Impact of Leadership and Motivation on Organizational Culture and Performance - Essay Example

Impact of leadership and motivation on organizational culture and performance Table of Contents 1.Introduction 2 2.Leadership style and performance 2 2.1.Leadership approaches and their corresponding impact 3 2.2.Linkage between leadership style and organizational performance 4 3.Leadership and organizational culture 5 3.1.Empirical evidence 6 4.Conclusion 6 Reference List 8 1. Introduction A review of a considerable proportion of existing literatures that have been published in the field of leadership and its impacts on organizational culture and performance finds that these three factors have been independently interconnected. Experiential researchers have mentioned that a true leader will always play a crucial role in enhancing organizational culture and subsequently performance. Furthermore, a number of aspects of the organizational culture literature imply that the role played by leaders in a critical enabler of creation and maintenance of specific types of culture. Equally, the literature published in the field of leadership states that the capability of understand and work in a culture is a prerequisite to become an effective leader (Hennessey, 1998). However, in spite of the inherent and explicit linkage between leadership, organizational culture and performance is segments of organizational theory, very little concentration has been devoted to understanding the association between the concepts and the effect that such a relationship may have on organizational performance. The deficiency of critical literatures exploring the performance repercussion of the links between leadership and organizational culture is highly surprising given the fact that there are plentiful of reference regarding the references to the importance of leadership and organizational culture as far as smooth functioning of an organization is concerned (Fielder, 1996). The aim of this essay is to provide an explanation of the links between different types of organizational culture, leadership styles and organizational performance. 2. Leadership style and performance A brief overview of the history of literatures regarding the topic of leadership finds that the researches on leadership and organizational performances can be broadly classified into a number of relevant categories. Early researches on leadership emphasized on identifying the personality traits that characterized successful leaders. According to trait theories successful leaders are born and they have certain instinctive qualities that differentiate them from no leaders. However, the difficulty in classifying and corroborating these attributes led to a pervasive criticism that in turn paved way for the emergence of style and behavioural leadership approaches. Behavioural and style oriented leaderships shifted the focus away from the attributes possessed by leaders to the behaviour exhibited by them (Fielder, 1996). 2.1. Leadership approaches and their corresponding impact For example, a leader who exhibited team or sound style of leadership is known to have concerns both towards productivity of the organization as well as towards the welfare of the employee base. This is quite in contrast to the produce or perishes style adopted by authoritarian or compliance leaders (Hannagan, 2008). Under the leadership of a leader who follows team or sound style of leadership commitment and teamwork is highly encouraged among employees. A flexible working environment is created where subordinates are made to feel as a part of family. Such an environment facilitates an all round development of employees which in turn enhances their level of engagement towards their job responsibility and towards the organization as a whole. In an environment that is established on a foundation of team or sound style of leadership, production needs as well as organizational objectives are clearly stated thereby creating an environment that is based on respect and trust whereby high production and employee satisfaction can be achieved. Leaders who exhibit team or sound style of leadership are highly effective and their decisions always depend on the situation as well as on the requirements of the subordinate employees. The approach adopted by such leaders is an amalgamation of three aspects of efficient leadership skills which are supportive approach, directive approach and achievement approach (Naylor, 2004). On the contrary an authoritative leader exhibits a product or perishes style and the emphasis only lies on productivity with virtually no concern regarding the welfare of subordinates. A person demonstrating such a leadership style is completely task oriented and the leadership tendency mostly involves setting as well as enforcing tight schedules. The leader expects the team members to deliver every time whenever a responsibility is assigned to them. Therefore, it can be said that the leader’s vision rests on the strategy for price for performance. Given the fact that the relationship between the leader and subordinates is not based on trust and respect, therefore there is no room for collaboration and cooperation. This in turn deteriorates the team’s operational efficiency by a drastic margin. Such leaders are highly ineffective. Quite similar to the trait theories, the weakness of behavioural theories are that these theories tend to ignore the role that situation plays in measuring the effectiveness of individual leaders (Mullins, 1999). This is precisely the reason why academic researchers came up with contingency and situational theories of leadership. According to these theories, the effectiveness of leadership is dependent on the leaders’ diagnosis of situational factors and subsequently their adoption of appropriate strategies in order to deal with each circumstance. 2.2. Linkage between leadership style and organizational performance Leadership style and management attributes play a crucial role in enhancing employee engagement level which in turn improves operational efficiency (Nohria, Groysberg and Lee, 2008). According to Baum and Locke (2004), goal clarity and direction are two of the most relevant factors that have been identified by research scholars as an enabler of employee motivation. However according to Baum, Locke and Kirkpatrick (1998) the degree to which employee motivation is fostered relies heavily on the leadership styles exhibited by leaders all over the world. It is the approach taken by leaders while specifying goals and clarifying directions to their subordinates that enhances the employee’s engagement level towards the work as well as the organization (Mullins, 2007). This is precisely because employees prove to be immensely successful in improving the eminence of their productivity and performance if they have a comprehensive understanding of the organizational objectives and goals. These facts suggest the relevance of a robust line of communication that needs to exist between a leader and its subordinates. A true leader will always come in handy when it comes to helping employee to develop individual accountability for the responsibility that they have been provided with (Rollinson, 2008). An appropriate leadership style requires leaders to set performance benchmarks and make every effort to ensure that the subordinates outperform the benchmark. In addition leaders have to make sure that each and every employee’s achievements are duly recognized with awards and compliments. Not only does that enhance the level of employee engagement but also motivates them to set their own benchmarks by outperforming the previous ones. This in turn boosts the performance of the individual employee and in turn enhances the overall performance of the organization. 3. Leadership and organizational culture One way of understanding the association between leadership and organizational culture is to examine how culture has been perceived in organizational theories. After prudent review of empirical literatures, it was seen that culture is perceived as an independent organizational variable as well as seen as a factor that can be manipulated. Therefore the nature, direction and the impact of such manipulation depends largely on the skill set and abilities possessed by a leader. Majority of academic researchers, who praise the virtues of transformation leadership demonstrate extensive support for this view (Simms, 1997). According to Schein (1992), leadership and organizational culture are intertwined. The author illustrates this interlink between organizational culture and leadership in the context of the life cycle of an organization. Therefore, while establishing an organization, the owner creates an environment that reflects their beliefs and values. Nevertheless, with the development of organization, the created culture within the organization exercises an influence on the leader as well as the leadership style adopted by the individual. Through this self-motivated mechanism, the leader is in turn shaped by the organization culture. Several authors have suggested that the relationship between leadership and organizational culture reflects an ongoing interplay where the leader influences the organizational culture and in turn is influenced by the organization culture itself. Buchanan and Huczynski (2004) explain the association between leadership and culture by investigating the impact of different leadership styles on organizational culture. The author argues that the objective of transformational leaders are aimed towards keeping the organization culture in complete alignment with their vision and that is how they align the objectives of the organization with that of the employees. By doing so, not only are the able to enhance the performance of individual employees but are also able to increase the efficiency of the organisation (Sparrow, 2008). On the other hand a transactional leader believes in working within the limits and confines of the prevailing organizational culture. There is no room manipulating the culture in order to fit in with the organizational culture. This is one factor that differentiates a transformational leader from a transactional leader (Fiedler, 1996). Given the fact that transactional leaders work within a restricted work culture they are not able to encourage innovation unlike transformational leaders who are always keen to welcome new ideas and apply the same in order to introduce innovative products and service that will increase the success rate of organizations thereby giving them sustainable competitive advantage (Mullins, 2008). 3.1. Empirical evidence While there is no deficiency of claims that leadership and organizational culture is intertwined, there have been very scant investigations of the nature and performance repercussions of this linkage. However, there is one exception in research that was conducted on the organizational change in the United States federal civil service. According to Hennessey (1998), leadership played a significant role in cultivating the appropriate culture within the organization which in turn enabled the leader to enhance the implementation of particular government reforms. The author further argued that the most efficient and effective leader follows such a leader style that supports, fosters and sustains organizational culture which in turn enhances the organizational performance. A thoroughly established organizational culture by means of an effective leadership style enables employees to achieve all round development which in turn contributes significantly towards enhancing the quality of service delivered by an organization. 4. Conclusion The review that has been conducted in this particular research reveals that the impact of leadership on organizational culture and performance has been studied separately in number of literatures. Interestingly some of the empirical literatures have amalgamated a few of the simultaneous investigation of the impact of leadership style on organization culture and performance. The essence of this study revolved around the review of those literatures and it was found that there is a significant association between leadership style and organizational performance and a certain type of culture is related to the quality of performance delivered by the organization. There is also a robust linkage between leadership and organization culture however the accurate nature and link between these three factors have not been fully comprehended which calls for the necessity to conduct further research on this field in order to validate the relationship between these three organization factors. Reference List Baum, R. J. and Locke, E. A., 2004. The relationship of entrepreneurial traits, skill and motivation to subsequent venture growth. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(4), pp. 587-598. Baum, R. J., Locke, E. A. and Kirkpatrick, S. A., 1998. A longitudinal study of the relation of vision and vision communication to venture growth in entrepreneurial firms. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(1), pp. 43-54. Buchanan, D. A. and Huczynski, A., 2004. Organizational behaviour: an introductory text. Harlow: Prentice Hall. Fiedler, F. E., 1996. Research on Leadership Selection and Training: One View of the Future. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, pp. 241-250. Hannagan, T., 2008. Management: Concepts and Practices. 6th edn. New York: Pearson. Hennessey, J. T., 1998. “Reinventing” Government: Does Leadership Make the Difference?’ Public Administration Review, 58(6), pp. 522-532. Mullins, L. J., 1999. Management and Organizational Behaviour. London: Financial Times. Mullins, L., 2007. Management & Organisational Behaviour. 8th edn. New York: Prentice Hall. Mullins, L., 2008. Essentials of Organisational Behaviour. New York: Pearson. Naylor, J., 2004. Management. 2nd edn. New York: Prentice Hall. Nohria, N., Groysberg, B. and Lee, L., 2008. Employee motivation: A powerful new model. Harvard Business Review, 86, pp. 78-84. Rollinson, D., 2008. Organisational Behaviour and Analysis. 4th edn. New York: Pearson. Schein, E. H., 1992. Organizational culture and leadership. 2nd edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Simms, J., 1997. Beauty Queen. Marketing Business, pp. 48-51 Sparrow, P., 2008. Performance management in the U.K. London: Routledge. Read More