Leadership asm 2 - The assignment for Intro to Mana PDF

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Leadership and Decision MakingIndividual AssignmentRMIT International University VietnamIndividual AssignmentSubject Code: BUSMSubject Name: Leadership and Decision MakingLocation where you study: RMIT Vietnam – SGSTitle of Assignment: Individual AssgnmentLecturer’s Name Mr. Adrian WeeStudent name &...

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Leadership and Decision Making

Individual Assignment

RMIT International University Vietnam Individual Assignment

Subject Code:

BUSM4188

Subject Name:

Leadership and Decision Making

Location where you study:

RMIT Vietnam – SGS

Title of Assignment:

Individual Assgnment

Lecturer’s Name

Mr. Adrian Wee

Student name & ID number Assignment due date:

Sunday WK 9, 5PM

Date of Submission: Friday of Week 9, 18 August 2017

Number of pages including this one: Word Count: (Main Content)

7

2250

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As Maxwell (n.d) once said “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” There is no doubt that a good leader will lead their entire company successfully and a bad leader will destroy it (Anderson, 2013). Therefore, a leader is the one who converts the visual perception into reality. Also a good leader is defined as the person who empowers and motivates others to achieve common goals (Kruse, 2013). According to Kraut et al (1989), an organization without leader will be the same with an army without generals. Thus a leader plays an extremely important role in contributing to the success of an organization. This essay will analyse how a successful leader operate company based on leadership theories, then reflect on how to improve the leadership qualities. To perceive profoundly the knowledge of these theories, Mrs. Tran Nhu Thien My is considered as a typical example of a great leader. She is the Ceo of Danang sea products Import - Export Corporation. She is known as a successful leader in Danang city at this time (2017). She works with many employees, partners and other leaders who are not only in Vietnam, but also in abroad.

To begin with, the first theory to analyze is Trait theory. Zaccaro et al (2003) stated that the term “Trait” can be understood as the personality, ability, temperaments and other demographic attributes. A great leader is not only a person who has skill and working ability, but he or she also has some special characteristics (Prive 2012). According to Trait theory of Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991), a good leader should include seven key traits: Drive, Desire to lead, Honesty and Integrity, Self-confidence, Cognitive ability, Knowledge of the business.

. Back to Mrs. Tran, she is considered to be an integrative leader which means words always go with action. In accordance with Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991), an integrative leader is the one who can control, balance and unity between words and actions which means doing things exactly what he or she had said. Mrs. Tran stated “I just say what I will definitely do. Otherwise my subordinates will be distracted and ruin the work”. From her point of view, a leader first need to unify the ideas between words and deeds, especially avoid presenting unnecessary views. Thanks to doing this, she is respected and admired by her staffs.

During the interview, Mrs. Tran admits that she desires to contribute to the success of the company. In the conversation, she said “The next 20 years plan for the corporation is to reach the international arena”. From her opinion, having a great ambition to lead the company is one of the most essential elements of a great leader. She explained “My big ambitions does not mean forcing people to fulfil it or putting them under work pressure. I

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keep the ambitions for myself and try to lead the corporation get ahead and achieve some challenge goals.”

Especially, she emphasizes that she always thinks of long-term decision and relationship as well as the benefit. Therefore, the ambition she is aiming for is the desire to achieve higher performance at work rather than desire for power or money. It was these ambitions that can increase her motivation and energy at work. Thereby, this characteristic belongs to the first key trait concept of Kirkpatrick and Locke which is called Drive.

The second theory to be determined is Contingency Theory. In general, Contingency is the term that there is no certain way can fit into every situation (Miner 2005). To specific, it can be understood as the form of work that one best way cannot completely organize, make important decisions, and contribute to develop the company.

Therefore, according to Norhouse (2012), there is no leader that has the same way of doing things. A good leader is a person who uses different methods for different situations (Mulder, 2013). In fact, there are a number of theories that analyse the contingency concept. However, one of the best theories that clearly points out the contingency concept is Path Goal theory of House (1971).

According to House (1971), Path Goal explains for the leader behaviour towards subordinate satisfaction, performance as well as the motivation at work. There are four different leadership behaviours including directive leadership, supportive leadership, achievementoriented leadership and participative leadership (House, 1971).

To specific, Al-Gattan (1984) claims that directive leadership means a leader directly tells their subordinates what they are expected to do and how to perform the tasks. As reported by Al-Gattan (1984), supportive leadership is defined to be the approach of creating open working environment where a leader can be friendly and empathetic to their employees. He pointed out that an achievement-oriented leader often sets challenging goals for employee, desire them to achieve good achievements as well as showing attitude of confidence in their working ability. The last leadership is participation which means a leader consult with the staff before making decisions (Trungpa 2011).

Back to the interview of Mrs. Tran, she is considered to be an achievement-oriented leader. She wants the perfection and innovation at work as she believes “Maintaining stability is 3

important. But the breakthrough at work is even more necessary”. Moreover, this working style can improve work efficiency, qualifications of staff and increase competition among staff members.

In terms of employee perception and evaluation, Mrs. Tran always sets challenging goals, show the importance of those tasks and also create the motivation for their staffs by telling them the rewards they will gain after completing the mission. From her point of view, a leader is the one who tells their subordinate staff what they need to do and what brings to both company and staff when they complete the missions.

Nevertheless, setting challenging goals may lead to invisible pressure for employees. She said “To be honest, giving them difficult tasks is very easy to turn them into pressure. So I set challenging goals but my staff members will be free whether they will do or not. Simple, If they do, they will get reward”. It seems like her leadership style is both serious and comfortable as she creates an open working environment for employees.

However, using this concept to operate company may lead to some failure since the employees have chance to challenge themselves as well as fulfil difficult goals. As John Wooden once said “If you're not making mistakes, you won’t improve”. Therefore, a leader need to accept and forgive the mistakes and failure of employees because making mistakes is a good way to improve themselves and perceive new experiments.

The last theory to analyze is Power theory. Stapleton (2014) claims that the most important things as a leader is distinguish when to use power and when not to use power. According to Maxwell (2001), power of leadership means the ability to influence others. In other words, power of a leader can be understood to be the ability to make others listen to you and the ability to reward or punish (Lunenburg 2012).

However, the term “power of leadership” can be understood in both negative and positive sides. In negative side, a leader may use their power to do some unethical or abusive power to accomplish their own purposes (Brown 2005). Brown (2005) also stated that they even can use power as a tool to force employees to follow them unconditionally. In positive side, power of a leader means they use their power to achieve great goals and accomplishments for the organization (Hersey et al 1993). In agreement with Hersey et al (1993), a great leader will use power as a method to improve and contribute to a company as well as devote their best to the company. 4

The fact is that there a number of theory that explains for the term power of leadership but one of the most common concept is the French and Raven (1959) power types. Base on this concept, they pointed out how a leader’s power can influence others and how effectively their employees perform. In general, French and Raven divided power into two main types which are position power (including legitimate, reward and coercive power) and personal power (in terms of referent and expert power) (Fairholm 2009).

In a short conversation with an ordinary staff before meeting with Mrs. Tran, he said “Mrs. Tran is actually an integrative leader as she does not abuse power to impose employees”. Through the interview of Mrs. Tran, she used both position and personal power to lead the corporation successfully. First, about the position power, she is considered to use the reward as a tool to increases productivity at work.

According to Fiore (2004), reward power can be understood to be the ability to reward employees for having good performance such as donating bonuses, giving some promotional support when they buy products from their company. A leader who has reward power can motivate their employees, make them feel comfortable, satisfied and work more effectively (Reid and Bojanic 2009). Also using reward power is similar to the theory of transactional leader which means motivate employees by reward or punish (Burns, 1978). For Danang sea products import-export corporation, every employee who has the higher performance and productivity compared to last month all has the reward. She said “Whether small or big rewards also contribute to motivate and boost morale of staff”.

Second, about the personal power, she uses referent power as a method to help employees imitate and follow her. Using this power is considered to be like the transformational leader (Bass, 1996). According to Daft (2007), referent power can be seen to be the concept that a leader will become a pioneer for their employees to imitate. A strong referent power of a leader can be admired and attracted by employees that will encourage them to do everything which can satisfy that person (Harris and Hartman 2001). Back to Mrs. Tran, she believes that referent power can be a secret key to success in her job.

She said “If I want someone to devote their best to the corporation, then first I have to devote all my best. The best way to motivate people is it's you who have to work all your best first. Then you will be respected, admired and everyone will listen to you.” Mrs. Tran claims that being a pioneer for employees to imitate does not only increase their motivation, 5

but it can also increase their attitude and responsibility at work. It can be seen that Mrs.Tran uses referent power as a tool to support her job.

On these days, an organization is strong and successful in which there is a wise, psychological and ambitious leader. From the interview with Mrs. Tran, we can draw that she is a leader of integrity and ambition. In general, a person of integrity means the consistency of words and actions or we can define by the term “so said so done”. In other words, we can understand that a person of integrity will not be distracted by some external factors such as emotions, interests, knowledge or prejudices. Therefore, only when a leader has the unity of words and deeds, he or she will be respected and admired by subordinates as well as lead the company to outstanding success.

Mrs.Tran is not only an integrative leader, but she is also an ambitious person. In addition to maintaining stability for the company, Mrs. Tran also desires to reach the company on an international scale. From Trait theory of Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) and the meeting with Mrs. Tran, we can draw that a leader who has great ambitions will require higher working ability among their subordinate staff members and always think of long-term plan. Thus, having great ambition will help a leader obtain big motivation and energy at work.

Mrs. Tran also applies achievement-oriented leadership of Path Goal theory to operate her corporation. It can be seen that an achievement-oriented leader often set challenging goals, encourage employees to compete with each other and expect to achieve high level of performance. By using this leadership style, a leader can motivate employees, achieve challenging goals and improve company performance.

Finally, a successful leader is a leader who knows the way of using power to control the company. According to Mrs. Tran, using reward power as a tool to motivate employees is one of the best way to improve their performance such as giving bonus, promotional support or extra holidays. By doing this, employees can not only enhance their working ability and productivity, but they also feel satisfied and comfortable at work. Besides that, using referent power is considered to be an effective way to encourage staff to work. From Mrs. Tran, we can understand that as a leader, the best way to motivate staff member is becoming the pioneers of working hard. Then every subordinates will respect you, imitate and follow your working style.

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From what I have learned, I want to become a leader of integrity since I think that being a integrative person will not be distracted by many external factors and will be respected by employees. Furthermore, I want to use achievement-oriented leadership and reward power to operate the company. The main reason is to motivate employees as motivation is the best way to improve productivity and creativity.

To conclude, every leader has different trait, uses different leadership style and power. Nevertheless, to be a successful leader, people need to use these things in the right way and to the right person.

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Reference list Algattan, A.A., 1984.The path-goal theory of leadership: an empirical and longitudinal analysis.

Anderson, A (2012), Good Leaders Are Invaluable To A Company. Bad Leaders Will Destroy It, Forbes, views 12 August 2017,

Bass, B.M., 1990. From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational dynamics, 18(3), pp.19-31.

Brown, M.T., 2005. Corporate integrity: Rethinking organizational ethics and leadership. Cambridge University Press.

Burns, J.M., 2003. Transforming leadership: A new pursuit of happiness (Vol. 213). Grove Press.

Daft, R. (2007). The Leadership Experience, Cengage Learning.

Fairholm, G.W., 2009. Organizational power politics: tactics in organizational leadership. ABC-CLIO.

Fiore, D.J., 2009. Introduction to educational administration: Standards, theories, and practice. Eye On Education.

French, J.R., Raven, B. and Cartwright, D., 1959. The bases of social power. Classics of organization theory, 7.

Griffin, R.W., 2013. Fundamentals of management. Cengage Learning.

Harris, O. J. and S. J. Hartman (2001). Organizational Behavior, Best Business Books.

Hersey, P., Blanchard, K.H. and Johnson, D.E., 1969. Management of organizational behavior (p. 65). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 8

House, R.J., 1971. A path goal theory of leader effectiveness. Administrative science quarterly, pp.321-339.

House, R.J., 1996. Path-goal theory of leadership: Lessons, legacy, and a reformulated theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 7(3), pp.323-352.

Kirkpatick, S.A. and Locke, E.A., 1991. Leadership: do traits matter?. The executive, 5(2), pp.48-60. Kraut, A.I., Pedigo, P.R., McKenna, D.D. and Dunnette, M.D., 1989. The Role of the Manager: What's Really Important in Different Management Jobs. Academy of Management Executive (08963789), 3(4).

Kruse, K (2013), What Is Leadership?, Forbes, views 12 August 2017,

Lunenburg, F.C., 2012. Power and leadership: an influence process. International journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), pp.1-9.

Maxwell, J (n.d), A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way, Brainyquote, views 12 August 2017,

Maxwell, J.C., 2001. The power of leadership. David C Cook.

Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Mulder, P (2013), Fiedler Contingency Model, Toolshero, views 12 August 2017,

Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Prive, T (2012), Top 10 Qualities That Make A Great Leader, Forbes, views 12 August 2017,

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Reid, R.D. and Bojanic, D.C., 2009. Hospitality marketing management. John Wiley and Sons.

Stapleton, S (2014), The Five Sources of a Leader’s Power, and how (and how not) to use them, Linkedin, views 12 August 2017,

Travis, E (n.d), Advantages & Drawbacks of the Autocratic Leadership Style, Small Business, views 12 August 2017,

Trungpa, C., 2011. The path is the goal: A basic handbook of Buddhist meditation. Shambhala Publications.

Zaccaro, S.J., Kemp, C. and Bader, P., 2004. Leader traits and attributes. The nature of leadership, 101, p.124.

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Appendix

Transcript ... Me: As a leader, do you need to become a perfect person who has right attitudes and behaviour at all time? Mrs. Tran: Well. Obviously not. I cannot be a perfect person all the time. I'm just a normal one. Sometimes I feel tired and angry if things are not going well. Me: So in your point of view, what are the most important leadership characteristics that a leader need to have in order to running a successful company? 11

Mrs. Tran: I think no one is the same. People have different ways of working as well as different personalities. For me, to operate a successful company, a leader first needs to become a consistent person. I just say what I will definitely do. Otherwise my subordinates will be distracted and ruin the work. However, to be honest, I am also an ambitious person. I always set goals for myself. Me: May I ask you what are the goals that you set for yourself? Mrs. Tran: Well. The next 20 years plan for the corporation is to reach the international arena. I know it is very difficult but I will try to achieve it. Me: Do you think about employees’ working pressure when you set big ambition like that? Mrs. Tran: In fact, my big ambitions do not mean forcing people to fulfil it or putting them under work pressure. I just keep the ambitions for myself and try to lead the corporation get ahead and achieve some challenge goals. … Me: What do you think about maintaining the work and develop the work? Mrs. Tran: I think maintaining stability is important. But the breakthrough at work is even more necessary. Honestly, I always set challenging and difficult goals for my employees. Me: But do you think that setting challenging goals will lead to employees’ pressure or not? Mrs. Tran: To be honest, giving them difficult tasks is very easy to turn them into pressure. So I set challenging goals but my staff members will be free whether they will do or not. Simple, If they do, they will get reward. … Me: From my research, I know Mrs. Tran is the one who often set challenging goals to her subordinates. So did she make her staff feel pressure and stress? Mr. Hung (An ordinary staff): Mrs. Tran is actually an integrative leader as she does no...