Chakkamkulathil Vijayan Veneet Kumar 10334925

The core skills and competencies required of a successful and effective leader in increasingly chaotic and complex business environments and organisations
Submitted by Student ID Subject Course Code Course Tutor Submission Date Word Count : Veneet Kumar C.V : 10334925 : Leadership : HRMM021 : Hugh Davenport : 24/11/2010 : 2632

Leadership Module

Chakkamkulathil Vijayan Veneet Kumar 10334925

INDEX
Contents Page No 03 03 04 05 05 06 07 08 09 10

1. Introduction ------------------------------------------2. Observed skills and core competencies --------2.1) Self-Awareness----------------------------------2.2) Social judgment skills--------------------------2.3) Creative problem solving-----------------------2.4) Team orientation --------------------------------2.5)

Knowledge -----------------------------------------

3. Recommendations -----------------------------------4. Conclusion --------------------------------------------5. References ---------------------------------------------

Leadership Module

Chakkamkulathil Vijayan Veneet Kumar 10334925

Introduction:
The leaders role in a complex organization is becoming more challenged to manage in todays world (brown and heissenhardt, 1997). The major controversy swings between the thoughts as whether the leadership should be viewed in a specific role or as a shared acts of influence (yukl, 2006) but hall and lord (1995) pointed out that the influence may depend upon the perception of the leadership. In another manner that the leaders purpose is to achieve the task which group is supposed to achieve and to get his or her job done.motivating employees and maintaining productivity level in a highly complex organization is given an added volume of consideration(Forgie and J. Derosa, 2010). In view of perrow (1961) it is not only the understanding of complex organizational behaviour to be the final deal of understanding but also the rules and decisions of personnel. Apart from the routine problems arising from the organization, the leaders too have their own problem in a different way arising from the conflict, change and complexity of an organization (Fleishman et al, 1991). We have to understand the performance requirement in order to understand the organizational problems.In the view of Mumford & connelly (1991) it is to identify and construct the target and define direction and leading through to the target by making an impact on the society determines the efficency of a leader.Wide spread theories and models have created confusion in terms of corecompetencies and skills that a leader should have as his key ingredients for success. The need of basic competencies in a leader has become a necessity nowadays.

Observed Skills and core-competencies :

It is through the recent years that the leadership theories and models have evolved on leader to be effective observing the behavioural attributes, theory of behavioural styles (Liddell & Rosenqvist, 1992), The latest theories which describes about charisma and followers (Bass & Avolio, 1994; Klein & House, 1995) and the relationship betweenleader and follower exchange (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995).Here the leader competencies and skills are evaluated as in a hybrid pattern combining the behavioural attributes to the knowledge, skills and performance which is devolved and chiselled through the experience one develops and follows a logical set of base in a leaders career. Below mentioned are the observed core competencies and skills that a leader should have. Leadership Module

Chakkamkulathil Vijayan Veneet Kumar 10334925

Self-Awareness:
Self-awareness is one quality of a leader(Goleman,1998) which can be having the belief in self in terms of his strengths, weakness, emotion, requirements and steer factor, sources of frustrations and results of problem(Schein,1978; goleman,1998).This self-insight leads to develop an over roll perception of understanding inters of general access and the differentiation in ethical standard(Spreitzer et al.,1997; Rhinesmith, 1996).The self-awareness can be reffered as gaining knowledge about ones own self and the role that one has to adopt (Harris and Moran, 1987), gaining knowledge on one moral ethics and perceptions (Moran and Riesenberger, 1994), display of basic qualities (Black et al.,1999), and question the individuals self thought or uncertain description about variables (Srinivas, 1995).There is a proven track record of link among self-awareness, leader effectiveness and managerial success (Fletcher, 1997). In the view of Nasby(1989) the high the self awareness, the more the reliability and validity whereas those whom lack self awareness are more tend to align in negative direction, career derailment, gives less preference to feedback(Ashford,1989). If we try and measure this competency, there is a tendency in individuals to over estimate the competency level (Harris and Schaubroeck, 1988; Conway and Huffcut, 1997) as there is always a gap between where individual considers what his competencies are and what his/her colleagues or coworkers rates the individual. This type of relative measurement is statistically reproduced by the correlation among self and other factors(London and Wohlers, 1991; Wohlers and London,1989) the higher correlation indicates high level of self awareness and loathe importance of self awareness in a leader whom is dealing with a complex in an organization is noted, as it will help in solving complex problems, making better decisions, adapting to different situations, managing crisis, maintaining optimism and enthusiasm about a mission in the face of obstacles and setbacks(Yugal,G.2006).Mostovicz and kakadabase(2008),points out that humans wont be able to act responsibly at all times as there would be some uncertain areas or times when we take decisions involuntarily and or hide behind customs or rule when there is a lack of self awareness.

Leadership Module

Chakkamkulathil Vijayan Veneet Kumar 10334925

Social judgement skills:

Social judgement skills are referred to having a proper understanding of different constituents, switching perspective as and when required, knowledge of global interdependencies (Brake, 1997). In the view of Mumford, et al(2000), judgement skills include social skill acquisance, capacity to take perspective, understanding and monitoring social systems, wisdom, self reflection, system point of view, knowledge on result judgement, judgement of uncertainity, systems commitment, awareness of different constituencies, settings and dynamics, notifying the weaker areas and making up to cop with the requirement, co-ordinating numerous events,being touchy to reach the proper goal. It is the ability for understanding reason consequences reactions link and future focus. (Srinivas, 1995; moran and riesenberger, 1994) The social judgement skills are closely related to social intelligence which is related to effective social functioning (Cantor and Kihlstrom, 1987) and effective leadership in specific (Zaccaro, 2002), but there is no accurate measure of social intelligence or rather a clearly defined frame work. It is the set of social skills that you perceive and develop the social judgement skills. one study suggests with some constructive validity proof, formulated, taking measures of these capacity into account(Connelly et al,1993).leaders must co-ordinate all the activities like marshalling support, communicating idea or goal, guiding, motivating and maintaining team morale inside this social context whose range should not be just within the organization(bass,1990; house &baetz,1979; yugal &van fleet,1992; zaccaro gilbert et al,1991) which again brings the importance of social judgement skill into limelight. Here as the link between social perceptiveness, the behavioural flexibility and other social performance skills is very clear, this makes the leader effective in a complex organization.

Creative problem solving:

Often if we look at the complex organizational context, leaders are challenged to solve complex bit of problems (Fleishman, Mumford, Zaccaro, Levin, Korotkin, & Hein, 1991; Mumford & Connelly, 1991), but they cant be solved through the application of theoretical realms of knowledge (baughman and Mumford, 1995), but through some creative knowledge which has been developed through ones experiences. Brain storming, object simulation etc are
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some of the techniques of approaching creative problem solving(Vangundy,1988; couger,1995; macfadzean,1998c)Mumford and Peterson(1999) figures out the importance of creative problem solving skills in the upper management jobs. Many of those models on the creative problem solving of argues that the leaders begin with problem construction and puts across the knowledge brought from their experience to analysis, structure and finally drive the ideas (Davidson, 1995; Mumford and Gustafson, in press; Perkins, 1992; runco 1994). This has been supported by the studies of rinco basadur (1993) and basadur and hausdorf (1996) as this follows the following path - New understanding to resonable ideas - Analysing the resonable ideas - Creation of idea strategy Which in-turn strongly influences the creative problem solving? The creative problem solving helps to build and develop novel ideas and innovation.

Team orientation:
There are several categories of teams that you will find in a organization such as functional operating teams, cross functional teams, self-managed teams and executive teams (yukl,2006) as he describes the functional team has a specific task orientation for a longer period of time and the members would be stable there with an appointed leader. The cross cultural teams would include specialized sub-units which improves the co-ordination of different set of related activities among these group(Ford & randolf,1992),the self managed teams will have leaders which mostly delegates work to his followers(cohen,1991;katzenbach&smith,1993;osburn et al,1990; wellins et al,1991).often in complex organization you might have to handle virtual teams too as the team are separated geographically and they doesnt meet directly often(Bell 7 kozlowski,2002). Managing meetings is a key part in the team orientation skill as there are various activities involved like planning and conducting meetings where following objectives are observed by a leader a)Identifying objectives b)Conveying agenda items c)Summarizing and reviewing assignments(Achua & lussier,2010). When the leader highlights the importance of a task to its team members the group performance would be higher to attain the shared task and the same can be called as shared mental model (cannonbowlers, salas&converse, 1993).Team skills and clarity in role of its members can be influenced by the leader while selecting a team, there should be a right mix of various skills associated with the team. Leadership Module

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(Klimoski&jones, 1995) as it would help in tackling the chaotic situations. Team planning before the task (Hackman & momorris,1975) and this problems are not properly addressed it would hinder the teams performance(tesluk & mathieu, 1999).when it comes to external coordination of the team it would be determined by the ability of the team to device the right strategy which implies upon the external actions and requirements and effectively responding to them(marks et al,2000).The trust and mutual co-operation should be observed by a leader in complex environment as the team members are highly sensitive to different attributes that might be arising from the complexity of an organisation as it is observed that it is because of lack in trust and mutual understanding mostly the problem happens in the newly formed teams( barrick et al,1998; watson et al,1993). The shared belief in teams depends upon the successfully completing a task, which increases the teams morale and this shared belief is called collective efficacy or potency which is another key factor in team orientation.

Knowledge:
It is been observed by the fieshman and Mumford (1989) that knowledge in the reflection of major belief and value ethics linking to nature of parameters in an organization. Knowledge drives the bottom-line of an organization remaining as an invisible entity (Pascarella, 1997). The skills are enhanced through the knowledge when prioritized through some strategy where assets will come as a bonus (Stewart, 1997). In an organization specifically, the application of these core-competencies and skills require the appropriate as it increases the performance quality of a leader (Ericsson and charness, 1994). The effectiveness of a leader depends on the concepts or scheme that they come up with, which differentiates from novices as a result they can evaluate, assess and make implications from informations (Anderson, 1993; chi, Glaser and rees, 1982; half, Hogan and hutchers, 1986; salthouse, 1987) which again highlights the importance of knowledge as a competency in being effective leader in a complex organization. As mentioned earlier the complexity of organization provides the leader with problematic situations, the knowledge would play a major part in tackling with tasks, organization and co-workers (zaccaro et al, 1995).Apart from these the knowledge is been derived from the past experiences forms the experimental knowledge, which can be structured in the associational networks (seger, 1994).the experience based knowledge determines the performance factor of an effective leader.

Leadership Module

Chakkamkulathil Vijayan Veneet Kumar 10334925

Recommendations for the development of core competencies and skills:

In a complex organizational context there are various parameters that leaders come across. Ericsson and Charness (1994) observed to reach at higher level management, people normally takes seven to ten years. To help boosting the process the coaching and mentoring can be used as the leaders can emulate the models which have been created by their competent seniors to be effective. But the formal training programmes has its own limitations, as it doesnt counts how intelligent and motivated the leader is unless he is effective to the situation described in the organization and much of the skill is developed from the experience(Davies & easterby-smith,1984; Kelleher,finestone,&lowy,1986; Lindsey, homes, & maccall, Lombardo, & Morrison, 1988),as Yukl(2006) describes amount of challenge, variety of tasks and assignments and relevant feedbacks are the areas one should concentrate on when going through this learning cycle.mumford et al(2000) points out four stages of skill development for a leader to be effective in complex organization, first the leader should do the structuring so as to acquire more skills, secondly, the leader would evolve through a cycle where-in he would have gained problem solving, social, self-awareness and knowledge based skills. Thirdly, the strengths and weakness of specific points would be highlighted at different paths of the leaders career. And fourth, the experience gained takes the leader to another insight contributing to his growth. The scope of improvement is the very area that every leader would be working on and below are few recommendation aimed at the specific skills and competencies which we have discussed here. - motivate and educate group members how to reward themselves and to build natural - Rewards into their own work (Manz and Sims, 1986). Apart from the virtual team discussed earlier keep regular face to face meetings with the team as this would increase the morale and relationship within the team - willingness to take over the problems in a complex organization and shall be self motivated to aim at continual improvement. (Howard and bray, 1988),which in-turn contributes in the improvement of creative problem solving. - The personality characters are linked with performance when dealing with complex social problems (Barron and Harrington,
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1981; mackinnon, 1962), henceforth the quality of self awareness can be increased by identifying and classifying ones traits, whereby one should consistently update his or her trait through the period. The social judgement skill can be developed by monitoring and understanding the social differences within the problem domain(geiwitz,1993), device a strategy to chisel out the social perceptiveness which is one of the key social judgement skill which develops insights to needs, goals and problems within the organization (zaccaro et al ,1991)

- There is always the need for the conscious knowledge that a leader should apply in complex organization, the leader becomes effective when he appropriately utilizes this knowledge. As the knowledge is a function of experience (Ackerman, 1992; Hulin, Henry, & Noon, 1989), it evolves through the experience gained in tackling different situations.

Conclusion:
The article outlines the importance of core-competencies and skills for being an effective leader in a complex organization. Basically it tries to figure out the basic essence which should be possessed by an effective leader. It can be argued that the self awareness determines the leader being self directed, understanding where he is standing and what direction to choose. It gives an overall perception of self judgment based on logical characters or traits as discussed Social judgement skills makes the individual capable of tackling the social problems arising from an organization. It provides an insight to refine the potential solution within the context of an organization. Creative problem solving involves identifying problem; understand standing problem, and creatively divinising the solutions from it. More or often the complex organizations presents with complex tasks the problem solving ability of a leader determines the effectiveness. Team orientation is the another area of the effective leader, the morale of the team can make a impact on the task orientation, provided the discussed skills have been observed to necessarily devising the key steps while dealing with a team. Knowledge is devolved through the practise of these set of skills and competencies as it should be acknowledged that the knowledge comes as a direct proportional of experience and exposure. It depends upon the extend of knowledge that the leader can put across in a complex organization to Leadership Module

Chakkamkulathil Vijayan Veneet Kumar 10334925

determine the effectiveness when provided situation as a variable. The performance factor comes into play when all the skills are applied logically so that it brings out the desired output, which adds on to the leaders experience profile. The knowledge of an organization, knowledge of people, knowledge of role are the important knowledge parameters which mixes up with the set of core-competencies and skills to enable the leader to increase ones effectiveness in a complex organization.

REFERENCES:
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Harris, M.M. and Schaubroeck, J. (1988), A meta-analysis of self-supervisor, self-peer and peer-supervisor ratings, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 41, pp. 43-62. Klein, K. J., & House, R. J. (1995). On fire: Charismatic leadership and levels of analysis. Leadership Quarterly, 6(2), 183198. Lindell, M., & Rosenqvist, G. (1992). Management behavior dimensions and development orientation. Leadership Quarterly, 3, 355377. London, M. and Wohlers, A.J. (1991), Agreement between subordinate and self-ratings in upward feedback, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 44, pp. 375-90. MacKinnon, D. W. (1962). The nature and nurture of creative talent. American Psychologist, 17, 484495. Mostovicz, E.I. (2008), Understanding of consumers needs for luxury: the mechanism of interpretation and its role in knowledge creation, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Northampton, Northampton Mumford, M. D., & Connelly, M. S. (1991). Leaders as creators: Leader performance and problem solving in ill-defined domains. Leadership Quarterly, 2, 289315. Mumford, M.D., Zaccaro, S.J., Harding, F.D. and Jacobs, A. (2000), Leadership skills for a changing world: solving complex social problems, Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 11-35. Perrow, C (1961), The Analysis of Goals in Complex Organizations, American Sociological Review, Vol. 26, No. 6 pp. 854-866 Runco, M. A., & Basadur, M. (1993). Assessing ideational and evaluative skills and creative styles and attitudes. Creativity and Innovation Management, 2, 166173. Spreitzer, G.M., McCall, M.W. Jr and Mahoney, J. (1997), The early identification of international executive potential, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 82 No. 1, pp. 6-29. Srinivas, K.M. (1995), Globalization of business and the third world: challenge of expanding the mindsets, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 26-49. Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in Organisation. 6th ed. Pearson: Prentice Hall Zaccaro, S. J., Gilbert, J., Thor, K. K., & Mumford, M. D. (1991). Leadership and social intelligence: Linking social perceptiveness and behavioral flexibility to leader effectiveness. Leadership Quarterly 2, 317331. Zaccaro, S. J., Marks, M. A., OConnor-Boes, J., & Costanza, D. (1995). The nature and assessment of leader mental models (MRI Report 95-3). Bethesda, MD: Management Research Institute. Zaccaro, S. J. (2002). Models and theories of executive leadership: A conceptual/empirical review and integration. Alexandria,VA: U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.

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