Discuss Leadership assessment of Tm Am international.
Tm Am international is a construction company with many branches and offices all over
the world. It deals in building construction and civil engineering ranging construction of roads,
bridges to hydro electric power dams.
Leadership is a social process of influence where a person can employ the support and
assistance of other people in achieving the objective of a common problem or task at hand.
Leadership involves the organization of a group of people to attain a common objective, many
theories of leadership have emerged involving character traits, situational and personal
interaction, objective, values, power and other functions.
In early history the search of personal characteristics and traits has been continuing for
ages. Greatest writers of history from Plato’s book “ Republic” and Plutarch “Lives” all have
tried answering the question “What qualities and characters distinguishes a person as a leader”.
Underlying the method of this search was the recognition that of its importance to leadership and
that leadership is deeply related to characteristics certain people have. It’s an idea known as “trait
leadership theory”.
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The trait leadership theory also led to other forms of alternative leadership theories. In
subsequent studies it was revealed that the overall nature of traits in leadership suggested that
persons leading in certain sectors may not be good in other sectors hence leadership is not based
on individual traits alone but also based on situational approach.
Significant and personal relationship exists between the individual traits such as
intelligence, experience and extraversion of leadership. While the trait theory is popular it has
not been matched with increase in related conceptual and significant framework (Zaccaro, 2007).
A leadership style is a leader’s way of initiating and providing direction, motivating staff
and implementing ideas and plans, there different kinds of leadership depending on the size and
type of company and the service it’s providing (Zaccaro, Gulick, & Khare, 2008).
Tm and Am, a construction company, is a task oriented and leadership company. The
chief executive officer delegates his powers to different site managers based in different parts of
the world. They are given powers to implement the decisions made by the head office and tasked
to achieve the target given in a certain period of time. Task-oriented leadership style is one
where the team leader is well focused on the major tasks that are required to be performed to
achieve a certain set production target.
There are other leadership styles and all depend on the circumstances of each particular
trade and industry the company is engaged in.
In Laissez-faire or free-rein style, a person in leadership does not give any direction or
leadership and leaves the group to work out everything on their own. They create their own
policies and methods of management. They are motivated to be more creative and very
innovative.
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In participative style of management the leadership is democratic and includes the leader
sharing ideas with the staff and members of the group on the decision making process. This
promotes the groups interest and promotes social equality.
Authoritarian leadership style is under autocratic system of leadership where all the
decisions are made by one person usually dictators. The leaders do not listen to any suggestions
or advice from any person except from his personal friends and close relatives.
An organization structure is made up of several activities such as job allocation,
supervisory and co-ordination work. An organization structure allocates responsibilities to
different functions and entities such as finance department, marketing, human resources, sales
and administration departments.
Organization structure provides the foundation for operations within the organization. It
sets the procedures and determines which employees participate in what decision making process
and to what extent their actions impact on the organization.
Tm Am construction has the chief executive officer at the apex followed by close to
twenty site managers on the same position. Below the site managers are the site engineers, who
are assisted by site supervisors and below them are the casual laborers.
The organization structure defines the role and position of each employee clearly. A n
organization structure that is not responsive to the needs of the organization will disrupt
cooperation and affect the completion and targets of customer orders due to time lapses and
misuse of limited resources.
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The organization culture and development was initiated by the chief executive officer at
Tm Am Construction Company. It has promoted growth in terms of team work and employee
satisfaction as members of one team. Organization of sports events and organized camp events
has led to more integration and effective group work. These has sparred growth in the sector that
only one objective reigned supreme, job performance only. Team work leads to better
communication and creates favorable working relationships which are controlled and determined
by employees roles and tasks. While some jobs are undertaken alone, most are performed in
relationship or in combination with others. The jobs and assignments will determine who gets
what role and to interact with who. These in turn leads to constant interactions creating a world
of friendship and these is a powerful reward in human behavior as greater the interactions the
greater the liking.
Each organization has a culture which is passed from the founders, past management,
current leadership, history, events and crises. This creates a rite like routines, regular rituals like
prayers and other collective activities usually done collectively or in groups. The culture plays a
big role in creating an identity for the company and its employees. While the culture is the
deeply related nature of the organization that’s a result of team work ,formal and informal rules,
customs beliefs has a profound impact on the workers and the shared perceptions and attitudes
provides a motivation that can’t be removed easily. It’s a way of providing a kind of motivation
for the employees to continue working for the company.
Evaluate the performance of your selected leader based on his ethical conduct and effective
communication to determine if this leader was successful in motivating and empowering
you to improve on your work performance. Explain your answer.
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Being an effective communicator the chief executive officer of Tm Am construction
communicates directly to staff members and even discusses the problems facing individual
employees. These increases staff participation in company’s affairs affecting its growth and
performance. The CEO leads by example, for instance in staff integrity matters, he sets the trend
in professional ethics by separating personal matters and official matters. Observing punctualism
at work place, and committed to fighting graft in the organization by instituting measures to
effectively control and check all transactions and cash operations.
These actions from the CEO have encouraged the staff to work hard and earn their
income. It has also promoted honesty and fairness in all dealings at all levels in the company.
These has resulted in increased productivity per employee and added a general feeling of
belonging and teamwork.
Determine three best practices organizational leaders use to motivate employees and
discuss their potential benefits. These are;
Work and job motivation. These are job characteristics developed to improve staff
performance and motivate employees to work harder. These are skills enhancement and
job autonomy which gives some degree of freedom in job performance (Pritchard & Ash
wood, 2008).
Promotion and remuneration rewards. These are benefits awarded to employees to
motivate them to work harder and also to encourage other employees to do the same.
These style of motivation works effectively when also theirs punishment for those who
are lazy and not committed to their work. This can be in terms of demotion and
allowance reduction.
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Paid holidays and bonuses. Hard working staff can be motivated by being awarded
bonuses and granting them paid up holidays to their dream locations in different parts of
the world or country. These motivate other employees to work hard.
Discuss some of the challenges leaders encounter when managing diversity and how
diversity helps business organizations better compete in global markets.
Diversity comes with its share of challenges. Top among them is communication. People from
different parts of the world speak different languages and communication becomes a nightmare.
The situation can be helped by hiring an interpreter to assist them to communicate (Amory, Jason,
2003).
The other difference is cultural and religious diversity. The cultures of different communities are
quite diverse and difficult to understand. People have different kinds of beliefs which define their
lives. These come in the form of religion, dressing, and mostly food. These make it difficult to
relate freely and live comfortably.
Global markets require standardized products which are acceptable internationally. These
products are clearly labeled and manufactured as per each country’s standards. Diversity helps to
infiltrate international markets by bringing in different tastes and demands from the country of
origin. For instance Japanese and Asians have different ways of dressing to design and
manufacture clothes for them you must have an expert from their home countries.
Develop an effective business strategy to address the challenges and issues you have
indentified above.
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The best practice is to develop an organizational framework where different cultures can
work and interact freely without any signs of biasness or discrimination. These can be done by
building strong organizational structures and systems that control and promote diversity in the
company. For instance, the company can develop an exchange program with employees or
students on attachment programs to promote and develop diversity at the local level in the
company. An effective and efficient business strategy will solve and provide all the answers to
all the problems associated with diversity (Kay, 1999). Diversity also has its advantages as the
employees get to know and experience different forms of cultures and beliefs and how they can
live peacefully hence promoting peace in the world.
References
Arvey, R.., Rotundo, M., Johnson, W., Zhang, Z., & McGue, M. (2006). The
Determinants of leadership role occupancy: Genetic and personality factors. The
Leadership Quarterly, 17, 1-20.
Judge, A., Bono, .E. Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, W. (2002). Personality and leadership
Foti, R. & Hauenstein, A. (2007). Pattern and variable approaches in leadership emergence and
effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 347-355.
Zaccaro, S. (2007). Trait-based perspectives of leadership. American Psychologist, 62, 6-16.
Zaccaro, S. Gulick, L. & Khare, V. (2008). Personality and leadership. In C. J. Hoyt, G. R.
Goethals & D. R. Forsyth (Eds.), Leadership at the crossroads (Vol 1) (pp. 13-29). Westport, CT:
Praeger.
Pritchard R. & Ashwood, E (2008). Managing Motivation. New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
p. 6. ISBN 978-1-84169-789-5
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Amory, S. Jason, A. (2003). “Anti-globalization: The Global Fight for Local Autonomy”. New
Political Science 25 (1): 19-42.
Kay, J. (1999) ‘The Myth of Excellence’, Financial Times (London), 26 May.
Mathur, S. And Kenyon, A. (1997) Creating Value: Shaping Tomorrow’s Business. Oxford:
Butterworth Heinemann.
