A511.8.3.RB - Gender

“The strong tendency to favor men over women in filling high level leadership positions has been referred to as the “glass ceiling” (Yukl, 2013, p. 371).  There is evidence that suggests that the glass ceiling is shrinking and the percentage of women’s salary in the workforce is increasing.  Despite the progress, the pace of each has occurred at a very slow rate due to numerous reasons. Historically and statistically our culture has been dominated by men occupying high-level leadership positions such as chief executives.  However, our culture has been in a constant change to reverse that trend.  Rosabeth Moss Kanter proposes that the very top jobs possess a greedy and demanding nature; which I agree to be true.  But I disagree it is a reason that prevents women from breaking into high level positions.  Kanter assumes that men holding high level positions do not give women an opportunity because women may not be quite as dedicated or may place too much focus on their family.  This seems like an incredible falsehood to me because in my experience, a person will be selected based on past performance, skills, and knowledge; not their gender or their dedication to family.  

Yukl suggests that “in the absence of sex-based discrimination, the number of women in chief executive positions in business in government should be close to 50 percent” (Yukl, 2013, p. 371).  I disagree with what I consider to be an assumption by Yukl because to say that these positions should be evenly shared between men and women does not seem accurate.  For example, if there were two positions in a lower level or non-leadership position, should one man and one woman each get hired?  Or, should the best qualified candidate be hired regardless of gender?  Of course, in a perfect world, the latter would be the correct choice.  However, we do not live in a perfect world and I realize gender-based discrimination exists.  I think the difficulty in totally eradicating this discrimination is challenging because even if gender-discrimination occurs, a hiring authority can usually substantiate the reason or reasons they hired someone.  In my opinion, the only way to truly know if someone was not selected for a position based on gender is to be able to read the hiring authority’s mind.  And that is simply not going to happen. 

Kanter also discusses women finding the balance between money and happiness.  I believe this is another factor that cannot necessarily be controlled in identifying gender-based discrimination. Everyone has to make career decisions at some point in their life, regardless if they are male or female.  For example, I am a male who has had to make career decisions based on what I felt was more important at that time. I have made decisions throughout my career based strictly on money, quality of life, family, and career progression.  I have been fortunate enough to never witness gender-based discrimination in my career.  That is not to say I simply did not recognize it occurred; it may have.  Although, I would like to think the individuals I have seen selected for positions or promoted were given the opportunity based on everything they had to offer and not based on their gender.  Nevertheless, only the authorities making the selections or promotions can answer whether or not gender-based discrimination occurred. 

References:

Kanter, E. R. (2010, April 02). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhquUOlBuOY&feature=youtu.be&t=5s

Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

A511.7.3.RB - Self-Awareness

I make every attempt to live by numerous core values that I have tried to continuously improve through experience.  Sometimes we think we have things figured out until we experience something that changes our perspective.  Conversely, some people are fixated on their ideas, values, and beliefs that no matter what they experience they refuse to make changes.  One thing is for sure, we all have our differences.  However, not only does this make us human, but these differences can also make us better leaders.  For example, regarding leadership and recognizing our differences, “effective leaders keep working at this art.  They develop a close understanding of their differences.  In particular they become aware of what is different about them that makes them attractive to others.  They learn to use these differences to their advantage in a leadership role” (Goffee & Jones, 2006, p. 32).  

Experiences, environment, traits, people and many other things shape who we are and how we choose to interact professionally and in everyday life.  It is vital for us to be aware of all of these things to continually grow as better people and better leaders.  One of my core values is to treat people the way I want to be treated.  I am a believer that when you take care of people, they will take care of you.  Another core value I try to live by is to remain positive through the most difficult times and when odds are against me.  These core values reflect an authentic leadership style that focuses on the welfare and development of followers.  “Authentic leaders have positive core values such as honesty, altruism, kindness, fairness, accountability, and optimism.  These core values motivate authentic leaders to do what is right and fair for followers, and to create a special type of relationship that includes high mutual trust, transparency, guidance toward worthy shared objectives, and emphasis on follower welfare and development” (Yukl, 2013, p. 351).

Through my evolution of self-awareness I have recognized I exhibit high levels of empathy, adaptability, availability, and a great ability to communicate.  I have learned how to use what I consider differences (since not all people possess these attributes) to my advantage in leadership roles.  I have had many situations as a leader in which individuals came to me for advice or assistance with personal, family, or medical problems.  I was always empathetic to them and their situation.  Being empathetic paid off because when I really needed these individuals to assist me with a complex work problem, they remembered how I did what I could to help them.  Some people can only be successful in a specific comfort zone and have trouble adapting to change.  My adaptability has been valuable because I have learned how to make adjustments to be successful in various situations and environments.  I am a firm believer that availability is a primary component to a leader-follower relationship.  Being available to assist followers builds a strong trust so followers want to do great things.  I know firsthand how awful it feels to want assistance from a perceived leader, only to find out they are unreachable.  That situation only decreases enthusiasm, faith, and trust towards the leader and possibly an organization.  As a leader, the ability to communicate is essential in being successful.  I have always been able to adapt to individuals and groups and find a way to clearly communicate expectations, ideas, and tasks.  Not much can be accomplished if a leader fails at communicating.  I will continue to try and improve at perfecting the art of self-awareness.  This will only lead to the development of my core values and the betterment of follower welfare.

References:

Goffee, R., & Jones, G. (2006).  Getting personal on the topic of leadership.  Human Resource Management International Digest, 14 (4), 32-34.

Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

A511.6.3.RB - Meaning

Have you ever really asked yourself why you are doing your job? Are you in a job because it is your dream job?  Is it the job you always envisioned yourself doing?  Do you despise getting up to go to work because you hate every aspect of it? It is a reality that most of us need a job to make money to provide for ourselves and/or family.  However, it would be nice if we were provided endless opportunities and the ability to be so selective about a job we wanted until we found our perfect match.  What does our perfect match even mean?  Most people are on a search for happiness in their employment, but in order to find that happiness, we must first understand the meaning of the work we are doing.  We usually understand what we need to do in our work, but it is rare to understand our impact.  Enter leadership.  This is where effective leaders need to provide employees meaning and communicate the “why” of our job to facilitate individual and organizational success.  Even Ulrich (2010) suggests “To get the most from their employees, leaders should do all they can to make this “why” clear” and I couldn’t agree more.

Early in my career, I worked in a warehouse which supplied aircraft parts when I was in the military.  My civilian friends thought my job was really cool because I was always around jets and got to see some neat stuff.  Conversely, I viewed my job as boring and grew tired of the feeling that I was not making any impact to the mission.  I would constantly ask myself, “What is the point of what I am doing?”  However, there came a day when my supervisor brought me to an aircraft hangar to show me some of the aircraft that had just returned from a mission.  He reminded me that all of us have important jobs to do and the each of us plays a vital role in the success of every mission.  I realized that if I did not do my job and provide the necessary aircraft parts when they were needed, it might not only cause a delay, but it might completely jeopardize the mission.  My supervisor demonstrated very effective leadership by answering the “why” to what I do and gave me the meaning I was looking for in my position.  This simple gesture of leadership ignited me to want to do my job better and provided me enthusiasm that I was making an impact.  “Leaders who help shape a vision that is engaging to others, who weave the stories that help people make sense of the past and imagine the future, and who tap into the unique desires and values of individuals engage people’s hearts as well as their heads and hands” (Ulrich, 2010).

Creating meaning to our work may be overlooked by organizations, but it is an area that deserves a lot of attention.  Organizational leaders who successfully create meaning for their employees will notice employees “tend to work harder, more creatively, and with more tenacity, giving the companies a leg up in the marketplace” (Ulrich, 2010).  Additionally, a survey by the Energy Project “which reached more than 12,000 employees across a broad range of companies and industries, found that 50% lack a level of meaning and significance at work.  Moreover, employees who derive meaning from their work are more than three times as likely to stay with their organizations—the highest single impact of any other survey variable they tested.” (Amortegui, n.d.).  This is a prime example of how giving employees a cause as to why they are performing their jobs can only lead to great organizational success.  

References:

Amortegui, J. (n.d.). Why finding meaning at work is more important than feeling happy. Retrieved from http://www.fastcompany.com/3032126/how-to-find-meaning-during-your-pursuit-of-happiness-at-work

Ulrich, D., Ulrich W. (2010).  Getting Beyond Engagement to creating Meaning at Work. Harvard Business Blog. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2010/06/getting-beyond-engagement-to-c

A511.5.3.RB - Remote Transformational Leadership

What was the point of the research?

Remote leadership was defined in the article as “leadership interactions that are characterized by electronically-mediated communication between geographically and physically isolated leaders and followers” (Kelloway et al., 2003, p. 164).  Previous research suggests transformational leadership cannot be effective if close interpersonal contact between leaders and followers does not exist.  The point of the research was to attempt to measure the effectiveness of remote transformational leadership through computer-mediated communications.

What were the hypotheses?

In the first study, the authors were interested in answering two questions.  “First, can recipients perceive and accurately identify leadership “styles” communicated by email?  Second, is receiving an e-mail with a positive (i.e. transformational leadership) leadership message as opposed to a negative message (i.e. management-by-exception or laissez-faire) perceived to be associated with positive outcomes?” (Kelloway et al., 2003, p. 164).  In the second study, the authors “hypothesized that individuals exposed to e-mail messages containing a charismatic or intellectually stimulating message would express higher levels of performance on a laboratory task than individuals who received e-mail instructions that did not contain these aspects of transformational leadership” (Kelloway et al., 2003, p. 167).

What was the research method used?

The first study used a qualitative method using vignettes to assess whether recipients could identify leadership (transformational, management-by-exception, or laissez-faire) messages through e-mail.  The second study used a quantitative approach through a group problem solving exercise.  The questionnaires were scored based on the group and individual responses to either a charismatic, intellectually stimulating, or neutral e-mail.  

Were the results supportive of the research goals?

The results of the research were supportive of the hypotheses.  The first study demonstrated that participants can correctly identify different leadership styles through electronic communication as opposed to face-to-face communication.  The second study showed participants can identify and respond to electronic communication just as effectively as directly transmitted communication.  More specifically, the results “support those reported in study 1, suggesting that individuals can detect, and thereafter respond to different leadership styles expressed through an electronically-mediated channel of communication” (Kelloway et al., 2003, p. 169).

Of what value was the research?

This research is valuable because it helps disprove that remote transformational leadership is not effective as face-to-face interaction.  My primary form of communication at work is e-mail and face-to-face communication is continually decreasing in my organization.  Learning that I can use a transformational leadership style through my e-mail communication makes me feel more comfortable because it can be just as effective as face-to-face communication.  The research also indicates the importance of including a charismatic and intellectually stimulating message within my messages to achieve optimal leadership effectiveness.

References:

Kelloway, E. K., Barling, J., Kelley, E., Comtois, J., & Gatien, B. (2003). Remote transformational leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 24(3), 163.