Management And Leadership At Microsoft

MGT330

UoP

June 24, 2007

Organizations Require Both to Succeed

Over the years management has acquired a harmful reputation for itself for many reasons. On the other hand, management is still an essential element within the business setting. The words leaders and managers are often interchanged but do not carry the same meaning. Managers do not always hold the traits and expertise of a leader and yet leadership is a skill that management must grasp. Nonetheless, many harmful effects can occur to the employees and business with the lack of leadership. There are variations as well as benefits between managing and leading in a company and the results that the two positions have on business operations (Treacy, 2006). Successful managers are not automatically genuine leaders although the two cannot work apart.

Numerous administrators, supervisors, and even top officials perform their responsibilities successfully without being grand leaders. But these positions present chance for leadership. Having the capability to lead efficiently will position the outstanding manager at a leading distance from the ordinary ones (Bateman, Snell, 2007, pp. 395).

Management vs. Leadership

Management is the blended fields of the organization's policy direction and the persons who present the decisions and supervision necessary to realize the business directives and development (Management, n.d.). Managers create systems, construct rules and operating procedures, and put into place motivation programs. Management, in contrast is about the company not the people; the people are important as a way of getting the task done.

Leadership is a manner in which a leader aspires to persuade his or her team to launch and achieve the organization's goals. In order to reach the organization's objective, develop his or her rule to influence workers. Leaders are the core of a business. The real meaning of leadership involves inspiring a group to come together for a common goal. Leaders motivate, console and work with people to keep them connected and ready to move forward. That means setting a direction, communicating it to everyone and keeping people focused when times get tough (Robbins, 2002).

To motivate workers and get the job done, power is implemented in early stages of the task, and reward or punishment follows in later stages for those employees who do not perform to the level of expectation. In order to continually motivate workers, distribution of the appropriate reward by the leader is of the greatest importance in order to persistently motivate workers in the process. To be able to reach the leadership goals, leaders need to align and connect the abilities and actions of the workers with the needs of the customers' to develop the workers and the organization (Leadership, n.d.). The more successful the attainment of worthy goals, the more evident the leadership is (Bateman, Snell, 2007, pp. 394).

Business executives and owners have a blend of management and leadership skills that are necessary to run a lucrative business. To summarize, management skills present the systems that allow an organization to grow and succeed while leadership skills supply the direction (Bateman, Snell, 2007, pp. 394).

Functions of Management

The most successful leaders are those who can capably organize the cooperation and assistance of others to attain important objectives and goals. Leaders must know the traits of high-performance teams as well as the necessary steps to reach that level. Negotiation, communication, persuasion and influencing others to do things are abilities that are essential to all that is achieved in life (Tracy, n.d.).

Leadership is just one of the many qualities a successful manager must have. Care must be taken in distinguishing between the two views. The main aspiration of a manager is to take full advantage of the output of the organization through administrative achievement. To realize this, managers must carry out the following functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. These functions continue to be as significant as ever while providing the ground rules that are considered necessary in businesses just starting out as much as in established corporations (Bateman, Snell, 2007, pp. 16).

Microsoft is committed to helping their employees do their best, both now and in the future. Leadership and Management Development Training leads the abundant instruction opportunities accessible to Microsoft employees worldwide (Microsoft, 2007).

The first step in the four functions of management is the planning function. The planning function encompasses the vision, values, mission, objective and goals of an organization. A successful manager will first look at the organization's goals and evaluate how the organization will achieve those objectives and goals. Decisions will be based on the future outlook of the company. This introduction function of management will exemplify the other three functions (Bateman, Snell, 2007, pp. 16).

Microsoft's plan is their mission, to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential by expanding their platform innovation, benefits, and opportunities for customers and partners, to be open in discussing the company's future directions (Microsoft, 2007).

Organizing is gathering and synchronizing the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to accomplish goals. Once planning has been initiated, it is important to organize the steps needed to realize the overall goal of an organization. Remaining organized is essential in order to not drift from the planned direction. Organizing consists of situating task responsibilities and agendas so that work can be done beneficially (Bateman, Snell, 2007, pp. 17). Organizing at Microsoft begins with clearly communicating the goals and mission to the appropriate people (Microsoft, 2007). Other steps in the organizing process include reviewing the planning process, make a list of all tasks to be accomplished, divide tasks into groups, group related jobs together in a logical and efficient manner, then assign work to individuals (Allen, 1998).

Leading is motivating people to be extraordinary performers. It is guiding, encouraging, and communicating with the workforce, individually and in groups. Leading necessitates close day-to-day contact with people (Bateman, Snell, 2007, pp. 17). Leading is the administrative function of managing the organization as it dynamically carries out