Leadership Theories: The Evolution of Context - Assignment Example

? Leadership Theories: The Evolution of Context This paper intends to discuss the leadership theories and the evolution of context. Furthermore, this paper attempts to identify the challenges that have deterred the development of contextual theories of leadership. Correspondingly, the 21st century business environment is more complex and competitive in nature. The business organizations in the current business environment are faced with numerous challenges. It is crucial from leaders to adapt to the changing business environment in order to execute effective decision making. The trend of globalization along with speedy technological advancements has led the organizations to be vulnerable to several environmental threats. Thus, the concept of contextual leadership has emerged to be regarded as an increasingly debated topic in the recent years. It has been argued that a uniform leadership approach is not appropriate for all the situations. It is thus essential that leaders in the contemporary business environment are agile to adopt changes occurring in the business environment quickly for effective decision making process. Introduction The desirability to understand leadership as a concentration of research and the many different ideas regarding leadership has led to the creation of a substantial and confounding literature. Efforts to shape the literature according to major approaches or perspectives have not been much effective towards understanding the concept of leadership. Accordingly, three types of components are identified to be paramount for understanding leadership effectiveness which includes characteristics of leaders, characteristics of followers and characteristics of the situation (Yukl et al., 2009). This paper intends to focus on leadership theories and the evolution of context. Meaning of Context and Its Treatment in Formal Leadership Research Several approaches to leadership relate leadership style and leadership behavior to the context within which it occurs. Thus, context in its simplest meaning can be identified as the variables upon which leadership style depends (Osborn et al., 2002). These variables are categorized into approaches which include traits approach, behavior approach, power influence approach, situational approach and integrative approach. Accordingly, the context in formal leadership research asserts that not a particular leadership style is appropriate in dealing with every situation and leaders are required to change their behavior depending on the situation encountered (Yukl et al., 2009). Based on this assumption, various approaches to leadership are being discussed below: Trait Approach Trait approach is regarded as one of the oldest approaches for learning leadership. This approach primarily emphasizes attributes of leaders such as motives, values, personality and skills. This approach further stresses that some people are bestowed with certain traits that are not possessed by other people (Yukl et al., 2009). Behavior Approach Behavior approach emerged as the successive approach to trait approach. This approach generally relates with two major components. Firstly, it deals with how managers spend their time and the typical pattern of activities, responsibilities and the functions for managerial jobs. This approach also stresses on how managers manage demands, constraints and conflicts encountered in their jobs. Another vital component of the behavior approach focuses on ascertaining the effective leadership behavior (Yukl et al., 2009). Power-Influence Approach Power-Influence approach deals with investigating effect procedures between leaders and other individuals. This approach is based upon the assumptions i.e. “leaders act and followers react”. This approach focuses on the degree of power possessed by leaders and how these powers are applied (Yukl et al., 2009). Situational Approach Situational approach predominately relies on the contextual factors that have an impact on the leadership processes. The main component under situational approach include characteristics of followers, the nature of external environment, the type of organization and the nature of work performed by the leaders’ unit (Yukl et al., 2009). Integrative Approach Integrative approach includes more than one of type of leadership variables. This research approach has been evolved in the recent times. However, there is rarely any theory that attempts to include all the variables (Yukl et al., 2009). New Factor (s) That May Have Led To the Inclusion of Context in Leadership Theories Culture as a Context The emerging ground of cross-cultural leadership research has stressed on the significance of investigating how the inclusion of the context in theories of leadership may alter as well as on how the effective and anticipated leadership is operationally demarcated, measured and integrated. The integration of culture as a contextual factor in model of leadership necessities that researchers consider: The culture embedded theories related to both leaders and subordinates Endorsed behaviors and how they are understood The larger cultural context in which leaders and followers communicate The time of the leader-follower relationship Exogenous activities that may generate interpretation of leadership such as variability uncertainty and development (Avolio, 2007) Examples of a Leader Who Has Been Effectively Engaged With Context and a Leader Who Failed To Engage With the Context Effectively Competition in the 21st century has emerged to be regarded as complex than it was ever before. Currently, the business environment is dynamic and is constantly changing which has initiated a need for global leaders to effectively engage with context in order to sustain their business profitably and competitively (Dess & Picken, 2000). Correspondingly, in the recent times, the strategic leadership practices have been advocated in order to deal with the challenges of contemporary business environment. It has been affirmed that without effective strategic leadership practices, it is quite difficult for a firm to achieve superior performance when confronted with challenges of the global economy. It is worth mentioning that strategic leaders use to frame, maintain and alter patterns of organizational activities. Moreover, strategic leadership practice requires effectively addressing the different variables that represent the context (Ireland & Hitt, 1999). In this regard, an example of a leader who has been effectively engaged with context can be identified with the leadership style followed by Alan Mulally. Alan Mulally is acting as the president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ford Motor Company. Since his joining at Ford Motor Company in 2006, the performance of the organization has dramatically changed. Under his leadership, the company made better pricing and other relevant decisions which indeed facilitated to turn around the performance of the company (Greenberg, 2012). On the other hand, there have been a number of examples of business failure arising due to inability of a leader to engage with context effectively. One name in this regard can be identified as Richard Branson. Richard Branson is the Founder and the Chairman of Virgin Group. Richard Branson has experienced failure due to his abrupt decision making approaches along with failure to engage with context effectively (Amazon Web Services, Inc., 2013). Differences In Leadership Style and Approaches of Alan Mulally and Richard Branson Both the leaders are well renowned for their leadership practices. These two leaders share certain common leadership practices amid them and they have certain differences in their leadership styles. Correspondingly, Richard Branson has good rapport with the employees within the organization while on the other hand Alan Mulally has clear chain of command. Moreover, the leadership style followed by Richard Branson is more participative, adoptive and supportive while the leadership style followed by Alan Mulally is although participative but has at times been directive in nature as well. Richard Branson bestows his subordinates the freedom to perform certain tasks while Alan Mulally has preferred to guide his subordinates with his decisions. Richard Branson has used his personality to create and promote his brand while Alan Mulally has been passionate towards his work (Amazon Web Services, Inc., 2013; Greenberg, 2012). The Challenges of Developing Contextual Theories of Leadership The present business environment is characterized by a new competitive landscape that is driven by globalization, democratization and speedy technological explosion. This business environment has created new challenges for business organizations and their leaders. Despite the dynamism associated with the current business environment leadership theory is still embedded in bureaucratic framework (Ireland & Hitt, 1999). The bureaucratic concept can be argued as the traditional assumption that stresses on rationalization of control. There exist certain gaps in current leaders that deter their effectiveness to deal with the current rapidly altering business environment. It can be argued that leaders are inadequately prepared for the future. It can be further affirmed that current business organizations are required to operate in complex business environment. Organizations in the current business environment experience a wide range of demands including the threat of mergers and acquisitions, introduction to new and innovative technologies and continuous pressure from external environment. However, leadership models are based upon emphasizing mainly the changing impact of leaders on team members while they lack in abridging the gap between strategic management and leadership. Moreover, these leadership models lack in ensuring the effective management of change. The leadership models are based on the paradigms of stability seeking and uncertainty avoidance that are firmly embedded into organizational structures and processes. However, it can be argued that these paradigms can be viewed to be inadequate and less effective in the current global competitive environment. Nonetheless, the above mentioned broad viewpoints regarding the leadership have imposed significant challenges for developing contextual theory of leadership. Thus, in order to eliminate these challenges, three leadership functions namely adaptive, administrative and enabling are required to be incorporated. These envisioned leadership functions will serve as a milestone of leadership research related to context by which change occurs (Uhl-Bien et al., 2007). Conclusion The efforts towards understanding the leadership as a subject of research and several ideas regarding leadership have led to the creation of a large number of literatures. Several approaches to leadership are firmly embedded to leadership styles and leadership behavior in a context to which leadership occurs. Context in general terms relates to a different set of variables upon which leadership style largely depends. There are certain approaches upon which leadership style is converged which include trait approach, behavior approach, power-influence approach, situational approach and integrative approach. However, the inclusion of cross-culture as a context can lead to certain alterations that may influence the effectiveness of leadership. A leader who has engaged with context effectively can render greater success for the business organization while that leader failing to engage effectively with context may bring in adverse implications towards the operations of the business. The current business environment is much complex and highly competitive that imposes significant challenges for developing contextual theories of leadership. In order to deal with these challenges and complexities, the three leadership functions including adaptive, administrative and enabling are essential to be incorporated. References Avolio, B. J. (2007). Promoting more integrative strategies for leadership theory-building. The American Psychological Association, 62 (1), 25-33. Amazon Web Services, Inc. (2013). Richard Branson. Retrieved from https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/cdn0.virgin.com/misc/RichardBransonLikeAVirgin-DigitalExtract.pdf Dess, G., & Picken, J. (2000). Changing roles: Leadership in the 21st century. 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