Leadership and Its Relationship With Contemporary Organisations - Report Example

TOPIC: Leadership and its relationship with contemporary organisations Outline/Executive Summary (excluded from word count) The meaning and usage ofthe notion of leadership as an ingredient of success and value in an organisations contemporary structure has received a mixed response from the business academia,where skeptics have gone as far as to say that "All definitions are arbitrary. They reflect choices that cannot be proved or validated" (Shamir and Eilam 2005:395)..The main focus of this report it will be seen that to what extent leadership is an "influencing' force as Northhouse (2004) has stated that 'Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences [another individual or] a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Leadership & National Culture The relationship between leadership and national culture has often been held to impact closely the success and failure of an organisation in terms of leadership style, motivation and employee performance(Bass, 1990; Collins and Porras, 1996).In the context of National culture at least academics have pointed out that transformational leadership attributes which pertain to empowerment and perception contribute to employee job satisfaction and commitment in a very positive way (Iverson and Roy, 1994). Leadership & Gender The business academia has often focused upon the influence of gender on leadership and its various dimensions. When we are thus perusing the relationship between gender role and leadership style academics have pointed out towards a tendency of attaching "masculinity with task-oriented leadership styles and femininity with relationship-oriented ones".(Oshagbemi and Gill, 2003).It is perceived by the researchers and the academia that if sexes are perceived so differently in organizations their leadership styles would also differ a lot and this would seem likely that leadership styles are also different. Leadership & Ethics Leadership is morality magnified"(Ciulla, 2006:17).In this regard this section seeks to define the relationships between ethics and leadership in the organisational context.The modern leader has to weather and face a plethora of situations like financial and political scandals,international pressure,public image,regulation and the current business mood and in this context it is also worth noting that gender and national culture issues have also reflected upon the common problems versus cultural specificity.(Individual responsibility v Corporate conscience). CONCLUSION This report concludes that the term "Leadership"is subjectively constructed and the whole concept has many dimensions.For Gardner (1995, p. 292), "The greatest challenge the leaders face is to bring about significant and lasting changes in a large and heterogeneous group". The link between leadership and ethics and gender has been accordingly explored to reflect cultural contexts aswell. INTRODUCTION The meaning and usage of the notion of leadership as an ingredient of success and value in an organisations contemporary structure has received a mixed response from the business academia,where skeptics have gone as far as to say that "All definitions are arbitrary. They reflect choices that cannot be proved or validated" (Shamir and Eilam 2005:395).The question is that when we seek an authentic meaning of the role of leadership instead of the "glittery and shiny"part it can be seen that the mere display of socially desirable behaviours does not make a good leader.Rather good leadership in the organisational structure should exhibit something more "genuine" and decisions based on a leaders courage to follow his or her own convictions.(Shamir and Eilam 2005) .According to Cooper et al (2005) this would indicate that we should be looking at leadership behaviours rather than styles like transformational, transactional, etc and there is a need to discuss how the leadership in promoting success in contemporary organisations has to be multidimensional with regard to drawing from the elements such as traits, behaviors, and contexts.This would also pertain to the extent the corporate leader is aware of the need maintain a clean record and to maintain transparency of actions .Therefore we can proceed in this report on the basis that there is a consensus among the business academia that there is no single definition of Leadership "'In the past 50 years there have been about 65 different classification systems developed to define the dimensions of leadership' (Fleishman et al., 1991) and that it remains a "'Focus of group processes' (Bass, 1990) which involve the "Process of inducing others to accomplish tasks"(Northouse, 2004).Coming to the main focus of this report it will be seen that to what extent leadership is an "influencing' force as Northhouse (2004) has stated that 'Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences [another individual or] a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Leadership & National Culture he relationship between leadership and national culture has often been held to impact closely the success and failure of an organisation in terms of leadership style, motivation and employee performance(Bass, 1990; Collins and Porras, 1996).In the context of National culture at least academics have pointed out that transformational leadership attributes which pertain to empowerment and perception contribute to employee job satisfaction and commitment in a very positive way (Iverson and Roy, 1994).To take the difference between Asian and Western firms for example ,Western firms tend to have the culture of low power distance (Chen, 2001) and this is in contrast to the Asian corporate situation where there is an intensity in the bureaucratic process and there is a stress on central decision making and a centralized policy driven approach premised " position, authority and seniority." and loyalty to the highest superior.(Chen and Francesco, 2000). These leadership differences in the corporate structure have a major impact upon how the leadership in a cross cultural and multinational marriage will respond to the organizational challenges brought about by the national culture of the host or guest country.In this vein it has been further suggested by Redding (1990) that the oriental leadership succumbs to "personalism" based on high employee commitment and a paternalistic leadership attitude.Thus it is said that these firms are ruled (Walder 1995) " by (one)person rather than rule by law whereby top bosses dominate organisations. . The tensions of adapting to the Leadership cultures and practices of the parent subsidiary are well illustrated however the 'head-office' driven entity approach is neither endorsed nor criticised at this point. The literature demonstrates how Multinationals and International Joint Ventures meet an internal tension when faced with pressure to adopt practices that are identical to the so called hegemonic 'parent'. "Tensions between both groups of shareholders and between foreign shareholders and localized business systems, and attendant expectations, suggest that hybridized or mixed practices may reflect the relative power of parents as well as the host-country socio-legal environment." (Elkin 1998) and there is an increased 'new institutionalism' approach"(Elkin 1988) based on the connection between MNC's in their context for HRM operations.Elkin (1998) has also pointed out that leadership differences stem from the differences between HR policies and practices in IJVs resulting from the relative power and influence of the IJV partners.Also noteworthy is however the fact that that Chinese practices have become increasingly Westernized although the writer(s)does admit that this has happened. Thus in the light of all these differences the leadership in relation to the national cultural context should demonstrate the willingness to hear & understand different views,display an interest in languages,a desire to travel, learn new things, try varied cuisine,display a sense of ease in culturally ambiguous situations,show the ability to work in multicultural teams,willingness to take risks when the potential pay-off is high,tolerance for frustration & ambiguity,an adaptability to new situations, internal orientation and sense of humour as some of the best practices involved in affecting the success of the corporate entity.( Manfred Kets de Vries 2006). Leadership & Gender The business academia has often focused upon the influence of gender on leadership and its various dimensions.The feminine leadership styles have often been described in general terms as interpersonal-oriented, charismatic and democratic (Eagly and Johnson, 1990) mainly because there is a heightened perception of the fair sex as being sensitive, warm, tactful and expressive ( Van Engen et al., 2001).In this contet gender has been defined as the " distinctive culturally created qualities of men and women apart from their biological differences"(Brandser, 1996). When we are thus perusing the relationship between gender role and leadership style academics have pointed out towards a tendency of attaching "masculinity with task-oriented leadership styles and femininity with relationship-oriented ones".(Oshagbemi and Gill, 2003).It is perceived by the researchers and the academia that if sexes are perceived so differently in organizations their leadership styles would also differ a lot and this would seem likely that leadership styles are also different. The truth is as revealed by academics who reject the traditional view that women as leaders need training which is equal to men rather than the value they bring to the organisation and only then we can look forward to the benefits derived from their baggage based on socialization,culture of origin; and organizational culture. The older view in this regard ofcourse was that women lack skills and the requisite traits for managerial success (Hennig & Jardim, 1977),However the decades saw female leadership emerging and the extolling superiority of women in leadership positions (Book, 2000; Helgesen, 1990).The same views were later propounded by (Book, 2000; Helgensen, 1990) who said that gender has little or no relationship with style or effectiveness (see also Engen, Leeden & Willemsen, 2001; Powell, 1990).Infact the millennium view has been that women lead in a more democratic & participative manner (Engen, 2001) The feminine style of leadership has infact met much praise and academics(Knight & Saal, 1984; Northouse, 2007) have gone on to say that womens efficiency as leaders was devalued compared to men when they tried to lead in a masculine manner (autocratic, directive) or occupied masculine leadership role (athletic coaches, manufacturing managers). Eagly Johannesen-Schmidt & van Engen, (2003) agree that female leadership styles tend to be more transformational than men and they also engage in more 'contingent reward' behaviour than men - all relate to effectiveness and over all men and women are equally effective leaders.The only problem that arises in this context is the background differences pertaining to Education, work experience, developmental opportunities, work home conflict as well as the biological attitudes to style & effectiveness, commitment & motivation, self promotion, negotiation, evolution.Furthermore this area suffers from prejudice in terms of gender stereotypes, biased perceptions & evaluations, vulnerability & reactance, cross pressures.Last but not the least is the mention of the "Glass Ceiling" the term which is used to refer to the global phenomena of the barrier against women but can be generalised to include ethnic and disabled groups.Therefore for greater organisational success all these factors have to be taken into account to gain the benefits of female leadership. Leadership & Ethics Leadership is morality magnified"(Ciulla, 2006:17).In this regard this section seeks to define the relationships between ethics and leadership in the organisational context.The modern leader has to weather and face a plethora of situations like financial and political scandals,international pressure,public image,regulation and the current business mood and in this context it is also worth noting that gender and national culture issues have also reflected upon the common problems versus cultural specificity.(Individual responsibility v Corporate conscience). The characteristics of ethical leadership have been defined by Trevino et al, (2003) as: Outward-oriented people focus High visibility of good conduct Open communication and good listening skills Sets standards for themselves, lapses not tolerated Strong accountability Design-making process an end in itself Broader understanding of issues Furthermore the MORI survey 2005 has indicated that,leadership deficiencies arise from the fact that very often the public will not agree on the balancing act of decisions and keep their promises.The link between leadership, corporate social responsibility and business ethics becomes a pivotal concern here.. Nisberg (1988:43) has defined business ethics as "a set of principles that guides business practices to reflect a concern for society as a whole while pursuing profits" Hackley (2005), defines ethics as a system of moral principles and rules of conduct that a society develops overtime. He further refers to ethics as what is right, good or consistent with virtue. Corporate Social Responsibility by the leadership is the degree of moral obligation that may be put upon corporations apart from the normal laws of the state. The leadership in the corporation has to realise that the corporation is an individual and is amenable to treatment as an individual under the law (Nisberg, 1988, p. 74).Many academics have often remarked that Business ethics is an "oxymoron" with in itself and many academics consider it as "intrinsically unethical" or at the least morally neutral.Academics have applied a number of different philosophies to business and leadership ethics as (e.g., Ferrell and Gresham, 1985). Social psychologists have also considered moral philosophies to play a pivotal role in the shaping of leadership decisions. Forsyth (1980) has argued that ethical decisions can be explained in terms of idealism and relativism and defined (1980, p. 175) relativism as "the extent to which an individual rejects universal moral rules" when making ethical judgments and idealism as the degree to which the individuals "assume that desirable consequences can, with the 'right' action, always be obtained" (Forsyth, 1980, p. 176). According to (Vitell et al. 1993) these two philosophies as determinants of Leadership have done differently in practical life.(Vitel et al 1993) has observed that corporate leaders who stressed on idealism tended to exhibit a higher level of honesty and deemed it essential for effective organisation to be based on ethics and social responsibility.Relativists on the other hand were reportedly exhibiting lower trends of integrity. Hunt et al. (1989, p. 79) have defined corporate ethical values as "a composite of the individual ethical values of managers and both the formal and informal policies on ethics of the organization." Based on this it would seem that corporate values influence many aspects of an organisations decision making. Singhapakdi et al. (1995) has also indicated that corporate ethical values have a very profound link with marketing ethics and social responsibility. Academics have devised number frameworks for analysis in this regard and these involve many concepts like ,the Value-orientated framework which analyses ethical dilemmas on the basis of the moral values being infringed, the Stakeholder-orientated framework basing ethical problems on who they are directly influencing and the Process-orientated framework, (See Martin 2002). The link between ethics and leadership is pivotal to a company's long term growth .From a business point of view " Good ethics is often good business". However it would be useful to argue at this point that not all marketing/business practices are unethical as the media has fervently portrayed for many decades.But this leads to the examples of leadership challenges in marketing which are a "hot topic" today based on the revival of the conceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility. It is reported that ethical investment funds amounting in the USA to $650 billion in 1996 (Punter and Gangneux, 1998), and over 1,400 companies belong to Business for Social Responsibility, (Punter and Gangneux, 1998).(BSR)In America the BSR has played a vital role in reinforcing marketing ethics and corporate social responsibility. Other Ethics watch dogs have been established aswell and they promote ethical behaviour(see the Nader Page located on the Web at http://www. nader.org/). There is a newfound trend in marketing and business ethics where large corporations publicize their business ethics programs on the Internet. Take the example of Shell Oil, where, after a number of environmental and public relations problems, the company executive-ship decided to commit to recyclable and environment friendly energy and publicly promotes human rights worldwide.Many organisations and their top leaders are anxious to portray themselves as seeking high moral ground, something they call " ethical business". CONCLUSION This report has seen that the term "Leadership"is subjectively constructed and the whole concept has many dimensions.For Gardner (1995, p. 292), "The greatest challenge the leaders face is to bring about significant and lasting changes in a large and heterogeneous group". The link between leadership and ethics and gender has been accordingly explored to reflect cultural contexts aswell.Briefly in the context of all the above variables it can be concluded that genuine and effective leadership pertains at an individual level to the promotion of effective negotiations, use of effective leadership styles.At the interpersonal level this would pertain to decreasing gender stereotypes and last but not the least a the societal level it needs gender and ethical equity in domestic responsibility References 1. Adair, J (2002), Effective Strategic Leadership: an essential path to success guided by the world's greatest leaders, Macmillan, London 2. Northouse, P. G. (2001) Leadership (2nd Edition) Sage, London 3. Sadler, P. (2003) Leadership (2nd Edition) Kogan Page, London 4. Rickards, T. & Clark, M. (2006), Dilemmas of Ladership, Routledge, Abingdon Brubaker, DL and Colbe, ID (2005) The Hidden Leader (Thousand Oaks, Corwin Press) 5. Ciulla, JB (2006) 'Ethics the heart of leadership' in Maak, T. and Pless, NM (eds) Responsible Leadership (Routledge, Oxford) 6. Kohlberg, L. (1976) 'Moral Stages and moralization: the cognitive development approach' in Lickona, T. (ed) Moral Development and Behavior: Theory Research and Social Issues (Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, New York) 7. Trevino, LK, Brown, M and Pincus Hartman, L (2003) 'A qualitative investigation of perceived executive ethical leadership: perceptions from inside and outside the executive suite' Human Relations 56 (1) 5-37 8. Angle, H. (1981), "An empirical assessment of organisational commitment and organisational effectiveness", Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 26 No.1, pp.1-14. 9. Bass, B. (1990), Bass and Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership, Free Press, New York, NY, 10. Benkhoff, B. (1997), "Disentangling organisational commitment: the changes of the OCQ for research and policy", Personnel Review, Vol. 26 No.1, pp.114-20. 11. Chen, M. (2001), Asian Management Systems, Thomson, London, 12. Chen, Z.X., Francesco, A.M. (2000), "Employee demography, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions in China: do cultural differences matter", Human Relations, Vol. 3 No.6, pp.869-87. 13. Cheng, B.S. (1995), "'Chaxugeju' (differential mode of association) and Chinese organizational behaviour", in Yang, K.S. (Eds),Indigenous Psychological Research in Chinese Society, Vol. Vol. 3 pp.142-219 14. Collins, J., Porras, J. (1996), Built to Last, Random House, London, 15. Conger, J., Kanungo, R. (1988), Charismatic Leadership: the Elusive Factor in Organizational Effectiveness, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, CA, 16. Deal, T., Kennedy, A. (1982), A Corporate Culture, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 17. Kahal, S. (2001), Business in Asia Pacific, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 18. Goffee, R., Jones, G. (1998), The Character of a Corporation, Harper Business, London, 19. Hansen, G., Wernerfelt, B. (1989), "Determinants of firm performance: the relative impact of economic and organizational factors", Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 10 No.3, pp.399-411. 20. Hofstede, G. (1980), Culture's Consequences, Newbury, New York, NY. 21. Hofstede, G. (1991), Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 22. Iverson, R., Roy, P. (1994), "A causal model of behavioural commitment: evidence from a study of Australian blue-collar employees", Journal of Management, Vol. 20 No.1, pp.15-41. 23. Lok, P., Crawford, J. (1999), "The relationship between commitment and organizational culture, subcultures, leadership styles, job satisfaction in organizational change and development", Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, Vol. 20 No.7, pp.365-73. 24. Malone, T. (1997), "Is empowerment just a fad control decision making and IT", Sloan Management Review, pp.23-35. 25. Manz, C., Sims, H. (1991), "Superleadership: beyond the myth of heroic leadership", Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 2 pp.18-35. 26. Martin, J. (1992), Cultures in Organizations - Three Perspectives, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 27. Mathieu, J., Zajac, D. (1990), "A review of met-analysis of the antecedents, correlates and consequences of organizational commitment", Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 108 No.2, pp.171-94. 28. Michael, P. (1994), "An expanded conceptual framework of organizational commitment and job satisfaction for salesforce management", Journal of Business and Society, Vol. 7 No.1, pp.42-67. 29. Miller, D. (1978), "Career planning and management in organizations", Advance Management Journal, Vol. 43 No.2, pp.33-43. 30. Miroshnik, V. (2002), "Culture and international management: a review", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 21 No.7, pp.521-44. 31. Mowday, R., Steers, R., Porter, L. (1979), "The measurement of organizational commitment", Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Vol. 14 pp.224-7. 32. Peters, T., Waterman, R. (1982), In Search of Excellence, Harper and Row, London, . 33. Riketta, M. (2002), "Attitudinal organizational commitment and job performance: a meta-analysis", Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 23 pp.257-66. 34. Salancik, G. (1977), "Commitment and the control of organizational behaviour and belief", in Shaw, B.M., Salancik, G.R. (Eds),New Directions in Organizational Behaviour, St Clare Press, Chicago, IL, pp.123-35. 35. Cooper, C.D., Scandura, T.A., Schriesheim, C.A. (2005), "Looking forward but learning from our past: potential challenges to developing authentic leadership theory and authentic leaders", The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 16 pp.475-93. 36. Gardner, W.L., Avolio, B.J., Luthans, F., May, D.R., Walumbwa, F. (2005), "Can you see the real me A self-based model of authentic leader and follower development", The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 16 pp.343-72. 37. Shamir, B., Eilam, G. (2005), "What's your story A life-stories approach to authentic leadership development", The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 16 pp.395-417. 38. Elkin, Paul. (1998), Mastering Business Planning And Strategy: The Power Of Strategic Thinking 39. Nantel, J. and W. A. Weeks (1996). "Marketing ethics: Is there more to it than the utilitarian approach" European Journal of Marketing 30(Issue 5): 9. 40. Thompson, M. (2002). "Marketing virtue." Business Ethics: A European Review 114: 354. 41. Kaler, J., (1999) 'What's the good of ethical theory' Business Ethics: A European Review 8.4;206-213 42. Brennan, M. (1991). "Is There More to Ethical Marketing than Marketing Ethics." Marketing Bulletin 2: 8-17. 43. Bishop, T.R. (1992), "Integrating business ethics into an undergraduate curriculum", Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 11 No.4, pp.291-9. 44. Nisberg, J.N. (1988), The Random House Handbook of Business Terms, Random House, New York, NY., 45. Punter, L., Gangneux, D. (1998), "Social accountability: the most recent element to ensure total quality management", Total Quality Management, Vol. 9 No.4/5, pp.S196-S198. 46. "Is it ethical to compete on ethics"Stainer A, Stainer LBusiness Ethics: A European Review (UK), 1995 Vol 4 Issue 4 47. Adrian, K. Martin, G. (2002). 'The ethical framework of advertising and marketing research practitioners': a moral development perspective Journal of Advertising Vol. 22 No.2, pp.39-47. 48. Brown, O. (2002). 'Ethics in advertising decision making': implications for reducing the incidence of deceptive advertising Journal of Consumer Affairs Vol. 28 No.2, pp.380-403. 49. Chris, H. (2004). 'A contingency framework for understanding ethical decision' Journal of Marketing Vol. 49 pp.87-96. 50. Dawn Burton (2001) "Critical marketing theory: the blueprint" European Journal of Marketing Volume 35 (5/6) pp722-743 51. Appelbaum, S.H., Shapiro, B.T. (1993), "Why can't men lead like women", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 14 No.7, pp.28-34. 52. Barker, L. (2000), "Effective leadership within hospice and specialist palliative care units", Journal of Management in Medicine, Vol. 14 No.2, pp.291-309. 53. Bascia, N., Young, B. (2001), "Women's careers beyond the classroom: changing roles in a changing world", Curriculum Inquiry, Vol. 31 No.5, pp.271-302. 54. Bass, B.M., Avolio, B.J. (1994), "Shatter the glass ceiling: women may make better managers", Human Resource Management, Vol. 33 No.2, pp.549-60. 55. Begley, P.T., Cambell-Evans, G. (1992), "Socializing experiences of aspiring principals", The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 38 No.4, pp.285-99. 56. Bennis, W., Nanus, B. (1985), Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge, Harper & Row, New York, NY, 57. Blackmore, J. (1989), "Educational leadership: a feminine critique and reconstruction", in Smith, J. (Eds),Critical Perspectives in Educational Leadership, The Falmer Press, New York, NY, pp.93-130. 58. Hofstede, G. (1980), Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-related Values, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, . 59. Hopkins, D. (1994), "Towards a theory for school improvement", paper presented to ESRC Seminar Series on School Effectiveness and School Improvement, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, October, . 60. Jamieson, K.H. (1995), Beyond the Double Bind: Women and Leadership, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, . 61. Kark, R. (2004), "The transformational leader: who is (s)he A feminist perspective", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 17 No.2, pp.160-76. 62. Oakley, J.G. (2000), "Gender-based barriers to senior management positions: understanding the scarcity of female CEOs", Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 27 No.3, pp.321-34. 63. Schmidt, L.J. (1992), "Women in educational administration: a disappearing construct", paper presented at the Annual Conference of Women in Administration, Lincoln, NE, . 64. Williamson, R.D., Hudson, M.B. (2001), "New rules for the game: how women leaders resist socialization to old norms", paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, WA, April, . 65. Young, M.D., Kochan, F.K. (2004), "Supporting leadership for America's schools", Better Leaders for America's Schools: Perspectives on the Manifesto, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, A Monograph Series for University Council for Educational Administration, pp.115-29. 66. Young, M.D., McLeod, S. (2001), "Flukes, opportunities, and planned interventions: factors affecting women's decisions to become school administrators", Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol. 37 No.3, pp.462-502 Read More