What Makes a Good Leader, Leadership in Ukraine and Germany - Research Paper Example

Running Head: Leadership Leadership Inserts His/her Leadership is the process by which a person exerts influence over other people and instigates, motivates and guides a group towards the organizational goals. The person who wields such influence is called the leader. When leaders are effective, the influence they exert over others help a group or organization achieve its performance goals But when the leaders are ineffective, their influence does not contribute to, and often detracts from goal attainment. This paper will focus on leadership, how the different t cultural theories of leadership help develop effective leadership in organizations. Also, it will focus on leadership programs and compare their practical application to theory. In simple words, leadership is the ability to direct a group towards the accomplishment of goals. Leadership is a vital part of being a successful manager. Employees would tend to follow a good leader rather than a manager that does not posses leadership skills and will respond positively to their direction. A poor leader will often fail to win over staff and will have problems communicating with and organizing workers effectively. But what makes a good leader There have been a number of studies that have been carried out in order to answer this question. Some debate that leader's are born with innate abilities, aura or charisma that others will find appealing. While others argues that leaders can be trained to adopt the key attributes of a good leader and if there is desire and will power it is possible to be a good and effective leader. The traits that can be associated with a good leader form into three broad categories. Personality traits of a manager are those characteristics that combine together and form into an appealing personality that would be attractive and would influence others. Personality traits can be further divided into general personality traits and task-related traits. The general personality traits include extraversion, dominance, psychological adjustment and assertiveness. While task-oriented traits can be emotional intelligence, internal locus of control and also flexibility and adaptability to the changing work methods, environments or people. (Kelly, 2007) Motives is another aspect of the traits of a leader. Motives are revealed as the intentions seen in the behavior of leaders. Motives are also evident through the emotional energy which shows how important the leader considers things to be. The motives of the leader need to be clear. The motives are of four forms. Power, drive and achievement, strong work ethics and Tenacity. The power motive involves the leader influencing the actions and behaviors of others. Power is further divided in personalized power motive and socializes power motive. Personalized power motive is when the leaders pursue their own interests and use their power for their own self fulfillment considering it as a form of high-status and luxury. While, socializing power motive is when the leader uses the power in achieving organizational goals and to help others. The second form of motive is drive and achievement motive is very important it means that the leader has the motivation and persistent energy that is needed in achieving goals. This motive also means that the leader will consider the aims of the organization as their own personal aims and thus, will put in extra effort in finding solutions, planning and taking risks and responsibilities. The strong work ethic motive involved the leader having a strong belief in work dignity. Workers with strong work ethic believe in working hard and not wasting and resources such as time. Intelligence in leader is as important as are other factors. Mental abilities are one of the important traits that a leader must posses. A person that is smart and mentally sharp solves difficult problems, brings a creative edge to the company and also inspires others and comes up as more sensible and thus, motivates people in his or her following the leadership. When talking of traits, charisma is one of the important features of an effective leader. Charisma is the power or quality that one has which influences and attracts a large number of people. A charismatic leader is self-confident, inspirational, competent, communicative, motivating, has a strong sense of moral values and tends to be a strong role model. A charismatic leader has a positive attitude and persona that makes the workers want to be led by him or her. Charismatic leaders have the quality of interacting with others, maintaining two way communications and respecting the perceptions as well as suggestions of everyone else. (Argyris, 1976) Styles of management also affect how the leaders behave and take decisions. There are three styles of management/leadership that are followed depending on the corporate culture or the situation. Firstly, the autocratic leader is the one who is the most authoritative type of leader. Autocratic leaders make all decisions based upon their own judgment and set the business objectives themselves and give the employees rules and instructions that they should follow. Workers are not involved in the process of decision making and this factor may affect there habit of taking initiatives (Dale, 1973). Workers following an autocratic leader may never be up for talking responsibility and initiative as they are not trained to do so. However, this management style is rather useful in occupations such as Armed forces or the police as there is no need for orders to be discussed and a quick response to instructions is required. Democratic or participative leaders are the ones who engage in discussions with workers before taking decisions. They discuss issues with the employees and consider their suggestions and ideas before taking the final decision. A democratic leader needs to posses good communication skills in order to explain the issues clearly and also to understand the responses that are coming from the workers. This kind of leadership may increase worker motivation as participation in decision making is encourages which makes the employees feel that they are making some contribution in the organization. (DuBrin, 2006) Lastly, the laissez-faire management is the most independent form of management. The laissez-faire manager or leader gives full autonomy to the workers to carry out tasks and make decisions on their own within broad limits. This style of management or leadership is suitable for research or design teams. Workers in these teams work best if they are not too pushes upon by the leaders. However, laissez-faire management style could at some point become a problem if the workers are not competent enough to make sensible decisions. Sometimes workers may also lose confidence and may feel demotivated as they are not sure that what they are doing is right. (Kippenberger, 2002) Leadership is a very important part of each organization. It may be a non-profit organization, school or the government. Leadership has been researched for decades. (Kouzes and Posner, 1995) Earlier approaches to leadership focused on the qualities of the leaders that distinguished the effective leaders from the ineffective while subsequent models or theories of leadership focus more on the situational factors and skill levels of the leaders. The fist theory of leadership was called 'the great man-woman theory' this theory stated that leadership is an innate which means that leaders are born, not made. There is little evidence to support this theory as it is just a mere speculation that personal qualities and abilities make certain persons natural leaders. Another theory similar to this is the trait theory which states the there are certain traits that are associated with leader success. Some of these traits are intelligence, extraversion, dominance and psychological adjustment. The result of this study was also inconclusive as there is no solid evidence that there would be a single or a group of traits that all effective leaders possess. (Bratton, Grint, Nelson, 2004) The contingency theories of leadership examine the interaction between leader characteristics and elements of the work situation. They take into account the circumstances or framework within which the leadership transpires. Fielder's contingency model states that effective leadership depends upon a leader's behavioral style and the extent to which the work situation gives the leader power, influence and authority. Leaders can be either task-oriented or relationship oriented. The degree to which a leader is task or relationship oriented is determined by the method of LPC (least preferred coworker). High scores indicate the leader as being relationship oriented and low scores indicate task oriented leadership. Fiedler also identified three situational characteristics or controls which are leader-member relations, task structure, and position power. These situational characteristics combine to create circumstances that are either very favorable, very unfavorable or neither. Thus, the effectiveness can be determined by observing that the task oriented leaders perform best in high and low situational controls and relationship oriented leaders perform best in moderate situations. (Munro, 2007) The path goal theory proposes that by recognizing the desired outcomes of subordinates, leaders can motivate them by illuminating for them the paths leading to the attainment of work goals and thus, rewarding them with their desired outcomes for their high performance and the accomplishment of goals. Path goal theory identifies four kinds of leadership behaviors that motivate subordinates these behaviors are: directive, supportive, participative, and achievement oriented. This theory enables leaders to choose their behavioral styles basing upon the task and the subordinates. Theories bases on particular behaviors that lead to effective leadership are called behavioral theories of leadership. These theories are derived from studies conducted at the Ohio state university and the university of Michigan and focus on behaviors that are common to effective leaders. In these studies it is conclude that behaviors can be narrowed into two broad categories, initiating structure also known as task orientation and consideration also known as relationship oriented. (Northouse, 2006) Similarly, Bob Nardelli was hired as a CEO Home Depot. Home Depot was in need of some initiating structure. Now Home depot has grown rapidly. Nardelli emphasized initiating structure and flattened Home Depot's hierarchy by scaling back the number of managerial levels; he reassigned key employees to better take advantage of their expertise, and reoriented Home Depot to be focused on profits rather than growth. He also emphasized on quality and was not afraid of making changes. Nardelli also recognized the need for consideration. Maintaining high level of motivation and job satisfaction amongst the employees was one of his key priorities along with looking out for their well-being and understanding what's important for them. Home Depot needed leaders who engage in initiating structure and consideration as they realized when they hired Nardelli. EXTENSION: This part of the paper will focus on leadership in Ukraine and Germany. Germany scores high on various leadership qualities such as assertiveness, gender egalitarianism and Ingroup collectivism. Human orientation, Institutional Collectivism and Power Distance fair satisfactorily. . Theories can be related to the practical corporate culture in Ukraine and reflect the true leaders in it's organizational set up. For example Mark Compton is a relationship oriented leader employed by a small construction company who was in a very unfavorable situation and having a rough time leading his construction crew. His subordinates did not trust him to look out for their well-being which shows poor leader-member relation, the construction jobs he supervised tended to be complex (less task structure) moreover, he had no control over the reward or punishments that his subordinates received (weak position power). Recognizing this situation, Campton's supervisor gave him the power to reward with bonuses if needed and to discipline crew members for poor quality of work. With these changes his leadership situation became moderately favorable and so did Campton's effectiveness as a leader. (Jones and George, 2007) However, It scores remarkably low on Future Orientation, Performance Orientation and Uncertainity Avoidance. An outstanding leader in Ukraine would be one who would combine Team oriented leadership with charismatic leadership. He should also rank considerably higher in levels of Autonomous leadership and is also capable of Self protected behavior. Contemporary Germany lies at the heart of Europe. With a population of 82 million citizens, it is the most populated country in Europe. Managers in Germany have dramatic effects on their subordinates and on the organization as a whole, they are engaging in transformational leadership. From time to time, certain leaders seem to transform their organizations, making sweeping changes to renew and regenerate operations. For example in the 1990's the chief executive of the German company 'siemens', Heinrich von Pierer, dramatically transformed his company. When Pierer took over in 1992, Siemens had a rigid hierarchy in place, was suffering from increases global competition, and was burdened with old-fashioned, uncompromising working culture that muffled creativity and innovation and slowed the process of decision-making. Pierer's changes at Siemens have been nothing short of revolutionary as he transformed the company into the new siemens where subordinates assessed their managers, received training in becoming more democratic and participative and showed creativity, employees were no longer afraid to speak their minds, and innovation was a driving force throughout the company. Pierer transformed siemens and made the employees more innovative and competent in gaining a competitive advantage for the company. (Bass and Riggio, 2005) Conclusion: In the end it is important to understand that leadership is a significant contributor to organizational performance. Without leadership there would be no sense of direction and everything would be out of place. Not only is a leader important but it is essential for the leader to effective in order to create the drive, motivate workers and inspire them in making positive changes to the organization. Leadership theories have made us understand that the dimensions of leadership are way broader than they were initially perceived as. Leaders are not born with the leadership qualities in them, rather, leaders are groomed and learned to effective leaders. Bibliography 1. Argyris, C (1976). Increasing leadership effectiveness. R.E Krieger. 2. Bratton, J, Grint, K, & Nelson, D.L (2004). Organizational leadership. Thomas south-western. 3. Dale, E (1973). Management: theory and practice. McGraw-hill. 4. Drucker, P.F (1995). The practice of management. Harper. 5. DuBrin, A.J (2006). Leadership: research finding, practice and skill. south-western college pub. 6. Heifetz, R.A (1994). Leadership without easy answers. Harvard university press. 7. Hybels, B (2002). Courageous Leadership. Zondervan 8. Jones, G.R, & George, J.M (2007). Contemporary management. McGraw-Hill companies. 9. Kelly, P (2007). Nursing leadership & management. Delmar cengage learning. 10. Kippenberger, T (2002). 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