) They have conducted several interviews and a thorough literature review in concluding that almost 70 percent of leadership efficiency can be incorporated in the leadership codes.
The synthesis and analysis made by the authors result in creating a structure that they assert is useful, practical and accurate. Although there are many critics that will speak up against the manner in which the authors have depicted a lack of sophistication in conducting their research, the work clearly passes the most significant test pertaining to the value perceptions of leaders that are in the forefront in organizations.
The biggest learning from the book is by way of providing a strong basis to make self assessments, while the feedback exercises are very helpful in assisting readers to know the extent to which they fulfill the Leadership Code. In being very well written, appealing and realistic, the book allows readers to develop skills to crack the Leadership Code, thereby taking their leadership to higher levels.
It provides an open environment for all those who are worried in being stopped from sharing their insights and opinions on leadership. The Leadership Code is not for people who wish to quickly get ideas about how they can improve.
It is all about thoroughly undergoing a systematic exercise by applying the given ideas to ones leadership development. It is also helpful in developing organizations through creating an efficient team of future leaders that will carry the organization towards the path of growth. The Leadership Code is for people who wish to learn and study in challenging themselves.
Works Cited
Ulrich, Dave., Smallwood, Norm., and Sweetman Kate. Leadership Code, Harvard Business School Press, 2009.
Leadership is essential to organizations and as such, a leader has to define his/her core competencies before getting to know those of his/her followers. Some of the core competencies that a leader should possess for effective leadership include vision and adaptability, priority setting, passion and intuition, competitive spirit, being a good listener, influencing, and trusting. One of the key leadership approaches is the use of the whole-person approach.
The approach requires the use of the head, heart, feet and hands (Bruce and Montanezm 18). The benefits associated with this form of leadership are such as motivation, competencies, caring, inspiration, improved performance and production, expertise, values, expertise, integrity, and development of a an organizational culture. Moreover, the approach is a reflection of the human side of leadership.
Under the whole-person approach, each of the parts (head, heart, hands, and feet) plays different roles although they are intertwined. They also represent different components associated with organizational leadership. The leaders head stands for the unique expertise, knowledge, values, character, motivation, and competencies possessed by the leader (Bruce and Montanezm 18).
It may also present the intellectual property, attitude, integrity and the education of the leader. The hands of the leader represent the skills, customer service, hand-on coaching, follow-through, implementation, and manufacturing (Bruce and Montanezm 20)
The leaders feet may represent the foundation upon which the leaders and the organizations were built, organizational stability, organizational culture, its growth, tradition, history, and the founders of the organization (Bruce and Montanezm 18). Lastly, the heart of the leader is the center stage of leadership.
Particularly, it may represent hope, team spirit, emotional; intelligence, pride, core values, and feelings. When the four components are combined, they form the humanness in leadership. Therefore, an organization should treat its employees as human/whole person rather than mechanical producers. This approach ensures that an organization comes to terms with the real-world individual challenges that employees face in and outside the organization.
Success in an organization is an attribute of those in charge. A successful organization is able to achieve its organizational objectives and develop a culture that incorporates the beliefs, culture, and values of different parties. Leaders are basically change agents endowed with power and influence. They are required to empower and influence their followers. Power is a form of control that a leader exercises over other people.
It makes people more strong and invincible. However some people are scared of it while others feel impotent without it. When power is used well in an organization, it inspires and uplifts others into achieving their dreams or targets. It is influential and empowers other people in the workplace to realize their goals while they reach organizational objectives. Power can be ranked in form of coercive power, utility power, and principled power.
In my view, leaders should encourage the use of the whole- people to create wholeness rather than individualism. This creates team spirit as different aspects of employees are explored. Among the three paths of power, I believe that the principled power is the most appropriate one because its foundation is trust, respect, honor, and belief in other people.
It creates interdependence, synergy, and mutual respect. To realize what one wants, the path of principled power is most encouraged because it is more fulfilling compared to the other paths of power listed earlier.
Works Cited
Bruce, Anne and Stephanie Montanez. Leaders Start to Finish: A Road Map for Developing Top Performers. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press, 2012. Print
In the recent past, project management has become a very vital component element to any organization that needs to succeed. This has been due to the increased need for a company (or any organization in operation) to respond to the changes taking place within the business cycle and the stiff competition that has been arising.
The increased importance has also been due to the fact that its mostly through projects that companies are now able to respond to the market competition and also gain competitive edge over the rivals.
As a result, it has become an important function for the project managers to improve and increase the effectiveness and the efficiency in which they manage these projects by selecting teams that are capable of optimizing the project returns. According to Munns and Bjeirmi (1996),
A project can be considered to be the achievement of a specific objective, which involves a series of activities and tasks which consume resources. It has to be completed within a set specification, having definite start and end dates . Where as, project management can be defined as the process of controlling the achievement of the project objectives. (p2).
It is thus the function of the project managers to allocate all the scarce resources which are available and then plan how they will be executed and finally monitor and make alterations within the project if any are required during implementation.
While the difference between the project and project management may appear overlapping, it is important to note that a project is usually tasked with defining the returns that the company may achieve while the project management is concerned with planning and control of the project to enhance the project itself in achieving the organization desired objectives.
In order to optimize and measure the success of a project, there exist strategic weapons which the project managers can use to create economic value and competitive advantage over rivals.
There are usually four distinct aspects in which a project can be measured and they are: the efficiency of the project, its impact or effects on the customer, how the project affects the business and its likelihood of contributing to the organization success and finally how the management has prepared the project for the future.
When an organization is in need of introducing a new product, project management becomes necessary. Thus, the success of a project is solely determined by the effectiveness of the management (Shenhar, Dvir, Levy and Maltz 2002).
The effectiveness of the project is usually assessed by the different stakeholders in the organization. Examples of these stakeholders are the managers, customers, employees and so on. It is therefore important for the project success to reflect the views of all these stakeholders.
The gains that the project will bring to the organization are another major factor of concern in measuring the success or the likely acceptance and support of the project by the management. A project that is likely to yield low returns will not be implemented by a sound management team which does not have hidden agendas.
Lastly, how the project will place the firm in the market compared to other rivals is another aspect through which a project success can be assessed. If the project is likely to give the firm or organization an upper hand or a competitive edge over the rivals, then its chances of being selected are high.
Scope
With there being several critical success factors the study will only try to analyze the role of project management in ensuring critical success factors such as planning, time allocation and budget allocation are allocated efficiently. The literature review will cover the critical success factors, their measurability and the different forms of defining success in a project.
Limitation
The study will not be able to analyze all the critical success factors due to the fact that critical success factors are many and they vary according to the project thus we do not have the capability of pinpointing at a certain critical factor as the major source of the project success.
Literature Review
Measuring the critical success factors in the past has always been perceived to be measurable only through the financial success a project made or the financial gains the project produced to the investor.
However, it is important for the project managers to note that the financial returns through a better way of measuring a project success, is not always the best method for a long term project where the returns are low during the introduction years and higher as the project progresses.
Different projects have different rates of returns and while in the short run, the project which has high rate of returns is preferable in the long run, a project which will be able to make returns through out its life cycle is more preferred (Shenhar, Dvir, Levy and Maltz 2002).
It is always important to consider all the critical success factors that need to be analyzed and well understood before the project managers can choose which project to invest in and which project should be rejected.
How a project performs depends on many factors and the success outcomes include several project aspects such as how the project was completed, its schedule and the budget while the factors which may lead to the failure of the project include, writing schedules for the project, poor managers or leaders, misusing the techniques or even overlooking some of the basic requirements such as the commitment level needed for the project success.
As a result of the above factors, it is then important to plan ahead before implementing the project.
To ensure that the project succeeds, there is a need thus to review all the success factors that are likely to be involved and be critically observed if the project is ever going to achieve its objectives.
The concept of the critical success factors is well discussed by Zwikael and Globerson (2006) where when quoting several authors indicates that most projects fail due to wrong choices of the project manager, unplanned or sudden ending of the project and sometimes a management team which does not support the development of the project.
However, there are often challenges in identifying the critical success factors which lead to the project success. The study on which are the most common critical success factors has been under scrutiny with researchers giving several examples of what the success factors should be. Despite all these examples being followed and time invested, projects still fail to succeed (Cooke-Davies 2002).
Thus, the questions of which success factors lead to the success of a project remain critical. While some people assume that a project responds positively to the budget allocated, research done in Europe between 1994 and 2000 shows that there was no relationship between the schedule delay and cost escalation.
As we noted earlier when defining project and project management, the success of both are different and in order to bridge the gap between the two it is important to note that a project success is difficult to achieve than project management success.
The reason of this is due to the fact that project entails achieving goals and methods which are liable to change while project management success involves constant goals and practices which can change to meet some predetermined goals (Cooke-Davies 2002).
Thus, while the project remains constant or fixed in a way, the management of the project can change according to the existing dynamic conditions during the time of implementation.
Despite there being no agreement on the most recognized critical success factor, planning was found to be one of the most critical success factors. Due to the dynamics of the environment where the project is to be introduced, it is always important to plan in advance and consider all the risks which might be involved.
Following the inception of the project, the planning of the project comes before the execution and closure of the project. There exist different techniques of planning, which are applied according to the project uncertainty. There are evidences of projects failing due to lack of proper planning.
For example the Denver Airport project which due to poor planning, the costs jumped from an estimated 1.2 billion to 5 billion dollars (Zwikael & Globerson 2006).
What project planning simply does is to specify and set decisions which are to be implemented and how things should be done in future thus it is important for the project manager to ensure that the project is implemented according to the desires of all the stakeholders involved.
With the todays market having multifaceted aspects and due to the limitations which have been observed due to the over reliance on the financial methods of assessing success, several models for measuring project successes have been introduce for example the balance score card by Norton and Kaplan, intellectual capital, and success dimensions.
The methods of assessing the success of a project differ according to the success factors which the assessor is investigating. This is due to the fact that success has got different meaning to different people.
As a result of this, there has been the introduction of multidimensional framework for assessing the success which reflects three project aspects which are: the performance of the project, the implementation process and finally the perceived value the investor and the client satisfaction levels depending on the expert views, some have put the success dimensional figures but the most accepted are four.
The first success dimension is the project efficiency and how the organization meets its constraints. Most of the times, this is not a long run dimension since it is simply concerned with how the project is usually managed and how the project meets the scarce resources for which it was allocated for; the question of whether the project used the allocated funds well and whether it was completed on time.
Although at this juncture the project might be a success, it is usually considered a short term measure since how it will react in future is not usually well understood. If the company achieves success in this aspect, it ensures that there will be efficient management from the foundation.
The second success dimension is the impact the project has to the customers. To understand it fully, one needs to investigate and address how the customers perceive the project. As a result, the assessor assesses the performance measures as well as the technical expectations which the customers are in need of in order to ensure the customers derive maximum utility from the project.
When the project manager ensures that the project performance measures are observed. He very well knows that the customers will be satisfied since customer satisfaction ensures that the customers can come back for the products or even refer friends to the project products thus leading to success in the long run.
The third dimension in which project success can be defined is the business and its direct success. This dimension addresses on the project impact on the organization performance and it is usually measured depending on how the organization is making sales, the income, and the profit the organization is expected to gain as a result of the project success.
This impact however can also be used in measuring the success of non profit organizations such as taxation departments by measuring the duration the organization is taking to collect taxes as a result of the project introduction.
The fourth dimension which the project success can also be measured through is how the project is prepared for the future problems. It is usually a long term measure and it is used to assess how the project will respond to future opportunities. How the management is prepared to modify or make comprehensive change of the project as a result of introduction of new technologies in future is also assessed at this level.
Much attention has been given to the critical success factors which lead to the success or the failure of the project. To achieve the much needed success, it is advisable for the project managers to have a clear and communicate the shared vision. There are evidences showing that a clear project vision helps in success of a project.
Vision is usually defined as the ability to think of a project in future terms with clear imaginations and wisdom. A vision simply helps in clarifying a certain direction which ought to be followed in order to achieve the desired success. A major task for the project manager is to effectively ensure that the activities are being performed in alignment with the project goals.
It is important to note that the creation of an effective project vision requires excellent communication skills as well as possess a deep understanding of both the established organization culture and the triggering assume options that make the project team (Hyvari 2006).
The vision is the heart of the project since it holds all the stakeholders together through their core values, which all the players relate to. The characteristics of the company vision make a very useful model. A good vision contains both an ideology and an envisaged future within it. The basic dynamics of visionary companies is usually to preserve the core culture of the project and to stimulate progress towards the envisioned future.
For a project vision to be successful, it must have the following characteristics: the vision must accommodate the core purpose and the essence of the project objectives, the vision should also state why the project stakeholders should follow the project vision and it must also be consistent with the organization culture. The vision should also be proactive to facilitate teams in working smarter and more effectively.
It is important to note that the key to developing an effective project vision is usually to make the objectives and purpose clearly understood to inspire motivation and to ensure that the project vision is credible and challenging (Christenson & Walker 2004).
Due to the lack of agreement on the main critical success factors, there has been the development of a Formal System Model which seeks to unite all core system concepts. It contains the decision making subsystem a performance monitoring subsystem and a set of subsystems and elements which carry out the tasks of the system and thus effect its transformations by converting inputs into outputs (Fortune& White 2006 p54).
The decision making subsystem is responsible for decisions about how the purposes of the system are supposed to be realized such as the transformations by converting the inputs into final goods. It is thus the decision making sub making system and it enables the system to exhibit choice and thus making it behave in a coordinated manner.
On the other hand, the performance monitoring system observes the transformation processes and the reporting deviations which might be introduced if a corrective measure needs to be introduced. It gives some degree of connectivity between the project components and the environment.
The FSM model has been in use for a long time to conceptualize a condition and then determine to what extent some of the factors are linked to other features of the project (Fortune& White 2006).
Data and Results
Bank Company is one of the biggest banks in Saudi Arabia with its headquarters located in Riyadh the capital city. The bank brags itself with a business reputation of over 50 years of experience in the countrys banking business. Currently it has a network of over 550 braches around the country and it has the largest customer base in Saudi Arabia.
The firm has a well defined vision where it hopes to build 500 branches in three years and 400 of them to be completed during the first two years. The bank intends to invest 350 million Saudi riyals for this investment. The company has also invested much on the project by employing a huge team work on the project where everybody was assigned different duties and resposibilities.
The project was implemented under the Designs and the Project Management Department, where people are allocated different responsibilities. There is also an inside consultant who supports the project manager.
However, though the company had a clear vision, the achievement of the project was not achieved on schedule and some of the major reasons that caused the project not to be termed as a success were due to the fact that there was no support from the top management; all the stakeholders were not involved and even the manager of the project was not competent.
The performance by suppliers and also by the consultants was also poor. Another problem was that there was no project management which was used, the leadership was poor and such a big project required past experience which the bank did not possess. These factors when combined with the global problems such as the finance crisis led to the failure of the project.
Analysis and Discussion of the Results
From the evidence above, we have found that project success is usually not a single dimension although the top management thought the project would be a success due to the high income returns despite the delays during implementation.
For example, although the firm invested enough capital for the new investments; when measuring the success according to the impacts the project had on the consumers or the usage intended levels by the clients, the consumer perception was poor since in the already finished projects, the customers did not respond positively as it was expected.
The firm was offering no extra incentives that the ones which were already in the market and this played to the disadvantage for the company.
Another success dimension in which the firm failed was in the organization impact. Despite the project being huge and much promising, the top management did not support the project fully especially during the implementation stage and this was a major contributing factor to the project failure.
The project impacts on the organization success were also poor due to the fact that the project had very little impact on the organization performance and the decision making process. There was nothing the top management did to ensure the project succeeded as was required.
From the information above, it was also observed that the traditional measures of success such as time and budget had no significance to the success of this project. Though the project was completed on time, how the project could react to the future conditions were not well covered thus in case the future conditions changed, the project managers were not sure the project would survive in future.
With the lack of top management support, it was very clear that the project vision and missions was not in line with the firms vision and this was explained by the little commitment that was shown. It is also important to also understand how the customers will respond to the product.
Client consultation is always an important activity to do especially when it is a service oriented project such as a banking project. There was no client consultation in this case and as a result, the customers did not respond positively as it was expected and as a result, the project did not perform as expected.
From the case study, we have also learnt that competent personnel are very important for the direct project success.
If the project team was competent, it would have translated to an easier convincing of the needed customers; after the completion of the benefits they are likely to gain so as to increase the levels of the project acceptance how ever this was not the case and after the project was completed, there were no customers to attend to leading to the project failure.
The bank should also have introduced the project in phases such that after completion of phase one in a certain location and assessing of its performance, the bank could then have thought of whether to implement the other phases.
Conclusion
From the analysis and discussion we can reveal that for a project to succeed, how the managers handles the project is very important. First, it is important for the project manager to ensure that a criterion used to measure the project success is different away from the traditional method such as the budget and schedule methods.
As we have seen in the case of Bank Company, the budget was allocated effectively and time well spent but the project still failed. It is also important for the managers to look into the values that the project will deliver especially to the direct users who might make the project a success or a failure depending on their response.
The importance of the support from the top management has also been revealed as an important aspect, which contributes to the success of a project. This is due to the fact that with the support from the management, the goals are made clearer and the implementation stage also does not falter since it has the backing of major decision makers in the firm.
Lack of competency is also another problem which leads to project failures and thus it is important for the managers as it will help with a proper implementation.
From the study, we can also confirm that project planning, monitoring, client consultation and even the support of the management are important critical success factors and though they are needed for the project to be successful, they do not act alone but how well they are connected with each other contributes to the project success.
Finally, it is also important to note that the success factors are usually dynamic and they keep on evolving according to the type of the project and thus it has been hard to pinpoint certain success critical factors as the only main drivers for the project success.
Reference List
Christenson, D., and Walker, D.H.T. 2004. Understanding The Role Of Vision Project Success. Project Management Journal. Vol. 35, No, 3, pp. 39-52.
Cooke-Davies, T. 2002. The Real Success Factors On Projects. International Journal of Project Management. Vol. 20, pp.185190.
Fortune, J., and White, D. 2006. Framing Of Project Critical Success Factors by a Systems Model. International Journal of Project Management Vol. 24, pp. 5365
Hyvari, I. 2006. Success of Projects in Different Organizational Conditions. Project Management Institute. Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 31-41,
Munns, A.K., and Bjeirmi, B.F. 1996. The Role of Project Management in Achieving Project Success. International Journal of Project Management. Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 81-87.
Shenhar,A.J., Dvir, D., Levy, O., and Malt, A.C. 2002. Project Success: A Multidimensional Strategic Concept. Long Range Planning Journal. Vol. 34, pp 699725.
Zwikael, O., and Globerson, S. 2006. From Critical Success Factors to Critical Success Processes. International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 44, No. 17, pp. 34333449
Leadership refers to the process through which the managers of an organization use their skills and personality to inspire their employees to achieve the goals of the organization.
The current leadership theories such as followership and servant leadership are focusing on the role of the followers in the decision-making process and the performance of the organizations. This means that there should be more consultations and good relationships between the management and the employees.
The Australian workers prefer the captain-coach or the decisive leadership style which encourages the participation of all employees in the decision-making process. The compatibility between the current leadership theories and the captain-coach or decisive leadership style can be explained by the concepts that inform these leadership styles.
According to the servant leadership theory, organizations should focus on all-round development in regard to their workforce. This involves identifying the weaknesses of the employees and empowering them to handle such weaknesses through training.
The captain-coach leadership style uses the same concept. In this case, the coach (leader) identifies the weaknesses of the team (followers) and encourages them to improve through training. Current leadership theories encourage effective communication between the leaders and their followers.
The captain-coach leadership style borrows from this concept. This is because the leaders who use this leadership style always consult their followers before making decisions. Besides, they obtain feedback from the followers on the implications of their decisions.
Followership theory considers leadership to be a multi-dimensional function that is characterized by a system of thinking. This means that the contribution of all parties in decision-making and other organizational functions are important for the success of the organization.
Drawing from this principle, the captain-coach leadership style is based on teamwork. In this case, the contribution of each member is significant to the achievement of the goals while the leader gives guidance and shares the work with the team. According to the leader-fullness theory, the leader should be competent enough to make decisions for the organization.
In the decisive leadership style, the followers are consulted about a decision to be made. However, it is the responsibility of the leader to make the final decision.
The current leadership theories and the captain-coach leadership style are thus compatible due to the fact that they are based on similar concepts. These concepts include consultation, teamwork and employee development. Besides, the leaders should be competent enough to make the right decisions.
Leadership is understood as the lumping together of individual traits, demonstrated behavior and operational attributes that enable an individual to attain prominence.
The management of information technology organizations is faced with myriad of challenges; these problems may be solved through various ways depending on the organizations. Many organizations have adopted project management office and governance structures inside the organization.
A good leader is one who has a vision, understands the vision, builds the vision and sells the vision and sustains the vision. The most fundamental challenges faced by IT leaders range from viruses, technological hackers and employees apathy.
First and foremost, the most critical challenge of business executives in the business sector in the introduction of new model of management. In the case studies, this is evident in the adoption of PMO and ERP.
The information technology industry is faced with the problem of cost pressure and the executives are concentrating on cost reduction strategies which are geared towards facilitating the supply chain that will directly lead into to the decrease in the cost of distribution.
The increased accessibility and the use of mobile phones has led to the decline of personal computers, these change in the environment of operation creates challenges which can be addressed with projects. PMO is introduced to provide standardization in managing these projects.
PMO was a new office but was not complete and hence there were no specific purposes and responsibilities. The challenges facing PMO are lack of experts to cope with the new development in the field.
Proving the value of PMO is a major challenge and also the way it works, this is because of lack of earlier data. The implementation of PMO also proved a major challenge; this is due to the fact that it went against the organizational culture.
There were a lot of forces who greatly opposed the PMO since it was considered new and all individuals including the managers had little experience with formal management process and also there was limited experience.
There was also the challenge in the implementation of the PMO. The implementation of the PMO has failed many leaders in the information technology sector; these may be due to the lack of substantial amount of money to execute, the slow pace of implementation.
Another project that required implementation was the Enterprise resource planning (ERP) budget by Cisco, which began by the establishment team. Then there was the e-advantage by Boeing. The people who carry blame in the field of information technology are the Chief information officer.
The first problem faced by the Boeing was therefore emergence of highly successful competition from the airbus; this challenge presented the challenge of product differentiation.
Just like any other field, leadership in the information technology is quite challenging, this is largely associated with the dynamic behavior of information technology field. Overcoming leadership in the field of information technology is tantamount to taking information technology to a greater height (Roepke, 2007).
The greatest challenge that is faced by the information technology leadership is the dynamism of the environment. The field of information technology is fluid; there is always the emergence of new technologies in the information technology field which often renders the existing technologies obsolete.
The emergence of Lap top computers led to the obsolescence of the desk top model. This at times might result to massive loss in case the obsolete computers are still in stock (Anderson, 2009).
IT Leadership Challenges
For any company to be successful, it should have an environmental culture. Innovation is necessary in the field of IT, since it is an ever-growing field and often with several dynamics, the leadership of IT companies is faced with the challenge of innovativeness.
This culture of innovativeness will enable the IT Company to remain relevant in the market and to favorably compete with other firms in the industry. The spirit of innovation in the IT sector will enable a company to be customer focused, market oriented and technically innovated.
Leadership in the field of information technology is faced with the challenge of the ever evolving role of IT. The dynamism in the field of IT has made it difficult for the Chief information officers to formulate a specific strategy that will guide the operations of the company.
Lack of specific strategy in any firm will make it impossible for business managers to make decisions about the available opportunities and the necessary or imminent challenges which are important in the success of the business.
This dynamism is a challenge to the business leader since it may not be easy to respond to the changes and costs accompanying it, this is, for example, responding to the market demands and the supply chain negotiations.
Labor Mobility
Labor mobility and ability or rather disheartened employees is also another challenge that faces the IT leadership. Since employees are interested with a better pay.
With the changing nature of the market places, employees might be tempted to change to new places that offer better services and opportunities. Since every organization is interested in getting the best human resource, this may have the effect of wage pressure which may strain the companies proceeds.
The executives may have to balance between making decent profits and competitively paying its workers to prevent mobility especially in the periods of turbulent business.
The introduction of delta technology is necessary to keep employees motivated. The issue of innovation in the information technology sector presents a challenge to the business executives because they will have to match the new innovation to the business strategies and may also lead to costs in the time of implementation.
Data Security Issue
Another challenge is managing risk situations; the threat of viruses and the ever increasing possibility especially after 2003 following the discovery of the blaster worm virus which was the first of its kind to be delivered through network pipe system.
Consequently, the growing concerns on instability in the offshore outsourcing also demand more resources, time and attention. Also the idea of keeping network free form intruders is a source of challenge to the Chief Information Officers (CIO) (Muller, 2011).
The issue of security is also emerging as a challenge to the leaders in the IT sector. This has proved to be a difficult problem to be contained. Since information technology facilitates the storage of data and this has been threatened by the problem of providing necessary back up and disaster recovery mechanisms.
Organizational Challenges
There are also organizational problems; most of the business leaders are delinked from the mainstream organization and hence may not be in touch with the employees and this may at times leads to dismal performance. There is also the problem of resource. This may be as a result of the adoption of bottom line at the expense of top line system of management.
In the case of IBMs regime of transformation; turnaround and growth is a good example of lean and agile organizational structure. The company faced the problem of product complexity and organizational silos for management.
The IBM also faced the threat from emerging technologies and their efforts to counter it proved futile, they also faced the challenges of quality problems and diminishing returns.
This provoked the need to cut costs which included the employee perks and personnel reduction where other executives offered to voluntarily step down. This was aimed at maintaining lean staff; other jobs were saved by the invention of the integrated systems solution corporation.
The IBM, for example, had about 20 separate business units and made a lot of sales. The sales were accomplished through different processes but which achieved common objectives. Since executives would want to respond to the ever increasing and faster business cycle, then the operating and the management processes must be not only streamlined, but also integrated and synchronized to the cycle time of the business to fit the demands of the business for growth and expansion.
The period of change in strategy and growth by the Atekpc is a clear manifestation of how a company adopts new strategies which may involve restructuring the existing system for the company to remain competitive and to make it remain relevant in the market.
Atekpc had to introduce PMO into their model of management and this restructured its Human resource structure. The main challenge here is that changing from one model to another or adopting new model may require a lot of resources for implementing it and training human resource who ca fit into the new model.
Business leaders in the IT sector make changes only based on the market availability and ignore the impact of the changes on the entire business system which comprise the partners and the suppliers. The desire by the business executives to introduce new ideas is hampered by the existing organizational structure, the incentive regime and cultures and these lead to failure in the execution of the new strategy.
The rigid model of leadership and authority in a business venture is a tight challenge facing the business leaders. The two models of leadership and decision making are centralization and decentralization; they may also be called vertical or horizontal model of decision making.
Hierarchical or vertical model of decision making is considered less costly and can facilitate free flow of information from bottom up and to top down. Some forms of decision making present a challenge since they do not factor in the circumstance when the business firm expands.
The case of IBM illustrates the deficiencies of authority and leadership. The executives were delinked from the decision making chain and isolated from the ever emerging groups. This is substituted by the heavy reliance from the corporate staff.
The reliance on consensus kind of decision making makes it difficult for decisions to be executed. This delegation of duties and responsibilities and also the delegation of the power of decision making by the executives will make the executives out of system, although this led to decrease in speed of the decision making and the business executives are held accountable for the collective efforts.
Another challenge in leadership on IT is the ability to devise a governance system (Overby, 2009). This is evident in the implementation of the ERP by the Cisco Company and they achieved it through proper governance system. Governance may range from the outsourcing of certain skills, technologies and IT capabilities.
The choosing of partner by the Cisco was a fundamental step and which led to a great zeal by the employees to support the ERP program. IT governance is the fundamental tool in the realizing of business potential. IT potential is defined as to include the mechanism and measures that enhance the day to day efficiency and effectiveness (Applegate, Austin & Soule, 2009, p. 1).
Traditionally, the projects had been considered as cost saving but it is no longer the case since with the widespread inventions and innovations which has led to the introduction of new products, and growth of new customers. It is these changes that challenge the IT leadership since it may result in the overhaul of the existing system and projects.
On the Boeing e-Enabled advantage, Boeing was facing a lot of challenges like the emergence of the European based airbus, and the terrorism attack of September 11 which led to emergence of strong regulation in the air craft sector.
The major challenge that it faced was product differentiation. It unveiled a new strategy that will enhance efficiency and increase its profitability alongside differentiating its product in the market.
This could be realized through the adoption of an e-Enabled environment where the aspects of its airlines and its airline suppliers could be integrated through information technology by creating a networking environment. This could enable Boeing to operate efficiently and also differentiae its services from other services.
Another challenge facing Boeing was that of translating its ideas into process. This was to be achieved through breaking down the silence of its communication among the various business units.
The shift of Boeing from being both commercial and defense to being only commercial was also another serious challenge to its market and customer base. This had the threat of putting the company into a vulnerable position in the industrial cycle. The merger of Boeing with Rockwell international cooperation aerospace led to a shift back into defense work.
The introduction of the e-Enabled environment was by itself a challenge. This is because it required convincing customers to adopt it as a service provider; it also had to convince all skeptical customers that the technology of e-Enabled environment would add value to the business service and last it had to separate values created by the airline from the value created by airplanes themselves.
As in the case of Ford Company their main concentration was the supply chain strategy which involved the redesigning of its supply chain. This was necessitated by the several challenges which include encroaching of their markets by the foreign based manufacturers, increased overcapacity in the industry and expansion of their export oriented market.
This forced them to embark on the project Ford 2000 which included matching their subsidiaries in order to reduce costs and to introduce IT as a major compliment in the operations which was placed in the process of reengineering the organization.
As in the case of atekpc, IT value has been achieved through IT project. This project has the tendency and privilege of reporting directly to the president or the vice president.
The project management will facilitate the efficient making of decisions and which can be subjected to review on periodic basis. Atekpc was forced by pressure to adopt the PMO. Despite having the material resources, they lacked the management and human resource to implement the project. It is argued that the presence of IT governance will translate to improved decision making in the business (House, 2004).
In the case of Volkswagen, their main area of concern was marketing and they were preoccupied with it to the extent that they reduced funding in some important departments like IT as a measure to save on costs which could be in turn be used in the marketing of the brand and the company (Hoving, 2010).
To reduce these costs on IT department they hired the service of an IT firm perot system which was responsible for the maintenance, repairs and operation. This had the net effect of reducing staff in the IT department.
The Volkswagen America adopted the e-business teams which they used in their marketing, the perot systems and the e-business teams were aimed at enhancing the IT department, but the performance and the effectiveness of the IT department could not be guaranteed due to the lack of staff and central controlling entity.
Another challenge that comes out in the case study of Volkswagen is that the business initiatives devised were equal. This led to the grouping of projects into one similar enterprise, and this was noticed by the digital business council which is charged with the responsibility of grouping projects. These projects, when lumped together limited their chances of completion.
Another challenge learned from the Volkswagen America was the prioritizing of projects. There were complains about several activities prioritized being sidelined from funding.
The implementation of SAP had negative impact on the funding of IT projects. They concentrated on less important matters like the warehouse which never occupied the place in the order of priorities.
Instead of the firm paying attention to the advertisement and marketing of the business products, most managers relied on the production of new models to rescue them from any market difficulty and this was considered short term and could not meet the demand of the company.
The executives instead preferred to establish their own IT firm known as gedas which was establish only to manage IT services to Volkswagen owned companies.
Conclusion
Business executives should be in position to understand that the any business opportunity comes with a lot of challenges since a business by itself is a challenge. As such they should devise some ways of countering these challenges.
These challenges may stem from factors like deficits in the management system, organizational structure, the dynamism which might be brought about by technological changes and inventions and the business culture.
These should be overcome through countermeasures like streamlining the administrative process and integrating business departments and systems.
The challenges in business leadership may be corrected by adopting better ways of decision making, having quality human resource and changing according to the change in business environment business.
References
Anderson, L.S. (2009). Nurturing the IT Culture: the Leadership Challenge, national center for technology planning. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.
Applegate, L.M., Austin, R.D., & Soule, D.L. (2009). Corporate Information Strategy and Management. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
House, J. R. (2004). Culture, leadership, and organizations: the GLOBE study of 62 societies Program. New York, NY: SAGE.
Hoving, R. (2007). Information Technology Leadership Challenges Past, Present, and Future. New Jersey, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Muller, H. (2011). The Transformational CIO: Leadership and Innovation Strategies for IT Executives in a Rapidly Changing World. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
The style of leadership adopted by Budman and Green is a democratic leadership style; however, they ensured they are the final decision-makers.
Democratic leadership style allows a leader to take the input of his subordinates and stakeholders when making business decisions, but is aware that he or she has the final decision. When Budman and Green are making strategic decisions, they involve their staffs, family members, and the society in general however they are held responsible for the decisions they make.
For example, when making a designing decision, the company allows uses a broad-based participation of design teams, people who give their contribution and views on certain design, however even after considering the input, the leaders use their skills and participation in different areas to make the final decision.
The effectiveness of their leadership
Budman and Green are risk takers, they are willing to venture in businesses that are highly competitive and believed they will be succeed; their style of leadership has been successful where they have emerged as one of the most preferred seller of apparels with over 200 outlets; this is a huge success considering the age of the company.
In 2002, the company recorded a high return of over $300 million; this shows a business that is performing well amidst high competition.
Despite the success that the company has attained, its management effectiveness has been challenged by the ignorance of its human resources rights and violation of labor laws. The leaders seem to forget that the most precious resource of an organization is its human capital; they need to be treated in the best way possible.
The failure that the company got when it ventured the airline industry can show risk takers who never undertake effective market research; they are likely to be attracted by the general believe of an industry which may not be the case.
The leaders then show a very good character when they withdraw from none picking business; however, they were so impatient to give the industry a trial of six weeks. On a gauging scale, I would give them 60%, however I feel they can improve their skills (Hornsby & Warkeoczeski, 2000).
How they can improve their leadership
As much as Budman and Green have the customer in heart, they should understand that the greatest strength they have are the human capital, they should be treated the best possible since when they are satisfied, they will be able to offer customers good services and participate in decision making for the good of the company.
Another thing I would recommend to the managers is to value information; information is power, before they venture in a certain area they need to undertake massive research to understand the industry well so that they can make the right decision.
Future challenges
With globalization, the apparels industry is becoming more competitive; Budman and Green will be called upon to make strategic decisions to remain competitive amidst many players in the industry.
The growing people population will also lead to different tastes thus the managers will have the challenge of keeping up-to-date with current consumer needs and preferences.
With improved movement of labor among countries, the leaders will have a challenge-managing workforce of diverse cultures and background; international labor laws will also affect the companys leadership (DuBrin & Young, 2007).
References
DuBrin, A. J., & Young, J. D. (2007). Fundamentals of Organizational Behavior. Toronto: Thomson Nelson.
Hornsby, T. & Warkeoczeski, L. (2000). New roles for leaders: A step-by-step guide to competitive advantage. Franklin: Hillsboro Press.
Leadership has been used to refer to a pattern of influence that an individual possesses. On the other hand, leadership refers to a groups innovative ideas and creative achievements that are actually outside the bounds of formal institutions (Glanz 2005, p.1).
Accordingly, strategic leadership has evolved to become critical component in effective development and performance of organization and other key institutions (Glanz 2005, p.1). At the same time, Glanz perceives strategic leadership in the broader perspective that also involves other models of leadership.
Within this view, it can be said that strategic skills have become useful to managers that have been utilized to improve and realize better performance where collaboration initiatives are incorporated with other broader parts and transformation of organizations become the ultimate goal of strategic leadership (Glanz 2005, p.1).
On overall, strategic leaders are usually committed to improving their organizations on many levels, and leaders who demonstrate strategic leadership believe and facilitate the following.
Coordinate all functions and practices in their organizations so that everything is able to function in harmony towards realization of particular goal;
ensure that all individuals share common goals;
are able to assess the ability of the organization to respond to social, political, or even interpersonal crises (Glanz 2005, p.2).
Other notable functions of the strategic leaders include adjusting the organizations mission to meet newly developing exigencies, and lastly, being innovative of varied possibilities for the future (Glanz 2005, p.2).
Schools of all types, in the new 21st century require strategic leadership. This is particularly necessary given the increasing competition that characterizes any given market (p.3). According to three authors Preedy, Glatter, and Wise (2003, p.3), schools, colleges, together with other educational organizations are carrying out their functions and roles in competitive environment in which they need to have the best staff members.
This call for competitive recruitment in order to align the schools needs and goals given funding and resource capacity are attached to students number. Effective leadership is required in order to enable school realize success and sustained performance that in most cases is demonstrated in terms of students outcomes.
When a school is able to realize effective student performance the potential market for the school increase and on the other hand, when performance decline then negative public perception develops over the school.
Hence, the above circumstances have forced educational leaders to adopt strategies that are effective in managing the boundaries between the school and the environment. Moreover, the vision should be to adopt pro-active stance in creating an effective relationships with external stakeholders (Preedy, Glatter, and Wise 2003, p.3).
Guided by these introductory statements, this research paper aims at exploring the concept of strategic leadership with particular interests in exploring the characteristics of strategic leadership, the contextual factors, both internal and external that has the ability to affect strategic decisions, and lastly the tools available for the strategic analysis of key evidence specifically with regard to school.
This research methodology will largely involve review and analysis of relevant literatures, and in this case, secondary and where appropriate, primary literature will be used especially with regard to statistical data.
Characteristics of Strategic Leadership
Preedy, Glatter, and Wise (2003) observe that developing relationship between the school and external stakeholders require effective environmental scanning. The postulation of this statement is that strategic leaders are the ones who incorporate effective strategic environmental scanning aspects (p.3).
In carrying out environmental scanning strategic leaders, adopt necessary steps of identifying stakeholders needs and expectations, together with broader social, economic, and political trends that have opportunities for future development of the school (Preedy, Glatter, and Wise 2003, p.3).
At the same time, strategic leaders incorporate empirical studies on how their schools should incorporate and utilize environmental information and as a result, these leaders develop effective school systems that exhibit good processes for learning about and responding to changes in the environments (Preedy, Glatter, and Wise 2003, p.3).
Another aspect of strategic school leaders is that they should be effective at interpreting the wider environment in which they operate and carry their functions in. Effective interpretive requires strategic leaders to note that operational environment is not fixed but rather it is complex and always changing.
This scenario calls for strategic leaders to be more active in initiating ongoing learning by creation effective interactions with the environmental information and at the same time initiating individual and organizational capacities to interpret external events by identifying key trends that need to be responded to (Preedy, Glatter, and Wise 2003, p.3).
Other aspects have been identified that characterize strategic leadership in school context. For instance, these leaders exhibit exceptional capabilities in reducing dependence of the school to its environment and they achieve these through seeking alternative sources of funding.
Mike Freedman and Benjamin B Tregoe writing in a strategic book titled The Art and Discipline of Strategic Leadership observe that most companies fail to realize their set objectives from multiple reasons but the major ones revolves around lack of incorporating key elements of strategy (Freedman and Tregoe 2004, p.2).
For instance, the authors observes that most organizations have excellent management teams that at same are dedicated in their work and also exhibit the best strategic intentions but occasionally fail when at least one critical aspect of the strategy process is missed (Freedman and Tregoe 2004, p.2).
On overall, strategy of any organization fails when observation and fulfillment of certain aspects fail in some of the following instances.
In formulating strategic vision based on facts, informed assumptions, and the best-possible what-if thinking;
in implementing and communicating the vision throughout the organization to clarify and align the role of every strategically critically player and process; and
in monitoring and updating the vision to ensure its continued strength, agility, and relevance (Freedman and Tregoe 2004, p.2).
Michael A. Hitt, Duane R. Ireland and Robert E. Hoskisson, writing in a book titled Strategic management: competitiveness and globalization: concepts and cases, observe that there exist certain and specific actions that characterize effective strategic leadership and many of the elements characterizing strategic leadership in most cases operate collaboratively (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.350).
For instance, the authors are of the view that managing school resources effectively requires the leader or manager to develop human capital and establish strategic direction, fostering an effective culture, exploiting core competencies, using effective organizational control systems, and ethical practices (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.350).
At the same time, most strategic and effective leaders create viable options when dealing with each of the key strategic leadership action situations as the foundation for making effective decisions.
Therefore, key elements that characterize strategic leadership according to the authors include the following: determining strategic direction by the leader, where the postulation is that, strategic leaders need to have adequate knowledge.
In addition, there exist diverse conditions that create both opportunities and threats, and it is upon this premise that strategic leaders need to determine and provide the appropriate direct an organization can chart in future or over a specified period of time (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.350).
With regard to determining strategic direction, strategic leadership has to deal with two strategic directions in two parts that include core ideology and an envisioned future.
With regard to core ideology, the strategic leadership has to motivate the staff to meet the organizational goals and objectives through encouraging them to focus on the main strategies earmarked for delivering value to all the firms stakeholders.
Envisioned future, in most cases, serves as a guide to many aspects of schools strategy implementation process, including motivation, leadership, staff empowerment, and overall school design (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.350).
In actual cases, a leader instituting a strategic direction normally faces many challenges, while the work in general is not easy.
It is therefore always advisable for the leader to win the hearts and minds of school members while constantly tackling unscalable heights and make them understand why change is necessary, passionately explaining what is in for the company and the employees (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.351). Further, it is recommended that strategic leadership with regard to strategic direction needs to employ appropriate strengths that ensure continued positive performance.
Second, strategic leadership constitute effective management of the school resource portfolio. In general, school resources are categorized into financial capital, human capital, social capital, and organizational capital, together with organizational culture (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.351).
For instance, financial capital is vital to success and growth of the school and strategic leaders become aware of this. Nevertheless, in most cases, many of the strategic leaders recognize the equivalent importance of managing each remaining type of resource as well as managing the integration of resources.
Strategic leaders in most cases manage school resource portfolio by organizing them into capabilities, structuring the firm to facilitate using those capabilities, and choosing strategies through which the capabilities are successfully leveraged to create value for customers (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p. 351).
At the same time, strategic leaders are tasked with the role of ensuring competency of employees, as well as helping to retain the most successfully staff.
Next, strategic leadership has to do with exploitation and maintenance of core competencies. Core competences in many schools function as source of competitive advantage for a school over its competitors (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.351). Strategic leaders in many cases carry out verification of school competencies when implementing strategies.
At the same time, strategic leaders pursue school strategies through competitive agility and competitive speed where the leaders develop core competence capabilities which they develop over time as the school learn from their actions and enhance their knowledge about specific actions needed (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.351).
Furthermore, strategic leaders develop human capital and social capital whereby the leaders have adequate knowledge and skills of the school entire workforce (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.352). Strategic leadership identifies that there is need for effective training and development programs in order to enhance performance of the leaders for the benefit of the whole school.
The programs developed by strategic leaders generally link the success of the school needs, thus the leader gains and sustains competitive programs that benefit the school (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.352). At the same time, the programs developed by strategic leaders should build knowledge and skills that inculcate a common set of core values and that they should provide systematic view of the organization thus promoting the organizations vision and organizational cohesion (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2009, p.352).
On his part, Richard L. Morill, in a book titled Strategic leadership: integrating strategy and leadership in colleges and universities, summarizes the key characteristics that a strategic leader needs to have. These include being integral which should begin at the level of human urgency, values, and paradigms; have sense-making, that is relying largely on narrative to make sense of experience and give meaning to the future; being motivational, where the strategic leader is able to mobilize energy and commitment; putting into application decisions and choices that are strategic; encouraging collaboration; being systematic; and lastly, being data driven (Morrill 2007, p. 108).
Contextual factors, internal and external that affect strategic decisions
Two sets of factors affect strategic making decision (SDM) process, which in most cases is external environmental factors and internal organizational factors (Papadakis and Barwise 1998, p.230). Both these factors affect the SDM process both directly and through the cognitions and actions of managers.
These factors along with leadership actions, together with SDM process characteristics in turn influence outcome in a school (Papadakis and Barwise 1998, p.230). The outcomes in most cases include process outcomes such as decision quality, decision speed, timeliness of the decision and school learning, as well as economic outcomes that may include profitability and revenue growth.
Internal factors
Internal factors that influence strategic decision-making process have to do with assessment of internal school environment, which may involve identifying the strengths, and weaknesses that might be important to strategic decision-making process. First, internal aspect that affects strategic decision-making process has to do with school mission.
On overall, school mission constitutes a statement why the school exists, and in most cases, mission statements fall into three groups. 1) To create shareholder value; 2) meet the needs and expectations of all the stakeholders such as the staff, employees, suppliers, parents, students and the larger community; and 3) inspiring where it tends to create schools aspirations among school and its stakeholders (Sadler and Craig 2003, p.10).
The second internal aspect that affects strategic decision-making process has to do with school main policies. Generally, a school strategy depend and rests on policies that in most cases constitute guiding rules or principles that a school perceive to be integral to the success of the school.
Policies reflect practices or ways that a school conducts its activities, and hence, they are seen to be indispensable parts of the schools formula in creating, achieving, and sustaining competitive advantage (Sadler and Craig 2003, p.10).
Another internal factor that affects strategic decision-making process has to do with schools goals and objectives. Objectives in most cases are set to be achieved over a short, medium to long term. Objectives may be of different forms such as financial objectives, human resource objectives, enrolment objectives, school promotion objectives, and many more (Sadler and Craig 2003, p.11).
Strategic decision-making will largely be influenced by schools objectives and goals. Strategic decision-making process has to be limited, for instance, within the financial objectives of the school, where at the same time with little or inadequate financial resources the strategic decision-making process may be hampered or stalled.
School culture is another internal factor that influences school strategic decision-making process. School culture constitutes values and beliefs, together with ideas about how the school is perceived by the members and other stakeholders (Hill and Jones 2009).
School culture constitutes aspects which members of a school should pursue and the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior school members should use to achieve these goals (Hill and Jones 2009, p.394).
Strategic decision-making process on large part will thrive from presence of well established school values, norms, guidelines, or even school expectations that in largely prescribe the appropriate kind of behavior organization members express towards each other (Hill and Jones 2009, p.394).
Further, Charles Hill and Gareth Jones suggest that when making strategic decisions leaders need to create adaptive culture, one that is innovative and encourages support for school strategic goals (Hill and Jones 2009, p.394). Adaptive cultures are able to introduce changes in the way the school operates that sometimes may include changes in the school structure.
Further, the author note that schools with adaptive cultures are more likely to survive and continue in the changing environment and in most cases through strategic decisions such school are able to realize increased performance than school that have inert cultures (Hill and Jones 2009, p.394).
External factors
T. R. Jain, Mukesh Trehan, and Ranju Trehan, in a book titled Business Environment observe that, in general, operating environment for any kind of player or institution is complex and dynamic, a situation that is more complicated (Jain, Trehan and Trehan 2009, p.16). At the same time external environmental factors affect the school both in short-term and long-term (Jain, Trehan and Trehan 2009, p.16).
External factors that influence strategic decision-making process can be regarded as macro environment factors and these will have to do with demographic aspect, politico-legal aspects, and regulatory issues that affect the schools, the general economic issues affecting stakeholders, competition from other schools, and government policy that affect schools.
First, demographic aspects are important and influence strategic decisions in the sense that school strategies both existing and anticipated will greatly be influenced by population, age, religion, family size and nature, workforce composition.
Demographic aspects have the capability to influence the strategic decision making process in that, the school has to have enough and adequate knowledge of demographic shifts, which in turn forces the school to constantly modify the strategies adopted and employed.
According to Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries, and Botha (2005) external environment can be divided into two: market or task environment, which include consumers, suppliers, labor market, competitors, and intermediaries (p.102).
The second type is the macro or general environment that constitutes legal-political environment, economic environment, socio-cultural environment, technological environment, and international environment (Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries, and Botha 2005, p.102). Consumers constitute the group of people, institutions, organizations, and all other key elements organization depends on in order to purchase the organizations products or services.
The decisions made in an organization have to touch on consumers. In other words, consumers are the ones that influence the decisions and strategies the organization undertake. Supplier, on the other hand is a group that ensures the organization has the input required to ensure consumer needs are made.
Therefore, the suppliers actions or the schools strategies will largely affect the suppliers of the school (Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries, and Botha 2005, p.102). Therefore, the strategic decision-making process is largely influenced by actions and decisions of the suppliers. Labor market on the other hand, is the avenue the school has to recruit its staff and employee to facilitate and pursue school goals and objectives.
In most cases, the structure of the labor market changes an aspect that affects organizations strategic goals and objectives. When the labor market changes, then the organization has to restructure itself and generally restructuring involves modifying the strategies of the organization (Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries, and Botha 2005, p.103).
Another external aspect is the competitors of the school. Competitors constitute other external schools and institutions, which the school has to put down strategies of encountering in the market place. As the market become uncertain and more competitors enter the market, schools finds it both challenging and necessary to initiate strategies that will place the organization at a better place or level to compete effectively in the market.
Competitors marketing strategies may be advanced and superior, they may be providing superior learning opportunities with greater and constant performance, and they may have established brands in the market, and may just have enhanced tools of leveraging market advantage than the concerned school (Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries, and Botha 2005, p.103).
What becomes necessary and of much help is for the school to carry out environmental scanning which will enable the organization to take appropriate steps in strategic decision-making making with aim of improving or positioning the organization at an advantageous level.
Further, the macro-environment factors at the same time have the potential to influence strategic decision-making process. For instance, legal-political environment has the capacity to affect an organizations strategies. Legal aspects such as tariffs, taxes, business permits, market competition laws, service standards laws, and quality assurance laws, all have the potential to affect and influence the strategic decisions a school makes.
Political environment and regime at the same time has the capability to influence how the school is able to set its strategies. For example, there are political regimes that will institute restrictive business and market measures, a situation that will force many schools to modify their strategies (Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries, and Botha 2005, p.103).
Economic environment on the other hand has the potential to influence school strategies. As situation becomes tighter, organizations are forced to re-design their strategies in order to meet the stakeholders needs and desires (Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries, and Botha 2005, p.103). Further, socio-cultural environment has the capacity to affect the strategies an organization makes.
Socio-cultural environment has to do with aspects such as demographics, culture, beliefs, religion, social status, age, and gender (Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries, and Botha 2005, p.103). Organizations operate and carry out their functions in environments that exhibit different cultures, different religions, people of different ages, and so on.
Consequently, all these aspects will influence the strategic decision making process in the organization since their ignorance or inadequate incorporation will results into poor performance by the organization (Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries, and Botha 2005, p.103).
Technological environment exhibits potentials of influencing an organization strategic decision-making process. Organizations such as schools operate in changing environments that are characterized by evolving technologies.
At the same time technology has become a source of competitiveness and schools that adopt and implement the most appropriate technology is seen to have better market and overall performance as compared to others (Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries, and Botha 2005, p.103).
Tools available for the strategic analysis of key evidence
Organizations such as learning institutions that are able to articulate where they currently stand and operate, as well as where they want to go and vision they aspire to adopt, such organizations become success and goal-oriented that is built on strong strategic planning.
In order to chart a clear journey of success, learning institutions adopt particular and specific well-tested tools and techniques, which in turn are able to utilize in strategic planning (Courtney 2002, p.150). Schools are presented with both internal review tools and external review tools, which they can be able to use to carry out strategic analysis.
With regard to internal review tools and techniques, the following particular tools are common. First, there is mandate analysis, which constitutes a tool that was developed in 1995 by Bryson (Courtney 2002, p.150). In general, this tool largely provides support for policy or course of action. Mandates analysis constitute a process of exploring the written documents that exist in support of the mission of the school (Courtney 2002, p.150).
Mandate analysis for school may include research reports, mission and vision statements documents, and schools objectives and goals documents, together with the schools strategic goals documents.
In most cases, these documents can be used by a strategic leader or manager to explore and analyze the fundamental bases of the organizations mission, to understand the extent the school set and pursue goals, and reflect on the distinctive competencies of the organization (Courtney 2002, p.150).
Another technique is that of stakeholders analysis, which again constitutes a powerful technique developed by John Bryson in 1995. Stakeholders in this case constitute all those who are affected by the activities of the school or who express great expectations in the school.
Stakeholders analysis in large measure gets concerned with internal analysis but has become to be associated also with external analysis of the organization (Courtney 2002, p.150). When the stakeholders analysis is carried out, the paramount intent is to identify the internal aspects of the organization and identify the implications of changes in the external environment.
The third technique has to do with portfolio analysis, which was developed by the Boston Consulting Group, and largely this technique involves making evaluation of programmes that a school undertakes at the moment, and elaborate on the future of the programmes in the school (Courtney 2002, p.151). Further, portfolio analysis operates to link the schools current programs and the demand of the market or business environment.
On the other hand, external strategic analysis has been carried out using resource-based tools and techniques such SWOT analysis tools, PESTEL analysis tools, and Porters Five Forces analysis.
With regard to SWOT tools, strategic leader is able to carry out business environmental scanning by identifying schools strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) from which it becomes possible to create and implement appropriate strategic decisions.
Furthermore, when adopted by the strategic leader for strategy analysis, the guiding wisdom in PESTEL analysis is for the leader to analyze and evaluate political factors that affect the business strategy.
In addition, the leader should analyze the economic factors influencing the strategy, social factors, technological factors that have the ability to affect the organization, and the environment issues that organization will have to put in mind before implanting the desired strategy.
This is in addition to the legal factors that the organization needs to factor in before implementing the strategy (Hill and Jones 2009, p.41). Lastly, Porters five forces constitute tools an organization is able to use in analyzing the competitive industry environment with aim of identifying opportunities and threats before initiating and pursuing certain strategies.
Porters Five Force Model comprises tools that analyze industry environment with regard to the risk of entry by potential competitors; the intensity of rivalry among established competitors within an industry; the bargaining power of buyers/stakeholders; the bargaining power of suppliers; and the closeness of substitutes to an industrys products or services (Hill and Jones 2009, p.42).
Analysis and having adequate knowledge about these aspects enable an organization like school to pursue its strategy in a more appropriate way.
Conclusion
The 21st century constitutes a period that many organizations are undergoing transformation. Even the earlier conservative and change-averse organizations have discovered that they cannot continue to remain immune to change. Nevertheless, one aspect that is contributing to smooth transformation and success of these organizations has to do with strategic leadership.
In adopting one expressed definition of strategic leadership, Boal and Hooijberg (2006) note that, it is kind of leadership that is marked and concerned with evolution of the organization as a whole, including changing aims and capabilities.
As a result, strategic leadership is in general associated with people at the top of the organization, and the concern becomes largely centered on internal organizational environments and the external context the business operates in (Amos, Ristow, Ristow, and Pearse 2009, p.406).
Therefore, it can be said in summary that strategic leadership is key to transformation of an organization whereby an organization is able to equip itself very well to compete effectively in the market place. Further, strategic leadership to win and realize success for the organization, there is need for collaboration, cooperation, and necessary support from other key stakeholders.
Innovation involves creation of new customer value by developing solutions that satisfy emerging needs, unarticulated needs, as well as, existing market needs in a different manner. This can be achieved by introducing new products, processes and technologies. Change, on the other hand, involves initiating and managing the consequences of new business processes, organizational structure and culture. In most organizations, change and innovation often occur simultaneously.
Thus, the two can be conceptualized as two sides of the same coin. Change and innovation can be realized if the process is guided by effective leadership. This paper presents a critical review of various innovation and change theories. An assessment of my leadership skills will also be discussed.
Critical Review of Innovation and Change Theories
Theory E
The aim or purpose of this theory is to facilitate creation of economic value inline with the expectations of the shareholders. According to this theory, creation of economic value is the most important objective of the firm. Thus, it is the only objective that should be pursued. Additionally, financial incentives are used to motivate members of the organization to achieve the sole objective of creating economic value. Leaders using this theory focus on changing the organizations strategies, structures, as well as, systems.
Since these aspects of the organization can readily be changed, quick financial results can be achieved. Since market expectations drive change, the change process must be pragmatic and well planned. In order to develop these plans, the organization has to engage large consulting firms for professional advice. This is expected to enable the organization to realize rapid and outstanding improvements of its economic value.
The main strength of theory E is its ability to facilitate high returns on investments. In this regard, it promotes sustainability since the high returns can be used for further investments and programs that benefit all stakeholders. However, the theory has several drawbacks. To begin with, the focus on strategies and systems is less likely to be effective, especially if employees are not involved in the process of changing the organizations structures.
This is because the employees are not likely to identify with structures that are imposed on them. Besides, ignoring the ideas of employees prevents innovation. It is apparent that not all organizations can afford the services of large consulting firms. Besides, the solutions developed by the consultants can be ineffective if the needs of the organization are not clearly understood or the solutions are not properly implemented.
While financial incentives can motivate achievement of change, skill-based incentives have to be implemented to facilitate innovation. Skill-based incentives will promote acquisition of advanced skills which must exist if meaningful innovation is to be achieved.
Finally, the theory provides a narrow view of the firm. In modern economies, objectives such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and good corporate governance are just as important as the financial objective. Thus, the financial objective cannot be considered in isolation of other objectives which often facilitate its achievement.
Theory O
According to theory O, the purpose of change is to enable an organization to develop capabilities such as employees ability to identify and solve problems associated with their work. In this regard, the main objective is to develop a work system that promotes emotional commitment among employees in order to improve the firms efficiency and effectiveness.
Thus, the management has to articulate and promote the values and behaviors that inform the organizational culture and emotional commitment. Theory O advocates for non-pragmatic and emergent planning for change. Planning is led by the employees and is done through experiments which facilitate innovation.
Motivation is developed by engaging employees. Thus, financial incentives only play a supplementary role in motivating employees. Proponents of theory O prefer a consulting model that focuses on process. The rationale of this preference is based on the premise that small projects and engagement of a handful of consultants will facilitate a lasting cultural transformation that promotes innovation.
The main strengths of theory O is that its focus on organizational culture helps in implementing a lasting change which all stakeholders identify with. By promoting commitment among employees, innovation and improvement in the organizations performance can be achieved even in the absence of financial incentives.
Additionally, it is easier to innovate if emerging issues are taken into account during the planning process. Similarly, a consultancy model that focuses on process promotes innovation by enhancing employees understanding of new processes. The culture of experimentation and innovation is internalized by the employees and this promotes the creation of economic value.
Theory O is often criticized due to the following flaws. To begin with, the fact that non-financial objectives are equally important does not mean that the organization should not focus on creating economic value. It is apparent that a firm that performs poorly in terms of returns on investments will be less attractive to investors.
Besides, poor financial performance will hamper the implementation of programs that promote commitment among employees. In this context, theory O can not promote sustainability in the long-run. Cultural transformation and development of emotional commitment often take a long time.
Thus, theory O can not be used to implement revolutionary change. Finally, ignoring expert advice from consultants can hurt the organization. In most cases, product and process innovation requires expert advice and ideas which can only be obtained outside the organization.
Leadership of Change and Innovation
According to theory E, change and innovation should be led through a top-down leadership approach. The leader does not involve his or her management team and other employees in making key decisions. Thus, change and innovation decisions such as restructuring and adoption of new technology are only made by the chief executive officer.
The rationale of this approach is that the delays associated with consultations during decision making can be avoided. In addition, the organization can avoid the risk of entrusting lower-level staff with the responsibility of making strategic decisions during turbulent times.
The weakness of the top-down approach is that leading change requires a powerful coalition that consists of change advocates, targets, sponsors and agents. The leader as the change advocate can not achieve meaningful change by excluding the coalition members. A top-down approach also jeopardizes innovation by discouraging ideation among employees.
Finally, a top-down approach exposes the organization to the risk of failure, especially, if the leader is not a visionary and an effective change advocate. His failure to consult other members of the organization will certainly lead to failure.
Proponents of theory O believe that effective leadership of change and innovation should involve collaboration with employees. Thus, employees should be actively involved in identification of problems and finding solutions to such problems. This involvement is expected to facilitate creation of trust, and commitment that is fundamental for performance improvements.
It also promotes ideation which informs innovation. Besides, long-term change can be achieved if the employees are committed to the change process. However, participative leadership can be a slow way of achieving change. It can also be interpreted as a way of manipulating employees to achieve pre-determined goals.
Examples of Change
Successful Change at Barclays Bank UK
Between 2000 and 2003, Barclays managed to spring back to profitability after years of poor financial performance. In 2004, the bank hired a new CEO, John Varley, who realized that the bank had to change in order to make its strong financial performance sustainable.
The change that Varley believed would facilitate sustainable growth was to focus on employee engagement, as well as, customer satisfaction. He used theory O to effect this change by shifting the focus from financial performance to non-financial indicators of growth. Varley worked with his management team and developed a set of metrics for measuring the banks performance in the marketplace (customer satisfaction), organization (employee engagement), and communities (network).
Initial analysis revealed that Barclays performed poorly on these metrics and this prompted a culture change in 2004. These metrics were incorporated in the banks medium term targets and the bank managed to record steady growth in profits from 2004 to 2008.
The success of the change can be attributed to the CEOs ability to create a strong change coalition, and a sense of urgency (Kotter 1995 1-18). He also had a clear vision by using the non-financial metrics to define the banks future. Engaging the employees helped the bank to realize the mistakes that underlay its poor performance. Additionally, the focus on non-financial indicators became the main theme in the banks cross-group communication.
The measures to be taken by each employee within a specific timeline were identified. These new imperatives were aligned to the reward, as well as, recognition system to promote motivation and emotional engagement among employees. The CEO led the change through selfless leadership which was based on organization-wide consultations. Thus, the focus on these indicators became part of the banks organizational culture, thereby facilitating a lasting change. By 2008, the bank boasted of a highly motivated staff and excellent customer service.
Less Successful Change at Citygroup Bank
In order to strengthen its performance, Citygroup merged its investment bank, Solomon Smith Barney, with Schroder in 2001. This move was based on recommendations made to Citygroup by financial analysts and consultants. The decision was made by top managers and junior employees were not consulted.
The change focused on strategy, by restructuring the operations of the two banks and consolidating their resources. Hence, the change was based on theory E. However, the change did not succeed in boosting the banks performance as was expected due to the following reasons.
The change ignored the organizational cultures of the two banks. Schroder had a culture that focused on long-term employment, client service, soft perspective and Japanese management style. Solomon Smith, on the other hand, had a culture that focused on American style, hard perspective, and product development.
The culture clash not only lowered the morale but also precipitated a mass exodus of talented employees from the two banks. This increased the cost of labor turnover, and lowered productivity. The banks attempt to use financial rewards to retain staff from Schroder failed. This is because the staff believed in greater involvement in the banks affairs rather than financial rewards.
Conclusion
Change and innovation are essential and inevitable in every organization. In order to realign themselves to market dynamics and improve their competitiveness, organizations must consistently innovate and implement change. Successful change and innovation depends on how well the process is led by the change advocate. Additionally, the theory that informs the innovation and change process determines success.
In general, innovation and change can be based on theory O or theory E. Each of these theories has its weaknesses and strengths as discussed earlier. Thus, the change advocate must make deliberate efforts to address the weaknesses of the adopted theory. This will help in avoiding failure.
Works Cited
Aitken, Paul and Malcom Higgs. Developing Change Leaders. London: BH Press, 2010. Print.
Beer, Michael and Nitin Nohria. Breaking the Code of Change. Boston: HBS Press, 2000. Print.
Goffin, Keith and Rick Mitchell. Innovation Management. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Print.
Hayes, John. The Theory and Practice of Change Management. London: Palgrave Macmillan , 2010. Print.
Kotter, John and David Cohen. The Heart of Change. London: HBS Press, 2002. Print.
Kotter, John. Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. London: Harvard Business School Press, 1995. Print.
Stamm, Bettina. Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2008. Print.
Japan is one of the most rapidly growing economies in the larger Asian continent. Many researchers have attempted to explore the various ways of life in this country including their institutional management, culture, and other diverse peculiar preferences. This report paper will offer a summary of the work conducted in finding out the most preferred leadership styles by Japanese followers in relation to the appropriateness of the Bass and Avolios full-range leadership model.
It will discuss the purpose of the research, the research methodology used, the findings, the problems encountered and their practical implications, and finally the impact of the Bass and Avolios and Houses leadership theories.
Objective
The case study sought to explore the most preferred leadership styles by the Japanese followers. The appropriateness of the entire Bass and Avolios model of leadership was also investigated. The research provides a review of the existing literature concerning the various leadership styles and theories, and culture that can be considered to influence the preference of a given way of leadership, especially by the Japanese followers.
The case study provides the nine scales of leadership extracted from Bass and Avolios full-range leadership model which most western researchers over the last two decades have considered it to have a universal influence. On the contrary, this case study explores the suitability of this model to the led people of Japan.
Methods
In order to come up with reliable findings and conclusion, the study mostly used a qualitative approach in the collection of data. Templates and numerous contents were also analysed. The data was collected in two phases: Phase 1 involved the use of semi-structured interviews while questionnaires were used during the second Phase. Three research questions were used:
What are the perceptions of Japanese followers regarding contemporary culture?
What are the perceptions of Japanese followers towards Bass and Avolios full-range leadership model?
Are there aspects of leadership not covered by Bass and Avolios full-range leadership model, which can be defined as culture-specific conceptualisations of Japanese leadership?
This study involved 12 Japanese interviewees (five females and seven males), with an average age of 32.5. The respondents were Japanese employees and they identified themselves as followers under the supervision of Japanese leaders, and were drawn from several industries in Japan.
The subjects were asked three general questions at random. The first one sought to know the respondents recognition of Japanese leadership; the second enquired the kind of leader that the interviewee would like to work with, and lastly, the subjects perception of Japanese culture. The data collected constituted Phase 1 and were analysed by template.
Phase 2 of the study involved the use of questionnaires and composed of 57 Japanese respondents (38 males and 19 females with an average age of 33.1) who were drawn from a cross-section of Japanese industries.
The questions were a further breakdown of the first three used in Phase 1 into 15 of them. Unlike in phase 1, Phase 2 was analysed by the content of the questionnaires. The language used in both phases was Japanese but the authors translated it into English.
Results
The interview results (Phase 1):
According to the study, most of the interviewees, when asked about the trend of the Japanese culture, their responses implied that the Japanese culture and the management systems have been changing as a result of internationalisation, the impact of the bubble economy, and the financial crisis experienced in Asia.
Furthermore, they identified a significant change from male chauvinism to gender equality, as reflected in the ever increasing number of female employees in virtually all Japanese places of work. However, two male interviewees suggested that male chauvinism, in their perception, still existed.
Two of them suggested that collectivism was still part and parcel of Japanese culture while two interviewees indicated that there had been a significant change from collectivism to individualism. Moreover, two interviewees thought seniority was still part of Japanese work culture. In the contrary, five suggested that meritocracy was on the rise.
On the other hand, eleven interviewees provided their responses concerning the Bass and Avolios full-range leadership styles.
Firstly, despite the fact that idealized influence attributed is one of the five transformational leadership styles which are expected to be the most effective as far as enhancing performance is concerned, only two interviewees approved its use. Nine of them indicated negative attitude towards this style of leadership.
Six interviewees were positive about the use of idealized influence behaviours style of leadership. The collective sense of mission and the keenness towards decision-making exhibited by such leaders was their core reason for liking the style. However, five of the interviewees expressed their dislike, emphasising that in business, what matters most is the outcome.
Moreover, although it is one of the core transformational styles of leadership, the study had only five interviewees approving the use of inspirational motivation.
Some of them suggested that any leader in Japan who talked optimistically about the future was no longer effective following the burst of Japans economy. Most of them explained that followers needed a leader who has a proper understanding of managing risk and contingency plans instead of a hopeful leader.
All the 11 interviewees approved a leader who exhibits the intellectual stimulation style. This was due to their belief that such a leader has the potential of solving the day to day problems and proposing strategies of handling future issues. Individualised consideration, on the other hand, was supported by seven interviewees.
The interviewees who approved of such a style considered its effectiveness especially as companies increasingly focused on individual performance and competences. This follows the perceived growth of meritocracy in Japan. Those interviewees who were negative on this style of leadership suggested that group targets might not be achieved if the leader focuses on individual needs.
Contingent reward, which is a transactional style of leadership, and supposed to be less effective compared to the five transformational styles of leadership in motivating the workers to optimum out put, was supported by 8 interviewees. They suggested that the use of rewards depending on performance to motivate employees was very effective in enhancing motivation.
For the case of management-by-exception active, one interviewee claimed that it was not dispensable while the rest did not endorse it, either. They argued that such leaders cause tension in the work place and hence less motivation of followers. Similarly, management-by exception passive was not approved by any of the interviewees and they expressed their unilateral dislike of the laissez-faire leadership approach.
The third part of the study evaluated the Japanese leadership styles. The opinions of the interviewees on the actual styles of leadership in Japan included directive leadership, participative leadership, social activities outside work, and overtime-work.
Two interviewees explained that their leaders embraced directive style of leadership where they give specific orders to be strictly followed, whereas three interviewees mentioned participative leadership. Two of them saw this type of leader as very accommodative and one claimed that the participative style can be problematic if the leader cannot make own decisions.
Eight interviewees approved the need for social activities outside work. Seven explained that such activities provide the platform for followers to interact with their leaders and share openly. Furthermore, six interviewees mentioned overtime-work. Most of them thought that there was still overtime-work in most Japanese companies and that the length of the overtime-work depends, to some degree, on the type of leader in charge.
During the study, Protective, network, and gender equality leadership was mentioned by the interviewees. Four interviewees approved the protective leader who can stand up for them and defend them from the onslaught of senior mangers. On the other hand, three interviewees supported the network leadership and expected their leader to help them advance in their career-path by being influential.
Furthermore, gender equality was mentioned by three subjects. Two of the interviewees saw it as appropriate for the then current state of affairs in Japan. Only one interviewee considered this idea as being superficial and a western ideology without any relevant Japanese adjustment.
The questionnaire results (Phase 2)
From the study, 30 respondents, representing 52.6 % felt that the Japanese culture had some convergence with the Western culture as a result of globalisation. 24 (42.1%) thought that internationalisation had not caused any convergence between Japanese and western culture, and a low 5.3% were not sure whether there was any convergence.
In relation to Bass and Avolios full-range leadership model, 51 respondents provided useful information concerning the type of leader(s) whom they would prefer to work with or under. The responses were initially compared with the nine assumed categories from Bass and Avolios full-range leadership model. The content analysis method was used in the comparison.
From the analyses, 51 % approved the individualised consideration while intellectual stimulation received seven positive comments. Contingent reward, on the other hand, had five respondents supporting it while management-by-exception active had two.
Inspirational motivation, idealised influence behaviour, and idealised influence attributed each received one positive comment. Moreover, management-by-exception passive and laissez-faire were approved by none of the respondents.
When asked to comment about their individual preferences towards Bass and Avolios full-range leadership style, according to the study, most of the respondents did not endorse many of the transformational styles of leadership. In fact, 34 respondents, representing 59.6 % of the respondents, were positive about contingent reward, which is a transactional style of leadership.
As for the Japanese leadership styles, the study investigated both the actual and the preferred styles of leadership. 49 responses were considered useful for the research analysis. The participative leadership was the most mentioned followed by directive leadership. Authoritarian and protective leadership follow respectively. Next, there were the bargaining and laissez-faire, followed by supportive style.
The ones that were least mentioned are punctual and egocentric leadership. Further findings reveal that Japanese followers believe that their leaders base their judgments more upon their own abilities, competences, and performances instead of gender differences or age. 68.4 % of the respondents approved the worth of overtime-work.
Practical implications
From the analysis of the findings of both the interviews and questionnaires, leaders who work in Japan would find this case study very useful. It helps them know the preferred styles of leadership within the Bass and Avolios full-range leadership model. The leaders will then adjust accordingly for better results.
Implications for future research
This case study concludes that it is important for researchers to carry out investigations which are culture-specific, for instance in Japan. The case study further notes that western theories should not be generalised under all contexts.
The findings provide the link between traditional and modern leadership approaches. The challenge encountered in the study was the small representation of the Japanese people in the research. Future researches should involve more subjects to enhance the credibility of the findings.
Conclusion
This report has attempted to provide a summary of the research into the suitability of Bass and Avolios full-range leadership model to the Japanese context. It has highlighted major findings both from the interviews and questionnaires.
The highly endorsed style of leadership was the contingent reward. Notably, this was found to contradict the earlier assumption by the Bass and Avolios full-range leadership model which is not comprehensive when it comes to leadership preferences by Japanese followers.