Management and leadership development
Order Instructions:
Management and leadership development
This week’s Key Concept Exercise asks you to think about and discuss how leaders and managers are developed in organisations. Rather than simply considering the strategies and techniques that are used, you are asked first of all to think about how management and leadership are conceptualised.
Use some of the ideas from this week’s reading about the nature of management to frame your thoughts and responses.
Next, reflect on your own learning and particularly on how organisational arrangements for talent development have helped or hindered you.
To prepare for this Key Concept Exercise:
•Consider the nature of management.
In an approximately 830 word response, address the following issues/questions:
•Analyse how management and leadership are conceptualised in a number of different ways.
•How are leadership and management talent developed in your organisation?
•Is learning underpinned by a normative ‘management by numbers’ approach and/or is the political, social and economic context in which managers operate acknowledged?
•How are you learning to become a better manager, and how has the underlying approach of your organisation helped or hindered your development?
SAMPLE ANSWER
Management and leadership development
In real life, the practices of leadership and management have been interpreted and defined in different terms. This diverse definition of the two practices, makes necessitate the need to understand the meaning of the two practices Boyatzis, (2008). Thus, in this paper I will uniquely explore different conceptualization of management and leadership practices. In agreement with Nienaber, (2010), most of the concepts are misleading and have neither a basis nor foundation. Besides, I will look into different techniques or procedures that are employed by institutions in leadership and management development.
First thing in conceptualization, there is a need for understanding the real meaning of the terms leadership and management before embarking on any form of misleading perception. A good example of this is portrayed in the classical management theory, which illustrates with examples the technical perception Nienaber, (2010). This scholar explains how there is a dominating idea of the role played by the managers in an institution, which are planning, coordinating, and controlling. Thus, it makes the managers take credit for the ordered organization environment.
Secondly, there is the political perspective on management, which stresses on the ideas of the plurality of interest groups, and their research lies in finding out the sources of power and conflict in an institution set up. This makes the institution look like a political arena where the managers seek to understand which side in the organization power rest. The third is critical perspective which is nowadays referred to as the labor process school of thought. This perspective underpins the wear out of the society that the managers should develop Canals, (2014).
The last but not least perspective is that view management as a social practice. Herein, the management is in a messy state and no chronological order like in the classical perspective case. This makes the organization’s management tasks to be carried out by different people.
On the question of leaders and managers development, my institution adopts different development strategies to execute this task. The first frequently used method is practice-based learning. Learning from experience (during the work), is considered as the most essential and crucial way that leaders and managers are developed. This is because it creates room for questioning the underpinned assumption and also new thoughts and ideas to emerge Boyatzis, (2008). This makes the person learning gain a lot of experience through participation, which is better compared to reading books or manuals.
The second leadership and management development strategies that the company utilizes are training events. These are conducted in the form of workshops that equip the participants with theories, models and ideas that are considered best practices Canals, (2014). At the end of the workshop, there are set objectives to be achieved, and in most cases, they are set to assess the understanding of the participant. In addition to this, the organization can sometimes offer job promotions, which call for leadership and management development. Through this opportunity is created for the development process.
In case of leadership and management, the learning process is underpinned by the normative ‘management by number’. This means that those in leadership and management posts seek to find the source of power and conflict in the organization Casey, (2013). This move helps them to secure their position in the organization. This also helps them pass some of the agendas that are in their favor. Besides, it makes them stronger in competing for the limited resources in the organization and also use the authoritative power to allocate resources.
On the other hand, the political, social, and economic context of the managerial operation are well acknowledged in the society. The managers of firms play a vital role not only at the economic level but also at political and social level Chin, et al. (2013). They participate in the important development of the society in ensuring that there exists a corporate social responsibility, through upholding the organization’s objectives and core values. Politically, in most cases, they help in swaying power from one political party to the other. Thus, this makes them acknowledged in the society.
In my learning process of becoming a manager, I have adopted the coaching strategy for my leadership and management development. This has helped in covering some areas that could have been hard to get from published literature. This has been a result of a one-one talk with experienced managers, and they have been bombarding me with long time gained experience. In addition, it has been an excellent approach since most of these managers talk out of the experience and not necessarily learned theory.
This method has been of great help since most of them have gained confidence in the competence in management and leadership skills. They have also introduced me to other possibilities that can assist in achieving my goals in leadership and management journey. Thus, I strongly agree that this strategy for leadership and management development is helpful for it impacts direct knowledge from the horse’s mouth (firsthand information). Not to mention, how the mentors have recommended other seminars and workshop that has also improved my management skills.
Reference
Boyatzis, R. E. 2008. Competencies in the 21st century. Journal of management development, 27(1), 5-12.
Canals, J. 2014. Global leadership development, strategic alignment and CEOs commitment. Journal of Management Development, 33(5), 487-502.
Casey, C. 2013. 2 New Organizational Cultures and Ethical EmploymentPractice 1 A CriticalDiscussion. Business Ethics in Theory and Practice: Contributions from Asia and New Zealand, 13.
Chin, M. K., Hambrick, D. C., & Treviño, L. K. 2013. Political Ideologies of CEOs The Influence of Executives’ Values on Corporate Social Responsibility. Administrative Science Quarterly, 58(2), 197-232.
Nienaber, H. 2010. Conceptualisation of management and leadership. Management Decision, 48(5), 661-675.
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