INTRODUCTION

LEADERSHIPANDMANAGEMENT
CONTENTS
Introduction Themodel Interpersonalskills SelfAwareness TheJoHariwindow PersonalityTesting ReferencesandFurtherReading 1 2 4 5 5 6 7

INTRODUCTION
The approach adopted in this unit is to examine the elements of organizational behaviour from a leadership and management perspective. What this means is that, although the subjectofOBisinterestinginitsownright,itsmainpurposeistohelpmanagerstoleadand manage.Thisishowthiscourseisorganised.Thismeansthat,foreachareaoftheunit,the theoryisintroducedanddescribedfirst,followedbytheskillsbuiltonthosetheories. TherearevariouswaysinwhichleadershipandmanagementskillsfromOBcanbeclassified anddescribed.Theclassificationusedinthisunitistoidentifythoseskillsthataremostlikely to be useful in a team setting. That is, these skills have been chosen in order to help managers to lead or work as members of teams. The skills themselves are generic, in that they can be used in a wide variety of settings, not just in teamwork. In addition, the model chosen also shows the influences that affect management, such as organizational culture, structure, and power. Figure 1 illustrates this. We will discuss the model and the environmentalinfluencesduringtheunit.Therearemoreinfluences,ofcourse,suchasglobal economics, the regulatoryframework, and so on, but we need to keep the model simple to beginwith.

INTRODUCTION

THEMODEL
The model of management and team working used here is provided by Edgar Schein, adaptedtoshowtheenvironmentalinfluences.

OrganizationalStructure

OrganizationalCulture

E nvironmen t

Individual

Task

Team

PowerinOrganizations
Figure 1 Scheins model of management and team working, showing the organizational environment Thefirstprincipleunderlyingthismodelisthataneffectiveteamrecognizesandaddresses threefundamentalneeds.Theseare: n n n Expressingorsatisfyingindividualneedsorinterests. Buildingormaintainingacohesiveteam. Achievingthetask.

Thesecondprincipleisthattheseneedsmustbesatisfiedinthefollowingsequence: 1 2 3 individualneeds teamneeds taskneeds.

Ateamishighlyunlikelytobeconsistentlysuccessfulinachievingthetaskifithas notfirst satisfied the individual and team needs. A group of people will not tackle a task effectively untiltheyhavebecomeateamagroupofpeoplewillnotcometogetherasateamuntilthey havesatisfiedtheirfundamentalindividualneeds. 2

INTRODUCTION

Thethirdandassociatedprincipleisthatyoushoulddiagnoseyourteaminthissequence. Evenwithconfidencegainedfrompractice,thedisciplineoffollowingthissequencehasmany benefits. Superficially, this model is similar to the one proposed by John Adair Action Centred Leadershipbutwithonemajordifference.Adairfocusesontaskskillsandlargelyignores interpersonal and team skills. In ourview, this is a major weakness of the Adairmodel, but doesnotexcludeitasahighlypracticaltoolforjuniormanagementandfirstlinesupervision.

SELFAWARENESS

INTERPERSONALSKILLS
Individualsbringpersonalneedsforrecognition,involvement,supportandfriendshiptotheir membership of any team or organisation. If the quality of relationships and personal communication is poor, their personal performance and the performance of the team will suffer. Highlyeffectiveteamshavethesewelldevelopedindividualskillsandabilities: n n n n n n n Awarenessoftheirownbehavioursandfeelingsmomentbymoment. Awarenessofthebehavioursandlikelyfeelingsofothersmomentbymoment. Improvementoftheskillsofobservation,interpretationandlistening. Developingskillsinselfexpressionandselfconfidence. Skillsofgivingandreceivingfeedback. Understandingtheprocessesofindividualandorganizationalchange. Developingstrategiesforchangingorganizationalculture.

There is a suggested sequence to diagnosing and developing individual skills, as shown below.Thesequenceisiterative.Tacklingproblemsinthissequencegreatlyhelpstoresolve problemslaterinthecycle.

Self awareness

Managing change

Listening skills

Handling conflict

Giving feedback

Figure2Sequencefordiagnosinganddevelopingindividualskills

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Teams exhibit symptoms of poor individual skills when they are wellestablished with a historyofdramaorconflict,ortheirperformanceishandicappedbyunfinishedbusinessand unresolvedconflicts.

SELFAWARENESS
OwadsomePowrthegiftiegieus Toseeourselsasotherseeus Itwadfraemonyablunderfreeus Andfoolishnotion. This quotefrom Robbie Burns sums up much ofmodern management developmenttheory. Most people have two different selfimages a private one and an actual one. For many people,animportantgoalistomaketheiractualselfimagesclosertotheiridealselfimages. This is a valuable goal as it provides them with the motivation to persist with self developmentactivities.

THEJOHARIWINDOW
Thisisasimplewayofunderstandingthedifferencebetween selfimages.Imagineahouse withfourroomsandtwowindows,asshownbelow:

WhatIcansee ofmyself

Whatothers canseeofmyself

Common knowledge

My blindspots

My secrets

My unconscious self

Figure3TheJoHariwindow Through your window, you can see two rooms, and through their window, other people can seetworooms. 5

SELFAWARENESS

n n n n

TheroommarkedCommonknowledgecanbeseenbyyourselfandothers. TheroommarkedMysecretscanonlybeseenbyyourself. TheroommarkedMyblindspotscanonlybeseenbyothers. TheroommarkedMyunconsciousselfcanbeseenbynoone.

The key objective of selfdevelopment is to make the room marked Common knowledge larger. The key method of achieving this is to contract with others, such as colleagues, mentorsandtrainers.Thiscontractinvolves: n n Askingotherstotellyouaboutyourblindspots Revealingyoursecretstoothersalittleatatime.

GraduallytheCommonknowledgeroomwillgrow,andtheSecretsandBlindspotsroomswill shrinkinsize,andyouractualselfimagewillmoveclosertoyouridealselfimage. Sincethisistrueforeveryone,youwillbecalledupon,onoccasiontotellothersabouttheir blindspots.Usetherulesforgivingfeedbacktomakeitaspositiveanexperienceaspossible. SincetheMyunconsciousselfroomisinvisibletoyourselfandothers,weusepsychometric instrumentssuchasMBTItoilluminateitscontents. ReadabouttheJohariwindowontheinternetbyfollowingthelinkbelow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window

PERSONALITYTESTING
Itis fashionable to say that anindividual is unique. Certainly each individualis a product of heredity and environment and as a result, is different from everyone else. The doctrine of uniqueness, however, gives no practical help in understanding the people whom we must educate,counsel,workwith,ordealwithinourpersonallives. In practice we tend to assume unconsciously that other people's minds work on the same principlesasourown.Thisassumptionisnotmuchpracticalhelp.Alltoooftenthepeoplewe interact with do not reason as we reason, do not value the things we value, or are not interestedinwhatinterestsus. The merit of the theory underlying personality tests is that it enables us to expect specific differences in specific people and to cope with the people and their differences more constructively than we otherwise could. Briefly, personality theory is that much seemingly chancevariationinhumanbehaviourisnotduetochanceitisinfactthelogicalresultofa fewbasic,observablepreferences. ThemostwidelyusedpersonalitytestistheMyersBriggsTypeInstrument(MBTI).Thistest isbasedonJung'stheoryoftypewhichexaminesthewayhumansprocessinformationand 6

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make decisions. Individuals perceive (take in information) through their senses (S) or by intuition (N) they come to conclusions by either rational thought processes (T) or by considering the feelings of other people (F). Individuals unconsciously prefer either S or N, and T or F. In combination, individuals can be ST, SF, NT, or NF. Typically, STs are accountants,SFsaresalesmen,NTsareresearchscientists,NFsarenovelistsandcreatives. TheBBChavedevisedarelativelysimpletestbasedonpersonalitytypetheory.Inthewords oftheBBC:ItisnotareplacementforthefullMyersBriggsTypeIndicatorquestionnaire and the results are not intended to be the psychometric or practical equivalent to MBTI questionnaireresults.Havingsaidthat,thereareusefulparallelsbetweentheBBCtestand thefullMBTItest.Ifyougettheopportunity,youshouldtrythefullMBTItestbecauseitwill provideawealthofdetailthattheBBCtestcannotoffer. You can try this BBC test by following the link given below. On completion, read the commentarygiven.Whatdoesittellyouaboutyourself?Showthecommentarytosomeone whoknowsyouwell.Dotheyagreewithit?Doestheirreactionsurpriseyou? http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/whatamilike/index.shtml You will find other MBTI style tests on the internet. Follow the link below for a particularly goodone. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgiwin/JTypes2.asp Othertestsaretypicallybasedontheanalysisof16factors(16PF)and32factors(OPQ),but theonewewillexaminenextuses5factors,thebigfiveofpersonality.

REFERENCESANDFURTHERREADING
Argyris,C.(1964),IntegratingtheIndividualandtheOrganization,Wiley. Hall,G.S.,andLindzey,G.(1973),TheoriesofPersonality,Wiley. Myers,I.B.(1993).IntroductiontoType.ConsultingPsychologistsPress,PaloAlto,CA. Myers, I. B. with Myers, P. B. (1980). Gifts Differing, Consulting Psychologists Press. Palo Alto,CA: Schein,E.H.(1969),ProcessConsultation,AddisonWesley.