A Behavioral Theory of Charismatic Leadership - Essay Example

From time immemorial, the success or failure of an organization or any other human activity depends on the role, the leader plays. If the leader follows a set of traits he/ she can ‘sprinkle’ success on many lives, including the workers in his/her organization. The leadership traits should be visible and should be put to effective use when the leader, as a ‘builder’ builds a group and as a ‘founder’ launches an organization. The leader can build a group, by associating individuals who came from the same ‘stable’ like friends, work mates, family members etc and by recruiting individuals with talent, knowledge and attitude. That is, as Schein (2004) said, “... best way to build an organization was to hire very smart, articulate, tough, independent people and then give them lots of responsibility and autonomy”. With this ‘living’ group, and the material things like capital, machines, infrastructure etc the founder cum leader embark on an organization. But, in most cases, a leader will normally take over or preside over or manage an existing organization. That is, the building or recruiting of the ‘group’ of workers as well as the installation of infrastructure, set up etc, would have already taken place, with the leader only leading and managing the organization. This job of taking an existing set up and managing it, brings in set of challenges, which can be taken care by formulating certain strategies or solutions. That is, challenges can be overcome by implementing leadership programs or programs implemented by a leader. Background These leadership duties were performed up to certain extent by Mr. X who is the Director of the Middle East operations in my company. Certain extent in the sense, although he exhibits effective leadership traits during various scenarios, he falls short in some other situations. I work for a heavy-lifting manufacturer, which is one of the top level companies in the world in the sector of lifting. The company is an American one and is made up of two segments, heavy-­lifting and food making machines, and is a global leader in both. The company has been around since 1902 and it has grown to acquire/takeover other companies in the course of its history, elevating itself into the 500 NYSE top companies. The company has a global reach, with operations all over the world spanning, North America, Asia as far as the manufacturing plants are concerned. Additionally, it has supporting offices in the Middle East Asia (where I am currently based) as well as in Asia-­Pacific and South America. It also has extensive global distributing network partners, who are authorised to sell our machines, spare parts and also carry out after-­sales service utilizing trained service technicians. In the Middle East operations only, I came across an individual who hold the leadership position and who will be the subject of this assignment. He is a young 37 French old man with an MBA and has been in the Middle East since 1998 and has slowly worked his way up. Actually, he was one man operation covering just one brand until 3 years ago when our company actualized its operations and so nominated him as the head of the office. So, this paper will focus on the key leadership skills exhibited by him, investigating how effective those leadership skills are in some of the work scenarios and at the same time will also focus on how those skills were not up to the expected levels in some cases. Imposition of leader’s assumptions As leaders are the people in lead, they usually have a major impact on how the group initially defines and sets into an organization. Typically, the founders as leaders have strong assumptions about the nature of the world, the role that organizations play in that world, the characteristics that make up human nature and relationships, how truth is arrived at, and how to manage time and space (Schein, 1978, 1983). They will, therefore, be quite comfortable in imposing those views and personal cultures, on their partners and employees as the fledgling organization copes with challenges and targets in the initial stages. This initial stage imposition of leader’s assumptions, as a form of good culture is one of the good leadership traits exhibited by Mr. X. As he is one who is the initiator of operations in Middle East, he started imposing his ideas and assumptions as form a organizational culture and it was widely accepted by the employees. From the days of him handling just one brand, Mr. X has been staying in Middle East only, and so imbued many aspects of organisational functioning in Middle East. This experience only made him to formulate and impose his ideas, assumptions, etc as a form of organizational culture in the initial stage itself. As the workers’ mind was fresh as well as curious about his leadership, their mind was willing to make a good beginning and thus the new culture was easily adopted. “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority” (Blanchard cited by Parnos, 2008). As part of the organizational culture, Mr. X first imbibed the importance of being punctual to report work as well as in completing work. As a continuation of this culture, employees who were punctual and who completed the work well before the deadline were rewarded through paid holidays. But, it is not smooth sailing all the way for Mr. X, because the challenge to this imposition of a new culture came in the form of experienced workers particularly in the production side in one of the plant. As they were slugging out in the same job in the same environment, importantly in the same mindset for years, changing them to accept the new effective assumptions and work culture became a little difficult in the initial stages. However, Mr. X made them fall in line, not by force but convincing them of the advantages of the new culture and importantly facilitating them into the new culture. This process of great working culture will always be or should always be ‘seeded’ by the leader and Mr. X did that effectively. Involving the workers productively In any organization, there will hierarchical structures, with the leader, the upper management and the employees separated both physically and mentally. This separation particularly the absence of mental interaction will also affect the motivation level of the employees. That is, if mental interaction is developed by the leader and the management with the employees, it can increase motivation to high level. This was exactly carried out by Mr. X at crucial times. This mental interaction was maximally held by Mr. X during the decision making process particularly during the decision to go for a joint venture with local company was on the anvil. That is, during the process of decision making on whether to go for the joint venture with that company, one of the approaches the Mr. X tried is, putting for discussion his thoughts, targets, strategies, plans, etc, goals about this joint venture among the workers in the form of direct interaction as well as through feedback questionnaire. This strategy had unexpected at the same time favourable results, because majority of the employees apart from favouring the joint venture decision also came up with their suggestions on how to make this initiative an successful one. “Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results” (Patton). This skill will have favourable results, because the employees will be motivated to come up with effective suggestions and will also work harder to actualize those suggestions. That is, as specified by the Cooper model, when the workers keep on participating in all the important decision making process, they will start to understand all the intricacies of organization functioning. (Scott, 2002). So, involving and allowing co-workers to play a part in the decision-making, but at the same time being the final authority is a good leadership trait, one should cultivate and Mr. X not only cultivated that trait but also yielded good results. Providing a perfect and comfortable working environment Another approach, a leader could practice and which could be a considered an effective leadership skill is providing a perfect and comfortable working environment for his workers Mr. X incorporated this trait into the company’s environment specifically in the office environment with optimum results. One of the decision, Mr. X took as part of this motive, is to go for an open-office layout. That is, cubicles were preferred instead of offices with doors. That is, in an office set up where team work will have prominent place, Mr. X understood that face to face interaction as part of cubicle set up would bring in more ideas, than one calling other into a closed room and having a closed discussion. In the manufacturing part of the company, he carried out a minimization of the use of status symbols such as private offices, special dining rooms for executives, and personal parking spaces. This is one of the important decisions taken by Mr. X because it gave the lower staff, the feeling that all are treated equal, irrespective of the salary, experience etc. So, instead of special rooms, many conference rooms and entertainment plus play rooms were setup to encourage employees from all hierarchy to interact comfortably and optimally. This environment made the workers stay, at the company, an enjoyable experience at the same time encouraging experience. Rewards as a confidence booster The motivation levels of the employees have to be kept at optimal levels, so that the profit flows into the organization’s coffers continuously. So, Allocation of rewards, incentives and promotions to the deserving and apt employees is an important trait the leader should have to keep the motivational levels at higher plane and Mr. X exhibit this trait maximally. Mr. X always believed, biologically, it is mind of the worker, which will make the worker ‘work’. That is, only if the mind of the worker is filled with positive thought process, it will get motivated and make mental as well physical organs work for the benefit of the organization. The strategy Mr. X favoured to motivate the employees is rewarding the individuals purely on merit and not by other extraneous reasons. Mr. X will always provide appropriate financial incentives and rewards, as well as non-financial praise for the employees’ achievement. “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it” (Eisenhower cited by Mamby, 2007). In any organization, the workers do their duties for personal motivations like money (salary), looking after their family, etc, but their motivation level will get a great boost, if they receive additional rewards as part of the organization atmosphere. So, Mr. X will mainly provide rewards and promotions to deserving and ‘success achieved’ workers, thereby motivating them to give better results and also motivate others also, to reach that status. Providing rewards for the successful attainment of specific performance goals, enhances intrinsic motivation (Marzano et. al.). Mr. X knows that if he gives important posts and responsibilities to individuals who might be friends, overriding tried and trusted individuals, it could create dangerous repercussion. So, even though, he has some friends in the organisation, they are treated mainly on par with other employees. Mr. X incorporated ethics in his functioning and values it optimally, so always takes unbiased and balanced decisions particularly the reward aspect, keeping the employees’ motivation and care in mind. This way, he quickly gets across his as well as company’s priorities, assumptions and importantly the organizational goals by consistently linking rewards and punishments to the activities of the candidate Initiator of new approaches Another effective leadership trait is, to try new approaches and also encourage new approaches from their subordinates, which can be implemented with minimum risk. Mr. X always tries to learn new approaches and technologies by travelling to various conventions and other trade fairs, where new technological innovations were displayed. It gave him new perspectives about the industry, fair idea about the market, our organization’s competitors, how the market’s and product’s future will be, etc. Based on this study, he will try to implement those approaches in our work facility. These steps helped Mr. X and the organization to focus on the set goals and what needs to be carried out to grow further, even while motivating the employees. The leader is expected to challenge followers with high achievements; talk positive about the future and value the task at present. Followers should show strong will, not being reluctant but ready to act through motivation. (Bass & Avolio, 1994) This trait is also intertwined with another good trait of always being in search of new avenues. That is, Mr. X will not settle with the thought he knows all the answers and has all the solutions. He will always try to find more and better answers and solutions to the problems that will keep on arising in an organization. Although, Mr. X has performed optimally in the above mentioned scenarios exhibiting apt leadership traits, he missed performing in other situations. Ways of Improvement Supporting the Staff during times of Failures Failure will be part of every one’s life and the staffs in the enterprise will be no exception to it. So, one of the most important traits, Mr. X misses to practice is to support the staff during failures and positively influence them. That is, in cases of underperformance, Mr. X will not be available for support for all the employees, based on the premise that the staffs should ascertain and correct failures by the themselves. This same thing happened in our concern. A technical engineer was entrusted with the task to create new supply equipments for the food machines manufacturing purpose, by providing a lot of funds. But after the trials, Mr. X found out that the equipment did not function successfully. At the same time, Mr. X’s competitor company came up with the same successful equipment. Although, that technical engineer and his team did not get the axe from Mr. X, he did not confidence in him and his creativity, and so did not give a second chance to correct the problem. The technical engineer and his team was very confident that they can overcome or solve the problem if they are given one more opportunity with less funds and time. But, he did not let him to take another crack at designing the product, even though there was good corpus of funds as well as time. That team started showing dissatisfaction and this explains the negative influence Mr. X has on the people. So, the positive leadership trait, is to support the employees, when they failed in some important assignment, by giving him/her confidence, then by giving him/her the second chance to correct this mistake. If this step was carried out , the employee could come out triumphs and importantly will not commit such mistakes in the future. This way the employees will have an unquestionable acceptance of the leader by followers, followers' trust in the leader's beliefs, affection for the leader, willing obedience to the leader (Conger and Kanungo, 1987). This, shows how Mr. X should need to have followed the important trait of supporting the staff during the failures Getting involved in all the process Another effective leadership trait that leader should show is, getting involved in all the processes that will take place in the organization. That is, the leaders following the theory of Situational Leadership should exhibit particular leadership style according to the needs of the process. The main idea behind this theory is, leaders or managers should adapt and adjust their style of leadership according to the ability and dedication of their co-workers. However, this leadership style was not exhibited by Mr. X in many appropriate times and instead only the laissez faire. “Laissez-faire leaders – had a strong tendency to abdicate from the leader role. Although they did not make decisions for followers, or exercise much control, this was not because of a conscious desire to delegate or stimulate participation, but simply because they had little desire to provide leadership” (study material). Based on this leadership style only, Mr. X got himself abdicated from many of the processes that take place at the production site. That is, while overseeing the production in one of the oil plants, one employee was not single-handedly able to correct the valve that supplies the lubricant to the manufacturing machine. As the technical person, who could repair that fault, was not immediately available looking at a fault in other side of the plant, Mr. X could have easily got involved in the process of correcting that fault. Because, it is a simple process and importantly he had adequate knowledge about the machine functioning. He could have used apt tools and corrected the value malfunctioning and could have given a helping hand. But, he did not step in and aid the employees, instead exhibited hands-off approach or laissez faire. It led to the total shutting down of the unit to correct that fault, thereby affecting productivity. The role of an effective leader should not be limited to just starting and funding an organization, he had to become the integral part of the organization. His / hers ‘touch’ both mental wise and physical wise should be found in all aspects of an organization. He/she should not shy away from his responsibility because apart from having a negative connotation on the subordinates, it would also be a sure recipe for the failure of the company. As the role of the leader is to motivate his/ her subordinates through his/ her action, Mr. X by abdicating his supporting role kind of de-motivated many employees, who were witness to it. I am saying this because, many employees were visibly unhappy with what Mr. X did and that translated to de-motivation. So, if the leader involves himself/herself and ‘pushes’ himself/herself and importantly workers towards the target, the organization can achieve more success and this was not visible in Mr. X’s actions. Focused target The trait of merging different humans and focusing all of them on a single target is the one trait, the leader should importantly have. The inability of a leader to merge and focus will badly affect the organization’s functioning and this aspect of leadership has been discussed by Eliyahu M Goldratt as part of his Theory of Constraints. Eliyahu M. Goldratt or Ellie Goldratt is regarded as the originator of the Theory of Constraints. The Theory (TOC) concentrates on the constraints or controlling mechanisms that will impede the practical aspects of organizational functioning particularly decision making. So, the Theory of Constraints provides a defined practical framework for the leaders to manage the organizations by doing away with the constraints and the resultant conflicts. The first step which initiates the theory of constraints in an organization, especially in a decision making environment is the identification of the constraints which blocks the organization from reaching their targets. The trait of merging different humans and focusing all of them on a single target is the one trait, the leader should importantly have. Because, as any organization will be a hotbed of human activity, it could give rise to groups and subgroups, which will eventually share experience to create subcultures or subgroups based on their occupational, national, historic, personal experiences. This feature of different subcultures happened in our organisation and Mr. X was not able to control it effectively. That is, as middle-East is the hub for many work immigrants from all over the world particularly from different countries of Asia and Africa, the work force will be composed of ‘collage’ of employees. As said above, this multicultural work force will give rise to subcultures or subgroups with their own identity. Once such differentiation has taken place, it will act as a constraint impeding the achievement of the goals and that happened in our workplace. This constraint is a difficult challenge for Mr. X, as he was against groups, not single individuals, who are undermining the leaders’ decisions collectively. But, Mr. X exhibited the same hands-off approach and this lead to the continuation of this same malaise. So, the task of the leader is to remove this constraint and reach the goals, by finding ways of coordinating, aligning, or integrating the different groups. Building an effective organization is ultimately a matter of meshing the different groups and the leader should do this job, by identifying the constraints and restricting it, so that the common goals can be given clear focus. Conclusion Finally, the organization and its leader should not stagnate and saturate. Schein (2004, p.418) pushes forward this idea by stating “that the leader of the future must be a perpetual learner”. Perpetual learner in the sense, the leader or the manager should learn new levels of perception and acquire lot of insights for running an organization. As discussed in this paper, Mr. X should learn to correct all the above mentioned mistakes. Although, he has sizeable good attributes, he misses certain leadership traits. To correct this unbalance, he should continue learn new things and thereby optimize his performance and leadership skills. This way only, he can positively influence the employees and optimize their productivity. “Leaders have been found to influence followers in many ways: among them coordinating, communicating, motivating, sharing information, and rewarding” (Yukl, 1989). So, unison of humans with an urge to usher an organization into a leading ‘utopia’ will be a successful endeavour, if the leader of the organization show undaunted, unabated and effective conduct. As Mr. X shows sizeable leadership traits and importantly if he corrects his fallacies, then our organisation would have a successful presence for many years to come. References Bass, B.M., & Avolio, B.J. 1994, Transformational leadership and organizational culture. International Journal of Public Administration, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 541-554. Conger, J., & Kanungo, R. 1987, Toward a behavioral theory of charismatic leadership in organizational settings, Academy of Management Review, vol.12, pp.637-647. Patton, G, Leader values, viewed on April 15, 2010 http://www.famous-quotes-and-quotations.com/leadership-quotes.html Mamby, R. 2007, How to Find the Motivation for Self Improvement, viewed on April 15, 2010 http://www.articlesbase.com/motivational-articles/how-to-find-the-motivation-for-self-improvement-158221.html Marzano, R.J. Pollock, J. E and Pickering, D. 2001, Classroom instruction that works. ASCD Parnos, C. 2008, 20 Tips to Leadership Success, viewed on April 15, 2010 http://www.dynamicbusiness.com/articles/articles-hr-and-staff/20-tips-to- leadership-success.html Schein, E. H. 1978, Career dynamics: Matching individual and organizational needs, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. Schein, E. H. 1983, The role of the founder in creating organizational culture. Organizational Dynamics, Summer, 13–28. Schein, E. H. 2004, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd. ed. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Scott, R. J., 2002, Ethical Decision-Making: The Link Between Ambiguity and Accountability, Cooper’s Ethical Decision-Making Models, viewed on April 15, 2010 http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/cc/scott.html Yukl, G. 1989, Managerial leadership: A review of theory and research, Journal of Management, vol.15, no.2, pp.251-289 Read More