Managerial Ethics: First Take-home Exam Individual Project

Submitted by: Name: Pradipta Neogi Reg#:G13033 Batch: GMP 2013-14 Date of Submission: 08/07/2013

1. Are you a leader, born or cultivated or both? How do you characterize your leadership traits based on the leadership profiles presented by Narayana Murthy and Rahul Khosla? A lot of debates are raged whether leaders are born or made. The society at large still loves stories about determined people who came from nothing and self made everything from accumulating a ton of money, lofty titles or both. We tend to confuse ourselves with self made billionaires, self-made entrepreneurs, selfmade CEOs, self-made sportspersons or film starts but forget that they are not essentially leaders. They can be at most idols whom people can emulate according to their priorities but not leaders per say. In recent context with the power of internet and social media I feel almost anyone can become a leader provided his ideals get attention and strike chords with the society. Look at the vegetable vendor in Tunisia who sparked a revolution toward freedom throughout the Middle East. Or look at Martha Payne, the 9year-old schoolgirl in Scotland who gained thousands of social media followers by blogging about school lunches and then leveraging her network to not only improve the food at her school but also to raise thousands of dollars to feed hungry children in Malawi. On the other side of the coin is the concept of born leaders which I accept with a pinch of salt. There are persons with innate leadership traits to be sure. But no leader worth his or her salt exists without training and conditioning. And no leader will ever grow without experience and, yes, refining in the furnace of challenge and crisis. Genes do not, and cannot, single-handedly make a successful leader My personal say is that as long as there are leaders, people are going to wonder whether they were born to be leaders or made into leaders. Below in the table I have tried to highlight the traits of born and cultivated leaders and how I can relate with: Leadership Style Born Leaders Personality Traits Strong belief in self. Self aware and charismatic Self motivated. Moral Commitments. Self Innovative and organized. Persuasive and Inspirational. Belief in team and followers with openness for feedback. Good Listening skills. React positively to the nuances of change and underlying ethos of people involved. Belief in decentralizing the decision tree. Moral sensitiveness. Correlating the traits to myself For a kid who did not naturally assume command in the playfield and having traits of a introvert leadership is more cultivated. It has been properly nurtured with the missionary education and family or social leanings which inculcated the traits of integrity, reasoning, taking my stand firmly and self motivation. Formal education in mathematics and science has enriched the reasoning while informal education has synthesized the emotional and social intelligence.

Cultivated Leaders

In the table below I have tried to showcase the leadership profiles as laid out by Narayana Murthy and Rahul Khosla. Person NR Murthy Leadership Style High regards to sense of honesty and loyalty. Reward based. People centric Creation of a Unified Goal for all and then helping them achieve it. Delivering value to customers. Individual centric Responsible leadership Stress on communicative skills and effective percolation of ideas to subordinates and peers. Grooming talents with an eye for calculated risk. Correlating with myself Using Mr Murthys style I always try to keep my team motivated with a democratic way for taking decisions so as to create a comfortable environment for everyone to participate and grow. Although I belief in grooming talents effectively but an iota of risk is associated in the framework that selects the talent. I belief everyone should be given a chance to excel ,showcase ,grow and lead and then evaluated . This is because we need leaders who can battle any weather not just particular ones. I am more aligned to Mr Murthys way of belief.

Rahul Khosla

2. Mindful leaders, says Rahul Khosla (ibid), learn constantly and the richness and diversity of their experience enhances their effectiveness progressively. How will you structure and embellish your leadership traits with experience and exposure of the past?

Leadership spheres Personal

Attitudes Can do

Personal Experience Rising up to the occasion. Volunteering and successful completion of challenging projects Striving to a single focused goal and not getting carried away. Setting up personal agendas and priorities and working towards it with conviction. Committed towards deliveries on time with quality. Having a clear conscience to myself.

Personal Exposure Have always worked on sorting out differences and harness a harmonious environment. Always kept the morale high in case of road blocks. This is learned automatically and no one heeds to excuses and relationships once broken are very hard to realign. So once committed have always Stuck with it with utmost focus and motivated within my team the essence of in time attitude. Critical thinking has helped me to always question the obvious and be open for changes. Have come up with innovative and out of box solutions in most phases of the projects I have been part of.

Will do

Is this the right path?

Right Way

Always harness a critical atmosphere for Inquisitives I cultivate an eye for detail and seek means to improvise on the existing process I am always open for suggestion and feedback from friends, mentors and colleagues and try to work on them positively. Stress on formal and informal education. Holistic upbringing, education balanced with social and extracurricular activities. Primarily from parents, teachers and supervisors.

Faced a lot of issues in corporate and college and school levels which required me to take a binary decision in conflict situations amidst huge peer pressure.

People Centric

Percolation of thoughts

Practicing the technical

Belief in a flat team

and social aspects of communication. Soft skill development. Taking responsible decisions. Trying to make a closely knit team from a diversified group. Distributing responsibilities and accountability among the members. Doing analysis of the positive aspects of others. Encouraging others to build upon their strong areas. Helping to think positively and diffuse the fear of failure while taking initiatives Providing guidance and think beyond the obvious. Proactively seeking outside help if need be. Charter steps for the future thinking realistically.

structure where the information flow is bidirectional without any hesitation.

De centralizing of power

SWOT analysis of team members and capitalize on the strengths. This is increased productivity of any team and reduced unnecessary efforts. Appreciate and acknowledge the efforts put in by one and all. Put some reward and reorganization framework for the contributions.

Motivation(An extension of the above but put separately)

Vision

What next

Trusting others and make decisions based on past experiences.

3. What is ethical versus moral versus corporate leadership, and how do you map your life along these

three paths? [See Table 9.3]. Dimensions Corporate Leadership Nature Multidimensional concept, construct, model, paradigm and experience of leader-follower loyalty. Ethical Leadership Multidimensional, stress on values ,customs and cultures and experience of leader-follower binding Moral Leadership Muitidimensional, Religious beliefs and mandates, integrity and experience of leader follower bonding. Self Correlation Currently I see myself mapped primarily to corporate leadership .However while getting amalgamated to global teams have learnt to appreciate moral and ethical leaderships. I follow corporate leadership in office and when in conflict resort to ethical leadership. My style is currently reward based and authoritative but at the same time I am open for suggestions and always appreciate others to bring up ideas. My leadership style is essentially Value Based.

Influencing sphere

Guided by set of laid Ethical principles down corporate rules while imparting and regulations. corporate decisions on followers and subordinates.

Follows Moral Principles to induce and influence followership based on attitudes, beliefs, intentions and values.

Method

Involves ways such as Incentive, Rewards, Force, and Promises to influence leader follower relationship.

Involves Impression, Inspiration, Incentives, and Persuasion that must be Ethical in motives.

Involves Organization, Council, Persuasion, and Incentives that must be Moral in Content.

Scope

Employer/ Employees, Suppliers/Distributor Leadership in Ideas, Technology, Innovation and Prosperity.

Encompasses scope such as Local/Global, Supplier/Distributor. Ethical Leadership however caters to global communities Vs Local, and works for Global Sustainability Following rights and justice ,ethical codes, adhering to legal compliances and

Encompasses scope such as Families/ Communities of Suppliers and Distributors. Leadership in wisdom, integrity and sharing.

Motives

Foster leader follower relationships, popularity,

Community My motives are binding,compassion,mercy,amicable the feeling of fair deals. accomplishment, Having a sense

reputation, wealth, benefits and loyalty.

performance in relation to ethical values,revenues,profits and growth

of fulfillment and a purpose in the life and giving back to the society at large.

4. Some twenty five years ago, Robert Greenleaf spoke and wrote about servant leadership. How do you understand, apply and verify it in your life up to now? The very notion of a servant as leader, or servant-leadership is purposefully oxymoronic and arresting in nature. It challenges long-standing assumption held about the relationship between leaders and followers in an organization. By combining seemingly contradictory terms, Greenleaf helps us to reconsider the very nature of leadership. The basic framework of this leadership is given below with the application in my life: 1. Service to Other: Servant-leadership begins when a leader assumes the position of servant in their interactions with followers. Authentic, legitimate leadership arises not from the exercise of power or self-interested actions, but from a fundamental desire to first help others. A servant-leaders primary motivation and purpose is to encourage greatness in others, while organizational success is just an indicator of the same.

2. Holistic Approach to Work: The theory promotes a view that individuals should be encouraged to be who they are, in their professional as well as personal lives. This more personal, integrated valuation of individuals, it is theorized, ultimately benefits the long-term interests and performance of the organization. 3. Promoting a Sense of community: That by establishing the sense of community, defined as groups of individuals that are jointly liable for each other both individually and as a unit, can an organization succeed in its objectives. The theory states that this sense of community can arise only from the actions of individual servant-leaders. 4. Sharing of Power in Decision-Making: By nurturing participatory, empowering environments, and encouraging the talents of followers, the servant-leader creates a more effective, motivated workforce and ultimately a more successful organization. In this process an inverted pyramid, with employees, clients and other stakeholders at the top, and leader(s) at the bottom which promotes flexible, delegated organizational structures.

Russell and Stone (2002) have proposed a list of 20 distinctive attributes observed in servant-leaders, as derived from scholarly literature. They further categorized these 20 attributes into 9 functional attributes and 11 accompanying attributes. Functional attributes are defined as intrinsic

characteristics of servant-leaders, while accompanying attributes complement and enhance the functional attributes: Functional Attributes 1. Vision 6. Modeling 2. Honesty 7. Pioneering 3. Integrity 8. Appreciation 4. Trust 9. Empowerment 5. Service Accompanying Attributes 10. Communication 16. Persuasion 11. Credibility 17. Listening 12. Competence 18. Encouragement 13. Stewardship 19. Teaching 14. Visibility 20. Delegation 15. Influence

Correlating the above principles in my life I now understand I have at some point or the other have actually practiced servant leader model but need to work on attributes listed out above to extend this model on larger scale. In my team as a project leader I have always been a good listener and communicator. I have distributed work according to ones ability and given that extra effort to understand the team members. In times of crisis I have been proactively reaching out to the team and always lent a hand to whosever need help. Never believed in the theory of individual win/gain always championed the cause of team wins/gains. In times of appraisal I have always encouraged ,motivated each individual and helped them to formulate their future career plans I am always open for feedbacks from the team and ensure that all communication regarding work prioritization is properly delivered so that everyone feels important.

5. Leadership is both an art and a science. Delineate the art features of your leadership style as well its science features. What do you see and learn from the past, and how do you plan for effective leadership for the future that is a convex combination of art and science? Leadership Traits Cognitive capacities (Art) General intelligence(Science) Creative thinking capacities (Art) Past Leanings Involves understanding the audience at large and attuning oneself to its expectations. There has to be a sense of humor which is vital to relieve tension and boredom. A leader has to be always on feet and have a overall holistic perspective of the entire situation. Used in team and in cases of negotiations with clients or higher authorities. Balancing the demands with effective skills so as to get down to a win- win situation. Make people involved in the process of decision making and Future Action Plan Need to be a practice the soft skills like the science of body language and be adept to the happenings around the world. Read great books and scholarly articles and apply the learning on the job.

Personality(Art) Persuasion(Art) Openness(Art)

Need to prioritize which is an art since we have to align with the parties and decipher their body language.

Motives and needs(Art) Motivation to lead(Art)

The individual capabilities need to be identified. People have to

make them well aware of the expectations. Regular follow-ups are required and to ensure that the momentum is in right direction and no one gets derailed. Social capacities (Art) Self-monitoring(Science +Art) Social intelligence(Art+ Science) Ability to understand the team dynamics keeping all cultural and social aspects in mind. Proactively lending the helping hand to any member and enthuse positive mindset in the team. People should be encouraged and ready to take small initiatives without the fear of failures.

Problem-solving skills(Science) Problem construction(Science) Solution generation(Science)

This is somewhat dependent on the education and background and past experiences

be given adequate trainings for tomorrow. Better understanding of the work and its break down structure and enhances the overall commitment of team toward its goal. A high of amount of self conviction has to be built up with some brownies of rewards and recognition. Role models have to be created from within. The qualitative aspects have to introduce with reduced stress on only facts and figures so that the power of analysis increases. Building relationships and leveraging on the network is another trait which I need to concentrate. Taking up challenging projects add value to ones self rather than being in ones comfort zone. Planning tactically keeping in mind the future is of utmost importance.

6. According to Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana (2010), leaders create meaning, communicate it Effectively, and realize it in themselves and their followers. How will you understand, apply and verify this form of leadership in your life up to now, as well as plan for the future? [See Table 9.5]. Dimensions Creation of a Vision From Past experience This has a great impact on both the internal and external world. A proper well articulated simple vision that strikes chord with one and all creates a lot of positive perception both in the internal and external circles. In line with the above a point the mission statement should be simplistic and realistic. It should string together the business, market and product/service offerings. The entire culture in the organization is built on this and so leaders ensure that they set it effectively. A leader needs to effectively set Future plans Objective understanding of the entire organization and the ethos on which it stands. High articulator skills are required for the same.

Creation of Mission

Ensure through effective people management and leadership skills that all the employees are well aware of this and they work towards the common goal.

Creation of Objectives and Goals

Goals should be set at the

Design of the Organization

Design of Organization Process

Organizational Performance Measurement

goals for each the internal teams in the organization which may range from sustainability to profitability, from CSR to customer satisfaction indices. The structure of an organization is of due importance. People chosen to lead the sectors must ensure that all there is an atmosphere for healthy participation. The structure must be flexible. Creativity and Innovation comes into play here. A proper framework should be placed which involves out of box thinking, product expansion and growth. Effective leaders quickly grasp the various industry parameters like sales revenue, market share, ROI and build teams based on that reality. An eye for detail and open for realignment as per the ,market changes/dynamics

individual level and regular follow-ups are required. Set SMART goals (Paul Mayer) which are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and tangible. Ensure that the organization structure put in place is well accepted and understood by all.

Learn to appreciate the various TQM models and see them not as a hindrance but tools for effective improvements.

Ensure to have a proper feedback mechanism and that all level in the organization work towards improving it.The data should not be filtered.

Bibliography: a. Forbes. b. Leader Traits and Attributes:Stephen J Zaccaro,Cary Kemo,Paige Bader