This article demonstrates the important role that the manager of the organization has in the lives of its employees.
The premises are established that transformational leadership and clear, open and continuous communication can more easily allow the achievement of objectives, and that the theoretical knowledge of the leader gives the company continuity and direction. From the first premise, it follows that the more opportunities are sought to provide feedback to employees on their performance and the effect it has on the achievement of the organization's goals, the greater the chances of meeting them or, rather, that dismissal do not be something difficult and unexpected for the employee.
Through the second premise, it is emphasized that theoretical knowledge strengthens the performance of the leader, and that the leader can set goals that make sense for external clients, which in turn will be transformed into benefits for all.
In this changing era, where political and economic decisions disrupt the social part of existence, human beings are expected to be better people to meet the requirements of external customers and their businesses, as well as the needs of their internal customers, employees.
It must be recognized that in the last 150 years, the process towards globalization has meant impressive advances for the peoples of the world. Today, companies that produce for a larger global market have managed to achieve economies of scale. Competition has increased your productivity. In this way, everything converges towards a common global goal, economic growth and poverty reduction (Dollar, 2005).
Despite the fact that in most of the countries that have entered this third wave of globalization since 1980 in terms of economic development and poverty reduction there are visible improvements, there are some significant exceptions. One of them is the case of Latin America, where poverty has increased and economic growth has not been as expected.
According to Dollar (2005), there are three theoretical currents that explain the reasons why these countries have not managed to break into the global markets for manufactured goods and services, namely:
1. Inadequate policies and infrastructure, weak institutions, and government corruption.
2. Unavoidable disadvantages related to geography and climate.
3. Continuously missed opportunities, not only because of inadequate policies but because other countries are far ahead of them.
In order to participate in world economic activities, one must know the geographical advantages, raw materials, transportation, market, climate, labor, etc. with which the company can compete and can even share with another company the manufacture of some intermediate goods in a production chain.
In order to participate, the company, in turn, must analyze the problems it has and see the relationships between their causes and effects, an activity that will allow it to be aware of its internal problems and external consequences. This is where a tool like the Fish Diagram used by Professor Kaoru Ishikawa has a meaning and an end. The manager's action on one of these elements of analysis (materials, machinery, work method, environment, maintenance and labor) will serve as the axis of this work, since human relations in the company, as is well known, affect organizational results.
The internal customer
Rotter (1981 in Casique and López, 2007) maintains that personality represents an interaction of the individual with his environment. This is how she explains it in her Social Learning Theory where she refers that the continuous interaction between cognitive, behavioral and environmental determinants form the personality of the individual. Add to this that the expectations of their behavior or the level of reinforcement of their behaviors determine the locus of control.
In other words, the concept of locus of control refers to the degree to which the individual believes that he controls his life and the events that influence it. This degree of control is related to the belief that the events in your life depend on your own behavior, which is called internal locus of control; However, if the individual believes that the situations he faces do not depend on him but on situations outside his behavior, the subject has an external locus of control.
With this knowledge, any manager could understand why many workers wait for others to take actions and decisions for them; why they lack initiative and demonstrate their lack of cooperation in teamwork. It is then, when the manager must look for alternatives that allow the worker to realize that it is their own efforts and performance that determine their results in improving their salary, incentives and promotions, and that luck, the supervisor and even the owner, have no influence on the changes that may occur in your work environment.
Although it is true that the worker must be aware of his effort, it is the job of the company to teach its employees to use their personal resources, as well as those of the company, to achieve the objectives of both parties. Once again, the results obtained will show employees that they are not simply efficient because they take care of and manage resources; that they are not simply effective because they reached the objectives, but are effective employees because they have learned to add both parts (Fuentes, 2010).
Fuentes also refers that any person must have three types of disposition for this effectiveness: wanting to do, being able to do and knowing how to do. If any of these are missing in the employee, the company must be willing to exercise a strategy that responds to these needs. In turn, the mix of these strategies will provide the company with four types of employees and actions to follow, shown in Figure 1:
1. If a person wants and can but does not know how, the company must train him;
2. If a person wants and knows but cannot, the company must use someone who is capable of directing it;
3. If a person wants, knows and can, he is a champion and the company must take care of him; but
4. If a person can and knows but does not want to, then the company must let it go.
Source: Fuentes, (2010). Radical strategies to regenerate a company. p. 58
These types of employees cover the well-known 80/20 rule of Pareto Theory. It describes that 20% of the variables cause 80% of the effects; Typically, 80% of total results originate from 20% of the items.
According to this theory and applied to the strategies of the company, 20% of them will be champions and 80% will be among those who will have to train, motivate and even fire. So, the vital role of a manager will be to identify their champions because they lead the results and therefore they must take care of them and motivate others to increase the existing number.
In this regard, Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric and who saved it from bankruptcy, believes that there are only 10% of champions in companies and refers to them as “the friends of the company, who should be paid well Because they do their homework and manage to infect others who do it well; in addition to giving security to the company and work ”(Univertia knowledge, 2005, ¶ 5).
However, when referring to the problems of the other 90%, Welch mentions that “the lack of frankness is the greatest defect in business, it is especially terrible when it causes supervisors not to provide their subordinates with rigorous feedback in a stupid attempt for 'being nice'. They must regularly receive honest and comprehensive reports on their performance ”(Univertia knowledge, 2005, ¶ 8).
He goes on to say "Insincerity allows surprises and bad times." It refers that an employee who is not notified about his poor performance or who is not meeting the expectations of the company, feels hurt and distant from objective reality when he is notified of his dismissal; and all due to the lack of precision of the bosses for not telling them the truth about their performance. Maintaining a degree of honesty in employee relationships is vital, because if you are not held accountable for your own actions, you will never understand the reason for your dismissal (Univertia knowledge, 2005, ¶ 9).
Provitera (2010, p. 55), when reflecting on Welch's speech, questions “So how does an employee earn?”. And he answers, “the employee has to be aware that he wants, wants and needs this job, which implies that he wants to work for you and with you”. The CEO and the company are giving him an opportunity to grow, to join the workforce; however, the employee must know that the job itself is not the solution to their problems. Work is part of your life but it is not your whole life. Employees have to know and the manager must tell them.
This is also mentioned by Pfeffer (2005, p. 400), when pointing out the existence of seven dimensions that can produce returns, namely:
• job security, • selective recruitment of staff, • self-directed teams, • high compensation for performance, • extensive training, • reduced status barriers, and
• Extensive sharing of financial and performance information across the organization.
The author emphasizes the latter, since it is decisive that all members have sufficient information about the organization and know the impact that their work or the lack of it has on the achievement of organizational objectives.
Although it has been mentioned that the administrator must make his staff see the value of his work in a continuous, sincere and direct way, it is also important to reflect on the characteristics that he must have in order to carry out his mission. Provitera (2010) mentions that a good boss or business leader is one who:
• you want to see your employees grow and help them change
• is energetic, passionate
• can give a glimpse of the company's development path for its employees
• is willing to share and “win-win”, • is an example of life (has a job and family), • when correcting, teaching
• has something good to say about everyone
Other authors point out more generic fundamental characteristics of a good leader, (Fuentes, 2010; French, Bell, and Zawacki, 2005; Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKEE, 2005; Kotter, 1997; Pfeffer, 2005; Robbins, 2004; Soto, 2001):
• communicator, • gets involved and knows how to involve, • is rational and humane, • make decisions together, • assumes responsibilities and risks in planned scenarios, • visionary and holistic, • Capacity for analysis and synthesis, • think global and act local, • innovative, • anticipates changes, and
• handles updated information.
However, it is observed that theorists repeatedly give greater weight to leadership and communication skills that allow influencing the behavior of employees and business achievements.
Exercising leadership
Leadership is a set of processes that allows organizations to develop in the first place, or that adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it a reality (Kotter, 1997).
However, managers sometimes believe that leadership emanates from the position they occupy within the hierarchy, without the need for preparation, conceptualizing a theory or knowing what the goal is and therefore charting the course.
Leadership and motivation are two factors that are visibly intertwined in the person of the manager and that are clearly seen in the results. On the one hand, the administrator must be able to motivate the worker towards the task, not as an imposition but as a mutual desire for achievement. And at the same time, it must exercise leadership, set a direction, make employees feel that they work together (Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKEE, 2005). Hence, the motivation and leadership exercised in employees will have visible results in the achievement of personal and business goals.
Shermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn (2004) present two of the main theoretical perspectives that the administrator should know about motivation, the authors belonging to each of these give very accurate guidelines on their application in the company:
• Content theory, which focuses on identifying the internal factors that motivate, direct or control people's behavior. Among its most representative theorists are Abraham Maslow (1979); CD Alderfer (1972); and Frederick Herzberg (1966).
• Process theory, which describes how behavior is continuous decision making. Its most representative theorists are Victor Vroom (1964) and Edwin Locke (1968).
In both theories, the first task to perform is to define the objective to be achieved (Soto, 2001).
On the other hand, the administrator must know theories about leadership that allow him to assume a theoretical position that gives coherence to the direction and strategy he uses. The main ones are presented:
• Behavioral theories, where the Management Grid of Blake and Mouton (1969) is located.
• Theories of attribution to the leader, where depending on the task and the performance level of the group is the evaluation that the leader receives.
• Theories of situational contingencies, which state that the leader's ability to adapt to new or challenging situations allows the work team to achieve its objectives.
The latter are what companies require today. A leader who adapts to situations, contingencies and knows how to get out of them. According to the two approaches of this theory, transactional leadership or transformational leadership, a leader must undertake certain actions to be effective (Soto, 2001; Shermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2004).
In transactional leadership, the leader must:
1. Give rewards of different types (not economic) in exchange for the fulfillment of tasks. In this regard Alfie Kohn mentions that employees must be "paid well and fairly, so put all your effort into erasing money from their minds."
2. Wait for deviations from the standards to take corrective action.
3. Intervene only if the standards are not met.
4. Distribute responsibilities avoiding confrontations.
In transformational leadership, the leader must:
1. Give vision, meaning, belonging and inspiration
2. Communicate high expectations by focusing effort and purpose, 3. Promotes intelligence, rationality, and problem solving
4. Treat each employee individually.
Effective communication
If communication ability is defined briefly and without interpretations, it could be said that it is the ability of a subject to transmit and receive information. As can be seen, it is a very limited ability for what it implies in the field of business.
The real objective mentioned by D'Aprix (1999, p.19), of effective communication "is to achieve a common understanding, concentrating efforts on what the organization is trying to achieve in the market." So poor, misdirected or ambiguous communication becomes a terrible and intangible enemy (Argyris, 2005).
Between these two poles of communication, an extreme reactive communication could be called because it only answers basic questions and lets the interlocutor draw his own conclusions. Instead, strategic communication handles any activity openly, clearly, and focused on the market and the customer as the first cause. Reactive communication focuses on what, while strategic responds to how and why.
The manager must, according to D'Aprix (1999, p. 29), “mobilize people's energy and tell them clearly what the market asks of us, why it asks for it, and what we have to do about it”. Likewise, Kotter (1997, p. 9) states that “without credible and abundant communication, people's hearts and minds will never be captured”, which is what is ultimately wanted, in order to involve them in the task, in the end.
Communication, Kotter continues, “occurs in both words and deeds. The latter usually assume the most forceful form ”. Nothing destroys employee confidence in the task more than inconsistent behavior by senior managers with what they communicate.
Thoughtful, rational, and open dialogue helps minimize the risk that results can create (Hartzler & Henry, 2006; Burke, 2005). Especially since the manager must be able to establish these dialogues with everyone, at all levels of the organization, because being open allows him to obtain small contributions from all parties (Pfeffer, 2005).
conclusion
The 21st century company lives thanks to the information it receives from the medium and achieves success through the use it knows how to use it.
The information is available to everyone. Companies are also immersed in this information and communication society. And as discussed in previous paragraphs, it is vital for a manager to learn to use communication and specifically strategic communication, since only in this way will the people who depend on the leader trust him, believe in the project and achieve the objectives..
Likewise, a transformational leadership that makes the company evolve and with it each of the employees is necessary for the company to survive successfully in the 21st century.
Finally, the transforming agent of the company, of its achievements and of the personal development of the employees is the manager, who has to assume responsibility for all the processes of change and growth. This is why it is important to have a vision of the future and development.
Bibliographic references
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Burke, WW (2005). The new agenda for organizational development. In WL French, CH Bell, and RA Zawacki, Organizational Development. Transformation and effective management of change (6 ed., Pp. 419-430). Mexico: McGRAW-HILL / INTERAMERICANA EDITORES, SA DE CV
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