Principles and practice of leadership and management - Essay Example

Principles and practice of leadership and management Introduction Leadership and management area widely pronounced and important fieldsin every facet of life,thus one cannot talk of management without having a definite field regarded in the management. Even in leadership, De Waal and Sivro (2012) observed that an ‘ideal leader’ is one who uses their power to empower others to achieve the organization goals and objectives. Harris Alma (2003, p.2) suggest that leadership is a process where one facilitates growth and development of people involved in a manner that accrue some benefits at the end. It is therefore imperative to note that leadership has been in existence since live began (Patterson 2010, p.17). Management on the other hand holds people for results and is decisive about non-performance by being achievement oriented (De Waal and Sivro, 2012, p.4).Since leadership is an integral part of life as well as of any discipline, a handful of theories in principle and in practice have been studied in generation after generation. This paper will discuss pertinent theories and principles in detail which have received quite erudition on leadership and management of both for-profit and non-profit organizations thus enabling one to identify the critical points of overlap where the theory is adapted orientation or integrated thus helps to advice leaders on the best to apply in practice. From the discussion the highly ranked practices and leadership styles will be outlined for farther studies and practice. Contingency leadership theories According to Egri and Herman (2000), contingent leadership theories are those that predict relations while Hartog (1999) in an in-depth research on culturally implicit theories observes that contingent theories are twofold as attributes embraced in one culture may be discouraged in another. Since there are myriads of these theories, many of them overlap to an extent that merges others into a whole i.e. the transactional, laissez-faire, and transformational/charismatic leaderships. Critically looking at the transactional and transformational theories, they form the basis of any leadership (Egri and Herman, 2000, pp.2-5). Egri and Herman defined transactional leaders as those in charge of subordinates’ work performance to achieve a certain goal whereas the transformational leaders are those that inspire others to achieve their goals, visions and missions by empowering them.Egri and Herman (pp.6) added that of particular importance in leadership is the behavior of the leader since it acts as a gauge on how to handle his or her subordinates, peersand superiors. Thus shaded light that highly effective leaders are those that are able to use multiple approaches such as human resource, structural, political, symbolic among others to ensure that they influence the team towards achieving theirobjectives.Culturally based theories expound leadership attributes that are ingrained in any particular culture, (Hartog 1999 p.7). He argues that criterion used by different societies to consider one as a leader are of paramount importance since across cultures, they are quite different if not complex behaviors and attributes that are critically looked for in leadership and may differ in different cultures. This makes the cultural conception of the most characteristics of a leader to vary. Hartog continues to highlight that the Implicit Leadership Theories (ILTs) have over time been employed to explain leadership attributes and perceptions. These theories are based on the general attributes that are universally considered in a leader across cultures.As aforementioned, the ILTs are formed with universally accepted elements such as categorization, prototype etc. which are the backbone of these theories. These theories are employed in almost all the main leadership theories as the root systems for their existence. For instance, in discussing the transactional, laissez-faire and transformational theories,(Hartog 1999, Egri&Herman 2000) the key characteristics identified are almost employed across leadership theories with the transformational one ranking the highest but with a few attributes. The theories found out that the differences found within are caused by the varied cultures where they are practiced. In addressing the leadership theories, Patterson (2010, p.17-27) outlined the following; Situational leadership theory According to Patterson (2010), this theory takes into consideration elements of task and people orientations. In task orientation he argues that the leader is that one who initiates actions and implement goals and objectives while showing a great concern for the team. Being sensitive about followers has received varied score as to some degree being sensitive or soft hearted may not be encouraged in some cultures, (de Waal &Sivro 2010) observed. Leadership theory: Idiosyncrasy credits. This leadership style goes with a distinctive attribute peculiar to an individual. Here the leader should not only be a large holder of resources but also be the one who may be able to continuously amass such resources otherwise if they lack these abilities they will lose respect from their loyal followers. All leaders thus need to embrace this style since resource is of key concern for any organization, otherwise there won’t be leadership that does not encourages the creation and sharing of resources. Leadership theory:Bases of social power. Power has been recognized by many people as among the key factor that influences leadership as Han and Zhao (2013) and DenHartog (1999) confirm. It’s is defined as the ability to influence. Patterson (p.17) notes that though there are quite a number of sources of power, two key concepts can be drawn from such; the power vested in the person and in the position. He advises that power is just power thus whether vested or acquired through rank or position itshould not be misused. Machiavellianism leadership theory This was a leadership style developed by Niccolo Machiavelli and so far has stand out to be the only theory that openly encourages manipulation by selfish leaders. Unfortunately Machiavelli was right to some extent since the theory has been and still is in full practice in almost all societies, Patterson asserts. To avoid Machiavellianism, organizations are advised to have strong moral and ethical cultures to govern themselves. Responsive to authority theory Response to authority is a theory that takes into consideration the way subordinates or follower take instructions or orders given to them by their superiors or by authorities with minimal disobedience even if the actor may be harmed or the act is immoral, illegal or unethical. This theory observes that authority can be manipulative as it does not allow accountability. There is therefore a need for this leadership style to allow room for questioning, in order to avoid members from blindly getting into situations that may compromise their judgments. Citizen leadershiptheory A citizen leader is one who out of their altruistic manners serves others without considering their own self. These are leaders who come up to lobby for policies, bring a cause of action to have something fixed or a problem solved. Caproni (2004) posited that one can be able to serve others well and to the best of their ability only if they are self-aware. It is thus an important leadership skill as from the aforementioned authors different cultures look at leadership in quite different lenses. Servant leadership theory. According to De Waal and Sivro (2012), and Patterson(2010) servant leadership is a new approach in leadership that has received quite some attention. De Waal and Sivro(2012, p.5) define it as the leadership style that mainly focuses on individual growth and development. These writers argue that servant leadership is among the fundamental leadership style that can be adopted since it looks into the key resource, the people who act as the driving force for the organizations thus without them the organization is deemed to fail in achieving its goals and objectives. Vertical Dyad Linkage/Leader-member exchange theory. This theory postulate that some leaders have attributes and behaviors that some members in the organization agree upon while others don’t thus they tend to form special relationships with those followers who may admire their attributes and ordinary relationship with others,(Patterson p.26). Contemporary leadership skills The authors aforementioned had brought about numerous attributes that high performing leaders should have in order to stimulate conducive relationship hence high performing organizations. Key of the skills required for any high performer leader are self-awareness, social skills, practical skills, proactiveness, coaching skills as well as the willingness to not only improve oneself but others, (Caproni 2004,Bagga 2013). It is therefore clear that emerging from all theories are statements reinforcing the development of the leadership skills identified to ensure that leaders not only don’t lose track of their organizations’ goals and objectives but also stay attuned to the employees. It is thus imperative to note that leadership attributes and behaviors are of paramount importance in deciding one to be the leader. A leader who constantly communicates to his or her subordinates creates coheresion in their team members thus fostering positive action, (Pollit David 2013,Hand and Zhao 2013). Any leader who wants to stay competitive in the market must be able to embrace quite a number of these attributes. Be it a game’s club captain or a head of government in a country, these theories reiterate that the leader should do their best to ensure that he or she continues to be consistence in their leadership otherwise should anyone go astray, their followers will not consider their past actions but completely lose confidence on them. Variations across cultures may bring quite some challenges as to what the masses consider as good attribute for an ideal leader. There is still a room for gauging the best attribute in leadership. This is brought about by the shared or universally accepted leadership behaviors and characteristics, Harris(2003) remarked. There are hundreds of these characteristics most of which the theories are named and seeing throughout the theories, they are usually accepted universally once it obtains a high score or rank that any society employees to come up with the best attributes. For instance, when they look at visionary leaders, they not only gauge the trait with integrity but underlying aspects such as confidence builder, positive, dynamic, motivating, orientation to excellence and one that is able to employ a win-win criteria in problem solving. Almost all of these theories create the basis of what skills the best or a high performing leader should have. For instance, Egri and Herman (2000, p.2) defined environmental leadership as ‘the ability to influence individuals and mobilize organizations to realize a vision of long-term ecological sustainability’. For this environmental leader to be able to lead they must show that they have the ability looked for by their followers. The premise is thus in the hands of the followers and varied cultures that validate the theory for practice by their superiors or themselves when they get an opportunity to rise up to the leadership position. Leadership and management in practice One may not do themselves a favour if they look at leadership in practice in only one organization. This is because leadership in practice varies in approaches where they are applied in day to day life in quite unique ways. For instance,as earlier seen, one is considered a leader when the attributes seen in them are put in practice to produce positive outcomes hence satisfying their followers. But one clear picture clearly comes out that leadership focuses on human resource and management development, (Hamlin et al., 2010).Hamlin and others discuss of a collaborative organization in the UK that offers housing, support and care for older people in that county. They therefor agree with de Waal and Sivro in their view of servant leadership theory thatstated that such abilities in leaders motivate them to see to it that something is done to make life better for others without necessarily looking into how they will benefit themselves. Egri and Herman(p.3-5) when they discussed about the individuals and organizations that emerged to voice for the conservation of the environments, these authors still draw attention to servant stewardship in practice. As with the studies by de Waal and Sivro(2012) focusing on the best leadership attributes in practice. Their case organization or company was the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam hospital found in 1965 and later changed to Vrije Universiteit medical centre (VUmc) that aims at attending to medical issues in a more customer or client related manner unlike in laissez-faire leadership which focuses more on benefits the leader gains. The VUmc facility has therefore received great credit for its servant leadership approach to lead hence be able to manage their clients and improve their skills enabling them to offer the best medical services in the Netherlands. Like DeRue and Ashford (2010) when they posited ‘who will lead and who will follows?’ the leading organizations in the world such as VUmc among others have got to acquire the mantle to continue to lead and produce the best leaders. There is hardly any inspiration book that does not elucidate leadership in a unique way to put emphases on the important of this fundamental trait. All the organizations have thus been brought to receptiveness of the discussed theories and since there is no way they can escape the changes brought about by the dynamic nature of leadership they have to integrate them into their organizations Conclusion Antonakis et al., (2004) argues that the topic of leadership has engaged mankind from the dawn of civilization to date. Indeed leadership is inherent in any facet of life as nature has made it a must for there to be a leader and a follower. Like Antonakis and associates leadership existed in all fields and with the dynamic nature of it, leadership has been going through and is still going through rapid changes. The main actor stimulating the change in leadership has been and will always be culture (Harris 2003,Den Hartog 1999 ,Hamlin & Sage 2010). This is because any trait, behavior or attribute considered best for any leader are always derived from the cultural beliefs and norms guarding the sovereignty of that particular culture. The leadership and management theories discussed above have collated the leadership traits and attributes virtually accepted across cultures and nations into simple monographs showing the highly ranked attributes for best performing leaders. Empowerment seems to rank the highest when you cohere the many traits in different cultures. Visionary leaders takes second place, may be because it will be unlikely for any society or organization to have no goals and visions. Across many cultures hardly does one find a leader whose merit of leadership had not gone through some integrity test, thus another key attribute in leadership.The charismatic leadership style rank highest with servant leadership trailing behind it among others. It is therefore imperative to note that not all leaders may be having the attributes required across cultures, for instancecommunication skills, influence, listening, ability to motivate among other, but the nature of leadership allows for them to acquire those they are lacking only if they are not in-born,(Joshi Manmohan,2012 p.15, DeRue &Ashford 2010). 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