Leading and Managing in a Global Context

Answer

Although effective leadership is key for the realization of organization’s vision and objectives, it is more significant during turmoil and crisis. It is during crisis that true leadership is depicted and this shows that leadership and crisis management go together. This paper describes my definition of leadership, the kind of a leader I and how I can use my leadership to address leadership issues experienced at the British Petroleum (BP) Company.

            Leadership is the process of influencing a person or people to realize a common goal (Heller, 2012). It entails setting responsibilities and ensuring that shortfalls and gaps are avoided and that duplication of efforts are eradicated completed. Leadership encompasses delegating responsibilities to people to implement streamlined and structured management system. Personally, leadership involves authority lines in which everyone is aware of the person he or she should reach out to for assistance or requisite permi. leadership is my approach to leadership. This leadership heavily depends on clear communication. Intuitively, communicating efficiently and effectively heavily motivates employees and increase productivity. As a transformational leader, I often keep the most critical issues in the forefront and understands how to delegate responsibilities to workers to achieve organizational goals. Personally, being an effective transformational leader encompasses setting clear expectations and being honest with workers. When a leader clearly understands what is expected of him or her, he or she tends to take ownership of every responsibility and concentrate on accomplishing them.

            I am more of a transactional leader because I understand the power of reward and incentive. I often have the team of employees who I depend on to achieve certain goals and consequently reward them effectively. At times, I reward them by early dismissal from regular professional development and at times lunch. However, in case they fail to accomplish the assigned tasks as expected, they are reprimanded. The transaction leadership style enable me to review and correct employees in case they fail to achieve the set goals. However, I believe that transactional leadership creates barriers of disposable individuals and rids the leader of any blame for everything that go wrong. Moreover, the leader shares the triumphs and receives credit for anything done correctly by the team. Therefore, I believe that transactional leadership hardly align with the principles of transformational leadership. Essentially, transformational leadership is more of a complete team effort and low pressure as opposed to transactional leadership that entails delegation and pressure filled and creates more room for interpretation.

            My leadership style entails a combination of visionary and participative leadership. Visionary leadership as argued by Arnold and McKay (2013) enables everyone in the organization to have shared dreams and accords everyone the freedom to experiment, innovate and pursue calculated risks. Personally, when workers are given the freedom to use their personal ideologies, as well as, trial and era to assist them realize the overall goal of the organization, they take it more personal and planned in their techniques. Regarding my participative aspect of my leadership approach, I believe that when a leader sees everything being done as required, it does a long way in the leader and the employees. Goldenberg (2010) noted that individuals are prone to follow those who are ready to be participants and not just delegate. Intuitively, the participative leadership approach aligns perfectly with the principles of transformational leadership based on the contributions of the team members, as well as, the ability of the leader to assist workers accept changes within the organization (Goldenberg, 2010).

Leadership Challenges of British Petroleum

              For any organization to succeed, leadership is paramount. The issues that British Petroleum has been grappling with is linked to poor leadership. There are myriad of leadership challenges that are evident in the organization. First, the managers of British Petroleum continue to intimidate or harass workers to bar them from reporting negative things occurring in the organization. The workers are worried about their safety since they have been provided with unsafe tools and equipment to work with (Kanso, Nelson, & Kitchen, 2019). Nonetheless, the leaders harass them and this issue result in a significant losses through explosives and spills. The leaders try to thwart these challenges from being reported since they do not want to dedicate much funds to repair and maintain them. Clearly, this depicts conflicting interests between workers and managers. While workers want outdated and obsolete tools and equipment serviced regularly and properly, the managers want such devices maintained the way they are because they want to cut down the costs.

            The next leadership challenge facing British Petroleum is promotion of managers. Kanso, Nelson and Kitchen (2019) posited that promotion should be performed based on merit. This implies that a managers or other workers should be promoted based on their performance. At British Petroleum, senior managers are never reprimanded for failures. Instead, promotions are offered to them regardless of their undesirable performance.  This skewed promotion is a leadership challenge that is likely to hinder the performance and growth of BP in the long run. Given that managers are promoted without performance record or merit, there is high possibility that in the future, the organization is likely to be headed by leaders who lack the necessary knowledge and skills to propel the organization forward. These leaders are likely to cause poor performance and possible collapse or failure of the organization. Moreover, promoting managers without considering the merit is likely to discourage workers who are interested in the success of the organization. Such workers according to Mann (2011) are likely to feel that they are being undermined despite their efforts.  Consequently, such workers are likely to leave the organization or their performance is likely to decline.

            Dysfunctional organization culture is key leadership challenge that British Petroleum faces in the 21^st century. Kanso, Nelson and Kitchen (2019) reported that lack of a proper structure hindered operations at the rig in which the right candidates with technical skills should be allowed to make appropriate decisions. Essentially, this lacks in this organization and thus continue to affect safety during incidents such as oil spill experienced years back. Few months following the explosion, there was confusion regarding who was responsible, whether the company or subcontractor. This resulted in inaction rather than clear decisive actions that would have hindered the damage that ensued. Reports have indicated that senior workers commonly referred as tray men received their afternoon biscuits and tea on their own tray (Winkler, 2010). Operating costs and bureaucracy ruling were extremely high. As such, the profit per worker at the company was significantly lower that than of their close competitors.

            Most leaders in British Petroleum hardly admits mistakes. When the oil spill occurred, the entire leadership shifted blame and started arguing that the company should take responsibility for the accident since the drilling rig was sub-contracted. Even with the revelation of lack of critical safety devices, resistance to adhere to safety directives issued by the government and permit violations, the top leadership of British Petroleum still maintained that it was not their fault. Intuitively, full disclosure ought to have acted as the most appropriate approach during the crisis rather than declining to own the responsibility (Goldenberg, 2010). However, BP made a mistake by declining to come up with best approaches to deal with the situation instead of apportioning blames on others. Reports have indicated that even currently, the BP’s CEO continue to ruin company’s reputation by implementing a defensive approach and his inability to consider and understand public reaction especially under the media spotlight and public relation professionals (Winkler, 2010).

            Lack of sensitivity is a critical leadership challenge that BP Company faces. With numerous deaths and massive unemployment brought about by the damage to the marine life, the top leadership of British Petroleum ought to have been more sensitive to the locals and more careful of their actions and remarks during the crisis. However, the comment that the CEO made, indicating that he only wanted his life back is regarded as selfish and insensitive to the bereaved. It is also reported that the CEO took a break, travelled to the United Kingdom and took part in a yacht race, a situation that angered the US citizens who considered him as someone who does not sympathize with people (Goldenberg, 2010). Currently, the CEO does not care about the welfare of employees and pursue his personal interests rather than the interests of workers and the entire company (Goldenberg, 2010). This behavior is likely to demotivate workers and reduce their performance. Moreover, it is likely to discourage potential and qualified candidates from joining the company because they are afraid of their safety and work conditions.

Leading the Organization and Facing the Challenges

             One of the leadership theories that can be used to address the challenges that the company faces is the contingency theory. As a manager of BP company, this theory can be used establish the leadership style to be adopted in different situations. Undoubtedly, situations are likely to change because the world is full of uncertainties. The success of a company depends on several variables including the leadership style to be adopted (Abramson and Moran (2017). The leader of BP company should adopt the autocratic leadership style in circumstances in which the machinery had to be developed only after the completion of ‘as build’ document. For a fact, the leader need to stand firm and ensure that the machinery are not made until all the documents are completed. Completing the documents before proceeding to making the machinery ensures that the machineries are of high quality and safe to everyone. Secondly, the compromising behavior of the leaders of British Petroleum could have been due to the pressure from shareholders who were determined to cut the costs in a bid to raise their earnings. As such, to assist BP company face this challenge, the leader should be bold and avoid compromising anything because the machinery could be unsafe for workers and the environment. In such a situation, the decision making should be centralized (Arroliga et al., 2014).

            Leading BP Company and facing its challenges requires strategic leadership style. Strategic leadership style encompasses strategic thinking. Such a leader is principally heading the whole company and hardly limits his or her supervision to the top leadership of the company (Bedrule-Grigoruta, 2012). Here, leadership stresses on creating a high performance and enhancing team spirit. Intuitively, the strategic leader is skilled within the industry where BP Company operates. He or she offers practical set of habits to be displayed in the organization and can deliver what is often expected of any leader. Strategic leadership style is appropriate for BP Company because the expert leader will make sure that the standard of industrial practice is strictly followed. In the case of BP, the leader stressed on timeliness and cost reduction that made the staff to compromise certain safety measures. More importantly, for a leader who is prudently thinking about its project will point out the deficiencies within the management system and deal with them appropriately. For a strategic leader, once a challenge has been pointed out, the genesis will be examined and dealt with accordingly. Reports have indicated that after changing the compensation model to bring on board performance target, the workers of British Petroleum became conscious of adhering to set deadlines rather than challenging reports, a situation that resulted in fully understanding the impact of their actions in case the safety standards are not adhered to (Nazari, Alipour, & Feizi, 2013).

            Another important leadership theory and practice that should be adopted by BP managers to face the challenges the organization faces is the situational theory. The situational theory as noted by Burckhardt, Hargiss and Howard (2012) significantly resembles the contingency theory. Under this theory, a manager or a leader is expected to take the most appropriate action that can address the situation she or she experiences. This implies that all the decisions that the leader makes in different situations could be based on different leadership styles based on the present situation. Essentially, some situations require decentralized decision making while others require centralized decision making (Heller, 2012). In decentralized decision making, the leader can use democratic leadership style while in the centralized decision making, the leader can use authoritative leadership style. It is not anything to doubt that managers of BP Company are faced with myriad of situations that resulted in losses and accidents. Among the most notable incident is that of Gulf Spill in which tons of oil spilled off. These spills were due to poor management and poor maintenance. As a manager of BP Company, I will be authoritative in such incidents but will only act in the best interest of the organization. Moreover, the decisions that will be made would be favorable for the success of the organization, as well as, workers and the environment.

            Senior managers should implement the participative leadership. Participative leadership as argued by Winkler (2010) is leadership approach where the inputs of the remaining members of the organization are taken into account. Everyone in the company is brought on board in decision making and are involved in other activities that the company intends to perform. As already been noted, the managers at BP Company are promoted regardless of their poor performance. However, the workers are usually harassed and ignored in case they raise their grievances regarding environmental and safety issues. Undeniably, this demotivates them and hinders their productivity. As such, implementing participative leadership will inspire workers. Arroliga et al. (2014) noted that workers feel that they are part of the organization and that should are bound to report any challenge or issue before it occurs. This not only keeps the managers alert so that they can take appropriate actions before the challenge occurs. Essentially, applying participative leadership will prevent challenges such as Gulf Spills that occurred in the past. Participative leadership will enable workers to raise their complaints and make leaders or managers to handle such complaints accordingly rather than ignoring them as noticed in the past (Mann, 2011). As a result, the managers are likely to prevent issues such as spills because they would have paid attention to every concern raised by workers. In participative leadership, workers are viewed as very important persons who can contribute positively to the success of an organization.

            Management theory of leadership is a critical leadership practice that managers and leaders at BP should adopt to address the challenges that the organization faces. The management theory of leadership is also known as transactional theory. It pays attention majorly on supervision and performance of the group (Bedrule-Grigoruta, 2012). As already noted in this paper, there was poor supervision in almost all activities that BP performed. This is evident in the design of rig machinery where the equipment was designed without completing “as built document”. Proper supervision of a project as noted by Burckhardt, Hargiss and Howard (2012) ensures that all the significant and relevant procedures have been adhered to during the manufacturing process. Moreover, it ensures that safe and quality products are produced. The manager failed to conduct proper supervision and this consequently resulted in the production of poor quality machinery that ended up with an explosion. Moreover, under management theories, punishment and reward systems are adopted. However, this lacks in BP Company. Reportedly, the managers overlook critical issues that eventually causes severe accidents but they are often not reprimanded. In fact, such managers are never punished for carelessness they display. Worst still, the company who hinder the performance of company are promoted as opposed to being fired as expected. This encourages such leaders to continue with their undesirable performances and actions. Evidently, many workers have raised the issue of aging and obsolete equipment, as well as, the dangers they pose. However, their complaints have often been ignored. Therefore, using the management theory would ensure that such workers are appreciated and rewarded accordingly so that they can continue to raise alarm on issues they believe are hindering their productivity and performance of the organization. Essentially, this would be critical in preventing future accidents from occurring. As a leader, I would ensure that there is clear flow of communication. This will entail amending brand values to include emphasis on process and operational safety, as well as, personal safety. The company values will be given to every newly hired worker to fit successfully in the team. Moreover, I train the staff to communicate effectively to employees under their supervision to ensure that everyone understands the direction of the business.

            Similarly, the company policies will be revised regularly by bringing on board external auditors visiting the rig to ensure that all workers follow every procedure. Intuitively, this will assist supervise workers on staff who are regularly ignoring standard practices and engaging in unscrupulous practices to achieve their set objectives. Lastly, proper business practices should be ensured because it plays a critical role in the underlying returns of the company. As such, standard applicable procedures within the sector will be followed strictly. As the chief executive officer, I will organize regular safety training to keep workers conversant with industry trends and incidences that happen in the industry. Moreover, openness and shared vision will be encouraged among workers to offer help and advice to every worker who requiring such.

Conclusion

Effective leadership is critical for the success of any organization. Managers and leaders in multinational corporations must adopt effective leadership in case they want to remain competitive. Leaders in BP depicted ineffective leadership because they failed to promote workers based on merit, shifted blames instead of owning the mistakes and getting solutions and demotivated employees rather than motivating them. Therefore, as a transformational leader, I would ensure clear communication, appropriate reward system and regular training of workers to enable them deal with leadership challenges that the organization continue to experience