Leadership and Influence

Abstract

The paper explains leadership influences and three reactions that may be received from employees. The paper goes on to explain the reactions and defines the most sought after reaction. The latter part of the paper analyzes three leaders and the way they influence employees.

Leadership and Influence

Introduction

Leaders come in all races, and sexes. What is important is their style of leadership and what influences each style. The way a person leads determines the effectiveness of how a company or department succeeds. A leader must be also able to exert a certain amount of influence over their employees during the leadership process. The reaction given from employee to employer will ultimately determine how effective the leader's leadership ability is.

Leaders in organizations are given a considerable amount of power. They must learn how to use the power given to them effectively and influence their counterparts. Reactions from in employees that are most common are resistance, commitment, and compliance (Nahavandi, 2011). Resistance is when an employee tries to do things their own and divert from what the leader has stated. When an employee complies they willingly accept the leader's request. Commitment is the welcoming and acceptance of the leader's request.

Of the three reactions resistance is the most frowned upon and undesirable reaction. When a member of a team or employee does not comply with what a leader sets forth either openly or secretly they are considered to be resistant. A leader can counteract resistance by achieving small wins with employees. By doing so the employee wants to be a part of the leader's goals and strive to help the company succeed (Kouzes and Posner). Compliance on the other hand is a more acceptable reaction but it also has its negative side. As stated by Baldwin and Grayson even though an employee complies he or she may only do so because of positional authority and may not know or care about the reasoning behind a decision. Compliance is ultimately acceptance but there may be no enthusiasm or excitement behind what is being done. Self motivation is the basis for the third reaction, commitment. Commitment is the most sought after reaction to leadership. When an employee accepts a leader and follows their influence and supports them then they are considered to be committed. When a leader gains commitment from an employee they do not have to monitor them as much as other employees, the leaders objectives are endorsed and working relationships are improved (Baldwin and Grayson).

Influence Method Andrea Jung-Avon Indra Nooyi-PepsiCo Brenda Barnes- Sara Lee

Direct decisions CEO of Avon, she reduced senior staff by 25% removed 8 levels of management and reduced staffing costs by $300M Divest PepsiCo of their fast food restaurant market operations and also made significant business acquisitions furthering their investment in the bottles beverage market (Useem, 2008) Divest of Sara Lee's non food based businesses to improve economic performance(Sterrett, 2009)

Allocation of resources research and development is mostly responsible for an increase in Avons sales

(Nahavandi, 2011) redirecting about 1/3 of Pepsi's marketing dollars towards social media and digital promotions that included her "ReFresh Project" campaign, a $20m grant program seeking to award community building projects, (Zmuda, 2010) allocated an additional $250m towards R&D and marketing, an increase of 35%, in order to grow annual sales between 2% and 4%, (Jargon, 2005)

Reward system Top sellers are rewarded with trips to exotic places Provides training tools for employees— Diversity equals bonus rewards. (Burns, 2007)

Selection and promotion of other leaders Micromanages marketing leadership at PepsiCo

leaders control the selection and promotion of new internal leaders

Role modeling Change Avon to the "Company for Women" and is driven by her vision to elevate other women in the economic community and a passion to make a difference in the lives of women by enabling them to become self-empowered Driven by her goal to empower women and remodeled PepsiCo