Perspective on Management and Leadership

Question 1

Leaders are born not made

Yes, I agree with the statement

This statement implies that leadership is considered as a subject of personality. This shows that leadership is an art rather than a science.  This means that a leader has to be born with certain intimate characters that allow them to lead others. This statement has given the idea that leadership is not achieved through learned techniques and skill. It also implies that leaders cannot be taught; either an individual is born with the skills of leadership or not.  Leadership, in this case, is considered as a combination of the total characteristics that a person can develop and that one can use in leading people. Born leadership

A leader is an individual who is appointed or elected to coordinate and direct the work of others in a team. A leader can also be defined as individual who can guide others and help in achieving common goals (Sethuraman, Kavitha, and Jayshree Suresh 2014, p.165) A leader leads others through example and ensures that they create an environment that others will feel that they are involved in the whole process.  Leaders are also entitled to motivating others to ensure favourable outcomes.

It is important to understand the difference between leadership and leaders. These are two very different concepts.  A leader is someone who people are willing to follow without question to all the ends of the earth.  The leaders are known for their great deal of confidence and their ability to make decisions. Leaders in the history had skills that made them great. It is argued that these leaders had innate characters that responded to the circumstances of leadership.

This statement implies that leadership is considered as a subject of personality. This shows that leadership is an art rather than a science.  This means that a leader has to be born with certain intimate characters that allow them to lead others. This statement has given the idea that leadership is not achieved through learned techniques and skills. People are identified as leaders when they stand firm with courage and confidence and get accepted by followers. To step forward, they need to have the will to lead and direct others. Some factors are used to determine whether an individual is a leader or is being taught to be a leader (Sethuraman et al.,2014 p.165). These include personal traits, durable and long-lived. Characteristics that include physical attractiveness, intelligence, and extraversion are traits that followers look at in leadership. These traits are innate characteristics that are inborn for leaders. Not everyone cam leads due to lack of ability to influence others in acquiring the power to enable organizations to achieve their objectives and goals.

Some scenarios confirm the assertion that leaders are not made but are born. One of the evidence is that some people are identified as leaders at their young ages. They are recognized while they are still young in their schoolyards. Some children assume command while they are still young in school and their leadership skills tend to be effortless. Yes, I agree with a statement.

This statement implies that leadership is considered as a subject of personality. This shows that leadership is an art rather than a science.  This means that a leader has to be born with certain intimate characters that allow them to lead others. This statement has given the idea that leadership is not achieved through learned techniques and skill.

Child-leaders are identified and characterized by the desire of thinking very quickly and being adventurous when they are out in the field. At their young age they are ready and willing to take up leadership roles such as school heads while they are still young. This is gives a clear indication that leaders are not made but are born with leadership traits.

The Great’s man theory argues that great leaders are natured with internal features that include confidence, charisma, social skills and the ability to influence others with intelligence (Coleman 2003, pp. 159). These features are essential in establishing born leadership and also identify leaders that have been born naturally.  Apart from the skills of leadership that are identified in children at young stages, there are others that their skills are not identified at the young stage but still possess the leadership skills. For instance, Sir Churchill and Margaret have been identified and credited as the most outstanding prime ministers. These leaders have never attended any school to acquire leadership skills. This, therefore, confirms that leaders cannot be made despite being engaged in learning skills. Born leadership can, therefore, be evidenced by individuals that are known as great leaders from the history books.

The Trait theory related to Great man’s theory also supports the belief that leaders are born and not made. This theory suggests that some traits for qualities of a good leader have to be inherited (Coleman 2003, pp. 158). These traits include extraversion, confidence, and courage, which are all associated with great leaders. Other theories support born leadership. These include the contingency and relationship theories.  The theory of relationship involves the people being led and their leader. The leader must inspire others and motivate those that they are leading. About this, they need to have the right traits that are inborne such as the social traits that are hard to be instilled through training. The contingency theory suggests that the quality of a leader depends on the environment where they practice their leadership (Fiedler, F.R.E.D 2005, p. 232). Leaders can respond to different environments through the inborn traits.

Conclusion

Leaders with skills and traits of leadership are born with such skills. Training is done to leaders to enhance their skills and make them more competent in handling people. This indicates that for one to be a leader, they need to be possessing certain basic skills that are innate characteristic of basic skills for leadership. These innate characteristics are important in shaping the leader. Traits are then improved through learning and experience. From the theories discussed above, it is evident that leaders are born and not made. This, therefore means that leaders are trained as a tool for enhancing their traits and experiences. Leaders that are born can improve their leadership qualities and can observe other leaders to shape their qualities.

 

References

Coleman, M., 2003. Theories of leadership. Leadership and strategic management in South African schools, pp.155-172.

Fiedler, F.R.E.D., 2005. CONTINGENCY THEORY OF LEADERSHIP’. Organizational behavior: Essential theories of motivation and leadership, p.232.

Sethuraman, Kavitha, and Jayshree Suresh. “Effective leadership styles.” International Business Research 7, no. 9 (2014): 165.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question 2

Yes, I agree with the statement

The most important asset in a company is the people. They are considered as human capital because any plans to expand a business begins with the human capital. Human capital has been recognized an essential and important asset that has been used in the contribution of growth and development in companies.  This is similar to machinery and other physical assets in the company. The people comprise of the human element in the organization. People can manage and lead operations in an organization. The effectiveness, integrity, and effectiveness of an organization is achieved and is dependent on entirely people.

Many companies have proclaimed that the greatest asset for them is then people. They require protection because they provide a future economic benefit. They can be protected by healthcare and safety rules.  Highly-motivated, satisfied and loyal employees are considered as the basis of a competitive company. The growth of satisfaction on employees is to be reflected in increased productivity and improvement of products in the organization.  Employees that are satisfied can form positive references to their employers and attract more job seekers in the company hence increasing the competitive position in the company market.

Managing employees

Good employees in a company are not replaceable (Palacios, M., 2014, p. 990). This is because they carry the institutional knowledge of the company.  This is because they have extensive knowledge of systems, processes, and products. They are also able to hold the client relationships that are built during the working period. The people in the company are considered as an important asset because they have tremendous experience on what has worked for the company in the past and what has not been working. For instance, when a company tends to lose an important employee, other employees in the same company tend to be suspicious and pause to think why that could have happened. Why the person would leave the organization and get worried about the organization wondering what went wrong. This does not only apply to the employees but also to the clients. This is because when a client trusts an employee, they begin to question themselves whether there is something wrong that they are not aware of.

People have always been an important asset to organizations through providing inspiration, vision, creativity, and motivation that has kept the organization alive. Employees can provide competencies and skills that are necessary to facilitate the functioning of an organization (Castelló, A. and Doménech, R., 2002, p. 478). As employees, people offer labor that also facilitates the production of goods and services in the organizational supplies. They are considered as a major and important resource in an organization. The collective skills, attitudes, and abilities have been utilized to make contributions to organizational productivity and performance.

Every organization should understand that any expenditure in development, training, support, and healthcare is not an expense rather it is an investment for the company. Changes have been occurring rapidly while competition has continued to be fierce through the introduction of new changes that can be short-lived in a case that the competitors adopt the same form of technology. However, the most important strategy of earning competitive advantage is to improve the skills and abilities of employees. This will implement a permanent change that will facilitate competitive advantage in the market. For instance, the commercial company is organized to take into account the importance of people. The key departments in the company reflect how people are relevant to the company. Other organizations that reveal the importance of people as a valuable asset include the medical facility such as the hospital.

To manage people is the most difficult thing in human resource. To be a manager is difficult because human beings are very quirky and odd hence unpredictable. It is the most difficult because it is all about getting people to do what you wish them to do. There are many challenging aspects while managing people. These include hiring and firing employees, balancing mandates, implementing layoffs and the realities of day-to-day work. Being a manager takes patience, skill and being accountable. People have different personality types. Some employees do not take any ownership and may leave the place of work with important duties being undone. Others tend to miss deadlines hence not completing their assignments or produce low quality work.

Managing people can also be considered difficult because it is a series of actions.  It is all about understanding the illogical and logical ways in which people’s mind tend to work. It also takes understanding what it requires to motivate other people to get them doing what they are required to do. It is difficult to manage unmanageable and difficult people at the place of work. These are the common workplace characters that cause endless complications if not well managed. They make life difficult for the rest and require to be well managed (Fulmer, I.S. and Ployhart, R.E., 2014, p.164). These increase the task of a manager hence making it difficult for them while managing others. They cause disruptions at the place of work and is the due to of the manager to look beyond their behavior and what their behavior dictates in the place of work.

Some employees confront others in places of work leading to arguments and problems at the place of work. The problem should be solved by the manager who should give an effective solution being the channel between the employees. Some employees are cynical, sarcastic and negative but the manager does not want to fire them. The manager has a duty of caring about the people despite them drive you nuts. This, therefore makes it difficult to manage people hence making management challenging.

Conclusion

In the company, people are considered to be the most important assets and at the same time are the most difficult to handle. People should be handled with care and protected at the place of work because they impact the activities of a company. On the other hand, managing people is difficult because it is getting people do what you desire them to de despite their different personality types.

 

References

Castelló, A. and Doménech, R., 2002. Human capital inequality and economic growth: some new evidence. The economic journal, 112(478).

Fulmer, I.S. and Ployhart, R.E., 2014. “Our Most Important Asset” A Multidisciplinary/Multilevel Review of Human Capital Valuation for Research and Practice. Journal of Management, 40(1), pp.161-192.

Palacios, M., 2014. Human capital as an asset class implications from a general equilibrium model. The Review of Financial Studies, 28(4), pp.978-1023.

 

 

 

 

 

Question 3 (a)

Yes, I agree with the statement

A manager delivers a message while a leader creates a message.  The managers are the people who are assigned the management tasks. These are achieved through key functions in planning, organizing, budgeting, and staffing.  They also control the organization and participate in solving problems. Hence, they deliver messages for effective to meet organizational goals. The leaders, on the other hand, ensure that they have set the directions for other employees and ensuring that they are motivated and inspired as they carry out their tasks.

Leader’s roles include aligning organization, communicating the vision to the members, influencing the creation of teams and coalitions, satisfying the basic human needs and promoting dramatic and useful changes that improve the labor relations (Zaleznik, A., 2004, p. 174). Manager roles in an organization include organizing staffs, identifying and solving problems, delegating authority and responsibilities, implementing visions, monitoring results, establishing procedures and policies to implement a vision and limiting employee’s choices.

A leader must be able to create a sense of direction and purpose through guiding behavior at the place of work (Stanley, D., 2006, p.32). This is through the development of their clear vision of where one desires to go and describe the future of the company in simple and meaningful language that will provide guidance regarding moving forward. The message created has to be consistent and clear as to why priorities are relevant with an explanation of how they will benefit the organization.

It is the duty of a leader to try out different images, words, and stories to help others to simplify their conversation and written communication. Leaders are required to create and deliver messages that reflect the organization’s mission, vision, and values. In this case, the message has to be shaped in a way that it is directed in shaping the employees understanding. It is important to understand that creation of the message is setting directions for their employees and ensuring that they are guided to complete their tasks.

A leader should enhance the feelings of certainty and self-worth for employees and address the basic human needs effectively (Răducan, R., 2016, p.149). Successful leaders should be able to inspire and compel a picture of what the future of the organization looks like. A manager is responsible for controlling and monitoring resources in an organization. Therefore, the purpose of a manager is to deliver a message that controls and organizes the processes carried out by a team. Management is considered as a process that an organization uses in accomplishing its goals hence it is used in achieving what the organization wants. The message delivered by a manager is the interlocking the functions that create corporate policy, controlling, planning and directing the resources of an organization for the purpose of achieving the organization’s objectives.

Conclusion

Effective messaging ensures strategic performance in organizations. Managers deliver messages, but leaders create a message. This is because leaders set directions while managers are responsible for organizing functions. Leaders have to create an effective message that will inspire the employees and motivate their activities while leaders should deliver messages that will facilitate planning and directing the employees.

 

 

References

Răducan, R., 2016. Leaders and Managers. Theoretical and Applied in Psychology SICAP23, p.149.

Stanley, D., 2006. Role conflict: leaders and managers: David Stanley reviews the literature, and discusses his own research, on the difference between leadership and management. Nursing Management (Harrow), 13(5), pp.31-38.

Zaleznik, A., 2004. Managers and leaders: are they different?. Clinical leadership & management review: the journal of CLMA, 18(3), pp.171-177.

 

 

 

Question 3 (b)

Managers vs. leaders

It is true that as managers say go, leaders, say let’s go. This is because of the different roles in organizations. This indicates the main difference between the two concepts, a leader and a manager. Leaders are mandated duties of guiding people who follow them while managers coordinate the people working for them. A leader with their skills has a mission. They are aware of their mission and their piece in the organizational roles (Zaleznik, A., 2004, p.134). This makes the leader part of the time as they meet their goals. The leader, therefore, is part of the team but leads them in meeting their goals. This, therefore shows that leaders participate and get their team towards their vision while managers administer and make sure that things happen as they should be in the organization.

The manager in an organization is responsible for four main functions. These include planning, leading organizing and controlling (Stanley, D., 2006, p.35). These functions indicate that managers aim at accomplishing the goals of an organization as well as monitoring the behavior of employees in the procedures, processes, structure, systems, and control. This, therefore, indicates that a manager does not participate in the tasks but manages and organizes the task. A leader is awarded power on a temporary basis to continue to motivate and inspire the team. Leadership is therefore considered as effectiveness through inspiration, trust, and people. In this case, leaders spend their time upholding innovation to the organizations.

The managers are the people who are assigned the management tasks to look into and control people (Răducan, R., 2016, p. 149).  These are achieved through key functions in planning, organizing, budgeting, and staffing.  They also control the organization and participate in solving problems. Managers focus on structures, goals and the availability of resources in the company. They create strategies for the employees and also empower them through their principles and values

The leaders, on the other hand, ensure that they have set the directions for other employees and ensuring that they are motivated and inspired as they carry out their tasks. Leadership roles include aligning organization, communicating the vision to the members, influencing the creation of teams and coalitions, satisfying the basic human needs and promoting dramatic and useful changes that improve the labor relations.

A manager in their case tells their employees on the tasks they should complete while leaders participate in accomplishing the tasks and encourage their employees in completing the tasks. The duties of a manager consist of management which is controlling and monitoring a group of people to accomplish their goals. On the other hand, the duties of leaders consist of le, influencing and leadership roles that enhance individual’s ability through motivating and also contributing organizational success.

Conclusion

It is therefore evident that leaders say let’s go while managers say go. This makes the difference between them. This has been viewed through their roles in organizations and their differences. Leaders have people who follow them while managers have people working for them. Leading and managing people have illustrated the difference between the leaders and managers in organizations. They both influence the organization, but their abilities and responsibilities in the organization are different.

 

References

Răducan, R., 2016. Leaders and Managers. Theoretical and Applied in Psychology SICAP23, p.149.

Stanley, D., 2006. Role conflict: leaders and managers: David Stanley reviews the literature, and discusses his own research, on the difference between leadership and management. Nursing Management (Harrow), 13(5), pp.31-38.

Zaleznik, A., 2004. Managers and leaders: are they different?. Clinical leadership & management review: the journal of CLMA, 18(3), pp.171-177.

 

 

 

Question 4 (a)

Creating a customer

Yes, I agree with the statement

Individuals that are purchase goods and services are considered to be customers in businesses. Every business aims at creating customers as their main purpose because they are the business foundation. They facilitate in keeping the business existing. The sole purpose of customer is to create employment to the business (Dubé, L. and Renaghan, L.M., 2000, p.68). In creation of a customer, the business has two main purposes to ensure that create effective customers. The two main basic goals are innovation and marketing (Nairn, A. and Berthon, P., 2003, p. 90). The purpose of marketing is to ensure that they attract the prospect. In this case, the prospect is their customers. The innovation aims at transforming the prospect. The two functions work in harmony to convert the prospect into a customer.

A company has to ensure that they listen to their customer to ensure that they maintain and focus on strengthening their relationship. This will be enhanced through the two functions. Marketing contributes to the attracting customers while innovations play a key role in continuously delivering customers (O’Cass, A. and Ngo, L.V., 2012, p.124). This has enabled the businesses to create and keep customers.  All activities in business are done to support the main purpose of business. This is beneficial to the company regarding productivity and increased reputation for their customers hence increasing their incomes.

 

References

Dubé, L. and Renaghan, L.M., 2000. Creating visible customer value: How customers view best-practice champions. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 41(1), pp.62-72.

Nairn, A. and Berthon, P., 2003. Creating the customer: The influence of advertising on consumer market segments–Evidence and ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 42(1), pp.83-100.

O’Cass, A. and Ngo, L.V., 2012. Creating superior customer value for B2B firms through supplier firm capabilities. Industrial Marketing Management, 41(1), pp.125-135.

 

 

 

Question 4 (b)

It is true that the most significant way of customer retention is satisfaction. The customer satisfaction is a critical role in maintaining long-term results that increase both business performance and success in the market ( Luo, X. and Bhattacharya, C.B., 2006 p.12).  Customer retention is termed as the ability of a company to retain their customer over a specific period. For successful customer retention, customers need to get what they expect. Companies that aim at creating customer loyalty can maintain their customer through satisfying their wants rather than maximizing on shareholder’s value and profit (Gustafsson, A., Johnson, M.D. and Roos, I., 2005 p.214). The customer satisfaction includes success drivers such as support and service, meeting the expectations of customers, trust relationships, maintaining customer touch and exit barriers.

Customer satisfaction means that there are high customer satisfaction and fewer complaints by customers (Hansemark, O.C. and Albinsson, M., 2004.p. 42). A company that has high customer satisfaction and retention can create an effective market strategy that is business-wide, and that focuses on the customers. The company can get new ideas and remain open to more information about the company’s brand. Customer’s satisfaction can develop and grow awareness of the company’s brand developing more trust and confidence. This has enabled effective marketing strategy for an organization. Therefore, it is evident that the key to customer retention is satisfaction.

For instance, Walmart is training employees to request their customers if they need assistance on how to use a product or how a product functions. The company has also aimed at a variety of products that have allowed customers to select their products based on taste, income and preference thus improving the rates of customer satisfaction.

 

 

References

Gustafsson, A., Johnson, M.D. and Roos, I., 2005. The effects of customer satisfaction, relationship commitment dimensions, and triggers on customer retention. Journal of marketing, 69(4), pp.210-218.

Hansemark, O.C. and Albinsson, M., 2004. Customer satisfaction and retention: the experiences of individual employees. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 14(1), pp.40-57.

Luo, X. and Bhattacharya, C.B., 2006. Corporate social responsibility, customer satisfaction, and market value. Journal of marketing, 70(4), pp.1-18.

 

 

 

Question 4 (c)

Customer retention

Implementing and maintaining customer retention is incredibly vital on the part of growing and sustaining a company. Customer retention is considered as the rate at which companies can maintain their customers over a specific period. To build a successful customer retention, the company has to prioritize on the things it needs to implement in their marketing efforts (Verhoef, P.C., 2003, p. 34). A customer relationship management system allows the business to monitor, communicate with their customers through an automated platform. The company has to prioritize on retention strategies through mass advertising and other forms of ads that will communicate to the existing customers. The company requires to budget on retention in the market to support the efforts of retention.

Implementation of effective customer retention

The most important way of implementing customer retention is preventing customers from leaving. All variables such as product usage and purchase patterns are captured to ensure that customers are prevented from leaving. For a customer to remain in a line of business in the company, it is required that the company can understand what. It is important for a company to keep its product consistent in the market (Jeng, D.J.F. and Bailey, T., 2012, p. 1580). The quality of service and the value offered is much important in retaining of customers. It is important to ensure that strict standards are meet and that they implement ways that ensure that the standards have been put into place. It is important to keep the first-hand research into the customers’ regards for the business regarding products and services.  The businesses have to maintain customer complaint records that are used for an accurate measure of the issues that arise and feedbacks that are received. Customers require being offered discounts about continued usage of their products. This is an important way for retaining existing customers for the organization.

For example, Star furniture has ensured that they offer their Facebook fans a coupon that makes their customers feel that they are receiving something as a form of return as customers. This is used by the company at the same time to encourage their customers to return to their stores. The company also accepts complaints and feedbacks from their customer as a form of their customer service. These are strategies that the company has used to retain their customers through online services.

Strategies for Customer Retention

The organization has to develop smart customer retention techniques to implement new ideas to enhance retention strategies.  The businesses have to ensure that they engage and respond to customers. They have also ensured content marketing to improve the customer retention strategies that enable improvement of customer retention techniques. Following the customers on social media can improve the aims of retaining customers through engagement opportunities to get great feedback.

Conclusion

Existing customers that have already bought from the company have a good experience with the product and services offered. Confidence and trust have been established through effective satisfaction of customer needs. The customer retention is an important technique used by businesses to increase their profits and lower their costs of marketing. This can be achieved through implementation of certain strategies and implementations for customer retention. Through the customer retention techniques, the customers are satisfied and ensure that the existing customers come back (Sashi, C.M., 2012, p. 261). Customers taken as the most essential part and important asset in an enterprise. In every business they are considered as the lifelines for long term success of a business in terms of profits and increased revenue. Therefore, no enterprise that can exist without strategizing the retention techniques for their customers. Therefore, it is important for the businesses to ensure that they strategize on customer retention which is vital in the marketing and profitability of the company.

 References

Jeng, D.J.F. and Bailey, T., 2012. Assessing customer retention strategies in mobile telecommunications: Hybrid MCDM approach. Management Decision, 50(9), pp.1570-1595.

Sashi, C.M., 2012. Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social media. Management decision, 50(2), pp.253-272.

Verhoef, P.C., 2003. Understanding the effect of customer relationship management efforts on customer retention and customer share development. Journal of marketing, 67(4), pp.30-45.