Leadership and Management in Maintenance Engineering

Activity 4A: Discuss leadership and management as you have experienced it in your working career. Discuss how these roles might differ in the military situation from those in general industry

Leadership and management play a significant role in an organization. My experience at my working career was quite well. I was working as a graduate mechanical engineer in the shipbuilding industry named as Cochin Shipyard Limited, India.

Over there, my job responsibility was of supervision and scheduling the various shipbuilding projects during my training period. My job responsibilities also included using the enterprise resource planning software named as SAP which helped to improve the industrial techniques, productivity and also the quality of the projects.

To attain these responsibilities of my job I had to utilize various effective leadership and management strategy. For achieving this aim, the management associated skills such as problem-solving skills, the decision-making skills, and the inter-relationship skills, the planning skills had always supported as well as helped me for handling the team effectively.

In support of this, there are various different kinds of leadership styles that had further helped me in leading the team in the correct direction and also on the right track.

In the research of, Yang , et al. (2011), it is a very important task for a leader to guide their team in the most appropriate manner and building trust among the team members so that in return they can trust their leader. In this context, I had adopted the transformational leadership style to lead my team and the employees in the right direction.

The transformational leadership style is also effective as it helped to gather the employees also to identify the change which is required. At the same time, it had also helped in building up a vision that helped in guiding and leading the change through inspiration.

These roles differ in the military situation from those of general industry in the sense that in military situations people have less authority to exercise flexibility in the decision-making process while in general industry flexibility is enjoyed in the decision-making process (Connelly & Zaccaro, 2017).

In a military situation, people are bound by time periods and are very punctual. But in general industry, it is not so to get very much punctual.

Moreover, leadership and management role also differ in case of both military situation and general industry. While studying, it is identified that military situation is a situation which is highly complex and threatening as compared to general industry working environment which is more flexible (García-Morales et al., 2012).

In addition, it is also observed that in general industry, there is a leader who leads or directs the superiors to work efficiently but in this industry, subordinates, and leaders both are required to follow and interact with each other while making any decision.

The transactional leadership style is followed and best suited for a military situation as this style is a form of managerial leadership under which leader promotes obedience and compliances by followers through providing rewards and punishments.

But in general industry, transformational leadership is followed to a large extent as this leadership style is effective in this leader works with its subordinates in order to identify the needed changes by encouraging them to initiate and participate in decision making (Northouse, 2015).

The military situation follows authoritative leadership model in which one has an authority to make a decision rather than involving any other military officer in decision making.

But in contrast to it, general industry differs to a large extent as this industry focuses on the involvement of each employee in decision making so that best decision is taken for organizational benefit.

In general industry, the leadership and management role is very effective because leader and management play a significant role in the company to manage and handle the work and employees (Birasnav, 2014).

But in case of military situation, the role of leadership and management is different as there are management and leader but the freedom and flexibility provided to general industry leaders are not provided to military leaders as they are restricted and bound by the code of conducts.

In a military situation, there is one leader and others officers are followers who follow the decisions made by military leaders.

In the military, there is a set of rules and regulation i.e., a proper code of conduct which is required to be followed by the each and every military officer in order to avoid any conflict and issues (Hamstra et al., 2014). In contrast to it, the general industry is very flexible as there are some set of rules and regulations but they get change with the change in the market environment.

This means that if market environment gets change then companies also need to make changes in their rules and regulation in order to avoid the challenges and issues which may affect the performance of the business.

On the other hand, Silcox et al., (2015) also explained the leadership and management role of military situation by stating that in military it is very important to focus on maintaining high performance in order to protect and prevent the nation from any issues or attacks.

In oppose to it, Arnold et al., (2015) argued that effective leadership style is followed in the general industry in order to motivate the employees to perform better to their large efficiency level. The leadership style and management practices are major factors that differ the military situation from general industry.

Activity 4C: Find out the approximate average age of the workforce (to the nearest multiple of 5) at your workplace. Report on how you are dealing with the questions given in the paragraph starting “That is the national scene” in Section 9. (No names are wanted).

At the workplace, it is seen that many older maintenance workers still work part-time after the retirement so there is the high approximate average age of the workforce (Ng & Feldman, 2013). The workers at the workplace have the age group of 30 to 65 and most of them are above 50 years old.

So, the approximate average age of the people at the workplace is 55. Additionally, the approximate average age of the retirement at the workplace is 60 years. At the same time, in the context of “That is the national scene” in section 9, it was found that the government offered to the retired person can continue their work after the age of 60.

Moreover, the government can also increase the retirement age of the maintenance workforce in 2020 at the age of 65.

If too many older maintenance workers will retire too quickly, then the company will need their knowledge and experience for helping the new employees. Additionally, the too quickly retirement of the maintenance worker will increase the cost of the business because it needs the more employee (Duffield et al., 2015).

The haring of the new worker includes1 the interview cost, selection and training cost. The knowledge and experience of the retired employees can be helpful to provide the work in a systemic meaner and techniques to complete the work with removing errors. The old age maintenance worker provides the way of working to the new and unskilled employees.

Additionally, if too many older maintenance workers would retire quickly that it can create the difficulty in decision making also. The old age maintenance workers provide their services in the decision making because they understand the working conditions of the machines that are provided them by the company.

At the same time, in the words of Boerlijst et al. (2013), the transfer of the knowledge and skills can be difficult if the experienced worker will retire at the early age that can affect the role of the new maintenance worker.

In addition, Appelbaum et al. (2012) defined that the older maintenance worker provides the basic strategies to handle the workload because they are professional in their work.

The provided strategies are most beneficial for the company because these strategies have low cost and quick to handle the overload work easily. The older age maintenance workers also communicate the new workers with transferring the skills that are gained during the work. It creates the organizational culture with removing the disputes between the workers (Joe et al., 2013).

Each maintenance worker understands their everyday duties and understands their level of understanding that has to develop by the new workers. The new maintenance worker would feel more comfortable if their senior will share their knowledge to complete the task.

If the older worker would not share their knowledge and skills due to early retirement then it would create the difficulties for the new maintenance worker to operate the working process. They have no idea to lead the work and achieve the organizational objectives and increase their efforts to complete the timely work (Munnell & Rutledge, 2013).

The new worker would feel negative about their work and create the think that this is a very hard work if the older worker will not share their skills and knowledge. The business has many mature-aged people who have good knowledge about the workplace and they have good skills to complete the tasks in a systematic manner such has supervisees and team leaders.

The future star of the company is the team leader of the maintenance worker who would become the future star he should pick up the knowledge (Cho & Lewis, 2012). If the team leader will gain the high knowledge then he has a capacity to transfer the knowledge to the maintenance workers of the company. The knowledge can be transferred by the several techniques. If the organization provides the flexibility to the old age maintenance worker then they can provide the service as a part-time job.

Phased retirement is also a good technique that can also be helpful for the organization to share the knowledge of older maintenance worker. Additionally, the company can provide the special training to the new maintenance workers by inviting the retired workers of the company and make trained them by passing the knowledge and experience.

On the other hand, the young age maintenance worker can create an apprenticeship type relationship with the older maintenance worker to develop own skills. The company can also take some individual interview of the older worker that would help the young age worker to develop their knowledge about the work (Tho & Trang, 2015).

The company would also offer some training opportunity to the less skilled workers with the help of retired workers and help them to improve their skills and knowledge about the work. At the same time, the knowledge of the older worker can be transfer by the providing the post-retirement job and reduce their responsibilities.

The company would also provide the seasonal and temporary work to use the knowledge and skills of the older age worker.  In addition to this, the organization can appoint an older worker after the retirement as a problem solver. It is because the problem solving is the most important fraction of any kind of job to enhance the experience of the worker.

The younger workers should track down the senior workers to understand their way of working and gain the knowledge. The organization can also transfer the knowledge and skills of older age maintenance worker by offering the incentives. Most of the time, it is seen that the employees spend energy for sharing the skills and knowledge in the return of incentives (Di Stefano et al., 2014).

The knowledge of the senior workers can be transfer by the use of hierarchical way of information sharing between the workers. The organization should value the older maintenance worker to use their skills and knowledge for better quality in the production. The organization would set up the system in which the knowledge of company and individual should be stored for future requirement.

Activity 4D: Give an example from your workplace or experience, of successful achievement, or an attempt, in introducing people empowerment.

An example from my workplace or the experience of successful achievement, I gained was that once there was a situation that I had to guide my team for completing a crucial task in the context of delivering a lot of units to the clients. For this, I had to guide my team in an effective way to manage the things properly so that they can cater the needs of the customers or clients accordingly.

Later it was seen that the employees were facing some issues regarding the inventory of the stock as it was not sufficient in the organization. I as been a leader used the inventory stock control technique so as to assure that the stock is enough and be purchased on time as well as it is of the desired quality. I also delegate some of the authority in the hands of the team members so that they can also manage the work effectively.

I focused on providing the desired level of training to my team members so that they can work harder and can improve their performance and produce the expected or desired level of results. This training also helped to increase or enhance the productivity of the employees and they contribute to achieving the necessary targets effectively (Ohrt, et al., 2014).

This situation helped me to realize my roles and responsibilities as being a leader and also helped me to exercise or invest in my team with authority and power to serve my team better. It helped me to effectively utilize the resources and how to manage the work in critical circumstances.

It helped me to carry out the overall process in a smoother way and completing the tasks on the time allotted. As being a leader it was also important that the orders requested by the client are of supreme and also of prominent quality. So as a leader it was my duty to check that all the quality parameters had been achieved and there are no issues in regard to the quality or as far the quality is been considered.

This situation had further helped me to empower me with the knowledge or skills that are important to be used in such a situation. People empowerment means that when an employee or person is given the freedom, trust, and power to carry-out the desired job-related tasks or duties.

Giving or providing empowerment to the employees in this situation will help me to get the best out of my employees. The employees or my team will attain a sense of pride and ownership in their work.

It will also help my team to take self-decisions and they can start to produce more innovative ideas that help to achieve the objectives of the organization (Dewettinck & van Ameijde, 2011). This situation has also helped me to gain a competitive advantage over others.

Those employees who get the desired level of training, and are empowered as well are been recognized for their achievements, develop a new perspective of viewing their jobs and their company. I also learned that not giving the employees or my team with any sort of authority will make the situations worse for me only.

This will lead to a situation in which the employees or my team will start to face a state of anger, frustration, etc. This will definitely cause a severe impact on the performance of the employees and they will feel that they are not been considered as a part of the organization.

This will make the situation even more badly. As a leader, it helped me to increase the organizational responsiveness for solving the issues and problems that are occurred in the situation. At the same time, the empowerment of the employees also helped the organization to increase the productivity.

This situation helped me to handle the organizational employee and developed my problem-solving skill. In this situation, I used my problem-solving skill to remove any difficulties in the work. Additionally, I motivated the employees to help them by providing them freedom in the working at the workplace. It helped me to make a good relationship with the employees so that they have agreed to extra work at the need.

As a leader, I also gave them some power to the employees handle the situation that is easily handled by them and authority to complete the work according to their viewpoint. This authority helped me to take the decision with the implementation of the innovative ideas of the employees.

At the same time, I also understood that the empowerment is very helpful for the subordinates to control the work independently. In this, the employee gets the permission to use their own knowledge, skills, and abilities for achieving organizational success.

It increases the trust among the employees to carry out the task which is related to the job. This is my motivational strategy to encourage the empowerment to make self-decisions for several future tasks. This training helped me to become a successful leader in an organization with the high level of motivation.

In this training, I have promoted the success of the organization by helping the employees with my innovative ideas and decisions. All these things will help me in the future to use my solution in different ways and solve the future problem that can face by me.

The employee empowerment has increased the motivation and job satisfaction to the organization that is provided by me. It helped me to enhance my management skills in the effective way to empower the staff members. In the beginning, I spend more time for the employees to understand the employees of the organization and become the part of the organization quickly.

It made a positive image between the employees and helped to clearly communicate with the other employees. After this, I was able to enhance the empowerment of organizational employees with the unique contribution of each employee to the success of the organization.

Activity 4E: List 5 ideas from your studies in the whole of unit MRE5003 that you would like to see adopted in your workplace and explain why you would support their introduction. Record any difference between now and comments in assignment1 for reflecting on industrial techniques applicable in the organization.

The 5 ideas that I would like to adopt at my workplace are:

• It is rightly said that an effective leader can make an organization successful. A leader is a person who inspires guides or influences a person to achieve the objectives of the organization. The leader is the person who provides the right direction or the path that the employees should follow to achieve the objectives in the organization.
• The leader has the authority to guide the individuals in order to pursue their aims. The people who follow the leader are known as the They follow their leader and believe that the leader guides them in the right direction.
• This is the ultimate reason why it is very important to have an effective leader in an organization (Hargis, et al., 2011). The leader helps to enhance the performance of the employees or the team and tries to improve their existing skills.
• At the same time, the leader tries to identify the hidden potential of its team and provide them the right track so that they can utilize them in achieving their goals. The leader further develops the confidence in the employees and provides a positive working environment to the employees, and thus also provides them an opportunity to discuss their ideas in the decision-making process.
• Any organization’s most important resource is its human resources or its workforce. The employees are the ones who are the main source of achieving the goals or objectives of the organization.
• It is very important for an organization to have proper, well-skilled, and knowledgeable employees in the organization. It is important that the employees that are been recruited by the organization must have the desired level of competency that is necessary to achieve the aims, goals, and objectives of the organization.
• The organization should adopt the right sources for recruiting the employees effectively. Recruitment of the right kind of employees is very vital to the growth and performance, as well as the productivity of the entire organization, depends upon the right kind of employees been recruited by the organization. At the same time, it is also necessary that the selection process being used by the organization is to be effective (Farndale, et al., 2010).
• The Proper selection process must be carried out to select the most appropriate employees out of those who are been recruited by the organization. Selection techniques should be adopted in selecting the most skilled, and experienced employees and the process thus should not show any biasness in selecting the employees.
• The employees before getting selected must be told about what is been expected by them in the organization. They should be told about their job role, job responsibilities, and job working environment, the skills, abilities, and competency level expected by them to achieve the organization’s objectives. Thus, recruitment and selection process should be given due consideration by the organization.
• Every organization wants their employees to be effective and wants that their employees work well so that the goals and objectives of the organization are achieved effectively. It is also possible that there are some employees who have the desired level of skills, knowledge, and abilities to achieve the objectives but they lack somewhere.
• So it becomes necessary to identify these potential or hidden skills, abilities and competency of the employees by the organization. So it becomes very important for the organization to provide the desired and necessary level of training to the employees so that they can improve and enhance their performance.
• Training is the ability to identify the hidden skills, abilities and knowledge of the employees and improve or enhance them so that the employee becomes enough competent that he can achieve the desired result effectively. Training is further important as it helps to boost the morale of the employees in the organization (Karlan & Valdivia, 2011).
• The employees getting the proper amount of training work more effectively and it helps to increases the level of productivity in the organization. The employees who get the right training are more efficient in producing better results and the growth of the organization thus increases.
• Training thus helps the employees to reduce the level of accidental rates in the organization and also help the organization to reduce the level of wastage in the resources. At last, training is necessary as it trains the employees to be more responsive towards the customers and proved them satisfaction effectively.
• It is very important that the organization should have a proper and effective level of communication. Lack of communication results in ineffective performance and it also happens that the employees are misunderstood or misguided in relation to the objectives of the organization.
• So there is a need for effective communication in the organization so that the employees get a clear understanding of the objectives. Effective communication between the supervisor and the employees will help to foster a better relationship among them (Louhiala-Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2011).
• The communication hierarchy should not be very complex or lengthy so that the message can be delivered on time. Feedback should also be obtained from the employees time to time. Effective communication will help remove the possibility of conflicts.
• It is also necessary that the needs of the employees are been recognized, attended and also satisfied in a proper and efficient manner. It will help to make feel the employees that they are considered as an important or vital resource of the organization.
• The maintenance of the personnel in the organization is crucial because of the increased automation as well as the increasing cost of capital equipment (CHUANG & Liao, 2010). This will further result in securing and holding the prominent positions within the departments and at the same time provide freedom of movement to the employees.

References

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