One of the greatest challenges for a new leader is earning the respect and cooperation of his or her subordinates, and using that respect to make the organization or work team more effective. In the assigned scenario, I am a newly promoted leader assigned to replace a highly respected and recently retired organization veteran of 23 years. My work team consists of five mid-level managers with between four and twelve years of experience in their positions, and they have all worked together for four years. To best address the challenge of facilitating an effective transition, I will draw on the organizational behavior metaphors of Gareth Morgan (1986) in his book, Images of Organization, to focus on three important areas of management: perception, interpersonal relations, and effective communication. I will then use those insights to discuss the obstacles and solutions that may arise during my transition into leadership.
Morgan’s book approaches the problem of defining organizations by outlining various images, or metaphors, for how people understand organizations to function. These range from concrete metaphors, such as organizations as machines or organisms, to abstract concepts, such as psychic prisons. Morgan examines the theories related to each metaphor, and concludes each segment by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each imperfect comparison. Each metaphor prioritizes different theories about human behavior and provides insight to different organizational or managerial problems. By considering these metaphors, Morgan claims, a manager can develop a “diagnostic reading” of a given situation and address problems with an appropriate degree of flexibility (p. 16).
The first Morgan metaphor, of organizations as cult...
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...ent rejection and competition.
As Morgan points out in his introduction, no one metaphor adequately addresses all aspects of organizational behavior or approaches to management. However, by using various metaphorical frameworks as appropriate, I can develop a well-rounded plan for transition that maintains the team’s effectiveness, boosts morale, and cements my leadership authority within the work team and the organization. In addition, Morgan’s metaphor approach also provides a useful framework for spotting possible problems and pitfalls, whether they are from human nature, organizational politics, or team inertia rooted in a comfortable common culture.
Works Cited
Rainey, H.G. (2003). Understanding and managing public organizations (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Morgan, G. (1986). Images of organization. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing Organizations (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
The most valuable commodity of any great organization is the quality of good people. Almost everyone has good intentions but leaders acknowledge what needs to be done and has the ability to inspire others to respond. Nonetheless the author conveys the differences between leadership of past generation versus this generation. As society loses confidence in leadership techniques of the past, it begins to look for management wit...
Yukl, G. (2002), Leadership in Organizations, 5th ed., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, .
It is my belief that transformational leadership improves organizational effectiveness, and, therefore, should be used in every organization. As my goal is to move up the management chart, I trust this theory and concept will enable me to be a more effective leader. The transformational leadership style is one of the widely used approaches today. Organizations believe that transformational leaders influence performance. In order for me to influence my follower’s to increase team performance, I must build that trust. Meaning, I must become that effective transformational leader in which my followers have trust in me. These learnings will be applied in my workplace. After the readings, I now understand how crucial trust is in transformational leadership. In the workplace, my focus will be on building cognitive trust among team members so that they will put more efforts into performing the given task. Having trust in the team leader and trust amongst team members has a positive effect on team performance. If I want the vision to be fulfilled, it’s imperative that I encourage my employees to work together. As the article mentions, trust is an important factor that mediates the effect of the transformational leadership on group outcomes. Applying the learnings of this article will enhance my leadership skills as well as improving organizational
In this time of transition and uncertainty, research suggests that transformational leadership is highly effective (Straight, 2006). Leadership research has drifted from emphasis on the competence of leaders to “manage change” to the ability to “transform” organizations. Transformational leaders have attributes and behaviors needed to successfully motivate and empower employees. According to Bernard Bass (1990), transformational leadership occurs when a leader transforms, or changes, his or her followers in three important ways that together result in followers trusting the leader, performing behaviors that contribute to the achievement of organizational goals, and being motivated to perform at a high level. Transformational leaders can achieve greater performance by stimulating innovative ways of thinking and transforming follower’s beliefs and aspirations. Maxwell (Maxwell, 2007) articulates that most of the time, influence is more important than formal power or authority. I agree with him. Influence is very important in organizational and co...
Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 1-19. Retrieved from http://www.blackdiamond.dk/HDO/Organisation_Gary_Yukl_Leadership_in_Organizations.pdf
Morgan’s metaphors analyze the four frameworks that organizations may use to reframe their workforce. The one frame that feel represents my previous organization would be human resource. Bloman and Deal, authors of Reframing Organizations, stated that ‘’ From a human resource view, the key challenge is to tailor organizations to individuals finding ways for people to get the job done while feeling good about themselves and their work’’ (p. 16). When employees do not feel secure or trust their employer it leaves them disengaged and wanting to resign from the organization.
Being involved in these groups and organizations has allowed me to flourish my own organizational and communication skills. I feel in order to be a proper leader one must not only respect everyone around them, but also be willing to be a “servant leader”–
Gibson, J.L., Ivancevich, J.M., Donnelly, J.H., & Konopaske, R. (2009). Organizations: Behaviors, structure, processes (13th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
Initially, transactional and transformational leadership are different in terms of implementation and its outcomes. However, transformational leadership was developed from transactional leadership (Downton, 1973). Bass (1985) defined transactional leadership as an exchange activity that leaders execute to motivate subordinates in order to achieve their tasks by giving out reward or punishment correspond with their performance. Additionally, active and passive management by exception are taken into account when it comes to misconception and faults. Bass (1985) stated that transformational leadership emphasizes the value of subordinates, encourages them to perform extra effort, and assures their comprehension on organization’s goals and objectives. Besides, idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulatio...
In the first several weeks of Introduction to Leadership we have gone over many lessons that teach us about the different factors in being a leader. Some going into the different elements that need to be taken in account for by a good leader, others go on to talk about different tactics or skills good leaders pertain. For the purpose of this paper I am going to focus on the “Perception and Bias” and “Socialization” lessons and how they have been important to my development as a leader so far at the academy and how they have enhanced my commitment to this institution.
Change usually comes with resistance in any workplace because change disrupts the employees’ sense of safety and control (Lewis, 2012). Kurt Lewin (1951) created a three step process for assisting employees with organizational Change (Lewis, 2012). The three stages are Unfreeze, Change and Refreeze. These are the steps to a smooth transition for change within organizations. Further, these steps are not possible without good communication from upper Management through line staff. Communication was consistently listed as an issue in surveys conducted by the department.
Transformational leaders and managers who have strong lines of open communication with their employees have been shown to lessen stress and resistance during organisational change (Nging & Yazdanifard, 2015). Heckelman (2017) outlines four tools that best equip managers for dealing with organisational change:
...mely the people that make the organization. Furthermore, the groups must be organized into members of the same hierarchy and they must devote their group mental efforts to solving a problem that is unique to the organization. Leaders who subscribe to this frame of leadership should be wary of individuals in the groups straying away from the group goals to pursue individual goals-as this is the greatest contributor to inefficiency in this particular type of frame. Although some scholars feel that this structural frame is over utilized by those who teach others pursuing higher degrees of learning, it can be very effective when used to corral a group of people into a focused unified way of thought for the purposes of solving a complex problem.