Introduction

Principles of management are a broad and general guideline for managerial decision making and behavior of employees towards organization. The Principles of Management are the essential, underlying factors that form the foundations of successful management. As an aspect of management principles, a leader’s roles and character is of great importance. Leadership is a quality by which an individual may have the capability to influence a group of individuals so as to direct them towards achieving a common goal.

A leader is someone who can guide his team into accomplishing an action in a manner that is different and optimized from the norm followed and revolutionize the practices followed in an organization. Therefore, this paper will briefly introduce the concept of change in leader and compare it with the case scenario of AT&T’s new managerial changes. The paper also discusses and examines the skills and competencies that are required for one to be an effective new leader.

Summary of Article(s)

AT&T is shaking up the executive wing at Warner Media just nine months after acquiring the business for $85.4 billion. AT&T moved quickly to stamp its authority over some of Hollywood’s most valuable assets, creating a new entertainment unit to include HBO and TNT and hiring an outsider to run it, just days after its Time Warner takeover cleared its last legal hurdle. Former NBC Entertainment and Showtime chief Bob Greenblatt will be the new chairperson of WarnerMedia Entertainment. Greenblatt will oversee HBO, TNT, TBS and TruTV as well as streaming services, the company said.

Mr Zucker will head a combined news and sports division, which will fold CNN in with Turner’s sports network, AT&T regional sports channels and the Bleacher Report website. Mr Tsujihara will keep the Warner Bros studio and will add oversight of Turner’s animation channels, such as Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. The move could lead to cost-cutting that would undoubtedly be applauded on Wall Street. Investors have worried in recent months about the level of AT&T debt and the consolidation appears aimed at making the company’s entertainment products more cost-effective.

Analysis of New Event

AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner gives its distribution system access to a huge amount of content. The announced changes are designed to give the combined companies the agility and flexibility needed to build WarnerMedia’s brands across a variety of evolving distribution models with an emphasis on the company’s original programming.

John Stankey, an AT&T veteran who was put in charge of Warner Media at the time of the acquisition, is the executive behind the moves, which show that the company is serious about tearing up old ways and putting its own stamp on its new properties. The company’s two core businesses are both facing upheaval as tech companies like Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Google and Facebook have become dominant players in both entertainment and distribution.

A change leader can be defined as someone with a foresight for the organization and has the capability to put the organization on the right track to move towards that near future. The leader could have different styles of leading; for instance, being supportive, instrumental, action-oriented or merely participative based on the set goals and his expectations of the means by which he aims at reaching the goal. A change leader is often observed as challenging the process that is normally followed and creating a new innovative technique of performing the same task but in a more efficient and effective way.

Subordination and Unity of Direction

The management must put aside personal considerations and put company objectives firstly. Therefore, the interests of goals of the organization must prevail over the personal interests of individuals. The leader shares his vision that inspires him and accordingly models the path for others to follow and help the organization reach its set goal. In the process, he enables others to participate and act towards the common goal by constantly motivating his team to move forward in the right direction.

In today’s times, change leaders are required to take into consideration a number of factors while bringing about a change in an organization. The entire business needs to be evaluated before taking a change initiative. For instance, a leader may want to create breakthrough performance by increasing the company’s market share price by 10 times in a short span of say five years. But this would not be possible without the support of all the stakeholders.

John Stankey, an AT&T veteran who was put in charge of Warner Media at the time of the acquisition, is the executive behind the moves, which show that the company is serious about tearing up old ways and putting its own stamp on its new properties. The company’s two core businesses are both facing upheaval as tech companies like Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Google and Facebook have become dominant players in both entertainment and distribution.

The Degree of Centralization

John Stankey, an AT&T veteran who was put in charge of Warner Media at the time of the acquisition, is the executive behind the moves, which show that the company is serious about tearing up old ways and putting its own stamp on its new properties. The company’s two core businesses are both facing upheaval as tech companies like Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Google and Facebook have become dominant players in both entertainment and distribution.

The amount of power wielded with the central management depends on company size. Centralization implies the concentration of decision-making authority at the top management. A good leader needs to consider the opinions of his associates while making decisions but leaders may not always have the time to consult a number of people every time they make valuable decisions. How well can a leader keep all his subordinates happy and lead them towards a successful change process is what distinguishes him from the other less accomplished leaders.

The change leader needs to involve the suppliers, distributors and other key employees in the decision making process. Organizations are now becoming emergent and follow self-organization, so change often occurs in the least expected ways, and hence leaders are often observed to encourage innovation and disrupt the existing trends of performance behavior.

Another aspect of a change leader is that of playing a role of an opinion leader. An opinion leader is an agent who can influence people’s behavior, attitudes, opinions, motivations and beliefs. They are used to basically spread a new idea or concept through the organization. Opinion leader tend to analyze the situation within the organization and then put across their views when the likelihood of the new ideas being accepted is high or when it is apparent that people would be willing to go about things in a way different from the norm.

Use of Initiative for Leadership

Using the initiative of employees can add strength and new ideas to an organization. Initiative on the part of employees is a source of strength for organization because it provides new and better ideas. Employees are likely to take greater interest in the functioning of the organization. Opinion leaders have been proved to serve as promising change agents and have been successful at eliminating resistance to change to a large extent and increased the rate of innovation.

Apart from this, a leader should be a people’s man who is out going and open minded. Just having a vague vision for an organization will not help. I agree to this as I have observed this from my personal experience at my previous workplace where my manager was an effective change leader without any formal training. He had learnt his way up the ladder through experience in the technical sector but moved on to become part of the management of the organization. This was possible because he had the determination to change the process for the betterment of his fellow employees and he had an aptitude to help people grow in their fields. He focused on the key issues, inspired his subordinates to think differently and break away from the standard procedures followed to improvise the work routine into a faster and smoother working system.

Conclusion

References

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