Discussion Questions 14/07/2014

Assignment Cover

Course code: MBA505

Course name: Essentials of Business and Leadership Skills

Assignment title: Final Assignment Study Case

Instructor’s name: Dr.Alex Bennett

Student’s name:

Leader Panagiota Giannakopoulou

Assistant Leader Konstandina Giannakopoulou

Participant Giannis Panagiotou

Participant Giorgos Panagiotopoulos

Date: 14/07/2014

Comments

Grade: /100

Discussion Questions 14/07/2014

1. Chapter 3:
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 ''Strategic Leadership and Management - the Integration of Change,
Motivation and Communication in Organizational Leadership" (Max 2000
Words)

According to the U.S. Army War College, (USAWC), strategic leadership is

defined as Strategic leadership is the process used by a leader to affect the
achievement of a desirable and clearly understood vision by influencing the
organizational culture, allocating resources, directing through policy and directive,
and building consensus within a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous global
environment which is marked by opportunities and threats (Magee, 1998, ed.). While,
on the other hand, management can be defined as a set of activities directed at an
organization’s resources human, financial, physical, and information) with the aim of
achieving organizational goals in an efficient and effective manner (Griffin, 1999).

Virtually, strategic leadership gives the vision and direction for the
development and success of an organization. In order to effectively deal with change
within an organization, all directors need the abilities and tools for both strategy
formality and execution. Making switch demands strategic leaders who not only
contribute a sense of direction, but who can also create ownership of goals and order
within their working teams to proceed change.

Hence, strategic leadership essentially means using strategy in the

management of employees. The major strategy commonly employed in a strategic
type of leadership is to galvanize workers to take the initiative to enhance their
productive input into the organization. Strategic leadership is a management style that
practices and inspires workers to best arrange the company for the future.

In recent times, researchers’ interest in understanding the nature of

leadership is relationship to motivation has been fuelled by a striking commonality
among successful leaders with regards to their spiritual propensities. More so, now
that the issues such as business ethics, social responsibility and meaningfulness in
work are taking prominence in organizations, the need for research is being felt to
understand leadership from holistic dimensions. Traditionally, leadership and
motivation exist as two independent concepts, but leadership without motivation is a
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state of “abridged development”, a state that can be described as an atom/without a
nucleus. The relationship between motivation and leadership is fundamental in nature
and spans across various leadership styles - theories.

The literature on the relationship between leadership and management

culture and change, motivation and communication that many commentators note on
that the performance of an organization is exclusively dependent on the conscious
alignment of leadership values with the espoused values of company’s strategy. This
clearly indicates that the organizational culture and leadership are linked inextricably. 

One way of uncovering the relationship between culture and leadership is to

examine how culture has been conceptualized in organizational leadership. Smircich
(1983) identifies two approaches to the study of the cultural phenomena in
organizations: Culture as an organizational variable, then change, motivation and
communication culture which can be manipulated. Thus the nature, direction, and
impact of such manipulation are dependent on the skills and abilities of the leader.
The majority of the literature which extols the virtues of transformational leadership
demonstrates widespread support for this view (for example, Nicholls, 1988; Quick,
1992; Simms, 1997).

In contrast, if we change, motivation and communication in a organizational

environment seen as they can be an integral part of the organization, as the thinking,
feeling, and responses of leaders are molded by the culture (Bass and Avolio, 1993;
Schein, 1992). Schein (1992) observes that organizational culture and leadership are
intertwined. He illustrates this inter-connection by looking at the relationship between
leadership and organizational behavior in the context of the organizational life cycle.
Thus, during the process of organizational formation, the founder of a company may
create an organization which might reflect their values and beliefs. In this sense, the
founder creates and shapes the communication traits of their organization.

However, as the organization develops and time lapses, the created

management of the organization exerts each influence on the leader and shapes the
actions and style of each creator. Though this dynamic ongoing process, the leader
creates and is in turn shaped by the organizational culture. To summarize the
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consensus of links between organizational culture and leadership, Bass and Avolio
(1993) mirror the argument of Schein (1992) by suggesting that the relationship
between the two concepts represents an ongoing interplay in which the leader shapes
the change and motivation and is in turn is being shaped by the resulting culture.

Yet, it is arguable that the academic acceptance of change, motivation and

communication in organizational leadership without the continuing usable squabbles
and skepticism associated with new concepts, is a major indication of the perceived
importance of the concept (Alvesson, 1990). However, this is not to infer that there is
a consensus on the meaning and relevance of the concept. On the contrary, there is a
widespread disagreement on the definition and scope of the organizational leadership
concept (Ogbonna and Harris, 1998a).

Organizations need to change and innovate in the response of changing

environment. Organizational innovation needs to identify the new ways to deal with
the things, which may lead an organization to provide a collective resource for
innovation (Vadim Koteliikov, 2004). In this case, effective leadership is always
required to bring effective changes (Kennedy, 2000).

Brookfield highlight the importance of culture while addressing the issue

of organizational change, he mentions some roadblocks which can affect the change
management efforts, which include the secrecy culture, the individualism culture and
silence culture (Brookfield, 1995). However, the competent leadership can handle and
manage such problems. According to Gruban (2003) the competence is an ability to
manage knowledge and other skills and capabilities.

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Leadership Competences for Effective Change Management

(Pagon. M, Banutai .B & Bizjak, 2008, p 4)

Thus, it is pertinent to note three main issues. First, many researchers note

that treating leadership as a unitary concept reduces its value as an analytic tool (for

example, Martin, 1992; Ogbonna and Harris, 1998a; Pettigrew, 1979). Second, culture

cannot be equated to power and political systems or climate changes (Denison, 1996;

Riley, 1983; Schein, 1986); and, third, there is a disagreement on whether

organizational change and motivation culture can be easily changed or not (Legge,

1994; Ogbonna, 1993).

Furthermore, there are many facets to effective organizational leadership.

The most important facets however is integrity, change and motivation. Leaders are

important to individuals, to organizations and to nations. As Hofstede G (2000) stated

leaders are the personification of integrity of how institutions are run. They set

examples of how to use integrity, change and motivation in business dealings and

with individual personal behavior. (Hofstede G 2000). One of the main differences

between management and leadership is integrity.

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 All one has to do is look to recent history to see how unethical leadership

leads to failed organizations. Some of the most known companies such as Apple is

one example of how leaders of a multi-billion dollar corporation, by ethical business

practices, have benefited the lives of thousands. Nicholson, J.D (1991) has explicitly

shown that if the officers of others companies had also the right integrity and

motivation they would’ve been empathetic to the livelihood of others. Instead of

lining their own pocket, they would’ve done what’s right if they had integrity

(Nicholson, J.D 1991).

Go back throughout history. Yang, J. (2000) has fathered the idea that

leaders without integrity and motivation of all types of organizations have been the

cause of failed churches, businesses and even nations. (Yang, J. 2000) .The current

economic condition is yet another example of leadership without integrity. The

officers of lending institutions put integrity aside to increase the bottom line in the

short run. A true leader, through the virtues of integrity, would have been empathetic

to the detrimental effects on others. There are three main factors of what constitutes

integrity and opportunity in motivating a leader:

 Trust

 Honesty

 Empathy

Trust is the essence of integrity in leadership motivation. Without trust you

cannot have integrity. In an organization, a leader that is not trusted by their

subordinates in essences is not a true leader. He or she may be ambitious and

competent, but without trust they cannot have integrity and will fail as a leader.

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Managers for example may be ambitious and competent, but they will never be an

effective leader without the trust of their subordinates.

Honesty is the precursor to trust. A leader must be truthful and honest when

interacting with subordinates, as well as others in an organization. Once a leader is

perceived to be dishonest, they are also thought to be untrustworthy. The only types of

individuals that would place trust in a dishonest person are those individuals that are

dishonest. Empathy in a sense means to put one's self into someone else’s shoes and

to truly understand how they feel about a given situation. A true leader should

demonstrate empathy by their actions and how they treat others. An extremely

important part of gaining trust is to truly understand how someone else feels. Myers,

R. H. (1996) have once stated that a true leader pulls people into accomplishing their

goals, not through coercion but through empathy for the feeling of others (Myers, R.

H. 1996).

Consequently, according to our best of knowledge, it is generally

believed that there are many competencies for a true leader to shine, but in reality

there are three main components for effective leadership, change, motivation and

integrity. Also, effective leadership starts with honesty, trust and empathy.

In case of lawyers, taking into account that the world is changing in a

breathtaking pace, today, lawyers are called to face challenges of great complexity

and continuously changing dynamic relationships in both the domestic and the global

environment with regards to corporate governance, civil and human rights etc. The

key to successfully addressing the aforementioned issues is effective leadership in all

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the sectors of employment of lawyers from legislation positions to managing positions

in private law firms and corporations.

As Alison Frankel,(2006) has stated that despite the importance given to the

effective leadership concept lately in commencement speeches, numerous books and

researches, a considerable number of law scholars are arguing that involvement of

legal education in enhancing the ability of law students to evolve to effective leaders

is not adequate, and even in some cases absent. (Alison Frankel, 2006).

According to the paper of Deborah Rhode (2013) Deborah L. Rhode

(“Lawyers and Leadership, Stanford University 2013), the inadequate number of

courses and activities relating to building important leadership skills moves parallel to

the inadequate approach of legal ethics in law schools. Quite a few law scholars have

supported in the past that legal ethics cannot be taught and they are depended on the

personality and the values that the law student already possess when he enrolls at law

school. Accordingly, the introduction of leadership related courses and activities in

the curricula of law schools were considered useless. (Deborah Rhode 2013).

The new reality, though, rings the bell and requests a re-consideration of

the facts. More and more surveys, as those cited in the aforementioned paper of

Professor Deborah Rhode and the paper of Professor Ben Heineman (2005) (“Law

and Leadership”, HLS) support that the effective leadership is not exclusively

depended on certain traits of the personality of the leader, such as practical wisdom,

deliberation, self-awareness etc. It is a series of qualities and skills that can be taught

and cultivated through the appropriate legal education. According to Professor

Heinenman, the effective leadership is expanded as a definition to include qualities of

Discussion Questions 14/07/2014

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mind, such as the ability to be constructive and creative, the ability to find a fair

balance between competing values, the ability understand how to make the rules

reality, the ability to obtain a global understanding of international affairs and

numerous other abilities that refer to the ability of the lawyer to realize the world

around him and work constructively to make it a better place. (Ben Heineman 2005).

Legal education can help law students to cultivate the necessary skills in order t think

out of the box and bring the most welcomed change in key sectors both in the public

and private practice that will affect beneficially the whole society. It is worth thinking

that lawyers occupy some of the most important positions for the welfare of the

society, such legislation, counselors in big corporations, judges etc that if approached

with a vision and the most needed leadership skills could provide an adequate solution

in the complex problems and issues of our societies.

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REFERENCES:

1. Alison Frankel, 2006 Am 100 Law Firms Feel Growing Pains, Am. Law.

May 1, 2006.

2. Alvesson, M. ‘Good visions, bad micro-management and ugly ambiguity:

contradictions of (non-)leadership in a knowledge-intensive organization’

Organization Studies vol. 24 no. (6) pp. 961–988. (2003).

3. Bass, B. M. and Avolio, B. J. ‘Potential biases in leadership measures:

how prototypes, leniency, and general satisfaction relate to ratings and

rankings of transformational and transactional leadership constructs’.

4. Ben Heineman "America's most noteworthy railroaders". Railroad

History 154: pp. 9–15.

5. Brookfield, S. D (1995), Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San

Francisco: Jossey- Bass, pp 1-296.

6. Deal. T & Kennedy. A (2000) Corporate Cultures, The Rites and Rituals

of Corporate Life. Perseus Publishing.

7. Deborah L.Rhode-Ernest W McFarland Professor of Law Stanford

University. Retrieved May 17, 2013.

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 8. Denison, D.R. (1996) Corporate Culture and Organisational

Effectiveness. New York: Wiley.

9. Griffin, R. W. (1999). Management.(6thed.).Boston, MA: Houghton

Mifflin.

10. Gruban, B. (2003). Kompetence: moda, ki traja že štiri desetletja.

Finance, No 168 PP 5-19.

11. Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values,

behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks,

CA: Sage.

12. Koteliikov. V (2004), Organizational Innovation, Managing Innovation,

pp 62-64.

13. Legge, K. (1994) ‘Managing Culture: Fact or Fiction’. In Sisson, K. (ed.)

Personnel Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice

in Britain. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 397–433.

14. Magee, R. R. II (1998) (Ed.).Strategic leadership primer. Carlisle

Barracks, PA: U.S. Army War College.

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15. Martin, J. (1992) Cultures in Organizations: Three Perspectives. New

York: Oxford University Press.

16. Myers, R. H. (1996). Motivation with evolution for Organizational

Leadership. December, 1072-1090.

17. Nichols, E. ‘Too strong to stop, too sweet to lose; Aesthetics as a way to

know organizations’ Organization vol. 3 no. (2) pp. 189–94. (1996)

18. Nicholson, J. D. (1991). The relationship between cultural values, work

belief, and attitudes towards socio-economic issues: A cross cultural

study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida State University

19. Ogbonna, E. (1993) ‘Managing Organizational Culture: Fantasy or

Reality?’, Human ResourceManagement Journal, 3(2): 42–54.

20. Ogbonna, E. and Harris, L.C. (1998a) ‘Organizational Culture: It’s Not

What You Think . . .’, Journal of General Management, 23(3): 35–48.

21. Pagon. M, Banutai. E & Bizjak. U (2008), Leadership competencies for

successful change management, a preliminary study report, University of

Maribor, Slovenia, pp 1-25.

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22. Pettigrew, A.M. (1979) ‘On Studying Organizational Cultures’,

Administrative Science Quarterly, 24: 570–81.

23. Quick, B. ‘Attribution of influence and charisma to the leader: the

romance of leadership revisited’ Journal of Applied Social Psychology

vol. 22 pp. 386–407. (1992).

24. Riley, P. (1983) ‘A Structurationist Account of Political Culture’,

Administrative ScienceQuarterly, 28: 414–37.

25. Schein, E. H. (1992) Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2nd edn.

San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

26. Schein, E.H. (1986) ‘What You Need to Know About Your Organizational

Culture’, Training and Development Journal, 40(1): 30–3.

27. Sims, H. P. and Lorenzi, P. (1992). The New Leadership Paradigm.

Newbury Park: Sage.

28. Smircich, L. (1983) ‘Leadership as shared meanings’, in L. Pondy, ed. , P.

Frost, ed. , G. Morgan, ed. , and T.

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29. Yang, J. (2000). Fathering Change and Motivation. Adolescence,

35(140),731-745.

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