Leadership

Submitted by: Hassan Ahmed
Class Number: MBA-01 Sec-02
Submitted to: Dr. Nasir Afghan

Course: Organizational Behavior and Leadership
Table of Contents

• Part One: Stupidity Today

1. The Knowledge Myth
2. Not to Smart
3. Funtional Stupidity

• Part Two: Five Kinds of Functional Stupidity

1.  Leadership- Induced Leadership
2. Structure-Induced Leadership
3. Imitation Induced Stupidity
4. Branding-Induced Stupidity
5. Culture-Induced Stupidity

• Part Three: Managing Stupidity

1. Stupidity Management and How to counter it?
2. Conclusion

Introduction

The main purpose of any company is to grow in terms of business that is having lucrative business and at the same time enabling their employees to become their future asset. But in real world often we see organization hired smart people and they end up in making stupid mistake.

The book highlights that organization depend on well-educated and bright people who are willing to learn but what seems to be observe is that organization ends up in creating Corporate Slaves who follows dictation, discipline and willingness to be seduced by many ludicrous ideas. We have to understand why organization employed smart people?

Why smart people do stupid things and bestow with bounties by organization for doing such mistakes this is what the book highlights. They succeeded for the short time p but in longer term it damages the organization as well as their progress also. Later in this chapter we will discuss the role of stupidity in today’s workplace and profession.

Part One: Stupidity Today

The Knowledge Myth

World has witnessed an anomaly in knowledge based economy. In a way that we have observed a remarkable progression in knowledge of individuals but in contrast to it we could not witness rapid increase in the demand of such individuals in our job sector. Instead of surge in knowledge based jobs we have seen smooth increase in low-wage odd jobs.

Irony is the attitude of present day organizations who instead of addressing this issue tries to cover it up by using different tactics like granting attractive job titles to convince individuals that they are doing something innovative and useful. But in reality we have witnessed that such organizations and individuals are busy in doing routine office work. This does not mean that acquiring knowledge is wasteful or dangerous.

But the ever increasing gap between supply and demand curve of highly intellectual individuals and knowledge based jobs is fuelling frustration and other evils in present day generation. This frustration can be gauged by a rapid increase in college pass outs since 1960s and number of people who were expecting that they would be given a ground to showcase their capabilities and abilities but at last they were only allowed to do repetitive office tasks on daily basis.

Not to Smart

Individual in the organization are rational people. They try their best to use their knowledge and experience practically but faces with many obstacles. It has been seen as most decisions in the organization are based on limited information and less time to contemplate over it which results in the satisfactory outcome but not optimal one.

It has been seen mostly that smart people joining the workforce on the basis of their intelligence but they are not fully able to utilize it. If they opt to do something different they will be stopped by their boss or faced criticism from their colleagues that is the dilemma of our culture. You can see after few year of experience they will end up in corporate mindlessness. One of the obstacles in this kind of skill incompetence is that it stops people from learning.

They deceive by the comforting routines that allow them to ignore troubling issues of daily life. Often you see in organization where people are being discouraged for asking question. They been given a particular script to follow and act accordingly. Usually asking difficult question or thinking to deeply seems as a great waste for the firms.

It subsequently end up in restricting the thought process of employees. Employees who learn to switch of their brain are rewarded. If they think too much they can get the work done. By following the corporate line set by the firm, thoughtless employees get seen as leadership material and promoted.

We usually see the policy of ignorance in the organization, where people avoid informing senior people about problem. This is because senior don’t want to face to many complicated issues. This helps them to remain unaware of the situation when something went wrong in order to pull off the whole burden from them.

Functional Stupidity

The observation is that firm going out of their way to block employees from reflecting on their ideas, to deter them from thinking innovatively and to resist them from giving or asking for justification for their decisions and actions. By doing this they create functional outcomes both for individuals and the whole organisation.

The consequences of it can disastrous leading to collapse of organisation. However functional stupidity can be useful and produce short term results, it can nurture harmony, encourage people to get on with the job. Like the example of Pepsi was given where culture was that executive should focused only on outcome, work diligently and employees gave very less time to their social life or outside world.

The type of workaholic or militaristic environment prevails in Pepsi affect the employees productivity and they all the time pre-occupied with the office work. Functional stupidity is so widespread in organization that it is simply seen as a normal. Following leaders without seeing their credentials and no careful check often result in self stupidity. Functional Stupidity basically reduces conflict, levitate anxiety, and increase self-esteem.

The issue is when organization get affected in longer term which result in a great loss.Funtional stupidity is deeply rooted in organisation and eradicating it from the root is very difficult. But certain steps can be taken which will be discuss later on this chapter can help us mitigating it.

Part Two: Five Kinds of Functional Stupidity

Leadership-Induced Stupidity

All adjectives like superior, innovative, critical, prudent, etc. attached with leaders. They are purely a myth. In reality leaders are self-obsessed individuals. Who assume themselves as a master of all. Most of them think that whatever they are saying is being praised by their sub-ordinates but reality is different from this. Mostly people take the words of their leaders superficially and take it as for granted. Henceforth, impact of a leader on organizational life is minimum.

Structure Induce Stupidity

Structure in organization is necessary but some time creating too much structures and norms can create a communication gap between the top management and the lower ones. We have heard the word of delegation in our management system which is used to empower the employees and encourage them to take equal parts in company’s though process.

But unfortunately we can see in majority of organization that dominant or dictator rule is followed. Top management neglect the lower ones to put their input which can be valuable for organization but are often ignored in company thought process. That lowers the moral and willingness of an individual working in an organization.

Managers mostly spend their time doing meeting, setting up the rule and regulation and probably are unaware of what is happening at the ground level or in the firm. If we go down the organisation hierarchy, most peoples are confine to focus on their work and not think about the broader picture.

Imitation Induced Stupidity

Blindly following the glowing star has become order of the day. Organizations tend to copy other organizational behaviour and strategies without any motive and approach. The repercussions of this practice are heinous and affect overall organization.

Branding-Induced Stupidity

Marketing and branding has become a key tool nowadays. Organizations have vigorously started working on branding their brands. They do it by hook or crook. Mostly unrealistic but catchy phrases are used to convince the buyers to buy their products. The branding game is going so strong that huge chunk of capital are now reserved only for branding. This has diverted organizations from their main purpose which is to improve their product’s quality and to serve their customers.

Culture- Induced Stupidity

There is a predefined set of protocols for every organization. These protocols create almost familiar culture for every organization. Eventually they create a tranquil and conducive environment within an organization. Things get disturbed when such predefined protocols are broken and are kept just for showcase. This creates a feeling of chagrin in people.

Part Three: Managing Stupidity

Stupidity Management and How to counter it

Stupidity management constitute a conundrum. In short functional stupidity is helpful in decision making, forging a better workplace and mitigating the conflict because you will be not questioning or not doing something out of the box which ultimately builds such an environment of harmony. But in longer run, it obstruct the creativity, decision making skills and problem solving skills.Decion making tends to be easy when people stop thinking too much.

Conflict of opinion shall be present in the organization; it will help individuals to express themselves and come out with different idea or opinion which ultimately benefit the organization. Due to this your thought process increases and you start thinking differently. There are number of ways where manager encourage functional stupidity. First is authority in which people are encourage to follow their leaders and they are treated as inferior who are there to comply the policies and orders.

Second is seduction. People can be seduced by being encouraged to think things are great. The third is to manipulate the thing in order to make the things appears to be natural. This we call naturalisation. We follow stereotype thinking or conservative type of mind-set like this thing happen in this way and there are no alternate for it.Albeit if we think beyond the line or do some research we can come up with a way but we are provided with such justification that this is the better way or it can happen in this way only.

Final is appeal to opportunism. When incentives are stacked up in the right way, people are schooled to avoid asking to many difficult questions. Now we will look how organization should foster an “anti-stupidity culture” in which it is acceptable to think critically. This includes by reflecting your ideas, involve in critical thinking and consider reducing or killing our own stupidities for this we need to do anti stupidity management.

Furthermore, it required work on cultural and collective norms. Express yourself in meeting and ask tough question to force them to think again for the decision. Newcomers should be promoted to ask question and should be ask that how they perceive the situation and their take on it. Learning from the outsider or you should go to other organisation and see their culture and work, and try to interlink with yours, which will help you in longer run.Learing from the critics because they have deep views of your company loophole so engaging them and extracting the shortcoming can be beneficial.

Conclusion

This book shows the picture how in the organisation people are facing with different hurdles which inhibit their though process and they instead of thinking rationally they restrict their thought process which ultimately result in creating a functional stupidity –a way to remain confine in certain area and not thinking out of it or beyond the line which result in setting up a myopic mind set. In the end it briefly describe that how to tackle out of this situation through ways as describe earlier in above paragraph.

Influence methods are a concept about management systems. The principal issue around influence processes is of great value to an organization and determines the way a business entity is run. The fundamental role of top management teams is to lead by example and influence employees towards a particular goal. This paper gives a brief summary of different influence methods, compares the different leadership styles of Andre Jung, CEO Avon, Indra Nooyi, CEO Pepsi and Brenda Barnes, CEO Sara Lee. Related articles in the study of influence methods suggest that they are a powerful tool in management.

Introduction The concept of influence processes gives management teams and CEO’s the opportunity to undertake major management decisions that shape organizational mode of business operations for improved performance. Challenges in providing solutions to the day-to-day management problems transform the general behaviour of top management teams in their understanding of practical solutions to these problems. Individual personalities, cultural values as well as management experiences, all significantly contribute to how leaders understand and approach management issues.

Resource Allocation First, the influence of resource allocation gives leaders an opportunity to gain a big advantage on handling affairs of an organization. Schein (1983) demonstrates that allocation of organization’s resources is a way through which upper echelon leaders gain significant impact to an organization. Resources such as technology, labour, and even money form the driving engines of an organization. Allocation of resources within an organization involves making decisions on how they are spent.

An example is a case where financial directors make decisions on purchasing and the installation of a new manufacturing plant to boost manufacturing output at the expense of other segments of the organization. This implies that a large fraction of the organization’s budget is channeled into handling a specific objective of the organization. Factors that affect allocation of resources as an influence process include organization’s vision and mission, long and short-term objectives, cultural values of the upper echelon management and personal management experiences.

Direct Decision Direct decision making process as the second influence process deals with undertaking major decisions on behalf of other staff members with the aim of achieving the mission. Management systems bestow control of organizational affairs to the upper echelon and as such major management decisions that impact big on the performance are in their hands. The mission and vision of an organization determines the management path taken and decision made thereby directly indicating the levels of priorities of issues.

Direct decisions influence process also takes note of the relationship that exists between the upper echelon and other management cadres. Relationship in an organization determines not only how these major decisions are made but also take note of tools and techniques of affecting them. In addition to the ability of leaders to affect the mission, vision and strategy of an institution- upper echelon leaders have a direct relationship with the management, which plays a vital role in shaping (or re-shaping) strategy, dictating decision making and setting the climate or structure of the organization (Nahavandi,2006)

The style of management, role of each and every individual and allocating responsibility in an organization are as a result of direct decisions. Leaders must undertake flexible decisions that conform smoothly to the organization’s missions and visions. Reward Systems Apart from the above, both informal and formal reward systems play a pivotal role in reshaping the behaviour, management systems and understanding on the part of employees. Nahavandi (2006) explains that reward systems have a significant impact on culture of an institution or its employees.

It is common for top management teams to appreciate the role played by employees in contributing to the achievement of set targets. Rewards come due to strict observance of organization’s mode of business, honesty, punctuality, diligence, responsibility roles, certificate of appreciation and even cash incentives are forms of rewards that motivate employees and thereby improve performance. A very common form of reward is instances of bonuses given to sales representatives who accomplish the talks of achieving specific sales target.

Selection and Promotion of other Leaders Leadership influence method of selection and promotion of other leaders involve the techniques of giving important management assignments and projects to an individual that will set tone for a shift in an organization culture. Other examples in this process include promoting individuals to join the upper echelon class, giving them opportunities to handle complex assignments, issue policy statements on behalf of the organization and make major direct decisions.

Such management styles give a chance for one to strategically position himself on being the leader of a department or the CEO. Instances in which such selected individuals successfully accomplish these tasks soften accelerate further their rise along the management ladder. Role Modeling The general behavior or individual personality or the concept of role modeling influences the culture of an organization. A leader, who is devoted to fulfilling a specific organizational objective, influences other employees towards such a goal.

A good example is to improve the level of sale of particular new product. Efforts and resources are directed towards thee achievement of such a goal and as such employees behavior are influenced. Cultural, ethical and social behavior of a leader normally transforms the general communication and behavior of other employees. Becoming a role model involves putting less consideration on prestige that comes as a result of leadership roles at the expense of achieving set targets together as a team.

Personal involvement and considering them as members of the same team goes along way in enhancing quality relationship. It acts a strong influence method in leadership management systems that top echelon members apply to strategically direct the organization’s mode of business operation. Analysis of Influence Methods Andrea Jung Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon, has a history of undertaking major direct decision that has influenced Avon’s position in the cosmetic and beauty industry.

She recognized the need to institute major reforms such as the need to not only appreciate the role of sales representatives but also work together with them. Experience building and maintaining a powerful and storied brand, but also expanding it internationally in up-and-coming markets is her successful management traits according to Hesseldahl (2009). Resource allocation on her part involved a decision to invest and 60 million dollars in building Avon’s website that would take into consideration sales representative as well as customers.

Reward systems on her part involved raising e– representatives earning direct orders and 30 -50 percent on orders they deliver directly to customers (Hesseldahl, 2009). Jung promotes Avon’s sales products in china as a role model to Chinese young women. Following her Chinese origin, Jung made appropriate use of this to improve sales and appeal to the large customer base in china. She is also a common figure in major women events such as social forums and has lead Avon’s role in philanthropic efforts such as donation in breast cancer initiatives.

Indra Nooyi Indra Nooyi is a widely known role model for women who is also a frequent speaker in several women leadership forums and a great fun of NY Yankees. The Pepsi CEO is known for her risky investment undertaking in resource allocation such as putting emphasis on baked whole grain snacks and vitamin enhanced water. Direct decision involved in her management style constitutes resolutions to spin off pizza Hut and KFC in 1997 with the objective of achieving a lean operation system.

The Indra Nooyi’s concept of “performance with purpose” rewards innovative approaches to problem solution on the part of employees. This includes strategic promotion of the individual who make positive impacts on achieving the goals of the organization. Further influence methods revolve around activities such as purchase of Tropicana Bottling business and investing in $ 13 million merger with Quaker Oats Co. Brenda Barnes The CEO of Sara Lee has made major direct decisions such as tightening operations and moving Sara Lee headquarters out of downtown Chicago to suburban Downers Grove.

She had instituted careful resource allocation in Sara Lee such as efforts to brand its products, unique response to customer demands and acquisition of strategic investments. She is a role model who left job in 1997 as CEO of Pepsi Co. North America to spend time with family, a decision that made headlines allover the world. Furthermore, Barnes is armed with a network connections ranging back from her previous positions that include serving as the president at Starwood Hotels and Resorts and Director of Avon. She is a keen observer in talents and rewards creative employees.

The Area’s project idea aroused with the purpose to solve BAN current problems. These problems included a significant amount of resource waste and lack of coordination among departments. For instance, dispatchers who were responsible for 20-30 trains in their assigned territory most of the times were able to only focus on 5-7 trains, treating the rest of the trains with less attention. In addition, dispatchers were on their own and there was no cooperation among them since they could only see information about their territory and not others.

For dispatchers, there was no way to see the whole stricture of the current situation, so poor decisions about scheduled maintenance-of-way (MOW) crews were being made. Communications with trains and MOW vehicles was poor, current information about railroad operations were difficult to obtain and sometimes the information was erroneous. Certainly, ARES will improve operations in BAN but the top management specifically the CEO of BAN and top management is not completely convinced to carry out the project. ARES is a very large and costly project and they need to be sure that the benefits are realistic.

Moreover, they want to make sure that BAN will obtain a return after investing $350 lions on the project and also there is the question on whether the investment could turn out to be more. Another issue is related with the organizational structure according with the chief operating officer the new technology alone will not benefit the company but the restructuring of the entire company and many operations as well (Cash, p. 25). For all those reasons they want to consider other cheaper alternatives before making this important decision.

Industry Competitive Analysis -? Porters Five forces Treat of new Entrants: Given that the railroad industry requires a heavy initial investment the treat of new entrants is low. However, effects of deregulation on both the trucking and railroad industries were changing the competitive environment in transportation (Cash, p. 62). Trucking companies needed a lower initial investment to enter and they Were gaining advantage Over railroad companies since they were providing door-to-door delivery service which was being preferred by customers in order to meet the just-in-time production.

Treat of Substitutes products: For BAN its largest source of revenue was coal (Cash, p. 62), and its major competitor was the Union Pacific UP), which was another railroad company that had recently invested in a new technology. Heehaw commodities like coal and grain would normally be transported by train which put BAN in a position where it was difficult for customer to switch but when it comes to transport light products trucks were moving ahead by providing faster service that customers were willing to pay.

Bargaining power of Buyers: The railroad industry had a few companies providing the service to the customers, but it was facing two major challenges which were better service and capital intensity (Cash, p. 68). This was making the trucking industry stronger since customers were looking for a faster service and they were able to provide it. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Farmers and other big corporations were Ban’s suppliers. For suppliers providing light products like agricultural and food products they had the alternative to switch to the trucking companies, but for the ones providing yeah. Products like coal and automotive products they didn’t have to much bargaining power since railroad companies were the best way for transporting these. Industry Rivalry: The number one competitor is the Union Pacific (LCP) and they were also investing to be more efficient (Cash, p. 4). Certainly, the trucking industry was becoming a strong competitor for BAN as well, since the costs in the trucking industry were going down due to the effects of deregulation and they were providing more flexibility for customers.

Generic Strategy BAN currently is following the cost leadership strategy by using economies of scale to transport high volumes of commodities to its customers. Coal was the number one source of revenue and BAN had long term contract customers (Cash, p. 4). The second largest source of revenue was agricultural modesties and BAN was expecting to grow in this segment given recent changes in economic policies in Eastern Europe.

To satisfy the expected increase in demand for this type of products BAN will need to become even more efficient to keep its cost leadership strategy, maintain its current customers and gain potential new customers in the future. Organizational Structure Burlington Northern is structured in a functional form, where similar knowledge, tasks and skills are being grouped together. This is because the functional form promotes economies of scale (Cash, p. 35). For instance chapters are in charge of controlled the trains and each of them were assigned to a region and they Were only responsible for that region.

They also schedule maintenance with the MOW crews. Other operations were divided by function as well, such as control systems and communications, maintenance, and freight car management and each of these departments were reporting to the operations manager assigned to that department. The idea behind this form is to create a rational system to operate in as efficient as possible (Morgan, p. 22). However, the question was whether after implementing ARES this form would still be suitable; the new system might suggest an organizational structural change.

Stakeholders Top management: This group has the responsibility of keeping the company running, which means that the BAN must continue making profit in order to maximize the company’s value. F-or this reason they have to make sure that an investment of this magnitude is justifiable and that in the long run will provide the identified benefits. Employees: This group will be affected directly by the ARES project, the whole business process is going to change and they ill have to adapt to the new system.

The advantage is that this new system promise to be more efficient and safe which can make their jobs easier but on the other hand some people might lose their job or since ARES is supposed to automate a lot of processes currently being made by them. Customers: ARES is going to improve the scheduling of trains which ultimately will provide a faster and more reliable service to its customers. However, in order to still be profitable after ARES implementation, BAN might increase the price for the service and customers which will affect customers.

Solutions: One solution for BAN could be to implement the entire ARES system in a geographic region first. With this solution the top management could analyze the benefits in reality before doing a whole implementation of the system which is riskier. Another solution could be to not do any implementation for now and wait and see how other railroad companies adapt to new emerging technologies, by doing this BAN would take an adapter position which would still keep them competitive regarding technological development but with less risk.

Adaptive companies use information technology at a level close to their competitors (Friedman, p. 72). But this solution affects the customers that are demanding faster delivery necessary for the recent trend of KIT manufacturing who might end up switching to trucking companies, which ultimately affects BAN because by the time they finally implement a system to improve the delivery to customers, they will have lost a lot of potential customers. The best solution and recommendation for BAN is to do a whole implementation of ARES despite its high cost.

Without a question, the environment is changing and BAN must adapt and stop using old technology if they want to continue being in business. BAN is a very large company that eels with complex business processes everyday thus in order for them to survive and keep growing they should be aggressive and be the leader in the industry having the most advanced technology. ARES will automate a lot of processes in a more efficient Way minimizing human errors which ultimately will reduce labor cost by eliminating unnecessary manpower.

ARES will also improve the scheduling of trains which will eradicate the meet and passes problem one of Ban’s biggest challenge. Clearly, the poor utilization of Ban’s assets (bad scheduling and waste of resources) is creating bottlenecks which s preventing them from making more profit and meet the market demand. One important message revealed in the book ‘The Goal” is that companies should balance the flow with the demand from the market (Goldwater, p. 139). The demand is growing national and is expected to grow more even in the international arena in the future.

ARES will optimize the whole system of BAN which in the long run will generate high revenues because they will be able to meet the market demand. However, the implementation Of ARES will affect the entire company and operations and many organization changes will be required. Companies in order to survive must embrace change and successful adaptation of organization to environment depends on the ability of top management to interpret conditions facing the firm in an appropriate manner to adapt relevant course of action. Morgan, p. 47). In order to take advantage of all ARES features and benefits BAN they should also switch to use a matrix organizational structure. The fully developed matrix is team driven, in that priority is given to business, program, product, or project areas, with functional specialist providing support, where the focus is on end product or revere encouraging a flexible, innovative, and adaptive behavior (Morgan, p. 51 Matrix organizational structure is the best choice for a growing and complex company like BAN.

GASCO Company’s core problem lay in the realm of ineffective leadership. The prevalent leadership style at GASCO was highly autocratic, where full control and decision making authority resided in the hands of top management, with little flow of communication to lower managerial levels. According to the Hofstede Model of Cultural Dimensions, the UAE as a country ranks high on the dimension of power distance. Power distance is a measure of the level of hierarchy (U. A. E. Power Distance ) and the significance of designation to the level of authority one possesses.

This means that followers are not expected to make decisions by themselves or negotiate a decision with their leaders or managers. It also means that employees will avoid taking responsibilities and exhibit withdrawal attitude when issues rise for discussion for the fear of losing their jobs or the fear of negative comments and actions from their managers, which deprive the company from the benefit people’s innovation. Managers also in that case make decisions by themselves and will not accept the participation of other members.

They are also expected to identify formal, clear tasks or short term goals, and assign them to their followers. Thus the GASCO leadership culture was a reflection of the prevalent corporate culture in the majority of companies operating in the UAE. This issue became increasingly apparent when numerous complaints and issues that were forwarded by GASCO employees to their Human Resources Division. More than 45% of the complaints were related to the relationship between employees and their managers, which is common as a result of the UAE cultural context.

The following cases are real examples of concerns that were raised by GASCO employees:- Case 1: Employees were not provided with any clear development plans. This is because of the lack of communication between employees and management – managers were reluctant to act in a supportive role, and instead focused more on the accomplishment of tasks and goals in the short term. Case 2: Managers did not involve employees in the decision making process. Employees felt they were underestimated and were eager to contribute their suggestions and ideas Case 3: Employees were also complaining about their “lost efforts”.

Several records showed that some employees were over performing, working with commitment and integrity to their jobs, but managers fail to recognize and reward their efforts. Case 4: GASCO policy included holding weekly meetings between managers and their employees to discuss the latest issues and developments within the company. More than 18% of managers used to postpone, reschedule, or cancel this meeting Case 5: Due to work load and pressure, managers did not allow their employees to attend training sessions, which stood as an obstacle in the employee development process

Case 6: Managers made no efforts to build relationships with their employees and other departments/divisions. This resulted in poor coordination, which in turns makes work processes and procedures long, lazy, and ineffective Case 7: Managers were concerned only with the completion of tasks, placing immense pressure on their subordinates, which often they could not handle Case 8: Managers did not allow employees to make decisions on how they perform their job Case 9: Managers did not provide a clear, direct way of doing the job. This led to immense conflict between employees and their subordinates.

All these complaints are indicative of an ineffective or unsuitable leadership style within the company. It is apparent that the real challenge facing the company was implementing broad change, that would change the focus of leadership and management practice towards one that was more open, allowing for improved communication and delegation of authority and decision making power. Only effective leaders are able to create a positive environment to encourage innovation, adaptability and learning through continues coaching and empowering, along with emphasizes team work and open communication, while understand employees needs and priorities.

This change would be adopted soon, when GASCO announced that it would enter into a merger with ATHEER, Abu Dhabi Gas Company. The reason behind the change is the integration between GASCO and ATHEER, which created one of the largest gas processing companies in the world and it provided GASCO a tremendous opportunity to look into the future and discover ways of making two good companies into one great company. Furthermore, it provided the opportunity to adopt the principle of continuous improvement, which was needed due to

? Increased competition in the industry ? Ageing equipment which required new capital investments ? Experienced workers retiring ? Increased workloads because of new projects Mergers between two or companies have many implications on various aspects of the respective organizations. Managerial structures need to be revised, organizational hierarchies need to be changed, new policies and systems need to be created to promote smooth integration of the companies’ respective operations and practices with each other.

But there is one significant issue that requires delicate handling – the merging of two different organizational cultures, and the handling of arising conflict and resistance to change. At no other time is the need for effective, supporting leadership more important than when implementing companywide change. Thus, with keeping this in mind, GASCO initiated the G21 Journey. GASCO leadership and management team found G21 Journey a great chance to develop, motivate, and empower people and to create transformational leaders out of them.

The main goal of the journey is to improve working environment through coordination and transparency, which cannot be achieved without effective leadership. G21 Journey is considered a transformation in GASCO’s strategy which was necessary to handle the merger with ATHEER Company, as well as to respond to environmental changes and future challenges. However, the cultural context of the UAE still imposed some characteristics that could potentially weaken the G21 Journey’s effectiveness. The GASCO 21 Journey is composed of three key components (GASCO internal booklet, the G21 Journey, 2008)

? Business Process Design: o Aligning work efforts with company objectives o Improving the Business processes and procedures ? Performance Management: o Managing, monitoring, and measuring performance o Improving the efficiency between Divisions and Departments ? Cultural and Leadership: o Building commitment and ownership at all levels o Developing leadership and teamwork capabilities The implementation of G21 Journey is considered a strategic change in GASCO’s operational, organizational and business levels.

The merger had a series of objectives that needed to be achieved, such as the goal of improving the working environment through coordination and transparency. Another goal was to recruit, induct and train approximately new 1,000 employees during the plan to meet the growth arising out of new projects. But most importantly the initiative addressed the need to develop leadership at all levels of the organizations. This was a positive step, for poor leadership had resulted in the following problems: 1. Low culture and moral 2. Poor perceived working environment 3.

Lack of developing employee capabilities 4. Absence of leverage of information system 5. Gap in key management processes 6. Lack of performance management Thus the core problem of an ineffective leadership style spilled over into all other aspects of the GASCO Company, resulting in problems ranging from low employee morale to ineffective utilization of the company’s internal information system. Given that GASCO’s vision includes the desire to become an employer of choice, the prevalent leadership style directly influences the company’s image as a desirable or undesirable employer.

Thus an internal leadership crisis results in outward externalities. The G21 Journey was a positive step towards improving the leadership style of the company as it was of the utmost importance in facilitating the merger with ATHEER. The key components to improving the leadership style are: ? Driving Performance Management ? Emotional Intelligence ? Designing Change Efforts ? Building Stakeholder Relationships ? Innovation ? Adaptability and Learning ? Teamwork ? Open communication and transparency ? Performance

? Professionalism As it appears from G21 Journey description above, the journey was a brilliant action from GASCO’s Leadership and Management Team towards improving the working environment and emphasizing openness, transparency, and coordination in GASCO’s culture. It is also obvious the what GASCO really needed is effective leaders whom can successfully bring the change into light while maintaining a positive environment that smoothes the progress of empowering people An Application of Leadership Theories to GASCO Company

The definition of effective leadership varies with different situations, cultures and even nations. For example the United States may have a completely different style of leadership than its eastern counterpart. Here based on evidence gathered through research via interviews and questionnaires, it is concluded that GASCO has an autocratic style of leadership which takes its roots from the prevalent, patriarchal Arab culture. Literature has asserted that leadership behavior is determined culturally and hence differs from culture to culture (e.

g. Aram and Piriano, 1978; Burger and Bass, 1979; Wright, 1981; Adler, 1991). Robbins (1993) suggests that national culture plays an important role in determining the style and effectiveness and the UAE scores high in power distance and uncertainty avoidance indexes (Hofstede 1994). Leadership styles have been categorized in many different ways, but the result of a study conducted in 1939 proposed three fundamental leadership styles that have come to be accepted in the business world today.

These styles are the Participative Style, the Autocratic Style, and the Delegative (Laissez-Faire) Style. GASCO is reflected to have an Autocratic style of leadership, which is the cause of much discontent and dissatisfaction amongst its employees. Rooted in the Exchange Theory of Leadership, according to which GASCO can be classified as having a Transactional management or leadership style. This is a more task-oriented style, where leaders prioritize goal achievement over the satisfaction and morale of their employees.

A similar situation seems to reflect in GASCO’s management style; the prime purpose of an employee seems to do the tasks as dictated by the manager; this results in an impersonal relationship between the manager and the employee and less participation or involvement by the employee. What is needed are leaders that are concerned about maintaining close working relationships with their people, recognizing that people are the conduit through which goals are achieved.

Thus, the current management style, which is transactional in nature, is not appropriate for an organization preparing for immense growth and taking on a new journey to achieve its vision in the twenty first century. Such ambitious goals of an organization require a collective and participative style of leadership; the reasons for which shall be explained in the recommendations section. Leadership at GASCO after G21 Journey

For the G21 project to be implemented successfully, it became necessary to conduct companywide research with GASCO to gather data that reinforced or negated the complaints that were being received from employees regarding management. Data Collection Method: The project team for G21 developed a 30-Question questionnaire to assess the ability of the G21 Journey to create the transformational leaders needed at GASCO to revitalize the corporate culture and make it conducive for organizational change.

After several discussions with the G21 Team Leader and the Training Officer at GASCO, the project team highlighted five leadership criteria that should be available, or developed in GASCO managers and team leaders, which are as follows: 1. Vision 2. Communication 3. Credibility and Responsibility 4. Empowerment 5. Building Relationships with stakeholders To ensure trustworthy feedback from participants, the project team chose to make the questionnaire feedback anonymous, where participants did not have to provide their names and Staff ID numbers.

Anonymity is attributed to creating more transparency and to give an open space to participants to express their opinions freely without restraint. Before collecting data, the project team calculated the needed sample using online sample calculator provided in “Creative Research Systems Web Site, www. surveysystem. com”, with confidence level of 95% and confidence interval of 5. Questionnaire demographics were also highlighted as an important measurement tool; they can be categorized into the following: 1. Gender 2. Location (Abu Dhabi -Main Office / Habshan-Bab / Buhasa / Al Ruwais / Asab /Pipelines

3. Nationality (UAE National / Expat) 4. Years of working within GASCO Questionnaire Evaluation As stated previously, the questionnaire consisted of 30 questions. Each question requires the participant to rate one of the five leadership criteria mentioned above on a scale of 1 to 5 (from 1: Strongly Agree to 5: Strongly Disagree). Each criterion will be weighted by giving scores to six questions and then sum them up. For example, in best case scenario, if a participant gives a score of 1 to each of the six questions related to Empowerment, then the total is 6.

Similarly, in worst case scenario, if a participant gives a score of 5 to each of the six questions related to Credibility and Responsibility, then the total is 30. By now, a scale from 6 to 30 is crafted for each criterion and the scores will decide in which area does participant responses fall. Favoritism and satisfaction percentage will be also clear for each criterion. Out of 4050 employees, the required sample is 350 participants. The questionnaire was sent to 500 employees either by handing hardcopies or through emails. Feedbacks received were 386, and 350 responses were chosen randomly to represent the required sample.

There is a plethora of literature dedicated to underpin the differences between leaders and managers, but what is missing there is an equal quest for finding solutions for situations where project managers need to “lead” the project proceedings in spite of not being empowered to do so. Caught between the demand of the situation and the limitation imposed on them, they often feel stifled and out of wits about what to do and how to do.

Therefore, this study learns about the nuances of such situation through a case study and then reviews appropriate literature to gather the elements of solution and analyse their efficacy to answer the study questions and hypothesis, before arriving at final conclusion and recommending a comprehensive leadership solution for the project managers.

Glossary

• EI – Emotional Intelligence, which is a described set of elements that help humans to maintain control over all actions by providing the right set of approach to deal with situations.

• Servant Leadership – A style of leadership based on transformational leadership traits.

• XYZ Media – A media house that publishes newspaper

• CD – Creative Division of XYZ Media
• PD – Printing Division of XYZ Media

Background: Case Study

John is a project manager of XYZ Media where he is in charge of the Printing Division (PD). The XYZ media has two divisions like PD and CD (Creative Division), where PD publishes the content produced by CD. The communication between CD and PD is not good mostly due to the reason that employees under CD get more parks and rewards than the employees under PD.

This often disrupts the production process and resultantly John draws flak from the leadership of XYZ Media. To find a solution to this problem, John tries to discuss the issue with Sam, the project manager of CD, but Sam too is aware of the reason behind the problem and hence avoids any discussion under one or the other pretext. Now John is perturbed with the decreased state of production and increased state of hostility between two divisions, as he is not empowered to “suggest” the management to clear the disparity in perks and reward system between two divisions.

John is caught between the desire to “lead” towards finding the solution and the rule that asks him to “manage” the production. However, at the end of the day, John’s performance would be evaluated by the state of production. Under such a situation, what could be the best possible leadership solution for John, who knows what he needs to do, but is not clear about how to do that towards solving the problem.

The above situation brings in the research questions of this study:

1. Is it possible for the John to utilize leadership skills even under limited scope?
2. Will it be ethical for John to practice leadership skills even in the presence of official leadership?
3. Will such practice be beneficial for John as well as the XYZ Media?

The above set of questions generate the following secondary hypotheses:

1. It is very much possible for John to utilize leadership skills even when they are bound by limitations.
2. Such practice will not only be ethical but also beneficial for John and XYZ Media.

The above hypotheses produce the final hypotheses of this study:

• “Cultivation and application of emotional intelligence in the mould of servant leadership style could be the leadership solutions for project managers working with limited power of decision-making”.

Perceived Difference between Leaders and Managers

The argument that leaders and managers are distinctly different species is not anything new, but its significance has risen considerably due to the changing job culture, where multitasking is becoming the order of the day and thus neither the leaders nor the managers can be restricted within any charter of jobs.

However, the researchers clearly claim that there is a gross difference between management and leadership, since managing is all about successfully meeting the responsibilities and leadership is about directing the course of action (Bennis, 1989). Bennis (1989) even presented a short list of differences between leaders and managers in his book On Becoming a Leader, which goes like below:

• The manager administers; the leader innovates.
• The manager is a copy; the leader is an original.
• The manager maintains; the leader develops.
• The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.
• The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
• The manager accepts reality; the leader investigates it.
• The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
• The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
• The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader has his or her eye on the horizon.
• The manager imitates; the leader originates.
• The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
• The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.
• The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.

The above list could be annoying for both the working and aspiring managers, since the above list wants to establish the fact that leadership is the be-all and end-all in the organizations, where managers are just hubs of functioning. Perhaps Bennis chose to ignore the fact that there is a plethora of instances where managers have risen to the rank of great leaders (Baum) and from that perspective it can also be said that managerial zone is the breeding ground of corporate leaders.

Some significant points too are missing from the list, such as leaders enjoy freedom of decision-making or managers have no choice but to imitate. However, Kotter (1999) has taken a more realistic path while explaining the differences between leaders and managers in his book John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do, where he admits that leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action and both are necessary to do well in a business environment that is volatile and increasingly complex in nature.

Kotter’s observation can add to the food for thought, as he opines that management is about coping with complexity and leadership is about coping with change. This clearly points at the proposition that leaders should also have a clear idea about the complexity of management to become a successful change agent. On the other hand, Zaleznik (1977) expressed his surprise at the rate with which chief executives feel threatened after expressing an idea, where the issue of authority becomes important over the potential of the idea. This shows how managers suffer in the event of overstepping the territory earmarked for them.

This state of affairs generates the impression that the position of leadership is a special zone for special people and managers are destined to be labelled as “imitator” forever. This automatically evokes the question like “are leaders born or made? ” The notion of considering the leadership qualities as a package of inherent “traits” reigned for a great deal of time, before other theories came up and provided more clues about the mechanism of leadership, besides underpinning several possible styles of it. Does that mean people who don’t show the sign of possessing such qualities have no chance to lead?

Aren’t such qualities be learned and practiced? Yes, they can be learned and leaders can be made too, assure the researchers like Covey (1992) or Greenleaf (1977). Even the propagator of Emotional Intelligence (EI), Goleman (1995) too asserts that the elements of emotional intelligence can be learned and mastered through conscious practice, while pointing at their clear association with leadership qualities. However, that needs to be substantiated by literature review in order to find the leadership solution for the project managers like John with limited powers. 4. 0. Literature Review

The bare essentials of leadership need to be reviewed first, because that could be a pointer to the job similarity between the leaders and managers. Researchers consider three elements as the bare minimum for the leaders.

1. Effective Communication: Leaders must be able to create and maintain a smooth flow of communication with all the followers and associated and in the process should be able to convey their messages clearly and, finally, should be able to garner the desired feedback from them. From this perspective, “leadership is the art of influencing and directing people in such a way that will win their obedience” (Leadership, 2008).
2. Vision: This refers to the ability of gauging the incoming situation by analysing the present situation, where leaders should be able to look both inside the box and out-of-the box to see both the small and the big picture and exploiting them towards achieving the desired outcome (Greenleaf, 1977).
3. Application: As Covey (1992) would put it, leaders should be able to identify and prioritize the “what” and “where” factors of the chosen course of action, in order to control it and to make necessary changes towards achieving the goal.

The above parameters easily make their way in the case of a project manager like John too, since he too needs to communicate and needs to apply vision and application towards running his publishing projects, no matter how much shackled he is with limited power. And he has reasons to be inspired too, as Maxwell clearly stated in his book, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership that leadership is a “set of principles, which can be learned and applied” (Das, 2006). While addressing the needs of aspiring project managers, many suggest about acquiring leadership, communication and negotiation skills (Olivia, 2008).

Some choose to break down the elements to create a list (Ponce, 2009) like below:

• Execution
• Communication
• Leadership
• Experience
• Influencer
• Motivation

Therefore, it can be seen that there is a lot more common between the bare essentials for leaders and managers, where the ability to effectively communicate stands out as the most critical for both the groups. This state of affairs thus automatically generates the question: Isn’t the art of communication learnable?

Before one feels comfortable with the thought that managers too can rise in ranks by learning the art of communication, there are other views that can again push back the role of managers into a tight compartment, like when Garner (2009) refers to the functions of left brain and right brain while distinguishing the leadership from managers, where he argues that managers mostly use left brain, which is governed by logic and the leaders use right brain, which is a seat of creativity, vision, intuition and imagination.

This again creates the impression that managers are destined to follow the path created for them by the leaders, since they are driven by the left brain. To make things further complicated, Ambler (2008), airs his opinion that management can be taught but leadership has to be earned, since leadership is a choice. However, his perspective looks wider when he brings in Napoleon, Churchill or Kennedy into discussion, who led public and not the stockholders or employees, and hence were free from the tensions of producing tangible results like the corporate leaders.

If viewed from spiritual dimension, the issue of leadership can again appear a little complex from the perspective of the managers. In such an endeavour, Houston and Sokolow (2006) presented eight key principles in their book The Spiritual Dimension of Leadership, which is a sort of roadmap for the aspiring leaders, and which at a glance might look away from the managers.

1. Intention: The leaders should be able to convey their real intention behind the course of a chosen action.
2. Attention: They should always visualize the needs and benefits of their teams and should reflect a progressive attitude by being attentive to the programs undertaken.
3. Unique Gifts and Talents: Leaders should have some special skills and talents and should be able to exploit such talents to a high degree.
4. Gratitude: The leaders should have a balanced level of interpersonal emotion, greater acceptance, and deep sense of appreciation.
5. Unique life lessons: The leaders should have the ability to convert their life-experiences as well as others as examples of problems or solutions regarding various situations.
6. Holistic Perspective: This refers to the ability to establish leadership intentions as pro-people.
7. Openness: Leaders should be frank and free to share and accommodate ideas towards finding solutions.
8. Trust: This should be the concrete bridge between leaders and followers (Houston and Sokolow, 2006).

In any case, the above list clears a simple fact that effective communication happens to be most important trait of leaders as well as of managers. However, the question, “Is the above list truly away from the project managers?” still remains alive and it propels this study to review the scientific framework that arrests the key drivers of the above traits, presented by Goleman (1995) under the title of Emotional Intelligence (EI).

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

Goleman (1995) defines emotional intelligence as the capacity to recognize one’s own feelings as well as others, to motivate one’s self and to effectively manage emotions in all actions. In the process he underpins five components as the key drivers of EI, which contains subsets of elements in them, thereby presenting a list like below:

Component 1: Self-Awareness

Self-awareness requires three abilities like emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence, which are intertwined, where emotional awareness would help to recognize personal emotions and their effects, accurate self-assessment would help to assess personal strengths and weaknesses, and self confidence would create a mental state of sureness about self-worth and capabilities.

Component 2: Self-regulation

Goleman (1995) lists five requirements to achieve self-regulation, like • Self-control: Ability to manage disruptive impulses;

• Trustworthiness: Maintaining standards of honesty and integrity;
• Conscientiousness: Ability to take responsibility for personal performance;
• Adaptability: Ability to be flexible in handling changes;
• Innovation: Having a mind open to ideas.

Component 3: Motivation

According to Goleman (1995), all humans need to acquire four abilities to enable their motivation switch, and they are

• Achievement drive, which is an attitude to improve or to achieve a chosen standard of excellence;
• Commitment, which is an ability to align individual goals with goals of the group or organization;
• Initiative, which is the ability to remain ready to act on opportunities;
• Optimism, which is also an attitude of relentlessly pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks with a belief of positive outcome.

Component 4: Empathy

Goleman (1995) sets the criteria of attaining a good state of empathy with the abilities like

• Service orientation, which helps in anticipating, recognizing and meeting customers’ needs;
• Developing others, which is a knack of underpinning others’ developmental needs and to work on them;
• Leveraging diversity, which is also a knack of seeking and nurturing opportunities through diverse people;
• Political awareness: Insight to fathom the emotional status of a group and its possible relationship with power;
• Understanding others: Insight to gauge others’ inner needs, drivers and potentials.

Component 5: Social Skills Goleman (1995) presents six subsets of elements in this category, thereby clearly showing its importance in effectively managing EI.

• Influence: Ability to pursue effectively;
• Communication: Ability to send clear messages;
• Leadership: Ability to guide and inspire groups and people;
• Conflict management: Ability to effectively negotiate and resolve disagreements;
• Building bonds: Ability to nurture instrumental relationships;
• Collaboration and cooperation: Ability to work with others to realize shared goals;
• Team capabilities: Creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals (Priest, 2005).

Are they learnable? Yes, claims Goleman (1998) that the above set of components are indeed learnable, thereby clearly positioning them over and above the influence of IQ (Intelligence Quotient) or gender.

Therefore, two points are clear from the above review: that the researchers of both leadership and emotional intelligence agree on one plane that high level of leadership skills require a fine-tuned state of emotional intelligence and both are learnable. These two points thus also highlight the fact that project managers too can raise themselves by acquiring and practicing the elements of emotional intelligence and leadership. However, it is still to be seen whether

• It is possible for the managers to utilize leadership skills even under limited scope;
• It will be ethical to practice leadership skills in the presence of official leadership;
• Such practice will be beneficial for the managers and the company.

Discussion

An astonishing point-by-point similarity between the required elements of servant leadership and EI could provide the answers of the above queries. Servant leadership is the new avatar of transformational leadership, and according to its mentor Greenleaf (1977), servant leaders should be “servant” first and should be able to offer a 24/7 selfless service, besides clearly reflecting the intention of creating servant leaders out of all their followers.

Greenleaf presents a set of 11 traits that an aspiring servant leader should possess.

1. Calling: Servant leaders should possess an intrinsic desire to serve, and proving that through actions.
2. Listening: They should possess excellent listening skills and the ability to derive the essence of others’ views.
3. Empathy: They should possess the ability to empathize.
4. Healing: They should be able to facilitate others to release their hidden pains and sorrow.
5. Awareness: They should possess a knack of keeping track of the events around and to utilize them in their actions.
6. Persuasion: They should be able to strongly persuade their followers to get things done, instead of issuing orders.
7. Conceptualization: They should be able to read situations.
8. Foresight: They should be able to envision the future by exploiting logic and wisdom.
9. Stewardship: They should be spirited enough to create servant leaders out of the followers through imbibing all possible virtues of servant leadership in them.
10. Growth: They should be driven by an innate desire to bring out the best in their followers.
11. Building Community: They should be able to create a vibrant and homely atmosphere in the workplace.

Are the above qualities learnable? Yes, confirms Greenleaf (1978), and thus the joint assertion of Goleman (1998) and Greenleaf makes it clear that the all the elements of leadership are learnable and applicable, and these elements eventually form a package of trait in a person, which gets automatically reflected.

This proposition clearly nullifies any absolute role of power in executing leadership qualities. Thus it also serves answers to the research questions raised in this study:

1. It is very much possible for John to utilize leadership skills even under limited scope, because it mostly involves various types of communication, driven by positive intention and with the help of a balanced emotional intelligence, all of which can be learned and utilized.
2. It will be perfectly ethical for John to practice leadership skills even in the presence of official leadership, since he is not going to dictate or direct the leader on sensitive issues like implementing reward or perks parity between CD and PD, and instead, solely engaging himself on providing selfless service and inspiring the employees of PD (who work under him) to do the same. No official leader could get upset with such development in his/her company.
3. Such practice would be beneficial for John as well as XYZ Media. John’s adoption of servant leadership would surely enhance the performance of the employees of PD and that would automatically bring more benefits to the company and earn the confidence of its management. While the above answers substantiate the secondary hypotheses of this study, it also substantiates the final hypothesis that “Cultivation and application of emotional intelligence in the mould of servant leadership style could be the leadership solutions for project managers working with limited power of decision-making”.

Conclusion and Recommendation

The review and discussion clearly show that John as a project manager can easily solve the issue of rift between PD and CD by knowing what he can do and how he can do, and for that matter he needs to fine-tune his EI and adopt the policy of servant leadership that aims to serve selflessly, which in turn would set an example before his set of followers and soon they would mitigate the difference between them.

Such practice would also earn him the confidence of the leadership of XYZ Media and that would create the avenue for him to explain the problems arising out of perks disparity and to pursue the leader to take measures for implementing uniform reward system in XYZ Media. Thus the recommended steps of John could be like below:

1. Deciding to adopt servant leadership style and learning its elements
2. Deciding to fine-tune EI and learning its elements
3. Creating a new approach and attitude towards life and its ways
4. Applying the new pro-world view in the workplace
5. Earning confidence of his subordinates, i. e. , the employees of PD
6. Motivating them to walk extra mile to “make up” any communication gap with CD, even if that is initiated by CD.
7. Restoring the production process with an inspired group of employees
8. Earning confidence of his leader
9. Explaining him about the crisis related to employee grievance and pursuing for its redressal
10. Earning the justice for PD employees
11. Bringing more prosperity for XYZ Media

References

1. Ambler, G (2008) The essential difference between leadership and management [online] available from http://www.thepracticeofleadership. net/2008/06/08/the-essential- difference-between-leadership-and-management/ [accessed 30 July 2009]
2. Baum, S. H. (2007) What made Jack Welch, Jack Welch [online] available from http://managementcraft. typepad. com/management_craft/2007/09/what-made- jack-. html [accessed 29 July 2009]
3. Bennis, W. (1989). On becoming a leader. Random Century. Covey, S. R. (1992) Principle-centered leadership : Strategies for personal and professional effectiveness.
4. Fireside. Das, S. Leadership Lessons from Bhagavad-gita (2008) [online] available from  http://www.atmayogi.com/files/Leadership%20Lessons%20from%20Bhagavad- gita_0. pdf [accessed 29 July 2009]
5. Gardener, J (1989) On leadership. New York: Free Press.
6. Garner, E (2009) The difference between managers and leaders [online] available from http://ezinearticles. com/? The-Difference-Between-Managers-and- Leaders&id=96805 [accessed 30 July 2009]
7. Goleman, D (1995) Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam.
8. Goleman, D (1998) Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam. Greenleaf, R. K (1998) The power of servant leadership. San Francisco: Berret- Koehler Publishers, Inc.
9. Greenleaf, R.K (1977) Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate ower and greatness.
10. Ramsay, NJ: Paulist Press. Houston, P. D. & Sokolow, S. L (2006) The spiritual dimension of leadership: 8 Key principles to leading more effectively.
11. Corwin Press. Kotter, P. J (1999) John P. Kotter on what leaders really do. Harvard Business School Press, 1 edition. Leadership and Motivation (2008) [online] available from http://www. braincorp. com. au/courses/12826/Leadership-and-Motivation [accessed 29 July 2009]
12. Olivia, L (2008) What are the traits of a successful manager?

I believe there is a common connection between emotion, and the choices we make. A strong initiative can do wonders for injecting a more meaningful life into character development and personal growth.

By constructing key emotions of feelings and thoughts, we can produce a huge advancement in our life, career, and community. In reading Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligent authors by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee along with How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Life written by Barsh and Cranston, you begin to understand the pillars of leadership and the building blocks for success utilizing these key components of emotion.

Each book contains similar yet construction ideas how leader become leader and the importance to connect rather it is with emotional intelligence as recognized in the Primal Leadership or interdependent dimensions (centered leadership) as pointed out with How Remarkable Women Lead. In reading these two books, I developed a profound, burning, troublesome question. I want to know the answer about the “initial spark” with in us.

During the initial start of the leadership process where does the original spark that propels us forward come from? It is a behavioral action or an emotional one? I have heard that life is nothing without passion, the ability to love something or someone. To have this purpose of passion as a driven means can be the crucial answer toward leadership, growth, and success.

This enthusiasm (driving force) eliminates distraction and move towards the state of fulfillment. Both books did inspire ways to shape you into a more valuable person and not be content with insufficiency or emptiness. Barch and Cranston explain in How Remarkable Women Lead as a place where we are intertwining the fibers of leadership, implementation, and success into a structure by way of behaviors, talents, actions, and choices. It is all about person ownership and integrity. Leadership has a clear-cut trail which shapes upon emotional involvement that we learn from, like a personal intelligent bank. We learn to practice, and then apply solid values from learning from our heart like establishing friendships and demonstrating self-discipline. Our inner compass that guides us as human being is our deepest level, a fit point that helps us stay on track.

Your most treasure values; your passion, ethics, and motivation are the sources that satisfy your life and are the imprint of your deepest awareness. To have leadership, there must be a foundation of integrity, the building block of “core” meaning. This unpinned all things. This helps establish the right motivation to identify the right direction. There are many resources and strategies in both of these books that can led to sustaining a success and increased joy in overall living, and personal career. The desired energy that fuels each person’s long-term journey or goals towards fighting for a greater meaning is within each one of us. In readings these books, you see how many people have encountered severe, perhaps debilitating struggle or at least dreadful barriers to their progress.

To regain that self-confidence, meaning, and most important that faith in what we can accomplish is essential to sustaining a higher standard of strength, effectiveness and power. It is a privilege and a commitment to grow with entrusted care and purpose. While each book shares how to gain remarkable value in the fulfillment of developing a professional’s career outcome, it also seeks to embark on experiences with successful leaders.

There is much we can learn from many individuals who are significant pioneers both past and present, as they explain how they helped to inspired others, how they gained clarity of both vision and purpose when coping with difficult, sometimes unpleasant realities, how they initiated and then nourished mutually beneficial relationships with others, how they took ownership for opportunities as well as risks with personal responsibility, and how they presumed and satisfied their accountabilities to their families and to their communities.

Neither women nor men in leadership roles can stable everything in their careers and personal life. But, it is possible to recognize what is most important at any particular time and then balance the circumstance of one’s time and energy accordingly. Nevertheless, igniting all these positive feelings to bring out the best in those go-getting performances takes emotional know-how.

In using emotional awareness to create a positive environment that fosters creativity, innovation, strong teams and great performance takes an emotional understanding in how our mind and body operates. Our emotional and physical response depends on our leadership effectiveness. Our morale, motivation, and commitment are factors that drive emotions and physical response. In Primal Leadership, we discover just how leaders thrust emotions encouragingly; bring out the best for all.

When they thrust emotions harmfully they produce disagreement, damaging the emotional groundworks that let people shine. It is crucial to have compassion as a relationship skill, this identifies how organization contributes to the overall team success, and it takes consistent action to foster a good working relationship within each group. Primal Leadership points out important leaders know when to be shared and when to be forecaster, when to pay attention and when to take charge.

Such leaders have an aptitude for regulating to their own insight of what matters and expressing an idea that radiant with the merits of those they lead. These leaders naturally nurture relationships, handle any emerging concerns, and create the human interactions of all in agreement. They shape intense dedication by caring about the careers of those who work for them, and motivate people to give their best for an objective that speaks to shared values.

Leadership development should build on one’s strong points, not limitation. Primal Leadership promotes the notion that our strong points expose the significant things that we have learned as leaders over the course of our lives and careers. They are the base line of our knowledge, our preserved learning, which is a productive and valuable ingredient toward our human being outlook and beliefs. Strengths displayed over the years typically represent feature that leaders want to keep, even if those ideas are inactive for a period of time.

The true effort in leaders is to monitor the emotional tone of the team and to help its members recognize any underlying dissonance. Then, once a leader has helped the team uncover its less-productive norms, the group can come together around new ways of doing things. The Primal Leadership authors noted that there are many leaders in an organization, not just one. Encompass the ability to monitor and manage your feelings and moods means that you can manage your attitudes about the things that come up in your day to day life. To have immensely power, you must have the ability to focus on how your feelings control and maneuver. This ability allows you to shift in one of the most powerful ways to impact a course of action. It changes the way that you see the world around you.

The grace of emotions comes into plays when someone else’s emotional state natural immerse with others. The whole idea to synchronizing our attitudes with those around us, absorbing a diverse range of attitudes is as powerful motivator. The overall harmony or attunement of one another bring together into the same vision, aligning the path of the objective. Understanding how each person brings their own uniqueness, strength, weakness, and dynamic to the company and the strategy has to account for that. The understanding in creating a path rather it is good or not is the ability to find the human being you are made from, failure will come and go, but the great deal comes from within us, the inward focus that work were intentional may not. Learning to leverage (influence) our emotions and knowledge we already have is perfect for managing what is to come before us at any given time. People who have done a great deal of work often find that they can create a space around them where things work better.

The confidence drives our behaviors and other behaviors to move in the same direction. Our boundaries are never concrete, leader bend, mold and create a character that approaches an infection happening. It is an outcome of their inward work. The visionary set the stage of possibilities, once you realize your self-worth you than can soar like an eagle. The ability to propel to the next level of leadership understands what lies within you. Shared emotions in a positive direction can clear the fog from the atmosphere and develop a plan to make great changes. Oprah Winfrey put it this way “leadership is about empathy.

It is about having the ability to relate and to connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives”. We are all wired differently; the tapestry of leadership requires centering oneself (with centered leadership) toward equipping with the right emotional (or emotional intelligent). I believe both books were instrumented in supporting their methods and theories in becoming a great leader. Each book carried similar underlying thesis statement, principals and discovery. I have learned incredible leaders move us. They light our passion and inspire the best in us. When we try to justify why leaders are so efficient, we speak of strategy, performance, passion, beliefs, and strong ideas.

But the reality is much more primeval. Incredible leadership works through the emotions, skills and foundation shortcomings. Humankind’s earliest leaders earned their position because their leadership was emotionally compelling as well as spiritually and physically talented. Having read these two books I have gain a better insight of who I am and where I should start in developing my professional career and personal life. I now understand that the initial sparks of passion rather ignited or not has an inward glow within us. It provides purpose that if stirred the correct way it will burst a flame of ambition and drive our talents to a new level of experience and achievement. Staying in focus and continually noting our adventures through our life time will contribute more towards our livelihood and future potential success.

I enjoyed and gain much from my reading and will immediately take the steps to journey into a new horizon of leadership, balance and opportunities.

Hamas is one of the most prominent players of the Middle East crisis and has been well publicized due to its deadly suicide attacks on the Israeli military and civilian targets. USA, EU, ISRAEL and several other countries have enlisted the Hamas as a terrorist organization. The recent changes in political scenario in the Palestine and Israel has given Hamas a broad role especially its stunning victory in the recent presidential elections. Despite all the negative western views about Hamas it has gained popularity within the Palestinian people and now posses a decisive power in the Palestinian legislative house.

This paper will discuss the leadership and leadership structure of Hamas. Hamas a brief History: The word Hamas is originally an acronym of Arabic “Harakat-ul- Muqawama Al-Islamiah” which means “Islamic Resistant Movement”. The word itself means zeal and enthusiasm in Arabic. The organization founds its origin and roots in the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Alikhwan-ul-Muslimeen” Palestine chapter. Before the first Intifada Muslim Brotherhood was the only prominent Islamic Movement in the Palestinian Territory. The first Intifada is marked by the foundation of Hamas in 1987.

The initial meeting, which led to the foundation of he movement, was held in the house of Ahmed Yasin a Muslim Brotherhood activist with other 5 people including Rantisi on 9th December, 1987. Because Muslim Brotherhood enjoyed extensive funding from the “waqf” of the Palestinian religious lands it also used these funds in the foundation of Hamas. Formally the organization identified itself with the name Hamas on January 1987. Since its formation Hamas has been involved in violent and fatal attacks on Israeli interests.

Hamas claims the entire Palestine as a Muslim land and has expressed in its covenant that not a single inch of the Holy Land could be handed over to No Muslims, thus eliminating the Israeli State is necessary. According to the Covenant “Jihad” or Holy War is the only way to liberate the holy land. That is the only reason why Hamas has strongly apposed any negotiation or peace talks with Israel thus has rejected the Oslo Accord. Hamas Leader Ahmed Yasin for arrested in 1989 and released in 1997.

Hamas intensified its attacks on Israeli targets in 1989 after Yasin’s arrest and commenced its suicide bombing in 1994. Since then suicide bombing is the key weapon of the militant organization and dozens of suicide bombings have killed hundreds of Israelis and injured thousands. Hamas has strong presence and widespread popularity in the Palestinian populace due to its vast social services in the form of schools, libraries, hospitals, youth clubs etc. It is believed that nearly all of the funding generated by Hamas is used in humanitarian and social services.

Only a fraction of budget is utilized in military activities. In the second Intifada Hamas continued to launch its suicide bombings even to Israeli civilians, which designated the movement the status of a terrorist organization by the Western Countries. The founder of Hamas Ahmed Yasin was killed by Israeli forces in March 2004 followed by the assassination of his successor Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in April. Next year Hamas boycotted the presidential elections, but took part in the parliamentary elections in January this year and won with a surprising majority.