Human Resources Leadership the Importance

Human Resources Leadership

The importance of leaders and the various skills they must demonstrate is revealed by the necessities determined by the globalized business environment. Leaders must be able to manage situations that require different skills and that allow them to allocate companies' limited resources to the important areas. In addition to this, leaders must be able to identify the paradigms of human interaction required by each situation, in order to motivate the team in the direction required by these situations.

There are several leadership styles. Transactional leadership assumes that the motivation and reward attributed by the leader to his team members is a simple transaction or exchange between them (Lussier & Achua, 2010). This type of leadership is useful in some situations, but inefficient in others. Transactional leadership is responsive, which is not always useful for companies that want to develop their competitive advantage. This leadership style uses motivation based on rewards and punishment.

Transformational leadership is based on influencing team members to improve their behavior, to develop their skills, in theirs and the company's benefit. This is intended to create value and to improve the productivity and efficiency by setting examples and by the leader inspiring his team in wanting to improve (Lang, 2010). This leadership style is proactive. The relationship between transformational leaders and their subordinates is characterized by the leader's interest in their ideas in order to better motivate them.

In the case of our management team's leadership style, it seems to be characterized by a combination of transactional and transformational leadership. In other words, this leadership style is mostly a transactional one, but with important transformational influences. The management team's objectives consist in supporting the company's organizational culture, and not in modifying it in accordance with different requirements of the business environment.

The relationship between managers in this company and the subordinates is based on respect and on obeying the orders of managers. Their authority is important within this relationship. They do not often reveal their interest on employees' ideas regarding various projects they are working on. These managers do not seem interested in improving employee loyalty and retention, but in reaching the company's objectives regarding profits.

However, there are situations where these managers provide transformational leadership skills. Some of the smaller projects that involve lower levels of risks are assigned to some of the employees in the attempt to improve their project management skills. Therefore, managers in this case are also interested in transforming and improving their subordinates' activity, which influences their career development.

The motivational strategy within the company is an interesting one. Managers in this company develop motivational strategies based on rewarding clearly established objectives and performance levels. This situation determines win/lose relationships between employees. Although this is intended to increase competition between them it is sometimes counterproductive. Regarding the relationship between employees in this environment, such strategies determine win/win or no deal situations.

In addition to this, they evaluate the activity of their subordinates in order to establish their potential. Based on these evaluations, managers establish the training programs that are mostly suitable in the case of these employees. This is intended to invest in their development, to improve their skills, which leads to improved productivity and efficiency for the company. This is considered to be a win/win situation that favors the company, the managers, and their employees.