Leadership Book Summary
The desire to understand organizational processes and people’s progressions in business forms the basis of managerial studies. Thus, the dynamic nature of the two fundamental aspects makes it hard for theories investigating or explaining management to remain static. Scholarly on the management philosophies is not very old, based on the available evidence.
The subject emerged in the twentieth century due to the nineteenth-century industrial revolution. Investors and business leaders interested in establishing productivity promotion systems and procedures during the twentieth century are pioneers of the management topic.
Taylor’s Management Theory
According to Worth (2021), Frederick W. Taylor is one of the first to develop concerns about business control systems. The scholar’s scientific management philosophy is further one of the original management models. The scheme views corporation establishments as settings comprising machines of different sorts, including equipment, tools, and humans. Accordingly, Taylor’s theory reveals where studies on organizational management originate.
Taylor’s philosophy hardly views humans as autonomous beings who can transform businesses, as generally perceived today. Instead, Taylor’s model treats people working in business settings as machineries whose operations can be restructured or directed using documented procedures, policies, and rules or laws). Changes in the organizational settings with time led to the development of knowledge and theories concerning management. For example, Mary Parker Folett and Hugo Munsterberg’s schemes on the subject in the 1920s introduced human psychology in the management facet (Worth, 2021). Studies on the Western Electric Company in Hawthorne proved that scrutinizing workers’ activities improved their productivity. The realization thus focused management examinations on the social and psychological direction, which inform the matter to date. That way, an individual managers’ belief concerning humanity influences how one relates with employees.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
A significant need exists for persons in management roles to seek further knowledge and understanding about leadership to become effective. Worth (2021) says that relying on personal instincts or intelligence when managing business undertakings and workforces leads to disappointing performances. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a significantly modern management philosophy designed during the twentieth century. The model helps understand human beings’ special psychological needs, which find a way to the workplace from people’s other facets in their lives. Maslow notes that people become more committed to work based on their understanding and focus on solving personal needs, regardless of the prevailing management style in the organization. Furthermore, Burns’s (1978) management notion of transformational leadership diverts the aspect from mere management into leadership realms.
Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
Equally, Douglas McGregor (1960) provides Theory X and Theory Y, which differ substantially from the rest. For instance, Theory X articulates that employees are generally lazy, impervious to transformation, and never worried about the organization’s prerequisites. On the other hand, Theory Y treats workforces as accomplished, self-motivation, and self-directed fellows who can visualize roles as essential organizational elements necessary for effective performance. Theory Y identifies workers’ desire to realize career development and become managers to take responsibility for performance and lead subordinates effectively for superior productivity.
McClelland’s Needs Theory
The Needs theory maintains that managers exhibit unique psychological features, mostly needs, that affect their relationship with subordinates. Developed by David McClelland in the 1960s, the Needs philosophy articulates that managers’ desires fall under three categories, the accomplishment desire, the need for influence or authority over others, and the attachment longing (Worth, 2021).
Other Management Theories
Other management models today include Herzberg’s Motivators and Dissatisfiers philosophy, which categorizes different organizational aspects based on whether they motivate or demotivate individuals. Lastly, contemporary investigations into the management issue led to the study of personalities and how they influence leadership traits. Myers & Briggs Personality assessment scheme provides a significantly reliable approach for determining the link between personality and administration values or practices. Consequently, exploring management models over the past period proves its dynamic nature, proving the discipline’s vibrancy as a social science.
Leadership Observation
This section investigates Chad Suvilan’s leadership aspects. Suvilan serves as the general manager, overseeing an organization’s general operations and staff. Accordingly, the fellow oversees several divisional managers, resources, and activities. Thus, he must establish strategies that promote the organization’s internal success and profitability, which require him to serve as a mentor to colleagues and a broker to the partner agencies. This observation is based on Suvilan’s team meeting endeavors, with the conferences occurring every two weeks.
The general manager chairs the meetings, during which he receives reports from every department concerning production goals’ realization, budget compliance, and issues facing each group. Suvilan is a democratic leader who uses participatory tenets to form a functional team at the organization. The manager hardly cherishes meeting departmental managers alone but wants to hear concerns from every organizational player. Moreover, he is excellent in delegating roles but requires additional skills in the servant or lateral leadership approaches to quit being the center of everything at the company.
Suvilan’s Quinn Scale Assessment
Quinn’s leadership scale teats personalities to return results describing a leader’s approach. The model aims to promote personal understanding among leaders, according to Cameron et al. (2022). Applying the scheme to Suvilan’s case reveals notable reliability and validity. The scale describes the general manager’s position as a broker or monitor. The two positions earned the highest points from the answered questions.
As noted earlier, Suvilan doubles his role as the general manager, where he must monitor the internal organization’s performance and success while securing deals for the entity among external partners. As a monitor, Suvilan identifies issues affecting his team and provides the necessary support for growth. Being keen on details is a notable strength regarding the monitor character, as per Cameron et al. (2022). However, the authors note that the broker’s inclination to success often leads persons like Suvilan to cause burnout among colleagues due to excessive pressure and inadequate motivation. Therefore, the leader can benefit by learning contemporary governance approaches to cushion self from the broker’s potential pitfalls.
Takeaway from the Interview
The interview with Suvilan informs me about the existence of special providence among all humans based on the purpose they are to serve on earth. I used to think every leader must have particular traits to become effective. However, I am now informed that diversity is necessary for people to fit into different managerial positions. Suvilan is substantially from me, yet he delivers above-average results loved by everyone in the organization. Looking at his governance traits without studying his personality would make me doubt or refute his ability, especially because he differs from what I believe to be right. However, using Quinn’s model helps me appreciate the beauty of diversity. The framework further makes me appreciate God’s special gifting to different people to meet their varied purposes on earth.
References
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Cameron, K. S., Quinn, R. E., DeGraff, J. & Thakor, A. V. (2022). Competing values Leadership. Edward Elgar Publishing.
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Klein, S. (2020). Lateral Leadership-A Critical Literature Review of a Fundamental Leadership Approach. Journal for Advanced Research in Applied Sciences, 7(3), 1-12. Web.
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Worth, M. J. (2021). Nonprofit management: Principles and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.