1. November 4
People and
organizations 2011
Group six – Lina,
Inspirational Approaches to Leadership
Syafiqah, Zulfadli

2. QUESTION ONE
A lot of new managers err (make a mistake) in selecting the right leadership
style when they move into management. Why do you think this happens?
A lot of managers especially the one who just got promoted always makes a
mistake in selecting the right leadership style that are not correspond with their
behavior. This is because they are usually being told to do this, being asked to do
that with a specific guidelines and time frame from their leader. But now they
cannot be one of them (leader) due to they are not used to it. Moreover leader is
not to be born.
There are three situation here namely Cheryl Kahn promoted to director of
catering for Glazier Group restaurant in NY, Rob Carstons a technical manager at
IBM in California and Linda McGee as the president of Medex Insurance Services
in Baltimore, Maryland.
The first situation, Cheryl Kahn is not an experience leader and she cannot
involve in the water cooler gossip anymore. She always asks her employee to get
their task done on time. She may motivate her employee and also de-motivate
them. This is because she doesn’t care about her relation with her employee.
What she need is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of
goals. Attempting to find short-term fixes that address the symptoms of the crisis
only ensures the organization will wind up back in the same dilemma. Then they
should gather their teams together and gain agreement about the root causes. In
order to understand the real reasons for the crisis, everyone on the leadership

3. team must be willing to tell the whole truth. Leaders can’t solve problems if they
don’t acknowledge their existence.
As a manager Cheryl Kahn may use the water-cooler gossip to her benefits.
By listening to it very carefully to find out what current concerns are. She cannot
kill the grapevine, but she can prevent it from spreading. No matter how bad
things are, they will get worse. She must be patient. Moreover she must be strict
to the employees who always come late to work by communicating face to face
with employees equally and across the board.
The second situation is about Rob Carstons who being promoted from
junior programmer to a manager. Rob Carstons is kind of guy who appreciate his
relationship to others whether his colleagues, his boss and even his fellow co-
workers who are much older than him. He is in fact relation oriented leader which
likely to have job relationship characterized by mutual trust and respect for
subordinates ideas and regard by their feelings. He may face with bad news. He
cannot believe that things could really be so grim. Consequently, he will try to
convince the bearers of bad news that things aren’t so bad, and swift action can
make problems go away.
. As a manager, Rob Carstons can see the bigger issues at hand, but he can
also see how things could be so much better if he could just remove those
obstacles – fear of others being offended by the task given to them and also by
every words he said. To get people to help him in changing things, he needs to
share that positive vision with them. Inspire them. Motivate them. Guide them.
Show them how their actions are bringing everyone closer to their goals.

4. Last but not least is Linda McGee, the new president of Medex Insurance
services in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the most hardworking worker who just
got promoted. Her charisma is being asked by her colleagues because they all
think she is way too young to hold that position. Although her colleagues hate
her, she still focuses on her job. In a crisis, she will carry the weight of the
world on her shoulders. She goes into isolation, and thinks she can solve the
problem herself. But she must have the help of all their people to devise
solutions and to implement them. This means bringing people into their
confidence, asking them for help and ideas, and gaining their commitment to
painful corrective actions.

5. QUESTION TWO
What does this say about leadership and leadership training?
A charismatic leadership style can seem similar to transformational
leadership, because these leaders inspire lots of enthusiasm in their teams and
are very energetic in driving others forward. However, charismatic leaders can
tend to believe more in themselves than in their teams, and this creates a risk
that a project, or even an entire organization, might collapse if the leader leaves.
In the eyes of the followers, success is directly connected to the presence of the
charismatic leader. As such, charismatic leadership carries great responsibility,
and it needs a long-term commitment from the leader.
For Cheryl Kahn, she would probably a transactional leader under laissez-
Faire because she abdicates responsibilities, avoids making decisions. She is
neither a born leader nor a training leader. At the context “shrug-off an
employee’s chronic lateness”. She is not a task oriented as can be seen and also
she’s not a relationship oriented because she’s alienated with her employees.
Rob Carstons, he is a little bit relationship oriented because he cares of his
employees. This is because he tries to be careful not to offend anyone. He is a
born leader because he knows his subordinates’ personality. He is from junior
programmer so he knows the companies’ background. This relates to Hersey and
Blanchard’s situational theory –a contingency theory that focuses on followers’
readiness. Also, it is employee-oriented leader –emphasizing interpersonal
relations, taking a personal interest in the needs of employees and accepting
individual differences among members.

6. Linda McGee, she leapt over colleagues because her task oriented make her
doesn’t care of what her workers have said behind her back. She focuses on her
task because her advance promotion would be exactly making a gossip among the
workers. This relates to product-oriented leader –one who emphasizes technical
or task aspects of the job. This could also make her position power –the degree of
influence a leader has over power variables. Product orientated companies fail to
provide value to the consumer. They design a product and market it to a vast
majority of people without telling them why they want it. The company creates
the product and attempts to market it with their costs in mind, not the
customer's. The product is made and designed as economically as possible to
maximize profits.

7. QUESTION THREE
Which leadership theories, if any, could help new leaders’ deals with transition?
Transactional leadership is style of leadership starts with the idea that team
members agree to obey their leader totally when they accept a job. The
"transaction" is usually the organization paying the team members in return for
their effort and compliance. The leader has a right to "punish" team members if
their work doesn't meet the pre-determined standard.
Team members can do little to improve their job satisfaction under
transactional leadership. The leader could give team members some control of
their income/reward by using incentives that encourage even higher standards or
greater productivity. Alternatively, a transactional leader could practice
"management by exception" – rather than rewarding better work, the leader
could take corrective action if the required standards are not met.
Transactional leadership is really a type of management, not a true
leadership style, because the focus is on short-term tasks. It has serious
limitations for knowledge-based or creative work. However it can be effective in
other situations.
For Cheryl Khan, since she’s not task and relationship oriented. This is why
behavioral –it implies that this leader can be trained. Since she’s alienated, she
can be trained so that she behaves in relationship oriented.
Rob Carstons, he becomes more into relationship oriented because he used
to be like all peer worker. To overcome this problem, he can give advices and he

8. can be development-oriented leader –one who values experimentation, seeks
new ideas, and generates and implement change. It ‘originates new approaches
to problems’. It ‘encourages members to start new activities’.
Linda McGee must be flexible in doing her works while she’s doing. Just as
followers seek safety in the new leadership environment, leaders might fear
failing in their new role. New leaders often have lost their peer support group by
moving to a new organization or by surpassing their former colleagues. Both the
leader and the followers need support through the transition.
Paying close attention to fear-based behavior in the organization is
important. Addressing this behavior quickly and effectively is a hallmark of
successful transitions. Encouraging followers to use existing social support
mechanisms during this period can help them greatly.
It is important for the new leader to develop support networks of peers
who can provide advice and counsel on the new role. In addition, the new leader
needs followers to understand the basic functional needs of leadership. Given
how overwhelming the new role might be, just dealing with the daily stream of
ideas, demands, e-mail, and so on can challenge the new leader. Followers can
assist new leaders by seeking information about their preferred styles of
communication, not only how they would like to interact or the preferred means
of communication but also what information should be shared with them and
when. In addition, a mutual understanding of delegation protocols can assist the
new leader in focusing on the new aspects of the job and free followers to work
independently on behalf of the leader. Particularly important is discussing

9. escalation of issues so that new leaders are not caught unaware by critical
problems.
A leadership transition poses dangers and challenges for both leaders and
followers. While each party naturally focuses on the organization's success, time
needs to be spent on how the new relationships will develop and mature into
effective working relationships. Focusing on effective decision making and
implementation protocols is essential. Hallmarks of successful transitions also
include supporting leaders and followers and assisting new leaders by challenging
their views. By focusing on the four elements of interaction suggested in this
article, leaders and followers alike can avoid some of the difficulties of transition
times and make the period productive and smooth for the entire organization.

10. QUESTION FOUR
Do you think it’s easier or harder to be promoted internally into a formal
leadership position than to come into it as an outsider? Explain.
It is easier to be promoted internally because they are all familiar with the
organization as they are one of the former employees. They already know the
internal culture, the players, and the issues or challenges faced by the position.
They can focus on doing the job right away which promotes commitment (and not
on getting acclimated to the company. Moreover their skill and performance are
already known. It also facilitates innovation and provides opportunities for the
employees to increase their salaries. Thus it reduces the orientation cost.
Most employees aren’t satisfied with doing the same job for the rest of
their life. If you don’t give them an opportunity to advance in their career, they
might go looking elsewhere for someone who will. When new employees see that
opportunities exist for them and that there's a track record of hiring from within,
they tend to stay longer with your company - retention.
Promoting from within can take on a momentum of its own. Employees
who've moved up the ranks are more likely to want to promote other internal
candidates and this approach becomes part of your company culture. Empower
employees who have been promoted to talk about "where they came from" and
to encourage new employees to aspire to be promoted. It shows where your
loyalty lies, creating appreciated and ultimately happy employees.

11. When you promote an employee, you’re recognizing a job well done, which
for many is the ultimate payoff for all the hours they’ve dedicated to your
company. All these good feelings can resonate to create a more positive and
motivated work environment, company-wide.
However, external promotion also brings about a few advantages. This is
because it brings new ideas into the workplace especially the fresh newly
graduated worker. It might facilitate diversity and action initiatives and also bring
in expertises which are not available internally.
An employee who being promoted externally will start with a clean slate
and has no political affiliations. It also might reduce training cost and time if the
employee comes to organization with the right skills to do the job.
So in conclusion it depends to the higher authorities whether to promote
someone within their range or outsiders. All of their actions have advantages and
also disadvantages. It’s up to them to choose the best among the best and have a
win-win situation both for the employee and also the higher authorities.