Essay: The Pillars of Organisational Success: Leadership and Management in Business Hierarchies

Every organisation, especially business organisations have a hierarchal structure in which the command is delegated from seniors to juniors. This flow of command starts from the head of the organisation to the bottom of the organisation in a pyramid like structure. On the top of this hierarchal structure sits the CEO/MD/Owner of the business and all the other employees/workers report directly or indirectly to him. Now any business organisation has some managers who are entrusted with managing the day to day activities of the organisation in an efficient manner. These managers are like pillars of the organisation. They provide support to the organizational framework by binding together workers just like pillars bind a bridge. Here the managers might be of general or specific domain, but normally all business organisation, whether small or large, have specific management personnel from specific areas of domain such as HR, Finance, IT, Operations, etc. so that each of the specific areas of the organisation is taken care of by the specific managers who specialise in the specific domain areas of the organisation.
Now each of these managers working under the various heads of departments of an organisation must be having a number of subordinates who would be working directly under the manager’s supervision. For example the HR department of a large MNC might be having an HR Manager who would be assisted by a number of HR executives and personnel. The manager would also be having an Assistant HR Manager who would be forming the 2nd line of command in that department. Now if the above mentioned MNC company would be wanting to fill a high number of vacancies, it would need to place some kind of advertisement in print or online sites. The advertisement would be containing the name of the firm, a brief about the company, the contact details of the firm, the contact person’s name in the HR department along with the address of the firm for interviews, if any. Now if the HR Manager of that firm delegates the task of taking interviews of new recruits to his or her subordinates without being actively involved in the recruitment process, then chances are high that the HR department would be unable to find the best candidates for the positions. This is because the HR executives would not be feeling a sense of purpose or belongingness in their roles as the roles would be appearing mundane and of routine nature to them. They might be taking the interviews, processing the applications and offering the job letters to the candidates but their approach in this assignment will be too formal with little involvement from their own side. They might be just interested in filling the posts without trying to get into details of the suitability of the candidates who have applied for the job. This will in turn be detrimental for the organisation in the medium and long run as the organisation doesn’t knows whether the best and most suitable candidates have been hired or not for the vacancies. Now if some candidates are given job offers for which they are not suitable or qualified, then the organisation will be having a hard time due to productivity and quality issues. This could have been avoided if the HR Manager would have leaded from the beginning in the recruitment process and would have actively been involved in the recruitment process, guiding, supervising and commanding the HR team with his skills, acumen, knowledge and experience. Had the HR Manager would have been actively involved with the other junior employees, things would have been different as the leadership of the Manager would have certainly influenced the behaviour and attitude of the subordinates and they would have performed more better due to motivation instilled by their manager.
So the role of the manager of management is not just limited to creating specific functions or delegating the task to someone in the organisation. It also involves commanding and leading the people in the organisation so that the employees of the organisation are able to meet the challenges that come before them and to perform their jobs in even better way, thereby enhancing the productivity and output. Leadership is not a vague idea or concept. It is actually the art of influencing the people so that they may do their assigned jobs in a more willing, efficient and effective way. It enables employees to work in a better way so that they have a higher level of productivity as well as job satisfaction. In planning and controlling the processes for the people in the organisation, the managers create a positive and professional environment for the employees in the organisation Engagement of employees in any organisation is of paramount importance to the organisation. One of the key reasons for low employee engagement of the employees in an organisation is the lack of motivation among the employees and this happens when there is absence or lack of leadership from the management. Lack of leadership can lead to absenteeism, low productivity, low morale and motivation among the employees which in turn has a damaging effect on the organisation as whole.
Any manager must have some core competency in some key areas of leadership which are responsible for effective team and people management. Some of them are:
• Able to Inspire trust among the people/employees
• Able to provide a sense of purpose among the employees in their day to day work
• Able to manage change in the organisation with relative ease
• Able to appreciate and promote creativity and new ideas from the employees
• Understanding the needs and requirements of the customers and clients and making them clear with the employees
• Able to manage the knowledge and information in an optimum way so that the employees are able to understand the situation in a better way
• Able to manage the resources of the organisation in a resourceful way so that the resources are easily available to the employees when and where required.
Leadership is a part of management. For being an effective manager, one has to be a good leader first. Due to good leadership, there is a positive change in the organisation with the employees becoming more responsible, motivated, loyal and hard working towards the organisation. Due to motivation and guidance provided by the leadership, the employees strive to excel in their assignments and tasks. Leadership is basically nothing but being able to influence, motivate and drive a group towards the accomplishment of certain set of goals. For organisations, the goals could be higher employee engagement, lower attrition rates, high productivity and higher output. Now to be able to accomplish these goals, any manager must possess certain leadership skills and must have the traits of a leader. If the manager possesses leadership qualities, he or she will automatically have leadership traits in him or her. Even though the terms leadership and management are interpreted as synonymous to each other, they differ in their scope and objectives. Some of the basic differences between Leadership and Management are summarized as follows:-
• While the management is responsible for laying down the structure of the organizational hierarchy, delegating responsibility and authority to the employees, it is the leaders who are responsible for providing the overall direction to the employees by communicating the same to them so that the Organisational goals and objectives are met. In motivating and encouraging the employees, the leaders are aiding the management of the organisation as the ultimate goal of the management is to make the employees more productive so that better output is achieved.
• Management is more concerned with the staffing, organising, planning, controlling and directing the various departments, processes and people involved in the organisation. Leadership, on the other hand is more concerned with building relationships with the employees, listening to the grievances and concerns of the employees, inspiring the employees, motivating the employees, bridging gaps between the employees and fostering teamwork, unity, Espirit-de-corps among the employees.
• The manager might be having authority by the management by the organisation but a leader places authority among his people not by authority but by bonding.
• Managers might hesitate to go out of the way and seek unconventional approaches in solving the problems and they might be seeking rigid and laid down rules in dealing with situations that might arise in an organisation. On the other hand leaders will try to think of dealing with a tricky or difficult situation with an open mind, taking care of the morale and motivation of the employees in confidence as they want that to be kept high at all costs.
• While management tends to be more scientific in outlook with the managers being exact, methodical, standard, logical, planned, meticulous; leadership, on the other hand is more of an art with leaders thinking out of the box, encouraging questions, creativity and freedom of expression from the employees.
• While Management is more focused on delegating and assigning the jobs to the people, leadership is focused on getting the job done in an optimum way, utilizing the skills, talent, expertise and experiences of the employees in the best possible way.
• Management is more reactive than being proactive while leadership is more proactive than being reactive.
• Management relies mainly on written, formal means of communication while leaders convey their leaderships by both verbal and non verbal messages such as body language, gesture, gait, personality, etc.
One example of an exemplary leader in the management domain could be found in the form of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was an extraordinary person – both in his personal and professional life. He was able to transform his company Apple Inc as one of the most valuable and successful companies in the world just because of his leadership style. Being the founder of Apple computers, he knew what was right and what was wrong for his company. But his success at Apple didn’t came in easily for him. There was a time when he was fired from the same company and at that time things were very difficult for him. However when he retook Apple, he reinvented not only Apple but also himself too. Initially Jobs was having a stiff management attitude- he would push for outrageous goals and was severe and too demanding at times. However with passage of time, he became more empathic and flexible with his employees allowing them to share their ideas with him which led him to greater success in his endevaours. According to a new book on Jobs, it was seen that Steve was seen as a father figure from many of the employees in Apple. He used to hold annual family picnics with his employees at Saturdays so that he could have a closer time with his employees. Steve Jobs also developed a great deal of patience in his new stint as the CEO of Apple as he learnt that being patient was part of leadership. A good leader needs to hear from everyone, especially from his juniors and subordinates. If the leader looses patience at even the slightest pretext, he or she might be rejected by the people as a leader. Being an effective leader needs a lot of patience and perseverance and Steve Jobs inculcated those qualities as leader of Apple group.
One other leadership trait that Steve Jobs tried to inculcate among his employees was the cult of passion. Jobs believed that if one needs to succeed in life then one needs to be passionate in what he or she does. And passion comes out of the love of something. If someone doesn’t loves something, he or she will soon become tired and bored of that thing and then the productivity level will go down. This will hamper the company in the short and long run as the output will not be at optimal level and the organisation or firm might soon go out of business. Jobs knew the dangers of mediocrity and encouraged people to do things which they liked most and urged his people to work passionately for the cause of the company. So an effective leader must be able to infuse the spirit of passion in his people. The management can only command the people to follow certain orders as per the aims and goals of the organisation. But this approach of the management cannot be successful in each and every instance as sooner or later employees will get disoriented, bored, disgruntled and de-motivated as there is no one present physically to motivate and guide them. A good leader knows how to guide and motivate the people and he uses motivation to ignite the passion in the employees so that they give their best towards the goals of the organisation. So it is not the management but the leaders who make things work by the use of their leadership skills. This also means that the leaders themselves should also be self motivated and determined as without self motivation and determination, they cannot be expected to give their best and would also fail at motivating others. For motivating others, a leader needs to be motivated first from inside as then only he or she will show positive vibes that will motivate and energise others to achieve excellence.
One other aspect of leadership is charisma. Management can only issue rules and orders but a good leader is able to mesmerize the people just because of his or her charisma. Steve Jobs was a leader who was very charismatic and part of the success of his company also goes to his charismatic leadership style. A good leader should be able to speak well and effectively and as such communication skills are of paramount importance to a leader. Effective and persuasive speaking is an art and comes out of practice and successful leaders are masters of effective public speaking. A good leader uses all the three tools of persuasion to achieve the goals. Ethos, pathos and logos might appear to be a bit outdated motivation technique but the fact is that good leaders know the importance of these techniques and they use them intermittently to persuade and motivate the employees. Management can never deal with the employees using these techniques – it can be done only at the individual level and successful leaders are expert in using it for motivating their people.