Management Assignment: Leader Humility on Innovation & Altruism

Question

Task: The purpose of this management assignmentis to critically analyze two articles and demonstrate your ability to critically analyze, synthesize and evaluate information and present that information in a written format. You are expected to analyse the arguments used by the author(s), the quality of the evidence provided and the application of the content to management practice.

Answer

Introduction
For the effective management of a business organisation as discussed in the management assignment, it is of utmost importance that the leaders and managers have a clear mindset regarding what are the goals and objectives that needs to be achieved by them. It is also crucial for them to have a structured strategic management process which will give clarity to their subordinates and make them more productive and efficient (Soltani, Syed, Liao &Iqbal, 2015). Statistics have suggested, that for many organisations consider investing in leadership development a lucrative proposal for future benefits. In 2013, about 329 organisations invested $356 billion on developing leadership and management skills because they deemed that it is necessary for managers to have a mindset for giving direction to the company (Lukose,2018). Similarly, it is requisite for the leaders to incorporate humility as one of their characteristics because it will have a positive on innovation and altruism(Qin et al., 2020). This report will critically assess and appraise two chosen articles regarding the mindset of managers and the importance of leader humility on innovation and altruism.

Critical Analysis of Articles
Article 1 (Group A): Gosling, J .&Mintzberg, H. (2003) The Five Minds of a Manager, Harvard Business Review, Nov. pp. 1-9 The author credentials are that Jonathan Gosling is associated with Lancaster University and is the Director of Leadership Studies of the University of Exeter and Henry Mintzberg is an author and academician on management and business in University of Montreal. The background of this article is about the mindset of managers of different business organisations which will encourage workplace synthesis and prevent separation. The research objective is to explore the five different mindset of managers which are managing context, managing self, managing workplace relations, managing the organisation and managing change. The authors of this article have attempted to answer the following research questions:

1. What is the reflective mindset of managers for managing themselves?
2. What is the analytical mindset that managers should have while managing organisations?
3. What is the worldly mindset that managers should consider in this context?
4. Do managers need to have a collaborative mindset for manging relationships in the workplace?
5. Should managers possess an action-oriented mindset for managing change?

These research questions are important to address because they give clarity of understanding the viewpoints of managers while managing different situations within an organisation.Sincethe authors mention clearly that the five managerial mindsets have been developed by them, therefore, they are attempting to explain these developed mindsets to the readers. Hence, the methodology is explanatory. The core evidence which is obtained by the authors for supporting their analysis is the usage of different practical examples from different organisations and their management style. Moreover, certain examples are referred from renowned books and journals of management styles which validate the genuineness of the evidence to support the primary contention. The basic argument which has been provided by the authors of this paper are that managers should have different forms of mindsets for managing different aspects of the organisation to reach the goals and objectives. Such mindsets should then be amalgamated for an overall synthesis within the organisation. It is also argued that management development is possible if the managers have a developing mindset and there are two strong ways of managing an organisation which are the heroic management and the engaging management.

The presented arguments are supported by the authors using examples from practical case studies and management book references. This has led to the findings that can be summarized by weaving the different mindsets of managers that are applicable to different situations. It has been argued by the authors that for different situation, the managers must change their mindset for problem solving and decision making. This is supported by the fact that managers should be dynamic in nature which will help them in achieving their targets within a company (Naumann, 2017). The significance of the findings is that it gives a clear understanding of the types of mindsets which managers should have for effective management within an organisation. This can be compared to the findings of a similar study by Holm (2015)which states that managerial mindsetsgive proper direction to an organisation and sets its path towards success.

Article 2 (Group B): Mallen, F., Dominguez-Escrig, E., Lapiedra, R., &Chiva, R. (2019)."Does leader humility matter? Effects on altruism and innovation.” Management Decision, 58(5), 967-981.

The authors are research scholars who are involved in researching business administration, marketing and leadership studies. The contextual background of the study is associated with discussing the effects of leader humility on innovation and altruism. This gives rise to the primary objective of the study which is to explore the effects of having a humble leader within an organisation on altruism and innovation. Hence, the research question which have been framed by the authors are as follows:

1. What if the effect of leader humility on a firm’s innovation?
2. What is the effect of leader humility on a firm’s altruism?
3. Does altruism play a mediating role within an organisation?
The research questions are important to understand the mediating factor which is altruism in enhancing leader humility and innovation. The design of the study is exploratory in nature which uses valid questionnaires to collect primary data from 284 Spanish companies and the sample size was 568. The evidence obtained which supported the fundamental contention of the study was the use of different articles for structuring the literature review and the use of structured equations for to validate the framed hypothesis.

The different arguments which have been considered by the investigators for this paper is that innovation is a risky aspect within an organisation which demands the development of leader humility and the creativity in methods can be measured within an organisation considering the type of leaders and their level of humility. It is also argued in the paper it is requisite for business organisations to promote altruism and leader humility collectively while planning policies for human resources. The evidence obtained by the investigators in the form of primary and secondary data collectively support the argumentation of this paper.

The findings of the paper are that altruism can improve the outcomes of an organisation and act as a mediating factor between innovation and leader humility. This can be supported with the fact that leader humility can positively affect altruism which in turn affects the innovation of the organisation (Oc et al., 2015). It has been argued that new leadership styles can be applied after situational analysis within an organisation for further improvement of innovation and altruism (Rego et al., 2019). The implication obtained from this research states that there is a need to promote leader humility and altruism in an organisation for its betterment and increasing positivity within the workplace. It is also implied that the top management of an organisation should consider promoting those employees who display humility.

Critical Appraisal of Articles
Upon appraisal of the articles, it can be contended that the first article about the mindset of managers is purely qualitative in nature. It lacks quantitative analysis and the usage of descriptive statistics to analyse the collected data. Hence it is disagreeable that the authors have not considered the usage of quantitative analysis as evidence to confirm the fundamental contention of the study. However, it can be agreed that the exploratory design of the research has lead the authors to arrive at the desired conclusion.

This can be confirmed with the examples of the suggestions made by the authors regarding the global view and the worldly view of managerial mindset that is applicable in different scenarios. The strength of the article is the in-depth qualitative analysis of different types of mindsets which is used to manage different aspects of managing an organisation. However, certain weaknesses such as the failure to conduct quantitative analysis and giving a future direction to the research has questioned the strength of the paper. The contribution of the article is that it gives a clarity to understand the different mindset of managers that can be applicable to managing relationships, organisation, self, management context and managing change within an organisation.

As confirmed by the authors of the second article, leader humility and innovation is mediated by altruism. It is agreeable that the findings of this article are supported by the fact that is leaders have a humble nature, it is indeed beneficial for progress of the organisation. A specific example from the article can confirm these which states that different organisations are implementing new leadership styles which enables them to meet internal and external demands and define innovation. However, leadership characteristics not only affects these two aspects but also affects problem solving and decision making within an organisation. This paper does not cover such aspects of the effects of leader humility which is a weakness of the paper. A significant strength of the paper is the large sample size used by the author to collect primary data. The usage of structured equations is also a strength of the paper. As mentioned by the authors, the weakness of the study is that the company samples are heterogenous in nature which often give rise to ambiguity. However, the contributions of this paper in finding out that altruism acts as a mediator between leader humility and innovativeness has lead to clarity of understanding its importance.

Conclusion
Upon critical review of the two articles, it can be inferred that leaders and managers within an organisation should have a focused perception regarding their leadership and management styles. Hence, having a clear managerial mindset and by being a humble leader, global business organisations will have a structured future direction.

References
Gosling, J., &Mintzberg, H. (2003).The five minds of a manager. Harvard business review, 81(11), 54-63.

Goxe, F., &Belhoste, N. (2019). Be global or be gone: Global mindset as a source of division in an international business community. European Management Review, 16(3), 617-632.

Holm, M. (2015).Cultivating alternate mindsets to enhance organisational well-being and creativity. International Journal of Business and Economic Development (IJBED), 3(2), 47-66.

Lukose, D. (Ed.). (2018). Improving business performance through effective managerial training initiatives. IGI Global.

MallénBroch, F. F., DomínguezEscrig, E., Lapiedra, R., &Chiva, R. (2019). Does leader humility matter? Effects on altruism and innovation.

Naumann, C. (2017). Entrepreneurial mindset: A synthetic literature review. Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, 5(3), 149-172.

Oc, B., Bashshur, M. R., Daniels, M. A., Greguras, G. J., &Diefendorff, J. M. (2015).Leader humility in Singapore. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(1), 68-80.

Oc, B., Daniels, M. A., Diefendorff, J. M., Bashshur, M. R., &Greguras, G. J. (2020). Humility breeds authenticity: How authentic leader humility shapes follower vulnerability and felt authenticity. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 158, 112-125.

Qin, X., Chen, C., Yam, K. C., Huang, M., &Ju, D. (2020). The double-edged sword of leader humility: Investigating when and why leader humility promotes versus inhibits subordinate deviance. Management assignmentJournal of Applied Psychology, 105(7), 693.

Rego, A., Owens, B., Yam, K. C., Bluhm, D., Cunha, M. P. E., Silard, A., ...& Liu, W. (2019). Leader humility and team performance: Exploring the mediating mechanisms of team PsyCap and task allocation effectiveness. Journal of Management, 45(3), 1009-1033.

Soltani, E., Syed, J., Liao, Y. Y., &Iqbal, A. (2015). Managerial mindsets toward corporate social responsibility: The case of auto industry in Iran. Journal of Business Ethics, 129(4), 795-810.

Zhong, J., Zhang, L., Li, P., & Zhang, D. Z. (2019). Can leader humility enhance employee wellbeing? The mediating role of employee humility. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.