Reference no: EM133043168

Discussion Board. Read the following information then answer the questions: 

A. Paradox of Management

Management is Difficult Because of Its Inherent Paradoxes :

• Managers are responsible for what others do
• Managers must focus on the work, and the people doing the work.
• Managers must develop people and evaluate them
• Managers must make a group into a cohesive group without losing sight of individuals
• Managers not only must manage their own group but also manage within a larger context
• Managers must focus on today and tomorrow
• Managers must both execute and innovate
• Managers must sometimes create harm in order to serve a greater good- all simultaneously

B. Paradox: You Must Sometimes Do Harm in Order to Do Greater Good

 With managerial influence and authority comes the ability, often the necessity, to make choices for the greater good that harm some of the individuals or groups involved-for example, when you must cut costs, lay people off, or promote only one of three candidates. Such harms are not the goal but the consequence of actions you must take, yet they are real and painful to those who suffer them.⁷

As a manager, you cannot avoid decisions that affect the work and lives of others in profound ways. They appear all the time, a burden of being the boss. What makes them truly difficult is that you must weigh competing considerations that render your choices anything but clear and obvious. "Nothing is black and white," one new manager observed. "It's all gray. My job is to manage trade-offs."

If you don't see such ethical dilemmas as part of the job, you're likely to treat them as exceptions, distractions that don't deserve real attention. But they're not exceptions. They're built into your everyday work as boss.

Since you cannot avoid ethical dilemmas, you must be prepared for the personal anguish they can create. You probably don't see yourself as someone who consciously harms others, and so confronting the necessity of inflicting harm, however inadvertently, will force you to examine your identity and think hard about what you're willing and not willing to do. To these dilemmas, you must bring both emotional competence and a set of personal values developed over time through experience-another reason becoming a boss is a long and difficult journey.

C. The effective manager's 3 imperatives

• Manage yourself- focusing on how to develop and maintain one on one relationships
• Manage your network- focusing on exercising influence with integrity,
• Manage your team- focusing on what's needed to execute with a real-life team

D. Leadership and Coercion

Coercive power is one of the specific kinds of power available to leaders. Coercion involves the use of force to effect change. To coerce means to influence others to do something against their will and may include manipulating penalties and rewards in their work environment. Coercion often involves the use of threats, punishment, and negative reward schedules and is most often seen as a characteristic of the dark side of leadership. Leaders who use coercion are interested in their own goals and seldom are interested in the wants and needs of followers. Using coercion runs counter to working with followers to achieve a common goal.

E. Assigned Versus Emergent Leadership

Leadership that is based on occupying a position in an organization is assigned leadership. Team leaders, plant managers, department heads, directors, and administrators are all examples of assigned leaders.

The person assigned to a leadership position does not always become the real leader. When others perceive an individual as the most influential member of a group or an organization, regardless of the individual's title, the person is exhibiting emergent leadership. The individual acquires emergent leadership through other people in the organization who support and accept that individual's behavior. This type of leadership is not assigned by position, rather, it emerges over a period through communication.

Reference

Hill, L. A. (Linda A. (2011). Being the boss: the 3 imperatives for becoming a great leader. Harvard Business Review Press.

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership?: theory and practice (Eighth edition.). SAGE. 

Question 1: Think about the paradox of management "you must sometimes do harm in order to do greater good" and somehow relate it to "Leadership & Coercion Power", from chapter one, Northouse? 

Question 2: Think about the paradox of management and combine that with Assigned vs Emergent views of leadership.

Question 3: How would you implement the three effective manager's imperatives to your professional life?