Perception and Communication

Perception can be defined as the process by which people translate sensory impressions into a coherent and unified view of the world around them. Though necessarily based on incomplete and unverified (or unreliable) information, perception is equated with reality for most practical  human behaviour in general (Web Finance, 2011). It can be influenced by various factors including attitudes, past experiences, and backgrounds. 

There have been many instances where I got to realise that, my initial perception about someone had been wrong. The most recent was during the period when I was working on part-time basis at Thistle Hotel. The incident happened on the first day I was to report to work. As I got off the bus and started walking on the pavement to the hotel, I was on the phone when all of a sudden I realised a guy was walking right behind me. I then decided to take caution by quickening my steps and also moved to the other side of the pavement knowing very well of how people get attacked on various streets across the United Kingdom. After making my way to the entrance of the hotel, I realised this guy was making way towards the same direction. Interestingly, he was wearing an all black attire just like I was wearing but that did not convince me enough of not suspecting him. I then decided to slow down my pace in order for him to get ahead of me. As he walked in front of me, he greeted and then quickly rushed into the hotel. I followed him closely and eventually realised he was a worker in the same Department I had been assigned to which was the Restaurant section. Immediately he entered the restaurant, he noticed I was standing at the entrance so he retraced his steps and asked if I was a new staff. I told him I was and he asked me to follow him. We later found ourselves in the closet assigned for workers to keep their personal items such as handbags before proceeding to work. After showing me a place to put my bag, he then pleaded with me to take out any valuables from my handbag since there have been incidences of theft reported among workers. I took out my phone but since I had no pocket on my uniform, he offered to keep it in his pocket.  I hardly knew this guy but looking at the assistance he had offered me so far, I decided to give him my phone. As we entered into the working area, he took me to the Departmental Manager who then did a brief introduction to the team. The manager then asked me to understudy what goes on in the restaurant by asking another female staff to show me around. As the weeks went by, I made enquiries from other staffs from the restaurant about this guy and all of them praised him as being an honest and supportive staff. I then decided to verify this by getting to know him better. I started by exchanging greetings with him anytime I saw him at work, and as my work in the hotel progressed, he became my close friend. By the time I was ending my working days in the hotel, I realised that my initial perception about this guy as being a potential attacker on the street was wrong. After getting to know him better through communication, I realised he was rather a friendly, supportive and honest individual as he always made sure I was happy at work and offered me assistance whenever I consulted him or he saw that I needed help. From this experience, I decided not to form the wrong perception about people when I meet them for the first time but rather, get to know them personally through communication or other appropriate ways before making my judgements about them.

Communication can be defined as the process of giving, receiving or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek information, to give information or to express emotions (Communication Dictionary, 2010). The importance of communication to an Organisation cannot be underestimated. As identified by Management Study Guide (2011), the importance of communication can be summarised as follows:

• Communication promotes motivation by informing and clarifying to employees about the task to be done, the manner they are performing the task, and how to improve their performance if it is not up to the mark.
• Communication is a source of information to the organisational members for decision-making process as it helps in identifying and assessing alternative course of actions.
• Communication also plays a crucial role in altering individual’s attitudes, that is, a well informed individual will have better attitude than a less-informed individual.

In a survey involving 2000 CIPD employees, Clark (2010) reported that, that fewer than half of the respondents felt either “fully” or “fairly well” informed about what was going on in their firms. Furthermore, there were also low levels of trust between employees and senior management. The findings therefore revealed that it was very important to improve communications within Organisations. Clark (2010) at the end of the study posited measures that could be adopted to ensure effective communication between employees and senior management in an organisation. The three measures are explored below to establish how best Buckinghamshire New University can improve communication with its students.

1.    Authorities of the University must realise the importance of communication and take time to share the vision for the institution with students.

The importance of sharing the vision of an organisation with its members cannot be underestimated. This is because, when people are made aware of the overall goal of the organisation, it makes them appreciate the difference they can make. Additionally, employees feel a part of the company when authorities share the vision with them. Applying this to the way Buckinghamshire New University can improve communication with its students, it is imperative that, lecturers for example, make time to make known to their students, the learning outcomes of the courses they teach. This would give the students appreciate the need of working hard to make sure they get the best out of the courses offered at the University. Also, there is the need for the senior management of the University to make efforts to communicate the University’s vision to the students in person instead of using other channels such as sending out general information to students using the University’s website. This puts a face to management and offers the opportunity for students to approach them whenever the need arises. It is also important that, delegation of other personnel to communicate issues to students should be kept low as much as possible in order for the students to get to know the authorities of the University on a more personal basis. In my opinion, I think it is just not satisfactory that, the only time students get to see those in authority such as the Vice Chancellor of the University only during matriculation and graduation throughout their stay in the institution.  Authorities must therefore take time off their busy schedules to meet with students at least once a term to relay any important vision or information. This would make students feel more involved and better understand what is going on within the university.

2.    Create communication that is two-way.

Clark (2010) noted that, another way to improve communication is to ensure that communication is two-way process, not only top-down. A two- way communication offers a feedback mechanism which ensures that communication is effective (see Figure 1 below). 

         Figure 1: Diagrammatic representation of a two-way communication

                            Source: Community Eye Health Journal (2011)

Authorities should therefore ensure that, they do not always pass down information to students without allowing them to make contributions or react to what has been relayed to them.

The University should create avenues that would enable students express their views, resentments or observations about any information passed on to them by authorities. For example, lecturers should give students the opportunity to have their say about the rules governing their mode of teaching. A two-way communication process also offers an opportunity for negotiation between students and the University regarding pertinent issues. When students feel their views are always welcome, they would be satisfied with changes or developments made knowing very well that their views formed part of the final decision. This would also encourage the University and students to work as a team to meet the goals of Buckinghamshire New University. A two-way communication would mean that, both parties are active within the communication process. It is also worth mentioning that, the key component of any real two-way communication is the clear indication that both parties are listening to each other (Meyer, 2011).

3.    Measure the success of actions.

The third way in which Buckinghamshire New University can better communication with its students would be to measure the success of its actions. According to Clark (2010), it is necessary for an organisation to establish mechanisms that would enable it assess the effectiveness of their communication structures. Applying this to ways in which Buckinghamshire New University can improve communication with its students, it would be appropriate for the university to engage the students in surveys soliciting for their views about how effective their communication strategies have been. Apart from such measures allowing the University to measure the success of its communication strategies, it would also offer the chance to identify loopholes in the existing strategy while allowing students to make suggestions for its improvements.

In conclusion, it must be said that a good perception is very important to understand others. Conflicts occur because we fail to perceive others correctly.  Perception also forms the underlying basis for decision making in Organisations. Thus, it is important that the management of institutions make every effort to promote a positive perception of their businesses.

Communication is easily overlooked, but the ability to communicate effectively is necessary to carry out the thoughts and visions of an Organisation to people (Kam, 2009). An effective and efficient communication system requires managerial proficiency in delivering and receiving messages. A manager or leader of an organisation must discover various barriers to communication, analyse the reasons for their occurrence and take preventive steps to avoid those barriers. Thus, the primary responsibility of a manager is to develop and maintain an effective communication system in the organisation (Management Study Guide, 2011).

REFERENCES

Clark, R. (2010) How to improve staff communication [online]. Available from: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2010/07/how-to-improve-staff-communication.htm [Accessed 23 November 2011].

Communication Dictionary (2010) Communication Theory [online]. Available from: http://communicationtheory.org/definitions-of-communication/ [Accessed 20 November 2011].

Community Eye Health Journal (2011) Two-way communication [online]. Available from: http://www.cehjournal.org/extra/et_015.2.html [Accessed 20 November 2011].

Kam, D. (2009) The Importance of Communication [online]. Available from: http://marketingdeviant.com/the-importance-of-communication/ [Accessed 24 November 2011].

Management Study Guide, (2011) Importance of Communication in an Organisation [online]. Available from: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/importance-of-communication.html [Accessed 21 November 2011].

Meyer, D. (2011) What is two-way communication [online]. Available from: http://ecilearning.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-is-two-way-communication.html[Accessed 18 November 2011].

Web Finance (2011) Perception [online]. Available from: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/perception.html [Accessed 23 November 2011].

 

Power and Conflict

Conflict can simply be defined as any disagreement between two parties. The disagreement can be as a result of a struggle or contest between people with opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values, or goals. Conflict on teams is inevitable; however, the results of conflict are not predetermined. Conflict can be perceived as something which disturbs the daily routine and causes emotional stress among peers, groups or an organisation. Reynolds and Kalish (2002) noted that, managers spend at least 25 % of their time resolving workplace conflicts. This actually shows how conflict can have bad effect in an organisation and decreases production.  According to Mullins (2007), there are nine main causes of conflict in the workplace. These are:

• Differences in perception: This is when people view the same incident in dramatically different ways. Bell (2002) gives an example of what might happen if a new administrative assistant were hired in an organisation. One employee might see the new hire as an advantage (one more set of hands to get the job done), while another colleague might see the same new hire as an insult (a clear message that the current employees are not performing adequately).

• Limited resources: This could be in the form of not having enough or less equipments when needed to complete a task.

• Division and separation into departments: This arises when employees are segregated based on their job description in the company and are accordingly assigned different positions.

• Overlapping and interlinking work activities: This is whereby an employee has to do more work that does not apply to his or her speciality due to a shortage in staff.

• Role conflict: This is whereby a person is expected to play two unsuitable roles together at the same time.

• Inequitable treatment: It is a situation whereby an employee feels that he or she is treated unfairly among his colleagues.

• Violation of territory: This occurs when an employee breaks the rules and regulations of a company such as ignoring all health and safety stipulations. 

• Environmental changes: This can be changes in the firm such as introducing new technology or changes in the pattern of new contracts.

• Individual conflict: Differences in interest, values and goals can cause clashes in personality.

Conflict might escalate and lead to non-productive results, or conflict can be beneficially resolved and lead to quality final products (Foundation Coalition, 2011). Generally, before a disagreement generates into a conflict, it goes through various stages as depicted in the conflict cycle in Figure 1 below.

                  Figure 1: Life cycle of a conflict

                  Source: Active for Peace (2010)

The peace building process in the cycle of a conflict (shown in Figure 1) can take place at any of these stages and depending on where or how it takes place, the graph can change into a peace building process or an escalation of violence (Active for Peace, 2010). 

During last summer, l had a part time job at Thistle hotel in Cheltenham. Initially, I found the job very interesting and saw it as a great opportunity to build upon my work experience. I was told during my induction that, I would be working during the weekdays since the company had permanent staffs who worked on Saturdays and Sundays. Into the third week of the job, the manager was putting me down on the rota to work on both Saturday and Sundays without asking if I was comfortable with the change since some of the permanent staff had started giving all sorts of excuses in order not to report for their assigned weekend shifts. I could not honour the request for me to join the weekend shifts because l was not informed and already had other commitments the weekend. The manager called me one Sunday morning asking me to come to work as soon as possible and l told him it was impossible for me to do so since it was a short notice. The manager in an attempt to address the issue, decided to ask other weekday staffs to do extra shifts during the weekend and just like me, most of them could not cope with the stressful nature of the job as they also felt they were being treated unfairly. This situation continued for weeks and months and therefore led to the Department recording its lowest retail eyes score in the year due to a decrease in performance of workers. The conflict between weekday and weekend staff could not be resolved and some of the staff including me decided to leave the company. This resulted in the Department not achieving its set goal of providing excellent service to customers.

Power is a measurement of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behaviour of other entities (Greiner and Schein, 1988). In other words, it is the ability or capacity to do something or to control and influence what others do. It determines who makes decisions and what decisions are made. 

In a notable study of power conducted by French and Raven (1959), they established that, there are five bases of power namely: Coercive, Reward, Expert, Legitimate, and Referent. These are further explored below and presented diagrammatically in Figure 2.

                   Figure 2: Diagrammatic presentation of French and Raven's sources of power
                   Source: Google (2011)

Coercive power: This type of power involves treats and punishment. It forces people to do what they do not want to do. As noted by French and Raven (1959), other forms of power can also be used in coercive ways, such as when reward or expertise is withheld or referent power is used to threaten social exclusion. This source of power can often lead to problems and in many circumstances it involves abuse. Coercive power can cause unhealthy behaviour and dissatisfaction in the workplace (Mindtools, 2009). Threats and punishment are common tools of coercion. Governments mostly use this type of power as substantiated in the case of Colonel Gadhafi of Libya, as he was a dictator, and those who did not believe in his regime or were against him, would be brutally beaten or even murdered.

Reward power: This kind of power is the opposite of coercive power. This is because while coercive power uses punishment to control, reward power employs incentives to maintain legitimate power. Reward power involves having the ability to administer to another, things he or she desires or to remove or decrease things he or she does not desire. This type of power is based on the idea that people are more prone to do things and to do them well when they are getting something out of it (Molm, 1988). The most popular forms of rewards are increasing salary, promotions, and simply compliments. One shortfall of this kind of power is that, when available rewards are used up, or the rewards do not have enough perceived value to others, the power weakens (Mindtools, 2009). An example of this reward is evident when a company offers free shares every year to their staff in order for them to feel as owning a part of the company and increasing their job security which consequently results in high performance as practiced at Next.

Expert power: This power is associated with those who are typically specialist in their field of work, and rely on their ability to perform various organisational tasks and functions. It emanates from the level of knowledge and skills possessed. This power makes one able to combine the power of reward in the correct fashion (French and Raven, 1959). When someone has expert knowledge in an organisation, people are more convinced to trust them and to respect their opinions. An example of this is seen with the work of doctors as they administer drugs based on the diagnosis of a particular disease and convince patients to purchase a particular medication in order to alleviate their ailment. 

Legitimate power: Legitimate power is typically based on one's role. People traditionally obey the person with this power solely based on their position or title rather than the person specifically as a leader. Therefore this type of power can easily be dissolved with the loss of a position or title. This power is therefore not strong enough to be one's only form of influencing/persuading others. For example a police personnel directing traffic is obeyed by drivers and pedestrians due to the power he possess as a result of his position or title. The same personnel would lose this influence should he retire from the police service.

Referent power: The power of holding the ability to administer to others’ feeling of personal acceptance or personal approval (Hinkin and Schriesheim, 1989). This type of power is strong enough that the power-holder is often looked up to as a role model (Raven, 1988). This power is often looked at as admiration, or charm. The power derives from one person having an overall likability leading people to strongly identify with them in one form or another. A person with this type of power generally makes people feel good around them therefore one has a lot of influence. The responsibility involved is heavy and one can easily lose this power, but when combined with other forms of power it can be very useful. A typical example of this power is witnessed with celebrities in society which is why they can influence everything from what people buy to whom they elect to office, however, on the flip side; they also often lose it quickly in some circumstances as evidenced with the case of Tiger Woods. Referent power is also commonly seen among political and military figures.

An article on Work-related stress

Work-related stress have a large impact on an Organisation, this is because employees that feel stressed at work have more sick days off which can reduce the overall productivity of the business and lead to high staff turnover. Also, work-related stress can have bad effect on employees’ health. Health and Safety Executive (2003) reported after a research into offshore work that, approximately 70% of common work-related stressors are also potential root causes of accidents when they were caused by human error.

A news article from Kahn (2008) with the caption "Work-related stress can kill, study finds" and available at http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/23/us-heart-stress-idUSL2284632220080123 reported that, work really can kill providing the strongest evidence yet of how on-the-job stress raises the risk of heart disease by disrupting the body's internal systems.  The research team for the study conducted seven surveys over a 12-year period and found chronically stressed workers - people determined to be under severe pressure in the first two of the surveys - had a 68 % risk of developing heart disease.The article stated that, British civil servants are prone to stress at work due to less break from work and too much work pressure (Kahn, 2008). The link was strongest among people under 50. Behaviour and biological changes likely explain why stress at work causes heart disease, the article further reported. For one, stressed workers eat unhealthy food, smoke, drink and skip exercise - all behaviours linked to heart disease.

Commenting on this article, there is a connotation that, the responsibilities assigned to employees at the workplace should be reduced as ageing sets in owing to the fact that stress is also directly related to biological changes. However, this cannot be easily achieved considering the fact that employees sometimes subject themselves to some form of work-related stress as they decide to put in more effort in carrying about their duties especially when they feel a bit unsecured about their job especially when they are working in an organisation that is going through metamorphic changes under intense economic transformations and consequent pressures. Although, heart disease is closely linked to work-related stress as reported by the article, it is worth mentioning that other external factors such as family conflicts, employee lifestyle and individual employee temperaments (naturally high-tempered staff) all play a part in the degree to which an employee feels stressed at work.

In linking this to the lecture, it emphasises the fact that, work-related stress can be costly to an organisation as employees with heart-related diseases can sometimes be bed-stricken for a longer period resulting in absenteeism which subsequently leads to a reduction in overall productivity. At worse, an organisation can lose some of its well-skilled staff to death as a result of a disease linked with work-related stress.

CONCLUSION

In the workplace, a simple disagreement between team members, if unresolved, may escalate into avoidance, inability to work together, verbal assaults, and resentment. In the worst cases, it may also lead to hostility and eventual separation from the organisation. Therefore, it is important that the conflict be resolved as soon as possible. Although conflict is a normal part of organisational life, providing numerous opportunities for growth through improved understanding and insight, there is a tendency to view conflict as a negative experience caused by abnormally difficult circumstances. Understanding conflict and how it can be used for effective resolution strategies is important for effective communication and productivity in the workplace (Gatlin et al., 2008). 

While a conflict starts because of an issue of disagreement, there are usually background influences that fuel the conflict. The most important influence is power. Conflict is fuelled when the balance of power between different groups changes or is very uneven. Perhaps one group abuses their power, wants more power or fears losing their power or another group wants to challenge those in power in order to improve the balance of power (Tearfund Roots Resources, n.d.). The kind of power exerted by those in authority or employers also plays a vital role in determining how conflict can be resolved or escalated at the workplace. Thus, power can have a lot of influence on conflict, either positively or negatively. 

Research has shown work-related stress to have adverse effects for organisations in terms of employee commitment to work, staff performance and productivity, accidents caused by human error, staff turnover and intention to leave, attendance levels, staff recruitment and retention, customer satisfaction, organisational image and reputation as well as potential litigation (Health and Safety Executive, 2009). Good management is the key to managing the causes of work related stress.

 

REFERENCES

Active for Peace (2010) What is conflict? [online]. Available from: http://www.activeforpeace.org/en/peares/peares_conflict.htm [Accessed 12 November 2011].

Bell, A. (2002) Six ways to resolve workplace conflicts [online]. Available from:  http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/bell/article15.html [Accessed 12 November 2011].

Foundation Coalition (2011) What is conflict and conflict management? [online]. Available from:http://www.foundationcoalition.org/home/keycomponents/teams/conflict1a.html [Accessed 16 November 2011].

French, J. R. P. and Raven, B. (1959) The bases of social power. In: Cartwright, D. and Zander, A. (eds.) Group dynamics. New York: Harper and Row.

Gatlin J., Wysocki, A. and Kepner, K. (2008) Understanding the Conflict in the Workplace [online]. Available from: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/HR/HR02400.pdf [Accessed 10 November 2011].

Google (2011) Power and conflict [online]. Available from: http://www.google.co.uk/search?image power and conflict [Accessed 16 November 2011].

Greiner, L. E. and Schein, V.E. (1988) Power and Organization Development: Mobilizing Power to Implement Change. Alexandria, VA: Prentice Hall.

Health and Safety Executive (2009) Managing the Causes of Work Stress [online]. Richmond, Surrey: HSE.  Available from:  http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg218.pdf [Accessed 16 November 2011].

Health and Safety Executive (2003) Development of internal company standards of good management practice and a task-based risk assessment tool for offshore work-related stressors [online]. Available from: www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm[Accessed 16 November 2011].

Hinkin, T. R. and Schriesheim, C. A. (1989) Development and application of new scales to measure the bases of social power. Journal of Applied Psychology. 74, pp.561-567.

Kahn, M. (2008) Work Related To Stress. Reuters [online].23 January. Available from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/23/us-heart-stress idUSL2284632220080123 [Accessed 10 November 2011].

Mindtools (2009) French and Raven's Five Forms of Power [online]. Available from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_56.htm [Accessed 13 November 2011].

Molm, L.D. (1988) The structure and Use of Power: A Comparison of reward and Punishment Power. Social Psychology Quarterly. 51, pp.108-22.

Mullins, L.J. (2010) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 9^th ed. London: Pearson.

Raven, B. H. (1990) Political applications of the psychology of interpersonal influence and social power. Political Psychology. 11, pp.493-520.

Reynolds, S. and Kalish, E. (2002) Managing collaborative conflict resolution [online].  Available from: http://www.reynoldskalish.com/mccr.html [Accessed 12 November 2011].

Tearfund Roots Resources (n.d.) Peace-Building within Our Communities [online].Available from: http://tilz.tearfund.org/webdocs/Tilz/Roots/English/Peacebuilding/Peace_Esection1.pdf [Accessed 12 November 2011].

Leadership

Leadership and management are commonly seen as the same, but in reality, they are not. Leadership can be defined as setting a vision or new direction for a group of people for them to follow (Team Technology Business Resources, 2011). It can also be regarded as the act of inducing people to be aware or conscious of what they feel – to feel their true needs so strongly, to define their values so meaningfully, that they can be moved to purposeful action (Burns, 1978). It is a dynamic relationship that, at its best, finds leaders engaged in a process of raising the consciousness of followers, or, at a minimum, engages both leaders and followers in a common enterprise. Leadership is thus, meaningless, without its connection to common purposes and collective needs. People in charge of spearheading leadership are called leaders.

Management, on the other hand, is the process of planning, organsing, directing and controlling resources such as labour, money and equipments to achieve a particular set of objectives (Simpson, 2011). In other words, management is usually concerned with putting measures in place to achieve organizational goals and plans or implementing policies by directing and controlling group effort. Managers are responsible for ensuring the entire process of management is successful.

From the above elaborations, the following are some of the differences between leadership and management

•  Leadership works through influence, while management works through decision making. For example, according to Kotter (1990), leaders motivate and inspire other people to achieve their ambitions.  Thus, leaders are people who are able to think and influence the actions, beliefs and feelings of others. Management by contrast direct, control and ensure everything is going according to plan in an organisation.
• Leadership is responsible for producing change or movement while management can be said as being responsible for maintaining order within an organisation (Kotter, 1990).
•   Management process reduces uncertainty and provides stability; on the other hand, the act of leadership creates uncertainty as it focuses on pursuing opportunities and therefore results in change.
•   Management controls or directs people and resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established in contrast to leadership which gives room for the application of individual innovation devoid of established principles.
•  Another striking difference between leadership and management is that, leadership may be summarized as activities of vision and judgement, which results in what is termed as effectiveness (“doing the right things” by constantly measuring if the actual output meets the desired output) while management is associated with activities of mastering routines which produces efficiency (“doing things right” by focusing on getting the maximum output with minimum resources).

The difference between leadership and management can be summarised by considering what happens when you have one without the other as outlined below.

Leadership without management

...sets a direction or vision that others follow, without considering too much how the new direction is going to be achieved. Other people then have to work hard in the trail that is left behind, picking up the pieces and making it work. E.g. A Company might decide to expand its business by deciding to open more outlets by the end of 2012 - this becomes the vision but management of resources to achieve this vision comes from others outside that outfit.

Management without leadership

...co-ordinates resources to ensure things happen according to already-established rules. E.g. a referee manages a sports game, but does not usually provide "leadership" because there is no new change, no new direction - the referee is controlling resources to ensure that the laws of the game are followed and status quo is maintained.

Prior to undertaking my A level exams at college, my year tutor, who I consider as the leader in charge of my class, played a significant role in ensuring that each and every one in her class worked hard to achieve our various educational goals. She was very lovely and adorable especially in my Science class considering the fact that none of my colleagues and I was interested in the subject. She encouraged everyone to do well and get good grades. She had an affable personality that made all students from every year group feel more comfortable to speak to her about any issue. We got motivated through her words of encouragement which later on imbued in us the “you can all do it” spirit. Owing to her inability to inspire us, at the end of the academic year, majority of my classmates ended up earning good grades in Science and other subjects which led to most of her students gaining entry into the University such as the one I find myself in today.

From this experience, I can relate the Trait approach theory to my class tutor. The trait theory of leadership is the view that people are born with inherited traits - and that some traits are particularly suited to leadership (Warrilow, 2011).  Early research on leadership - which was a development of the Great man theory of leadership - was based on the psychological focus of the day, which was of people having inherited characteristics or traits. Attention was thus put on identifying these traits, often by studying successful leaders. The focus was not on finding way of teaching these "skills" to people to "develop" leaders, but was on finding other people with these traits who could also become great leaders (ibid.). Trait theories often identify particular personality or behavioural characteristics shared by leaders.

Stogdill (1974) established that the Trait theory of leadership identifies the following traits and skills as critical to leaders:

Traits

• Adaptable to situations
• Alert to social environment
• Ambitious
• Assertive
• Cooperative
• Decisive
• Dependable
• Dominant (desire to influence others)
• Persistent
• Tolerant of stress
• Willing to assume responsibility

Skills

• Clever (intelligent)
• Conceptually skilled
• Creative
• Diplomatic and tactful
• Fluent in speaking
• Knowledgeable about group task
• Organised (administrative ability)
• Persuasive
• Socially skilled

My tutor’s leadership can be associated with this theory because from my point of view, she possessed many of the traits and skills outlined above such as being very accommodative and persistent in ensuring that we all put in our best effort to achieve the goal of furthering our education coupled with the fact that she was able to tolerate the stress we sometimes gave her. She was also socially adaptive and also very intelligent and fluent in speaking which ensured effective communication between the students and her.

In conclusion, it can be stated that, not all managers are leaders, and similarly, not all leaders are managers. Both management and leadership skills are very important because their absence in an organisation can prove costly to its success. The importance of both management and leadership within an organisation is illustrated in Figure 1 below which depicts the results they both produce when synergised.

Figure1:Leadership- Management role synergy  Source:http://www.1000ventures.com/design_elements/selfmade/leadership_management_synergy_6x4.png

Thus, although both leadership and management are different terms as discussed above, both processes complement each other as institutions need to be both effective (leadership) and efficient (management) in order to be successful. A combination of both leadership and management within an organisation sets a new direction and manages the resources to achieve it.

Also, it is worth mentioning that, although the trait theory is often regarded as complex and also raises some level of disagreement over which traits are the most important for an effective leader, the theory gives constructive information about leadership (Management Study Guide, 2008). It can be applied by people at all levels in all types of organisations. Managers can utilize the information from the theory to evaluate their position in the organisation and to assess how their position can be made stronger in the organization. This theory makes the manager aware of their strengths and weaknesses and thus they get an understanding of how they can develop their leadership qualities.

REFERENCES

Burns, J.M. (1978) Leadership. New York: Harper and Row.

Kotter, J. P. (1990) ‘What leaders really Do?’, Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp. 103-11.

Management Study Guide (2008) Trait Theory of Leadership. Available at:http://www.managementstudyguide.com/trait-theory-of-leadership.htm (Accessed: 25 October 2011).

Simpson, M. (2001) ‘Leadership’. MG 402 People and Organisations [Online]. Available at: http://blackboard.bucks.ac.uk (Accessed: 25 October 2011).

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