Management & Leadership
According to Mintzberg (165), contrary to popular belief that managers simply delegate all their tasks and just sit back responding to only unforeseen situations, managers do have regular duties that they attend to on a daily basis. One of the managerial roles is interpersonal role; a manager is a leader. He is expected to motivate and encourage employees (169).
In a research done by Mintzberg, most CEOs spent 78 percent of their time in verbal communication. Most of them ignored hard mail and gave more attention to gossip and hearsay as ‘today’s gossip maybe tomorrow’sfact’. Verbal communication, however, can only be stored in people’s minds and thus cannot be stored in the organization (166).
According to Mintzberg (167), managers may have changed with time but their decision making is the same as that of the managers of a hundred years ago. A manager’s work is complicated and difficult. Most of the time, they do not follow systematic analytically determined procedures but use their professional judgment to make decisions.
Every organization has its own unique disciplinary procedure. Some organizations have very strict laid down procedures that a manager cannot invoke harsher punishments even if the offense is severe. Most organizations have progressive disciplinary procedures that spell out the kind of discipline to be imposed. The typical disciplinary procedure is a four step one. It begins with a verbal warning, followed by a written warning, then a suspension and finally termination (handling conflict requiring direct confrontation 270).
Most managers spend most of their time with other people mostly discussing things that would be considered unimportant. Even when they have a heavy schedule of planned meetings, most of their time is spent discussing things that are not on the agenda. They also spend most of their time at work for an average of 55 hours a week (149).
Burnout is a serious condition brought about by poorly unmanaged work stress. Managers from all walks of life are susceptible to burnout. Organizations need to give support to the managers and recognize their accomplishments. Managers also need to be careful to avoid pushing themselves too much (Stanley 11-13).
Leadership comes with power but also with more responsibility to the followers. It is the ethical responsibility of leaders to treat their followers with dignity and respect. According to Beauchamp and Bowie, they should be sensitive to people’s needs and interests. Leaders also need to be people of integrity as honesty is one of the principles of good leadership (leadership and ethics 435).
One of the managerial roles is resource allocation. It is the manager’s duty to determine who gets what. The most important resource that the manager allocates is his or her own time. This resource also happens to be one of the scarcest resources (Mintzberg 172).
Ethical theories are of two types: ethics of duty and ethics of consequences. From a teleological point of view, the consequences of an action determine whether an action is good or bad (425). Deontological theory on the other hand is based on duty ethics. From a deontological perspective, an action is good or bad based on not only the consequences but also the rightness of the action. This theory is based on conformity to the set rules and responsibilities (426).
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