Personal power is power that resides with an individual, regardless of his or her position in the organization. Someone usually exercise personal power through rational persuasion or by playing of followers identifications with him or her. An individual with personal power often can inspire greater loyalty and dedication in followers than someone who has only position power. The stronger influence from the fact that the followers are acting more from choice than from necessity and thus will respond more readily to request and appeals. Of course the influence of a leader who relies only on personal power is limited, because followers may freely decided not to accept his or her directives or orders. The distinctions between formal and informal leaders are also related to position and personal power. A formal leader will have, at minimum, position power. And an informal leader will similarly have some degree of personal power. Just Continue reading
Management Concepts
Process of Team Building
Team building attempts to improve effectiveness of the team by having team members to concentrate on: Setting goals and priorities for the team. Analyzing how team’s goals and priorities are linked to those of the organization. Analyzing how the work is performed. Analyzing how the team is working, and Analyzing the relationships among the members who are performing the job. The process of team building is a collection of steps which lead to a specific change in the approach among people, to make effective teams. Various steps of team building process are not one-shot action, rather, they are repetitive and cyclical. 1. Problem Sensing There are a number of ways in which problems of a team can be obtained. Often the team itself defines which aspects of team building it wishes to work on. This problem can better be identified in terms of what is hindering group effectiveness. At this Continue reading
Knowledge Management Systems: Conditions for Success
Certain factors or concerns also need to be considered in order to make this firm’s investment in Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) worthwhile. There is need for a major transformation in organisational culture to create desire to share, (give and receive). When there is organisational culture barrier, people tend to hoard their knowledge. One of the reasons why employees don’t share knowledge is the belief that knowledge is power and that hoarding it guarantees job security. Employees also tend to believe that there is no credit for knowledge sharing or won’t be able to own it anymore if they share. There might also not be time for knowledge sharing or afraid of making mistakes or being reprimanded. Some employees also do not know how to share knowledge or do not realize that their knowledge is valuable to the organisation. In order to solve these problems, employees need to be educated on Continue reading
Morale – Definition, Characteristics and Significance
Morale is the term usually applied to armed forces during wartime and to sports and athletic teams. It refers to team spirit and co-operation of people for a common purpose. Its importance has been realized by the management only in recent years. It is felt by the management that if the morale of the employees is high, production would be higher and vice-versa. Meaning and Definitions of Morale Morale represents the attitudes of individuals and groups in an organization towards their work environment. Morale is an indicator of the attitude of employees towards their jobs, superiors and their organizational environment. It is a collection of the employees attitude, feelings and sentiments. Various definitions of morale are; Flippo has described morale “as a mental condition or attitude of individuals and groups which determines their willingness to co-operate. Good morale is evidenced by employee enthusiasm, voluntary confirmation with regulations and orders, and Continue reading
4 Important Sources of Organizational Culture
An organization is a group of people who work together with coordinated efforts to achieve certain objectives or goals. Organizational goals and objectives are of various categories, and it is this variation of the goals and objectives which classify organizations into three main categories, namely profit-making, service-based, and social responsibility based organizations. Organizational culture refers to shared beliefs, values, norms, and practices which characterize an organization. Norms are informal rules which are institutionalized by organizations. The norms govern the conduct of employees and constitute what is permitted and prohibited in different organizations. One of the important aspects of organizational culture is teamwork. Organizations encourage employees to work in groups instead of working independently. Teamwork makes organizations benefit from the synergy found in groups. Working in groups gives employees an opportunity to exercise their creativity, innovativeness, skills, and talents. It also enables the group members to learn from the strengths of each Continue reading
Leadership and Followership
All-important social accomplishment requires complex group effort and, therefore, leadership and followership. Leader-follower relationship is two way, leader as well as followers have great capacity to influence the relationship. Just as a leader is accountable for the actions and performance of followers, so followers are accountable for their leaders. Followers support leaders when necessary and help them correct their actions, just as leaders must support followers and help them to correct their actions. This is partnership and both sides must be proactive. Organizations are successful or not partly on the basis of how well their leaders lead, but also in great part on the basis of how well their followers follow. Courageous followers help leaders stay on track and manage their decision-making processes in the right direction. Responsible and effective followers have a critical role in maintaining the desired partnering dynamics. In his book The Courageous Follower, Ira Chaleff points Continue reading