A511.6.3.RB_MalvoisinLeon

             There are many reasons leaders must create a “cause” or “meaning” in the workplace.  Some of them are listed on this article, “Getting Beyond Engagement to Creating Meaning at Work”; furthermore, looking deeper onto the article, what it means when its says that leaders must create a “cause” or “meaning” is interpreted as such to my opinion.  As identified by Ulrich, D. and Ulrich, W. (2010), those who are successful at developing meaning with the help of others or on their own tend to work harder, more creatively, and with more endurance, giving the company that hired them an advantage in the marketplace.  Certainly, that is a huge advantage for the company especially if it’s a company that is in a rivalry with another company.  Inducing an idea that would give the employees the meaning of their job role and how important they’re to the company would absolutely increase the productivity and encourage the employees to work better. When leaders successfully creates a “cause” or “meaning”  for the employees that indirectly boost the employees moral and therefore helps create a higher yearly profit for the company as the employees will provide better quality services that would as a result attract more customers. As stated by Ulrich and Ulrich (2010), “What’s more, study after study suggest that when employees experience meaning, their employers enjoy higher rates of customer commitment and investor interest” (para. 3). Hence, more revenue for the company yearly earning and allow them to stay in business longer.

 In relation to the theory of leading change, one crucial point is when the change is not properly explained to the employee or they were not part of the decision making process.  Even if a change would benefit the organization, it may be resisted by people who would suffer personal loss of income, benefits, or job security; major changes in organizations invariably result in some shift in power and status for individuals and subunits (Yukl, 2013).  Indeed, some jobs may be eliminated or modified, resulting in layoffs or transfers to new locations. This will cause employees to lose interest in the company and no longer have a meaning to work there or provide good customer service.

For example, Michelin the world largest tire manufacturer (Michelin, 2015), the company’s number one priority has always been its customers and trying to adapt to its customers’ needs while creating and maintaining a competitive advantage in the market.  Hence, that drove the company to a change, into a new business of giving services as a product.  That philosophy created the Michelin Fleet Solutions (MFS).  In Bitner, Gremler, & Zeithaml, (2013) with promising growth visions, Michelin Fleet Solutions was deployed by Michelin in 2000 with a complete tire- management solution for hefty European transportation companies, for example Schenker, TNT, Geodis, or Norbert Dentressamgle.  Certainly, knowing the time frame when MFS was deployed, that was the best business move by Michelin to entice more customers and progress his position in the marketplace. However, while conceptually appealing, the deployment of the MFS service encountered difficulties internally and externally because of the change. 

One MFS sales man said "...This is a new job, and my tire expertise can hardly help me...I find it difficult to show the clients the value of this solution offer.  We also face real problems in pricing: clients don't immediately see why they should pay more for tire managment solutions than they should pay when they only bought tires! They do not see the value brought by the extra activities we perform and the scope is so large that i find it difficult to list all these benefits. This solution is verry complex to sell" (as quoted in Bitner et al., 2013). 

            While MFS failed to make connection with its customers, it appears they had an even bigger problem internally because of the change.  The sales person wasn’t trained enough about the product service to be able to convince the clients of purchasing the service.  While, this could be a critical impact on the promotion of the service, the customers would not buy the service if the salesperson doesn't know or trust the service. 

            Furthermore, there was a heavy rivalry between the product salesperson and the service salesperson.  Product sales person can't tolerate the solutions sales- person promoting the solutions service with their biggest clients; the product salesperson candidly condemns the MFS service (Bitner et al., 2013). 

Hence, disagreement between the traditional product salesperson and the service salesperson could have contributed to the failure of the FMS service because the employees lose the meaning of their job role and are no longer satisfied to provide good services to customers.  Customers pay attention to details when they're buying something new, and any form of conflicts from the company representatives will tip the clients to decline the offer and that would eventually impact the company as a whole.

References

Bitner, M., Gremler, D., & Zeithaml, V. (2013). Introduction to Services. In Services Marketing:Integratin Customer Focus Accross the firm (6th ed., pp. 549, 550, and 551). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Michelin. (2015, November 18). Retrieved November 28, 2015, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin#History

Ulrich, D., and Ulrich,W.,(2010). Getting Beyond Engagement to Creating Meaning at Work. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2010/06/getting-beyond-engagement-to-c

Yukl, G. (2013). Leading Change and Innovation. In Leadership in organizations. (8th ed). (pp. 81). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

A511.5.3.RB_MalvoisinLeon

The Point of the Research
              The point of the research was to conduct two studies of remote transformational leadership to find out if people can actually tell the difference between various leadership styles.  Often time organizations are asked to lead employees that work in remote locations (Kelloway, Barling, Kelley, Comtois, and Gatien, 2002).  Therefore, leaders more and more rely on technologically based communication with their employees including the use of electronic mail (e-mail) and video/teleconferencing. This research help identifies if their employees or people can tell what type of leader is their remote leader base on e-mail or remote communication media. In the first study (study 1) they use vignette methodology to assess if recipient could identify leadership message when presented in e-mail.
               In the second study (study 2), its purpose was to build on the results by examining the effects of remote leadership on motivation and performance using a laboratory base investigation (Kelloway et al., 2002).

Hypotheses
              There were two studies, study 1 and study 2. The hypothesis for study 1 was whether recipients could identify leadership messages when presented in e-mails. 
             The hypotheses for study 2 was that individuals exposed to e-mail messages containing a charismatic or intellectually stimulating message would express higher levels of performance on a laboratory task than individuals who received e-mail instructions that did not contain these aspects of transformational leadership. Furthermore, they hypothesize main effects for both intellectual stimulation and charisma but no additive effect between the two dimensions of transformational leadership (Kelloway et al., 2002).

The Research Method Used
           There were two research methods used. First one (study 1), used a vignette methodology to assess, in the first instance, whether recipients could identify leadership messages when presented in e-mail. Hence, 175 students read a vignette depicting either a laissez-faire, management by exception, contingent reward, or transformational leadership style communicated by electric mail (e-mail) (Kelloway et al., 2002).
           The second one (study 2), data were collected from 105 undergraduate psychology students at a Canadian university. The experiment involved the use of a group of problem solving exercise. The task required participants to read a short scenario describing a survival situation in which they have become stranded on a mountain with limited supplies during a winter storm.  The task is rank order a list of supplies in terms of importance for survival (1 – most important, 12 – least important). Participants complete the rankings individually and then work in groups to derive a consensus ranking. By subtracting individual and group scores from the rankings assigned by survival experts, individual and group performance scores are derived. The performance scores are discrepancy measures with high scores representing worse performance (Kelloway et al., 2002).

Research Goals Results

             The results for the first study (study 1) showed that students could distinguish between the various leadership styles, and both interpersonal justice and supervision satisfaction were perceived to be higher when a transformational style was presented.  Hence, interpersonal justice and supervisor satisfaction were significantly and substantially correlated (Kelloway et al., 2002).
            Kirkpatrick and Locke explain that the results for the second study (study 2) revealed that participants appropriately identified the intended characteristics of the remote leader.  That is, individuals who read an intellectually stimulating e-mail rated the leader as being more intellectually stimulating than did individuals who read a non-intellectually stimulating e-mail.  Similarly, participants who read a charismatic message rated the leader as being more charismatic than those who read a non-charismatic message.  However, their result did not support an effect of a charismatic leadership message on individual motivation.  Future research in this area will need to be considering whether this null finding is plausibly attributable to the specific message we used, or whether charisma is not easily transmitted through electronic media (as cited in Kelloway et al., 2002, p.102).
             

Research Value

            The present findings propose that remote transformational leadership can still have the same positive effects on the performance and attitudes that occurs within face-to-face interaction. Furthermore, our findings suggest that electronically mediated communication channels may be used to convey the same leadership message as in face to face interaction, which questions the suggestion that leader-followers’ perceptions of their leader (Kelloway et al., 2002).

Course Context

              As far as the course context for this week and these researches, they have really proven that transformational leadership is the ideal leadership for a group. As identified by Yukl (2013), transformational leadership is more of a leadership style that stimulates followers by appealing to their self-interest and exchange benefits; for corporate leaders, transactional leadership indicate providing pay and other benefits in return for work effort.  Certainly this sounds like a tradeoff leadership style where the followers have to accomplish a task for their leaders in other for them to be satisfied.  Furthermore, this type of leadership may intrigue the followers to contribute as they know they’ll get something back in return, and the more they contribute is the more recognition they’ll receive.  This type of leadership also looks forward to promote their workers, given them more opportunities to grow.  Furthermore, as stated by Riggio in the YouTube video, Harvard Business Review (2013),  “transformational leaders are leaders that are able to move groups and organization to change ,to transform, but also to very high levels of productivities and performance.” 

Reference

Harvard Business Review. (2013). Ronald Riggio:Transformational Leadership. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvezV2Zhihg

Yukl, G. (2013). Charismatic and Transformational Leadership. In Leadership in organizations. (8th ed). (pp.321). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

            Kelloway, E. Barling, J. Kelley E. Comtois, J. Gatien, B. (2002).Remote transformational leadership. Leadership &Organization Development Journal. 24(3), 163-171.  Retrieved from

https://erau.instructure.com/courses/23355/assignments/258750?module_item_id=880896

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             Often time in my life I take look back at what I was doing that involved a leadership positions, and how I was as a leader in that position, and how I could have done a better job.  Taking this class PMGT 511 has opened up my eyes about the leadership position and has helped me become a more effective leader.  Some of the key points related to managerial motivation, traits, and effectiveness vary.  As identified by Yukl (2013), trait can be a mixture of individual attributes which involves characteristic of personality, temperament, needs, motives, and values. Certainly, as a leader you have to have a positive trait of yourself.  Hence, a positive temperament, needs, and motive would reflect highly on any manager.  Therefore, most employees are looking for positive traits from their manager as that would induce them to follow the manager.  Furthermore, as identified Yukl (2013), when it comes to effectiveness, the empirical research shows that a socialized power orientation is most likely to result in effective leadership rather a personalized power orientation.  Certainly, effective leadership has a link with the amount of power the leader has, the more power he or she has to make decisions and drive some demand, the most likely he or she would be an effective leader.  Hence, managerial motivation is driven from the self-confidence to leadership effectiveness of a manager.
            Assessing my own leadership skills, traits, and competencies I notice I have good leadership skills.  My technical, interpersonal, and conceptual skills have been rated as exceed expectation from work every year on my performance management review.  Furthermore, I have a strong knowledge about methods, processes, procedures and technique for conducting specialized activities.  I also have great understanding of human behavior and interpersonal processes that allow me to better communicate with my team members.  I also have great analytical ability, logical/critical thinking, and conceptualization of complex and ambiguous relationships.  
            The best way to leverage my strengths to improve my value in my organization is by sharing my knowledge with the team.  Making sure that they understand the concept of what they're working on, prior implementing it.  Have team meeting with them so they can bring up any concerns, technical issuers, or problems that they may be facing at work and help them resolve those problems effectively.  Furthermore, I need to be more transparent with them as far as leadership decisions or changes on any items that will impact their day to day activities and their leadership as well.  I should also identify team members that have skills relevant for a future leadership position.  Furthermore, compensate for the less knowledgeable team members, and assure there is a learning process in place to bring up to speed the low performers.

            Contingency theory and situational variables may assist in a way where my positive behavior and personality as a leader can influence my subordinates' satisfaction and performance in different situations where they might use my approach or suggestion to overcome obstacles.

Reference

Yukl, G. (2013). Contengency Theories and Adaptive Leadership. In Leadership in organizations. (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

 

 

 

 

 

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Many individuals wish they had power, the kind of power that would make them feel or be in control of anything or anyone.  However, most of these individuals have no idea what power truly is, and what its true implication is.  Often time the word power is poorly used by people which results in creating confusion among society.   As stated by Yukl (2013), “Power involves the capacity of one party (“the agent”) to influence another party (the “target”), but this influence has been described and measured in several different ways; the term may refer to the agent’s influence over a single target person or multiple target persons, sometimes the term refers to potential influence over things or events as well as attitude or behavior” (page. 186). Certainly, power is an extreme talent to posses, and it must be understood in other for it to be properly used to its full extent.  Power in the hands of the right person (leader) with the right mindset can be an amazing combination for a successful organization and effective leader.

However, power along isn’t sufficient to make a leader a powerful person.  A leader must also possess great influential skills that would encourage his or her follower to follow him. Leaders should lead with examples that his or her followers are looking forward to see from a leader.  If the followers see some common skill or passion from their leader, then they can easily relate to the leader and that would induce the followers to be more committed to the leaders.  As identified by Yukl (2013), “The psychological explanation for interpersonal influence involves the motives and perceptions of the target person in relation to the action of the agent and the context in which the interaction occurs” (page.186).  Certainly, the theoretical concept of influence is the ability to find a common group with your target agent and persuade that individual with your ideas in a way that would intrigue the individual to relate and follow you as a leader. However, at the same time there must be a common good so the individual would not feel used or manipulated.

Sources and Nature of the Power I Bring to My Work Place

I’m currently a team leader for the company I work for. As a leader, I do my best to be as transparent as possible to all my followers. I communicate with my team clearly daily both about work related items as well as non-work related items, like family, kids, and activities or plans for the weekend. I believe if the workers know that their leader don’t just care about the work being done, but also about their well being then they would be more please to come to work daily and do the best they can to help the company succeed as well. The source of that power come from my family, my parents raised me as a caring individual who cares about the environment and the people around me and thought me how to become a leader. My education has also helped contribute to the source of my power. It has taught me how to become an effective leader.

Power Usage

            The power that my personality brings to work is used in a leadership method and at the same time with a friendly approach. I believe in creating and maintaining a friendly work environment that would put my followers at ease and willing to contribute and participate.  I follow a participative leadership method.  As identified by Yukl (2013), participative leadership involve as leader’s use of decision procedures that allows other people such as subordinates to have an input over decision that will affect them.  Certainly, my power from leadership include the usage of multiple decision making that allow my followers to contribute and have some influence on the decision making as well.  My power isn’t used in a way to belittle my followers; however, it encourages them to contribute to the team and organization.

Power Relation

            That power enables me to put myself in the place of my followers to have a better perspective of leadership and understand what it is my followers are looking for in other to perform well at work. To my opinion, a great leader is a great follower.  Sometime, a leader has to be able to trade “shoes” to get a better picture of the environment and relate to his or her followers.  Hence, I have led my team for about 4 years and have not had any high quality LMX situations within my workplace or group that are dysfunctional.

Reference

Yukl, G. (2013). Power and Influence Tactics. In Leadership in organizations. (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall