Leadership Chapter s1-5
Leadership Chapter s1-5
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Management
Management is the process of planning organizing coordinating, and controlling the activities
of others.
Management is a wider concept; including leadership. i.e. every manager is also a leader.
Management is about path following.
Management is about doing things right
Management is about planning and budgeting
Management is about controlling and problem solving
Leadership
Leadership is the process of influencing for the purpose of achieving shared goals.
Leadership is a narrower concept as every leader may or may not be a manager.
Leadership is path finding.
Leadership is about doing the right things.
Leadership is about establishing direction.
leadership is about motivating and inspiring
Basically a leader has followers while a manager has subordinates. It will be interesting and illuminating to
differentiate leader from manager.
Manager is applicable to only formal groups i.e. there are no managers in informal groups or
unorganized groups. But leadership is found in both formal and informal groups.
Manager is more significant and rather imperative in the context of business enterprises and other
organized endeavors. Leadership is required in political organizations, military and government
administration.
A manager is more concerned with the shaping or mounding behavior of subordinates towards
attainment of common objectives. A leader is concerned with inspiring followers through zeal and
enthusiasm in them towards the attainment of common objectives.
In addition to the above difference, the following table illustrates more differences among manager and
leader.
Manager Leader
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Say “Go and Do it” Say “Let’s Do it”
Make sure things happen through other people Provide vision and motivate people
Task /work- oriented People/ Goal- oriented
Is boos and pusher of his subordinates Is friend and pulls his followers
Plan, budget, organize staff, control, and problem Communicate vision and strategies
solving. Deal with mostly with change
Deal with mostly status – quo Deal with Top line: What are the things I
Deal with Bottom line focus: How can I best want to accomplish?
accomplish certain things? Change is “Led” through the heart and
Change is “Managed” through methods and tools mind
Selected change managers are most qualified to A team of change leader is required to lead
handle change change.
Issues and problems can be cleaned –up “after the Issues and problems can be mitigated
fact” /Reactive Proactively
Focusing of managing work Focusing of leading people
Relies on control Inspire trust
Accept reality Investigated it
Has a short range view Has a long – range perspectives
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Chapter Two
Leadership styles
Different leaders approach the problem of altering the behavior of followers in different ways. The pattern of
behavior displayed by a leader in influencing the behavior of his followers is called the style of leadership.
It can be defined as the various patterns of behavior favored by leaders during the process of directing and
influencing followers, which is determined by leader’s personality, experience and value system, nature of
followers and environment. When leaders interact with followers they employ combination of traits, skills
and behaviors that is called leadership style. The style which leader adopt commonly based on combination
of their beliefs, ideas, norms and values.
Different styles were needed for different situations and each leader needed to know when to exhibit a
particular approach. There are many leadership styles from which to choose.
“Not everything old was bad and not everything new was good”
These leaders keep the decision-making authority and control in their hands and take full responsibility for
all actions. They structure the situations in their own way and expect the workers to follow their orders.
They will not allow any deviation from their orders. The subordinates are instructed to carry out their orders
without any question. Also the subordinates entirely depend on their leader and normally they suffer in the
absence of their leaders. Some autocratic leaders are tough and highly dictatorial and are a source of fear or
intimidation. Some leaders are paternalistic depending on the approach of the leader.
The motivational approach of the leader can be threat and punishment or appreciation and rewards. When
highly dictatorial, the subordinates develop a kind of fear, sense of insecurity, frustration, low morale, and
will avoid responsibility. The drive and initiative in them is killed and they do not display their innovative
behavior. The autocratic leader believes that his leadership is unquestionable as it is conferred upon him
because of the position he enjoys. He also believes that his knowledge is superior, power to punish or
reward is his privilege. They even impose penalty on subordinates or use abusive language in front of others
and criticize. Rely on threats and punishment to influence staff. Autocratic leaders neither trust staff nor
allow for employees input.
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This style permits quick decisions, as there is only a single person to take decisions. There are also many
members who prefer working under strict discipline and under central authority. However a majority of
members do not like strictness and discipline especially because motivation is negative.
Advantage
Autocratic Leadership most effective when:
New, untrained staff do not know which tasks to perform or which procedures to follow
Effective supervision provided only through detailed orders and instructions
Staff do not respond to any other leadership style
Limited time in which to make a decision
Work needs to be coordinated with another department or organization
Disadvantage
Autocratic leadership should not be used or ineffective when:
Staff become tense, fearful, or resentful
Staff depend on their leader to make all their decisions
Low staff morale, high turnover and absenteeism and work stoppage
2. Democratic or Participative Leadership
In this type of leadership style, subordinates are consulted and their feedback is taken into decision-making
process. Also known as participative style and this style encourage staff to be a part of the decision making.
The leader Keeps staff informed about everything that affects their work and shares decision making and
problem solving responsibilities. The leader makes the final decision, he acts more as a moderator and of
course he takes responsibility for the results. The management in this type recognizes the fact that there are
employees who are capable to give innovative ideas, intelligent, skillful, competent, suggestive etc.
obviously the group members get an opportunity to display their talents and are encouraged to demonstrate
initiative and creativity. The members thus get a chance to participate in decision-making. This incidentally
leads to a good management-labor understanding or relations, higher morale and greater job satisfaction.
This style is very useful when you have educated labor, experienced, dedicated and ready to work
independently with nil or least directives. By this you are developing a set-up conducive to growth and
development. Good climate is generated for growth and individual personality development too.
Advantages
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Most effective When:
Wants to keep staff informed about matters that affect them.
Wants staff to share in decision-making and problem-solving duties.
Wants to provide opportunities for staff to develop a high sense of personal growth and job
satisfaction.
A large or complex problem that requires lots of input to solve
Changes must be made or problems solved that affect staff
Want to encourage team building and participation
Disadvantages
Not enough time to get everyone’s input
Manager feels threatened by this type of leadership
Staff safety is a critical concern
3. Laissez-Faire or Free Rein Leadership Style
This style also known as the “hands-off¨ style. In this style, a leader provides little or no direction and gives
staff as much freedom as possible. All authority or power given to the staff and they determine goals, make
decisions, and resolve problems on their own.
Here the group members perform everything and the manager keeps liaison with outside only to get
materials for the group to perform. This style leaves everything to subordinates, who make their own
decisions and it helps subordinates to develop independent personality.
The leader consciously makes a decision to pass the focus of power to members, to allow them freedom of
action ‘to do as they think best’, and not to interfere; but is readily available if help is needed. Laissez faire
leader does not exercise the formal authority of a leader
Advantages
An effective style to use when:
Staff highly skilled, experienced, and educated
Staff have pride in their work and the drive to do it successfully on their own
Outside experts, such as staff specialists or consultants used
Staff trustworthy and experienced
Disadvantage
Staff feel insecure at the unavailability of a leader
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The leader cannot provide regular feedback to staff on how well they are doing
leader unable to thank staff for their good work
The leader doesn’t understand his or her responsibilities
4. Bureaucratic Leadership Style
Bureaucratic leadership is where the manager manages "by the book” everything must be done according to
procedure or policy. If it isn't covered by the book, the manager refers to the next level above him or her.
This manager is really more of a police officer than a leader. He or she enforces the rules.
Advantage
Employees are performing routine tasks over and over.
Employees need to understand certain standards or procedures.
Employees are working with dangerous or delicate equipment that requires a definite set of
procedures to operate.
Safety or security training is being conducted.
Employees are performing tasks that require handling cash.
Disadvantages
Work habits form that are hard to break, especially if they are no longer useful.
Employees lose their interest in their jobs and in their fellow workers.
Employees do only what is expected of them and no more
5. The Charismatic Leader
People tend to think of leaders as people who influence others to follow by the power of their charismatic
personality. The “charismatic” leader is able to articulate a compelling vision that responds to the needs and
aspirations of the followers. Charisma is a form of interpersonal attraction that inspires support and
acceptance. Charismatic leadership is accordingly a type of influence based on the leader’s personal
charisma.
Charismatic leader are likely to have a lot of self-confidence, firm confidence in their beliefs and ideas, and
a strong need to influence people. Charisma can be based on anything from physical appearance to past
actions and successes. Charismatic leaders are generally very skilled communicators. They tend to be
individuals who are both verbally eloquent, but also able to communicate to followers on a deep, emotional
level. These charismatic leaders use effective communication with their followers to gain their trust, and
then influence and persuade them to follow. Charismatic leaders also pay a great deal of attention to
scanning and reading their environment, and are good at picking up the moods and concerns of both
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individuals and larger audiences. Charismatic Leaders are often better at creating and stimulating necessary
and sometimes swift change.
6. Transactional Leadership
Another leadership style, transactional leadership, assumes that people are motivated primarily by reward
and punishment. It is based on a relationship of mutual dependence and an exchange process of: ‘I will give
you this, if you do that’.
The transactional leader is more a manager than a leader, and is highly focused on getting tasks
accomplished, providing very clear direction, and overseeing productivity in detail. He or she tends to think
inside the box when solving organizational problems. The concern is with the work process, rather than with
forward-thinking ideas. Rules, procedures, and standards are essential to the transactional leader. When a
subordinate fails to meet expectations, the next step is often a penalty or punishment.
7. Transformational leadership
The transformational leadership style is one of the most implemented styles. It has integrity, defines clear
goals, encourages clear steps to communication and expressive. This style of leadership encourages,
motivates and supports employers, often involves recognizing and rewarding people for their good work.
This type of leader inspires their team to work together towards a common target. Transformational leaders
combine the best practices and are leaders who are trusted and can motivate others.
The transformational style requires a number of different skills. And its primary focus is to make change
happen in our self, others, groups, and organizations. The transformational leadership style depends on high
levels of communication from management to meet goals. Leaders motivate employees and enhance
productivity and efficiency through communication and high visibility. This style of leadership requires the
involvement of management to meet goals. Leaders focus on the big picture within an organization and
delegate smaller tasks to the team to accomplish goals.
Transformational leadership occurs when leaders use ‘the four I s’:
Intellectual stimulation: encourage others to see what they are doing from new
perspectives;
Idealised influence: articulate the mission or vision of the organisation
Individualised consideration: develop others to higher levels of ability
Inspirational motivation: motivate others to put organisational interests before self-interest
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Leading and developing others inspiring others
showing genuine concern resolving complex problems
enabling Leading the organisation
being accessible networking and achieving
encouraging change focusing effort
Personal qualities building shared vision
being honest and consistent supporting a developmental culture
acting with integrity facilitating change sensitively
being decisive
8. Servant leader
Servant leadership emphasizes the leader’s duty to serve his/her follower. Leadership arises out of a desired
to serve rather than a desire to lead. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve firs. The
Servant leader emphasis on developing their followers’ personal potential development and facilitating their
personal growth. The highest priority of this leader is to encourage, support and enable people to fulfill their
full potential and abilities. Servant leader works for the people. Being a leader isn’t what to do and
expecting them to do it. Need to be servant firs.
Communicator Self-directed
Open minded Exhibits humility
Critical thinker
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Leadership Theories
The leadership literature is voluminous, and much of it is confusing and contradictory. In order to make our
way through this forest, we consider three approaches to explaining what makes an effective leader. The first
sought to find universal personality traits that leaders had to some greater degree than non-leaders. The'
second tried to explain leadership in terms of the behavior a person engaged in. The third used contingency
models to explain the inadequacies of previous leadership theories in reconciling and bringing together the
diversity of research findings.
The Great Man theory has been introduced as the earliest theory of leadership. This theory implicit that
great leaders are innate and not made and the theory was standard in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
According to this theory exposed that great leaders as heroic, mythic and intended to increase to leadership
when is essential. Great Man Theory of leadership tried to clarify leadership in the view of inheritance. The
theory essential concept is that the leader is genetically able with higher qualities that distinguish him from
his followers.
Great Man theories accept that the ability for leadership is inherent – that means great leaders are born not
made. “Great Man” was used for the reason that, leadership was accepted of mostly as a male quality,
especially in terms of military leadership.
The Great Man Theory of leadership is similar to the notion of divine right of kings to reign and rule over
their subjects on a perpetual hereditary basis. Kings were supposed to acquire their legitimacy from God
Himself. Similarly, some individuals were destined to become great leaders on their own because God gave
them certain inimitable abilities of a divine nature. At that time, around the late 1940s, studies on
actions.
(iii) The inborn leadership qualities alone are necessary and sufficient for a leader to
In the 1920's and 1930's, leadership research focused on trying to identify the traits that differentiated leaders
from non-leaders. These early leadership theories were content theories, focusing on "what" an effective
leader is, not on 'how' to effectively lead. The trait approach to understanding leadership assumes that
certain physical, social, and personal characteristics are inherent in leaders. Sets of traits and characteristics
were identified to assist in selecting the right people to become leaders. Physical traits include being young
to middle-aged, energetic, tall, and handsome. Social background traits include being educated at the "right"
schools and being socially prominent or upwardly mobile. Social characteristics include being charismatic,
charming, tactful, popular, cooperative, and diplomatic. Personality traits include being self-confident,
adaptable, assertive, and emotionally stable. Task-related characteristics include being driven to excel,
accepting of responsibility, having initiative, and being results-oriented.
Trait theories intended to identify traits to assist in selecting leaders since traits are related to leadership
effectiveness in many situations. The trait approach to understanding leadership supports the use of tests and
interviews in the selection of managers. The interviewer is typically attempting to match the traits and
characteristics of the applicant to the position. For example, most interviewers attempt to evaluate how well
the applicant can work with people.
Trait theory hypothesizes key traits for successful leadership (drive, desire to lead, integrity, self-
confidence, intelligence, and job-relevant knowledge). No two leaders are alike. Leadership is basically
inborn according to these theories.
For instance, what traits characterize leaders like Nelson Mandela? Research studies indicate six traits are
consistently associated with leadership: ambition and energy, the desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self-
confidence, intelligence, and job-relevant knowledge. Possessing these traits helped Mandela succeed in
achieving his vision of ending apartheid in South Africa.
3. Behavioral Theories
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The behavioral theorists identified determinants of leadership so that people could be trained to be leaders.
They developed training programs to change managers' leadership behaviors and assumed that the best styles
of leadership could be learned.
3.1. The Ohio State Studies
These studies, started in the late 1940s, attempted to find what behaviors substantially accounted for most of
the leadership behavior described by employees. The study narrowed the leadership behaviors into two
categories, initiating structure and consideration, under which the various leadership behaviors were
clubbed
Initiating Structure. This dimension refers to the extent to which a leader is likely to define and
structure his or her role and those of employees in the search for goal attainment. It includes behavior
that attempts to organize work, work relationships, and goals.
Consideration. This dimension is the extent to which a person is likely to have job relationships that are
characterized by mutual trust, respect for employees’ ideas, and regard for their feelings. People who are
high in consideration show concern for followers’ comfort, well-being, status, and satisfaction.
Both factors were found to be associated with effective leadership. Followers of leaders who are high in
consideration were more satisfied with their jobs; more motivated, and had more respect for their leader.
Leaders who were high in initiating structure typically had higher levels of group and organization
productivity along with more positive performance evaluations.
3.2. University of Michigan Studies
Similar to the Ohio State University studies, research on leadership studies was also carried out by the
University of Michigan’s Research centers, in 1946 by Rensis Likert and his associates. The study made an
analysis of the relationship between leadership behaviors and organizational performances. Michigan Studies
also identified a two factor component, “employee-oriented leader‟ and “production-oriented leader‟.
Employee-Oriented Leader: The concern of the employee-oriented leaders were more on the
interpersonal relations with the employees and such leaders paid more attention on the needs of the
employees and accepted the individual differences among members.
Production-Oriented Leader: The production oriented-leaders paid attention to the technical aspects
of the job or the tasks assigned to the employees, rather than on employees. Such leaders gave least
importance to the group members, and regarded the employees as only a means to achieve the ends,
that is, the goals of an organization.
It can be found that the two-factor conceptualization of the Ohio study is similar to the two way dimension of
the Michigan studies. While the employee-oriented leadership can be compared with the “consideration‟
component of Ohio studies, production-oriented leadership can be compared with “initiating structure‟.
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While the Ohio studies considered both its components to be important for effective leadership, the Michigan
studies gave supremacy to the component of “employee-orientation‟ over “production-orientation‟.
3.3. The Managerial/Leadership Grid
Like the Ohio State studies and Michigan studies, the Managerial Grid theory of leadership was also based
on the styles of “concern for people‟ and “concern for production‟. The Managerial Grid theory of
leadership was proposed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in 1964.
When the model refers to concern for production, it means the attitude of superiors towards a
variety of things like quality of policy decision, procedures, work efficiency, volume of output,
creativeness of research, processes etc. Concern for people refers to the degree of personal
commitment towards goal achievement, maintaining the self-esteem of workers, responsibility based
on trust, satisfying interpersonal relations.
Thus the managerial grid identifies five different styles of leadership as shown in the figure below.
9 1,9 9,9
High
8
Concern 7
for 6
People 5 5,5
2 Figure 3.1
1 1,1 9,1 The
low 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 High
Concern for tasks
Managerial grid
Through the Managerial Grid, 5 kinds of Leadership Style were identified, which include the
following:
i. Impoverished (1, 1): in which there is low concern for people and production. The primary objective
of the impoverished style is for managers to stay out of trouble. This is the least effective approach to
leadership.
ii. Country Club (1, 9): wherein the concern for production is low, but for people is high. The primary
objective of the country club style is to create a secure and comfortable atmosphere and trust that
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subordinates will respond positively. This style is often not good for creating or producing results.
People feel good and happy, but what they are supposed to do lacks priority. Ironically, the group
suffers ultimately because they fail to achieve. The style is common among leaders who are afraid of
upsetting people, and/or who fear rejection and being disliked
iii. Task/Perish (9, 1): in which there is high concern for production and low concern for people. The
primary objective of the produce or perish style is to achieve the organization's goals. This style is
often referred to as autocratic. Leaders using this style seek to control and dominate others. A leader
like this will commonly take the view that staff should be grateful to be employed and paid a salary.
Motivation is often attempted through a threat of punishment, such as being fired, which makes this a
dictatorial style. Certainly, it can be effective in the short term.
iv. Middle of the Road (5, 5): where there is moderate concern for both the production and the people.
A balance between workers' needs and the organization's productivity goals characterize it. The
primary objective of this style is to maintain employee morale at a level sufficient to get the
organization's work done.
v. Team (9, 9): wherein there is high concern for both the people and production. The primary objective
of the team style is to establish cohesion and foster a feeling of commitment among workers. Leaders
who behave like this manages to blend concern for both people and organizational aims by using a
collaborative teamwork approach. This involves considerable dialogue that enables the development
of a shared (not imposed) motivation to achieving the organization's goals. This style normally
requires that followers/the group are suitably mature and skilled for a high level of involvement.
3.4. Theory X and Theory Y
Douglas McGregor described Theory X and Theory Y in his book, The Human Side of Enterprise. Theory X
and Theory Y each represent different ways in which leaders view employees. Theory X managers believe
that employees are motivated mainly by money, are lazy, uncooperative, and have poor work habits. Theory
Y managers believe that subordinates work hard, are cooperative, and have positive attitudes.
Theory X is the traditional view of direction and control by managers.
1. The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid if he or she can.
2. Because of this human characteristic of dislike of work, most people must be controlled, directed, and
threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of
organizational objectives.
3. The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little
ambition, wants security above all.
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Theory X leads naturally to an emphasis on the tactics of control - to procedures and techniques for telling
people what to do, for determining whether they are doing it, and for administering rewards and punishment.
Theory X explains the consequences of a particular managerial strategy. Because its assumptions are so
unnecessarily limiting, it prevents managers from seeing the possibilities inherent in other managerial
strategies. As long as the assumptions of Theory X influence managerial strategy, organizations will fail to
discover, let alone utilize, the potentialities of the average human being.
Theory Y is the view that individual and organizational goals can be integrated.
1. The expenditures of physical and mental effort in work are as natural as play or rest.
2. External control and the threat of punishment are not the only means for bringing out effort toward organizational
objectives.
3. Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement.
4. The average human being learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but also to seek responsibility.
5. The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of
organizational problems in widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.
6. Under the condition of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only
partially utilized.
Theory Y's purpose is to encourage integration, to create a situation in which an employee can achieve his or
her own goals best by directing his or her efforts toward the objectives of the organization. It is a deliberate
attempt to link improvement in managerial competence with the satisfaction of higher-level ego and self-
actualization needs. Theory Y leads to a preoccupation with the nature of relationships, with the creation of
an environment which will encourage commitment to organizational objectives and which will provide
opportunities for the maximum exercise of initiative, ingenuity, and self-direction in achieving them.
3. Contingency/Situational Theories
Sometimes the success of a leader does not depend upon the qualities, traits and behavior of a leader alone.
The context in which a leader exhibits her/his skills, traits and behavior matters, because same style of
functioning may not be suitable for different situations. Thus the effectiveness of leadership also depends
upon situations. Several research studies, when analyzing the reason for inconsistent results in differing
conditions with the same leadership style, laid their focus on situational variables. This theory views
leadership in terms of a dynamic interaction between a number of situational variables like the leader,
the followers, the task situation, the environment, etc. Some of these studies on situational contexts that
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gained wide recognition include Fiedler’s model, Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational theory, Path-
Goal theory and Vroom-Yetton Leader-Participation model, which have been discussed over here.
The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership theory is based on the amount of direction (task behavior)
and amount of socio-emotional support (relationship behavior) a leader must provide given the situation
and the "level of maturity" of the followers. To an extent, the effectiveness of a leader depends on whether
his or her followers accept or reject him/her, as well as on the extent to which the follower have the ability
and willingness to accomplish a specific task. The key words are acceptance and readiness.
Task behavior is the extent to which the leader engages in spelling out the duties and responsibilities to an
individual or group. This behavior includes telling people what to do, how to do it, when to do it, where to do
it, and who's to do it. In task behavior the leader engages in one-way communication.
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Relationship behavior is the extent to which the leader engages in two-way or multi-way communications.
This includes listening, facilitating, and supportive behaviors. In relationship behavior the leader engages in
two-way communication by providing socio-emotional support.
Maturity is the willingness and ability of a person to take responsibility for directing his or her own
behavior. People tend to have varying degree of maturity, depending on the specific task, function, or
objective that a leader is attempting to accomplish through their efforts.
To determine the appropriate leadership style to use in a given situation, the leader must first determine the
maturity level of the followers in relation to the specific task that the leader is attempting to accomplish
through the effort of the followers. As the level of followers' maturity increases, the leader should begin to
reduce his or her task behavior and increase relationship behavior until the followers reach a moderate level
of maturity. As the followers begin to move into an above average level of maturity, the leader should
decrease not only task behavior but also relationship behavior.
Once the maturity level is identified, the appropriate leadership style can be determined. The four leadership
styles are telling, selling, participating, and delegating.
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Which includes: Listening to people, providing support and encouraging the efforts of the followers,
Facilitating their involvement through problem-solving and decision making, Passing day-to-day
decisions on tasks to the followers who are involved with them.
Delegating (S4): Low relationship/low task behavior. This style is appropriate for leaders whose
followers are ready to accomplish a particular task and are both competent and motivated to take full
responsibility. Delegating style is best matched with a high follower readiness level. The decision-
making for addressing the problem is handled by the subordinates, who “run their own show.”
3.3. House's Path-Goal Model
The path-goal theory developed by Robert House is based on the expectancy theory of motivation. The
manager's job is viewed as coaching or guiding workers to choose the best paths for reaching their goals.
"Best" is judged by the accompanying achievement of organizational goals. It is based on the precepts of
goal setting theory and argues that leaders will have to engage in different types of leadership behavior
depending on the nature and demands of the particular situation. It's the leader's job to assist followers in
attaining goals and to provide direction and support needed to ensure that their goals are compatible with
the organizations.
This theory identifies four types of leadership behavior; directive leader, supportive leader, participative
leader and achievement-oriented leader. Unlike Fiedler, who assumes the leader to follow a fixed leadership
style, the theory put forward by House, assumes the leader to be a flexible person, who can display different
kinds of behaviors based on a given situation. The four types of leadership behavior, identified by Robert
House are as follows:
(i) Directive Leader: A directive leader clarifies the followers of the role expected of them, schedules the
work to be done and gives the needed direction or guidance as to how to accomplish tasks.
(ii) Supportive Leader: A supportive leader behaves in an friendly manner with the followers, and the
main concern of the leader is placed on the needs of the followers, rather than on accomplishing the
tasks.
(iii) Participative Leader: A participative leader involves the followers in the consultation process and
also gets the suggestions or views of the followers, before making a decision.
(iv)Achievement-Oriented Leader: An achievement oriented leader set challenging goals for the followers
and expects them to perform at their highest level.
Path-Goal theory assumes that leaders are flexible and that they can change their style, as situations require.
The theory proposes two contingency variables (environment and follower characteristics) that moderate the
leader behavior-outcome relationship. Environment is outside the control of followers-task structure,
authority system, and work group. Environmental factors determine the type of leader behavior required if
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follower outcomes are to be maximized. Follower characteristics are the locus of control, experience, and
perceived ability. Personal characteristics of subordinates determine how the environment and leader are
interpreted. Effective leaders clarify the path to help their followers achieve their goals and make the journey
easier by reducing roadblocks and pitfalls.
3.4. Vroom-Yetton, Leader-Participation Model
The Leader-Participation Model was developed by Victor Vroom and Phillip Yetton in 1973 and this theory
is called by different names as, Decision-Participation Model and Normative Model. This model was called
normative, as it provided a sequential set of rules that should be followed in determining the form and
amount of participation in decision making, as determined by different types of situations. According to this
model, three set of variables affect the performance of the leader in terms of his capacity as a decision maker,
which include: (i) Quality of the decision; (ii) Degree of acceptance of the decision by subordinates; and (iii)
Time required in making the decision.
Thus, based on the variables identified, Vroom and Yetton defined 5 different kinds of decision making
procedures. That is, it represents a continuum from authoritarian approaches (AI, AII), Consultative
approaches (CI, CII) and a group based approach (G2) which is as follows:
A1: Leader takes known information and then decides alone.
A2: Leader gets information from followers, and then decides alone.
C1: Leader shares problem with followers individually, listens to ideas and then decides alone.
C2: Leader shares problems with followers as a group, listens to ideas and then decides alone.
G2: Leader shares problems with followers as a group and then seeks and accepts consensus
agreement.
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Oral Communication: Makes clear and convincing oral presentations. Listens effectively; clarifies
information as needed.
Written Communication: Writes in a clear, concise, organized, and convincing manner for the
intended audience.
Flexibility: Is open to change and new information; rapidly adapts to new information, changing
conditions, or unexpected obstacles.
Problem Solving: Identifies and analyzes problems; weighs relevance and accuracy of information;
generates and evaluates alternative solutions; makes recommendations.
2 Managing Projects
Team Building: Inspires and fosters team commitment, spirit, pride, and trust. Facilitates
cooperation and motivates team members to accomplish group goals.
Customer Service: Anticipates and meets the needs of both internal and external customers.
Delivers high-quality products and services; is committed to continuous improvement.
Technical Credibility: Understands and appropriately applies principles, procedures, requirements,
regulations, and policies related to specialized expertise.
Accountability: Holds self and others accountable for measurable high-quality, timely, and cost
effective results. Determines objectives, sets priorities, and delegates work. Accepts responsibility
for mistakes.
Decisiveness: Makes well-informed, effective, and timely decisions, even when data are limited or
solutions produce unpleasant consequences; perceives the impact and implications of decisions.
Influencing / Negotiating: Persuades others; builds consensus through give and take; gains
cooperation from others to obtain information and accomplish goals.
3 Managing People
Human Capital Management: Builds and manages workforce based on organizational goals,
budget considerations, and staffing needs. Ensures employees are appropriately recruited, selected,
appraised, and rewarded; takes action to address performance problems. Manages a multi-sector
workforce and a variety of work situations.
Leveraging Diversity: Fosters an inclusive workplace where diversity and individual differences
are valued and leveraged to achieve the vision and mission of the organization.
Conflict Management: Encourages creative tension and differences of opinions. Anticipates and
takes steps to prevent counter-productive confrontations. Manages and resolves conflicts and
disagreements in a constructive manner.
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Public Service Motivation: Shows a commitment to serve the public. Ensures that actions meet
public needs; aligns organizational objectives and practices with public interests.
Developing Others: Develops the ability of others to perform and contribute to the organization by
providing ongoing feedback and by providing opportunities to learn through formal and informal
methods
4 Managing Programs
Technology Management: Keeps up-to-date on technological developments. Makes effective use of
technology to achieve results. Ensures access to, and security of, technology systems.
Financial Management: Understands the organization’s financial processes. Prepares, justifies, and
administers the program budget. Oversees procurement and contracting to achieve desired results.
Monitors expenditures and uses cost-benefit thinking to set priorities.
Creativity / Innovation: Develops new insights into situations; questions conventional approaches;
encourages new ideas and innovations; designs and implements new or cutting edge
programs/processes..
Partnering: Develops networks and builds alliances; collaborates across boundaries to build
strategic relationships and achieve common goals.
Political Savvy: Identifies the internal and external politics that impact the work of the organization.
Perceives organizational and political reality and acts accordingly.
5 Leading Organizations
External Awareness: Understands and keeps up-to-date on local, national, and international policies
and trends that affect the organization and shape stakeholders’ views; is aware of the organization’s
impact on the external environment..
Vision: Takes a long-term view and builds a shared vision with others; acts as a catalyst for
organization change. Influences others to translate vision into action.
Strategic Thinking: Formulates objectives and priorities, and implements plans consistent with the
long-term interest of the organization in a global environment, Capitalizes on opportunities and
manages risks.
Entrepreneurship: Positions the organization for future success by identifying new opportunities;
builds the organization by developing or improving products or services. Takes calculated risks to
accomplish organizational objectives.
3.6. Traits of good leaders and bad leaders
Good leaders have traits, if you can recognize these within leader her/his self and capitalize on followers, and
then the leaders become a successful leader in the work environment.
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Traits of Good leader
Listen:-it is important to listen others and what they are saying about each other’s and the leader.
Information is important management style and what others think about it.
Enthusiasm: - a good leader is enthusiastic about their work or cause and about their role as a leader.
Leader need to be able to be source of inspiration and be a motivator toward the required actions.
Although the responsibility and roles of a leader may be different the leader needs to be part of team
working towards the goals.
Observations :-observe others and note the strengths and weakness ,observe what they like to do
what they dislike.
communication :-effective communication will boost leadership ability.be relatable ,approachable,
listening who come to you and encourage communication among all employees.
Trust:-trust others and let their voices be heard. Allow others to participate in decisions, share
leadership and distribute tasks. This will boost morale and enforce employees’ worth in organization.
Adapt:-react to shifting circumferences accepting difference as difference rather than as a problem.
Adaptability and flexibility are key when it comes to being a good leader.
Self-awareness:-somebody with good self-awareness knows their own internal states, preferences,
resources and intuitions therefore can recognize their own weakness and strengths.
Clear vision:-a leader with vision has a clear, vivid picture of where to go as well as a firm grasp on
what success looks like and how to achieve it. But it is not enough to have a vision leaders must also
share it and act up on it.
Other general traits include, but are not limited to: honesty, fair minded imaginativeness, broadminded and
competences.
Bad leaders’ traits
Lack of energy:-this lack of enthusiasm means that those in charge do not like new ideas or moving
away from the norm.
Pessimism: often bad leaders are pessimistic and set low target so they may be perceived as over
achieving. These leaders are not open to challenges.
Lack of clear vision:-poor leaders often vague in their vision for the success and are opposed to
collaborating with others.
Lack of interpersonal skill:-this comes from a refusal to listen to others and to relate to others.
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Chapter Three
Overview of Change Management
Up on completing this unit, students will be able to:
Have an understanding of the meaning and implications change Management
Identify factors of organizational change
Identify level of change
Understand the relevant process of organizational change
Explaining the reason why employees resist to change and ways of managing employee’s
resistance.
3.1. Meaning and Implication
Change means making things different. When an organization makes things in a different way, an
organizational change is occurred. Thus, Organizational change is the movement of an organization away
from its present state and toward some desired future state to increase its efficiency and effectiveness.
Change is a simple process. At least, it’s simple to describe. It occurs whenever we replace the old with the
new. Change is about travelling from the old to the new, leaving yesterday behind in exchange for the new
tomorrow. But implementing change is incredibly difficult. Most people are reluctant to leave the familiar
behind. We are all suspicious about the unfamiliar; we are naturally concerned about how we get from the
old to the new, especially if it involves learning something new and risking failure.
Change management is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip and support individuals to
successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational success and outcomes.
Change management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a
current state to a desired future state, to fulfill or implement a vision and strategy. It is an organizational
process aimed at empowering employees to accept and embrace changes in their current environment.
Organizational success depends on the organization‘s adaptations to environmental changes.
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It implies:
Efficiency and effectiveness
Successes or un successes depending up on its effect
More profit and organizational growth etc
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not happen by chance, however, and requires a strategic approach to embed change management across an
organization.
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ii) Internal Forces for organizational changes
Changes in the managerial personnel: these changes include
– The retirement of the old managers, transfer and promotion of mangers and placement of old and
static managers by more versatile (having ability to adapt things) Dynamic and young lots
(informational).
– Moreover, increasing training of the existing personnel attribute to change. So, a change in the
managerial personnel is, thus, a constant pressure for change.
Certain deficiencies in the existing system: such as;
– Unmanageable span of control
– Lack of coordination between the departments
– Obstacles in communication
– Lack of uniformity in the policies (as you know policies are guidelines for decision making);
– Contradiction of organizational procedures
– Non-cooperation between line and staff member, etc
Certain other forces: Changes in machinery, equipment, methods, and procedures, working standard
(work force), changes in authority and responsibility, and Employee attitude.
3.4. Process Of Organizational Change
To improve efficiency and effectiveness it is vital that mangers develop the skills necessary to manage
change effectively. Most people go from side to side four distinct stages in the change process.
1st Assessing the Need for Change: Change can affect organizational structure, culture, strategies,
controlling system, and way of managing. So, organizations should assess the need for change properly.
Assessing the need for change calls for two important activities:
- Recognize that there are problems that require change. The real problem/s, not the symptom.
- Identify the sources of the problem/s.
2nd Decide On the Change to Make : Decide what the organization‘s ideal future would be.
Decide where they would like their organization to be in the future: decide what kinds of goods and
services it should making, what its business-level strategy should be, how structure should be change
and develop strategy.
What can change agents change? Change agents can change the options essentially fall into four categories:
structure, technology, physical setting, and people.
- Plan how to attain organization‘s ideal future state.
- Identifying sources of resistance for change and how to overcome them
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3rd Implementing the Change: Under this stem the manager introduces and manages the change.
The manger should decide whether change will occur from the top down or from the bottom up.
Top down change: when the change is required to implement quickly top down approach is
appropriate. It is revolutionary in nature. The top manager will identify the need for change, decide
what to do, and then move quickly to implement the changes throughout the organization. Usually
mangers use this approach for restructuring and downsizing the organization.
Bottom up change: it is more gradual and evolutionary. Top managers consult with middle and first-
line managers about the need for change. Then, over time, managers at all levels work to develop a
detailed plan for change. Such approach is important to overcome resistance.
4th Evaluating the Change: Evaluate how successful the change effort has been in improving
organizational performance. Managers can evaluate change effect using measures such as
improvements in market share and profits, in the ability of managers to meet their goal. We can also
use benchmarking-the process of comparing one company‘s performance on specific dimensions with
the high performing organizations.
3.5. Resistance To Change
Resistance to change is any attitude or behavior that indicates unwillingness to make or support a desired
change. Change agents often view any such resistance as something that must be “overcome” in order for
change to be successful. This is not always the case, however. It is helpful to view resistance to change as
feedback that the change agent can use to facilitate gaining change objectives. The essence of this
constructive approach to resistance is to recognize that when people resist change, they are defending
something important and that appears threatened by the change attempt.
3.5.1. Reasons for resistance to change
Even though resistance to change can take many forms, it is difficult to identify the reasons for the
resistance. The forces against change in work organizations include disregarding the needs and expectations
of the organization members; providing insufficient information about the nature of change and not
acknowledging the need for change. Therefore, people may exhibit fear and anxiety over such matters like
job security, employment levels, loss of job satisfaction, different wage rates, loss of individual control over
work and changes to working conditions.
Some common reasons for resistance to change within organizations include interference with need
fulfillment, selective perception, habit, inconvenience or loss of freedom, economic implications, security in
the past, fear of the unknown, threats to power or influence, knowledge and skill obsolescence,
organizational structure and limited resources.
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Interference with need fulfillment: Changes preventing people from fulfillment of economic, social,
esteem and other needs may encounter with resistance. Thus, people resist changes that lower their
income, job status and social relationships.
Selective perception: People process the provided information selectively in order not to change their
point of view. Indeed, people hear what they want to hear and disregard any information threatening
their perspective. In other words, people interpret an image of the real world with their own perception
of reality which gives birth to a biased view of a particular situation and resistance to change occurs.
Habit: When changes are faced with, individuals may tend to re-act these changes due to accustom to
their usual manner of behaving. Actually, people tend to respond situations in an accustomed manner.
Since habits serve as means of security and comfort, proposed changes to habits may be resisted.
Inconvenience or loss of freedom: When change is seen as troublesome and reduce freedom of action
with increased control, organization members may resist change implementations.
Economic implications: If change is perceived as reducing pay or other rewards, individuals are likely
to resist change. People may want to maintain the status quo by establishing the patterns of working.
Security in the past: Individuals who have higher security needs resist change more than others
because change threatens their sense of security. When people face with new and unfamiliar methods
or difficult and frustrated occasions, they may reflect on past with a wish to retain old ways.
Fear of the unknown: If innovative or radical changes introduced without giving information about the
nature of change, the organization members become fearful and anxious about change implications. In
fact, change takes place of doubt and uncertainty because people like stability.
Threats to power or influence: Administrative and technological changes threatening power bases in
the organization may lead to trigger resistance due to being seen as a threat to power or influence of
certain groups in controlling over decisions, resources and information concepts. Specifically,
intimidating changes may menace specialized groups in the organization. Reallocation of decision
making authority could threaten long term power relations.
Knowledge and skill obsolescence: Organization members resist organizational changes when their
knowledge and skills are obsolete. It is essential to state that knowledge is related to management while
skills can be applied to any member of the organization.
Organizational structure: In organizations which have ideal bureaucracy with hierarchy of authority;
division of labour and specialization, regulations and rules, some degree of structure are given to
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groups for fulfilling the organization’s goals. However, this need would be dysfunctional to the
organization with serving as a main factor for resistance to change.
Limited resources: Organizations not having available resources prefer to maintain their status quo
since change requires resources like capital and people having appropriate skills and time. Inadequate
resources may lead to abandon the desired changes.
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Negotiation and agreement: buying out active and potential resisters. Negotiation is a form of
exchange, in which the promise of benefits or resources is exchanged for the target person‘s
compliance with influencer‘s request.
Use power: if other strategies are ineffective, leaders rely on forcing people to accept the change.
Chapter Four
Type of Change
At the end of this chapter students will be able to:
Discuss planned and unplanned change
Explain revolutionary and evolutionary change
Understand BPR meaning, objectives, and its implementation
Understand Total Quality Management concept
Figure 4.1 Power bases, change strategies, and predicted change outcomes
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The following steps are necessary for managers to implement a successful TQM program
Focus on customers: TQM see customers as the starting point. It requires:
i) To identify what customers want from the good or service that the company provides;
ii) To identify what the company actually provides to customers;
iii) To identify the gap that exists between what customers want and what they actually get
(the quality gap); and
iv) To formulate a plan for closing the quality gap.
Find ways to measure quality: TQM requires the development of a measuring system that managers
can use to evaluate quality.
Set goals and create incentives: once a measure has been devised, mangers ‘next step is to set a
challenging quality goal and to create incentives for reaching that goal, Such as reducing consumers
‘complaints by 50%, and so on. Regarding incentives- give bonus and promotional opportunities for
contributions and goal attainment.
Solicit input from employees: create an environment in which employees will not be afraid to report
problems or recommend improvements. Quality circle is the one among the mechanism. Quality circles
–group of employees who meet regularly to discuss ways to increase quality-are often created to
achieve this goal.
Identify defects and trace them to their sources: identify defects in the work process, trace those
defects back to their source, find out why occurred, and make corrections so that they do not occur
again.
Design for ease of production: designing product that have fewer parts or finding ways to simplify
providing a service should be linked to fewer defects or customer complaints. Because the more steps
required assembling a product or providing a service, the more opportunities there are for making a
mistake.
Break down barriers between functions: successful implementation of TQM requires substantial
cooperation between the different value-chain functions.
Advantage of Evolutionary Change
Highly likely that, if the change is implemented it will become part of the culture more people have
been involved in the design more people identifies with change
likely that the change fits the organizations, understanding the current situations
More brains around the problem, leading to more thoughtful solution
Disadvantage of Evolutionary Change
Very risky upfront high likelihood that people will not understand the change
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Change may be introduced that doesn‘t do not move the organizations toward where it needs to go.
Can be designed by committee where a sense of central direction is lost especially true if there is not
clear owner or change agent.
Hard to find people who are good at making evolutionary change it is skill what‘s more these people
rarely take credit for their work.
4.2.2. Revolutionary Change
Revolutionary change is a rapid, dramatic, and broadly focused change. It involves a bold attempt to quickly
find new ways to be effective. Organizations faced with dramatic, unexpected changes in the environment
(for example, a new technological breakthrough) or with an impending disaster resulting from
mismanagement, an organization might need to act quickly and decisively. Revolutionary change is a
radical shift in ways of doing things, new goals, and new structure for the organization. Reengineering,
restructuring, and quantum innovation are the three important instruments for revolutionary change.
Reengineering: involves rethinking and redesigning business processes to increase organizational
effectiveness
Restructuring - changing task and authority relationships and redesigning organizational structure
and culture to improve organizational effectiveness.
Innovation: the process by which organizations use their skills and resources to Create new
technologies, Develop new goods and services, and better respond to the needs of their customers.
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4.3. Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
Michael Hammer and James Champy of the US are the scholars who developed the concept of Business
Process Reengineering. According to J.Champy and M. Hammer, business process reengineering (BPR) is
“the fundamental rethinking and radical design of business processes to achieve dramatic improvement in
critical contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed.” In this definition,
there are four key. These are:
Fundamental Rethinking: ask basic questions about the company and how they operate. Like: Why
do we do? Why do we do it? Make people to look at the tacit rules and assumptions that underlie the
way they conduct their business.
Radical redesign: reengineering is about throwing the already existing system away and starting
with a clean slate and redesign how you do your work. Thus, reengineering is about business
reinvention not business improvement or modification.
Dramatic improvement: it is about achieving quantum performance growth. Reengineering is not
making marginal improvements to the business.
Business process: process is the core of the reengineering. Process is an organized group of related
activities that together create value to customers. It is about how work is done.
Radical redesigning of business involves dropping existing procedures and reinventing the process.
Reengineering seeks to enhance the speed of product/service delivery without compromising quality through
improving the utilization of materials, labor and equipment.
Some of the symptoms that indicate the need of reengineering in an organization are:
i) Complexity of the budget process;
ii) Incompatible of the services provided by the organization with the needs of the customers; and
iii) Failure of an organization to make its products reach the market place at the right time, as
compared with its competitors.
4.3.1. Objective of BPR
The following are some of the major objective of BPR.
1. Improving efficiency of the key process of business with a view to improve quality and reduce cost.
2. Encouraging teamwork and reducing the number of layers in the organization.
3. Reshaping business processes in a holistic approach and not in isolation like taking only one of the
functions or redesign it separately.
4. Training and developing human resources and improve information technology, downsizing if
necessary as a result of increased efficiency of the key process.
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5. Identifying core competencies and managing environmental changes to develop competitive strength
with a clean focus on goals to be achieved.
4.3.2. Principles of BPR
BPR mainly focuses on strategic business processes which include: order processing, logistics,
manufacturing system, procurement and supplies, cash flow management, etc. the following are the five key
principles of business process reengineering:
(i) Strategic redesign of process;
(ii) Involvement of right teams of people;
(iii) Wise use of information technology;
(iv) Changed management style; and
(v) Continuous improvement of processes.
4.3.3. BPR Tools and Techniques
Following are some of the tools and techniques for the successful application of reengineering.
1. Process Visualization: For a process to be reengineered the “end state” is to be visualized in prior to
the defining and establishment of the systems needed to implement the new innovation. The
development of the vision of a process is the key to the successful reengineering.
2. Process mapping/operational method study: Operational method study is one of suitable tool to
reengineering. It involves the systematic investigation of the present way of doing a particular job with
an aim of doing the same job in a better way at reduced cost and/or time.
3. Change Management: It refers the management of organizational Change and is an important tool for
successful reengineering. This refers the human side of reengineering. Generally there will be
resistance from employees to change as if it affects their level of performance. So change management
is to be effectively used to overcome the resistance that arises because of reengineering.
4. Benchmarking: Benchmarking is an essential and integral part of reengineering. It allows the
visualization of the best processes that are in use in other organizations.
5. Process and customer focus: Sometimes the primary objective of reengineering is solely to redesign
the processes to improve the customer satisfaction. This provides a lead to improve the process to
improve the quality and/or minimize the costs
4.3.4. Implementation of Reengineering
Hammer says that a business process can be defined as a set logically related task to achieve a defined
business outcome. The collection of processes forms a business system. And business system is the way in
which a business unit carries out its business. According to him, an organization which realizes that its
processes are inefficient is required to embark on the following major steps to redesign its processes:
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Step 1: Develop business vision and process objective: the organization is required to prioritize its
reengineering objectives and set the targets for the future.
Step 2: Identify processes to be redesigned: this is the responsibility of the top and senior management.
Thus, the management is required to identify critical or bottleneck processes and envision the steps
to avert the shortcomings identified.
Step 3: Identify and measure existing processes: it is involves assessing the current state of affairs. The
current level of performance of the processes to be reengineered is determined.
Step 4: Identify information technology levels: involves arrangement of a brain-storming session to identify
new approaches.
Step 5: Design and build a prototype of the process: involves implementation of organizational and
technical aspects of processes. The word prototype ‘here is concerned with a process not a product. A
design engineer is required to work on the prototype of a product before the initiation of the actual
product. Thus, he/she needs to test whether it fulfills the desired requirements.
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Chapter five
Conflict can be defined as the “process that begins when one party perceives that another party has
negatively affected something that the first party cares about.”
Austin defines conflict “as a disagreement between two or more individuals or groups, with each individual
or group trying to gain acceptance of its views or objective over others.”
Conflict must be perceived by either of the parties. Stiff opposition due to incompatibility of organizational
goals characterizes it. Conflict can also be caused due to difference about interpretation of facts or issues
involved. Conflict takes an ugly turn and takes a form of violence due to disagreement based on behavioral
expectations. It could be covert or overt and can be seen when one observes violent acts of individual in
organizations.
Every organization has its objective. It is further broken down as departmental objectives, group goals and
lastly individual goals. When individual interacts with another individual there is perceptual and
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communication problems that causes misunderstanding and leads to individual conflict situation. It is also
true of groups.
Conflict can be considered as expression of hostility, negative attitude, aggression and gross
misunderstanding. It is caused due to varying interest of individual or groups.
Pondy has described that the term ‘conflict’ is used in four ways to indicate:
Not all conflict is bad. In fact, some types of conflict encourage new solutions to problems and enhance the
creativity in the organization, in these cases, managers will want to encourage the conflicts. Therefore,
managers should stimulate functional conflict and prevent or resolve dysfunctional conflict. This is the key
to conflict management. However, the difficulty lies in trying to tell the difference between dysfunctional
and functional conflicts. The consequences of conflict can be positive or negative, as shown below.
Functional conflict is a healthy, constructive disagreement between two or more people. Conflict develops
cohesiveness within the group members. A group goal therefore becomes a priority. Individual goals are then
relegated to secondary position. Conflict leads to innovation and creativity, as there is competing sprit among
various groups. Conflict provides challenging work environment and enhances opportunities for self-
development of group that leads to formation of group norms. Functional conflict enhance work culture leads
to up gradation of various systems within the organization and therefore growth is achieved.
Dysfunctional conflict is an unhealthy, destructive disagreement between two or more people. It’s danger in
that it takes the focus away from the work to be done and places the focus on the conflict itself and the
parties involved. Dysfunctional conflict is that does not lead to solution and basic goals of the organization
are neglected. If it is violated and a climate of distrust and suspicion is created people feel defeated and
demeaned which develops antagonism and leads to conflict.
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Conflict may lead to absenteeism and subsequently to increased turn over if not controlled in time. Dual
management style may create hatred and lead to dysfunctional conflict. Disagreement with management may
be considered as disloyalty, if this environment prevails, an opportunity for creativity would be lost and
employees would lose interest in their job. This would lead to increased conflicting situations.
Conflict is pervasive in organizations. To manage it effectively, managers should understand the many
sources of conflict. They can be classified into two broad categories:
Structural factors: which stem from the nature of the organization and the way in which
work is organized and
Personal factors: which arise from differences among individuals.
5.2.1. Structural Factors causes of conflict
The causes of conflict related to the organization's structure include:
Specialization: When jobs are highly specialized, employees become experts at certain tasks. A
classic conflict of specialization is one between salespeople and engineers. Engineers are technical
specialists responsible for product design and quality. Salespeople are marketing experts and liaisons
with customers. Salespeople are often accused of making delivery promises to customers that engineers
cannot keep because the sales force lacks the technical knowledge necessary to develop realistic
delivery deadlines.
Interdependence: Work that is interdependent requires groups or individuals to depend on one
another to accomplish goals. Depending on other people to get work done is fine when the process
works smoothly.
Common resources: Any time multiple parries must share resources, there is potential for conflict.
This potential is enhanced when the shared resources become scarce. One resource often shared by
managers is secretarial support. It is not uncommon for a secretary to support ten or more managers,
each of whom believes his or her work is most important.
Goal differences: When work groups have different goals, these goals may be incompatible. For
example, in one cable television Company, the salesperson's goal was to sell as many new installations
as possible. This created problems for the service department, because its goal was timely installations.
Authority relationships: The nature of a traditional boss-employee relationship brings to mind a
vision of a hierarchy of a boss who is superior to the employee. For many employees, this relationship is
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not a comfortable one, because another individual has the right to tell them what to do. Some people
resent authority more than others, and obviously this creates conflicts.
Status inconsistencies: Some organizations have a strong status difference between management
and no management workers. Managers may enjoy privileges such as flexible schedules, personal
telephone calls at work, and longer lunch hours that are not available to no management employees.
This may result in resentment and conflict.
Jurisdictional ambiguities: Have you ever telephoned a company with a problem and had your
call transferred through several different people and departments? This situation illustrates jurisdictional
ambiguity that is, unclear lines of responsibility within an organization. When a problem occurs for
which there is no definite source of responsibility, workers tend to "pass the back," or avoid dealing
with the problem. Conflicts emerge over responsibility for the problem.
5.2.2. Personal Factors causes of Conflict
Personalities: Individuals do not leave their personalities at the doorstep when they enter the
workplace. Personality conflicts are realities in organizations. To expect that you will like all of your
coworkers may be a naive expectation, as would be the expectation that they will all like you.
Perceptions: Differences in perception can also lead to conflict. One area in which perceptions can
differ is the perception of what motivates employees.
If managers and workers do not have a shared perception of what motivates people, the reward system
can create conflicts. Managers usually provide what they think employees want rather than what
employees really want.
Values and ethics: Differences in values and ethics can be sources of disagreement. Older workers,
for example, value company loyalty and probably would not take a sick day when they were not really
ill. Younger workers, valuing mobility, like the concept of "mental health days," or calling in sick to get
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away from work. This may not be true for all workers, but it illustrates that differences in values can lead
to conflict.
Emotions: The moods of others can be a source of conflict in the workplace. Problems at home often
spill over into the work area, and the related moods can be hard for others to deal with.
Communication barriers: Communication barriers such as physical separation and language can
create distortions in messages, and these can lead to conflict. Another communication barrier is value
judgment, in which a listener assigns a worth to a message before it is received.
Negative Consequences
- Diverts energy from work
- Threatens psychological well-being
- Waste resources
- Creates a negative climate
- Breaks down group cohesion
- Can increase hostility and aggressive behaviors
5.4. Type of Conflict
The following are the major and main types of conflicts in organization.
1. Intra-personal Conflict: Intra personal conflict is also called the conflict within the individual. This
type of conflict can be of two types:
Value conflict: Every individual has to play certain roles, which conforms to his value system.
However, there are certain situations when an individual may have to compromise on value system
and beliefs. For example, finance manager of an organization, while submitting tax returns to the
government may conceal some facts, which may go against his belief and value system. This
situation may cause tension and conflict within the individual.
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Decision-making: Problem solving is one of the important jobs every individual has to undertake in
work environment. Every problem has various courses open. At times it is difficult for a person to
select an appropriate course of action. This situation causes conflict within the individual. He
therefore will have to take decisions based on the past experience and the knowledge.
2. Inter-personal Conflict: This relates to conflict between two or more individuals and is probably the
most common and recognized form of conflict. Interpersonal conflict is caused due to disagreement over
goals and objectives of the organization. These are heightened due to difference of opinion of
individuals and when issues are not based on facts. Every organization is full of unresolved issues,
problems and differing situations that leads to conflict. Conflict can also take place between one person
of a group with another person of the same group or another group on issues relating to decision-making.
3. Intra-Group Conflict: this relates to values, status and roles played by an individual in the group and
the group norms. Individual may want to remain in the group for social needs but may disagree with the
methods and procedures followed by the group. The conflict may arise when social changes are
incorporated in the group. When group faces new problems and when values are changed due to change
in social environment. Intra-group conflict is like inter-personal conflict except that the people involved
in the conflict episode belong to a common group.
4. Inter-Group Conflict: Conflicts between different groups, sections and departments are called inter-
group conflict. For example, conflict between production and sales departments over the quality being
produced and the customer requirements. Inter-group conflict causes due to factors inherent to the
organizational structure like independence, inconsistency in various policy matter, variance on promotion
criteria, reward system and different standards being adopted for different sub-units and departments.
5. Inter-Organizational Conflict: this conflict takes place between two dependent organizations. Conflict
can take place between government organization, unions and the operating industry. Government
organizations function to ensure that minimum standards are followed by the organizations. Managers
must try and reduce inter-organizational conflicts by adopting positive approach and by following
strictly, the rules and regulations laid down by the government agencies. Conflict can also take place
between seller and buyer organizations.
6. Intra-Organizational Conflicts: this conflict encompasses horizontal, vertical, line–staff and role based
conflicts.
5.5. Conflict Process
Pondy developed a conflict process model, which is useful to understand how a conflict starts. He has
delineated five steps that he calls as ‘conflict episode’ These are:
Latent conflict,
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Perceived conflict,
Felt conflict
Manifest conflict,
conflict resolution and
Conflict aftermath
LATENT CONFLICT
CONFLICT AFTERMATH
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Fortunately, there are effective conflict management techniques. These include appealing to:
Superordinate Goals: An organizational goal that is more important to both parties in a conflict
than their individual or group goals is a super ordinate goal. Super ordinate goals cannot be achieved by
an individual or by one group alone. The achievement of these goals requires cooperation by both parties.
One effective technique for resolving conflict is to appeal to a super ordinate goal ,in effect, to focus the
parties on a larger issue on which they both agree. This helps them realize their similarities rather than
their differences.
Expanding Resources: One conflict resolution technique is so simple that it may be overlooked. If
the conflict's source is common or scarce resources, providing more resources may be a solution. Of
course, managers working with tight budgets may not have the luxury of obtaining additional resources.
Nevertheless, it is a technique to be considered.
Changing Personnel: Sometimes a conflict is prolonged and severe, and efforts at resolution fail. In
such cases, it may be appropriate to change personnel. Transferring or firing an individual may be the
best solution, but only after due process.
Confronting and Negotiating: Some conflicts require confrontation and negotiation between the
parties. Both these strategies require skill on the part of the negotiator and careful planning before
engaging in negotiations. The process of negotiating involves an open discussion of problem solutions,
and the outcome often is an exchange in which both parties work toward a mutually beneficial solution.
There are two major negotiating approaches: distributive bargaining and integrative negotiation.
Distributive bargaining: is an approach in which the goals of one party are in direct conflict with
the goals of the other party. Resources are limited, and each party wants to maximize its share of the
resources. It is a competitive or win-lose approach to negotiations. Sometimes distributive
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bargaining causes negotiators to focus so much on their differences that they ignore their common
ground. In these cases, distributive bargaining can become counterproductive.
Integrative negotiation: is an approach in which the parties' goals are not seen as mutually exclusive
and in which the focus is on making it possible for both sides to achieve their objectives. Integrative
negotiation focuses on the merits of the issues and is a win-win approach.
There are preconditions for integrative negotiation to be successful. These include:
o Having a common goal,
o Faith in one's own problem-solving abilities,
o a belief in the validity of the other party's position,
o Motivation to work together,
o Mutual trust, and
o Clear communication.
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Figure 5.2 conflict management style
i) Avoiding
Avoiding is a style low on both assertiveness and cooperativeness. Avoiding is a deliberate decision to take
no action on a conflict or to stay out of a conflict situation. There is a potential danger in using an avoiding
style too often, however. Research shows that overuse of this style results in negative evaluations from
others in the workplace.
ii) Accommodating
A style in which you are concerned that the other party's goals be met but relatively unconcerned with
getting your own way is called accommodating. It is cooperative but unassertive. Appropriate situations for
accommodating include times when you find you are wrong, when you want to let the other party have his or
her way in order to remind the individual that he or she owes you similar treatment later, or when the
relationship is important.
iii) Competing
Competing is a style that is very assertive and uncooperative. You want to satisfy your own interests and are
willing to do so at the other party's expense. In an emergency or in situations where you know you are right,
it may be appropriate to put your foot down. Relying solely on competing strategies is dangerous. Managers
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who do so may become reluctant to admit when they are wrong and may find themselves surrounded by
people who are afraid to disagree with them.
iv) Compromising
The compromising style is intermediate in both assertiveness and cooperativeness, because each party must
give up something to reach a solution to the conflict. Compromises are often made in the final hours of
union-management negotiations, when time is of the essence. Compromise is also an effective backup style
when efforts toward collaboration are not successful.
v) Collaborating
A win-win style that is high on both assertiveness and cooperativeness is known as collaborating. Working
toward collaborating involves an open and thorough discussion of the conflict and arriving at a solution that
is satisfactory to both parties. Situations where collaboration may be effective include times when both
parties need to be committed to a final solution or when a combination of different perspectives can be
formed into a solution.
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