Leadership and Management Case Study

Leadership and Management Case Study

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1. Introduction

Management entails exercising control over a group or a collection of entities to achieve a goal. Leadership is a term that refers to an association's ability to influence, inspire, and allow others to contribute to the growth of an organization. Not power and influence, but persuasion and motivation define leadership from administrators. Leadership is a critical management role that assists an organization in directing its resources toward increased efficiency and goal accomplishment (Halkias and Neubert, 2020). Effective leaders establish a clear purpose, inspire and steer their organizations toward achieving their goals. Regarding this fact, this particular report has analyzed the effective skills of leaders and managers that have a deep impact on the operational process of an organization. 

Alongside, this particular report has employed the soft and hard skills that are important for management and leadership skills. In this report, the implementation of the theories of leadership for the effectiveness and decision-making process has been elaborated. Cultural resolution is also described for the appropriate leadership and management process. The report has chosen the “Russell Reynolds” company and analysis and suggests the factors of appropriate leadership and management.

2. Explanation of definition of Leaders and manager

Leader: A leader is somebody who sees how circumstances might be bettered and inspires others to help them achieve that goal. Leadership may strive toward realizing their goal while prioritizing individuals (Liu et al., 2021). A person's or a firm's capacity to inspire and control the followers of a system are referred to as management.

Characteristics

1. They have personality and place a high value on personal growth.
2. They concentrate on the development of others.

• They promote strategic thought, action, and creativity.

1. They have a strong sense of civic responsibility and ethics.
2. They know how to communicate effectively across cultures (Houghton et al., 2021).

Manager: A managers are in charge of overseeing and encouraging workers as well as guiding the group's development. A manager is someone who is in control of customer support, handles client complaints, and manages and regulates employees (Jordan and Mladenovic, 2021).

Characteristics

• Transparency in the behavioural approaches
• Good Communication level
• Good Listening Skills
• Motivated the Team
• They have a Consistency and Reliability
• Trustworthiness Personality
• A proper aim to earn the goals
• Build the proper decision
• Have Empathy and Sensitivity on the employees
• Precede the Rewarding system for the Employees
• Have a trait for Willingness to Change the operational process

3. Understanding of hard and soft skills

In the organizational process, there are some skills necessary for both leaders and managers that helped them to implement better performance in their organizational

Soft skills: Soft skills are a collection of advantageous psychological characteristics that define an individual's interactions in a social context (Musnandar, 2020). Social intelligence, communication abilities, linguistic abilities, lifestyle traits, intellectual or psychological compassion, timekeeping, collaboration, and leadership characteristics are all examples of these talents.

Instances of Soft skills in the management

Leadership, Problem Solving, Collaboration, Interpersonal Skill, Communication

Benefits of Soft skills

Soft skills are the characteristics that allow an individual to have meaningful relationships with others. Given that the majority of professions involve collaboration, it is essential to acquire soft skills to increase employment and get the ideal position (Musnandar, 2020).

Hard Skills: Hard talents are readily quantifiable talents or career paths that can be taught. Hard skills are defined as the technical talents required for the work. Generally, anybody may learn hard skills in a regular environment, via an education platform, using books and other resources, or via on-the-job training (Sugiarti et al., 2021).

Instances of Hard skills in the management

Gathering Software Requirements, Forklift Operation, Marketing Skills, Financial Modeling Shelf Stocking, IT Skills.

Benefits of Hard skills

Both workers and employers value hard talents highly. Employees may execute their jobs more successfully and efficiently by developing the necessary hard skills (Sugiarti et al., 2021). Additionally, businesses gain from greater productivity, reduced turnover rates, and greater staff satisfaction when they hire employees possessing hard skills.

Differences between the Soft and Hard skills

Hard skills are those that have been required to accomplish a certain profession. On the other hand, soft skills are often identified and self-developed. Unlike hard talents, they are neither industry nor job-specific.

4. Evaluation of various leadership theories and their influence upon effectiveness and decision-making

Leaders are the builder of the successful castle of any organization. Their strategic decision, directions help an organisation to effectively use its resources and achieve efficiency in the process of achieving organizational goals (Seaton, 2018). There are various leadership theories, which help organizational leaders to enhance their leadership abilities and improve organizational efficiency. There are several leadership theories, such include,

• Great Man theory: The main concept of the Great Man theory is that leadership qualities are inherent and leaders are born with leadership qualities and traits (Rüzgar, 2019). The theory supports the fact that leaders are born with leadership capabilities, such include, communication, social skill, confidence and intellect. Hence, according to this theory leaders are born not made. This theoretical term “Great Man” was implemented in military leadership particularly for males. The effectiveness of a leadership theory is determined by the accomplishment of vital tasks and achievement of the goals and objectives. The great man theory is a very crucial theory as it enables organist ions to fix leadership traits and ordinary dichotomies. This leadership, theory focus upon leadership elements, which help an organisation to efficiently operate and help in organizational development.
• Trait Theory: The Trait theory is very much similar to the Great Man theory. It relates that characteristics determine the types of leaders both in terms of success and unsuccessful. The theory focuses on identifying the particular aspects common in leaders, which make them successful (Uslu, 2019). These leadership characteristics include core values and behaviours, which can easily be translated into action. This theory also tries to focus on the physiological attributes, like, height, weight, demographic, age, education and family background, intelligence etc. which covers knowledge, judgement and decisiveness etc. As leadership theory is centrally focused on effective leadership attributes, it enables an organisation to increase its effectiveness and improve the decision-making process as it is totally associated with the key characteristics of leadership.
• Contingency theory: Like other leadership theory, the approach of this theory is quite different as the theory basically focus on the causes. As per the statement of this theory of leadership, various environmental variables are the determinants of multiple leadership styles. The contingency theory supports that different leadership styles are best for different situations (Vivar et al., 2017). As per the statement of White and Hodgson, the effectiveness of leadership does not only depend on the qualities rather, the right balance between context, needs and behaviour are required to be a great leader. According to the viewpoint of this theory, the most effective leaders are the person who can adapt to the various situation and act accordingly. This kind of approach is very crucial as in this uncertain and continuously changing world, leaders need to be adaptive unprecedentedly and this theory support that fact which proves the increase of effectiveness with the right decision from leaders in terms.
• Situational Theory: This Situational theory of leadership supports that there is not only one leadership style, which can be considered best rather, but it is also dependent upon the type of leadership and strategical decision well suited for an activity. This approach offers the participants the opportunity to participate in offering ideas and making a decision and also the leaders provide direction to the employees in this regard which enable the decision-making process to be more efficient (Ghazzawi, Shoughari and Osta, 2017).

5. A comparison be­­­tween various leadership and management activities in multiple organizations

In the world of business, leadership and management are the most used words. A manager is a person who is responsible for accomplishing four fundamental activities, such as, planning, leading, organizing and controlling. Often managers are seen to lead the employees to carry out managerial responsibilities that contain effective communication, encouraging employees, guiding employees, offering inspiration etc. Managerial responsibilities are usually the formal parts of a job description. A manager chiefly focuses upon the accomplishment of duties and roles in order to meet organizational goals and vision. They have the authority to onboard an employee, fire an employee depending on their performance and behaviour.

The basic difference between a manager and a leader is that leadership include a group of people where managers are concerned with responsibilities relating to managing money, equipment, money etc. (Aarøen, 2018). Undoubtedly, various management roles include people management responsibilities but this responsibility does not always include where leaders have the responsibilities for people. Leadership is not necessarily only about understanding people; rather it is about making employees believe in the vision in multiple ways.

Difference between the activities of Managers and Leaders

Manager’s Role	Leader’s Role
In Tesco, managers are responsible for planning various processes inside the organisation.	Where leaders are responsible for managing the behaviour of employees. For example, In Sainsbury leaders manage people's behaviour towards the employees.
All types of financial activities; including budgeting and managing the finances are the responsibility of the manager.	Whereas, the leaders are focused on understanding the issues and focus on solving these issues (Snape, 2020). For example, in Microsoft, leaders are more focused on solving issues and making something innovative.
Managers carry an impersonal attitude inside the workplace.	Russell Reynolds Leaders focus on their responsibilities and lay their responsibilities effectively.
In the workplace, managers are responsible for various activities but they display low emotion towards their employees. They are more focused on getting the work done.	The leaders encourage the workforce in a way that the employees make the organizational vision their vision and work towards them diligently.
Managers are focused on controlling and overpowering the activities and processes. Hence, they want to achieve their ultimate goal, in this order, they intend on controlling the roles and activities.	Creating the organizational vision and mission are more important for the leaders and that is why Russell Reynolds leaders want to drive the employees from within through the organizational goals and vision (Sainger, 2018).
They arrange all the business processes and make this works done by the employees (Utomo, Machmuddah and Hapsari, 2021).	The leaders are focused on making effective communication with the employees to understand various issues and to make good relations with others, which as a result help to get a better understanding of people and inspire others to follow the principles.
Managing and providing resources to the employees and all other resource-related activities in need are carried out by the managers.	The managing team inside a company is a leaders role.
In Samsung Electronics, managers create rules and regulations to systematically and ethically carry out the duties where,	Leaders inspire the employees to perform their roles. For example, Apple leaders drive the employees with inspiration.

6. Significance of role and culture of leaders and managers

Leadership and managers are the two great fundamentals, who help an organisation to build. Organizational culture is a significant aspect of any organisation as it is interrelated with the workplace environment. A good work environment helps employees to become more engaged and increase productivity (Dineva, 2019). Positive workplace culture is related to appreciation, leadership, good connection and meaningful work inside an organisation. Both leaders and managers play a crucial role in developing the right culture inside an organisation and again the role of leaders and managers are also crucial in terms of increasing organizational efficiency and productivity.

There are many factors that determine an organizational culture and leadership is the most crucial. From the top-down, values, goals and vision come from consecutively. Manger's actions can enhance a positive culture that can keep the employees satisfied and happy. As a consequence, more talents will be attracted to work inside a sound and quality job environment (Rodriguez and Boyer, 2018). Managers are the direct influencer of corporate culture through their communication, delegation and management style. Their actions, values and words help to strengthen the business culture aligned with the organizational values. Clear transparent communication, frequent feedback, and good collaboration with the employees promote a good culture.

Like managerial culture, leadership culture is also crucial to building an organizational culture. Leadership culture is related to the process of interaction with each other and the team members. The leadership culture includes the way to operate, communicate and make a decision. The leaders are responsible to reinforce a culture through their beliefs and behaviours and drives the organizational culture. An effective culture helps an organisation to provide motivation, guidance and purpose to their employees in order to understand their mission.

7. Critical Reflection of the effect of management and leadership

In every company, effective leadership approaches have enhanced the performance of the employees. In that case, the effective leadership and management approaches have enabled the "Russell Reynolds” Company in the United Kingdom to generated absolute solutions to the other companies about the best approaches of the management ways and provide the best solution through their consultancy by providing the leaders.

In the company, the perfection of the leadership and management has enhanced the performance of the company inappropriate manner (Fikri et al., 2021). The leaders in the company are generated the ultimate proposals about the new ideas and thoughts that are accelerated and implied through the managers. The company itself is an advisory company about the appropriate process of leadership and management policies. In that case, the management of this company has also said that a proper way of leadership can invent some innovative ideas that are effective and cater for the uniqueness among the clients of the business.

In that case, to implement the process among the national and international places the managers are given responsibilities on the employees to fulfil the process. The leaders are works as creation and managers are implementers of the process (Fikri et al., 2021). The style of leadership chosen by a manager has a direct impact on the owner’s Russell Reynolds performance. The research found, among other factors, that participative leadership and allocation of duties improve employee accomplishment of company objectives. On the other hand, In terms of the effect on organizational performance, the manager's argument is the most critical. They are accountable for matching their dept's and staff's performance with the organization's overall objectives. They are critical in defining corporate culture.

8. Conclusion

The entire report has discussed various related aspects of leadership and management. The first part of the report has discussed the definition of leaders and managers and has highlighted the hard and soft skills of the leaders. In the following section, the writing has discussed and evaluated the various type of leadership theories and their impact upon decision-making and effectiveness. In the following section, the writing has drawn out a comparison between management activities and leadership activities in multiple organizations. The next section has described the significance of the managerial role and culture inside the organisation. In the concluding section, the report has critically reflected the impact of management and leadership in terms of organizational performance.

References

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