Concepts Regarding Leadership - Essay Example

?Leadership What is leadership? There are many different definitions that can be applied to what leadership is. Leadership can deal with how you delegate information in order to get things done. It can talk about how you influence people to follow you and their development (Grint p3-10). There is not one blank statement regarding leadership and leadership is not the same for everyone. Some people are born innately with leadership qualities whereas some have to develop these skills. Regardless of inability or ability, everyone develops their leadership skills in order to enhance their overall leadership and this is done through practice. The first part of the debate is whether leaders are born innately or if leaders are developed. Some theories point out that some people might be born with the innate ability to command and influence others. This describes what has become known as the Trait theory. With a biological basis, it states that people possess certain traits. Some of these traits in which we are born with make us more suitable leaders than others (Day p262-265). Thus, those with the correct combination of traits will become leaders in society. Also, the Great Man theory states that great leaders will be born when there is a need for them. Others point out that as we develop as humans, our natural leadership abilities require training and fostering. This is the Behavioral theory and it talks specifically how leadership is a learned process rather than an acquired trait. Since leadership can be taught, this allows the person to develop traits that he/she deems will be important in the course of leadership development (Griffin & Moorhead p311-312). It is a combination of both. Rather than have just one theory explain the entire aspect, it is acceptable to take in the fact that either one could be used to describe how leadership skills are created. One of the important concepts to address regarding leadership theory is to evaluate the skills that are essential for leadership. The first and utmost important skill is in communication. Communication skills are necessary for the leader to communicate his/her ideas to his/her subordinates. This is essential if the leader and the followers are going to function together in a cohesive manner. The second important skill of leadership is the power of delegation. As a leader, it is sometimes impossible to cover goals and challenges by yourself. Teamwork and delegation are needed to solve this. Delegation involves a leader giving up some of his/her power or influence in order to ensure that multiple tasks get done. The final essential skill of leadership is cultural competency. In the globalized economy, leaders are constantly facing encounters with people of different races, cultures, ideals, etc. As a leader, it might be necessary to work with someone who does not share the same values as you. As a result, you need to learn to have acceptance as well as understanding which are the foundation and underlying themes of cultural competency. The first main theory is that of transactional leadership. Transactional leadership is often seen in the educational and economical context. It relies on the exchange of both punishments and reinforcements in order to attain goals (Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas p155). In psychology, punishments are meant to decrease a behavior. Positive punishment is when you increase a negative stimulus in order to decrease a certain type of behavior. Negative punishment is when you decrease a stimulus in order to cause a decrease of a certain type of behavior. For example, if an employee is late the manager can choose to decrease his salary in an attempt to decrease his tardiness. Reinforcements are meant to increase a behavior which a person has deemed valuable. Positive reinforcement is increasing a stimulus in order to cause an increase in desired behavior. In the educational setting, a professor will give a student who deserves a good grade an “A” and hopefully this will encourage the increased academic effort put forth by the student. Negative reinforcement is the decrease of a stimulus in order to increase a behavior (Chance p209). These principles and rules underlie transactional leadership in which it is the result of an exchange of work and goals. Of all of the theories, this one is the most structured in the clear setting of how the relationship between both leader and subordinate occurs. Transformational leadership is used in the context of helping to develop an individual. They are dedicated to help seeing the better parts of yourself and helping to guide both the personal part of yourself as well as the professional part. It often deals with the transfer of energy from one person to another. They inspire change through this energy and enthusiasm in the work environment (Hacker & Roberts p129). The most important concept in transformational leadership is the aspect of vision. Unlike in transactional leadership where when there are failures punishments are administered, transformational leaders recognize that their will be flaws and mistakes along the way. As long as positive progress is made, the transformational leader meets their goal. For example, an academic advisor for a student can serve to provide advice for the student. Even though the professor has to acknowledge some of the more transactional components of their role, they are ultimately concerned with developing the student to their highest potential which is one of the goals of transformational leadership. The compendium of transformational leadership is that they ultimately want to see their followers succeed and develop. Servant leadership involves the real authority being given by the followers (Baron p48-49). They are often concerned with those who are disadvantaged and they feel a strong moral obligation to help society in its faults. The main goal of the servant leader is serving others rather than leading others. In history, persons such as Mohandas Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. can be considered servant leaders in that they fought for a cause that they knew would bring change to their respective causes which were both centered on civil right injustices. Charismatic leadership inspires leadership through their personality and actions. These are the type of leaders that are admired for their charm and grace. They use this grace along with their personality attributes as a way of guiding rather than the traditional form of commanding associated with some leadership roles. One of the primary attributes used by charismatic leaders is the power of their voice and assessing the mood of a crowd in order to make a favorable appearance. For example, many world leaders have to exercise charismatic leadership in order to communicate with the nation their intentions and goals. According to Haslam, “leadership is thus conferred upon its followers and charisma is an expression of the leader-group dynamic as perceived by those followers in a specific social context” (Haslam 2004 p.48-49). This is meant that according to the social standard and identity presented, that the authority of leadership must be given up by the followers and that the charisma should result as a byproduct of the interacting relationships among the leader and his/her followers. Adaptive leadership is also an important component to talk about. Adaptive leadership encompasses all of the other traits and theories in order to integrate them into a singular theory. “A major function of adaptive leadership is to develop organizational contexts that intentionally attract, learn from, explore, struggle with, and experiments with different ideas, perspectives, and cultures embedded in diverse environments” (Hickman p60). What this means is that adaptive leadership is best suited in dynamic situations. It involves quickly processing information in order to make a quick decision while taking into account many variables in a constantly changing scenario. As a result, adaptive leadership is the more fluid of the theories in that it requires the person to change in concordance to what is needed in the given situation or circumstance. As a result, adaptive leadership has had a profound development in the military and has taught soldiers how to channel and control emotions during extreme decision making (Blascovich p55-60). In the mainstream situations, we do not see many examples of servant or transformational leadership rather a majority is dominated by transactional leadership. In school systems, education programs are always trying to raise the standards and they achieve this by handing out more A’s to people who work hard for them. Thus, students become conditioned to know that if they are doing the work that they will be rewarded with a good score or grade. In the business world, the structure of pay and economy becomes clear as far as the transactional leadership theory. It is also present in government when legislature wants to be passed and it must be passed through the House of Lords. On the ethical forefront, you may see the influence of some who want to change society and would consider themselves servant leaders. Adaptive leadership is a component which is critically valued especially in the armed forces. The ability to think rationally on the battlefield with many different forces at play are why soldiers go through intense training regarding how to make decisions on the battlefield because the leadership decision that can be made may not only influence whether the objective is completed or not, but also the decision may play an impact on which soldiers will die and those that will live to fight another day. Critical psychology can be used to critique the validity of these different leadership theories and roles. The goal of critical psychologists is to, “challenge dominant social values and the institutions that reinforce them for a variety of reasons, in a variety of ways” (Fox & Prilleltensky 2009). Specifically, one can see problems with these theories when they are applied in the organizational psychology setting. Nelson and Prilleltensky (2002) stated that in organizational development it is imperative to have good listening skills, leadership skills, negotiation ability and skills in conflict resolution in order to facilitate teamwork. This would fall under the aspect of transactional leadership in the use of punishment and reward as motivation. Thinking critically on the aspects of transformational leadership, there are reasons why it is not commonly used to describe leadership in organizational psychology. The problem with transformational leadership is that it is only effective within the context of the individual who is leading. If they are ineffective, then it will prove to be a poor leadership experience; however the reverse is true as well, the better the person is at transformational leadership, the greater the resulting development will be. This is also true for charismatic leadership in that it depends on the level of which the person can communicate and manipulate his/her followers (Winkler p45-46). In addition, it is also imperative to point out that trait theory, great man theory, and behavioral theory do not describe completely how a leader develops, but rather it may be a combination of both of them. Even as useful as adaptive leadership is, it does pose the problem of the inability to find a solution to a situation that is changing too rapidly. In this case, we see that adaptive leadership could fail to address the challenges of scenarios such as the no win scenarios. There are many different aspects regarding leadership as well as different theories which describe their context in the world. Not all theories are relevant to all situations in that they are adaptable depending on the context in which leadership is needed. There are pros and cons to each theory or attribute and the use of critical psychology helps create an unbiased view even though the very concepts themselves are influenced by social norms. Understanding leadership as a fundamental element is not only organizational psychology, but in world dynamics as well. Bibliography Baron, Tony (2010). The Art of Servant Leadership: Designing Your Organization for the Sake of Others. Tuscan: Wheatmark. p48-49. Blascovich, Jim (2008). Human behavior in military contexts. Washington: National Academies Press. p55-60. Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas (2007). Personality and Individual Differences. Oxford: Blackwell. p155. Chance, Paul (2009). Learning and Behavior: Active Learning Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth. p209. Day, Duane (1998). The effective advancement professional: management principles and practices. Gaithersberg: Aspen. p262-265. Fox, D., Prilleltensky, I., & Austin, S. (2009). Critical psychology: an introduction. London: Sage Publications. Griffin, Ricky. Moorhead, Gregory. (2010). Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. 9th ed. Mason: Cengage. Grint, Keith (2010). Leadership: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford. p3-10. Haslam, S. A. (2004). Psychology in Organizations: the social identity approach. London: Sage Publications. Hacker, Stephen. Roberts, Tammy (2004). Transformational Leadership: Creating Organizations of Meaning. USA: ASQ. p129. Hickman, Gill (2010). Leading Change in Multiple Contexts: Concepts and Practices in Organizational, Community, Political, Social, and Global Change Settings. 9th ed. London: Sage. p60. Prilleltensky, I., & Nelson, G. (2002). Doing Psychology Critically. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian. Winkler, Ingo (2010). Contemporary Leadership Theories: Enhancing the Understanding of the Complexity, Subjectivity, and Dynamic of Leadership. London: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. p45-46. Read More