Leadership

(2007)Mullins. Management is often viewed as getting different objectives done through different people in the organisation; mangers may use different techniques to handle different situations. Meanwhile leadership doesn’t always take place, in the hierarchy structure of an organisation; a leader in an organisation is seen to have enthusiastic attributes, with followers.

(2007)Watson has suggested that managers tend to depend on different structures and systems while leaders and people in the team generally share the same goal.

Difference between mangers and leaders

leaders	managers
Leader is seen to have a personal and strong feeling towards his/her goal.	Mangers have a more docile attitude.
Mangers retain less of an emotional view in work actives   .	Leaders have more an emotional view to work, and take part in different events.
Leaders create choice and excitement at work.	Mangers have to balance and control conflicting views.
Mangers are seen more as regulators, that wait for reward	Leaders generally love what they’re doing and identify themselves with the goal and not membership.

 The managerial grind makes use of five different types of leadership:

Impoverished Manager- makes use of low production /low people, the leader is generally classified as being inefficient and laid back, however this has a negative affect  working environment, this usually results in a disorganised organisation.

Authoritative manger –high production/low people, this work environment has very strict rules and is a very autocratic environment, with a very productive and efficient 

The team manager-   Display a high level of concern and focus for both production and people issues. This is seen as very encouraging and motivating by employees.

Middle of the road leader: Medium Production/Medium People, this approach is not very motivational, and is just an average attempt to achieve goals.

While working at phones4u, the manager I had fitted into Blake and mouton’s grind because he was very laid back, and seemed to be more interested in his phone and face book, rather remembering the store is low on stock, the manager was very disorganised which lead to staff being less motivated to work hard, and put in 110%.  Also this often concluded in conflict amongst the manager and other employees.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0fG0RAOFneAJ:news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4758833.stm+sir+alan+sugar%27s+leadership+style&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.co.uk

According to BBC (2006), Sir Alan Sugar, from the east end, is said to be “In some instances a blunt, non-negotiable style is really effective, especially for short-term projects when deadlines are tight.” He is also seen to be a hard worker, one of the reasons why he is undisputedly been called a good leader is because he leads by example and has gone through the hardship himself.

Lord Alan Sugar, who now has a show called the apprentice, gives people the chance be a good leader and entrepreneur like him

To conclude there are different types of leaders, but to get maximum effort from staff it’s always good to have a good leader, however some staff will always give 110%, with or without a good leader.

Communication and Involvement

 

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)  “Employee participation is defined as ‘a process of employee involvement designed to provide employees with the opportunity to influence and where appropriate, take part in decision making on matters which affect them”.

While

Employee involvement is a variety of processes, designed to engage the support, understanding and best possible contribution of all employees in an organisation and their commitment to its objectives’.

1.       Organisations can involve employees in decisions making by asking employees for their opinion when it’s time to renovate the store.

2.      Rewards, which should be tied to suggestions and ideas as well as performance.

3.      Employee decision making, which can take many forms, from determining work schedules to deciding on budgets or processes.

4.      Always ask for every employee’s opinion.

Social networking is seen to be very important in an organisation in this modern age, and the firm I researched is called Total Gift Galore this organisation makes use of twitter as its social network medium, twitter had all the information, of what the new products and services they have to offer in store, also had information for staff updates and schedule changes.

To conclude, in every organisation it is very important to involve staff, from the lowest level of the organisation in decision making this can be seen as motivating the staff and a form of appreciation. Also social network could  be the new form communication between staff, due to the advancement of technology.

reward

Firstly what is a reward?

A reward system consists of financial rewards and employee benefits, which together comprise total remuneration.’ (Martin et al, 2010)

The organisation that I am familiar with its reward program is Phones4u, this company rewards in different ways, the company provides bonuses at the end of the week, for the sales assistance’s who earned the company with the most GDP (gross domestic profit) of that week, however the company goes further by rewarding, employees with the greatest amount of sales at the end of the year with a holiday of choice.

This organisation has different levels of reward, and this sorted by your position on the hierarchy table. For example mangers of each store get a 1,500 bonus when there store hits their targets , meanwhile staff only get their commission from sales, if the store hits their targets, so in a way, its gets everyone motivate as a team to work together in order, to have extra pay at the end of the month.

The paragraph above explains how different groups differ when it comes to reward, this is because some duties or job titles require you to do more than other jobs, this can all be to prevent staff from not being motivated, because if we think about it, if a manger is getting the same rewards as a sales assistant, the sale assistant wouldn’t be motivated, to become a manger. The manger may be less encouraged to work as hard seeing their efforts are crowned with the same reward as employees who do less work. Fairness is generally seen without anybody saying it’s fair. The only way everyone goes home with extra pay is working as a team, this is also ensured by personal efforts too.

Chief executives should get their large bonuses, only if they are put under scrutiny by an independent body at the end of year .

FOR

I.            The chief Executives are basically the decision makers of the company, and hold lot of responsibility.

II.            The company’s faith realise on the C.E.O, because if the company debt becomes uncontrollable, the C.E.O’s pass record at other companies will determine, how other financial intuitions would render help.

III.            Some C.E.O’s have been around for the company for a very long time and , have helped it grow

Against

       I.            Some will still argue, why c.e.o’s still get large bonuses after going through the whole year making bad decisions.

    II.            When c.e.o’s show negative attitudes and play a major rule in the business why should they still be blessed with a large bonus (relating back to the BP situation),  this can be seen as condoling negative behaviour.

Performance management

First of all what is an appraisal- an appraisal is a regular assessment of an employee’s performance. An appraisal takes an overall look at the employee and a view at the work loads, and volume, and gives tips on what could be improved on. (ACAS 2006)

An appraisal I have taken part in, was when I was working at phones4u, after 3months of working there, the team manager booked me in for an appraisal, for the following week. During the appraisal, I realised it was the other team manager, that I had never worked with was giving me the appraisal, the simplest way to put it, I was shocked to have someone, who i have hardly seen tell me things, I need to improve on, it made me the appraisal wasn’t taken seriously. However on the other hand I was praised for my efforts at work, although I felt like, the praise part was just said to lighten up my mood.

The skills needed to make a mentor good and effective is, being a good listener, everyone needs someone to listen to them at some point,  mentors guide the people how seek their help and  advice, and direct them.

Mentors also provide insights on the objectives of the person they are mentoring, mentors criticize usefully; mentors also help every way possible, all these skills listed, are required to make a mentor effective.

A person in my social life who has been a mentor to me is my older brother, he gave me advice in my time of need, and on a daily basis, even when i didn’t really need it, however it kept me on track, this has however, made me realise, that I can do what want to, if i put my mind to it.

To conclude, we all need someone to put us on track some point in our lives, however some people may not need a mentor.


Mullins (2004) management and organisational behaviour.  (8^th edition).

selection

Examples of selection methods

Interviews

Telephone screening

Short listing from applications and cv’s

 Interviews – on average interviews is a hiring decision, of the candidate. An interview is a tool used, to decode the candidate, to get a better insight of which the candidate really is, a job interview is seen as the most efficient tool of knowing potential candidates.

Pros of interviews

Interviews give the company a better insight of the candidate

Cons

The interviewer may influence the candidates answer

Interviews are time consuming

Interviews may portray the candidate in the wrong way due to pressure.  

Interviews may only last for a short period of time, which prevents getting to know all about the candidate.

Telephone screening

 Telephone screening helps break down candidates to prevent unnecessary candidates coming for an interview.  These interviews also take place if the candidate is really far away.

Pros

It saves time by reducing candidates that don’t qualify

Cons

It can prevent worthy candidates from qualifying, due to the wrong impression gathered by the interview

The candidate may not be able express themselves that good.

Short listing from applications and cv’s

This is when, the interviewer , goes through cv’s and applicants to decode, candidates who they think, are fit for the job, and then called in for an interview.

Pros

This helps to cut down candidates

This method can also, get a little insight from the cv to know a bit more about the candidate

Cons

Candidates are judged even before they are spoken to

This method is time consuming

This method can be expensive, because ads have to be posted before, candidates can hear about the job.

An interview I took part in was for a job at phones4u, before I had the face to face I went through different stages, such as feeling out an application online, of which I was completely honest about everything I wrote, however when i had the phone interview, i just told the interviewer what, i thought he wanted to hear. After that i was offered a face to face interview, of which was effective, only in the way of me portraying myself in the character they were in search for.

I recommend , that companies make more use of face to face interviews, to find out about their candidate more, instead of prejudging them on a telephone interview, this could help to select the best candidates possible

To conclude, even though I disagree with most other interviews, minus face to face interviews, it does help to save time, and cut off candidates who do not meet the companies’ standard by judging them on limited information.

Mullins (2004) management and organisational behaviour.  (8^th edition).