Exercise 2
[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]
Exercise 2
Introduction
Biotech Health and Life Products, is a subdivision of the of a big food product manufacturing company, Expert food consultants, that deals in the production and distribution of ready to make and ready to cook food products. Biotech Health and Life Products, Inc. is a health and sciences company that deals herbal products, medicines and beauty products keeping the customer’s health and safety at its top priority. Biotech also takes care of the kids or baby section of the food and specializes in the production and distribution of infant formula products in the market of the United States of America.
In a very short span of time, Biotech has become a popular household name in the United States of America, Europe, Canada and some parts of Asia. Its products are highly effective and popular among the masses for their quality and reliability. They are known for changing the lifestyles of people. Biotech Health and Life products is highly recognized for their innovation and excellence in each and every product, as it makes use of the latest techniques of biotechnology to develop its products and maintain and improve the standards of its merchandise. The headquarters of the company is in Yonkers, New York.
Biotech is recently planning to open a manufacturing and distribution unit in some part of Asia so that it can start its business in the Asian region as well. Although Biotech was already operating in the Asian market, the products were not manufactured locally. So they had to be transported all the way from the United States of America to the region which took up a lot of company’s budget and added up in the supply chain or the transportation costs of the company. For the purpose of establishment of its manufacturing and distribution plant, Biotech has chosen China as the most suitable location. The first and foremost reason to choose China was the minimum cost of production of the products. The cost of acquiring a property, especially property for a business or manufacturing, is far less as compared to the other countries on the list. Moreover, China has a vast labor market where qualified and experienced labor can be easily found and also on cheap wages. In addition to all this, the tax structure of China is very flexible. The taxes applied to the establishing businesses, especially a manufacturing plant, are very minimal and investor friendly.
One all the paperwork has been done about the selection of best location and the best candidate to handle the project in an out location, now is the time to think about the development of some soft skills and development of strategies to run the new division smoothly. It includes the overall planning that needs to be done in order to meet the goals and objectives of the company. The most important factor that will be looked upon in this phase will be the choice of a leadership style that will be applied in the newly developed region so that it can be made fruitful and the workforce may enjoy working here.
Discussion
The second stage of the planning and development process for the new manufacturing and distribution plant in China will be the making and designing of the b strategies to run the project smoothly and making it a progressive and successful one. The primary role for this purpose will be played by the higher management along with the collaboration of the team leaders. Team leaders from different departments and managers and even CEO and COO will participate in this phase as it requires devising of strategies from top to bottom.
This stage will first comprise of deciding the goals and objectives of the newly developed manufacturing unit (CITATION Lew19 \l 1033 (Lewin, 2019). The examples of the goals and objectives may be taken as capturing the market share, deciding the percentage of market share that will be occupied by the company, distribution of the products, the supply chain procedure, the market practices, and the areas and outlets to which the products have to be supplied and placed.
The second stage of this phase comprises of devising and planning of strategies. The higher management in collaboration with the department heads and the team leads will think of the ways and approaches through which these goals will be fulfilled.
Difference between leadership and management
Is a good manager a good leader as well? Can a good leader prove to be a good manager? Are both the similar terms or there exists any difference among both? It has been a confusion since a very long time and still the researchers debate on the topic. The term leader and manager are often used interchangeably, but there are visible similarities and differences between the two. Although both perform a role of directing the activities in an organization or any setup and align the tasks to be performed, there is a difference in the way they make this possible.
Managers adopt the approach of focusing on the goals and the tasks to be performed and keeping the performance and achievement more effective. Managers get the work done through transactional approaches, focusing and emphasizing more on processes, motivation, and coordination. Most of the functions carried on by managers in any organizations or any setup are planning, organizing, leading, staffing, directing and controlling the activities of other individuals whether in teams or separately, in order to accomplish a common goal. More precisely, managers adopt a rigorous approach and follow the traditional systems and processes ( CITATION Lea19 \l 1033 (Leadership Vs. Management, 2019). Managers are the result-oriented problem solvers that are responsible for the day to day actions of an organizations. They mostly focus on short –term needs of an organization.
On the other hand, leaders get the tasks done and engage others through inspiration and by sharing a common vision and effectiveness. Leaders get the work done on the basis of an emotional appeal. Their approach is to develop a strong emotional and inspirational relationship with their followers. Leaders focus on the longer-term goals and are more driven by the vision. They are the change-drivers in any society or the organizations. They work hard to bring the change, instill new ideas into the minds of the people, polish and develop the skills of their followers and drive the people towards their shared goals. Leaders appear as role models for their followers, and people usually get inspired by their personalities or habits. This may fall under shadow the personality of a manager and deem him less necessary than the leaders, but such is not the case. In fact, a leader unites the people under an umbrella of a common cause whereas a manager drives less charismatic people who focus more on just getting things done.
Leadership Styles
Since Biotech is such a big company with extensive operations in almost all over the United States, it requires skilled and experienced leaders to handle it newly developed manufacturing and distribution unit. It can be clearly seen that the Biotech has successfully managed its operations in the United States and had made considerable profits in the recent years, the company requires the same kind of competent leadership in China as well, so that it can run the unit in full swing and earn big profits CITATION Man \l 1033 (Managing Change for Organizations). For this purpose, the higher management needs to choose the right leadership style, which can prove to be of maximum benefit to the organization and which can generate a large number of followers.
Some of the leadership styles that may prove to be very productive and fruitful in the case of such a project have been discussed below:
Laissez Faire Leadership
Laissez-faire leadership style, or the delegative leadership style, is very much similar in nature to the servant leadership style. In this leadership style, the leader puts his responsibility of decision making with the followers or the employees, and employees make all the decision how, when, where (and why) to carry out certain activities in a group to achieve a common goal. Some of the researchers argue that this may be a less successful approach as all the authority or decision-making power lies with the employees, and they may take some wrong decision at any stage in their career which can damage the goal structure o repute of the organization (Yang, 2015).
Some of the advantages of this kind of leadership may b that employees feel motivated in it as the decision making power rests with them. The leader is only responsible for providing the necessary equipment or information required for these tasks to be accomplished and the rest lies with the team members.
The disadvantages of laissez-faire leadership style may be viewed as that this leadership style may not be that much effective in the case of the team of less skilled or less-experienced people.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is one of the most practical and useful theoretical approaches to the management of the entire team. It is a flexible form of leadership practices due to its practical approach. Therefore, that specific component is necessary in order to manage the whole system of the Biotech's infant formula. Transformational leadership style contains better communication and motivation factors that are essential to bring significant changes to the performance level of any organization. Positive behavior of a transformational leader provides the necessary confidence to employees in order to trust them regarding specific policies. It is noteworthy to mention that transformational leadership recognizes the potential responsibilities and roles of each person in order to augment the overall enactment of an organization.
Transformational leadership style is the projected management tactic in order to construct the expected level of harmony to encourage the Biotech infant formula’s goal attainment. This leadership tactic is surely a malleable management approach as it helps in the creation of better communication level among the project leader and team members. In order to create the expected performance level for an organization, there must be open and collaborative communication. A transformational leadership style is a flexible approach that helps in attaining the collaborative and open communication (McCleskey, 2014). A leader has to convey organizational tasks to all workers for which he/she requires the interface tool which can only be possible through transformational leadership. The facet of transformational leadership is graded as the stretchy attitude to treat certain complex team challenges. Transformational leadership style offers constant working conditions to show the performance level in an efficient manner.
Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic leadership refers to the command and style kind of leadership style. It is also known as the authoritarian leadership. In this kind of leadership, as the name suggests, the authority lies with one person, that is, the leader only and only he or she is the sole controller over the whole group. There is minimum, or no input by the group members and the entire decision power lies with the group leader. In an autocratic style of leadership, group members are rarely trusted with decision-making procedures (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015). The work procedures are dictated by the leader, and the environment is kept very strict in order to get the tasks done.
Autocratic leadership is especially beneficial for the organizations as it communicates a clear chain of command. It is very clear in that who is in charge and where the powerhouse of the group is. Another advantage of Autocratic Leadership is that it is very effective in controlling a smaller number of people or small groups. This type of leadership may also provide leverage to the organizations as the decision making in such kind of leadership style happens quickly; not much time is wasted in the thinking process or gathering opinions from the other sources.
Where there are many benefits of this leadership style, it brings some cons with it as well. One of the most significant disadvantages of Autocratic Leadership is that it may discourage the members of the group. They may feel rejected or isolated as they do not get any participation in the decision-making process. They may feel demotivated and may not b able to provide the desired outcomes. Autocratic leaders tend to overlook the expertise and the knowledge that the group members bring with them.
Servant Leadership
Servant Leadership is this style of leadership in which a leader adopts the serving approach in order to rule over his or her followers. In this leadership style, the leader prefers to serve instead of ruling over the followers (Liden, Wayne, Liao, & Meuser, 2014). In this kind of leadership, the main focus of the leaders is the thriving of their followers and their organization. A servant leader puts the needs of his employees first and prefers to develop their capabilities and skills so that the goals and objectives of the organization can be achieved.
One of the significant advantages of servant leadership is that the employees or followers feel empowered in this approach. The leaders take maximum advice from the followers, and his or her own input is minimum. The group member s feel the sense of belonging to the group and feel motivated.
Although the concept of servant leadership may sound very warm and welcoming and one may think that it is an approach only oozing out benefits, then he or she may want to re-visit their thoughts. Like every other leadership style, Servant Leadership also carries certain drawbacks with it. The first and foremost disadvantage of this leadership style is the deviation from the traditional leadership styles. Transfer of power from the hands of a conventional leader like CEO and the managers takes place to the employees directly, and some leaders might find it hard to share the power. I may become difficult to find such people who are ready to sacrifice their ego and work in this way.
Servant Leadership demands a greater sense of patience and compassion from the leaders as compared to all the other leadership styles and expects the leaders to lay down their authority and power. As this leadership style is entirely different from all the other leadership styles, it misses all the benefits served by other leadership styles. Another disadvantage of servant leadership may be the lack of managerial authority. SWhen the employees see their leader resting the decision making power with them, the may refuse to accept him or her as an authoritative figure and may refuse to take orders from them.
Vision Statement:
“Taking care of you and your baby in a tasty, healthy and natural way."
A vision statement is a very short, one-line summary of the whole operations of the company. It sums up the overall objectives, goals, and activities of the company in a single line or a phrase. Vision statements are usually very catchy and striking in the first sight CITATION Bai18 \l 1033 (Co., 2018). The same approach has been adopted while devising the vision statement for this new division. The vision statement encompasses all the aspects of the company’s operations (infant formula products) and objectives (taste, health, and organic products) in a single phrase and catches the attention of the reader immediately.
Mission Statement:
“To provide a safe, tasty and affordable range of food items, especially infant formula food, using only nature's help, to ensure the perfect health of the infant and the whole family and become customer’s first choice.”
A mission statement is a slightly longer statement than a vision statement. It serves the same purpose just like the vision statement. It tells the reader about the goals of the company, the products or services it is dealing in, its primary customers and markets and the geographical region in which it is operating. A mission statement can be of one sentence or two sentences but not longer than that. The mission mentioned above statement has also been designed keeping in mind all the above factors. It encompasses the products of the company (infant formula food), objective (customer's health and customer's priority) and strategy (nature’s help)
Conclusion
In a nutshell, it can be seen that in order to make progress and prosper, Biotech can adopt any one of leadership styles either transformational or laissez-faire leadership style, servant or autocratic or a combination of all these leadership styles. The strategies may keep changing as per the need of the hour and the changes in the market. Biotech needs to be dynamic and flexible and keep reviewing their rules and policies according to the changing situations and conditions of the market. Only in this case will the company proper and the newly established manufacturing unit.
References
Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories, principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1), 6-14.
Co., B. &. (2018). Mission and Vision Statements.
Leadership Vs. Management. (2019). The University of Maryland.
Lewin, K. (2019). Managing Change for Employees. University of Maryland Univesity College.
Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Liao, C., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5), 1434-1452.
Managing Change for Organizations. (n.d.). University of Maryland University College.
McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117. BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1033
Yang, I. (2015). Positive effects of laissez-faire leadership: conceptual exploration. Journal of Management Development, 34(10), 1246-1261.
