Why do organizations fail?
There are four primary reasons why organizations fail. These are grounded on the analysis of the 1,000 biggest corporations over the last 40 years. Firstly, most corporations fail because they lack vast external vicissitudes and support. These can be considered as invisible occurrences that threaten the survivability of the company. Another reason is that organizations that fail are inflexible. This implies that they become progressively rigid until they develop a fear of making any substantial modifications (Firestone & Catlett, 2009). Organizations also fail because of poor leadership and management, which remains old fashioned and cannot embrace creative thinking towards the development of an organization. Finally, organizations recklessly hold on the management fashions and apply rigid old management approaches that could have lost their efficiency. These approaches to management do not operate effectively in an active business environment characterized by the market commotion. The current global businesses are marred with significant instances of competitiveness, challenges, and risks inherent with business. Failure to embrace this might also interfere with the success of the organization.
When do organizations fail?
Majorly, organizations fail during the economic recession and unexpected occurrences such as disasters. An economic downturn can be regarded as a period when there is slow growth in business, typically because of a decline in consumer demand. When sales decrease, organizations stop growing (Philip, Kotler & Keller, 2011). Continuance in this trend causes layoffs that lead to more unemployment, and consumer demands decline even more. Eventually, this will fail organizations since they cannot make sufficient money to sustain their business operations. Disasters, either man-made or natural, could have adverse effects on the business, which could fail organizations during their occurrences. Disasters not only influence the organization operations but also affect it financially and its public relations. Accidents such as fire outbreaks could result in disruption of work, delays, destruction of equipment, losses in revenue, and unhappy customer satisfaction. When these events take place, organizations could fail (Hitt et al., 2008). Organizational operations remain controlled mainly by stringent policies that limit the company’s revenue and rate of market expansion. This is usually in favour of the local or domestic companies that seem to enjoy a less constrained business environment. These perhaps elucidate why the corporation cannot make realistic profits and perform as expected within its most global branches. When such provisions fail, it is recommendable for the organization to enhance its leadership and operational mechanisms.
Why does leadership fail?
Researches that have been conducted on the failure of leadership indicate that the main reason for the failure of leadership is lack of the essential interpersonal and management knowledge (Ellyn, 2011). Even though other factors can contribute such as organizational structural complications, contradictory objectives with the top management of the organizations, as well as poor suitability with new responsibilities, lack of interpersonal skills remains the most crucial factor. In several different organizations leaders who fail demonstrates poor decision makings, lack competence of developing a stable and efficient working team, fail to build valuable relationships, and show petite indication of learning from previous mistakes they make. In addition, these kinds of leaders fail to handle the gaps that other persons call attention to in response, do not succeed in making substantial changes, lack self-intuition, and displays faults in their ethical characters (Vacca, 2009).
Additionally, leadership also fails when leaders fail to considers many factors. For instance, team building ensures that the group operates wholesomely and effectively; hence they should be embraced. Additionally, collective objectives are timely accomplished through this consideration. As a leader, the value of practising effective leadership, such as transformational leadership skills remains critical. Team leaders are likely to be motivated to deliver and relate with one another constructively. Values and attributes usually important in group leadership must be highly regarded. These might include the encouragement of novelty, open-mindedness, and inclusiveness. Honesty and commitment to work are also vital leadership factors. As indicated by the respondent, participatory leadership encourages collective decision making. Also, it motivates individual followers and enables them to be innovative (Morrison, Haley & Sheehan, 2008). The help of the group leader must also establish sound communication systems and mechanisms for feedback. Failure in this allows failure in leadership.
When does leadership fail?
Even though leadership may fail, leaders can still be of benefit to an organization if employees opt to respond appropriately. When leadership fails, five ways of response can ensure that much is obtained. First, employees should remain patient and give their leader a break rather than gossiping about it (House, Gupta, Dorfman & Javidan, 2004). The leader should exercise diligence. This involves resisting any urge to give-up and maintains working hard (Gröschl, 2011). Organization workers should also understand the weaknesses of their leader and assist him or her to develop the necessary strengths. In a bid to build his or her competence, the leader should ensure to learn from any mistake that has happened as this will help in gaining useful skills without having to repeat a similar mistake. Also, the leader should be honest and focused on moving ahead rather than focusing on what has happened (McDaniel & Gates, 1998).
Another remedy in this context is team building initiatives. Team building initiatives have proven very useful for management, especially when leadership fails. The periodical engagement of group members in team building and bonding activities stimulate further integration and unity. Through such initiatives, followers develop their relational provisions, including interpersonal skills. Consequently, conflicts and cases of disunity are significantly minimized. Participatory and collective decision making is another critical practice that is observed by the psychologist. Through collective bargain, all team members feel valued and involved in the mainstream of group activities. Therefore, this increases and motivates their contribution and effort towards the achievement of the collective goals. Innovation novelty is also encouraged through this practice to uphold proper leadership.
Another remedy to resort to when leadership fails incorporates equal delegation of roles and resource devolution (Hitt et al., 2012). This exercise can contribute significantly to leadership success. Ideally, all group members must be given specific roles to perform. Under this approach, the respondent indicates that not any member is left idle. As a result, there is limited time for gossip and idleness within idleness within the entire group. Observably, accountability and individual responsibility are enhanced. Aims, as well as objectives, are also attained more easily (Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2010). Motivation and rewarding of best performing individuals include another technique that positively enhances performance. Through constructive motivation, team members engage in productive competition. Consequently, this leads to more integration and increased rates of objective leadership accomplishment. These will help in restoring the failing leadership.
References
Ellyn, S. (2011). What is primary target market?. Houston Chronicle. Web.
Firestone, R. & Catlett, J. (2009). The ethics of interpersonal relationships. London: Karnac.
Gröschl, S. (2011). Diversity in the Workplace: Multi-disciplinary and International Perspectives. Farnham: Gower.
Hitt, M., Ireland, R. & Hoskisson, R. (2012). Strategic Management Cases: Competitiveness and Globalization. New York, NY: South-Western Pub.
House, R., Gupta, V., Dorfman, P. & Javidan, M. (2004). Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
McDaniel, D., & Gates, H. (1998). Marketing research essentials. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Pub.
Morrison, M. A., Haley, E. & Sheehan, K. (2008). Using qualitative research in advertising: Strategies, techniques, and applications. (2 ed.). San Francisco: Sage Publications.
Philip, K., Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2011). A Framework for Marketing Management. New York: Pearson Education India.
Shelly, G., & Rosenblatt, H. (2010). Systems analysis and design. Boston, MA: Thomson Course Technology
Vacca, J. (2009). Computer and information security handbook. Amsterdam: Elsevier.