In today’s global and most-competitive business environment, most organizations find themselves in a compromising situation to resolve management and leadership conflicts (Clark and Rickards p.3). This is as a result of dynamic and multigenerational workforces. The dilemma is to strike a balance between meeting the needs of a diverse workforce and at the same time achieving the organizational goals. In a multigenerational workforce, each generation differs in term of needs, values, expectations and attitudes. Managing such a diverse workforce requires one to make informed decisions and approaches to avoid conflicts at the workplace. Equally important, one requires considering individual opinion and motivations so as to achieve performance excellence without compromising both the personal interest and the organizational goal. Leading effectively requires one to be both relationship oriented and task oriented.
In most cases, a dilemma does not present a straightforward solution. A dilemma requires to be solved over time. In some situation, the outcome may be two equal unappealing choices or more than two. Complex dilemmas require one to solve considering the organizational objectives and the long-term impacts to productivity. Most of these decisions require one to consider the ethical and moral aspects. Equally important, all the decisions should be aligned to the organization’s vision. Solving management dilemmas and conflict amicably require one to integrate leadership models to experiences and practical observations (Clark and Rickards p.4).
Experience is one of the most critical elements in resolving and managing a dilemma. Inexperienced leaders may make decisions which impact negatively towards managing people. According to Clark and Rickards p.7), potential leaders require having good skills to manage both task and people.
One of the dilemmas in todays work setup is on people versus productivity. Managers usually get themselves in difficult situations to strike a balance between the employees interest regarding their personal life and productivity. Most of the time, organizations require employees to sacrifice most of their hours for work. This poses a dilemma and sometimes conflict as to balancing personal life and work. Organizations are so much into maximizing productivity only to forget that the employees have a personal and family life.
An effective leader requires balancing the demands of employees’ rights and ethics against maximizing productivity (Clark and Rickards p.7). Productivity is achievable only if the employees are motivated to work. Good personal and leadership relations are therefore important to achieving performance excellence. The leadership styles directly influence the motivational levels and productivity of the employees. The models and styles include the dictatorial, authoritative, consultative and participative. Leadership styles impact greatly on an organizations culture which consequently influence the workers relations with the management.
Consider a case where management applies authoritative style. This may only yield good results short-term. On the other hand, participative approach yields good results in the long-term and not short-term. In such situations, it is very important to properly understand the appropriate use of authority and on how to relate with the workers appropriately so as to maintain good relations. Productivity and profitability majorly depend on the management system and influence to motivate workers to work to their best. Leaders and effective managers need to develop appropriate programs and working system which consider the need of the employees and not compromise the organizational goals to achieving excellence.
According to Clark and Rickards (p.4), success of any organization depends on how to apply good leadership and management on attaining the objectives of the organization. Behavior patterns have a direct influence on determining the employees’ motivation and morale levels. According to Clark and Rickards (p.4), leaders using appropriate management and leadership models result in productivity at work resulting from the highly motivated employees and their commitment to work. Leadership is considered as one of the most critical element in determining organizations performance excellence. Equally important, a good culture directly influences the employees ability and willingness to commit to work hence resulting to a more productive and profitable organization. Employees’ having a good relation with their employers usually works smarter, hence yielding better results. Solving work-related dilemma requires cooperation between all members in the team. This is greatly influenced by personal or individual perception regarding the leadership styles and the organization culture.
Secondly, leadership versus ability poses a dilemma in most organizations. Leaders usually face a dilemma in determining and matching the employees’ abilities to the responsibility and task in managing (Clark and Rickards p.8). Most of the time, the criterion used to appoint leaders is usually politicized, based on ethnicity and gender, posing a dilemma to match the appointment to the candidates ability. Other times, it is difficult to match the people’s expectations and opinion to appointing someone who is able to run the office and execute all duties effectively. Most importantly, achieving the organization goal should not be compromised. Managers and leaders usually get stuck to make decision pertaining appointment as this is one among the few politicized and corrupt. The appointment may have a negative impact to the organization’s productivity and profitability if does not meet the people’s expectations. Equally important, the appointment should not be inclined to pleasing people but should appoint someone who is able to run the office effectively. In today global and competitive business environment, ability to effectively manage both tasks and people is of great importance to determining the performance excellence (Clark and Rickards p.8).
Other dilemma is on cost containment and revenue growth. Most organization are too much into the cost-cutting initiative and strategies to maximize returns but fail to appreciate the fact that investing has a direct relation to influencing returns and revenue growth. Most of the leading organizations have highly invested in most of the countries which is cost intensive. According to Buytendijk (p.113), there is a direct relation of the extent of investment to the expected returns.
Work cited
Buytendijk, F., (2010) Dealing with Dilemmas: Where Business Analytics Fall Short, New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Clark, M., and Rickards, T., (2006) Dilemmas of leadership, New York: Taylor & Francis.