Theories of Leadership in Tata Group

Theories of Leadership in Tata Group Introduction: Leadership is integrated part of our life. According to corporate chief and former US presidential candidate Ross Perot, the principles of leadership are timeless because, in a rapidly changing world, human nature remains a constant. We all experience leadership in our life from early childhood in our families, through friendships, social and sports activities, school higher education, to politics government and of course in our work, we all recognize leadership in other people and often in ourselves. In government, global corporations and small businesses alike, the leadership role is becoming more demanding, more open to scrutiny and more difficult [Roger Gill]. The development of leadership theory also parallels the development of organizational theory. The bureaucratic form of business organization is characterized by laissez-faire leadership whereby so-called leaders tend to avoid taking a stand, ignore problems, not follow up, and refrain from intervening or transactional leadership, in which leaders practise management by exception, focusing only on deviations from what is required, and contingent reward, rewarding people (either materially or psychologically) for achieving what is required. The emergence of the post-bureaucratic form of organization in the late nineteenth century reflects the development of the concept of transformational leadership. Theory Approaches to Leadership: Many Leadership theories and approaches have been evolved around Style, Trait, Behaviour, Situational and Charisma. Many researchers made efforts linking some of the theories across these leadership approaches. However each leadership model has its merit, assumptions and limitations. Most recent researches are conducted on Situational Transformational leadership styles. Various leadership Gurus presented new models as variations to the already existing models. Max Weber, MacGregor, Bass, Bennis Nanus are some of the most important researchers in the area of transformational leadership. However the difference between transactional and transformational leadership is vital in getting the whole concept of transformational leadership theory. In general, a relationship between two people is based on the level of exchange they have. Exchange need not be money or material; it can be anything. The more exchange they have the stronger the relation. Managers expects more productivity from emp loyee in order to give good rewards. In this way, if something is done to anyone based on the return then that relation is called as Transactional type. In business, leaders announce rewards in turn to the productivity. These relations are all about requirements, conditions and rewards. In life, at one point of time, things happen without expectation from other side. Transformational Leaders work toward a common goal with followers; put followers in front and develop them; take followers to next level; inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests in achieving superior results [wordpress.com]. Table 1, given below shows Basss full range model of leadership. Table 1 Leadership Approach in TATA Group: TATA Group founded in 1868, is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, India. The Group has more than 500,000 employees spread over six continents (more than 80 countries). TATA Group current market capitalization estimated worth $80bn and is the largest private corporate group in India. TATA Group is biggest employer in UK, employing more than 50,000 people. TATA Group has main interests in communications, IT, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. Its current chairman, Ratan Tata is the most influential business leaders in Indias and the worlds most influential person right now. The Tata Group is known for its valued business ethics and corporate governance. Leadership Development in TATA Group: TATA Group has long standing leadership program in its system. Their leadership program is based in British administrative service model. TATAs leadership development programme aims at grooming the managers of today into the leaders of tomorrow. The leadership development programme conceived by JRD Tata, the late chairman of TATA group in 1950s. The idea behind the leadership programme known as Tata Administrative Services (TAS) was to select and groom young managers, provide them opportunity for professional growth, and make them leaders of tomorrow. This is TATAs in-house programme and has goal is to provide training to high performers, act as a cradle of change and develop the leadership qualities. Most of the TATA Group companies are traditionally led by these groomed leaders. Evident Leadership in TATA Group: The TATA Group leadership style has been quite consistent since its existence way back to 1868. The TATA Group has incorporated more leadership changes which are essential in current environment to drive towards to be more competitive. In terms of leadership style, TATA Group has adopted a team-led culture and collective approach. With Ratan Tata as leader of the Group, the management style of the entire TATA Group has changed considerably; trust became a huge facet and theme of the group. Ratan Tata has put a complete organisational restructuring when he took over in 1991 as leader of the TATA Group, by taking a more matrix-style approach building teams. These changes would have obviously transformed a lot in the business, senior managers would have had to be on their toes and flexibility and adaptability became essential qualities to have. The leadership changed from a centralised, command centre to a much more distributed form with employees and all managers enjoying greater respo nsibility and knowledge about the Group, which would have in turn; motivated them to work harder and as a group. From distinctive leadership models available such as the McGregor Theory X and Y; where a theory X manager believes workers dislike work, are not creative and avoid all responsibility while a theory Y manager believes that workers get as much enjoyment from work as they can derive with leisure, accept responsibility and are creative; it can be seen from this, that Ratan Tata wanted all his managers to be modelled as closely to Theory Y and he himself could be called a Theory Y manager. He encouraged managers to be innovative and share all their ideas, consulting actively with them and giving them more responsibility and importantly encouraged team-working. Five Factor Model (Big Five): Emotional Stability: Ratan Tata has very low anxiety within him and has great sense of security with his future leadership. Extraversion: Even being a bachelor Ratan Tata is very sociable. He has produced very positive affect on future leadership of TATA Group. Openness: He believes in originality and versatility. By making  £1200/- car he has shown his great interest with and innovation seeking personality. Agreeableness: Within his management team Ratan Tata is well trusted and very friendly. Conscientiousness: He is very dutifulness. He spent most of his life working for TATA Group without any self-interest. He is very well organised as well. Style (Behaviour) Theory in TATA Group: As per style theory, there are three types of leadership models are evident in leadership. These are as follows. Autocratic Democratic Laissez-faire Ratan Tata is a leader who engages more democratic style of leadership approach. However at previous occasion has used other two kind of style as well. He is more democratic because he always encourages his group leadership to be creating good communication and participation. Future leadership are well informed about future strategy and they are very well engaged in decision making process. Most of the group long-term and short-term strategies are formulated by the lower rank of the leadership. They are treated as stake holders. Until now TATA Group has got leadership within them. Ratan Tata has occasionally shown some form of autocratic style of leadership. Sometimes when needed especially when quick and informed decisions have to be taken, but he is never too commanding in his nature, being a man of few words and being more of a man of action, this is evident from the manner he aggressively pushes for bold international deals, such as during the global acquisitions of business powe rhouses such as Corus, Jaguar and Land Rover, and Tetley Tea. One of his senior leadership team member, Muthuraman( Executive Director) refers him Ratan was the chief architect of the Corus deal. I was worried about the magnitude and the amount of money. But he instilled confidence. In daily routine matters and in developing the leadership, Ratan Tata also uses facets of the Laissez-Faire model such as the delegation of important duties and decision-making, he also does not in any way interfere with any managers functioning, he might make a broad strategic assessment but he does not interfere in operational issues and details, this shows that he has complete trust and faith in his managers and believes in their ability, this quote from Gopalakrishnan, an executive director of the company, shows how much value Ratan Tata places on his trust, this can be highly motivating for managers and workers alike, I remember what Ratan told us at a meeting. He said that he will continue to trust all his managers, but once they lose that trust, he will go after them. I think that is a very fair deal. Max Webers Leadership Model in TATA Group: Looking at Max Webers Transactional and Transformational Leadership models, where a leader is classed in three forms which are Bureaucratic, Charismatic and Traditional, where a bureaucratic leader is one who is always bound by the set rule and does not want to go beyond them; a Traditional leader is one who does and follows everything from a long past or history and always loyally obeys these traditions; a Charismatic leader is one who uses his own laurels or abilities to inspire and is one who can be described as radically opposed to administrative rules and legal principles. From these models, Ratan Tata falls into the Charismatic form because he is one who leads by example, coming up with highly innovative ideas such as  £1200 (Rs. One Lakh) car the Nano, budget hotels or low-end watches, he brought radical change to the Tata Group as a whole, changing it from its Traditional mindset to new more flexible and adaptive cultural mindset. Bennis Nanus Transformational Leadership Model in TATA Group: We can see from Bennis and Nanuss Transformational Leadership model that the transformational leaders groom their followers into self-empowered leaders and their main focus is to articulate vision and values clearly so the newly self-empowered leaders know where to go. Their traits include logical thinking, persistence, empowerment and self-control. Benniss and Nanus has evolved the model which emphasis on the four Is of Transformational leadership, which are Idealised Influence (being a role model) Inspirational Motivation (creating a team spirit, motivating and provide a challenge) Intellectual Stimulation (innovation and creativity) Individual Consideration (mentoring and providing support for followers) Ratan Tata, Chairman of the TATA Group has been proved a true transformational leader. We can see all Is built-in in Ratan Tata. He is the leader with great vision hence he knows right approach to groom future leadership. He has implemented the team spirit in whole group at every level. He empowers all his managers and executives and has complete faith in them, he is extremely innovative and is credited for much of the Groups new products, he places a great deal of importance to his RD department and he definitely cares deeply about the welfare of all his employees and managers. During the Mumbais terrorist attack in Taj Hotel, he took front line in leading at the time of crises. In his vision statement he articulated One hundred years from now, I expect TATA Group to be much bigger, of course, than it is now. More importantly, I hope the Group comes to be regarded as being the best in India. Best in the Manner in which we operate, best in the products we deliver and best in our valu e system and ethics. Having said that, I hope that a hundred years from now we will spread our wings far beyond India, that we become a global group, operating in many countries, as Indian business conglomerate that is at home in the world, carrying the same set of trust as we do today [www.tata.com]. As a leader of a global business group, Ratan Tata knows the fierce competition experienced by his business empire. He makes all effort to make his business competitive at global level. Through transformational leadership process TATA Group has made their processes and technology up to date. Once Ratan Tata said to his managers in his vision speech A company or business which remains static is a business that will die; a company that constantly changes and accepts that there are better ways to do things than the way they are done today, is a company that will survive in the global market that we face. From this statement we can infer that he knows the importance of developing a good leadership within group to take TATA Group to new heights. Ratan Tata involves strategy in leadership. He is a deep thinker and a brilliant strategist as is described by one of his Executive Directors, Alan Rosling, He is a deep thinker and extremely strategic. He is always 2-3 steps ahead. Ratan Tata is a man of strong integrity, ethics and valued principles. He cultivated the same across the TATA Group companies. One of his companies CEO said Tata has shown that there is no other way he will do business other than do it ethically. He believes in strong value based leadership approach in doing business. Ratan Tata has led the TATA Group to transforming from local business group to become a global leader. Conclusions: Ratan Tata of the Tata Group is a more kind of transformational leader. He made Tata Group as global brand. He has provided inspiration to leaders within his own company. In Tata Group leaders are engaged in decision making at every level. Ratan Tata has successfully led and motivated its CEO/MD of the group companies to be ambitious. He has always adopted a ethical approach in group business. Ratan Tata has adopted a management by consensus style. He stated once When a number of persons are involved I am definitely a consensus man, but that does not mean that I do not disagree or that I do not express my views. Basically it is a question of having to deal with individual men heading different enterprises. You have to adapt yourself to their ways and deal accordingly and draw out the best in each man. If I have any merit it is getting on with individuals according to their ways and characteristics. I have dealt with a hundred top directors and I have got on with all of them. At times it involves suppressing yourself. It is painful but necessary. To be a leader you have got to lead human beings with affection. Ratan Tata has ability to spot the talent. And once he has confident that a manager will perform, he gave him a long rope. Leading a large group of companies in the days of fast changing business scenario of changing regulations, increasing competition and opening up of economy could be an arduous challenge for many. Leading the firm through these times and four-folding the groups revenues could be a dream. Doing this requires clear vision, innate conviction, ability to inspire and guide along the way. Ratan Tata established himself to be the right leader who has helped the company sail through the turbulent waters and reach the desired lands. These targets never existed or were thought not feasible by the company earlier. This all achieved because of the inspiring leadership. Reference List DBS Managing People Lecture Notes Roger Gill, Theory and Practice of Leadership, Sage Publication, 2006 Robins, S.P Judge T.A (2010) 10th Edition, Essentials of Organizational Behaviour, Pearson, ISBN 0-13-815763-4 http://leadershipchamps.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/transactional-leadership-vs-transformational-leadership/ http://business.outlookindia.com/inner.aspx?articleid=682editionid=22catgid=70subcatgid=464 http://www.tata.com/company/Articles/inside.aspx?artid=YJbf7uiUY0M= Visionary Leadership: Creating a Compelling Sense of Direction for Your Organization (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series): Burt Nanus Tata Group Annual Reports (1991 -2011)

Montessori’s Observations Essay

†¢ Children make a match with mom/parent. This is the reason that consistency is such a key issue in early childhood development. Children feel comfortable with routine because they know what to expect †¢ Children need order. As above, when the environment has inherent structure and order, children feel safe. Children need to feel safe to explore their environment. †¢ Children have an innate desire to learn. Our brains are hard-wired to learn. Children will learn spontaneously. Our role is to facilitate this as much as possible without interfering in the natural learning patterns of each individual child. †¢ Children have a drive for spontaneous activity. Any person who has been near a young child knows this is true. In a Montessori environment, children are free to move about the classroom within the guideline of being respectful to others. †¢ Children must be active to gain self-discipline. When a child chooses a work from a shelf, does the work to the best of their ability and returns the work to the place that they found it. This is a completed work cycle. Adults often marvel at the child’s ability to focus on a task with such deep concentration. This is because they chose the work. It called to something within the child. No adult, parent or teacher could ever coach this concentration. It is innate within the child. Through the choosing of works and full completion of tasks, the child becomes self-motivated, self-disciplined and self-directed. †¢ Children learn through imitation and trial and error. This was not a new concept even one hundred years ago. However, Montessori utilized the principle. In a Montessori environment, the teacher/guide shows the child how to do the work. She then invites the child to do the exercise. The child may repeat the exercise as many times as they like. The way in which the child does the exercise gives the guide clues abou t the child’s development. †¢ Children learn best in a multi-sensorial environment. There is a lot of discussion these days concerning what kind of learners we are: i.e. auditory, visual, or kinesthetic. Most of us learn in a variety of ways. Montessori set up a multi-sensorial environment where she utilized didactic materials to â€Å"educate the senses† that were originally designed to test the senses. Montessori children learn to not only look, but see, not only listen but hear. Since all learning comes to us from our senses, this multi-sensorial approach enables children to comprehend at a deeper level. †¢ Children learn best when they get to put their â€Å"hands on† the materials. Rather than have a child sit at a desk and be lectured, Montessori felt that children would learn best if they were able to touch and manipulate the materials. This of course combines with the other observations that she made about how children learn. †¢ Children learn best in multi-age group settin gs. â€Å"Gifted and Talented† classrooms are beginning to make use of this model. Montessori noticed that children imitate and learn more easily from older children. Montessori classroom are set up in three-year cycles so that a child will come into a classroom as the younger child and progress to being the older child. As the younger child, they will learn more quickly, trying to emulate and keep up with the older children. As the older child, they become strong leaders. They will learn how to assist the younger child. This not only boosts their self-esteem and self-worth, but also gives them an opportunity to repeat exercises that they have already done and in doing so, gain a deeper understanding. †¢ Children have â€Å"sensitive periods† for learning. Human brains are designed to learn specific things at specific ages. A three-year -old child can become trilingual (by absorbing the languages in their environment) without difficulty. They will be able to keep the languages separate. This is not possible for the adolescent, who must work hard to gain a second language. (Most language programs do not begin until junior high school.) Each Montessori classroom, Infant/Toddler, Primary, Elementary and Adolescent are prepared with developmentally appropriate works. Montessori’s observations concerning the â€Å"windows of opportunity† for the development specific areas of abilities in language, math, cultural, social, physical continue to be corroborated by brain research. Dr. Montessori recognized that children have specific needs, the need to experience order, independence, movement, language, discipline, love and security. With true cooperation of school and home and a clear understanding of how to meet the child’ s needs, a healthy child will emerge.

Short Article Reveals the Undeniable Facts About Personal Narrative Essay Topics for Middle School and How It Can Affect You

Short Article Reveals the Undeniable Facts About Personal Narrative Essay Topics for Middle School and How It Can Affect You What You Must Know About Personal Narrative Essay Topics for Middle School Narrative writing entails a small quantity of story-telling ability. Research enables one to settle on a company which can offer quality narrative papers at a reasonable price. If you are experiencing a hard time understanding how to compose a personal narrative essay, you shouldn't feel as a failure you've got good business. Students who do not complete narrative paper writing assignments should seek out assistance from custom writing companies. Finding the Best Personal Narrative Essay Topics for Middle School Great narrative essay writing is truly an art form, and it isn't a talent that nearly all of us have. Even though a narrative paper might seem an arduous job for students, for a pro it is simply another customary errand. 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Thus, you have to think of a draft and fine tune it until you're certain that the outcomes are in line along with all the requirements given. The revisions are unquestionabl y free! Possessing a timeline for your story will result in a smooth stream of details and storyline. To turn into an outstanding storyteller, it's crucial to understand how to present a story so it will sound eye-catching. Writing a superb story demands creativity and careful thinking. Everyone would agree that there's not anything more exciting than reading a great narrative story. No matter your distinctive trait, if it enables you to stand from the crowd, it's well worth sharing. When you should choose a topic to write about, it can be a bit difficult because the majority of people can't really think about something they think is interesting enough to write about. From time to time, folks tell us it is the right time to begin acting older, but we don't feel like that inside ourselves. 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A personal narrative essay is just one of the greatest tools to stop social issues that are frequently disregarded. Whatever They Told You About Personal Narrative Essay Topics for Middle School Is Dead Wrong...And Here's Why Narrative essays typically concentrate on a considerable event along with the consequences or broader impact of the occasion. Communicating that info ought to be carried out in a fashion that leaves your reader with something valuable. Your inner world of ideas and feelings is at least as important to the essay as the real events that took place, so make sure you don't leave it out. A personal narrative can concentrate on any event, while it is one that lasted a couple of seconds or it spanned a number of years. In case you're given work to compose a narrative story in school, it is going to be a fantastic chance to hone your storytelling abilities and showcase your wisdom and comprehension of the subject issue. In such situations, the most efficient method to begin is to use the ideal narrative writing prompts for middle school. Therefore, unless your mentor or professor assigned you a particular subject, the decision of thinki ng up a wonderful topic is your choice. Some school children feel puzzled when being assigned to compose a narration only because they don't understand what things to write about. The Debate Over Personal Narrative Essay Topics for Middle School There isn't only one topic that has to be utilized in writing a personal narrative essay, because most writers choose a topic that has particular meaning in their opinion. There are quite a lot of kinds of essays you might be assigned to finish. There's no need to discover extraordinary stories to compose a narrative essay that's interesting to read. A personal narrative essay is a kind of essay in which an individual writes about her or his own experiences, typically as a narrative story. The fundamental idea here is to compose an essay that's essential. If you don't have an idea about how to compose a narrative essay, you ought to look at other narrative essay examples, search for inspiration wherever you are able to and know the specific requirements provided to you by your professor.

Common Family Myths and Stories

Nearly every family has a cherished story or two regarding their distant ancestors — one that has been handed down from generation to generation. While some of these stories probably have a lot of truth in them, others are actually more myth than reality. Perhaps its a story that youre connected to Jesse James or a Cherokee princess, or that a town in the old country is named after your ancestors. How can you prove or disprove these family stories? Write Them Down Hidden in the embellishments of your familys story are probably at least a few grains of truth. Ask all of your relatives about the famous legend, and write down everything they tell you — no matter how insignificant it may seem. Compare the different versions, looking for inconsistencies, as they may indicate those parts are less likely to be rooted in fact. Ask for Backup Ask your relatives if they know of any items or records which may help document the family story. It doesnt often happen, but sometimes if the story has been carefully handed down from generation to generation, then other items may have been preserved as well. Consider the Source Is the person telling the story someone who was in a position to have experienced the event first-hand? If not, ask them who they got the story from and attempt to work your way back to the original source. Is this relative known as the storyteller in the family? Often good storytellers are more likely to embellish a story so as to elicit a favorable response. Bone Up on History Spend some time reading about the history of the time, place or person which relates to your familys story or legend. Background historical knowledge may help you prove or disprove the legend. Its unlikely that your great, great Grandfather was a Cherokee, for example, if he lived in Michigan in 1850. Test Your DNA While your genes may not have all the answers, a DNA test may be able to help you prove or disprove a family legend. DNA can help you determine if you descend from a particular ethnic group, your family came from a particular region, or you share a common ancestor with a particular person. Common Genealogy Myths Legends The Three Brothers MythIts always three brothers. Brothers who immigrated to America, and then headed out in different directions. Never more or less than three, and never sisters either. This is one of the favorite of all genealogy legends, and one that very rarely turns out to be true. The Cherokee Indian Princess StoryNative American ancestry is a fairly common family story  and one which may actually turn out to be true. But there really isnt such a thing as a Cherokee princess, and isnt it funny that it is almost never a Navaho, Apache, Sioux or Hopi princess? Our Name Was Changed at Ellis IslandThis is one of the most common myths found in American family history, but it actually almost never happened. Passenger lists were actually created at the port of departure, where the native names were easily understood. Its very likely the family name may have been changed at some point, but it probably didnt happen at Ellis Island. Family Inheritance MythThere are a lot of variations on this popular family story, but very rarely do they turn out to be true. Some of these myths have their roots in the numerous inheritance scams of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, while others may reflect a hope or belief that the family is related to royalty or a famous (rich) family by the same name. Unfortunately, the family inheritance story is often used by scammers to trick people out of their money.