Different Approaches to Leadership Studies - Essay Example

 Introduction As a leader, one’s work, like one’s life must bear the scrutiny of one’s own evaluation. Ignorance about oneself is a self-imposed limitation that will keep much of one’s leadership potential form developing because it would result to low self-esteem. In the book ‘Toward a Psychology of Being’ by Abraham Maslow (1968), people having low self-esteem are less imaginative and are more frenzied in their lifestyle which are hindrances to become successful leaders because they are unable to manage the tough inner foe of self (Miller 1987, p.22). Many business empires were built and have been destroyed based on how it was lead and managed by people. Organizing for leadership involves the following concepts: defining, structuring and motivating. Each of these concepts plays an important role in organizing life and career goals. To identifying what a leader’s objective is defines the leader’s aim. It is basically an inward attempt to sort out direction, velocity and purpose. Structuring follows defining wherein the leader outlines and charts that project or idea enabling him to know how to present, enact and complete the project. Structuring sends a message to the employees that the leader or management can be trusted because the leader has the ability to explain clearly the course which have been chosen to take (Miller 1987, p.62). In every organization, the leader is somewhat of a politician who learns how to motivate various people to do the right job. The leader must recruit people, making commitments, side-deals, complimenting, remonstrating and sometimes bargaining – to get things done. Therefore, it is imperative for the leader to be knowledgeable enough to be able to arrive to a sound decision. Body Leadership is the compass of living. No subject has been more explored in our day than leadership. Management luminaries and other thinkers are constantly addressing the issue. Many studies of leadership have already been done which resulted to the different approaches in its study. Leaders are made, not born. Leadership develops daily, not in a day. It is not like investing in the stock market in the hope of making a fortune. Studies and research have proven to be valuable tools in keeping an organization at par with the others, if not succeed. Learning one’s own strength and weakness and compare it with other similar organization can help gauge its standing and growth in a particular field. The study of leadership can be done in different ways. It can be through academic studies, qualitative studies, comparative studies and many more. Academic studies of leadership can be in a form of academic researches which will be given as seminars to managers or leaders of the organization. Amongst the academic study or leadership is the study of the theories of leadership. One of which is the Trait Theory. This theory studies the reason why others succeed in leading while others don’t. It identifies characteristics of a person which can help explain the reasons behind failure and success. Human as we are, it is not possible to display certain set of characteristics consistently in different circumstances. Although, some might truly possess ideal qualities that makes a leader, it should be considered that there are leaders who succeeded and emerged to be a great leader as a result of situations, while some are because of the interaction of traits and situations (Bass 1990, p.87). Another is the Power and Influence Theory which asserts that power is the ability to influence a person, that influence is a process which affects the behaviors, thoughts and feelings of a person and that authority is a person’s right to influence another person. Referent power is the power that characterizes Transformational Leadership because the leadership style rises above the basic level of giving the needs of the employees and the followers are engaged in a way as they are raised to new and higher levels of motivation and morality (Bensimon et al 1989, p.10). Cognitive Theory is a theory which sees the leader as someone who emerges as a result of social recognition of groups having the same cultural and symbolic approaches which means that this theory is about the filling of roles in an organization. The effectiveness of a leader is assessed in terms of the leader’s actions (which is not very important) and followers’ degree of perception on the ability of the leader to perform “leader-like tasks” (Bensimon et al 1989, p.24). These theories are all competing against each other presenting a constricted description of the real world and ostentatious promises for what lies ahead; and so many managers are trying to get on top of one another creating a “cacophony of voices and visions” (Bolman & Deal 2003, p.11). Academic studies don’t only include studies on leadership theories but also even international studies and foreign language education. The Committee for Economic Development or CED have endorsed the improvement and expansion of foreign language education in the US inviting all business and academic leaders to join in this endeavor for it saw the importance of education for “global leadership” and competitiveness (CED 2007, p.1). The thrust of this effort is to widen the knowledge of students about other countries and cultures to rise up to the challenges brought by advances in technology and rising competitiveness, as well as issues on national security and competitiveness (CED 2007, p.1). Leaders are decision makers of which many quail before the lonely work of making decisions. Leaders need an ocean of alternatives with solid footing on which to say yes or no. Knowledge brought by academic studies equips leaders to analyze and recognize problems and make wise decisions. In a qualitative study conducted on men, male leaders mostly learn from experience and 42% of which are from challenging assignments, 22% from other people, 20% from hardships and 16% from other events (Lindberg & Craig 2006, p.14). Qualitative Data Analysis involves Thematic Analysis and Content Analysis. Thematic analysis involves a comparison between keywords and phrases of transcripts, grouping it into themes based on their similarities and differences. Content Analysis is a way of analyzing data with the use of a computer program called Leximancer which quantifies the keywords, analyzing it objectively (Tse et al 2006, p.10). The study revealed that the perception of employees is relationship oriented wherein the way they view their supervisors or immediate boss are perceived on a personal level and goes beyond the workplace (Tse et al 2006, p.11). With regards to accomplishing assigned task, employee perception is task-oriented which can be considered as a foundation the exchange of both tangible and intangible resources between employee and supervisors or immediate bosses (Tse et al 2006, p.11). The difference between the two is that unlike the latter, relationship oriented results is more concerned with the employees personal and emotional perception on the attitude and behavior of the supervisor. Such a revelation can serve as guideline on how business supervisors or managers should treat their employees; the understanding of how relationship between supervisors and employees are perceived can help in establishing a much stronger relationship that is neither abusive nor disrespectful. Such understanding may also result to higher productivity and employee job satisfaction rating, reducing employee turn-over whch causes the company time and money. Comparative studies can also be valuable especially to new organizations. Study and research about two competing organizations can give a lot of realizations and inputs on the new ones in how to go about the operations beginning square one. It can also give valuable insights and lessons on the mistakes that these two organizations (under study) so as not to commit the same mistake again or to guide in drawing a guideline in response to such a situation. Comparative studies are helpful in explaining and describing major differences in relation to economic organizations and market economies which should be understood in terms of current establishments that deals with the “constitution and control of key resources like skills, capital and legitimacy”, just like the presentation of R. Whitley 1999) of a comparative business framework, which analyzes the developments and changes of various types of economic organizations (Konishi 2007, p. 162). The main stress of the comparative business system approach is on how to develop a new framework to be used for comparisons of various forms of business systems, identifying the key qualities and differences as well as explaining them using variations in particular kinds of societal institutions. Another type of leadership study can be through NIE-inspired research. NIE stands for New Institutional Economics of which, its theorists focused on business associations. Analysis on NIE-inspired research helps is both precisely specifying “potential developmental contributions which business associations can make and to illuminate the internal dynamics of these institutions (Doner & Schneider 2000, p. 19). Although in the reference, the authors Doner and Schneider (2000) are still skeptical about the effectivity of NIE, it should be noted that doing a leadership study using this approach can also lead to realizations and synthesis of other theories as well as approaches which could to a more enlightened and informed decision. Conclusion Every leader is at the mercy of his or her own flexibility. If one cannot adjust as the organization grows, one will soon be obsolete. Change is the only thing that is constant in this world and it has become a big and complex word for it means competitiveness and complexity. Results from the studies and researches using the different approaches in the study of leadership as explained above, requires adjustment. Adjustment in leadership style still keeps leadership contemporary. It means that the leader has already agreed that the direction of his leadership is not on course and, rather than continuing to lead in the wrong direction, the leader is only making a correction in mid-course. Good leaders never cease to find ways to improve themselves through studies and researches. Leaders always share their visibility and responsibility of leading which is why leaders never cease to learn and study not only through qualitative or academic studies and the likes but also its own company. Without the application of any approach to the study of leadership, organizations will have difficulty staying afloat and competing with others in the business which results to bankruptcy. Bibliography Bolman, LG & Deal, T E 2003, ‘Reframing organizations,’ San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Bensimon, E M, Neumann, A & Birnbaum, R 1989, ‘ Making sense of administrative leadership: The "L" word in higher education,’ ASHE-ERIC Higher education report, Washington: The George Washington University. Bass, B. M. (1990). Bass & Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications (3rd ed.). New York: The Free Press. Miller, C 1987, ‘Leadership,’ An Influencer Discussion Guide. Stanley Hunt Ltd., Rushden, Northants, Great Britain, pp.13-14, 21-22, 49-52 Lindberg, J and Craig, SB 2006, ‘The Qualitative Study of Leadership: Research Methods and Substantive Findings,’ Symposium presentation, pp.1-23. Tse, HHM, Dasborough, MT, Ashkanasy, NM 2006, ‘A Qualitative Approach to Understanding LMX Relationships,’ University of Queensland Business School, 21st SIOP Conference, Dallas, Texas, pp. 1-16. Doner, RF and Schneider, B 2000, ‘The New Institutional Economics, Business Associations and Development, Business and Society Programme, pp. 1-25. Read More