leadership_and_ethics32.docx

Running Head: INFLUENCE PROCESSES
INFLUENCE PROCESSES 2

Leadership and Ethics
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Introduction to the concept of influence processes
In a simple definition, influence processes refer to those processes in which a leader of a particular organization normally uses to achieve a total influence to all of his employees or workers. There are various aspects that a leader usually uses so that he/she can influence their employees; for instance, they can use promotions, making direct decisions, having a reward system, having a system for the allocation of resources as well as role modelling among other factors. The concept of influence has therefore been adopted by various leaders of organizations so that they can boost the performance of their employees and hence attract more profits. There are different types of influence processes that will be discussed in detail in the following essay as well as the various factors that normally affect these influence processes when used by the leaders of an organization (Nahavandi 2006).
Types of Influence Processes
i. High control innovator
This is a type of influence process is usually used by leaders who have the desire for a high control as well as high challenges. Such types of leaders will always ensure the control of the business or organization they lead is so tight while at the same time they seek for various challenges that they do expect.
ii. Participative innovator
This is another kind of influence leader who seeks for very high challenges while at the same time they have a strong desire for a low type of control. As this leader seeks the challenge he wants he will delegate most of the organization’s work to other able people rather than carrying out the control function as the leader of that organization.
iii. Status quo guardian
As the name suggests, this is a leader who tries to maintain the current state of the organization and therefore he tries to look or seek for minimal challenges. At the same time, such a leader has a very high control of the organization; in the long run it is noted that such leaders influence employees by maintaining a tight control of the organization while avoiding any kind of challenges that come their ways.
iv. Process Manager
This is a leader who influences his employees by having a strong desire for low control and also characterised with low challenge seeking characteristics. Such kind of a leader will always delegate their control functions to other able people and at the same time will always avert the many challenges that will always face them as an organization.
Factors that affect influence processes
Basically, there six factors that do affect the influence processes that are used by various leaders. These factors are briefly discussed below:
The first factor is environment which refers to all the external factors that are not within the organization which have an effect to the influence process adopted by a leader. Such factors may include economic forces, workforce demography and government regulations whereby the leaders are supposed to comply with all the rules pertaining to business.
The next factor is structure of the organization which refers to human resources which designs the basic organization of a particular business. These factors are usually found within the business and one such factor is employee relations which are expected to be positive so that the influence processes can work better (Papa & Spiker 2008).
Another major factor affecting influence processes is leadership itself; it should be noted that various leaders offer different kinds of leadership styles which depends on what they think is the best for the entire organization. The leadership styles therefore employed by the various managers within an organization will always have an implication on the influence processes used to influence employees.
Technological processes used within the organization also have affect influence processes; they are defined as the inputs that are usually converted into outputs. The technology used can therefore allow a positive and quick influence to the employees or result into the vice versa of this.
The strategy of an organization will also influence the influence process since a strategy is usually based on the goals and objectives that an organization wants to achieve. The goals for instance can be short term and this means that the leader may not be required to put a lot of pressure to the employees in order to achieve them.
The last factor is culture which a set of beliefs common to all of the employees and therefore they share these beliefs. A certain kind of influence from their leaders may prove to be uncouth according to their beliefs and this therefore means that that kind of influence may not be readily accepted by the employees (Brown & Hartman 2003).
Analysis of the influence processes used by three different leaders
The following is an analysis of three leaders, that is, former CEO of Avon products (Andrea Jung), the CEO of PepsiCo (Indra Nooyi) and the former CEO of Sara Lee products (Brenda Barnes). The analysis gives brief information summarised within a table showing the kind of influence processes these leaders have managed to use during their reigns as top leaders of their companies. These methods have resulted into great impacts to their business thus resulting into more profits gained which is normally one of the reasons for the existence of business companies.
The Table

Influence Method

Leader 1- former CEO Avon products

Leader 2- CEO PepsiCo

Leader 3- former CEO Sara Lee

Direct decisions

 The significance of internet sales

 She ensures a positive improvement of performance of employees

 Decides on increased markets internationally

Allocation of resources

 Allocated huge amount of finance for research and development

A lot of resources are located to marketing especially marketing using the social media 

 Allocates resources towards research and development as well as marketing of the products produced

Reward system

 Holiday trips that have been paid for.

Rewards in form of money as well as hand written thank you notes 

This is in form of work performance; one can be promoted to another rank 

Selection and promotion of other leaders

 He promoted more female representation within the top management of the company

She is advocating for development of leaders of the future 

Uses skills and performance for the promotion of leaders 

Role modelling

 He was courageous and very determined in his roles and responsibilities

 She is hardworking and a role model to young girls in India

She was a role model to women in career 

From these analyses, it is clearly seen that different companies have employed different methods of influencing their employees and this usually depends on the factors that do affect influence processes within an organization (Stansbury 2009).
References
Nahavandi, A. (2006). The art and science of leadership (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Trevino, L. K., Brown, M., & Hartman, L. P. (2003). A qualitative investigation of perceived executive ethical leadership: Perceptions from inside and outside the executive suite. Human Relations.
Papa, M.J., Daniels, T.D. & Spiker, B.K.(2008). Organizational Communication: Perspectives and Trends. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.
Stansbury, J.(2009). Reasoned Moral Agreement: Applying discourse ethics within organizations. Business Ethics Quarterly.

Running Head: INFLUENCE PROCESSES

Leadership and Ethics

Student’s name

Institutional affiliation

Professor’s name