Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Breast Cancer Society of America Funds? Mary Clayborne [email  protected] com Leadership and Organizational Behavior MGMT -591-19138 Instructor: Jacci Christopher September 21, 2012 At one point in time, I’ve thought that every one including myself knew themselves whether it was their character, personality, what they like and do not like. I figured that once you knew of these things than that means that you were going to be just fine and that you now have the knowledge and tools needed to get by in life it self.After taking this life styles inventory test, I realized that what you have thought about in regards to ones own self may not always be true. While taking this inventory, my primary results were that I scored a 99 for being affiliate, needing approval, conventional, being dependent, and also avoidance. One word that I did not understand was affiliate. So when I did my research on the word the definition that came about was from businessdictionary. com states that an affiliate leader is one that promotes harmony among his or her followers and helps to solve any conflict.They also make it where their followers feel connected to each other. This sounds like me. I love to be in a place where there is peace, love, harmony, unity as well. This particular inventory amazes me even from the start of it. My backup personal thinking styles as shown in my circumplex are oppositional, self-actualizing, and humanistic-Encouraging. Its funny how one of my second highest percentiles was humanistic-encouraging. At my church, my talent and gift and being an encourager.So this thinking style I most certainly agree with due to the fact that I find myself encouraging people all the time on a regular basis. Even when I’m at work, at church, at school or just daily doing activities and it might perhaps cause me to interact with someone. Most times I catch myself asking that particular person if they are alright or if there is anything that I can do for them. I t feels like when I say those words it feels so natural to ask them that and not like any struggles as it may feel to others. In this case I totally agree with me being a humanistic-encourager.However, I would have thought that humanistic-encouraging would have been one of the styles that gotten a high percentage, so that kind-of puzzles me. In my mind being a dependent type of person means that you rely on people for certain things. Now that I think about it I guess it’s true to a certain extent. The style that I think might be reducing my over all effectiveness would be oppositional. I don’t think that I critic everything and seems to be a negative person. I try to be as positive as I can towards any situation. If an employer sees that one of my styles were oppositional, I don’t think they would want to hire me.However, I’m willing to be more open minded about the situation of course and to gain more knowledge and wisdom as to how to handle different si tuations that may come my way. One thing that I’ve noticed is that when you are a manager or a CEO of a particular company, hearing the voice from your staff should be very vital. At my job one of the biggest issues that everyone is having is with parking. I work literally right outside of down town and so the area in which everyone parks at is for free which means that everyone including the people you work with will get there as early as possible to get a park.However, there is a paid parking lot that located right behind our building where a lot of people do not park at because of the pricing. So us as a staff, we asked the owner of the company if he could rent the parking lot out for his staff and we all would pay a monthly fee. We all should have known what the response would be, (it was no). Due to this matter trying to get to work at 6:00am and do not have to see client’s until 9:30am is quite a bother. Some times it effects my work ethics and behavior because i m at work so early and don’t have to see anyone until hours later.So when the time come, I feel tired and drained because all of my energy was used so when I got to work. When you are working with a diverse group of people, you will notice that you have to be a multitasked and able to be opened minded with new ideas that might come about. My LSI style affects my personal and professional life style. I have 8 brothers and sister. Majority of them are girls, so there would always be some types of competitiveness going on in the house. Who has the longest hair, which can clean up the best for mother’s approval, who can dance better, who can do a lot of other things better than the other.My LSI style has contributed to my child hood. It makes you think and wonder, when we were children we started to develop into our character and personality not knowing it would create our own unique self. Being a perfectionist is a style that I thought I carried very strongly. I’m assuming that its not based on the LSI inventory. I could remember times where I would get highly upset if a particular task that I was to complete was not done the way that I wanted it to be. If so, I would stop completely and never return to it.Not knowing that that style is being a perfectionist person. Did this make me different from the other children or not was a question that I wondered for years. One of the things I would like to learn while being in MGMT591 is that I’m able to learn how to blend my primary and backup styles together or balance them out so that I can become emotionally stable while on the job or in my personal life. While doing so, this would improve who I am as an employee and as a person in general. Name:  Ã‚  D01595657 |Date Survey Taken:  Ã‚   | Your LSI Styles Profile The raw and percentile scores in the table below and the extensions on the circumplex shown below depict your perceptions of how you think and behave. The CONSTRUCTIVE Styles ( 11, 12, 1, and 2 o'clock positions) reflect self-enhancing thinking and behavior that contribute to one's level of satisfaction, ability to develop healthy relationships and work effectively with people, and proficiency at accomplishing tasks.The PASSIVE/DEFENSIVE Styles (3, 4, 5, and 6 o'clock positions) represent self-protecting thinking and behavior that promote the fulfillment of security needs through interaction with people. The AGGRESSIVE/DEFENSIVE Styles (7, 8, 9, and 10 o'clock positions) describe self-promoting thinking and behavior used to maintain status/position and fulfill security needs through task-related activities. |Position |Style Score |Percentile | |1 |Humanistic-Encouraging |39 |96 | |2 |Affiliative |40 |99 | |3 |Approval |33 |99 | |4 |Conventional |36 |99 | |5 |Dependent |36 |99 | |6 |Avoidance |21 |99 | |7 |Oppositional |9 |63 | |8 |Power |2 |10 | |9 |Competitive |7 |15 | |10 |Perfectionistic |15 |20 | |11 |Achievement |25 |25 | |12 |Self-Actualizing |32 |70 | The raw scores potentially range from 0 to 40. The percentile scores represent your results compared to those of 9,207 individuals who previously completed the Life Styles Inventory.For example, a percentile score of 75 means that you scored higher along a particular position than 75% of the other respondents in the sample and, in turn, indicates that the style represented by that position is strongly descriptive of you. In contrast, a score of 25 means that you scored higher than only about 25% of the other respondents and therefore indicates that the style represented by that position is not very descriptive of you. Your LSI Styles Circumplex For detailed descriptions of each of these 12 styles, click on the circumplex graphic in each of the 12 sections. [pic] Examining your Circumplex To accurately interpret your LSI results, it is important for you to consider your score on each style in terms of its range (high, medium, or low) on the profile. The three ranges correspond to the percentile points in the circumplex and in the table above. [pic] Leadership and Organizational Behavior Assignment 1, Briefing sheet, January 2013 Jeffrey P. Bezos : An entrepreneur leader Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and from an early age he showed his mechanical attitude developing intense and varied scientific interests. Considering this fact, his parents sent him to a special program for gifted children, where Jeff could develop his love for gadgets (Byers, 2006). When his family moved to Florida, he discovered his ‘great passion’, computers, so he abandoned his studies in Physics and got a degree on Computer science and Electrical engineering (Sherman, 2001).After his studies, Jeff Bezos started working for Bankers Trust, and at the age of 26 he became the youngest Vice President of the company (Byers, 2006). When he noticed in 1994 that internet usage was increasing by 2300% a year (Hamalainen & Saarinen, 2007), he started planning his next step, which was Amazon. com. Amazon made his appearance in 1995 with 3 micro stations in Bezos’ garage (Robinson, 2009) and its activity was to sell books. Today Amazon. com is one of the most preferable internet retail platform, where customers can find DVD’s, CD’s, MP3 downloads, books and toys. According to Economist (2000), Amazon. om is the most visited internet retail platform in USA and one of the top 3 in Germany, UK, France and Japan. The impact of Amazon. com Amazon. com is today the largest electronic retail worldwide (Anon. , 2012). According to J. Bezos (Wired Magazine, December, 2011), Amazon is a cultural pioneer which lives to disrupt even its own business. It is recognized by 55% of conscious population, and it is part of today’s Western culture (Spector, 2002). The company spends almost 40% of its income on brand building (Margolis, 1999), and that is why Amazon. com is a trustable and a well-known brand name (Economist, 2000, Marketing, 1999). 0,000 people work today for Amazon, and the company turnover is 48 billion a year (Warman, 2012). Amaz on. com launched in November 2007 Kindle E-book reader and as Bezos notes â€Å"Millions of people own now Kindles† (Gonsalves, 2010)). According to Gonsalves (2010), Amazon sells 6 Kindles titles for every 10 hard books, and this strategic move increased profits up to 71%. Jeff Bezos vision about Amazon. com is to be the most customer-centric company in the world (Mellahi & Johnson, 2000). According to Mellahi and Johnson (2000) the success key of the company is†¦ innovation-innovation & innovation. J.Bezos’ approach to leading Amazon and his key factors which have contributed to his success. He was named â€Å"Man of the year 1999† (Ramo, 2011) and â€Å"Business person of the year† (Fortune Magazine, 2012). Jeff Bezos is a visionary entrepreneur leader ( (Dyer, et al. , 2009)). According to Moment (2004) the essential traits of an effective entrepreneur are to be singular focus, self-driven, ambitious, achievement oriented, imaginative, independen t and versatile. According to Quittner (1999) â€Å"Bezos, naturally enough is unmoved by the nay saying†. He asserts some instinctive characteristics, which make him distinctive from other leaders.Can he be described as a â€Å"Great Man/ Great leader†? As Huczynski and Buchanan put it (2007) â€Å"Great man are born leaders and emerge to take power regardless of social, organizational or historical context†. Other researches on trait theories tried to specify the traits of a great leader and found hundreds of them. However, according to Kilpatrick and Locke (1991) the typical leadership traits are: drive to archive, motivation to lead, self-confidence, ability to withstand setbacks, honesty and integrity, standing firm, cognitive ability, knowledge of business, emotional resilient.When Bezos decided to quit from his work on Wall Street, he had a strong feeling that his new business plan for an internet based retail platform would be his chance to move his idea s one step further (Academy of achievement interview, 2001). According to Stogdill (1948, 1974) a great man is confident, and he has a strong ego. A great man also has traits as honesty and integrity (Kilpatrick and Locke, 1991) and Jeff Bezos believe that one of the principal key of a leader is the courage â€Å"to tell the hard truth†.His collaborators and people who spend time working with him, subscribe Bezos as â€Å"immensely likable man† (Eskenazi, 2005). All this shows to us his excellent social skills. Subordinates are surprised by his brainpower and the way he inspires and leads his subordinates . These are signs of his intelligence and his motivation to lead. Examine the style, approach and content of the leadership demonstrated by specific examples Daft (2009) subscribes Bezos as a strong charismatic and also a visionary entrepreneur leader (Dyer, et al. , 2009).According to Schlooser and Todorovic (2006) there are commonalities between entrepreneurs and ch arismatic leaders. Subordinates usually are attracted by the way an entrepreneur and charismatic leader shows his great passion on achieving goals, taking risks, adding value in the organization and the way to control the business (Schlooser and Todorovic, 2006). According to Daft (2009) in an organization like Amazon where growth increases and the leader (Bezos) provide his major goal for continued growth, subordinates are exited and fully committed.Bezos has also a great ability to adapt to changes. He believes that engaging only to practices which will surely be successful, will prevent from exploring new opportunities (The business journals, May, 2008) Amazon. com’s motto is â€Å"Work hard, have fun and write history†. According to Adair (1979) in order to increase the effectiveness of the group, leaders (managers) must find ways to cover three basic needs of their subordinates: task needs (work hard), individual needs (have fun) and team maintance needs (write hi story).This approach is called Action-Centred Leadership and is part of Functional Approach. According to this approach, attention is focused on the content of leadership and how the group of the subordinates is affected by the leaders’ behavior. Bezos is also a situational leader, when Amazon had 2,9 million dollars in loses, he changed his strategy from â€Å"getting Amazon bigger and faster† to â€Å"look inside the house† (Anon. , 2012). Situational approach (Hersey and Blanchard, 1979) focuses on the situation where characteristics of an effective leadership are depending on the situation.Furthermore, Bezos is a transformational leader. Researchers in leadership argue that visionary and charisma are some of the characteristics of a transformational leader (Mullins, 2010). A transformational leader inspires and gives vision for the next day of the organization and knows how to connect the achievements of the subordinates with the organization’s goals (Kark, et al. , 2003). Shares are offered for bonuses to Amazon. com employees, in order to motivate them to see the big picture of the business and to feel their participation within the organization’s vision.Evaluate whether Jeff Bezos could have been as effective in a different context or organization, giving a credible argument for this supported by referenced theory Jeff Bezos has showed he can lead Amazon. com through change via his ability to make it the most costumer centric company in the world (Sherman, 2001). His visionary entrepreneur leadership style (Dyer, et al. , 2009) offers the ability to fit in change. His transformational leadership style (Burns, 1978) also indicates his charismatic way on leading his organization under different situations.Also, Jeff Bezos and Amazon surprised by launching the new Kindle Fire HD tablets (Spencer, 2012). Kindle Fire Hd is now one of the most hi-tech tablet gadgets in the world and Apple’s iPad finally found a real c ompetitor. According to Charles(2012), Bezos and Amazon are preparing another big surprise for their competitors: The new Kindle phone. These show us that Bezos could be effective if the context of the company was different. Jeffrey Bezos is an entrepreneur, and like other entrepreneurs he is known for having started his own business. It is unknown whether he could lead an established organization.It can be said that he would not be effective leading companies which are out of his ’area’ (computing & internet), but he also founded ‘’Blue Origin’’, a human spaceflight company (Boyle, 2006). According to these transferable skills and his traits (charisma, creativity, energy-drive, strong ego, honesty and integrity, social sills) he could lead different context companies in various situations. Conclusion We showed that Jeff Bezos is a strong visionary and charismatic entrepreneur leader with the traits of a great man. He is also a situational an d transformational leader with a great ability to inspire his suborders.They admire his brainpower and his successful decision-making. He can easily adapt to change, and his transferable skills make him a great leader under any circumstances. References Anon. , 2006. Click to download. [Online] Available at: http://www. economist. com/node/7791530 [Accessed 28 December 2012]. Anon. , 2012. A Retail Revolution Turns 10. [Online] Available at: http://www. nytimes. com/2005/07/10/business/yourmoney/10amazon. html? pagewanted=all&_r=0 [Accessed 28 December 2012]. Boyle, A. , 2012. 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