Leadeship
Leadeship
Leadeship
Leadership In Organisation
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ........................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. 2. Definition of Leadership .................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3. Leadership Versus Management ........ Error! Bookmark not defined. 4. Empowering Leadership ....................................................................... 5 4.1 Self-Leadership and Empowerment: ........ Error! Bookmark not defined. 4.2 Cross-cultural factors and Empowerment:...... Error! Bookmark not defined. 5. Influence Tactics of Leadership ............................................................ 6 6. Traits and Skills of a Leader ................................................................. 7 6.1 Limitations.................................................................................... 8 6.2 Skills of a leader: .......................................................................... 8 6.3 Technical skills ............................................................................. 8 6.4 Conceptual skills .......................................................................... 8 6.5 Interpersonal skills ....................................................................... 8 7. Behavior Approach................................................................................ 9 8. Situational Approach ............................................................................. 9 9. Charismatic Leadership ....................................................................... 10 10. Leadership During Adversity and Crisis ........................................... 11 11. Conclusion ......................................................................................... 12 12. Reference ........................................................................................... 13
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1. Introduction
The word "Leadership" always make people interested and excited. Anybody will visualize the image of a leader, as a confident, dynamic, focused, powerful individual who will lead from the front to achieve target, set of objectives or goal. From the history, leaders like Gandhi, Mohammed, Mao Tse-tung, Julius Ceaser, Alexander the Great who showed nation right direction, who build new empires, always credited and remembered. But these great leaders never used same leadership styles, influence tactics, never practice same power and authority. On the other hand, leaders like Adolf Hitler, Claudius Ceaser who used power and authority in wrong way, blamed for important historical event. So it is clear that leadership is a subject of speculation which kept OB researchers busy for a long time. The focus of most of the researches is to find out which influence tactics, traits, behaviors, power, authority is perfect for effective leadership to direct followers towards the goal. Progress has been made but many questions still remain unanswered.
2. Definition of Leadership
According to Stogdill (1974, p.259), "There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept". Rightly so, the topic leadership has fascinated researchers for centuries and as a result we got too many definitions. But some of the featured definitions are stated below: "Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an organized group toward goal achievement" (Rouch & Behling, 1984, p. 46) "Leadership is the process of making sense of what people are doing together so that people will understand and be committed" (Drath & Palus, 1994, p. 4)
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"The ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed to achieve organizational goals" (DuBrin, 2009, p. 352) An even more formal definition was given by the GLOBE research group as: "The ability of an individual to influence, motivate enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of organizations of which they are members" So it is clear that, leadership has so many different meanings to theorists, researchers and people but surely leadership has no alternative in terms of improving organizational effectiveness. Observation researchers (OB) have discovered that leaders can make a difference. One study, for example, tracked the relationship between net profit and leadership in 167 companies from 13 industries. It also covered a time span of 20 years. Higher net profits were earned by companies with effective leaders (Lieberson & O'Connor, 1972, pp. 117-130)
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Managers focuses on continuous improvement of the status quo, whereas leadership is a force for change that compels a group of innovate and depart from routine. Leadership requires having a vision (Ibarra & Obudaru, 2009, p. 65) Modern organizations need both effective leadership and management in order to get success. Real life example of both effective leader and manager is Mr, Kevin Johnson, the president of windows platform and services division at Microsoft.
4. Empowering Leadership
"Empowerment is a way of distributing authority in the organization. Empowerment is a way for leaders share power, also referred to as shared leadership "(DuBrin, 2012). Sharing power enables employees to perform effectively within the organization. By using this process leaders can easily motivate their subordinates. Employees always feel better about themselves and more enthusiastic to perform their best through this process. Empowering leadership works well in customer service based organizations where employees can make instant decisions to fulfil customer's expectations effectively. Lots of leaders successfully practicing empowering within the organizations, for example, Mark Pincus, the chief executive and founder of online social games provider Zynga. He gave opportunity to change whole phone system of the office to his smart receptionist. Being motivated she done it effectively in a short period of time and ended up running whole office (DuBrin, 2012). 4.1 Self-Leadership and Empowerment: "For empowerment to work well, people must exercise self-leadership, the process of influencing oneself" (Neck and Manz, 2007). So it is very important to practice self-leadership for empowerment within the organization. To do so leaders can give tasks to small groups in order to practice self-leadership. For example, a leader can give a task to a group of members to find out a way to boost up sales for 20% within a month. 4.2 Cross-cultural factors and Empowerment: Researchers investigated empowerment tactics of leadership among different countries and cultures and found that empowerment varied
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with the country and culture. The result showed that workers from United States, Mexico and Poland appreciate high degree of empowerment than Indian workers (DuBrin, 2012). According to Christopher Robert,( 2000) "Indians value unequal power between superiors and subordinates and expect the supervisor retain most of the power".
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command executive at Apple Inc. is a prime example of this influence tactics. Cook is said to be have "the courtly demeanour of a southern Gentleman" (Wingfield, 2006, p. B9). 5.6 Exchange: This tactics is frequently used by managers in organizations. It is like exchanging favours between management and employees. For example, manager can say to an employee that if you can finish this task on time, I will give you a voucher. 5.7 Coalition formation: "A coalition is a specific arrangement of parties working together to combine their power, thus exerting influence on another individual or group" (DuBrin, 2012). 5.8 Joking and kidding: It is another widely used tactics for leaders to influence employees. It is very useful when employees are on pressure because it can make them calm, comfortable, relax and more effective. It is very difficult to say which influence tactic leaders should have and on the top, not all of these tactics are applicable in a given situation. Effective leaders practice influence tactics, based on the situation in order to drive work force towards the organizational goal.
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confidence, 4) level of energy and activity and 5) task-relevant knowledge (Stogdill, 1948, pp. 35-70).
6.1 Limitations: Trait approach never explained how these traits are related to leadership effectiveness and advancement. On the top, this approach highlighted leader's characteristics but failed to explain behaviour to go through different kind of challenges effectively. 6.2 Skills of a leader: Many skills has been found through researches on leader characteristics but among them three categories of skills proposed by Katz (1955) and Mann (1965) are most useful and popular. 6.3 Technical skills: Knowledge about methods, procedures and processes of manager's working area and this kind of skills can be acquired by education, training and job experiences. Technical skills help managers to train and supervise employees effectively. According to the CCL study (McCall & Lombardo, 1983), "Technical knowledge about product products and work processes is related to effectiveness and advancement at lower levels of management, but it becomes relatively less important at higher levels of management". Technical knowledge especially important for entrepreneurs, who is trying to establish new ideas or new products. For example, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple and Mark Zukerberg, the cofounder of Facebook. 6.4 Conceptual skills: Gary Yulk, (2013) has explained conceptual skills as, "General analytical ability, logical thinking, proficiency in concept formation and conceptualization of complex and ambiguous relationships, creativity in idea generation and problem solving, ability to analyse events and perceive trends , anticipate changes and recognize opportunities and potential problems ". 6.5 Interpersonal skills: "Interpersonal (or social) skills include knowledge about human behaviour and group processes, ability to understand the feelings, attitudes and motives of others and ability to communicate clearly and persuasively" (Gary Yulk, 2013). Interpersonal skills
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enable managers to understand employees needs, problems, expectations in order to manage work force effectively within the organizations.
7. Behavior Approach
According to Jones and George (2011, p. 471) researchers at The Ohio State University recognized two essential kinds of leader behaviors following Extensive study in the 1940s and 1950s, which is applied by the leaders of many countries including United State, United Kingdom, Germany to influence their followers. Consideration: When leaders prove their followers that they respect, trust and care about them then leaders engaged in consideration. Leaders who truly try to do something better for their followers and try to make them happy when they are in workplace, perform consideration behaviors. (Jones and George, p. 471) Jones and George (2011, p. 471) believe that'' Consideration not only is an ethical imperative but also makes good business sense''. Initiating Structure: When a leader got the ability to set a goal and take a effective steps to make sure that work gets done is called Initiating Structure. Here managers share some information to their subordinates to let them know what is expected from them and make organisation effective and efficient. Making schedules, encouraging subordinates to follow the rules and regulation of the Organisation, deciding how work should be done, motivation followers to give their best in workplace are all examples of Initiating Structure. (Jones and George, 2011, p. 471)
8. Situational Approach
The Situational approach suggests that leaders need to apply different types of leadership and management style in different situation, there is no'' one size fits all'' approach in leadership.
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On the other hand, according to Blanchard and Hersey (1988, p. 170) leaders must identify the situation characteristics first, such as nature of task, consider the readiness level of their followers and nature of external environment. Leaders have to apply the most suitable leadership approach to fit the given situation depending on the level of these characteristics. According to Fiedler, group performance and effectiveness depends on the appropriate combination of leadership style and situation. Considering this, Fiedler introduced three important situational factors. (Jones and George, 2011, p 474)
-member relationship
According to House's Path-Goal Theory (1996, p. 323) leaders must provide enough information, support and resources to their followers to achieve their set goals. He introduced four types of situational leadership.
-Oriented
9. Charismatic Leadership
Charismatic leadership emphasises, "Symbolic leader behaviour, visionary and inspirational massages, non-verbal communication, appeal to ideological values, intellectual stimulation of
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followers by the leader, display of confidence in self and followers and leader expectations of follower self-sacrifice for performance behind the call of duty "(Shamir, House and Arthur, 1993, p. 578). This kind of leadership can make significant organizational change by expressing their ideas, vision and its meaningfulness to the followers. Richard Branson, chief operating officer of the Virgin group, is a good example of charismatic leader as he never had educational background but he successfully transformed his followers towards the goal. According to Buelens, Sinding, Waldstorm and Kreitner Kinicki, "Charismatic leaders can transform followers by creating changes in their goals, values, needs, beliefs and aspirations. They accomplish this transformation by appealing to followers' self-concepts namely their values and personal identity ". Though charismatic leadership is very effective for organization but 'wrong vision' of a leader can damage organization, such an example is Saatchi & Saatchi, once the world's famous publicity agencies which broke down because of its leader, Maurice saatchi's wrong vision.
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eBay, was at a company meeting in Germany, the managers present were concerned about a weakness in their business. She suggested that additional marketing spending would help boost activity; no one should panic because there were many solutions at their disposal (Lashinsky, 2003, p. 70). Appear confident and trustworthy: Group members always trust a modest, honest and confident leader. Confident body language of a leader can make group members psychologically very strong to overcome the crisis effectively. Divide major problem into smaller chunks: It is very important for leaders to divide major or big problem into smaller chunks between the group members in order to release pressure. Right people in right place with a specific problem can work effectively during the crisis. Stick with constructive core values: leaders who focus to maintain organizational core values may find difficult times but if they sacrifice core values to overcome crisis it can do permanent damage to the organization. For example, if a CEO of a company thinks that he will cut down manufacturing cost by lowering quality to make bigger profit margin during the crisis, it could be big risk as customers might stop buying its products.
11. Conclusion
Above all, leader is somebody special who have a vision for the future and can push
organization forward by using his unique styles, skills, influence tactics and empowerment to motivate his workforce to make that vision real. leaders are like pilot of the plane, where plane is the organization, if he can drive the organization effectively only then, organization can successfully reach in their destination. Modern leaders like Steve Jobs, Mark Jukerberg, Bill gates are examples who successfully directed their organizations towards the goal.
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12. Reference
Bass, B. M. (1990) Bass & Stogdills Handbook of Leadership. 3rd ed. New York: Free Press. p. 383. Buelens, M. et al. (2011) Organisational Behaviour. 4th ed. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education. Charles, C. M. and Christopher, P. N. (2004) Mastering self-Leadership. 3rd ed. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Christopher, R. et al. (2000) Empowerment and Continuous improvement in the United States, Mexico, Poland and India: Predicting Fit on the Dimensions of Power Distance and Individualism. Journal of Applied Psychology. pp. 643-658. Drath, W. H. and Palus, C. J. (1994) Making common sence. NC: Center for Creative Leadership. DuBrin, A. J. (2012) Management Essentials. 9th ed. South Western: Cengage Learning. p. 352. DuBrin, A. J. (2012) Management Essentials. 9th ed. South Western: Cengage Learning. pp. 359360. DuBrin, A. J. (2012) Management Essentials. 9th ed. South Western: Cengage Learning. p. 359. DuBrin, A. J. (2012) Management Essentials. 9th ed. South Western: Cengage Learning. pp. 360361. DuBrin, A. J. (2012) Management Essentials. 9th ed. South Western: Cengage Learning. p. 356359.
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Fagiano, D. (1997) Management Review. p. 5. Gary Yulk. (2013) Leadership in Organizations. 8th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, p.143. Gary Yulk. (2013) Leadership in Organizations. 8th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, pp. 155-158. George, J. M. and Jones, G.R. (2011) Contemporary Management. 7th ed. New York: McGrawHill Irwin. p.471. George, J. M. and Jones, G.R. (2011) Contemporary Management. 7th ed. New York: McGrawHill Irwin. p.474. Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. H. (1988) Management of Organizational Behavior. 5th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p. 170. House, R. J. ( 1996) Legacy and a reformulated theory. Leadership Quarterly, 7(3), p. 323. House, R. J. et al. (1997) New Perspectives In International Industrial Organizational Psychology. San Francisco: New Lexington. pp. 535-625. Ibarra, H. and Obodaru, O. (2009) Women and the Vision Thing. Harvard Business Review. p. 65. Katz, R. L. (1955). Skills of an effective administrator. p.33-42. Kotter, J. P. (1990) A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management. New York: Free Press.
Lashinsky, A. (2003) Meg and the Machine. Fortune, p. 70. Lieberson, S and OConnor, J. F. (1972) Leadership and Organizational Performance. pp. 11730. MacMillan, D. (2010) Survivor. . New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. P. 34.
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McCall, M. W. Jr. and Lombardo, M. M. (1983) Off the track: Why and how successful executives get derailed. NC: Center for Creative Leadership. OToole, J. and Bennis, W. (2009) Whats Needed Next: A Culture of Candor. pp. 54-61. Rauch, C. F. et al. (1984) International perspectives on managerial behavior and leadership. Emsford. NY: Pergamon Press. pp. 45-62. Shamir, B., House, R. J. and Arthur, B. M. (1993) Organization Science. p. 578. Stogdill, R. M. (1948) Personal Factors Associated with Leadership: A Survey of the Literature. Journal of Psychology. pp. 35-71; Stogdill, R. M. (1974). Handbook of leadership: A survey of the literature. New York: Free Press. Weathersby, G. (1999) Leading vs Management, p. 5. Wingfield, N. (2006) Has Low Profile, High Impact. The Wall Street Journal, 2(3).
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