As a leader/manager, one circumstance you may encounter is the necessity to integrate or merge two organizational units. This can be a stressful period which, if not properly managed, can cause a good deal of tension and/or conflict, often leading to decreased organizational performance.
Consider that senior management has dictated that your unit will merge with another manager’s unit over the next three months. You will be the leader of the newly merged group. The previous manager will remain on your staff. Senior management has asked you to submit a merger plan. (If you have previously been involved in an actual unit merger, please share the organizational dynamics you experienced as well as any lessons learned.)
Discussion Question
What are the key issues/challenges/opportunities you face, both short- and long-term?
Describe three key elements of your merger plan and explain the sources of power that will be available to you upon which you will draw to help achieve a successful merger.
The initial post should be about 250 words. For your initial post also bring in information from at least two background sources. You are also encouraged (but not required) to include a source or two from your own research to help inform your classmates. Cite the sources.
Each response post should be about 175 words.
Response 1
Merger and Unit Integration Issues
A merger is an internal process that requires excellent application of effective leadership styles to enable one to control the situation. It is based on effective leadership that does not only focus on leading but also controlling the situation to avert a crisis that can harm company operations (Fiedler, 2016). During the merger process for a company that I worked for, I experienced serious challenges that I had to deal with to show my leadership abilities. Issues in the short term were related to the building of new relations, setting clear goals and procedures, rewards and punishments to move forward the new business unit.
The longshort-term challenge was the cultural aspect where I had to deal with immediately to avert implications of cultural differences. Even though we worked in the same company, the business units had a specific leadership style and cultural differences (O’Reilly, 2013). Employees in both business units did not share the values, beliefs and assumptions that could influence the behaviour, attitudes and meanings. With the expanded workforce, I had a challenge in communicating with all employees and empowering them to create a culture for all of them to thrive. Dealing with fear, and lack of answers, to explain the reasons for the merger was a great challenge. Besides, employee retention became another issue for this could negatively affect the attitudes of workers and destroy the company’s image.
Conversely, the whole process was an opportunity to develop my cultural intelligence to gain knowledge of facts regarding different works (O’Reilly, 2013). Besides, it created a room to increase my practical awareness and apply what I had learnt to elevate my leadership capabilities. In this view, I had to initiate the decision-making processes flexibly to gather detailed opinions to effect the decision. Besides, I got the opportunity to devise new communication strategies to help in motivating the workers into accepting the new unit and work without resentment (Vroom, 2013). Making the team committed was primary, and therefore, the contingency Fiedler model became handy in assisting me in handling the situation to enhance organizational success.
Patrick
References
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory (2016). Leadership-central. Retrieved from
http://www.leadership-central.com/fiedler%27s-contingency-theory.html#axzz3OemkTtoM
O’Reilly, C. (2013). Why is cultural intelligence important? Retrieved from
http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/topic/soft-skills/why-cultuiral-intelligence-important/181942
Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision-making Model of Leadership (2013). Leadership-central. Retrieved from
http://www.leadership-central.com/Vroom-Yetton-Jago-decision-making-model-of-leadership.html#axzz3OjpF9lI8
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Response 2
When two separate companies begin talks of merging the purchasing leadership will begin to find themselves in a situation of potential conflicts of both manager positions. Managers typically carry very strong leadership superiority. Additionally, the company that is purchasing has its historical way of doing business and knows the will to adapt to the incoming business philosophy. The short term opportunities that one might face is making the transition and adaption of both managers. Another, short term effect is going to be setting short term goals, ensuring both managers give feedback to effectively communicate, ensuring they understand the way forward. Directive leadership involves letting subordinates know what is expected of them, giving clear guidelines, and making sure they know the rules and procedures to get the work done. Participative leadership involves consulting with subordinates and taking account of their opinions and suggestions when making decisions (Martin, 2012). The long-term effects will be getting both managers to having the same outlook and personality to the adaptation to each other. Managers need to communicate effectively and have the same outlook and where the company is going forward.
The top three elements of the merger plan would be effective communication, instilling the way forward upfront, and ensuring that both managers are equal. Effective communication is delivered by the boss of the two managers leading the meeting and to follow up with feedback from both to ensure the message was delivered. Instilling the way forward will be telling them the goals the merger will consist of and how the managers will need to work together to meet the ownership intent. The last thing is delivering that neither of the managers has superiority over each other. To add to that the boss must identify any repercussion that will happen if either of the managers tries to walk on either. There need to be good leader-member relations, the task with clear goals and procedures, and the ability for the leader to mete out rewards and punishments(Fiedler, 2016). Mergers can be a challenge if a clear and concise message is not delivered upfront.
Willis
References
Fielder, F. (2016). Fiedler’s Contingency Theory. Leadership Central, 1. Retrieved from https://www.leadership-central.com/fiedler%27s-contingency-theory.html#axzz3OemkTtoM
Martin, R. (2012). PathGoal Theory of Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Encyclopedia of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. Retrieved from https://studysites.uk.sagepub.com/northouse6e/study/materials/reference/reference7.2.pdF
Background
LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP
Required Sources
People have wondered about what makes a great leader since the beginning of recorded history – and undoubtedly long before. The formal study of leadership dates back to the 1950s, and is probably one of the most researched topics in Organizational Behavior. Today, after decades of study, we believe that:
· Leaders are made, not born, and leadership can be taught.
· Leadership occurs in all kinds of organizations and at all levels.
· To be a great leader, one does not have to be charismatic.
· There is no one right way to lead that will fit all situations.
In this module, we will review the major theories of leadership that persist to this day. Although some are more complex than others, each seems to have a nugget of truth and adds to our overall understanding of how leadership works and what makes great leadership. The following chart summarizes the major approaches or models that we will cover.
Leadership Model
Principles
Trait Model
Leaders have special innate qualities. Certain people are “natural leaders.”
Behavioral Models
Leaders are concerned primarily with task or relationships, though the best leaders are concerned with both.
Contingency Models
Different leader behaviors are effective for different types of followers and situations.
Influence (Power) Models
Leadership consists of influencing others.
Transformational Models
Leaders are visionaries who change organizations and people’s behavior.
Let’s begin with a PowerPoint presentation that will provide some background on these different models:
Eveland, J. D. (n.d.)
Leadership
. Trident University International.
The exercise of leadership, by definition, involves compelling people to do something they might not otherwise have done. The manner in which they carry out these tasks varies, however. The degree of motivation and enthusiasm with which a follower performs his or her work is related to the type of leadership that is used. Here are the most common reactions by followers:
· Commitment is characterized by the internalization of a leader’s goal or request and the follower’s decision to carry it out effectively. Frequently, the follower will go beyond what the leader has asked or expects – in other words, goes the extra mile.
· Compliance is an apathetic response where the follower does what the leader asks, but exerts no more than the required amount of effort.
· Resistance is a reaction where the follower opposed the leader‘s direction and avoids carrying it out (passively through avoidance or aggressively through rebellion).
Let’s take a look at power, which is closely tied to leadership. Review the sources of power in the following video presentation:
Retrieved April 2017 from
.
Now, consider reactions to leadership’s exercise of power (by type):
Type
Most Common Reaction
Reward
Compliance
Coercive
Compliance or resistance
Legitimate
Compliance
Referent
Commitment
Expert
Commitment
This chart would indicate that the most a leader can hope for if he relies on the power received from holding a position (legitimate, reward, coercive) is compliance with directives. If leaders rely too heavily on coercive power, they risk meeting resistance. If, instead, a leader needs to have the follower’s commitment (the knowledge that a follower will comply with directives regardless of whether or not the follower is being monitored or not), then the leader must rely on personal sources of power – such as referent or expert power.
While commitment is very often the most desired reaction, sometimes compliance is enough to accomplish the leader’s objectives. Resistance, however, is something all leaders should want to avoid as it could render them totally ineffective.
Contingency Models
The Eveland PowerPoint presentation also covered contingency models of leadership. Contingency models are based on the idea that the most effective leadership style is one that matches the demands of the situation. There are three basic models of contingency leadership that we will cover in this module. Each has a slightly different prescription as to the factors that a leader needs to consider when exercising the most successful leadership style.
1. The Fiedler Model
2. The Path-Goal Model and
3. The Normative Decision Model
The Fiedler Model
Unlike the behavioral theorists who came before him, Fiedler did not believe that there was one best style of leadership. He agreed that individuals tend to possess either a task-oriented or relationship-oriented leadership style, but that to know the appropriate style for a given circumstance, you also needed to understand the situation:
Situational Factor
Characteristics
Leader-Member Relations
Do the followers have trust and confidence in the leader?
Task Structure
Is the task structured or unstructured?
Leader’s position power
Does the leader have the discretion to reward or punish?
Read the following article to learn how these factors combine to indicate which leadership style would be most effective given specific situational constraints, and criticisms of the model:
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory (2016). Leadership-central. Retrieved from
http://www.leadership-central.com/fiedler%27s-contingency-theory.html#axzz3OemkTtoM
While Fiedler thought that different leadership styles worked better under different conditions, he did not think that people could change their preferred style. So the important task of management was to match the leader with the right style to the right situation. The next contingency theory of leadership we will examine does not hold that leadership style is static, and instead proffers the argument that leaders can change and adapt their style to fit the situation.
Path Goal Model
The path-goal model of leadership proposes four different leadership styles and considers two situational factors (the follower’s capabilities and motivation) to match the most effective leadership style with the characteristics of the situation as follows:
Appropriate Leadership Style
Situation
Directive
· Employee role ambiguity is high
· Employees have low abilities
· Employees have external locus of control
Supportive
· Tasks are boring and repetitive
· Tasks are stressful
Participative
· Employee abilities are high
· Decisions are relevant to employees
· Employees have internal locus of control
Achievement-oriented
· Employees have high abilities
· Employees have high achievement motivation
In other words, a leader does not use the same approach with hourly employees with limited skills the same way she would lead employees who are highly educated and highly skilled. Read more about this approach to leadership:
Martin, R. (2012) “PathGoal Theory of Leadership.” Encyclopedia of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. Ed. John M. Levine and Michael A. Hogg. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2009. 636-37. SAGE Reference Online . Web. 30 Jan. 2012. Retrieved April 2017 from
https://studysites.uk.sagepub.com/northouse6e/study/materials/reference/reference7.2.pdf
Normative Decision Model: Vroom-Yetton-Jago decision tree
The last contingency model we will consider is the Normative Decision Model, so called because it gives leaders a tool to use to decide exactly which of five leadership styles is appropriate for a given circumstance to ensure that the highest quality alternative is selected and the followers have the greatest likelihood of acceptance of that alternative. By asking a series of questions and following the answers through a decision tree, the leader can select the style that is most likely to yield the response she desires. The five leadership styles are:
Decision style
Characteristics
A1: Autocratic
Leader gathers information and decides alone.
A2: Autocratic
Leader gets information from followers but decides alone.
C1: Consultative
Leader shares problem with individual followers, asks for input, but decides alone.
C2: Consultative
Leader shares problem with group of follower, asks for input, but decides alone.
G2: Group based
Leader shares problem with group, seeks consensus on solution.
Find out what the key questions are and see how the decision tree works by reading the following article. Be sure to try out the interactive tool that allows you to try out the decision tree for yourself!
Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision-making Model of Leadership (2013). Leadership-central. Retrieved from
http://www.leadership-central.com/Vroom-Yetton-Jago-decision-making-model-of-leadership.html#axzz3OjpF9lI8
Transformational leadership
Transformational leaders are people who inspire followers to exert their greatest efforts toward achieving a vision for the future of the organization. To do this, the transformational leader needs to clearly communicate his vision for the organization and this vision must be linked to strong values that followers will find motivating. The transformational leader works hard to build trust with his followers – so that his “open area” of the JoHari Window is maximized. (See Module 2 for an explanation of the JoHari Window.)
Although he does not use the term “transformational”, Leadership expert Simon Sinek is clearly describing what constitutes this type of leadership in the following TED talk:
TED (2010) Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action. Retrieved from
Much of what is written about transformational leadership focuses on the role of top management – particularly CEO’s – as transformational. But what about the rest of us who lead people on a daily basis, but from the middle of the organization? Does the model of transformational leadership have anything to offer individuals who are not at the top of the leadership “food chain”?
The following article does just that by making clear how managers at all levels of the organization can become more effective leaders by infusing transformational principles into the meaning of work. Drawing on the Job Characteristics Model (remember this from module 1?), the authors show how “transformational leaders promote (i.e., shape) subordinates’ perceptions of work by influencing their perceptions of key job characteristics.” (p. 354)
Dean J., Cleavengera, D. J., and Munyonb, T. P. (2013). It’s how you frame it: Transformational leadership and the meaning of work. Business Horizons 56(3), 351-360.
You can find this article in the Trident Online Library.
Optional Sources
Center for Creative Leadership Website. (2015) Retrieved from
http://www.ccl.org/index.shtml
McNamara, C. (2017) All about Leadership. In Free Management Library. Retrieved from
http://managementhelp.org/leadership/
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