Leadership: Important for Organisational Success - Essay Example

The ever-changing globalisation, changing demographics, economic turbulence, new business models, transformational communication technologies and the changing trends have placed tremendous pressures on the organisations. Globalisation has changed the perspective of the subordinates of looking towards their leaders. Staying ahead in the competitive business environment is the biggest challenge faced by leaders today. Leadership is second name for ‘getting results’ (Prentice, 2004). The success of the modern businesses fairly depends on the leadership that enables the different process within an organisation.

However, the leadership is always affected by internal and external factors to the organisation. Internally an organisation can instil strong fundamental characteristics and create capabilities, which could enhance the existing operating practices. Past researches suggested that the companies that excel have a superior management approach compared to those that have an average performance. Choosing a particular leadership style affects the performance of the company to varying degrees. The past studies by Waldman (1993) and Ahire & Shaughnessy (1998) have proved that the leadership style adopted by the company has greater influence than the used resources.

Organisational Success: A Glance at Leadership Theories The changing business environments have attracted the attention of the researchers towards Leadership as a topic to study in the twentieth century. Early studies focused on the qualities that distinguished leaders from the followers while the recent studies looked at the aspects such as situational factors and skills levels that enhanced the leadership qualities. Studies classified the leadership styles into eight major types. They are the ‘Great Man’s Theories, Trait Theories, Behavioural Theories, Contingency Theories, Situational Theories, Participative Theories, Management Theories (Transactional Theories) and Relationship Theories (Transformational Theories).

The theories that influence the organisational success the most are discussed below: Trait Theories: Similar to the Great Man Theories, Trait theories believe that leaders inherit certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership. These traits are ambition and energy, emotional intelligence, the desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, intelligence and job specific knowledge. However, the studies by Robbins (2003, 314-15) suggested that inheriting these traits would increase the likelihood of success as a leader, but do not guarantee success.

Behavioural Theories: These theories believe that leaders are not born but are made. Observation and learning are the key factors that can build the leadership qualities. Behavioural theories focus on the behaviour of the leaders. There were several studies conducted to understand the dimensions of behaviour. Employee oriented and Production oriented were the dimensions developed at University of Michigan. Ohio State developed the dimensions of initiating structure and consideration for the behavioural studies of leaders.

The last behavioural approach was established during the Scandinavian study. Their studies revealed that development-oriented leaders in today’s dynamic and changing world seek new and innovative ideas, promote and implement changes and support experimentation. However it is important to mention that none of these behavioural dimensions take into account