Introduction
Leadership plays a pivotal role in engaging employees, identifying/managing conflicts at the workplace and elevating an organization from good to great, by providing a vision and improving the capacity and efficiency of the organization. In the contemporary corporate system, leadership has an instrumental role in efficiently realizing objectives that have been identified by the organization.
Ways leaders should consider engaging employees?
Studies consider human resource as one of the most sensitive and important resources of an organization. This is because it is human resource, which employs and exploits other resources to perform tasks or to realize the objectives. Therefore, modern organizations emphasize on human resource/employees to not only meet objectives, but also for attaining competitive advantage. However, without proactively engaging employees, their potential cannot be effusively exploited. Therefore, it is essential to engage employees for above mentioned reasons.
Studies, on human resource-leadership and contemporary organization, have identified several strategies, methods, and techniques to engage employees. One of the methods is to devise such environment and instrument, which eases the communication between leadership and employees. The more they are at ease with discussing sensitive and important matters, the simpler it will be to address these issues and improve the performance of human resource or employees. To device such environment, it is imperative that employees have confidence that speaking up on matters will not have a backlash. Another strategy or method could be mentoring. When an employee faces challenges, he/she should be guided and aided, which will a positive impact on all employees. However, the reward system must be fair. Discussing strategies and their implementation are another method to engage (Eisenhauver, 2017).
There are several strategies to engage employees, which are direct and indirect. For instance, motivating employees to speak up is a great strategy, which devices, positive, healthier, and rich work environment that increases positive work deviance. All these strategies will produce results when they will be implemented sincerely and with the intention to improve organizational for all not just for organization.
What should leaders do elevate their organization from good to great?
The organization must exploit their resources optimally to survive in contemporary corporate/economic system and most of the organizations develop this capacity in very early stages. However, to elevate an organization, from a typical organization that has learned to survive in stern competition to industry leader, a visionary leadership that emphasizes on human resource and innovation.
Visionary leadership not only looks outwards but also inwards. This means that it understands its strength and weaknesses and devises strategies, which are based on its strength. Leadership understands that most important and sensitive of all resources is human resource, which why it invests in it to 1) exploit its potential and 2) increase its potential. It also emphasizes on innovation, which reduces the cost of operation and adds value to the product. In addition, when leadership looks inwards, it also identifies means that can be used to increase the capacity and efficiency of the organization, which separates it from typical organizations (Farrell, 2014).
It is apparent from the discourse that organizations can increase their capacity and efficiency from focusing inwards; on innovation and human resource. This will improve performance and allow the firm to realize its objectives more efficiently than the others.
What Leadership should do to manage conflict in the workplace?
Conflict in the workplace is nature and these conflicts could be of various types. The interdependence of employees, on one another, sometimes causes tensions, when tasks are not performed efficiently. Another reason could be the difference in style/gender/leadership-style, etc. However, they must be addressed to keep the work environment healthy and rich.
Studies reveal that there are several kinds of conflict, which occur in an organization and the reasons for these occurrences are few and well researched. Different organizations have devised different mechanisms and instruments to address these conflicts. For instance, in healthier work environment, employees discuss their issues openly and confidently, which allows organizations to address these issues effectively. In some cases, leadership assumes a proactive role and identifies such issues on its own and then resolves these issues. Both these methods can be employed simultaneously by leadership for quick and better results (Amarakoon, 2013).
The organization must have such work environment, in which people are more confident in bringing up those matters, which affect them. In addition, leadership must be proactive in identifying and resolving conflicts are the workplace.
Conclusion
It is concluded that leadership can engage employees in a number of ways; however, the adopted strategy and method must be the most suited and effective. In addition, engaging employees is directly associated with work-environment, which is why it must be rich and healthy. Leadership can focus inwards, on human resource and innovation for competitive advantage and address conflict in the workplace, the organization must have 1) healthy work environment, which encourages people to speak up and 2) proactive leadership.
References
Amarakoon, U. (2013, September 8). Competitive Advantage Through HR Innovation. Retrieved from http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/competitive-advantage-through-hr-innovation/
Eisenhauver, T. (2017, November 1). 49 Employee Engagement Ideas. Retrieved from https://axerosolutions.com/blogs/timeisenhauer/pulse/206/49-employee-engagement-ideas-the-ultimate-cheat-sheet-your-team-will-love
Farrell, A. (2014, February 6). 5 Common Workplace Conflicts Every Small Business Will Encounter. Retrieved from http://yfsmagazine.com/2014/02/06/5-common-workplace-conflicts-every-small-business-will-encounter/
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