2.2 Leadership in organizations and Management
2.2.3 The behavioural School
This school, as DuBrin (2000:19) observes involved most psychologists like Abraham Maslow, Douglas McGregor and Fredrick Herzeberg. It gave an approach of understanding the management of people by emphasizing the understanding of the psychological make up of employees. This understanding of people is manifested through leadership, communication, decision making and conflict management. The strength of this approach is that it advocates that managers at work should take into account the human element unlike the scientific movement that does not. The major weakness is that most often managers adopt one behaviour theory of understanding people and ignore other relevant theories.
14 Elton Mayo, from the human relations movement also added to the behavioural school approach the need to have a consideration of social relations by managers at workplaces.
Mayo’s approach (Kreitner: 2004:54) to solving the problems of motivating employees and enhancing productivity at work, as learnt from the Hawthorne experiments, also cautioned managers that emotional factors were a more important determinant of productive efficiency than physical and local factors. The employees at work create their own culture of doing things at work which determines even rules of conformity. It is therefore up to management to take cognisance of their personal feelings. The emotional intelligence leadership needs to recognize such emotions in its employees before any kind of industrial conflict sets in,
The rest of the schools and approaches in the development of the management thought that include management science school, the systems and contingency approaches all have a strong need for good leadership (DuBrin:2000:16). The management science thought gives an understanding that management ought to be conducted on scientific basis for resolving problems and making decisions. The Systems approach gives a perspective of tackling problems based on the understanding that an organization is a system of interrelated parts. Problems confronting these parts should not be resolved in isolation but in relation to other components in the system. This can be seen in the case where you employ incompetent employees because of political influence, which will be reflected in the low productivity. The Contingency approach on the other hand emphasizes that there is no one best way to manage people or work. It encourages managers to study individual and situational differences before deciding on the course of action. Whichever stage of management thought one thinks of it is the responsibility of the manager in the end to resolve the issue.
The major part of the development of a sound management theory has concentrated on looking for organization effectiveness and efficiency focusing on structures and rationality that are impersonal. The scientific movement and the classical theory and more especially Max Weber’s bureaucratic model of management did not consider people as a major contributor to the good performance of the organization whose well - being needed to be in the centre of production activity. It considered that as long as
15 workers were remunerated well, efficiency and high productivity would be achieved.
Barrett (1998:5) argues that most companies die because their company leaderships concentrate on economics of producing goods and services ignoring the human component of production. These managers forget that the organizations are about the community of people who have emotional, mental and spiritual needs which make them complete and balanced in their lives.
Organizations can be compared to successful athletes who need to prepare themselves adequately by taking care of their bodies, minds and spirit. Likewise, one could claim that the organization is a living entity that needs to take care of all aspects. Traditional management theory has tended to concentrate on suggesting that increased productivity in goods and services is achieved by investing in physical structures. Bennett (1998:11) identifies four aspects of an organization that shows its well - being and this includes the physical well - being, the emotional well - being, mental - well being and its spiritual well - being. I am of the strong opinion that it takes an emotionally intelligent leadership to recognise these components of the organization’s life. While traditional management thought has made a good contribution to managing organizations, it has not done that much as far as looking at the emotional and spiritual side of workers in workplaces.
Management should understand that their emotional state has an effect on the performance of their workers. Both the managers’ and other employees’ emotional states in a real sense can be improved to reach a higher spiritual state that provides high level of motivation that in turn leads to the ultimate answers of increase in productivity and creativity in the organization (Bennett 1998:13). The health spiritual state of its employees will bring about both their internal and external connectedness with other members in the organization and other stakeholders. It is therefore important that leadership and other members of the organization work on developing emotional intelligence as part of organizational culture and values.
The management thought has evolved at the same time as the Leadership theory that has moved from the ‘great man’ theory in which it was thought that leaders are born and not made. In the early 1900s the theory moved from that concept to a more encompassing view of leadership that took into account the interaction between the task, the leader and
16 the relationship with the followers (Topping:2000:2) This is the ideal thinking where we are now and the leader must be able to discern the situational needs of subordinates. It is against the above background that the position of management assumes the role of the leadership in the organization. A manager who inevitably offers his or her leadership in a workplace to get things done effectively must have the ability to inspire confidence and gain support from subordinates on whose effective performance will depend. DuBlin (2005:223) points out that John Kotter had made a distinction between management and leadership. Management is said to be a process of coping with complexity which advocates that a manager must preserve order which has been decided on beforehand. On the other, side leadership deals with change in a very competitive environment and ensuring that the leader maps out a vision and direction.
In the fast changing world, a company needs to have both an effective leadership and management side by side. DuBrin (2005:223) further advocates that leaders should be managers just as managers must be leaders. The workforce requires their organization leadership that is inspiring and persuasive and one which can help them develop and maintain a peaceful and productive workplace. There is need in an organization to have a managerial leadership that must have qualities that will make it effective. Topping (2002:10) gives the following as cardinal qualities:
• Challenging the processes in the organization;
• Inspiring a shared vision and values;
• Enabling others to act;
• Being an Example that other can emulate; and
• Showing passion and willingness,
These qualities come from the heart that wants to see others under them succeed in the workplace. The leader needs to be aware of his or her emotions and those of other people around them to be pulling in the same direction. The subordinates should be able to read the motives and be influenced to follow accordingly.
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