Advantages and Disadvantages of Trait Theories - Assignment Example

? TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP …………………. College/ ………….. …………. Introduction People most often admire stories that appear in the newspapers, broadcast media and other channels about outstanding leadership qualities of world-class and national politicians and statesmen, CEOs of business and industry, government directors and ministers. The story will be sometime extremely amazing experience if it is about a very ordinary man who showed persistent leadership quality to organize what is expected of him. Leadership is thus an essentially highly-valued commodity and most managers and business people ask themselves what makes good leaders. This piece of research paper attempts to address the transformational leadership and to detail how it highlights the trait theory of leadership. This paper critically evaluates the trait theory and analyzes how and why it is relevant in today’s business contexts. Transformational Leadership Out of various types of leaderships, Charismatic and Transformational leadership styles are found to be quite similar in character. Charismatic leadership is the ability of a leader who derives his leadership quality through some unknown and God-given gif to him (Sashkin and Sashkin 2003, p. 56) and therefore his ability is often considered to be divine as they make an emotional impact on subordinates as they appeal both of their hearts and minds (Daft, 2007). Transformational leadership, though quite similar to Charismatic, is very special quality to develop innovative ideas and bring changes to the organization by recognizing the needs and concerns of his subordinates, and by helping them solve older issues in newer strategies and encouraging them to question the status quo (Daft and Lane 2009, p. 424). Wart (2007, p. 74) identified three significant successive stages for transformational leadership. They are, recognizing the need for revitalization in the organization, creating a new vision and then institutionalizing the change. Transformational leadership essentially involves empowering character and its central feature is to develop the members or followers as self-directing, actively participating, practicing experts on behalf of the organization and the mutually agreed upon mission and vision within the organization (Sullivan, 1998, p. 469). Transactional leaders, Servant leaders and Situational leaders are some other commonly discussed leadership models. Transactional leaders are those who define the roles and tasks and related requirements of their subordinates by providing proper rewards and trying to meeting their social and other needs (Daft and Lane 2009, p. 424). Situational leaders act best according to situations. Servant leaders are those who function in responsibility for subordinates and for the society and they thus serve others in good manners, rather than their subordinates serving them (changingminds.org, 2010). Why trait theory is important today Leadership trait theory describes intrinsic traits of leaders and it is based on an assumption that leaders are born with some specific leadership abilities. Intelligence, dependability, energy, drive, enthusiasm, ambition, self confidence and cooperativeness are some of the traits that are found in today’s leaders. Trait theory is very important today because it can be used to identify qualities that distinguish today’s leaders. Advantages and disadvantages of Trait theories Trait theory can be used to explain why some people are more effective and successful leaders even if they are not trained and why some others, who are trained, are not so successful in leadership. But, trait theories are mostly psychological in approach. Social elements like social class, religion, education, gender and ethnicity are fully ignored in trait theories. It is argued that trait theory makes its difficult to establish whether traits have direct bearing on success as a leader or if a surplus of one trait may compensate for the shortage of another trait (Adeniyi, 2007, p. 34). Transformational leadership highlighting the importance of Trait theory Trait theory implies that leaders are born and not developed. Leadership is an innate and inborn quality of a leader and not learned, developed and gained through experience. This view of Trait theory also emphasizes that a person gets leadership quality from his birth, but he may be successful in developing it and thus later becomes a successful leader. As Chambers (2007, p. 33) noted, leaders have an innate superiority that makes them naturally predisposed to positions of power and socially significant. An analysis in to literatures of both transformational leadership and Trait theory of it illustrates that transformational leadership highlights the importance of trait theory, because transformational leaders are found to be highly successful, and more importantly, all leaders cannot be developed in to a level of transformational. Trait theory states that people have their own specific traits and characteristics. One important trait theory is ‘Great Man Theory’ that implied that leaders are born to be great rather than they are being developed. Out of various explanations in relation to the Trait theories of leadership, Stewart’s (1963) approach emphasized that a good leadership quality comprises of judgment, foresight and initiative, skills of human relation, emotional and dedication and other qualities like drive, energy, dependability, integrity, ambition and fairness. Why or how Transformational leadership highlights the importance of Trait theory. In today’s business circumstances, there are highly successful leaders, perhaps they can be termed as transformational too, like Michael Dell, Steve Jobs etc. But still, they are hardly more in number. Winkler (2009, p. 45) stressed the inter-relation of charismatic and transformational leadership. Charismatic leaders, as detailed above, is a quality of a leader who leads his subordinates through some God-given abilities. The term God-given for no doubt can be synonymously used for inborn or innate. Both God-given and innate or inborn abilities cannot be found in every one and they cannot be developed too. These qualities are often found in transformational leaders as well. Winkler (2009, p. 45) stated that transformational leadership is found to be highly correlating with Charisma. It is also found or observed that both transformational and charismatic leaders are more likely to emerge in times of crisis and change. Though some researchers like Avolio argued that Charisma and transformational leadership cannot be used synonymously and they admitted that charisma accounted for the largest amounts of variance in ratings associated with transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is highly correlated to Charismatic leadership and therefore it highlights the relevance of trait theory. As far as trait theory is concerned, leadership is the ability, talent and skills of a person that he got it when he is born. Charismatic leadership is the ability of a leader to influence and lead his subordinates through his God-given and very specific skills and abilities that many others don’t have. Transformational leadership is based on the values of the followers as it is the leadership quality by which he will be able to develop innovative ideas and implement changes in the organization by understanding the requirements of the subordinates. Conclusion The world of business today experiences tremendous changes day by day and these changes are more or less brought by successful leaders. Some leaders are highly successful whereas some others aren’t. Successful leaders, with charismatic and transformational qualities, make innovative changes. This piece of paper has detailed the meanings of transformational leadership in comparison with charismatic, transactional and situational leadership. This paper has explained how transformational leadership highlights the importance of trait theories of leadership. References Adeniyi, MA 2007, Effective Leadership Management: An Integration of Styles, Skills & Character for Today's Ceos, AuthorHouse, 2007 Chambers, R 2007, How to Succeed as a Leader, Illustrated edition, Radcliffe Publishing Changingminds.org (2010), Leadership Styles, changingminds.org, Retrieved 20th march 2011 from http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/leadership_styles.htm Daft, R. L (2007), The leadership experience, Fourth illustrated edition, Cengage Learning Daft, R. L & Lane, P (2009), Management, Illustrated Ninth edition, Cengage Learning Sashkin, M& Sashkin, M.G (2003), Leadership that matters: the critical factors for making a difference in people's lives and organizations' success, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Sullivan, TJ 1998, Collaboration: a health care imperative, Illustrated edition, McGraw Hill Professional Wart, MV 2007, Leadership in public organizations: an introduction, M.E Sharpe Winkler, I 2009, Contemporary Leadership Theories: Enhancing the Understanding of the Complexity, Subjectivity and Dynamic of Leadership, Springer Read More