Leadership, Innovation, and Change - Coursework Example

LEADERSHIP, INNOVATION, AND CHANGE By Location Introduction It has been quoted that leaders have a critical contribution to the success of an organization, and may determine its failure. However, it is opined that there are other critical elements, which create the difference between the organizational success and failure. Despite this common belief that other critical factors determine the success of an organization, there is evidence pointing to leadership as the most significant determiner or an organization’s success or failure. Organizations consist of individuals in different levels depending on the specific organizational structure. Each level in the organizational structure requires leaders. The role of leaders in ensuring that each of the levels in an organization is functional cannot be underestimated. Some researchers have sought to dispute findings that highlight the criticality of leaders in an organization (Fuda & Badham 2011, p. 146). This has given rise to a heated debate on how much leadership contributes to organizational success. Different studies have been carried out to determine the specific attributes of leadership that seem to exert the highest level of impact on organizational success. The paper will make use of existing evidence from different researches in a bid to highlight the criticality of leadership to organizational success. Research has focused on offering an inclusive definition of leadership. However, the efforts towards a single inclusive definition of the leadership concept have not been successful. There are numerous definitions of leadership in common usage, the term leader refers to an individual holding the highest position or with a measure of control and authority in a certain organization. Whereas leadership may refer to such positions, an additional definition of leadership denotes the combination of traits and competencies that an individual holding a leadership position must exhibit, there are numerous theories which govern leadership in the modern day. In this essay, leadership will be considered as having a measure of influence and authority in an organization (Patiar & Mia n.d, p. 255). Evidently, research has revealed that an individual needs to exhibit certain skills and competencies for him or her to qualify to become a leader. Leadership is a combination of personality traits, emotional intelligence, relevant communication skills, and other qualifications that ensure that a leader can develop effective working relationships with the employees. A leader must exhibit the potential to mobilize people within an organization towards active performance in view of organizational goals. Notably, it is impossible to bring people together if a leader lacks motivational and inspirational skills. Therefore, it is critical for a leader to develop people oriented goals and relevant skills that can help him succeed in this sector. It is the responsibility of a leader to initiate innovation as well as organizational change with businesses striving to survive in the highly competitive business front, leadership is challenged to oversee all the related changes towards an adaptive strategy for each organization (Aziz et al 2012, p. 115). In addition, leadership must be task-oriented. Leaders must be aware of the organization’s business activities and tasks. It is their responsibility to ensure that all the projects of the organizations prove to be successful. This is the only way the organization can register success in terms of performance (Muchiri, Cooksey, & Walumbwa 2012, p. 662). Therefore, leadership focuses on active alignment of employees through motivation, empowerment, and training in a bid to ensure that they register remarkable performance. Eventually, this ensures that organizational goals are achieved. Research has revealed that leadership is of critical importance in determining organizational success. As mentioned above, a leader must be both people and task oriented. Therefore, the types of leadership styles exhibited by leaders determine their potential to influence employees towards organizational goals. Having the potential to communicate organizational goals to the employees and motivate them to pursue such goals is a central aspect required in leadership (McMurray et al 2012, p. 522). The leader must understand organizational goals precisely, be able to visualize the future of the organization and develop a vision, which is communicated to the employees. It is critical to get the employees involved in every step of developing organizational goals if they are to contribute positively to the achievement of the goals. This is the reason why leaders play a critical role in determining the performance of an organization. Peter Fuda, who is an influential motivational speaker in Australia, supports these research findings. He is well aware that successful leaders who can propel an organization towards success must exhibit an undying ambition, mutual accountability, authentic personality traits, and self-reflection. He presents these ideologies in forms of metaphors (Mason, Griffin, & Parker 2014, p. 174). His conviction that the type of leadership style exhibited by a leader is a determinant of the level of success that cans be obtained by the organization is well founded on evidence. The emphasis of the most effective leadership style, which has the potential of propelling an organization to success, has focused on transformational leadership. Transformational leadership has been defined as an effective leadership style that helps leaders ensure that an organization achieves its goals. This type of leadership requires the leader to have idealized influence on the employees, deliver inspirational motivation, and carry out intellectual stimulation and individualized considerations. Leaders who demonstrate competencies related to transformational leadership motivate employees towards a high level of creativity and innovation (Fuda et al 2012, p. 20). This happens if the leader can deliver a vision for the organization and effectively motivate the employees to adopt organizational goals and focus on them. Moreover, the fact that transformational leadership focuses on the higher needs of individuals by offering motivation and individualized consideration, it becomes possible for employees to register a high level of creativity and innovation. Such creativity and innovation serve as the basis for organizational success (Fuda 2013, p. 56). Transformational leadership has been described as being a promoter of teamwork and positive team orientation. Teamwork is critical in determining the success of any organization. Its criticality has contributed to some researchers viewing it as an independent factor from leadership. However, a close consideration of the efficiency of teamwork without effective leadership reveals that the team is bound to fail. This means that the kind of leaders in place determine the level of teamwork that the organization can exhibit. In a realistic sense, transformational leaders communicate a vision for the organization to all the employees. Their conviction in the vision drives employees to embrace the vision and the related goals (T 2014, p. 54). If transformational leadership is effective, then, employees are likely to register a positive growth and adopt organizational goals to become personal goals. Such employees are more guided likely to work in a team because they realize the organization’s vision and are guided by the goals towards the vision. Evidence reveals that teamwork registers a high level of efficiency and productivity. The remarkable rates of productivity are positive outcomes that define a successful organization. If teamwork were to be considered as a critical factor determining organizational success, independent from the type of leadership in place, certain impracticalities would emerge. This is because a key determinant of the functionality of a team is the presence of an effective leader (King 2014, p. 60). Transformational leaders are tasked with the introduction of a developmental culture to an organization. The need or a leader in ensuring that an organization conforms to the values defined by the culture cannot be underestimated. Evidence suggests that organizational culture values need a form of reinforcement if they are to be adopted by all the employees. A critical role of leaders is definitively the most effective organizational culture and ensuring that it is reinforced within the organization. If employees were left on their own to adopt values promoted by their organizational culture, the level of efficiency would be limited. There is a need for a leader who understands the values vividly and is prepared to ensure that they are implemented. Transformational leadership places emphasis on such type of leadership (Paulsen et al 2013, p. 595). Other factors that have been defined as critical determinants of an organizations success include communication, definition of mission and goals, accountability, clear priorities as well as creativity and innovation. A close consideration of these factors reveals that they all depend on the leadership. Studies assessing the efficiency of these factors in contributing to organizational success have revealed that there is a need for effective leaders to ensure that these factors exist in an organization. For example, in the case of communication, leaders are tasked with the role of introducing an effective communication model for an organization (Strauss, Griffin & Rafferty 2009, p. 280). If leaders are not focused on communication, efforts of ensuring that it is efficient may prove futile. In the case of creativity and innovation, only transformational leaders can serve to encourage and motivate employees to exhibit remarkable levels of innovation. Other factors such as clear priorities, the mission, and goals of the organization depend entirely on the type of leadership in place. Effective leaders will define organizational strategies, mission, and vision and define clear priorities for the organization. This serves as evidence that leadership is at the core of organizational success. Conclusion As highlighted above, some researchers have been debating on the criticality of leaders in determining the organizational success. These researchers have highlighted the importance of other factors in contributing to organizational success. However, this essay has served to reveal that leadership is the most critical factor that determines whether an organization becomes successful. All other factors depend on the type of leadership in place. More specifically, transformational leadership has highlighted that leaders are the most critical agents of change in an organization. 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