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Management & Leadership Paper Mgt 330 August – 01, 2011 Professor Management & Leadership Paper Introduction Tyco International Ltd. is a global company with great diversity and it provides many essential products and services to customers all over the globe. With more than 100,000 employees worldwide, Tyco is a leading provider of electronic security products and services, fire protection and detection products and services, and valves and controls.
The company provides thousands of products and services vitally important to customers around the world and their ingenious products range from electronic security and alarm monitoring to fire-fighting equipment and breathing apparatus, water purification and flow control solutions. Despite the weak economic conditions that persisted globally throughout fiscal 2010, Tyco says its teams performed well.
They attribute this to being ‘disciplined in cost focus, delivering solid operating results and improving financial strength and flexibility while actively funding a range of targeted growth opportunities. (www. tyco. com, 2011)’ Tyco continued to generate strong cash flow and improved their working capital, finishing the year with $1. 8 billion of cash. This enabled them to invest in their businesses, make selective acquisitions and return capital to their shareholders. The company actually completed a $1 billion share repurchase program and authorized a new $1 billion program.
It is important to note here that the strong, well planned discipline that Tyco utilized as an organization allowed them to optimize their financial resources, even in a bad economy, so much so that they were able to return capital to share holders and authorize a share repurchase program of up to $1 billion. In a time where most companies are going under due to consumer spending and a weak economy made worse by a prolonged recession, Tyco not only made profits but they managed to make acquisitions thus optimizing their financial resources. Management and leadership at Tyco
One of the main things that Tyco is renowned for is its leadership and strong managers. Often there is confusion about what the difference between the two is. Leadership and management are ‘two opposing styles of employee supervision actively used within today’s business world (Bateman & Snell, 2009). ‘ Management and leadership are both vitally important. To highlight the need for more leadership is not to minimize the importance of management or managers. But leadership involves unique processes that are distinguishable from basic management processes Leadership provides the vision of the end result.
It operates in a trust based environment. Leadership creates an accountable team environment by passing the torch of success on to others. Each individual relies on the team for trust, support and enthusiasm to reach their vision. A complete team is much more successful under a unified vision than an individual manager in today’s marketplace where the competition is so intense. Whereas management must deal with the ongoing, day-to-day complexities of organizations, true leadership includes effectively orchestrating important change.
While managing requires planning and budgeting routines, leading includes setting the direction and creating a clear vision for the company. ‘Management requires structuring the organization, staffing it with capable people, and monitoring activities; leadership goes beyond these functions by inspiring people to attain the vision (Kumle & Kelly, 2006). ‘ Great leaders keep people focused on moving the organization toward its ideal future, motivating them to overcome whatever obstacles lie in the way.
Tyco places a lot of emphasis on training its managers to be good leaders as well. Their bi-annual training has several workshops where they emphasize that being a manager does not make you a leader; that being a leader is something they want all their employees to aspire to. (www. tyco. com, 2011) Some people dislike the idea of distinguishing between management and leadership, claiming it is derogatory toward the managers and the management processes that make organizations run.
However, it is important to note that while good managers can make an organization run smoothly and efficiently, it is a manager with good leadership skills that is able to take his people out from the sphere of the ‘well run’ and ‘ordinary’ into something that is ‘extra ordinary’ and worth noting. Roles managers and leaders play in an organization: A company is known by the culture prevalent in its premises, therefore the role of the manager in true essence is the training he provides to his sub ordinates.
A manager is the person interacting with employees on a one on one level on a daily basis and his ways are crucial to the culture and atmosphere that prevails in a company. Most everyone has known a work situation where an unstable or temperamental manager has driven morale low and even caused work related goals to suffer. A good manager can create an atmosphere of goodwill and hard work, where employees are happy and helping each other while a manager who isn’t good at his job can create a sense of unhealthy competition and bad will where employees are out to sabotage each other.
A leader has a broader vision and must inspire his employees. He must show that he cares for the hard work and effort his team is putting into their work, by encouragement and positive feedback. The leader must also show that he value his employees skills in a true manner and show willingness to help his employee every which way in reaching the organizational objectives. The affect of globalization and management across borders: Globalization has been fast paced in the last 2 decades and it has changed the way companies did business for many centuries. The increased role of globalization has also affected management and leadership in several ways- through market and customer base, international employee transfer rates, competition, and an increase in opportunities. (Hollis, 2011)’ Before the increase in globalization, most companies considered their customer base and market to be their country of origin. A company manufacturing white gowns in Malaysia would supply and sell them to a consumer base in Malaysia. Due to globalization, management can now consider the entire world their market and available customer base.
The same company can advertise their product online and ship their white gowns to any little cottage in Alaska or retail store located anywhere in the world. Similarly, globalization has caused management to expand to cross the globe, and this allows production to increase. Globalization also increases competition because certain areas won’t have such a strong hold on areas of production and service. This opens the world up to a lot of opportunities, and it increases the abilities of businesses to compete worldwide.
Before globalization services and products did not have such a wide range of customers, and this causes a decrease in their value, but a larger customer base will increase the profitability of a business. Globalization has made business must more profitable and complex. Good management in one country will not automatically be good leadership in another country for several reasons. A good manager may be deemed so by certain characteristics that are favored in a particular country, and these characteristics or habits may not be appreciated or held so highly in another country.
Countries have their own cultures and social standards, and this is important when considering a role of leadership. A leader that has knowledge of a countries ethics, beliefs, and customs and basic leadership skills can provide beneficial leadership to a business in another country. There are several skills that a leader can have that will make them successful globally, and these skills are strong business knowledge, awareness and sensitivity to cultural differences and standards, courage, commitment, and integrity.
Any good leader can not be a good leader in any country, but a leader with good work ethics, personal and professional integrity, and determination can be a good leader. If the leader is trained in cultural standards of a country and respects these standards they can be effective and will be respected by the country they are trying to provide leadership to. How to create and maintain a healthy organizational culture Research shows that in the companies that get into trouble, managers were evaluated based on their ability to crunch their numbers but there was not much assessment of their character.
Very few companies were looking into the kind of people they were empowering as managers and leaders. It is a very important new concept where companies are now focusing on the character traits of its leaders in an effort to have a healthy company culture and one that is conducive to honest dealings and moral behavior. ‘Tyco now evaluates 10 character traits of top managers annually. It looks for qualities such as ‘managerial courage’ which is expecting their managers to speak out if something does not look well as opposed to turning their face and pretending all is well, well really, its not. (www. nowledge. wharton. upenn. edu, 2005)’ Scott Sullivan, former WorldCom CFO, said on the day that he was sentenced that his biggest regret was that he was a coward under pressure. Had he been stronger under pressure and someone with morals, the collapse that left thousands without jobs and many hundred investors in the lurch, may nit have happened. ‘It is very important to have a culture where people have leaders who are focused not just on profits but also on the right thing, a concept that many saw as antiquated in the past 10 years where America has seen corporate scandals unfold one after the other. Chaleff, 2010)’ Self evaluation and accountability are buzz words in many companies now and it is a direct result of the rampant corruption and lack of accountability that thrived in the corporate world just a few short years ago. Another strategy to maintain a healthy organizational culture is communication. Many people believe that being a leader or a person further up in the hierarchy makes one inaccessible with a sense of exclusivity around that position and this most certainly does not lend itself to open lines of communication.
For a healthy thriving atmosphere and a feel good culture, it is important that all employees feel they have a voice and also that should the need arise, they can go and speak to someone higher up and that their issue will be given importance. Companies where employees feel unappreciated are distinct for their high employee turnover. If one feels their opinion is not valued, chances are they will feel they have no say or respect and thus will not contribute much to a healthy environment.
Open lines of communication via meetings, newsletters, email groups or simply open door policies is a very important factor in promoting a healthy environment. People can clarify issues, sort out grievances or simply contribute to the conversation that may be occurring within the company. Conclusion Leadership and management are two opposing styles of employee supervision actively used within today’s business world but both are vitally important. To highlight the need for more leadership is not to minimize the importance of management or managers.
We may conclude that while management and leadership are two distinct things, they have qualities such as straight forwardness, willingness to communicate and the moral courage to stand up for what is right, that overlap. The increased role of globalization has also affected management and leadership in several ways- any good leader can not be a good leader in any country, but a leader with good work ethics, personal and professional integrity, and determination can be a good leader.
If the leader is trained in cultural standards of a country and respects these standards they can be effective and will be respected by the country they are trying to provide leadership to. Lastly, we can safely conclude that leaders and manager are the people in any organization that set the company culture and prevailing atmosphere. Having personal ethics and the courage to say no to unethical practices as well as maintaining steady and constant communication with co worker and employees are important ways to build a healthy and conducive environment within an organization.
References Bateman, T & Snell, S (2009). Management: Leading & Collaborating in a Competitive World. McGraw – Hill. Breen, E (2010). Tyco 2010 Annual Report. Retrieved July 15, 2011, from Annual Report Web Site: http://phx. corporate-ir. net/External. File? item=UGFyZW50SUQ9NDEwNjAzfENoaWxkSUQ9NDIwNzY3fFR5cGU9MQ==& Kumle J (2006). Leadership v. Management. SuperVision. 67(8), 11. Governance. (2011). Retrieved July 31, 2011, from Governance at Tyco Web http://www. tyco. om/wps/wcm/connect/tyco+corporate+citizenship/Corporate+Citizenship/Governance Nigel H (2011). Globalization in context. Journal of Advertising Research. 51 (1), 37-41. Tyco’s Edward Breen: When leadership means firing top management & entire board. (2005). retrieved July 31, 2011, from Knowledge at Wharton Web Site: http://knowledge. wharton. upenn. edu/article. cfm? articleid=1317 Chaleff I (2010). Promoting the healthy flow of information to senior leaders. Leader to leader. 2010 ( 56), 12.