Week 5 - Leadership

A leader is someone who guides a group of people or a team towards a goal, and encourages each individual to pursue their task. A manager usually has a higher job title, and it is their job to complete a set task. Both a leader and a manager are in charge of the team, however a manager controls the team as part of their job, a leader naturally controls the group because of their own decision and a decision made by the team that they will be a good leader to get the task done.

There are different types of leaders, some people believe that people have certain traits which make them ‘born leaders’, however others believe it  is something that you have to learn. There are also democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire leadership styles, which usually depend on the type of organisation. My leadership example is from when I worked at Waitrose.

In Waitrose there are a number of different leaders; one for each section, who controls their group of employees. On the main shop floor of Waitrose the leaders show a democratic leadership style. Employees are encouraged to make decisions themselves, but have support of their leader if necessary. This gives employees empowerment to make their own decisions, which means less decision making needed from the leaders and a better working team. However, in the head office the leadership style is more autocratic, and all decisions are made by only the very top leaders. In one branch of Waitrose, primary research has shown that the leaders follow the ‘Trait theory’. This suggests that leaders are born with certain traits, such as: intelligence, responsibility and enthusiasm; all of which are needed to be a successful leader. Primary research at Waitrose shows that most of the leaders already have all the traits needed to be a good leader, suggesting that they were born with these traits, and therefore are already a respectable leader. One of my colleagues had no higher job role than me, however was seen as a leader of the team as they were very enthusiastic and showed a lot of initiative. This suggests that they were more of a ‘born leader’ than some of the other employees.

John Adairs’ contingency theory suggests that good leaders should have full command of the three main areas of the Action Centered Leadership model, and should be able to use each of the elements according to the situation (John Adair, 1992). The three areas are; achieving the task, managing the team, and managing individuals. Adair suggests that we are not born leaders, but with the potential to become leaders. Waitrose shows a link to this theory in their leadership styles; they are set a reasonable task and it is up to the leader to make sure the team as a whole and each individual knows what they can do to help achieve the task. Each individual can help towards their end goal by making the right decisions and in the end will feel empowered that they have been part of the team. This also relates to my colleague, who was always the person to encourage us to pursue the task, therefor a good leader.

Goleman has suggested that there are six different leadership styles: visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pace-setter, and commanding. Research has shown that most leaders in Waitrose are pace-setters, although it depends which section they are leading. Pace-setters push to accomplish tasks, making sure every member of their team knows the set goals. This is a good leadership style to have as Waitrose is very large and has a lot of employees, so the leaders need to make sure every employee is pushing themselves to reach the goals.

References:

 Addair, J. (1992) [online] Available from: http://www.callofthewild.co.uk/library/theory/john-adairs-action-centred-leadership/ [Accessed on: 22.01.12.]

Schein, E. H. (2010) Organisational Culture and Leadership. 4th Ed. USA: P.B. Printing.

Week 4 - Organisation Culture

Organisational Culture

Organisational culture describes the attitudes, values, and assumptions of how the organisation conducts itself. A culture is created when a group of employees interact and become one in terms of their beliefs and attitudes in the workplace.

The visible aspects of a culture are ones you can see straight away, for example: office layout, uniforms, status symbols, rites & rituals, stories, and taboos. My example of visible culture is in Waitrose; employees working on the shop floor all wear the same uniform showing equality in their culture, and the managers wear suits showing their status symbol.

Handy (1993) suggests that we can put organisations into four different groups. The forming of a culture in a work environment will depend on structure, technology, employees, etc. The four different culture groups are: power, role, task, and people.

The power culture:

Handy describes the power culture as a web; this reflects the power of a family owned business. Power is concentrated in the middle of the wheel and is then passed down through important members of the family to other members of the work team. One disadvantage of this type of culture is that family members are often prioritised and non-family members may feel undervalued and may not have very much influence towards the business. An example of a family owned business from my personal experience is my dad’s business; Handy’s model relates to this business because I, as a family member, was able to work when I wanted to (for example: in the summer holidays).

The role culture:

Handy refers this culture as a Greek temple; he suggests that the strength of this culture lies in the specialisation of the employees in the ‘pillars’, but the roof of the temple is where all the decision-making takes place. The authority is dependent on job title and how high up in the business an employee is. This culture is seen in a lot of public sector businesses and most often in businesses which go through little change.

The task culture:

In this culture all departments are closely linked, and decision making is done by individuals who have the knowledge, not just the ones with the highest job title. This is quite the opposite of the role culture, and is seen mostly in organisations which go through constant change and are involved in research and development.

The person culture:

This culture rejects the need for hierarchy and structure, and instead all decision-making is done by the individuals who work for the company. The culture focuses on the needs of the employees and less on the task which needs to be done. A disadvantage of this is that progress could be very slow. Therefore, this culture seems less appropriate for a business organisation.

In conclusion, Handy’s four different types are a good representation of organisational culture; however it can be hard to classify culture into just four types. Every organisation will have a different culture depending on what they do and who their employees are.

References:

Lewis, D. 2003. Practice, power and meaning: frameworks for studying organizational culture in multi-agency rural development projects. London: Open University.

Open University. [online] Available from: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/ view.php?id=403948&section=3.5.2 [Accessed on: 23.02.12]

Sherwn, L. [online] Available from: http://www.lindsay-sherwin.co.uk/guide_managing_ change/html_overview/05_culture_handy.htm  [Accessed on: 23.02.12].