Leadership Practice & Challenge in The Case of Orgn
Leadership Practice & Challenge in The Case of Orgn
Leadership Practice & Challenge in The Case of Orgn
Abstract..........................................................................................................................................II
List of acronym…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..III
1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………1
1.1 background of the organization …………………………………..…………………………………………………………...1
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Abstract
Organizational structure describes the formal arrangement of jobs and tasks in organizations and it
describes the allocation of authority and responsibility, and how rules and regulation are executed by
workers in. The aim of this study is to describe the organizational structure of FDRE MelesZenawi
Leadership Academy in general, by employing qualitative method of research. In this study the source of
data used were only secondary data such as: proclamations, manuals, plans and reports of the Academy,
different published and unpublished materials and like. Based on this the FDRE MelesZenawi Leadership
Academy established by proclamation of Councils of Ministers 321/2006 with the aim to create leaders in
order to gain plenty skill, knowledge, and attitude in addition to developmental democracy thought. The
Academy established with the vision to see globally competent leader ship academy through well applied
Developmental democracy ideology.Accordingly the Academy Discharge the expected responsibility in
bringing about behavioral and cultural change and growth through inculcating dignity of work and
dedication for the wellbeing of the society by searching for, cultivating, preserving and transmitting
knowledge; and Strengthen the awareness on the rights, equality and democratic unit of nations,
nationalities and peoples in accordance with the constitution of Federal Democratic Republic of
Ethiopia. For future the academy must apply modern record management system, Facilitate working
environment suitable for employees, emphasis on recruits for highly skilled man power, must be focus on
human resource development to sustain.
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List of Acronyms
FDRE: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
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1. Introduction
1.1Background of the organization
FDRE MeleseZenawi leadership academy established by councils of ministers proclamation No
321/2006.The duties and responsibilities of the organization is mainly focused on to create leaders in
order to gain plenty skill, knowledge, and attitude in addition to developmental democracy thought.
Another role To give training for government policy and strategy to all level of leaders (managers),
private investors, legal institutions and other societies. The organizations have more than 100
employees, and it has different expertise. The organization is located from Sululeta around Addis
Ababa Oromia region.
The main customers of the organization are: government, Higher officials of the country, leaders
(managers) (Top, middle and lower) level, federal bureaus, students, Trainers and etc…. The ownership
of the organization is government. The establishment of the academy is not yet (short) period of time
therefore the process of management (Administration) of the organization is on progress. The strategy
that an organization follows is government policy and strategy and growth and transformation plan
(GTP) of the country.
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2. FDRE MELES ZENAWI LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
VISION MISSION OBJECTIVES VALUES
VISION
In the basis of scientific and in-depth research establish reliable education and training
system
Produce leaders equipped with democratic developmental thought, high leadership
wisdom, creativity, critical thinking skill and proactive responders
Provide national and international research conferences
VALUES
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Management will be in charge of planning and researching objectives and processes; ensuring the right
people are in the right positions; measuring and supervising the performance; and finding solutions when
things go wrong. Management is also in charge of allocating the resources for completing the tasks
between subordinates. The sources can range from financial to technological, for example. Management
is a position of authority, in which the authority typically comes from the position. This could be due to
the hierarchy or the seniority of the organizational structure. In essence, the management has
subordinates who work for them and are expected to follow the management when it comes to
completing the tasks (Oxford, 2016).
A simple definition of leadership is that, leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to
act towards achieving a common goal. In a business setting, this can mean directing workers and
colleagues with a strategy to meet the company's needs. This leadership definition captures the
essentials of being able to inspire others and being prepared to do so. Effective leadership is
based upon ideas (whether original or borrowed), but won't happen unless those ideas can be
communicated to others in a way that engages them enough to act as the leader wants them to
act. Put even more simply, the leader is the inspiration and director of the action. He or she is the
person in the group that possesses the combination of personality and leadership skills that
makes others want to follow his or her direction.
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such situations in our organization. Therefore we have only leaders and so that the paper tries to
discuss about leaders.
5. Leadership characters/attributes
Leaders shape our nation, communities, and organizations. We need good leaders to help guide
us and make the essential large-scale decisions that keep the world moving. Our society is
usually quick to identify a bad leader, but how to identify a good one? What would most people
say makes a good leader?
The study of leader traits has a long and controversial history. While research shows that the
possession of certain traits alone does not guarantee leadership success, there is evidence that
effective leaders are different from other people in certain key respects. Key leader traits include:
drive (a broad term which includes achievement, motivation, ambition, energy, tenacity, and
initiative); leadership motivation (the desire to lead but not to seek power as an end in itself);
honesty and integrity; self-confidence (which is associated with emotional stability); cognitive
ability; and knowledge of the business. There is less clear evidence for traits such as charisma,
creativity and flexibility. We believe that the key leader traits help the leader acquire necessary
skills; formulate an organizational vision and an effective plan for pursuing it; and take the
necessary steps to implement the vision in reality (Al Dawood Ahmed & Christian Bach, 2014).
By summarizing the traits of good leaders and comparing it with FDRE Meles Zenawi
Leadership Academy high and middle level leaders this paper presents the detail traits in the
academy leaders.
1. Honesty
One of the leadership qualities that define a good leader is honesty. When you are responsible for
a team of people, it is important to be straightforward. Your company and its employees are a
reflection of yourself, and if you make honest and ethical behavior as a key value, your team will
follow. Based on this trait our leaders are honest as I observed in my stay in the organization.
2. Delegate
Regardless of the situation and position we are in; always remember that you can’t do everything
on your own. Our leaders in MZLA recognize that delegation does more than simply passing the
task to someone else. It is trusting and believing that your employees are able to handle the task
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given to them. Delegating to others shows that you have confidence in their abilities, and this can
result in a positive morale in the workplace. And this is a very common situation.
3. Communication
Communication is the key to success, said everyone. Without clear communication, your
employees will have trouble to understand your mission, goals, and vision. In this regard our
leaders lack clear and consistent communication in different hierarchy. Communication should
be consistent when it comes to establishing work expectations or giving constructive feedback.
With great communication, employees will have a broad understanding to what they are working
for. However it is a problem here.
4. Confidence
In our organization, FDRE MZLA, starting from the president to the team leader they
accomplish their task confidently. They know the responsibility to maintain the team morale and
keep moving forward.
5. Commitment
The level and condition of commitment of leaders is a compromised trait in MZLA. There is no
greater motivation than seeing their leader working alongside everyone else. However there is a
lack of commitment towards plans and strategies to be accomplished accordingly with the action
plans seated by them as indicated again and again in every report of the academy.
6. Positive attitude
You want to keep your team motivated towards the continued success of the company, and keep
the energy levels up. Whether that means providing snacks, coffee, relationship advice, or even
just an occasional beer in the office, remember that everyone on your team is a person. Towards
this trait there are some situations where motivational activities were takes place. But it is
inconsistent
7. Creativity
As a good leader is someone the team could look up to for answers or solutions, it is up to you to
think outside the box when any issues arise. However, creativity here is not pleasant. Everyone
has stream as usual.
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8. Inspire
Inspirational activities in MZLA are inconsistent and different from leader to leader. When your
team is drowning in workload or their morale is low, you as a leader need to be inspiring and
start finding ways to inspire your team. But it is not much sufficient.
9. Empathy
Having empathy as a leader goes a long way. Empathy is the ability to understand or feel what
other people are experiencing. In other words, they put themselves in other people’s shoe.
Extraordinary leaders praise in public and address problems in private. Such a trait is not
happened in the leaders of MZLA based on my observation and my colleague’s suggestions.
11. Accountability
A good leader takes responsibility for everyone’s performance as well as their own. When things
are going well, they praise. However when problems arise, they identify them quickly, seek
solutions, and get the team back on track. But in MZLA it is uncommon and not happened
beginning from the establishment. It is confirmed in every quarterly report and supervision that
accountability is not takes place in the academy.
12. Enthusiastic
A good leader is enthusiastic about their work or cause and also about their role as leader. People
will respond more openly to a person of passion and dedication. Leaders need to be able to be a
source of inspiration, and be a motivator towards the required action or cause. But there are
leaders who are enthusiastic but majority lacks this trait.
13. Responsible
The last quality that defines a good leader is being responsible. Great leaders know that when it
comes to their company or workplace, they need to take personal responsibility for failure.
However this trait is inconsistent in the leaders of the academy. A good leader does not make
excuses; they take the blame regardless and then work out how to fix the problem as soon as
possible. Responsibility is definitely a key leadership attribute.
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6. Challenges
The life of a modern-day leader clearly is not easy. Inside their organizations, they need to lead
and motivate a diversified group of people, work across organizational boundaries, improve
efficiency, and achieve growth. Externally, they face a complex and globalized environment;
they have to manage the requirements of government, keep up with competitors, and meet the
expectations of other stakeholders. In Meles Zenawi Leadership Academy leaders have
encountered by the following challenges as per my observation and some interviews from some
employees and leaders.
Some of the challenges that encountered are, limitation of giving credit and reward for others
performance, lack of trained, experienced and competent human resource, employee resistant to
change and frequent turnover, delegation of supervisors with authority for subordinate and
distribute power for others as per their accountability, unfulfilled social and other responsibilities
and shortage of car facilities, Leading others with their plan for the future and Slow manner of
decision making and practice.
Moreover, the serious challenges of leaders are lack of effectiveness and bringing result and
change as per the plan and the strategy. In relation with this, even though, monitoring and
evaluations has been conducted consistently in every quarter and shows the status of
performance, the leaders are reluctant about the performance. Hence effectiveness is become far
from result. The challenge of team-building, team development, and team management is the
other challenge. By integrating these teams plans can be implemented softly, but it can’t happen
there.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
o Supporting & coaching
o Commitment to the vision & missions
Weaknesses
o Lack of consistent support & supervision
o Lack of accountability
Opportunities
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o The focus of government on reform & capacity building is enabling opportunity
to the academy
o The board is chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia, so that, leaders
has an opportunity to bring their problem and can be solved easily
Traits
o Lack of peace and security
o Employee turnover
7. Solutions
In addition to targeted, planned, formal development initiatives and training so that leaders can
deal with and overcome these challenges, other means that rely on learning in a more social and
informal ways are also appropriate. In the sections that follow, I give some helpful suggestions
for the leaders who are facing the above and other challenges.
The most challenging problem is to have a good record for the achievement of planned
tasks, thus continuous monitoring and evaluation and feedback can bring effectiveness
about planed tasks.
Implementing good human resource policy with strict discipline: this can help to recruit
the best employee, train and develop skills and leadership gaps, motivate the best
achiever and in contrarily one can manage weaken achiever so that leadership can be
smooth.
Develop good communication and partnership with employee, leaders, stakeholders and
partners can be a good solution to overcome challenges in the organization.
8. Conclusions
Based on the above discussion the leadership role in the organization is important. They have
good traits in the leading of the Academy by being honest, delegation, and other some traits. This
can show as that they have the willingness and the effort to be a good leader. In the other hand
there are traits which portray the leader’s weakness like lack of accountability and effectiveness.
In doing this some challenges like lack of result in planned activities obstacles the achievement
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during the period they lead the organization. It is better to do consistent monitoring, Evaluation
and feedback to handle the challenge.
9. Recommendations
Based on the above discussion and conclusion the organization should focus in training and
development of leadership traits so that they can mitigate the weaknesses shown in the traits and
strengthen the achievements in the organization.
Reference
Bruce E. Winston & Kathleen Patterson. (2006). An Integrative Definition of Leadership.
International Journal of Leadership Studies, Vol. 1 Iss.2, 2006, pp. 6-66 © 2006 School of
Leadership Studies, Regent University.
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Al Dawood Ahmed and Christian Bach.(2014).Major Traits/Qualities of Leadership.
International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research.Vol. 3 No. 1.Department of
Technology Management, University of Bridgeport Bridge port, CT 06604, USA.
Oxford Dictionary. 2016.
Surbhi S (2018) Difference Between Leader and Manager. https://keydifferences.com
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