Management, Manger and Leadership

Management, Managers and Leadership

Intro

For this answer I will focus on the topic of managing and leading. I have chosen to focus on these two topics as I feel they are two contemporary issues in management and OB today. I will structure my answer using the TAE framework, I will examine the theory I have learned over the past 12 weeks for both management and leadership and I will provide examples of where I have seen this theory applied as a result of my further research into this topic and guest lectures. Finally I will evaluate my learning and what leadership and management means to me.

Theory

Managing can be defined as the control or administering of an organisation or a group of staff.

Henry Mitzberg study of managers is probably one of the most well know because it challenged the pre-defined notion of management and mangers.

The traditional way managers were seen and management was taught to MBA students was under the POLCA framework.  

Planning

Organising

Leading

Controlling

Achieving

In 1968 Henry Mintzberg saw this theory and challenged it to see if managers really did apply this in the workplace.

Henry’s study was unlike any preceding studies. Instead of handing out surveys for managers to fill, he went and observed managers. He observed what they did and how long they did it for.

Mintzberg had been taught that an effective manager had the following characteristics;

Reflective, Systematic planner, had no regular duties to perform, management was a science and a profession and that senior management needed aggregate information which a formal MIS best provides.

So what did Mintzberg find from his observational studies?

The typical day of a manager in the real world was frantic long hours full of disjointed activities, which the manager spent minutes on each day. Managers used various skills throughout the day, and they had to make many quick judgement and intuition calls based on rules of thumb. Dr. James McDermott in his talk called these rules of thumbs heuristics and said they are prone to bias. 60-80% of the manager’s day was spent on verbal and face to face interaction.

As a result of Mintzberg study we can move from the POLCA to a definition of 3 roles a manger may perform.

Interpersonal role; the manager is seen as a figurehead, leader, liaison. In this role they represent the employee, motivate them and maintain contact with key stakeholders outside of the organisation.

Informational Role: Monitor, Disseminator, Spokesperson. Leverage your personal network, feed information to subordinates who lack access to critical information, provide information on behalf of your unit to senior management.

Decisional Role: Entrepreneur, Disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator. They initiate innovative projects, manage crises and conflict, co-ordinate decisions and use strategic information to establish contacts.

Leadership.

Leadership can be defined as an adaptive process where one or more individuals emerge as focal point to influence and coordinate behaviours for solving social challenges posed by dynamic physical and cultural environments.

Wanting to get a better understanding of leadership and some contemporary views on leadership I read Platow et al. 2015 paper ‘There is no leadership if no-one follows: Why leadership is necessarily a group process’. The goal of this paper was the analysis of leadership as fundamentally a group process. The paper outlines 6 theories on leadership which I will briefly outline now.

1. Leadership is a group process

1. Studies have shown that fans donate more money to charity if they support the same team.

1. There is no leadership if no-one follows

1. Leadership is a social influence process. Power of others to induce conformity or influence.

1. Social Influence take place within a psychological ‘in-group’

1. Degree of which an individual group member is similar to all other group members while being different to relevant out-group members
2. The more in-group you are the more influence you have

1. Stereotypical leadership attributes are outcomes of shared psychological group membership (not innate in person)

1. These characteristics are, inspiring/charisma trust and fairness.

1. Leadership is about doing it for us.

1. When leaders favoured the group over others they got the greatest following

1. Leadership is about defining and creating psychological in groups.

1. Leadership involves identity entrepreneurship  
2. For example during strikes different groups use their own language. ‘Us’ and ‘them’

Application

Above is the theory I have learnt about management and leadership during this module. During the 12 lectures, many great guest speakers applied the theory we learnt in class into their everyday life. 2 guest speakers I feel are most applicable to a question about leadership and management are David Brophy and the Fergal Hynes. I will first talk about Fergal Hynes, the current SU president, managerial applications in the real world and David Brophy leadership in the real world as an orchestral conductor.