Leading and Learning as a Cure for Pathological Management Styles

Learning organizations are likely to be more successful in developing new methods to compete on the market. Research by Michie & Zumitzavan (2012) furthers the argument that those organizations that foster learning and are managed by learning leaders are more successful than those who are reactive and focused on pathological styles. Learning leadership is progressive, open-minded, humanistic, and goal orientated that results in higher firm development and profits.  

Leadership and learning are two components that come together to foster development. The way in which leaders learn has an impact on how they act as administrators. Those that engaged in all four learning styles action, thinking, feeling and assessing others are more capability of using multiple leadership styles such as challenging, inspiring, enabling, modeling, and encouraging (Brown and Posner, 2001). 

Learning is one way in which organizations can continually renew themselves versus accepting the fate of a rigid decline. According to (Johnson and Scholes, 2002), organizations that are willing to continue learning throughout their lifecycles become more sustainable in the sense that they can adjust to new market trends, structures, and realities. If such organizations are not willing to learn and change they will be eventually crushed under new market realities by more competitive and nimble organizations. 

Leaders have the ability to prime the behavior of their followers. When leaders have a healthy respect for learning they can influence the expectations and behaviors of managers who further impact the social structure of employees. Creating a culture that respects and fosters learning, helps to enhance both the employees’ abilities, as well as the ability of the organization to adapt to market changes. 

The researchers Michie & Zumitzavan (2012), attempted to see how the attributes of managers impacted the learning and leading styles that influence organizational success. Twenty North Taiwanese firms were selected for the overall interviews and questionnaires.  They found that there was no relationship between learning styles and the demographics of the organization or location. In other words, learning leadership is not tied to organizational demographics. The impact of organizational learning styles was influenced by the leadership styles within the organization. 

Effective Organizations: Managers within effective organizations believed that technology and cost reduction were two important factors. However, they agreed that by developing employees skills their organizations could be enhanced. Thus, they sent people to seminars, workshops, training, educational outlets, etc… to improve their skills. They welcomed open opinions, managed workplace problems progressively, delegated for employee enhancement, and continued to forecast the needs of their organizations into the future. 

Less Effective Organizations: Less effective organizations are marked by their short-sighted thinking that focused on day-to-day issues. They were less able to forecast the future of the organization or able to solidify the goals of the organization. They rarely sent people for enhancement training or education and did not do well in managing employee problems. Furthermore, they were not willing to delegate authority and did not encourage employee opinions. 

The research results indicate that short-sighted behaviors, whereby individuals are not learning, are more prone to poor performance. With such results it is important to understand how training and development has an enhanced place in the most successful organizations.  Such training doesn’t need to be formal but does need to encourage constant learning and development to be effective. The learning style of the leaders and their level of expectation setting appear to foster organizational learning. 

Micromanaging leads to poor results and creates a systematic structure that damages the organizations ability to effectively compete on the market. Some have argued that micromanaging is a pathological behavior rooted in the manager’s childhood experiences, perceptions of incompetence, and their inability to think beyond their most immediate needs. Such managers foster fiefdoms in the workplace, manage by fear, and often take credit for others work. Many times their policies, procedures, and departmental approaches are based in the need for self-validation. For investors and executives who desire to see their organization succeed, they should take considerable care in fostering learning within their organizations and limit the advancement of those with the least capacity to lead. New ideas bring opportunities for organizational advancement. Where profits are low, adaptation slow, and employee development under toe….you may just have an abundance of pathological management styles.

Brown, M. and Posner, Z., (2001). Exploring the relationship between learning and leadership.

Leadership and organizational development journal,  22 (5–6), 274–280.

Johnson, G. and Scholes, K.,(2002). Exploring corporate strategy. Essex: Pearson Education.

Michie, J. & Zumitzavan, F. (2012). The impact of learning and leadership management styles on organizational outcomes: a study of Tyre Firms in Thailand. Asia Pacific Business Review, 18 (4).

Mexican Power Distance Relationships and Communication Styles

The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) along with more recent immigration of Mexican Americans has led to newer understandings of the power-distance dynamics of communication embedded in the South American culture. As new business partnerships emerge that lead to the furthering of relationships in Mexico, American managers will need to understand how communication and culture influences the organization processes. Furthermore, strong managers should have a global perspective to more effectively manage diverse cultures.

Mexico is seen as having a high power distance culture. They ranked with a score of 81 points that puts them fifth among 50 countries within the study (Hofstede’s, 2001). The greater this high-power distance the more uncomfortable employees feel when talking to managers, executives and others within positions of authority. Such employees would feel a natural anxiety when trying to connect with their supervisors and managers.

Imagine for a moment that you were a manager of employees from Mexico. You may not understand why they seem so silent, unwilling to bring forward problems, and not take initiative when problems occur. They seem to wait for direction and may not act even if such actions would have a positive result for the company. This could be part of issues related to the power-distance dynamics of two varying cultures.

 

It has been stated that such dynamics are “that silence can exact a high psychological price on individuals, generating feelings of humiliation, pernicious anger, resentment, and the like that, if unexpressed, contaminate every interaction, shut down creativity, and undermine productivity” (Perlow & Williams, 2003, p. 52). When cultures encourage such behaviors there is going to be less innovation and development within organizations as the environment creates passivity.

This means that managers need to engage such employees, build the right environments, and develop ways to create communication networks that result in productive outputs. By developing stronger relationships with such employees it begins adjust and create behaviors that are more productive. It takes time for employees to feel comfortable around managers and their positional powers before positive communication patterns can be developed. Trust develops over time.

A study by Madlock (2012) helps to highlight how the cultural aspects of power-distance influence communication styles. Through the surveying of 168 Mexican participants from non-managerial jobs the concepts of power distance, approach avoidance, communication apprehension, organizational commitment, communication satisfaction, and job satisfaction were measured. 

Results:

-Mexican employees exhibited more signs of power distance and use of avoidance methods.

-Mexican employees used less approach messages.

-There was a relationship between communication satisfaction and communication avoidance.

-There was a negative relationship between communication satisfaction and use of approach messages.

-Positive relationships existed between communication satisfaction, job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Analysis:

Employees from cultures with high power distance relationships naturally do not engage their environment well without help from management. The anxiety they feel when talking to people of higher authority leads to avoidance of such interactions. In such populations some employees will be more inclined to withdraw even further which lowers their communicative engagement with others as well as their satisfaction with the employer. Through the engagement of Mexican workers, and others from similar type cultures, it is possible to raise their trust of management for higher levels of performance.

Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Madlock, P. (2012). The Influence of Power Distance and Communication on Mexican Workers. Journal of Business Communication, 49 (2). 

Perlow, L., & Williams, S. (2003). Is silence killing your company? Harvard Business Review,

81, 52-58.

The Nations with the Best Managed Organizations

Countries are still on their paths of growth and seek to develop organizations that are effective and well-managed. This management comes into play when organizations have a sense of the human capital that goes into a healthy business model s and profitable organizations. Research helps decision makers understand the level of performance, achievement of targets and ways of motivating people. 

Through the development of strong management techniques, it is possible to derive higher forms of organizational development. Some countries are predisposed to generate higher performing organizations than others that have poor human rights understandings. The differences between first world and third world organizations become apparent when analyzing a number of organizations longitudinally. 

Research by Bloom, Genakos, Sadun, and Van Reenen (2012) reviewed over 10,000 organizations in the timeframe of a decade with an attempt to determine their performance monitoring, target settings, and incentives/people management styles. The results are summarized into the ten following concepts:

1.) U.S. manufacturing firms scored higher than any other country. Countries such as Canada, Germany, Japan, and Sweden were also well managed while Brazil, China, and India were much less well managed.

2.) Even though each country has a variety of manageability generally poor performing countries have larger tails of very poorly run other organizations (i.e. local government, businesses, institutions, etc.).

3.) American retail and hospitals ranked high but high schools ranked poorly.

4.) Nonmanufacturing sectors had wider spreads than other sectors.

5.) Government owned organizations had the worst management practices and subsequent performance based on tenure not allowing poor performers to be removed.

6.) Private-sector companies managed by first descendants of the founders were poorly managed while those run by a professional firm were better off.

7.) Multinational firms adapted strong management practices.

8.) Difficult markets were associated with better management.

9.) Light levels of labor market regulation were associated with positive management.

10.) The higher the education level of managers the better the management practices.

The research helps highlight how American firms are still leading the game of positive management. Countries such as German, Japan and Sweden have also done well in their administration styles while poor firms reside more widely in third world nations. Furthermore, multinational forms of companies seem to adapt and maintain strong management practices that help them maintain an economic foothold. Organizations also saw better management with higher levels of management education. This helps decision makers understand that greater connections between academia and business can be helpful in gaining competitive advantages. Yet even though a higher college education was a benefit it would appear that government run entities and high school education were still considered very poorly managed in the U.S.

Bloom, N., Genakos, C., Sadun, R. & Reenen, J. (2012). Management practices across firms and countries. Academy of Management Perspectives,  26 (1).