Diverse teams produce better results
Introduction
Diversity within the context of teams can be defined as the differences in the experiences as well as in views that come about because of variables in the workforce characteristics (Pynes, 2009). Understanding the differences and the capability of managing the diverse teams is critical in attaining the desired results.
HRM managers should understand the effect of these dimensions on the work performance, success as well as motivations. Most importantly, the HRM managers should comprehend how the dimensions that bring about diversity in the teams affect interactions of workers (Pynes, 2009). The blog tends to examine the importance of having the ability to create and manage diversity in teams.
The necessity of team management skills
Turnbull, Greenwood, Tworoger and Golden 2009 noted that managing diverse team is one of the cost-effective management skills that leaders of the organisation should have. Currently, organisations are encouraging teamwork in order to effectively and efficiently attain the specific goals of the organisation. The reason is that the extensive use of teams creates the potential for an organisation to generate greater outputs with no increase in inputs. In addition, teams present greater capability of achieving the desired results.
The reason is that teams have characteristics such as freedom and autonomy and the ability to utilise diverse skills and talents (Pynes, 2009). In addition, teams have the ability to complete entire and exclusive task as well as working on assignments or project that has a substantial impact on the organisation. The diversity in skills, talents and capabilities is the major strengths that enables teams work on difficult tasks and complete such tasks within the required time and increased outcomes.
Managing diversity on teams is a complementary operation. As such, managers have to be equipped with skills in order to achieve the desired outcome. Diversity in teams characteristically presents new perspectives on areas that need to be undertaken (Turnbull et al., 2009). However, team leaders have to aware of the challenges differences in views, beliefs and values can create in the working of a team.
Therefore, managers have to utilise the acquired skills in team management to create a diverse work teams that engaged in problem solving and decision-making processes that enable efficient completion of tasks (Turnbull et al., 2009). The managers have to utilise the team management skills to create heterogeneous team members with diverse and complementary skills to complete the assignments.
Additionally, the diversity perspective and skills make diverse teams spend most of the time discussing issues. Such actions reduce the possibility that a weak alternative solution will be chosen for a particular problem (Mor Borak, 2005). Managers should always expect the value-added component of diverse teams to increase the chance of attaining the desired results.
Besides, managers have to understand that cohesiveness within the team cannot be attained within the shortest time. Teams have to go through processes as proposed by various models of team formation before the cohesiveness is achieved. Essentially, members of the team would become more familiar with each other as the team progressively becomes cohesive (Turnbull et al., 2009).
Studies suggest that members of cohesive teams have greater satisfaction, decreased non-attendance as well as attrition from the group. Turnbull et al. 2009 noted that cohesiveness is lower on diverse teams. However, managers should ensure that norms of the team are supportive of diversity in order to maximise the value of heterogeneity at the same time achieve the benefits of high cohesiveness. Essentially, effective teams need to work together and ensure collective responsibility in completing important assignments.
In the case of police force, working in teams is critical. However, the teams might take different models. Besides, the core principles such as the characteristics of teams remain the same. Generally, different teams have different needs. Therefore, managers should understand the needs of their teams and select team members that ensure diversity and all various roles are filled (Mor Borak, 2005). In addition, Managers need to understand the individual strengths that each person can bring to a team, select members with their strengths in mind, and allocate work assignments accordingly.
Conclusion
Essentially, human resources managers should be equipped with team management skills that enable them create diverse teams. Understanding the processes on how teams work remains critical in the management of the diversified team. Personnel with diverse cultural, language, skills, educational and leadership background characterise variations found in teams (Turnbull et al., 2009). The heterogeneous team members created by diversified backgrounds bring into the organisation the skills and competence mix that contributes to the increased competitive edge.
Most effective leadership style to managing the work of subordinates
Introduction
The debate on the best type of leadership is not something new within the academic cycles. In fact, the debates are compounded with the controversies surrounding the correlation between management and leadership (Klein & House, 2011). The questions often asked is whether the manager should be a great leader. On the contrary, people normally ask whether leaders should have high management skills. The thin line between leadership and management is normally difficult to locate. In this blog, approaches in management and leadership is examined
Similarities and differences between management and leadership
Leadership is often defined as the capability of an individual to influence, motivate and enable subordinate employees to contribute towards effective and efficient attainment of the organisational goals. Good leaders are often described as transformational and charismatic (Klein & House, 2011). In most cases, good leaders are comfortable risk takers and imaginative. In addition, good leaders are focused on enhancing the performance of the employees under their jurisdiction and achieve the highest outcomes (Lord, Brown & Freiberg, 2010).
Further, in terms of approach to tasks, leadership approaches the problems candidly and devises creative and novel solutions. Besides, good leaders utilise individual charisma and commitments to stimulate, inspire and orient employees towards getting solutions to the problem and excel (Klein & House, 2011). Moreover, in terms of managing people, leadership is normally transformational, consultative and participative.
On the other hand, management is defined as the ability to control and direct employees towards attaining the desired results. In fact, the purpose of management is to co-ordinate and harmonises the work of employees in order to accomplish a particular goal. In terms of personality styles, managers are often described as coherent and disciplined problem solvers (Lord et al., 2010). Essentially, managers focus on goals of the organisation, design and composition, workforce as well as the accessibility to resources. In addition, the personalities of managers are balanced towards determination, strong will, scrutiny and aptitude.
In terms of focus and outcomes, managers emphasises on organisation of the work processes and the attainment of results. Besides, in terms of approach to tasks, managers create course of action, guiding principles and technique to undertake a given task. In addition, managers generate ideas and teams that work together to complete a particular task (Padilla, Hogan & Kaiser, 2007). Moreover, managers empower employees through soliciting their ideas, values, beliefs and principles.
The combination of the actions is believed to have greater possibility of reducing intrinsic hazards and create success to the organisation. However, managers are risk averse and have involving role in decision-making process. Further, in terms of leadership style, managers are authoritative and transactional (Padilla et al, 2007). In terms of power difference, managers have formal authority and established positions.
While good leadership approaches may vary according to circumstances and individual characteristics, transformational leadership style would be the most ideal. The reason is that transformational leadership is characterised by its inspirational nature and positive changes it creates in an organisation (Klein & House, 2011). Transformational leadership takes into consideration the concerns of employees and is focused on encouraging employees to achieve the goals of the organisation. In fact, transformational leadership is geared towards creating positive change among employees.
Moreover, in transformational leadership style, the members of the team are encouraged to attain the desired results on the assigned tasks. Further, leaders impart the vision of the group and take into consideration the members’ contribution in the attainment of the results (Lord et al., 2010). Besides, transformational leaders have greater vision as well as inspirational characteristics, which is applied to motivate and change the expectations as well as perceptions of employees to work towards the desired goals and outcome.
Police force is one of the public sectors where authority, organisation and leadership ability is highly revered. However, given the circumstances in the police force, transformational leadership style is the best employees’ management approach. The reason is that the junior staffs need to be encouraged, motivated and inspired towards attaining the desired outcomes. In addition, the current police force needs visionary leaders to inspire and motivate employees towards attaining the desired outcome. Such characteristics are found in the transformational leadership style.
Conclusion
Organisations should adopt leadership and management approaches that motivate and encourage the junior staff towards attainment of the desired outcomes. In addition, the leadership and management styles should encourage communication between the junior staff and senior management and remove vices such as discrimination that tend to discourage work performances. Moreover, the leadership style should focus on creating positive change among the junior staff through encouraging creativity and innovativeness in solving the problems facing the organisation.
Managing change
Introduction
Organisations often face the challenge of creating, recreating and implementing changes. While organisations continue to create and implement changes, the increased probability of encountering strong resistance from fearful and even cautious employees as well as other stakeholders is eminent. As such, organisations should comprehend the reasons for resistance and take necessary steps in order to attain the desired change outcome (Baker, 2009). Essentially, to be successful in creating change organisations have to create an environment that would enable the transformations to take effect. The blog explores change resistance within the organisation.
Reasons for and against resistance to change within the organisation
Spreitser, Porath and Gibson 2012 argue that employees will always be comfortable with the current skills and competencies. In fact, change within the organisation challenge or threaten this safety. In other words, employees often feel contented with the knowledge they have gathered overtime, the mastered skills and the gradation they have received over their work processes. The experiences gained and skills provide employees with the required competency (Baker, 2009).
As such, creating change will always threaten the achievements employees have gained. Essentially, employees will resist change in order to maintain the good of the competency they have gained. Moreover changing the work processes affect the employees’ work activities. In other words, changes create the need to learn new skills, which normally take time and additional resources on the part of employees (Baker, 2009).
Besides, employees may resist change due to fear of failure. In fact, almost all employees within the organisation would be worried of what new changes might bring. Often, changes are accompanied with laid offs, failure of promotions, salary cutbacks as well as miss outs of bonuses and incentives (Ford, 2010). As such, employees will always resist changes that come with such new adjustments.
In addition, employees will resist change to maintain the stability of their status. In other words, changes normally alter the structure and designs, job descriptions as well as positions. As such, employees often fear losing the statuses because of changes that has been brought within the organisation (Ford, 2010).
However, some employees will always support changes. In most cases, such employees have the required competency in new job assignments. In addition, such employees have the capability of adapting quickly to the new changes that have been brought by the organisation (Ford, 2010). Moreover, in the situations where changes come with incentives or promotions, employees will always need such changes to occur. Further, employees will survive when the changes brought by the organisation increases their capabilities and competencies.
In order to create change, organisations’ leaders have to address the challenges employees face directly. Leaders have to come up with strategies that deal with new expectation (Spreitser et al., 2012). In addition, employees should be part of the formulation of the strategies. In fact, leaders should provide clear explanations of new tasks, generous adjustment period and enable free acceptance of change without authorisation or forceful means.
Leaders within the organisation have to be sympathetic of the fear and put in place strategies that would deal with challenges that come with transformations. Leaders must also understand that during the transition occasional blunders are eminent. As such, safe learning environment need to be created to allow employees comprehend new changes that have been brought. Moreover, employees are also susceptible to learn through mistakes. Moreover, leaders must also safeguard the collective statuses of employees most affected by the new changes.
Change should also be implemented incrementally to avoid eminent conflicts and mistakes that may be costlier to the organisation (Spreitser et al., 2012). Moreover, incremental implementation would allow employees be familiarised with the new ideals. Essentially, incremental implementation will also reduce the chance of resistance since hesitant employees would be accustomed to the new changes.
In the government institutions such as the police force, employees would always maintain their job statuses. Employees normally accept changes when there are incentives or promotions. However, most of the senior management will always resist change making junior staffs to stay in their job positions for longer period. Essentially, there are increased chances of resistance to change in such institutions.
Conclusion
Whereas changes might be necessary for the organisation, resistance to such changes cannot be avoided. Majority of employees will always resist changes that have been brought about by the organisation for various reasons. However, understanding these reasons would enable managers implement and manages changes. Essentially, organisations should comprehend the reasons for resistance to change and take necessary steps in order to attain the desired change outcome. In other words, organisations should not just focus on the desired change but also the concerns of the employees.
Ethical leadership
Introduction
While literature is a vast with ethical leadership styles and practices, little attention has been given on how immoral leaders behave as well as the manner in which they influence the behavior of subordinates and the organisation in general. In fact, leaders behave in many ways that are considered immoral yet such conducts are not within the boundaries of unethical leadership definitions. According to Chandler 2009, unethical leadership are the behaviors conducted and decisions made that violate ethical the ethical standards and legal procedures as well as actions that compel course of actions and compositions that encourage unethical conduct among the subordinates staff. In this blog, ethical and unethical leadership are examined.
Ethical and unethical leadership
In fact, unethical leadership violates the moral principles set by the society. Decisions made by unethical leaders are based on unfairness and unethical guidelines and influenced by individual, political and financial considerations. In most cases, unethical leaders fail to think beyond individual interests and personal gain. Moreover, unethical leadership is motivated by personal greed and intends to harm others in order to make increased profit (Burke, 2006).
Various terms including abusive supervisors, toxic leadership and tyrannical leadership as well as undermining supervisors have been used to describe unethical leaders in the literatures (Burke, 2006). In fact, research indicates that unethical leaders are domineering, offensive, controlling and deliberately discouraging. Besides, unethical leaders’ dealings are comprehended as deliberate and destructive. In addition, unethical actions are always the source of legal action against the organisation. In most cases, unethical leaders fail to consider the impact of their actions on the subordinates. Occasionally, leaders make decisions with unintended impacts, which are equally damaging.
However, ethical leadership is the process where leaders influence the subordinate employees to attain particular results. Essentially, ethical leaders influence people through their principles, values and beliefs that embrace the right behavior (Coutu, 2004). In addition, leaders should embrace the organisational practices that support moral principles and have a remarkable influence on the conduct of employees.
Within an organisation, ethical leaders should be seen as visible role models and be in a position to provide appropriate cues that influence the conduct of the subordinate staff. In addition, ethical leaders should communicate ethical expectations. In other words, ethical leaders should state the primary values of the organisation. In fact, the ethical values of the organisation should be drawn from the commonly accepted codes of ethics (Chandler, 2009).
Essentially, ethical leaders should emphasise on the reinforcement of core values, prevent behaviors that may lead to misconduct, promote trust among the employees as well as reduce risks associated with conflicting interest and legal liabilities. Moreover, ethical leaders promote effective resources management. Taking social responsibility in the use of resources and being cost effective in management is critical for the success of the organisation. In other words, ethical leaders ensure that only generally accepted accounting procedures are applied in the financial management (Chandler, 2009).
Ethical leader should provide training to the subordinate staff. In addition, ethical leaders utilise these training sessions to emphasise on the required ethical standards, clarify on the practices that are permissible as well as address any probable ethical dilemmas. In addition, ethical leaders should help in the institutionalising the ethical culture through measuring the employees performances against that of the organisation taking ethical codes as the standard gauge (Chandler, 2009). Besides, ethical leader should provide formal mechanism through which employees can discuss their experiences on ethical dilemmas and make reports on unprincipled actions devoid of apprehension or reproof.
In the institutions such as police force, being ethical and unethical leaders is determined by the individual attitudes and practices. Leaders find themselves in unethical situation more often due to their job definition and the pressures from the society. Moreover, the force can easily be described as being unethical while they have actually carried out their duties. In other words, there is no clear distinction between being moral or immoral during the course of action. However, the police force should always tend to be moral and avoid actions that may cause conflict of interest.
Conclusion
Being ethical is one of the critical characteristics of leadership. The reason is that ethical leaders normally remain visible role models and provide appropriate cues that influence the conduct of the subordinate staff. In addition, maintaining ethical standards is important in the creation of good relations with the communities as well as the stakeholders of the organisation. Moreover, maintaining ethical standards within the organisation increases the stakeholders as well as the communities’ confidence on the organisation. Essentially, being ethical and socially responsible will always increase competitive advantage to the organisation.
Double weighted
Introduction
Leadership plays an ultimate role in making employees in an organisation realise their potentials in achieving their objectives. The driving force behind any employee’s performance is enthusiasm. However, others should also lead leaders. In other words, a leader should incorporate the views of the junior employees. Generally, at this point a leader should one who listens ready to be led by junior staff. In this blog, the best leadership ability and characteristics are provided.
Leadership vision, inspiration, feedback and skills
The characteristics of leadership style visualized are found in transformational leadership. Essentially, transformational leadership is the type of leadership that should be practices within the organization. The reason is that transformational leadership has characteristics that inspire and nature as well as creates positive changes among employees. In addition, transformational leadership takes into consideration the concerns of employees and is focused on encouraging employees to achieve the goals of the organisation. In fact, the ability to incorporate transformational leadership styles would make one focus on creating positive change among employees (Mullins, 2013).
Moreover, integrating transformational leadership attributes would enable one encourage team members to attain the desired results on the assigned tasks (Northouse, 2010). Further, the transformational leadership style imparts the vision of the group and takes into consideration the members’ contribution in the attainment of the results (Mullins, 2013). Besides, transformational leadership style would enable one have greater vision as well as inspirational characteristics, which is applied to motivate and change the expectations as well as perceptions of employees to work towards the desired goals and outcome.
One of the people that inspire the type of leadership skills is the team leader within the organization. The reason is that team leaders practice participative leadership styles that borrow hugely from transformational leadership style. In fact, participative leadership style has proved to be the best in the management of people. Typically, participative leadership enables employees builds trust on their leaders as well as get rewarded in relation to their capabilities and performances. In addition, participative leadership is capable of classifying the responsibilities of each worker based on the degree of their imagination, ingenuity and creativity (Palestini, 2009).
As a result, the workers are able to shape prospects they are required to play. In addition, through the theory, the leader is able to dedicate responsibilities to different groups of employees to enable optimal output. Consequently, when workers are conversant with their roles, they are able to execute their duties in good relations. Thus, they develop trust and interpersonal relations among themselves.
One of the areas where feedback from the subordinate staff remains critical is in the interpersonal skills. In fact, should review their relationship with junior employees in order to increase interrelations, proficiency and motivation. Problem solving area is another area that needs to be focused on and reviewed depending on the feedback from the subordinate staff. Essentially, feedback from peers on issues such as communication, creativity, personal interrelations are critical in understanding the weaknesses and building on the evaluated shortcomings.
The common perceptions that good qualities of a leader are inherent within an individual deter others from developing the required leadership to manage their teams or organizations. Becoming an effective leader is within reach to all through learning the best leadership skills. One of the leadership qualities that need to be developed is self-assessment. Self-assessment skills are critical in evaluating the weaknesses and strengths. Understanding the weaknesses and strengths increases the abilities of to share and achieve a common goal.
Another important skill is the ability to understand the perception employees have on a leader. In fact, good leaders normally have the capability of knowing how the employees under their jurisdiction perceive them. The reason is that such leaders have developed easy models of communication with their subordinates through which they become knowledgeable on how they are perceived. The other important skills that need to be developed include communication, motivating teams, team building, risk taking, vision and goal setting.
As one of the offices within the police force, communication, motivating teams, team building, risk taking, vision and goal setting skills are critical for attaining both individual and institutional goals. Besides, the skills are greatly importance in managing junior employees within large organizations such as the Abu Dhabi airport.
Conclusion
Generally, leaders need to develop good interpersonal skills in order to build better relations as well as trust between the management and the personnel. In addition, good leaders should have clear goals and vision reflecting that of the organisation. Further, the leaders should erect the virtue of self-possession and transmit such attributes to the workers. Thus, the leader should have the capability of developing trust as well as commitment among the personnel. Moreover, a great leader possesses flexibility as well as interpersonal proficiency thereby enabling acceptability and compliance with the social issues affecting employees.
References
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