Our readings discussed several different leadership style approaches. Of the different approaches I believe Team Management (9,9) is the style which would yield the best results today. What I see today for the most part is that employees want to be valued, heard, and safe while getting the job done. A happy employee is a productive employee. A disgruntled employee is an employee that will not give their best effort and could have an influence on others. Team Management style, a leadership style that emphasis’s both task and interpersonal relationships and can create a very productive and good working environment (Northhouse, 2013).
This past year I have been exposed to a union based manufacturing chemical plant of hazardous materials. This is a plant that has been around since the 1800’s. From my experience here the worst thing you can do is ignore interpersonal relationships and focus solely on task. When focusing specifically on task the one thing that is easily over looked is safety. However if management takes the time to communicate with employees, safety problems can be avoided and new improved approaches to production can be discovered.
There are gentleman that have worked here for 45 years! They have horror stories that I can’t imagine. Stories of total disregard for employees and saftey with a constant focus on production and numbers. Stories of injuries and near death accidents all of which could have been avoided but were brushed under the carpet and ignored. 30 years ago if you approached your manager about a safety concern or manufacturing approach, the next day you likely will be unemployed. This was the time of the Authority-Compliance (9,1) leadership style where the focus was on task and people were tools (Northhouse, 2013).
Taking a Team Management approach is the way to go. You can focus on the tasks, interpersonal relationships, discuss saftey concerns, and also explore improved ways of performing tasks. It’s a leadership style that will allow the employee to be heard and valued while focusing on production and getting the task done.
Northhouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership Theory and Practice (Sixth Edition). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Ashley Rotell says
Team management is an extremely value attribute to have in a company. You hit the nail on the head about a happy employee being a good employee. Someone who feels comfortable in their surrounding is much more likely to excel at a task than someone who feels that they don’t matter to the team.
As well as taking safety into concern, as should be the number one goal in the line of work you are in, the management should also make note of how many days you have gone incident free and after so many days the whole facility should be rewarded for being so cautious.
The team management approach in this specific field would yield safety and the validity of their employees.