Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Leadership Assessment Essay Example for Free

Leadership Assessment Essay Leadership can be best defined as beauty. One may say that is in the eye of the beholder. The best managers consistently allow different leaders to emerge and inspire their teammates. My prior organization, Comcast Corporation, a telecommunications provider, mission statement is to deliver a superior experience to their customers every day. Jason Biske, whom is Director of Sales and Operation, created an environment where Comcast is focused solely on customers by building relationships. When we would see him, he would always speak and ask how your day or sales was going. Jason was really big on keeping the sales floor informed of new promos or contests that were going on by sending constant email communications, ongoing training sessions, or holding focus groups on various processes of improvement in the sales process. When it came to leadership styles, Jason Biske demonstrated several. He embraced democratic, coaching, pacesetting, and authoritative. He initiated structure and created an environment that made you feel a part of something. Along with that he showed consideration. We felt like our opinions mattered and there was a concern for the employees. Leaders provide a sense of direction for the employees of the organization. Without this sense of direction (both strategic and ethical), the organization and its employees could easily lose their direction.In order for any leader to be successful all styles need to be incorporated. Leaders, therefore, are given the responsibility of creating and shaping culture. The organizational structure that has been created has positioned the company in the smartest way possible. † As the world changes, the culture of organizations must sometimes be re-shaped to better fit the environment and the overall strategy of the organization (Buhler)†.Comcast strongly believes in teamwork, integrity, creativity and commitment within the organization. Managers must be convinced of the benefits as well as higher performance for their teams if they are to become enthusiastic leaders of change. â€Å"Above all, senior executives should encourage managers to think big: the new world of work opens up new possibilities for how companies define their boundaries and organize work (Lund, 2012)†.Having such a strong team of leadership gives employees as well as potential talent something to look forward to in regards to a career. The positive thing about having a clear organizational structure is simply it allows you to see the formal relationship that exits between the departments. Jason Biske‘s job as director was to improve the sales process and increase revenue in the sales department. As a result he increased revenue by 24 percent. He also rolled out a process called Sales Pro which would make the sales process simpler by focusing on relationships. Even though his styles motivated employees, he used communication through m ass emails mostly. On a daily basis, you would receive several reports on how the company is profiting. At my career level no one understood how we were contributing to these successes. Jason would get you excited to make money but somewhere in there the leadership failed.† According to Moorhead and Griffin (1998) employee motivation and ability jointly contribute towards employee performance and the most challenging task of the managers is to motivate employee to execute the utmost of their ability†. (Iqbal)†. When you have middle managers that are not as excited about their jobs, it is hard to keep the customer service reps motivated to sale the product or meet numbers when the objectives are not clear. In an organization, an individual has to be seen as a contributor. Most importantly, you have to keep your employees motivated. Most people never make it to the top because they are successful at being a doer instead of being a leader. â€Å"Leadership is more about inspiration, about guidance, about communication and building trust among the team. Management is probably the day-to-day running of an organization. It is about developing and organizing aspects of your businesses and running those businesses (Toor, 2011)†. Some best pra ctices that organizational leaders can follow are 1. Accept feedback from the people that work with you. No one knows best other than the people that deal with the customers every day. Some of the most successful companies are profitable because the organizational leader listened to what the employees shared. There is value in shared values. Secondly, try a crazy idea every now and then. Employees like creativity and a challenge to keep them on their toes. Lastly, show courage. Effective leaders sometimes have to issue orders whether or not it means they are popular or not. If you are leading effectively then your team will support you. Leaders are made, not born. â€Å"I consider leadership as something long term with a clear vision of what to achieve. Management, however, is more about function; it’s short-term and involves setting a target and achieving it. Diversity is not only important to the work environment and the business but it can also have some legal ramifications if not followed properly.† Workplace Diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. The roots of diversity does not begin to range from race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, educational background etc., rather it begins from perception of the employees towards each other (Andrew Patrick, 2011)†. Ccompanies that embrace employees from different cultural backgrounds, experiences and even countries are better positioned to succeed in this century. Hiring a diverse workforce helps a company stay in compliance with employment laws and build workplaces that are more inclusive. It also assists employees in reaching their fullest potential. When hiring and managing employees from different cultures and backgrounds it can be challenging, but it can also be very rewarding. â€Å"Diversity is not a photo opportunity. Anybody can recruit anybody. Keeping people is the challenge (Sreedhar, 2011)†. Most corporations have diversity council which allows you to manage diversity globally therefore allowing others to learn from different perspectives and cultures. From a business perspective, companies have become more innovative requiring expansion into global territories. It requires them to move people as well as products around. With that being said, a company must be able to understand international customers, their commerce and their competition better than before. Works Cited Andrew Patrick, H. (2011). Knowledge Workers Demography and Workplace Diversity. Journal Of Marketing Management, pp. 2(2), 38-73. Buhler, P. M. (n.d.). The evolving leader of today. Supervision. pp. 59(12), 16. . Iqbal, J. Y. (n.d.). EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION IN MODERN ORGANIZATION: A REVIEW OF 12 YEARS. Interdisciplinary Journal Of Contemporary Research In Business,. pp. 4(3), 692-708. Lund, S. M. (2012). Preparing for a new era of knowledge work. pp. Mckinsey Quarterly, (4), 103-110. Sreedhar, U. (2011). Workforce Diversity and HR Challenges. Advances In Management. pp. 4(10), 33-36. Toor, S. (2011). Differentiating Leadership from Management. An Empirical Investigation of Leaders and Managers. Leadership Management In Engineering, pp. 11(4), 310. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)LM.1943-5630.0000138.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Despite the overwhelming evidence against his own misperceptions, :: English Literature

Despite the overwhelming evidence against his own misperceptions, Stevens emerges as a somewhat compassionate character.[Wong, 2000] Do you agree with this assessment of Ishiguro's representation of Stevens? Stevens is riddled with misperceptions about his work, his relationship with Miss Kenton and Lord Darlington. During the course of the novel, the reader is shown - not through what he tells us, but by what he doesn't - the truth behind them, and just how wrong he is. Stevens also realises the reality of his beliefs and his situation, but long after the reader. Despite his mistakes, as he begins to come to terms with the events of the past, there is a glimmer of hope that he will change and become a better person. However, he is still detached and at the end appears to return to his old, self-deceiving ways, escaping the responsibility of his mistakes. One of Steven's misperceptions is the importance of his work. For example, at the beginning of the novel, he is obsessed with the trivial matter of "what is a great butler?" [pg 32]. For Stevens, this is a matter of some importance, and shows he considers butlering to be more than just a job. This point of view is reinforced by the statement: The great butlers are great by virtue of their ability to inhabit their professional role and inhabit it to the utmostà ¢ they wear their professionalism as a decent gentleman will wear his suit [pg 43] His job is a way of life, not simply a means of employment, and he has an utter devotion to duty, to the extent that he will only discard his 'suit' when he is completely alone. It is this necessity to keep a public face that ruins his chance of happiness. He perceives his role to be more important than it is, believing that he has "been given a part to play, however small, on the world's stage" [pg 198] and he is also convinced that: it is not simply my fantasy that the state of the silver had made a small, but significant contribution towards the easing of relations between Lord Halifax and Herr Ribbentrop that evening. [pg 144] Stevens believes his job to be much more important than it is, and because of this he neglects his relationships with other people. His relationship with his father suffers because both are devoted to their jobs. He admires his father's abilities as a butler, but as father and son they have no relationship at all: for some years my father and I had tended to converse less and less even brief exchanges took place in an atmosphere of mutual

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Sex Discrimination in Poland

Eradication from sex discrimination on the Polish work market would favour development of women’s promotion prospects. Since becoming a full European Union member Poland has made headway in promoting gender equality into national policies and in gender discrimination in the workplace. However, this country still lags far behind the other countries of an old continent breaching women’s’ rights not openly. Poland is a country that cultivates its tradition and keep its values. Stereotypes regarding the model of Polish traditional family are deeply ingrained in Poles psyche and therefore women are not treated equally in the society because they have always been associated with fulfilling domestic activities. Also, a conservative attitude to women in Poland when it comes to work stems from the history. Polish women were identified with ‘Mother- Pole’ who protects the hearth and home. In connection to this the vast majority of men cannot imagine women’s forsaking their duties. Regardless Poland succeeds in making progress on different fields the problem of female manager’s promotion remains unsolved. The most industrialized countries such as Sweden, Germany or USA are willing to take advantage of women’s potential and experience. Reasons are numerous, for instance : more female workers are highly educated in comparison to male employees. Moreover women seem to be attractive workers in view of possessing features that are not typical of men. For example they better endure stressful situations and have better developed communication skills. Unfortunately many employers in Poland do not appreciate women’s aptitude like it is in other countries. Still women continue to occupy lower positions . Even if they put an enormous effort to perform their duties the salary for the same job is lower . I conclude that male employers are afraid of aligning women in responsible positions because they do not believe that women will manage to fulfill duties properly. Nevertheless, a plenty of amenities for female workers are being implemented in many European companies in order to facilitate their development. Also Poland should adjust their work market to women. First of all the Polish Government ought to take measures to protect women against discrimination at work. For instance they can levy fines on companies where women are sidelined from work due to their gender. Moreover, Poland should increase the access to care services like nursery schools. Thanks to it women will have an opportunity to join family duties with work and continue their carreers. In addition there should be implemented flexible working hours which are crucial for women on maternity leave . Introducing such solution will be profitable for her employer. On the whole Powers governing Polish work market are relentless and only few women who were entirely determined to break the glass ceiling managed to overcome the barriers. Women’s promotion prospects should be more widespread and the Government should introduce campaign encouraging male bosses to employ women.