Leadership and mangement assignment 2020
Leadership and management plays vital role within the organization (Fischer, et al., 2016).
In the context of my experience at the working career as I was working at the Cochin Shipyard Limited for the past year as a Graduate Engineer my job profile was to work in ship repair department and I was in-charge of supervising repair vessels.
My job responsibilities also included preparing the quotations, invoices as well as monitoring the repair activities.
To accomplish my job responsibilities, it was essential for me to use effective leadership and management strategy. For this purpose, utilization of decision making skills, planning skills, problem solving skills, inter-relationship skills, etc. management related skills remain supportive for me to manage the team.
At the same time, utilization of leadership style according to the situational needs have supported me to lead the team in a right direction.
According to the views of Hallinger (2013), it is essential for the leader to develop trust and believe in the mind of the team members as it supports to develop intrinsic force to follow the leader.
Although I have given special consideration towards the utilization of transformational leadership style as it has enabled me to lead the employees while involving the employees to identify the need of change.
So, it enables to create a vision while developing an inspiration which has supported me to execute the change in a right direction.
At the same time, utilization of Kotter’s eight step change management remained assistive for me to make the team enable to accept the change and to work in the direction of change in an adequate manner (Nahavandi, 2016).
Kotter’s eight step change management model has assisted me to gain the trust of employees while motivating them to perform in the right direction for the accomplishment of organizational goal.
Kotter’s eight step change management
(Source: Reed, 2017)
According to the views of Reed (2017), Kotter’s eight step model, it is observed that countless leaders and organizations try to transform their strategies.
For this purpose, tis model remains assistive to develop effective strategy within the organization as it supports to develop the success factors while combining different methodologies.
The eight step of this framework remains supportive to implement the changes from intrinsic force.
So, as a leader, this strategy supports me to lead the team in the right direction while giving concern towards the success of the firm as well as towards the personal development of the employees (Özlen, & Zukic, 2013).
Moreover, while dealing within the organization, I gave special consideration towards the safety measurement, which has supported me to decrease the risk factor at the workplace and has assisted to increase the active participation of the team members within the organization (Özlen, & Zukic, 2013). Transformational leadership is defined as a leadership approach that causes change in individuals and social systems.
In its ideal form, it creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end goal of developing followers into leaders.
I have given huge consideration towards my team mates while working as an in-charge of supervising repair vessels.
I was focused towards situational leadership which was depending on the team and situational needs. It is identified that sometimes a teammate just needs a warm hug, whereas sometimes there is a need of recognition.
However, sometimes there is a need of vision or a new style of coaching. So, according to the situational need, I have utilized the leadership style as my end goal was to offer effective team performance.
Moreover, utilization of Gantt chart has allowed me to pre-schedule the work and resources. In like manner, utilization of project management software has made it easy to create effective Gantt charts.
Time management strategy has also enabled me to accomplish the given task by my team in a timely manner (Boyatzis, 2014).
These roles remain assistive for me to handle the military situation as military situation differ from general industry. In the context of military situation it is essential to accomplish the task in a timely manner without any delay while giving concern towards pre-planning and pre-scheduling so that on time issue cannot take place and the task will accomplish on time.
In the context of military situation, there is a need of quality working as well as urgency so it is essential to accomplish the task in a timely manner while giving consideration towards quality as in military, for a small mistake there is a chances of paying huge for the loss (Benmelech, & Frydman, 2015).
In the context of management and leadership in my job responsibility, I have to undergo from various challenges and changes.
There is uncharted territory and it is difficult to forecast that what changes will take place. My work profile is not just to do day-to-day operations but also to handle long series of obstacles and opportunities.
I need to take care of ship and need to give consideration towards any kind of damage which can take place any time at the ship. There is a challenge of taking care of ship in an adequate manner as damage can create a risk over many lives (Larsson, et al., 2016).
Due to this reason, military leadership situation remains differ from general situation. According to the views of Lake, et al. (2016), commanding is the classic model of military leadership style. This is the majorly used leadership style in military however, it is analysed that it is least often effective.
In this leadership style, there is rarely involvement of praise can be seen and frequently criticism from the side of employees can be seen.
Due to this reason, while working within the organization, I have given special consideration towards achieving the organizational goal while focusing towards employee morale and job satisfaction.
I found that commanding leadership style increases the employee turnover rate. I was especially concerned towards accomplishing the task in a timely manner. Utilization of Gantt chart remained highly assistive for detailed scheduling the work and resources (Sharma, & Jain, 2013).
Gantt charts remain highly assistive towards adequate project management in a right direction while evaluating various parameters in an adequate manner.
Lara, et al. (2014) stated that average retirement age of the workforce, varies state to state. At the same time, it is identified that in most of the cases, the states which have higher cost of living has the higher average retirement age. New England is one of the good examples of it.
The reason found behind it is that people in such places, need to work longer time span to afford the expenditure even after the retirement.
However, in the contrary, it is identified that in the states where unemployment rate is higher, the average retirement age is lower as the people who cannot become able to work adequately were forced to get retired, for instance, Appalachian region.
In these regions government also fixes lower age for retirement. From the survey, it is analysed that the average retirement age of American employees is 66 which was 63 in 2002.
However, Staubli, & Zweimüller (2013) determined that most of retirees do not become able to stay on the job that long and the average retirement age found within the organizations is 62.
At the Cochin Shipyard Limited, the average age for the retirement of workforce was 60.
According to me, this age is less as in this age; a worker has huge experience, skills and knowledge. So, loosing such a quality pool creates negative impact towards employee performance.
So, there is a need of increasing the age criteria within the organization. Giving concern towards this parameter will remain supportive for Cochin Shipyard Limited to increase the competitive advantage within the organization as human resource is the intellectual capital of the firm and no firm can survive in the industry without the human resource (Lara, et al., 2014).
At the same time, experienced employees remain supportive to lead the employees in the right direction while sharing their knowledge, information and interpretation skills.
So, according to me the retirement age within the organization should be 70. Although, I believe that after 60, the working capabilities of the human decreases so, firm can also utilize the strategy of appointing the employees for part time after the age of 60 which will support to get their active participation towards the organizational growth while eliminating the chances of getting fatigue (Dufouil, et al., 2014).
It will support to pass on the skills, knowledge and experience to the next generation which will support the firm to develop the intellectual property and will enable to maximize the company profit while attracting the stakeholders of the firm.
Additionally, it will enable to increase the trust of the employees over the management and employees will get the feeling of secure (Godfrey, et al., 2013).
It will also support the employees to understand their value towards the firm which will allow creating positive working environment and will support to decrease the chances of absenteeism and turnover rate.
In the context of “That is the national scene” in Section 9, it was analysed that the government is going to increase the retirement age of the maintenance workforce by 60- 65 by 2020.
However, according to Shattock (2013), if the experienced and skilled workforce gets retired at this early age then how knowledge and experience can be depart to the new employees.
In this scenario, it will become difficult to retain and transfer the knowledge of mature-aged key role people.
On the other hand, Amanchukwu, et al. (2015) identified that departure of knowledge and experience takes place when workers of whatever age leave the workplace for higher paid job opportunities.
Due to this reason, shortage of skills takes place and the workers shift to other countries, which decreases the availability of intellectual property. Experienced leaders have capability of handling the situation in an adequate manner.
He remains supportive to handle the chaos while giving concern towards various parameters (Frins, et al., 2016).
In this context, it is identified that experienced workforce remain supportive to embrace the working process while focusing towards stability as well as control which supports to resolve the issues while focusing towards increasing the work ability of the team.
On the other hand, Coppola, & Wilke (2014) stated that senior workforce remains supportive to explain the success story of the firm to the new employees which support to motivate them while developing sense of belongingness which support to increase the chances of success of the firm in the industry.
It supports to increase the organizational performance which enables to create long-term sustainability and competitive advantage within the industry.
So, there is a need of increasing the retirement age not only in the context of the firm but also government should also need to give consideration towards this parameter as it will allow to eliminate the chances of rejecting such a quality work pool (Dufouil, et al., 2014).
In the case of military, it is identified that the retirement age is earlier as compared to general industries.
However, after a particular age group a person decreases the capability of working but still they remain supportive towards the skill and knowledge development of the employees by offering them training.
There is a need of setting the plan for gradually raising the statutory retirement age. In the context of Cochin Shipyard Limited, it is identified that there are many experienced employees who are near to the age of retirement.
Losing these workforces can remain a big loss for the firm as they have given their great contribution towards the organizational growth (Nahavandi, 2016). So, firm needs to give consideration towards this parameter while focusing towards various parameters.
In addition, the consideration of these aspects makes a proper balance in the workforce capability that may lead to the achievement of organizational objectives.
This section of the study has supported to offer in-depth understanding regarding my successful achievement in introducing people empowerment.
For this purpose, I have taken an example as well which has supported to offer detailed understanding regarding the study topic.
This section has supported to understand my role as a team leader of repair vessels team.
While working as a leader I was especially concerned about the timely accomplishment of the task.
In the context of military situation, it is necessary to give concern towards this parameter as it enables to achieve the organizational goal in a timely manner. For this purpose, I have split the tasks into my team while focusing towards day time and night time.
Additionally, I was focused to accomplish the time consuming repairing task at night so that there is not interference take place.
For instance, blasting of ship hull is time consuming process as well as it requires more efforts too. So, to accomplish this task I have instructed my team to do this kind of repairing at night.
It enables to save huge time and enables to finish the repairing project within the scheduled time (Sharma, & Jain, 2013). Moreover, it has eliminated the situation of inconvenience for the people at the ship.
Moreover, I was especially concerned about the proper project planning. For this purpose, utilization of Gantt chart remained highly assistive as it has enabled me to offer detailed scheduling of the work as well as of the resources.
Gantt chart also supported me to time management and prioritizing the task on the basis of their urgency (Daft, 2014).
I have given special consideration towards effective leadership. For this purpose, I was concerned towards developing effective negotiation skills between the employees so that they can handle the situation in an adequate manner while giving concern towards eliminating the situation of conflicts.
Furthermore, I have utilized the strategy of offering the job profile to the team members in which they fit the best.
It supports them to perform in a proper manner and enables to increase the employee as well as organizational performance.
It has also enabled the employees to show active participation in the organization (Tourish, 2014). In like manner, it has decreased the level of stress so that positive working atmosphere has taken place and employees have shown good working performance.
Additionally, I have given special consideration towards motivating the employees for their performance.
In support of this, Černe, et al. (2013) stated that employee performance appraisal remains highly assistive to motivate and encourage performing better in the direction of achieving the organizational goal.
According to the views of Goleman, et al. (2013), the manager’s leadership style remains responsible for enhancing the bottom-line profitability of the firm.
Due to this reason, I have given special consideration towards improving the employee performance.
I have also given consideration towards proper training to the employees so that they can perform their job responsibility adequately with quality.
While training I also gave consideration towards making the people aware about the safety measures and have also trained them regarding risk handling.
These practices have assisted me to accomplish my job responsibilities with honesty and to increase the chances of success for overall team.
In the context of military situation, it is essential to give concern towards accomplishing the task in a scheduled time. So, this strategy has supported me to successful achievement of job task while utilizing the work force power adequately.
It has enabled me to motivate the employees in the right direction which has supported me to lead my team adequately. It has supported me to fulfil my job responsibility as a in-charge of supervising repair vessels.
There are strict rules and regulations in the organization as it is a military organization (Fischer, et al., 2016).
So in that scenario, leading the employees while utilizing transformational leadership style remained supportive to offering them ease to work. It has enabled my team to create positive working environment while sharing their ideas and views with the team members.
I have utilized my skills and knowledge towards effective management while offering the understanding to the employees regarding time management.
Instead of utilizing autocratic leadership style, I was focused towards developing intrinsic motivation in the employees to perform better, instead of forcing them to work.
According to the views of Edwards, et al. (2015), forcefully completion of the task decreases the active participation of the employees which directly impacts the employee performance as well as organizational performance.
Moreover, utilization of software remains supportive for me to do adequate planning (Boyatzis, 2014).
For instance, in major planning I used software as it supports to develop estimation on the basis of exact evaluation. For estimating the time, cost and material procurement are done at the workplace through SAP software.
In like manner, I used Gantt chart to pre-schedule the work and resources which has enabled me to perform my job responsibilities adequately (Amanchukwu, et al., 2015). There is a difference between leadership and management and I was concerned to become successful leader who lead the team in a right direction while giving concern towards the team work and successfully completion of the given task.
I was also concerned towards recording the details and I was responsible for preparing quotations, invoices and monitoring the repair activities of the vessel. I also record m employee performance and any achievement which has taken place by m team or by any individual member (Boyatzis, 2014). This record remained supportive at the time employee performance appraisal. Overall, this employee empowerment activity enabled me to encourage the employees to perform better. It also caused commitment among the employees as they could make better decisions and contribute in the organizational performance.
In this section of the study, I have listed different ideas that would be adopted in the workplace while explaining the reason regarding how these ideas will remain supportive to record difference between current and future situation (after implication of idea). It will support to reflect new industrial techniques which remain applicable in the organisation. The ideas provided for the workplace are as follow:
- I found at the workplace that the people were not placed at the job position according to their interested area. So, according to my views, there is a need of placing the employees at the right job location so that the overall development of the employees will take place as well as it will support to increase the organizational performance (Edwards, et al., 2015). It is because as per the two factor theory of the motivation, there are two factors such as motivator and the hygienic that pay a major role in the employees’ satisfaction. So, if firm provides the work for the employees as per their need and the skills that will help the firm to develop the employees’ satisfaction and will also increase the productivity of the employees as well. At the same time, the providing the job as per the interested area then it helps the firm to overcome the conflict issues in the firm among the employees and also improve the communication power of the employees as well. Because of this, it can be stated that providing the job as per their interested area will be helpful for the firm and the employees as well. However I have shown greater effort to place my team members in a right place but this practice should be applied at the workplace as a whole. This practice assisted towards improving the team performance as well as towards personal growth of the employees. In like manner, if this strategy will be implemented throughout the organization then it will support to increase the organizational growth (Hallinger, 2013). From the research of Amanchukwu, et al. (2015), it is defined that training or the practice are also the best ways for improving the performance of the employees and to make the suitable for their desired position and to perform well in the business.
- At the workplace, I found that there were good managers but there is not good leadership in them. So, I personally observed that the need of effective training so that the leadership skills can be developed in them. In order to improve the working environment and to lead the employees effectively, the leadership is one of the major ways that can be used by the firm. So, there is a vital role of the leadership in the firm. in like manner, the leader in the firm also assists the firm to get the initiates action, providing guidance for the employees or the juniors for better performance, creating confidence for the employees to perform better, builds work environment and also develop a good coordination. That is why, it can be determined that in the success of the firm, there is a vital role of the leadership. In the same concern of this, it is also stated that in the use of leadership, there are various leadership styles such as autocratic, transformational, transactional, etc that can also be used by the firm and these all leadership styles will help the leader in the firm to perform better and to grab the market opportunities. According to the views of Amanchukwu, et al. (2015), time to time training of the employees remain supportive to boost the employee performance while improving their skills, knowledge and understanding.
- There is a need of increasing the feeling of partners in the employees instead of just treating them as employees and to put them just in the hierarchy as employee satisfaction is must for organizational success (Hallinger, 2013). The adoption of employee empowerment may lead to increase in morale and commitment among employees and encourage them to perform better. Due to high empowerment, employees feel themselves as a part of the organization and show their commitment to fulfil the organizational objectives. Employee empowerment causes greater job satisfaction and increased productivity and leads to creativity and innovation due to consideration of employees in decision making.
- There should be effective communication within the organization so that the situation of miscommunication should not be taken place. Moreover there should be open door policy so that the employees can share their views in an effective manner. The two-way communication plays an important role in determining the needs and concerns of the employees and develops better strategies to enhance their satisfaction level. Adoption of effective communication between the management and employees brings better employment relationship and reduces the chances of any conflicts in future (Edwards, et al., 2015). In addition, better communication with employees is effective to provide directions and instructions to the employees as they are able to execute the roles and responsibilities to achieve organizational performance.
- There is a need of utilizing trait theory for effective leadership within the organization. It will enable to motivate the employees to show active participation for the achievement of organizational goal. In context of this, participative leadership theory also states that it is effective for the leaders to encourage the participation of the employees in the decision making at workplace that helps them to motivate to achieve their targets and goals (Amanchukwu et al., 2015). So, employee participation enables to empower the subordinates at workplace and encourage them to perform well. All the team members are allowed to share their ideas and views and make decisions accordingly at own level.
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