Essay on leadership in organizations

Abstract

The paper highlights ways a leader can encourage and motivate workers in an organisation. The topics covered are morale boosting, dealing with negative and positive behaviours, enhancing the personal self-actualization score, delegation, assigning duties and responsibilities, and understanding different types of personalities in an organisation.

Employee Morale

Morale of employees is directly related to productivity in any organisations hence the notion that low morale results to poor work habits, excessive waste, and accidents which all lead to reduced returns (Bowles et al., 2009, p. 2). Therefore it is very important that employees’ morale be boosted regularly to avoid any of the instances that would cause reduced profits. As a leader in my organisation some of the actions that I might advocate for in improving the morale of employees are:

• Identify each employee’s special skill and strength through looking at their personal SWOTS and then make sure that opportunities are provided for them to make use of them.
• Being responsive to employees complains, even if the complains are unreasonable they should not be ignored.
• Facilitating a workable environment for employees to do their job, such as: offering the right tools, safe and sanitary environments, and lighting.
• Not ignoring false rumours and deflating them so as to put everyone at ease.
• Providing recognition and reward systems for employees so that they may know how they are performing.
• Being fair and firm in allocation of assignments and judging disagreements.
• Working through the chain of command and not to undercut sub-ordinates when dealing with work related issues.
• Create a comfortable break room for workers that has a television, and even a canteen room that is spacious where they would eat comfortably during lunch time.

Dealing with Negative and Positive employee behaviour

Suzanne is a narcissist in her personality which is clearly depicted by Carducci, (2009, p. 240), who asserted that narcissist are identified by four dimensions which are: entitlement belief, belief of authority, superiority complex, and self-admiration. If Suzanne is a hard working achiever then it would be very important to keep her happy and productive. The best way to keep her like this would be to isolate her like giving her a lone office so that she would be away from others hence minimising conflicts. Her responsibilities can also be tailor made so that she becomes autonomous. She needs to be talked to and be told that she rubs people the wrong way and furthermore every achievement she does then she should be complemented. In case of under-achiever narcissist, then the only option would be termination if talking to does not yield results.

John exhibits positive behaviour in his efforts of being proactive and a good team player in the organisation. It is therefore important that the employee is encouraged and motivated to continue his good attributes. The most important thing is to communicate with him that his efforts are remarkable and continued behaviour like that one will be well appreciated. He would also be encouraged to continue his efforts by offering thank you notes and even rewards. Furthermore, he should be given a leadership position in the organisation that would help further his skill in being an assertive and fluent communicator (Carducci, 2009, p. 241). Positions such as the secretary general for employees or employee representative could be beneficial for him as he has shown to care for welfare of other employees.

Beth shows negative behaviour in being disinterested in tasks appointed to her and even going to the extent of isolating herself. This is an example of an employee who is de-motivated and in most cases is as a result of being assigned tasks that do not match her skills and knowledge. The first thing is to talk to her and identify her skills and abilities. In case of meetings that are for assigning duties, it should also be imperative that duties assigned to her should be tailor made in accordance to her skills and knowledge. Her teamwork skills should be improved through seminars and events that would foster employee unity and understanding (Singh, 2010, p. 92).

Charlie is aggressive and very angry and cannot stand to be wrong hence this is a negative behaviour in the organisation. The first action in dealing with Charlie is to communicate with him of his weakness and tell him of the company’s expectation. He should also be made to understand that mistakes are understandable and that doing so is healthy in learning to be better. Thereafter, he should enrol to an anger management class that should be funded by the company. In addition, there should be guidelines in the company in airing grievances which would be beneficial to the employee in case he needs to complain (Singh, 2010, p. 93).

Sally exhibits positive behaviour in the company and it would be off essence to encourage and motivate her of her performance. Her abilities should be recognised by thank you letters, tokens, and even day-offs. Since she possesses skills in leadership she could be further trained on good leadership and even offered more delegated responsibilities. However, care should be taken so that she feels motivated and a central player in driving the organisation forward.

Self-Actualization

According to the characteristic of self-actualization exercise my score was 107 out of a maximum of 160 points. The progress is above average as despite the fact that I am way of mark of 130 which is the acceptable level, I am heading towards the acceptable level. I therefore agree with the score in the sense that it shows that I have yet attained my full potential in life. Therefore, in order to raise my self-actualization level Carducci, (2009, p. 250), highlights twelve steps that would be of essence. These steps are: stop comparing myself with others; encouraging one’s self; accepting compliments with a simple ‘ thank you’; using affirmations to enhance self-actualisation; using books, videos, and seminars to enhance self actualisation; associating with positive people; listing past successes; listing personal positive attributes; starting to give more; involvement in passionate activities; living a real life; and taking action towards personal goals.

Part 2

Delegation

Delegation in the workplace entails giving authority and functions to a sub-ordinate which was in the first place not intended for the sub-ordinate (Burns, 2003, p. 5). The benefits of effective delegation to a leader is the ability to divide work and reduce work load hence in doing so the leader can focus on the core aspects of improving productivity such as planning and strategy (Burns, 2003, p. 6). Through delegation the leader can be able to appraise employee performances hence when it comes to promotions, reviewing of salaries and even termination of contracts a basis is found. Delegation also provides a way for employees to flourish their skills and knowledge where workers who have skills such as communication and leadership and have no platform for growing them could have an opportunity by being given a chance to practice them. Furthermore, it also provides for improvement in relationship between superiors and subordinates where they would understand each other effectively.

Therefore if delegation is not a core function in any organisation then negative effects would be felt. The most notably effect to a leader is the increased workload which forces a leader to even take some home on a daily basis. The leader will also be too much concerned with trivia that important matters would most of the time be left unsolved. For instance, the leader who does not delegate could focus so much on solving an argument that planning for a meeting is ignored. There is also increased anxiousness on the part of the leader where there is constant worry on beating deadlines. Lastly, there is a possibility of having employees who lack confidence, leadership, and troubleshooting capabilities since they have never been tried through delegation.

Assigning Responsibilities

The major factors that a leader has to consider when assigning duties to workers are: character, age, skill and interest, and experience of the employee (Madura, 2007, p. 366). The character of an employee is a fore most factor that should be considered. When dealing with employees who have negative characters then they should be awarded duties that would make them reduce the trait or even work in harmony with other workmates. Positive characters in employees require encouragement and therefore require certain duties. Age of employees is also important where certain duties will only be effectively done by younger employees than older ones. Skill and interest of an employee are of essence when assigning duties that would be effectively done hence serves as a motivation. Lastly, the experience goes hand in hand with skill and interest where employees having vast experience are given the most difficult tasks compared to less experienced ones.

New responsibilities can be effectively presented to employees through first of all highlighting the expected outcome of the responsibilities (Schermermerhorn, 2010, p 235). Then the leader would organise a forum or a meeting where specific strategies and procedures on embarking on the new responsibilities are communicated. The forum would be fair where employees would seek clarifications on areas that they are not familiar. The responsibilities are then assigned with the leader checking in regularly to make sure that everything is in accordance to plan. In case where responsibilities are not accomplished as planned, then interventions are done. New Responsibilities are to be presented to employees in accordance to skill and experience of them. Furthermore in supervision, good accomplishment of responsibilities would be rewarded and recognised.

Steps in Understanding Personality of Employees

In understanding different personalities in the work environment there are certain steps that a leader can take. These steps are very essential when a leader wants to quickly learn the various characters available without wasting time. The first step is the leader understanding his/her own personality and how he/she relates with others. This also entails avoiding judgments based on limited knowledge. Secondly, the leader has to treat everyone with respect. Everyone wants to be appreciated and accepted as they are and therefore a leader will deal with the personality professionally. Thirdly, the leader can use actions of each employee to categorise the different personalities that exists in the workplace. The action tendencies in a work environment can be generally divided into: sensation thinkers, intuitive thinkers, sensation feelers, and intuitive thinkers (Crouse, 2005, p. 16).

Personally, I agree that it is important and beneficial for a leader to consider the personality of workers in assigning duties and responsibilities. In order for employees to be motivated and look forward daily to working in a firm their duties and responsibilities must tally with their personality. For instance, in cases where an introvert personality is assigned duties and responsibilities that require them to be social, then the expected outcome would not be achieved. If achieved, then most likely the employee would be demoralised and in the future be less productive. In also considering the personality of different employees, an organisation would work more like a team where weaknesses of certain individuals are anchored by strengths of another.

References

Bowles, D., Cooper, C., & Cooper, L. (2009). Employee Morale: driving performance in challenging times. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 1-59
Burns, R. (2003). Making Delegation Happen. Victoria: Allen & Unwin. Pp. 1-56
Carducci, B. J. (2009). The Psychology of Personality: View Points, Research, and Applications. West Sussex: John Willey and Sons. Pp. 240-253
Crouse, N. (2005). Motivation is an Inside Job: How to get your employees to deliver the results you need. New England: iUniverse. Pp. 14-44
Madura, J. (2007). Introduction to Business (4th ed.). Ohio: Thomson Higher Education. Pp. 365-400
Schermermerhorn, J. R. (2010). Exploring Management (2nd ed.). Massacheussets: John Wiley and Sons. Pp. 230-340
Singh, K. (2010). Organisational Behaviour: Texts and Cases. New Delhi: Dorling and Kindersely. Pp. 92-101