Relational Leadership in Traditional Organizations - Assignment Example

Assignment 2 The traditional organizational culture is undergoing a gradual change and it shows acceptance to inculcate innovative theories like relational leadership. Leadership is the backbone of an organization and the theory of relational leadership is an innovative idea/theory to renovate it. Here, Joyce K. Fletcher’s study based on female design engineers put forth some innovative ideas aiming to change the organizational culture, which is traditionally male oriented. Thesis statement: How Fletcher’s study of relational leadership is misunderstood and devalued in the work place. The concept of relational leadership Relational leadership is an innovative way of influencing the performance of a group by allowing the members to take over the charge of the whole group. For instance, in some situations, the traditional autocratic leadership may not work properly. But some individuals who are the members of that group can resolve the problem with their specific skills and competencies. The idea of relational leadership reconstructs the traditional mode of leadership strategy which is based on a title, a rank or a job grade. As the term relational leadership is relatively a new term, it provides much space for open interpretation. The relational leadership helps an individual to exhibit his/her quality and experience the space of an Organization. Relational leadership helps to increase interpersonal relation within an organization. As the leadership is a process of social construction, relational leadership helps to have new understanding of leadership as a group work. Earlier, the traditional mode of leadership was against innovation/change in leadership. The whole power is concentrated on the leader and the duty of other members is to obey the orders of the leader. No individual opinion is allowed and to raise a question is considered as questioning the authority of the leader. Here, the problem is that other members had to work forcibly and there is high chance for dissatisfaction among the members. Relational leadership provides ample space for individual opinion of the members and nourishes inter-personal relation, co-ordination of the work, and ‘we feeling’ among the members. The relational leadership is built upon commitment not on obedience. The coordination of the power of each individual in an organization leads to success. Moreover, it aims to strengthen the web of relationships through which the whole organization operates. Humility is an important part of relational leadership. Other factors add to effective relational leadership are: emotional intelligence, communication skills, readiness to listen others, acceptance to different ideas, and receptiveness. Results of the study by Fletcher on relational leadership The study conducted by Joyce K. Fletcher reveals some interesting facts on relational leadership and its close connection with gender based power accumulation in organizations and discrimination against women in business field. In a business organization, women are suppressed from exhibiting their relational skills, emotional intelligence, and collaborative leadership. The male dominated atmosphere prevents the women from advancing towards leadership. Through the results of the study, Fletcher points out that the emotional intelligence and relational behavior are considered as mere theories and practically get disappeared because of the misunderstanding as feminine or soft side of work environment. These soft images are happened to collide with gender linked images of good workers with male image. Moreover, the gender linked power undermines the value and possibility of radical change within the business environment. These female advantages of emotional intelligence and relational behavior hinder the growth of female power. The organizations theoretically points out that they are in need of soft skills but are not ready to accommodate relative leadership. Here, Fletcher uses qualitative methods to explore the social construction of gender in workplace. To an extent, the relational practices which are considered as soft or feminine helps to connect the workers in an organization. Joyce K. Fletcher in the work ‘Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work’ points out that: “My conclusion was that although the female advantage approach appeared to be challenging masculine standards, it was actually incorporating relational values into organizational thinking from an instrumental, masculine perspective.” (Fletcher, 2001, p. 13)The female advantage approach challenge the traditional standards set by male dominated society and it is capable to incorporate values of relational leadership from a masculine perspective. But these relational leaderships/practices are devalued and marginalized. So as to describe this devaluation, Fletcher makes use of an active verb, ‘disappear’. This very word strongly denotes the devaluation of female ability and leadership quality. Fletcher’s study makes clear that all the qualities related to the traditional work environment are strictly limited to masculine qualities. For instance, traditionally, the business environment/public space provides ample space to masculine qualities. So, it is evident that the business environment makes use of emotional intelligence and relational behavior and at the same time it shows the tendency to devalue those feminine skills. Fletcher’s theory and the barriers to women assuming leadership roles Fletcher’s theory is a unique combination of feminist post structuralism, feminist perspective of the work, and relational psychology. The theory/work is directly related to women psychology rather than sociology of work place conflicts and leadership. The theory put forth by Fletcher aims at a radical change in organizational structure. It aims to accommodate the skills of women employees in relational leadership. The barriers to women assuming leadership roles are of many folds. The first barrier is that the skill and ability of women in any organization is less rewarded. Their relational leadership quality is devalued and is considered as soft and feminine. Lisa A. Mainiero & Sherry E. Sullivan in their work, ‘The opt-out revolt: why people are leaving companies to create kaleidoscope careers’ points out that: “Recently, researchers have discovered a bio behavioral stress response in females that amounts to a “tend and befriend” response” (Mainiero & Sullivan, 2006, p. 54) the characteristics of female to change and act according to a different situation helps them to get adapted to a new environment. But this ability is misunderstood as soft skills like attachment and care giving. Besides, these soft skills are essential for the smooth working of an organization. Moreover, the male dominated society devalue shows the tendency to suppress women by the use of traditional notion that the public sphere is for men and the private/domestic sphere of family is for women. From the study conducted by Fletcher among the female design Engineers, it is evident that the female workers feel frustrated because they are less rewarded for their hard work. View on Fletcher’s theory & Findings Fletcher’s theory of relational leadership is based on a female perspective of thinking. It is clear that the male dominated organizational/business scenario is unwilling to accommodate the innovative ideas of relational leadership and gender equality. But it is ready to accept some aspects such as communicative skills and inter-personal relation among the members of a business organization. Besides, it shows less concern to accept female thoughts and shows ample eagerness to devalue these innovative ideas which is helpful to raise the productivity of the organization as a whole. Fletcher is against this attitude and proves that female candidates/workers are marginalized and their efforts are devalued by the male. To create the theory of relational leadership, Fletcher sought the help of three different theories like feminist post structuralism, feminist perspective of the work, and relational psychology. Feminist post-structuralism helped to establish a relationship between knowledge, discourse and power and it helped to fix the context of the study. Feminist reading of the work assisted Fletcher to understand how the conventional definitions of work are gendered into masculine (strong, efficient) and feminine (soft, inefficient). The relational psychology was helpful for Fletcher to co-ordinate the missing links in the conventional definitions of work. The main findings of the work states that, the relational practice in an organizational environment or a workplace helps to achieve four goals. 1. Preserving- which helps the continuation of a project, 2. Mutual empowering- way of teaching without any external force, 3. Self-achieving - relational strategies which are helpful for attaining professional goals, 3. Creating team – creating trust with the help of proper communication. The findings make clear that the women feel frustration because they are penalized instead of reward. The other workers (here design engineers as target population of the study conducted by Fletcher) took advantage of this situation and were not ready to share the credit. Here, Fletcher points out the state of ‘disappearing’ which is a form of marginalization without any credit and reward. Before concluding it is to be pointed out that the innovative ideas put forth by Fletcher is capable to create a positive change in organizational culture. The myth of male strength and feminine weakness are designed to establish and sustain male domination. The business scenario makes use of emotional intelligence and relational leadership but it does not give much value to feminine power/ability. The study conducted by Fletcher points out that most of the female workers feels frustrated because they are less rewarded for their hard work. Moreover, through the work, Fletcher aims to fight against the inequality of gender based discrimination and marginalization. So, one can hope that the innovative idea of relational leadership put forth by Fletcher will result in a positive change in organizational culture. Bibliography Fletcher, J. K. (2001). Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work. Massachusetts: MIT Press. Mainiero, L. A., Sullivan, S.E. (2006). The opt-out revolt: why people are leaving companies to create kaleidoscope careers. Davies-Black Publishing. Read More