Leadership Research Paper

CRANEFIELD COLLEGE OF PROJECT AND PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

FOR

MODULE AC 1

Please include the following declaration:

“I/We hereby declare that this assignment is entirely my/our own work, and that it has not previously been submitted to any other Higher Education Institution. I/We also declare that all published and unpublished sources have been fully acknowledged and properly referenced. This includes figures, tables and exhibits. Where modified by me/us, this has also been indicated.”

Table of Contents

Introduction        3

Question 2.1        3

2.1.1        4

2.2        4

2.2.1        5

2.2.2        5

Question 3.1        6

Question 3.2        7

Conclusion        9

Reference        10

Introduction

The purpose of this assignment is solely to review the literature of:

• The definition of leadership and differences between a leader and a manager.
• The definition of restructuring and discussing both its negatives and positives.
• Discussing techniques that can help increase efficiency.
• Discussing programs that can help increase quality and innovation.

The literature review is grounded based on the information that I have gathered from various sources such as articles, journals, and website (online) in order to come up with the conclusions.

Question 2.1

The nature of leadership “is a process by which a person exerts influence over other people and inspires, motivates and directs their activities to help achieve group or organisational goals. (Jones & George, 2016)                                                                                                              

Leadership is known to be the most important element of a directing function in terms of running an organisation. Below are the five (5) main reasons why effective leadership is essential: (Sastry CBSE, 2015)

• Effective direction – This directs the organisations in a certain way in order to achieve its specified goals and objectives.
• Sources of motivation – This encourages employees to contribute their energies is a positive light for the benefit of the organisation.
• Provide confidence – This provides proper guidance and advice for its subordinates.
• High morale – It increases the morale of the employees and in turn this will result in high productivity for the organisation.
• Development of team spirit - This promotes team spirit and team work which is one of the driving factors needed for a successful organisation.

2.1.1 The difference between a leader and a manager: (Arruda, 2016)

• Leaders are in it for the long haul, managers think short-term – Managers are more focused on getting the current job done and a leader’s focus is more based on the bigger picture, for example, how the current job will lead the organisation to achieve its goals. Leaders are more long term orientated while managers are more short term orientated.
• Leaders are change agents, managers maintain the status quo – Managers are resistance to change. They are into refined systems, structures and processes in order to make the organisation better. Leaders are all about innovation. They believe that there’s always a better way forward in the way things are done.
• Leaders are willing to give up control. Managers set directions for everything – Managers try to ensure that they keep their tasks and projects to themselves and delegate them to the subordinates. Leaders equip subordinates into taking new and challenging responsibilities and once they realise that the subordinate is ready then they are willing to give up control to the task and projects at hand.
• Leaders take risks, managers control risk – managers try by all means to minimize risk as much as they can. They enjoy the feeling of always being in control. Leaders on the other hand enjoy the thrill of taking risks even if failure might be in the cards. They believe that failure is a step to the path of success.
• Leaders build relationships, managers build systems and processes – Leaders are people orientated based and more focused on building relationships. They influence, support and motivate their subordinates by instilling trust and loyalty. Managers on the other hand are task orientated and are focused on building structures and putting processes in place that are aimed at achieving the organisations goals and objectives.
• Managers do the right things, leaders does things right – Managers believe in going by the book and always following the rules. Leaders are also about following the rules but they tend to break and tweak the rules when necessary.

2.2 Restructuring is “downsizing an organisation by eliminating the jobs of large numbers of top, middle, and first-line managers and non-managerial employees”. (Jones & George, 2016). In many cases, restructuring is mostly aimed at downsizing. This could result in the dismissal of employees, the elimination of departments or even close some of its retail locations. Organisations attempting to downsize may also encounter on outsourcing some of their operations to save costs. Restructuring may also result in the reassignment or alteration of duties between the subordinates in order to improve performance or also incorporate new technologies for efficiency. The process of restructuring has both advantages and disadvantages: