CULCPrashanthGeorge

 

The style of leadership that I vision of becoming is a situational leader designed by Hersey and Blanchard. Based on blog 3, this approach analyzes different leadership situations to attain the best outcome. After going through the various styles of leadership, situational leadership suits my preference as it is flexible and easily adaptable. According to Abudi (2012), everyone is unique from each other and leaders should determine a particular style of leadership based on the types of groups they manage. Notably, based on the experiences that I had with my superior, I was comfortable being led by him and observed that he used the situational approach to guide subordinates instead of just delegating tasks.

Johari window

Figure 1: Johari Window hidden personality dimension

Leaders should encourage their subordinate to unmask their hidden personality and expose their strength and weakness using the Johari Window dimension (Hamzah et al. 2016). This model is recommendable as I manage to identify my strengths and weakness which will aid me in assisting my colleagues to unleash their hidden potential through the tasks assigned.

Leader that inspired me- Jeff Wiener (CEO of LinkedIn)

Figure 2: Jeff Wiener (CEO of LinkedIn)

The leader who inspired my thoughts on leadership was Jeff Wiener; currently the CEO of LinkedIn which is a professional social networking site. The company gained more than 530 million users as of 2017 and the workforce size boomed from 338 to over 11000 employees globally (CBS News 2017). Since Wiener became the CEO of LinkedIn in 2008, he obtained a large fan base among employees and is a highly rated CEO having what it takes to be a successful leader without being selfish in sharing knowledge with others (Friedman 2017). Besides, Wiener demonstrated that between ‘Leaders or Managers’, managers instruct tasks whereas leaders inspire based on the clarity of vision, conviction and effective communication (Friedman 2017). Moreover after analyzing his style, I truly admire his authenticity and clear communication which makes me more interested to understand LinkedIn’s working culture and practices. His leadership style that upholds guidance rather than managing employees has contributed to the growth of the company.

Am I ready to lead?

Based on feedbacks received from my colleagues, my strength significantly leaned on enabling others which reflects my current character as I am able to relate, listen and support others which indirectly boosted my confidence. Besides, I realized that I would need to improve my encouraging skills as it is important for leaders to motivate their subordinates to steer them in the right direction which is my upcoming 3-year plan in my current industry. Moreover, challenge and inspire units are needed equally for me to enhance myself in the future. I would need to read more leadership materials and attend events to indulge myself with the communities around me to develop change and improve my leadership traits.

Based on the 16 personality test, I realized that the comments made by colleagues were close to an executive (ESTJ-A). According to Burke (2019), traits of an executive is one who understands and able to discern between right and wrong while giving clear advice and guidance to others. This trait is one that closely defines my character.

Leadership skills that I want to develop as I progress through MBA

As I progress through MBA, I would want to further enhance the following leadership skills such as communication, motivating, positivity and responsibility. Firstly, communication skills would be through the group assignments and presentations of reports. Secondly, motivating skills are vital as it aids in supporting teammates to persevere during stressful periods of the course and also in projects at the workplace. Through this, it will enable me to achieve my personal goals and attain satisfaction in the tasks.  Notably, I would further enhance my positivity skill as it is important to remain positive during all times to ensure a good relationship between members at my MBA course and workplace. Lastly, responsibility skills are crucial as a leader in times of success or failure and it is important to analyze situations and derive solutions accordingly without blaming others. With these skills, I will be able to achieve my personal goals and become a good leader.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, upon analyzing and reflecting on my strength and weaknesses, there are steps and measures which are necessary to ensure my leadership skills are fulfilled such as volunteering to lead activities and participating in talks. With the extra knowledge gained, I hope to achieve my dream of leading a team of my own in the near future.

(766 Words)

Reference

CBS NEWS. (2017) ‘Linkedin CEO Jeff Weiner on compassionate leadership importance of protecting “Dreamers” CBSNEWS [online] 11th October Available from                                                                                <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/linkedin-ceo-jeff-weiner-leadership-daca/>                [18 March 2019].

Abudi, G. (2012) ‘Tailoring your leadership style to your employees’. [online]. Available from                                                                                                                                                 <https://www.ginaabudi.com/tailoring-your-leadership-style-to-your-employees/> [13^th March 2019].

Hamzah, M. I., Othman, A. K., Hassan, F., Razak, N.A., Yunus, N.A.M (2016) ‘Conceptualizing a schematic Grid view of customer knowledge from the johari windows perspective’ Faculty of Business and Management. 37 471-479. [Online]. Available from                                                                           <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221256711630154X>                      [18 March 2019].

16Personalities. (2019) ‘The Executive’ [online] available from                                                                                < https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test> [18 March 2019].

Burke, E. (2019) ‘Executive Personality (ESTJ, -A/-T)’ [online] available from                                                                                < https://www.16personalities.com/estj-personality> [18 March 2019].

Change in an organization refers to the process of revamping the direction, structure and capabilities to match the changing demands of the companies external and internal customers (By 2005). Ebongkeng (2018) added that change leads the managerial staff to be proactive towards environmental change or challenges.  Organization change allows companies to remain competitive and statistical data showed that one third of organization change by leaders were perceived successful (Pieterse, Caniels and Homan 2012). According to Husain (2013), communication between staff and leaders are required as they cannot assume that everyone will accept change and communication towards change must be initiated systematically.

 

Resistance towards Change

Resistance is deemed to happen in an organization when less employee participation is involved in the decision making process and lack of trust in the contribution of the management (Boohene and Williams 2012). The two sources on resisting organizational change are individual sources and organizational source (Masunda 2015). The author mentioned that individual sources were due to accustomed ways and the need for security is high as it threatens their feelings and safety. Besides this, resistance by organizational sources were due to limited focus of change which were rejected by large groups (Masunda 2015).

 

Statement by Mullins (2013)

I would disagree towards the sentence by Mullins ‘there is little management can do about resistance to change’. There are ways for management to handle resistance towards change and the key factor is communication within the organization.

 

Lewin Model Theory

This Lewin model was founded by Kurt Lewin in 1947 which was considered the pioneer in change management comprising of three steps of change which is unfreeze, change, refreeze (Cummings, Bridgeman and Brown 2016). The first step which is unfreezing refers to the process of discarding old methods and ready to adapt new behaviors (Sarayreh, Khudair and Barakat 2013). Step two refers to the change in processes whereas step three is refreezing which states the stability of the group after a new behavior has been adopted. Lock (2018) stated that if any of these steps were missed; the process of change will encounter resistance as the old values will resurface to counter the change.

Figure 1-Kurt Lewin’s Change Model

 

Limitation of the model

According to Cummings, Bridgeman and Brown (2016), the inelastic idea of the stage ‘refreeze’ is not appropriate in our current competitive world which will require flexibility and adaption. Moreover, this model is too simple in today’s organization as it does not cater to rapid change (Lock 2018).

 

Kotter’s 8-Step Process

Apart from Lewin’s theory, managers can add on by using Kotter’s 8 step model to implement change powerfully and successfully in an organization. According to Kotter (2006), there are 8 steps which companies can adapt but a sense of urgency has to be developed prior to proceeding with the remaining steps.

 

Figure 2- Kotter’s 8 Step Process

 

Examples of successful change (Microsoft)

 

Figure 3-Current CEO Satya Nadella and Ex-CEO Steve Ballmer

 

Microsoft had restructured their organizational chart which was then steered by the Ex-CEO Steve Ballmer towards the end of his career in order to curb the downturn of customers and keep up with competitors like Apple and Google (Molina and Acohido 2013). The authors added that upon the reshuffling, its share rose by 2.8%. New CEO Satya Nadella restructured the organization in 2018 to bring in more Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the Microsoft range. Microsoft took a new direction in splitting into three major divisions which are Experiences and Devices, Cloud and AI platform and existing Microsoft research branch (Gershgorn 2018). The resulting change boosted the company’s stock market to USD 712 Billion which was a whopping 143% in 2014 and maintained an annual growth of revenue which significantly grew due to its leadership style (Cohan 2018). Although there were layoffs in the process, it was largely in the sales division which contributes to less than 10% of the company’s total sales force from a total of 200,000 employees globally (Haselton 2017). The author added that this change is not about cost cutting but a reflection of Microsoft’s sales handling in order to grow.

 

Conclusion

Leaders in organizations should be considerate towards the acceptance or the resistance of change which is introduced to overcome challenges faced by the company. By applying the right theory and framework, leaders can manage the organization, guide and communicate in order for a successful change. As quoted by Mark Zuckerberg, “In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risk” (Phillips 2014).

 

 (752 Words).

 

Reference

By, R.T. (2005) ‘Organisational change management: A Critical Review’. Journal of change management. 5 (4). [Online]. Available from < https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233604011_Organizational_Change_Management_A_Critical_Review> [14 March 2019].

Boohene, R., Williams, A.A. (2012) ‘Resistance to organizational change: A case study of oti yeboah complex limited’. 2 (4). [Online]. Available from                                                                                                                                                                                 <www.cscanada.net/index.php/ibm/article/download/j.ibm.1923842820120401…/pdf> [14 March 2019].

 

Cohan, P. (2018) ‘Successful Leadership Turbocharged Microsoft’s Value by $ 430 Billion’. Inc [online] 11^th April. Available from                                                                                                                           <https://www.inc.com/kevin-j-ryan/adidas-future-lab-video.html> [13^th March 2019].

Craig, W. (2017) ‘Successful Tips for leading your team through change’. Forbes [online] 12^th December. Available from                                                                                                                           <https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2017/12/12/successful-tips-for-leading-your-team-through-change/#2b7b1d1a1c4b> [13^th March 2019].

Cummings, S., Bridgeman, T., Brown, K.G. (2016) ‘Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management’. 69 (1) 33-60. [Online]. Available from                                                                                                                                                                                 <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0018726715577707>                                [14 March 2019].

Ebongkeng, H (2018) Organizational change and performance [online] available from                                                                                <https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/142378/Helen%20Ebongkeng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y> [13 March 2019].

Fortt, J. (2017) ‘Microsoft plans thousands of job cuts in a sales staff overhaul to fuel cloud growth’. Cnbc [online] 6^th July. Available from                                                                                                                           <https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/06/microsoft-will-layoff-thousands-of-employees.html> [13^th March 2019].

Gershgorn, D. (2018) ‘Microsoft reshuffles to bring more AI into products’. Quartz  [online] 29^th March. Available from                                                                                                                           <https://qz.com/1240855/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-is-reorganizing-the-company-to-bring-more-ai-into-products/> [13^th March 2019].

Husain, Z. (2013) ‘Effective communication brings successful organizational change ’. 3 (2) [Online]. Available from                                                                                                                                                                                 <http://www.abrmr.com/myfile/conference_proceedings/Con_Pro_12315/7-dubai13.pdf> [14 March 2019].

Kotter, J.P. (2006) Leading Change why transformational effort fail [online] available from                                                                                <https://wdhb.org.nz/contented/clientfiles/whanganui-district-health-board/files/rttc_leading-change-by-j-kotter-harvard-business-review.pdf>                         [13 March 2019].

Lock, D (2018) Charting For Change in the workplace [online] available from                                                                                <https://www.humansynergistics.com/blog/culture-university/details/culture-university/2018/01/31/charting-for-change-in-the-workplace> [13 March 2019].

 

Mullins, L. J. (2010) Management & Organizational behavior [online] 9^th Edition available from                                     <http://www.mim.ac.mw/books/Management%20&%20Organisational%20Behaviour,%209th%20edition.pdf&gt; [18^th January 2019].

Molina, B. and Acohido, B. (2013) ‘Microsoft reshuffles company structure’. USA Today [online] 11^th July. Available from                                                                                                                           <https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/07/11/microsoft-restructuring/2508175/> [13^th March 2019].

Masunda, T (2015) An Evaluation of resistance to organizational change and its effect on employee productivity [online] available from                                                                                <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.877.2775&rep=rep1&type=pdf> [13 March 2019].

 

Pieterse, J. H., Caniels, M. CJ. , Homan, T. (2012) ‘Professional discourses and resistance to change. 25 (6). [Online]. Available from                                                                           <https://www.ou.nl/Docs/Faculteiten/MW/artikelen%20Thijs%20Homan/PIETERSE%20CANIELS%20AND%20HOMAN%202012%20-%20JOCM%2025(6).pdf> [14 March 2019].

Sarayreh, B.H., Khudair, H., Barakat, E.A. (2013) ‘Comparative study: The Kurt Lewin of change management’. 2 (4). [Online]. Available from                                                                                                                                                                                  <https://www.ijcit.com/archives/volume2/issue4/Paper020413.pdf>                                [14 March 2019].

Leadership and management styles are adapted vastly around the globe; however, the outcome of both are different. Lunenburg (2011) indicated that not all managers practice leadership and not all leaders possess management skills thereby making its activities unique. Mullins (2010) stated that management activities contains five elements which managers abide with to achieve their day to day operations such as planning, organizing, command, coordination and control. However, Yukl (2013) describes leadership based on the attributes practiced by the leader such as traits, values, skills, behavior, influence and also confidence. Managers provide directions to their subordinates and is a decision maker for any task given whereas a leader accepts anyone and guides them regardless of the consequences that may arise (Popovici 2012). Furthermore, Boharis and Vorria (n.d.) compared a process difference in a workplace between leaders and managers based on the Kotterman’s process shown in Figure 1 which are vision establishment, human development and networking, vision execution and vision outcome. Each process explains how managers and leaders characterize themselves in a workplace in order to achieve specific goals.

Figure 1-Management vs Leadership based on Kotterman 2006.

 

Situational Leadership Model

Situational approach is an approach designed by Hersey and Blanchard in 1969 in order to analyze different situations of leadership to attain the best outcome (Schweikle 2014). The author mentioned that this approach analyzes different situations which are defined based on the employee’s skills, competence and relation in order for a right leadership style in any specific situation. According to Blanchard (1985), the four basic leadership styles are S1 which is directing that includes high directive and low support, S2 is high directive and high support leadership referred to as coaching, S3 as high supportive and low directive leadership defined as supporting and S4 which is low support and low directive leader labelled as delegating.

Figure 2-Situational Leadership model.

 

Advantages and Disadvantages

Situational leadership model is effective in a workplace as it can be used to train leaders in an organization to become effective in leadership (Shonhiwa 2016). Moreover, the author mentioned that this model is practical and easily adapted in various settings resulting in a more direct approach. Despite its advantages, this model has its limitations. A leader may face significant amount of pressure in analyzing situations before making the calls (Kokemuller 2018). Shonhiwa (2016) noted that this model does not clearly explain how commitment combines with competence to form the four model based on S1, S2, S3 and S4.

CMI 2013

Referring to the statement on CMI 2013 by Chartered Management institute I would agree to it as adopting appropriate style would assist managers to build trust, respect, establish good rapport and building good working relationships in an organization (CMI 2015).

Tim Cook (CEO of Apple) A situational leader

Figure 3-Apples Current CEO Tim Cook.

 

Apples CEO -Tim Cook is a great example of a situational leader. Notably, Cook maintains a low profile and prefers to share the limelight it with innovators (Dicob 2016). Furthermore, Dicob (2016) mentioned that many had doubted Tim Cook from his predecessor Steve Jobs but he has proven himself to the company and the consumers. Besides, Tim Cook used his situational leadership skills to address the US government to obtain security information of customers by not fulfilling the request as it may risk the consumers (Dicob 2016). Tim Cook fully emphasized on advancing Apples talent rather than practicing the legacy of Steve Job’s which was an autocratic leadership style (Investopedia 2018). Moreover, Tim Cook enforces Situational style on his teams where he looks at situations from all perspective and addresses the issue accordingly (Kraemer 2013).

 

Bad Leadership Style – EX-CEO of Uber Travis Kalanick

Figure 4-Uber Ex-CEO Travis Kalanick.

Travis Kalanick, Ex-CEO of Uber is classified as an example of bad leadership. Issues such as sexual harassment, temper tantrums and a distinguished aggressive culture made Uber viral causing negative perceptions towards the leader (Leland 2017). Kalanick is held responsible for the toxic culture of the company as he had instilled it from the beginning (Dawson 2017). The author added that this toxic culture that was existent in Uber was a result of his personal aggression as there was a viral footage of him arguing with an Uber driver. Although his strength was to accomplish goals, the greatest weakness was his behavior in handling the organization (Kleinman 2017).

 

Conclusion

Based on theories and examples above, I would prefer to be led by a situational style leadership due to its flexibility and practicality. A leader could analyze the competency of my job and use an appropriate situational style to lead in order for me to succeed. In a nutshell, there are varieties of leadership styles but choosing the right approach in an organization is vital as it will give a positive influence on employees.

(784 Words).

 

Reference

Bohoris, G, A, and Vorria, E.P. (n.d.) ‘Leadership vs management’. [online]. Available from < https://www.ep.liu.se/ecp/026/076/ecp0726076.pdf > [27 February2019].

Blanchard, K.H. (1985) ‘A situational approach to managing people’. [online] 9^th October. Available from                                                                                                                                                <https://www.talent.wisc.edu/download/supervisor/pdf/BLANCHARD-A%20Situational%20Approach.pdf&gt; [27 February2019].

CMI (2015) Understanding management and leadership styles checklist 256 [online] available from                                                                                <https://www.managers.org.uk/~/media/Files/Checklists/CHK-256-Understanding_Management_and_Leadership_Styles.pdf > [26 February 2019].

Dawson, J. (2017) ‘Travis Kalanick has no one but himself to blame for uber’s toxic company culture’. recode [online] 2^nd march. Available from                                                          < https://www.recode.net/2017/3/2/14794092/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-company-culture-toxic-values&gt; [26 February2019].

Dicob, J.K. (2016) ‘Tim cook – A situational leader’ [online] available from                                                                                <https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2016/03/22/tim-cook-a-situational-leader/>                          [28 February 2019].

INVESTOPEDIA. (2018) ‘What is Tim cook’s managerial style’. Investopedia [online] 9^th October. Available from                                                                                                                                           <https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032515/what-tim-cooks-managerial-style.asp&gt; [27 February2019].

Kokemuller, N. (2018) ‘Negative of a situational leadership style’. azcentral [online] 5^th April. Available from                                                                                                                                           <https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/negatives-situational-leadership-style-12378.html&gt; [27 February2019].

kraemer, H.M.J (2013) ‘Tim Cook is not a nice guy-and that’s a compliment. [online] 6^th April. Available from                                                                                                                                                <https://qz.com/71571/tim-cook-is-not-a-nice-guy-and-thats-a-compliment/>                    [15 March 2019].

Leland, K.T. (2017) ‘Why Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is a toxic boss and must go’. Inc [online] 13^th June. Available from                                                                                                <https://www.inc.com/karen-tiber-leland/how-uber-ceo-travis-kalanicks-toxic-boss-behaviors-could-cost-him-the-company.html&gt; [26 February2019].

Lunenberg, F.C. (2011) ‘Leadership versus management A Key Distinction’. International Journal of management, business and administration. 14 (1).[online]. Available from<https://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/comp3120/local_docs/readings/Lunenburg_LeadershipVersusManagement.pdf>%5B26 February 2019].

Mullins, L. J. (2010) Management & Organizational behavior [online] 9^th Edition available from                                     <http://www.mim.ac.mw/books/Management%20&%20Organisational%20Behaviour,%209th%20edition.pdf&gt; [18^th January 2019].

Popovici, V. (2012) ‘Similarities and differences between management and leadership’. University of Targu Jiu, Economy series. 2 [online].  Available from                                             <https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f5b7/23431b15cfcc69bef630298775476e360c9a.pdf>%5B25 February 2019].

Shonhiwa, C. Dr. (2016) ‘An Examination of the situational leadership approach:Strength and weakness’. An international peer-reviewed journal on humanities & social sciences. 2 (2), 25-40. [online].                                                                   Available from                                                                      <http://crosscurrentpublisher.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/CC2235-40.pdf>%5B28 February 2019].

Schweikle, N.B. (2014) ‘Situational Leadership’ [online] available from                                                                                <https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/82414/schweikle_nataly.pdf?sequence=1&gt; [28 February 2019].

Yukl, G. (2013) Leadership in Organizations [online] 8^th Edition available from                                       <https://businessksu.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/leadership_in_organizations__8th_edition____yukl__gary_a_.pdf> [18^th January 2019].

The challenge of managing diverse teams

Diverse teams or workforce diversity in a modern context refers to the differences of background primarily race, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation and natural origins (Lynn et al 2009). Due to business globalization, Swinton & Hudson (2014) describes that embracement of diversity in an organization is vital as it benefits the economy of a particular country. Moreover, diversity management in an organization is designed to promote equal opportunity and prevents discrimination which values differences and recognizes unique talents and perspective within the workforce (Mullins 2010).

Figure 1 Diversed Organisation (source: The Irish Times)

 

Advantages of Managing Diverse Team

Diverse teams promote creativity, better problem solving skills, increases innovation, agility, reducing conflict, quicker adaption for change and diversity climate indicating lower intent to leave (Bacik & Turakova 2018). Besides, the author also stated that a research by Mckinsey & Company based on 1000 companies across 12 countries proved that a racially diverse workforce boosts sales revenue and market shares. Notably, employees with diverse background are more productive and satisfied with their jobs leading to better business connection between customers (Dixit & Bajpai 2015).

 

Challenges of a diverse team

While diverse teams have positive values; studies do show that they do not actually perform better as they lack communication with their own community and commitment to their organization (Dixit & Bajpai 2015). Additionally, there are employees who are reluctant to embrace change and if the company does not handle it well, the initial intentions may not benefit the company (Anita & Swamy 2018).  Furthermore, challenges such as similarity attraction and self-categorization occurs in organizations resulting in team members preferring to associate with people who share similar beliefs, thoughts and attitudes (Guver & Motschnig 2017). The author explained that social and self-categorization could contribute to conflict, anxiety, individual turn over and trust among team members.

Recommendation Model for Managers

Tuckman Model

Managers could utilize the Team Development Model developed by Dr. Bruce Tuckman in 1965 to aid in managing a diverse group (Mullins 2010). Mullins (2010) describes Tuckman’s model incorporates the five stages of group development and relationship which are forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. According to Nestor (2013), Tuckman noted that there are three issues determining a team’s performance namely content, process and feelings that can result in an underperforming team. The author described that issues were addressed during the performing stage when the team starts focusing on completing the tasks. Notably, virtual teams are increasing significantly and the Tuckman’s model provides the flexibility to a team while maintaining its structure (Nestor 2013). However, limitations are identified in this model as there are no clear explanations on how a group changes over time (Bonebright 2010).

 

Figure 2: Tuckman Model 5 stages of team development.

 

Belbin Team Roles

Managers should also weigh and utilize other models such as Belbin Team Roles in addition to the Tuckman model as it helps in improving the team’s development by providing team members with insights on their performance (Stanwick 2017). While not all skills are needed concurrently, team leaders should look into the team’s objectives and prioritize tasks accordingly to its importance (Belbin 2019).

Diversity Industry Leader (Accenture)

Figure 3: Accenture known for workplace diversity

Accenture ranked the first in workplace diversity and is listed as one of the top 10 most diverse companies in 2018 based on a study done by Thomson Reuters (Gassam 2018). Gassam (2018) noted that the secret towards workplace success are setting diversity goals, representation of diverse talents and implementing diversity and inclusion from top management.  CEO of Accenture in North America, Julie Sweet stated that a diverse workplace helps a consulting firm attract and retain its skilled talents (Dantes 2019). The author added that Accenture has currently 459,000 people in the workforce globally with a representation of 42% being women and is targeting to reach an equal representation of male and female employees by 2025. Accenture is committed to boost equality for all by launching the #GettingtoEqual seminar in collaboration with international women’s day which can motivate and strive towards achieving the 2025 balance workforce goal (Accenture 2019).

Figure 4: Accenture Promotes equality

 

Conclusion

Diverse workforce is becoming increasingly vital for a company that strives for innovation and their leaders must be prepared and equipped to meet the demands. A good leader should analyze their surroundings and accept employees regardless of differences by providing equality to all. Diverse teams bring high value to the organization and it is important to respect individual differences by creating a competitive edge and productivity (Green et al 2002).

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Accenture (2018) ‘Accenture Ranks no 1 on Thomson reuters index of world most diverse and inclusive companies. Accenture Newsroom [online] 6^thSeptember. Available from                                                                                  <https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/accenture-ranks-no-1-on-thomson-reuters-index-of-worlds-most-diverse-and-inclusive-companies.htm/>                            [8 February2019].

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Bacik, R. and Turakova, A. (2018) ‘Diversity management as a Competitive Advantage source of the successful company’. Journal of global Science[online]. Available from<http://jogsc.com/pdf/2018/2/diversity.pdf>[7 February 2019].

Belbin. (2019) The Nine Belbin Team Roles [online] available from                                     <https://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles/&gt; [7 February 2019].

Bonebright, D. A. (2010) ‘40 years of storming: a historical review of Tuckman’s model of small group development’. Human Resource Development International [online] 1 (13), 111-120. Available from <https://www.academia.edu/4261494/Review_of_tuckmans_model?auto=download&gt; [7 February 2019].

Bussinessballs (2018) Tuckman Forming storming norming performing model [online] available from <https://www.businessballs.com/team-management/tuckman-forming-storming-norming-performing-model /> [7 February 2019].

Dantes, D.  (2019) ‘Accenture CEO: Diversity and Inclusion Starts from Within’. Fortune [online] 9^thJanuary. Available from                                                                           <http://fortune.com/2019/01/08/accenture-ceo-julie-sweet-ceo-initiative/>                     [8 February 2019].

Dixit, P. and Bajpai, B.L. Dr. (2015) ‘Managing Workforce Diversity in Competitive Environment’. International Journal of Business and Management Invention. 1 (4), 1-11.[online]. Available from<https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6b15/fa8f24137f2a8535a7f497c280f9f39645ba.pdf >[9 February 2019].

Gassam,J. (2018) ‘The 10 Most Diverse companies of 2018’. Forbes [online] 11^thOctober. Available from                                                          <https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2018/10/11/the-10-most-diverse-companies-of-2018/#66ce9b8b1404/>[7 February 2019].

Guver, S.,Motschnig, R. (2017) ‘Effect of Diversity in teams and workgroup’. International journal of Business, humanities and Technology [online] 2 (7), 6-34. Available from <http://www.ijbhtnet.com/journals/Vol_7_No_2_June_2017/2.pdf&gt; [7 February 2019].

Green, K., Lopes, M., Wysocki, A, Kepner, K., Farnsworth, D., and Clark, J. L. (2012) Diversity in Workplace [online] available from <https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/HR/HR02200.pdf/&gt; [7 February 2019].

Hudson,J.S.W. (2014) ‘Diversity in the workforce’. Journal of Education and human Development[online] 4 (3), 73-82. Available from <http://jehdnet.com/journals/jehd/Vol_3_No_4_December_2014/7.pdf&gt; [6 February 2019].

Lynn, M.S.,Chung-harera, B.G., Michelle A, Ehrhart, K. H., Jung, Don, I., Randel, A.E. And Singh, G. (2019) ‘Diversity in organizations: Where are we now and where are we going?’.Human Resource management review.[online]. Available from <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223029820_Diversity_in_organizations_Where_are_we_now_and_where_are_we_going/download&gt; [9 February 2019].

Mullins, L. J. (2010) Management & Organizational behavior [online] 9^th Edition available from                                     <http://www.mim.ac.mw/books/Management%20&%20Organisational%20Behaviour,%209th%20edition.pdf&gt; [18^th January 2019].

Nestor, R. (2013) ‘Bruce Tuckman’s Team Development Model’ [online] available from                                                               < https://www.lfhe.ac.uk/download…/3C6230CF-61E8-4C5E-9A0C1C81DCDEDCA2/

/> [7 February 2019].

Stanwick (2017) ‘Tuckman and Belbin go hand in hand’ [online] available from                                                               <https://stanwick.be/en/blog/tuckman-and-belbin-go-hand-hand/&gt; [7 February 2019].

 

Leadership and Ethics 

Leadership is defined as a set of skills which drives the influence, interaction and behavior of a person in a group or organization in order to achieve a specific set of goals (Yuki 2013) whereas Mullins (2010) described leadership as the use of getting others to execute things willingly and exercising authority in decision making.

Ethical leadership is vital and should be practiced in organizations as it could pave the way to profitability and investor confidence. An ethical leader applies fairness to all within the organization based on key criteria’s such as moral values, needs and rights of the employers (Mullins 2010).

Notably, there are two theories governing ethics which are deontological ethics and teleological ethics. According to BBC (2014), deontological ethics involve actions of doing the right thing which produces positive consequences. Deontological ethics practices positive moral values at all times which avoids killing, stealing, or even lying.  However, the negative impact of this practice as perceived by philosopher Kant was illustrated through lying to protect a friend from danger was deemed wrong. Conversely, teleological ethics is based on results or consequences. BBC (2014) quotes that teleological ethics is a principle based on two elements which include observing the results to see if an act is right or wrong and the consequences of an act depends on how right the act is considered. Albeit this principle is flexible as multiple amount of circumstances are acceptable, individuals should identify and carefully study the consequences of their actions before making a decision.

Ethical leadership model which was founded by Dr. Bill Grace is based on faith and ethics. This led to the development of the 4-V model on ethical leadership which sets the internal beliefs and values followed by the actions (Kar n.d.). According to Kar (n.d.), Bill Grace’s four pillars are based on values, vision, voice and virtue. Values indicate the understanding on the individual’s core value by discovering the identity of once self, choices made and personal civic lives. Vision is depicted by the ability for others to see the real picture on how the actions ought to be. Voice demonstrates the process of executing our vision to others by claiming our voice and finally virtue determines the ethics of a leader and by practicing this behavior enables an individual to analyze between right and wrong.

Figure 1: 4-V Model by Dr Bill Grace

 

The CEO of Apple – Tim Cook can be considered as an ethical leader. In the year 2017, Apple admitted that their IOS software had caused the older iPhone models to slow down resulting in a drastic drop in performance in order to protect the batteries that can shutdown unexpectedly (Leswing 2017). According to Mills (2018), the CEO apologized for the iPhone battery’s miscommunication and explained the battery’s designated function as some customers assumed this move as planned obsolescence. Additionally, apart from the full apology from the CEO, Apple had offered customers a battery replacement program at only USD 29 from its normal USD 79 price in order to regain customer satisfaction and improve the older iPhone performance again (Mills 2018). In 2019, Apple reported that they replaced 10 times more than the expected batteries amounting to 11 million iPhones from an initial target of 2 million iPhones (Haselton 2019).

An unethical leadership example would be Elizabeth Holmes – CEO of Theranos, a US company which was invented to revolutionize the blood test industry but was charged with fraud (Robbins 2018). The author added that the company faced accusations in 2016 by deceiving the investors on the usage of hi-tech equipment for blood testing which was claimed to be accurate. In actual fact, majority of the blood tests were carried out by machines from other companies. Besides, the company mislead investors into believing that their device was also used in the Department of Defense. This misguided investment caused investors to lose nearly USD 1 billion due to the collapse of the company and the laying off of staffs which eventually led to the company winding up in 2018 (Huddleston 2018). Elizabeth Holmes who was once known to be one of the most successful female entrepreneurs valued at USD 9 billion has now become a bittersweet history (Abelson 2018).

It can be established that ethical leadership is vital for an organization to lead employees to build good relationship, trust, integrity and transparency in order to attain sustainable growth and success (Duggan 2018). Besides, an ethical leader should consider weighing both Deontological and Teleological ethic principle before making decisions. With good ethical values, all decision making can be executed confidently to steer the company to greater heights and instilling confidence in both current and prospective investors.

(779 Words)

References

Abelson, R. (2018) ‘Theranos is Shutting Down’ .The New York Times[online] 5^th September. Available from                                                                                                                                     <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/health/theranos-shutting-down.html/&gt; [21 January 2019].

BBC (2014) Consequentialism [online] available from <http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/consequentialism_1.shtml/&gt; [23rd January 2019].

BBC (2014) Duty based Ethics[online] available from <Duwww.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/duty_1.shtml#h1/> [23rd January 2019].

Duggan, T. (2018) ‘what are the key elements of ethical leadership in an organization’’.AZcentral [online] 18^thApril. Available from                                                                                                                                     <https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/key-elements-ethical-leadership-organization-8819.html/&gt; [24 January 2019].

Haselton, T. (2019) ‘Apple reportedly replaced about 10 times more iphone batteries than expected to’.CNBC[online] 15^th January. Available from                                                           <https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/15/apple-upgraded-10-to-11-million-batteries-according-to-report.html/&gt; [23 January2019].

Huddleston Jr, T. (2018) ‘Infamous blood testing company Theranos is shutting down-look back at some of the top revelations about its demise’’.CNBC[online] 5^th September. Available from                                <https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/05/theranos-shutting-down–look-back-at-revelations-from-bad-blood.html/&gt; [21 January 2019].

Kar, S. DR. (nd) ‘Ethical Leadership: best Practice for Success ’. Journal of bussiness and Management[online]112-116. Available fromhttp://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/ICIMS/Volume-1/14.pdf> [23^rd January 2019].

Lee, S. (2018) ‘Tim Cook apologizes, says iphone users can disable battery slowdowns in next iOS update’.Siliconbeat[online] 18^th January. Available from                                                           <http://www.siliconbeat.com/2018/01/18/tim-cook-apologizes-says-iphone-users-can-disable-battery-slowdowns-next-ios-update/&gt; [22 January 2019].

Leswing, K. (2017) ‘Tim cook needs to take responsibility for apples battery scandal’ .Business Insider [online] 30^th December. Available from                                                                                                                                     <https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-needs-to-take-responsibility-for-apple-iphone-battery-scandal-2017-12/?IR=T/&gt; [24 January 2019].

Mills, C. (2018) ‘Apple CEO Tim Cook ‘deeply apologizes’ for iphone battery ‘miscommunication’’.BGR[online] 17^th January. Available from                                                           <https://bgr.com/2018/01/17/tim-cook-iphone-battery-apology-interview-replacement/&gt; [22 January 2019].

Mills, C. (2018) ‘Apple CEO Tim Cook ‘deeply apologizes’ for iphone battery ‘miscommunication’’.BGR [online] 17^th January. Available from                                                           <https://bgr.com/2018/01/17/tim-cook-iphone-battery-apology-interview-replacement/&gt; [22 January 2019].

Mullins, L. J. (2010) Management & Organizational behavior [online] 9^th Edition available from                                     <http://www.mim.ac.mw/books/Management%20&%20Organisational%20Behaviour,%209th%20edition.pdf&gt; [18^th January 2019].

Robbins, R. (2018) ‘Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes Charged with Fraud’’.SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN[online] 14^th March. Available from                                            <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/theranos-and-elizabeth-holmes-charged-with-fraud/&gt; [21 January 2019].

Weinstein, B. (2017) ‘Apple CEO Tim Cook Does This Every Day Amd So Should You’.Forbes[online] 10^th June. Available from                                                           <https://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceweinstein/2017/06/10/apple-ceo-tim-cook-does-this-every-day-and-so-should-you/#1b6e884124ac/&gt; [23 January 2019].

Yukl, G. (2013) Leadership in Organizations [online] 8^th Edition available from                                       <https://businessksu.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/leadership_in_organizations__8th_edition____yukl__gary_a_.pdf> [18^th January 2019].

 

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton