Contingency leadership theories and contemporary leadership - Essay Example

Leadership Management Part One: Contingency Leadership Theories The general definition of contingency theories is that it is a class of behavioral theory. More so, contingency theory is a process of trying to identify and measure the conditions under which things or circumstances are likely to occur. These behavioral theories claim that there is no perfect way of organizing a corporation and the organizational structure of the company (Gill, 2010: 49). An organizational or leadership style that is effective in some situations may differ from other organizations. This is so because organizations are different in structure and size. Therefore, the best way of having an organized organization, is contingent depending on the external and internal situation of the company (Lussier and Achua, 2009: 8). This is the case because; external environments have numerous impacts on an organization in numerous ways. Critical external factors include the size of the organization, availability, labor markets, cost of capital, competitors, strategies, governmental laws and policies, managerial assumptions about employees, technologies used, and other diverse situations (Gill, 2010: 49). Traditional leadership theories elaborated on leadership as nature borne of individual and established on the impossibility to create such attributes on a grown individual as illuminated by the great man theory, whilst a contrasting theory of the behavioral implicates on the possibility of an individual to be a leader as shown through traits (Collins & O'Rourke, 2009:15). Participative and situational theories implicate that an individuals performance and influence in the decision making process is a measure of leadership. More so, a leader is a person who learns and acts in such a way that people respect him and follow him due to his charismatic reflection and recognized achievements. They also argued that leaders could adapt their style depending on the situation at hand and recommended that leaders should be able to identify the kind of position they find themselves in, and should know how to respond to the situation (Lussier and Achua, 2009:8). Contemporary leadership theories depict the advances of an individual through a series of stages that show possibilities of becoming a leader. Commonly, the contingency, transformational, and transactional approaches derive the best results whenever forecasting on the capabilities of an individual (CDR Associates, 2007:7). However, changes in leadership are continuously emerging because of the dynamics in the environment and acquisition of skill. Authenticity, building of trust and relationships are the modern approaches to effective organizational leadership. The cognitive perspective approach assigns that follower’s posses shared beliefs about a leader’s behaviors and beliefs about their leaders’ behaviors and traits (Gilbert, 2003:443). This influences how the followers encode information about their leaders by targeting the quality of ideas, quantity of speech and leaders ability to open up for friendliness. This means that the leader’s behavior influences his follower’s behaviors who perceive the reflection that leadership offers. Therefore, a leader should have the capability of building up healthy and ethical relationships that would interconnect the personnel to a single group targeting to deliver performances to enhance organizational performances (Gill, 2010:50). The leader should remain emphatic to employees and avoid biases that would divide the employees. In order to ensure that the company performs obligations to the fullest, the leader should bear motivational characteristics and avoid any act that would seem to induce pressure on the personnel (Collins & O'Rourke, 2009:16). Though scholars had their own perspective of leadership, the bottom line of each of them was that every organization despite the size should have an efficient and outstanding leader. This is the case because efficient managerial leadership influences organizational activities in numerous ways, which include motivating subordinates, serving as a source of communication and budgeting scarce resources (Lussier and Achua, 2009:16). Contingency theories of leadership claim that none of the leadership style is effective, but that leadership styles are contingent on situational and organizational context, hence every organization deserves competent managerial leadership. Part Two: Contemporary Leadership Before understanding the past and current leadership theories, understanding the ongoing debate of whether leaders are born or made should be put into consideration (Lafreniere, 2008:354). The reason why this issue spurred debate is because the scholars wanted to find out whether the stated aspect could influence leaders’ effectiveness or not. Despite the fact that the debate continues, numerous scholars claim that a leader’s personality is the most crucial weapon that any leader should equip himself with (Lafreniere, 2008: 36). According to Eagly and Carli, a leader’s style is important because poor leadership is blamed on faulty styles (Lafreniere, 2008: 37). This should be applied because most leaders or managers have not equipped themselves with the current styles of leadership, which in turn results to failures. These leadership skills are usually not effective enough to drive the influence needed in motivating the work force. Rolls-Royce case is a perfect example of poor leadership skills cultivated by poor working environment that implies physical stress as the personnel continually feel the deprivation of the best working environment (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013: 1). This condition has led the company’s workforce to feeling marginalized because of poor communication within the organization. Another source of stress emanates from interpersonal demands, which implicate on styles of leadership, individual personalities, and group pressures (Gill, 2010:48). This is implicit because of the consequential decline in attendance, as the personnel perceive the job as of less importance that is evident in rolls-Royce (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013: 1). Consequently, the feeling of deprivation shall prevail, as the employees perceive less motivation from the organizational leaders, which further inhibits overall satisfaction. More so, Stodgill (1974) argues that poor leadership will result to conflicts emanating from lack of satisfaction of the managerial expectations, because of lack of proper communication and speech fluency (Foster, 2013:38).Lack of proper communication has led to Rolls-Royce employees not working as a team (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013: 1). This is case because the managers lack proper communication skills to bring the work force together. This has been the case despite the company’s effort to introduce exchange programs where managers are reshuffled in all the company’s outlets (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013: 1). The company does this to allow the managers to be good leaders by diversifying their knowledge of people management. Despite all these efforts, the management is still not competent enough to handle conflicts that may arise. The conflict in Rolls-Royce and other local companies may intensify to the extent that issued information does not pursue the desired understanding among the employee thus causing misconception and consequential underperformance (Collins & O'Rourke, 2009:17). Whenever issues arise in organizations and lack of liability of whoever is guilty prevails, the organizations shall be at a state of conflict. An accommodative approach to some of the conflicts shall solve to eradicate unnecessary halts to performances, and managers should employ a compromising approach to an avoiding one, as this shall ensure that prevailing conflicts do not harm the organization. The managers have the mandate to compete and avoid conflicts, as the aspects would render them inconsistent to the overall organization’s performance (Gill, 2010:49). According to Lord De Varder and Alliger (1986), a good team is that which performs obligations in accordance to desired goals of the organization (Foster, 2013:40). A prominent shall critically denote good communication amongst them and through it, coordination of performances prevail without unduly delays (Gill, 2010:49). The company’s management should ensure on continuous motivation targeting the overall organizational goals, and supportive approaches to the employees needs. The research implies on the necessity of ensuring prevalence of an emphatic environment, which holds on all individual problems as affecting the organization thus calling for equal attention (Collins & O'Rourke, 2009:20). Lack of motivation is common in most organization and Rolls-Royce is not exceptional. Research claim lack of proper measures of motivating staff is the major contributor in Rolls-Royce employees’ absenteeism. Despite the fact that the company may not have the desired capabilities of meeting motivation expenses, communication and sharing of ideas would equip the leaders with the needed information on how to motivate its workforce best (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013: 1). Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) chips in to the controversial debate and argue that such positivity will only come in through upgrading or transforming the leadership skills to the modern standards (Foster, 2013:39). Charisma, vision, and transformation are the key necessities for the new leadership (Grill, 2010:50). Therefore, modern leadership is an act where both the leader and his followers realize the sense of higher purpose (Gill, 2010:51).Theoretical research analyze that the success of modern leadership skills will depend on the clarity of the task, the culture of the organization and the degree of conflict in the group. Rolls-Royce leaders might be lacking this precious aspect because other measures have failed and so they could try being charismatic (Rools-Royce.com, 2013: 1). Charisma is a crucial aspect that the company’s leaders should embrace because it works like magic by opening all the closed doors in terms of management and leadership. This means that by being charismatic the leaders will be in a position attract the workforce positively by building relationships, which in turn will open up doors for communication and teamwork (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013:1). Rolls-Royce is a multinational company that employs a diverse workforce that in turn leads to mixed cultures and belies and eventually influence the company’s output (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013:1). Managers should learn to appreciate diversity among the staff by understanding the individual needs of each employee (Grill, 2010:52). They should realize that diversity of thought, forms different centers of advancement, which is an advantage to the organization. Different diversity contributes to management complexity. A competent leader will be in a position to understand how to handle individual differences (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013:1). Prior to cultural differences brought about by diversity, Rolls-Royce leaders should equip themselves with skills to handle other aspects like age, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. The differences in different individuals will improve productivity in one way and affect the same productivity in another way. Recommendations and Conclusion Bono, Judge, llies, and Gerhardt (2002) analyzed 72 studies that that critically examined five crucial leadership styles, whose effectiveness that suits modern leadership (Foster, 2013:40). I would then recommend that Rolls-Royce should implement these five crucial leadership requirements that are, openness, agreeabness, extraversion and introversion, neurotism and emotional stability, as well as conscientiousness (Foster, 2013:41). The management should equate attention to all employee ideas, and establish their psychological feelings (Berger, 2011:1). As earlier stated, scholars claim that managers should ensure that communication is effective as the aspect shall propel organizational performance and profitability (Bourgeois, 2007:193). Managers should understand the salient value of communication as a source of unity amongst the employees and a necessity to drawing attention from the organizational team as proper communication is the key propellant factor unity in performing the organization’s activities (CDR Associates, 2007:8). Recognizing employees’ efforts is a crucial factor that scholars emphasize on needs consideration. The management should ensure that the workers feel as an integral part of the organization (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013:1). This comes through motivating employees in terms of strategic measures of rewarding and compensating them (Lussier and Achua, 2009:21). More so, motivating employees helps in retaining them, which eventually cuts the cost of expenses an organization spends on subsequent recruitment of new employees (Berger, 2011: 1). Rewards and compensation have different aspects, it is upon the management team to outline the mode of payment, and reward motivates their employees (Rools-Royce.com, 2013: 1). Royce-Rolls should borrow motivation tips from a company like Marriott International Inc. Different diversity contributes to management complexity especially in multinational companies like Royce-Rolls where diverse staffs are deployed to different workstations, which may be outside the employee’s country (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013: 1). This means that numerous barriers will be encountered especially in managerial terms, where they manager may find it hard managing people with different cultures and believes. Therefore, a manager should understand how to handle individual differences (Lussier and Achua, 2009: 21). These differences vary from age, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. The management should look for ways of understanding diverse cultures among employees by encouraging exchange programs, where managers in different workstations reshuffle (Rolls-Royce.com, 2013: 1). Positively, diverse differences in employees could improve productivity in one way and affect the same productivity in another way (Gill, 2010: 50). The intensive, scholars debate also brought forth the idea that emphasized on implication on the necessity to provide a neutral environment within the organization to enhance unity throughout in the departments (Foster, 2013:40). The scholars suggestions implies on the necessity for the organization to ensure that the target objectives are set and that the employees have vast knowledge about them (CDR Associates, 2007: 7). Conclusively the great debate had a similar conclusion that urged that an organization should achieve its target obligations by establishing effective and modern leadership as the most integral part of the organization, necessary to interconnect labor to the other factors of production (Foster, 2013:42). Therefore, every organization should hire the most efficient management team because their positive management yields positive output of the organization and helps in retaining employees (Berger, 2011: 4). Bibliography Berger, A., 2011. Managing and Leading People: Critically Discuss and Identify the HRM Policies with which to Ensure Employee Retention and Development. GRIN Verlag Collins, S. D., and O'Rourke, J. S. 2009. Managing conflict and workplace relationships. Mason, OH: South-Western. Cengage Learning. Foster, D. T. 2013. Emergency services leadership: a contemporary approach. Burlington, MA, Jones & Bartlett Learning. Gilbert, D. T., Fiske, S. T., & Lindzey, G. 2003. The handbook of social psychology. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Gill, R. 2010. Theory and Practice of Leadership. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Jain, K., N. 2005. Organisational Behaviour Vo. 1, Volume 1, Atlantic Publishers. Lafreniere, S., L. 2008. Navigating the Labyrinth: A Study of Gender and Positional Effects on Individuals' Perceptions of Ideal Leadership Qualities Within Evangelical Christian Higher Education. ProQuest Lussier, R. N., and Achua, C. F. 2010. Leadership: theory, application, skill development. Australia, SouthWestern/Cengage Learning. Nguyen, N., V. 2008. Leadership Skills Development in Theological Seminary: Crucial Factors in Creating Effective Local Church Leadership. ProQuest Rolls-Royce.com, 2013. 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