How Can Leaders Lead and what is Leadership - Essay Example

?How Can Leaders Lead When They Don’t Know What To Expect? Table of Contents Introduction 3 The Concept and Role of Leadership in the 21st Century 4 Case Example: Affordable Care Act by US President Barack Obama 7 Discussion 10 Conclusion 14 References 15 Introduction Leadership is the assortment of the process and procedures that a skilled person uses to accomplish a specific aim. Effective leaders are the one who create the plans, imagines the vision and mission, secures the resources and ensures correct allocation of these resources to fix errors hindering the overall potential of gaining success (Avolio & et. al., 2003). Arguably, it is often affirmed that good and effective leaders always make a believable and realistic plan, which can be modified or customized in order to ensure the sustainability of the business during uncertainties or when implementation of change is needed to be executed. Similarly setting a firm goal for the organization is one of the few essentials that must be adhered in practicing successful leadership. It is in this context that leaders, to be effective in implementing successful strategies, must obtain a succinct understanding of what to expect from their followers and benefactors of their leadership practices (Kerr & Jermier, 1978). Focusing on this argumentive statement, the aim of the essay is to evaluate the significance leader’s ability to make accurate expectations when defining goals and implementing strategies likewise. In order to accomplish this particular aim, the essay emphasizes conducting a literature review to gain an in-depth knowledge about the factors that determine leadership success in the 21st century context, followed by a case example analysis in respect to the Affordable Care Act policy enforced by the US President Mr. Barack Obama. Based on the information obtained through these sections, a critical discussion has been conducted in this essay to derive a brief conclusion directly implying on the argument statement; i.e. “How can leaders lead when they don’t know what to expect?” The Concept and Role of Leadership in the 21st Century According to Kaiser & Hogan (2005), although leadership has remained a topic of interest for many years, and many researchers have contributed in the study of leadership, it still lacks a firm definition that can replicate its multidimensional features in an all-inclusive manner. According to Judge & et. al., (2002), it is because of the fact that leadership practices depend on situational contexts, where the qualities of the followers and the availability of resources play a vital role in determining overall leadership effectiveness also involving value-based philosophical attributes as major influences, defining the concept in a scientific way as similar to other societal concepts, becomes a major challenge. Nevertheless, almost all the explanations derived in the current phenomenon focus on one common feature of successful leadership that the effectiveness of these practices depend on the leader’s ability to understand or decode the change needs and define their expectations accordingly (Judge & et. al., 2002). It is in this context that Fry (2003) argued leaders to be attending both the task oriented and social or emotional issues through the directive and supportive behaviors, which further raises complexities in understanding the ability of the resources available and decide upon their expectations thereon. According to the House (1996), the contingency theory emphasizes that an effective leadership approach must have a link between the leader’s behavior and the situational conditions that further determines their accuracy of expectations. Expanding the contingency theory, House (1996) further argued that the path-goal theory of leadership joins the participative and achievement oriented leader’s behaviors with their directive and supportive behavioral needs to focus on the association amid performance-reward and explain the follower about the importance of such associations in order to perform effectively. Evidently, these theories reflect upon the importance of situational contexts that act to neutralize or substitute for leader’s behavior in determining what to be expected from the practices implemented (Kerr & Jermier, 1978). As explained in House (1996), from the beginning of the 1980s, the concept of behavioral contingency theory in groups has changed and shifted its focus to strategic leadership that emphasize motivation skills, visionary attributes, and values in the adaptability culture of modern day leadership. Likewise, according to the studies conducted by Peters & Waterman (2012), Vroman (1994), Ouchi (1993), the rapid changes in the external conditions and environment of the modern world raises substantial challenges for the leaders to understand the need for making accurate assumptions and therefore controlling their expectations in a realistic manner. It is in this context that leaders need to concentrate on the involvement and participation of the employees to meet the expectations of the rapidly changing environment. Simultaneous implementation of adaptive cultures is also essential for leaders that can support values, individual responsibility, creativity, learning and entrepreneurship in a proficient manner to further assist leaders in determining their expectations in a realistic manner (Ouchi, 1993). Taking due note of these multiple variables, as related with the post modern concept of leadership, Kouzes & Pozner (2012) defined the concept as “the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations”. Correspondingly, it can be affirmed that leadership is the process of motivating others by creating visions and goals in association with the ability of the resources and the circumstantial needs. In other words the leadership in the 21st century is the act of setting values and establishing culture that inspire others to struggle and mobilize for the mutual vision that defines the essence of understanding expectations with accuracy as a major factor in leadership success (Fry, 2003). As proposed by Hogan & Warrenfeltz (2003), every existing competency model of leadership can be captured with the domain model, which identifies four wide classes of managerial competencies to be possessed by an effective leader, viz. (a) intrapersonal skill: regulating one’s emotion and easily cooperative to authority, (b) interpersonal skills: creating and maintaining relationship, (c) business skill: forecasting, accounting, coordinating and monitoring business activities and (d) leadership skills: building and motivating a high performance team. Evidently, with these determinants acting in the situational context of leadership, the tasks assigned to leaders becomes a challenging phenomenon, which also often hinders their ability to determine their expectations from the policy implementations, in an accurate manner. Hence, the real effectiveness of leaders depends on the ability to deal with such kinds of challenges. According to Kuratko (2007), the first component that a leader might face is the risk mainly caused due to their inability to expect accurately from the resources available and the goals determined. As stated by Kaiser and Hogan (2005), leaders are those who are in-charge of the organization and their units. It is in this context that leaders need higher levels of skills to maintain the hierarchy of huge bureaucratic organizations as commonly witnessed in the modern day context. Hence, it can be argued that effective leaders are distinguishable on the basis of their hard work, intelligence, ambitions and political skills to deal with the confronting challenges and manage the resources well (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005). As argued by Kaiser & Hogan (2005), leadership should be evaluated on the basis of the observed group performance and the evaluation of the same over time (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005). Case Example: Affordable Care Act by US President Barack Obama There are different incidents where leaders have implemented different policies and strategies with the objective of developing their performances as well as growth of organizations in an appropriate and ethical manner. These policies and strategies are often implemented without ascertaining the consequences and expectations of implementing the same, which implies to a major limitation of the applied leadership practices concerning the gap between the leader’s expected results and the outcome generates (Hogan & Warrenfeltz, 2003). In valuing this particular argument, the most appropriate example can be illustrated as the Affordable Care Act recently enacted by the President of United States of America, Mr. Barack Obama. The enactment of The Patient Protection Act, commonly attributed as the Affordable Care Act and also known as ObamaCare, by President Barack Obama in the year 2010, has faced noteworthy criticisms within the political and economic climate of the nation, even though it is considered to be one of the most important measures taken for the overall development of the healthcare sector. The major aim of the act has been to ensure proper health care services at affordable costs to a wider range of American citizens, irrespective of their economic, cultural or social differences (Obama Care Facts, 2013). It is worth mentioning in this context that the rapidly increasing healthcare cost in the US has undoubtedly become a major concern among the policy makers and the common public in the current decade. It was in view of these challenges and with the expectations to mitigate the hindrances caused due to the rising costs of healthcare in facilitating citizens from the poor families, the President enacted the act. Precisely, the act aims to encourage a larger population of the US to obtain adequate healthcare assistance and therefore, have an increased access among the US citizens that would rejuvenate the social stability of the nation. With the provisions of this health care plan, the people of the US are expected to be provided with low cost as well as affordable health insurance facilities. This health care plan has also been applied with the expectation that it will be beneficial to assist a larger population of the US in obtaining health insurance benefits, thus providing them with an economic benefit as well. It also aims to aid in protecting consumers’ rights in the health care sector from the unethical practices reported in the sector, concerning the un-affordability of the health care facilities or patients suffering from chronic diseases being reportedly refused from the requisite nursing services. Correspondingly, the act aims to protect the interests of these groups of patients from being dropped unethically by the health care centers often because of the fact that they are excluded from the insurance benefits not being offered with care due to lifetime limits or because of pre-existing conditions such as in the case of chronic diseases. This health care plan also intends to aid consumers of health insurance in having a better legal standing as well as position in comparison to private health insurance companies to gain the complete benefits of the facility (Obama Care Facts, 2013). The aforementioned factors are the major terms on the basis of which, the US citizens are to be offered with effective health care plans in a cost effective manner. Additionally, the President, with the assistance of the aforementioned factors has planned to enhance the healthcare system of the US in the upcoming years. Apparently, the aims and the vision taken into account through the implementation of the ObamaCare act implies the social and philosophical values of the leader, i.e. Mr. Barack Obama in mitigating the issues faced by the society when concerning the availability of health care benefits. As can be observed from the above discussion, the provisions implemented by President Barack Obama expect development in the societal context of the nation in order to ensure that the healthcare system enhances with better affordable insurance coverage (Obama Care Facts, 2013). However, as a matter of fact, these ambitions or expectations denoted by Mr. Barack Obama in implementing the act has been subjected to rigorous criticism, arguing that most of these expectations are too ambitious to be achieved within the stipulated time-period. Arguments have also been centered to the skepticism that these measures are likely to result in greater damages to the societal stability of the country and economic prosperity of the insurance as well as health care sector, in comparison to the benefits expected from the same. For instance, a critical assessment and strategic forecast of the implications likely to be generated from the Affordable Care Act reveals different disadvantages associated with the healthcare plan. These limitations have been mostly subjected to government regulations, government spending imbalances and employment rate fluctuations, especially in the health care sector. The major aspect on the basis of which the plans and policies of Obamacare has been criticized is the substantial increase in the level of governmental spending, which in turn can further deteriorate the financial budgetary balances in the country. It is identified that the expenditures of the US government would rise due to the offering of low cost medical or healthcare services, attracting huge amount of the people belonging in the US to be served. This in turn shall give rise to budgetary deficits in the health care organizational finances, therefore forcing these organizations to cut-off the workforce, further raising the unemployment rate in this particular sector. Such an initiative is likely to raise complexities in the health care context, given the already insufficient availability of nursing professionals. Under such circumstances, it is likely that the organizations will consider lowering the cost of resources that shall in turn hinder the quality of the health care sector and cause long term degradation to the societal health on the whole (FactCheck, 2013). Additionally, the provisions of ObamaCare impose new taxes, affecting the mandate of an individual and the employers of corporate sectors in supporting the policy, which implies the lack of assessment in the planning made by the leader, President Barack Obama (Jay, 2013). This health care plan has also been criticized based upon the notion that it mainly aims at covering maximum number of uninsured people under its insurance coverage, but little considerations have been made in complying with their actual health care needs. Legally, the health plan has been questioned about the imposition of various new taxes that include tanning services and ‘Health Saving Accounts’, by the government on medical equipments and health coverage plans among others (Matthews, 2012). The health care plan is also criticized on the grounds that the plan will reduce the number of full-time employees due to the fact that employers with over 50 full-time employees are to be provided with insurance plan or else will be required to pay fines. In the aftermath, it is likely that companies shall be discouraged to employ more than 50 employees, given the rising burden to provide them with health care insurance benefits under the ObamaCare Act (FactCheck, 2013). Therefore, an adverse impact is likely to be observed in the overall employment scenario of the nation in the near future. Discussion Leaders are important participants of business organizations assigned with the responsibility of seeking operations to be executed in accordance with the set vision and missions towards the organizational success. Leaders are therefore entrusted with the responsibility of devising appropriate policies, plans and strategies on the basis of which, business operations in order to ensure better profitability and performances are executed. The leaders are thus often attributed to be capable of seeking that changes in the business organizations are identified appropriately and accordingly, appropriate measures are adopted in order to improve business performances (Ouchi, 1993). In this present competitive business scenario, leaders play an effective role in ensuring that resources are used in an appropriate manner. The leaders are also entrusted with the responsibility of seeking that the tasks of the employees are coordinated in the most productive way to guarantee organizational efficiency. Additionally, the leaders should seek that the employees are managed effectively with proper motivation along with zeal to perform their activities proficiently (Fry, 2003). To be noted in this context, these roles and responsibilities of the leaders have been argued to depend largely on their ability to determine what to expect in an effective manner. As per the unconventional approach to leadership, leaders are also required to possess directive along with supportive behavioral traits towards the resources in order to ascertain that they are able to perform their activities in an effective manner (House 1996). In this competitive business environment, leaders are therefore required to possess different skill sets, which commonly include interpersonal skills, business skills and leadership skills with the assistance of which, business operations can be performed with better profitability guaranteeing an easy success (Hogan & Warrenfeltz, 2003). In this changing market conditions, leadership also have to face different risks in accomplishing the set target with the application of their skills sets, which mandates their critical ability to know what to expect, so that an alignment can be built between the goals and the resources available. In this respect, leaders should be competent enough to adopt different measures and plans with the intention of mitigating risks in order to ensure that business organizations perform successfully (Kuratko, 2007). The leaders should also possess certain traits, which include decision making capabilities, analytical skills and communication skills in order to ascertain that the activities are conducted in a suitable manner. The leaders should also formulate strategies and policies with appropriate planning and analysis in order to ensure that the desired goals are accomplished as expected (Kouzes & Pozner, 2012). In this regard, it has been recognized that the President of the US, Mr. Barack Obama has adopted and implemented healthcare plan i.e. Obamacare on the basis of which the US citizens are expected to be offered with better affordable as well as low cost healthcare policies. Moreover, the healthcare plan is also expected to facilitate the people with better health insurance coverage (Obama Care Facts, 2013). However, there are certain shortcomings that have been identified as associated with the implementation of this healthcare plan, which include new taxes, negative impacts on government revenue structure and deterioration of the employment scenario in the nation (Matthews, 2012). This further signifies the need for leaders to know what to expect accurately. From a critical point of view, it can be identified that the health care plan has been criticized on different grounds, which may adversely affect the fund generation ability of the US government and the employment sector, apart from causing a risk to the health care quality standards. In this regard, it can be comprehended that health care plan developed and implemented by President Barack Obama, without conducting a proper analysis about the impact of the policies indicate towards his inefficiency in determining accurate expectations. As mentioned under the health care plan, the aims and expectations of the strategy focuses on different areas with the introduction of new tax regimes, and many other visionary approaches, lacking all-inclusive nature and effectiveness. Contextually, from the above facts and information considering the case example of Obamacare, it can be affirmed that leaders without adequate knowledge and understanding about the expectations and consequences of plans as well as strategies implemented will not be effective in their approaches. Respectively, leaders should possess effective analytical skills and decision making skills with the objective of implementing policies and plans with better expectations. Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be comprehended that leaders are essential to ensure better performance and management of business operations. Conceptually, leaders are referred to individuals who are entrusted with the responsibility of seeking that operations are coordinated and managed efficiently. Moreover, leaders are also accountable for managing and motivating employees in order to ensure that the employees perform their activities in accordance with the mission and vision of an organization. The leaders should therefore devise appropriate policies and plans in order accomplish the desired goals as expected. In this regard, from the case example of the health care plan initiated by President Barack Obama, it has been identified that the President has implemented the healthcare plan lacking future expectations defined with accuracy. Additionally, it was observed that the implemented plan lacked proper analysis and evaluation, which led to various criticisms relating to the imposition of new taxes and adverse risks to the government revenue. In this regard, leaders should ensure that plans along with policies are implemented with certain expectations and desired goals. Contextually, leaders formulating and implementing policies with proper analysis and expectations are quite likely to be facilitated with better opportunities of accomplishing the desired objectives in an effective manner. References Avolio, B. J. & et. al., 2003. Leadership Models, Methods and Applications. 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