The Concept and Process of Leadership - Essay Example

 Organisational Leadership Define and critically analyse the concept and process of Leadership. Can leadership be destructive: analyse and give organisational examples to illustrate this style and its consequences? Introduction Leadership entails a process whereby an individual can influence other workers to achieve a particular objective, and able to direct an organisation in way that enhances the cohesiveness and coherence. The process of showing good leadership also entails the application of knowledge and skills learned by the prospective leader at the workplace. However, while leadership involves a learning process, it is also important to note that, a person’s attributes, values or beliefs have an influence on the leadership process. This is because these characters make a leader to be unique at the workplace. In order to become an efficient and effective leader, a person needs to develop an honest understanding of himself or herself, what he or she knows and their capabilities as a prospective leader of an organisation or a team within the work environment. In the end, the followers of a leader can determine whether an individual is a good leader within an organisation setting. As such, it is important for leaders to exhibit trust and confidence when leading others people or workers within the organisation setting. Being a leader entails convincing followers, and not superiors of your worthiness to be followed by other workers (Parris & Peachy 2013, p.379). Conversely, while convincing followers of their worthiness to be followed, leaders need to note that different people within the workplace require different leadership styles. For instance, new employees in an organisation need to be supervised more compared to experienced workers in the same organisation. As such, leadership process requires leaders to understand the needs of those they lead. Further, communication is also important in terms of establishing a working alliance between the leader and other workers. This helps to avoid misunderstanding between the leader and other workers in an organisation. Leadership process also entails developing an understanding of various situations that may arise within the work environment, this is because different situation requires a different measure to be taken. As such, a leader needs to develop a sound judgment regarding the best option or leadership style to use for each emerging situation (Parris & Peachy 2013, p.381). This paper explores the concept and process of leadership and whether it can be destructive. The concept and process of leadership Concept of leadership Leadership can be either autocratic, participative, transactional or transformational depending on an organisation’s structure or work dynamics. In an autocratic type of leadership, the leader solely is responsible for making decisions that impact on other employees. In this respect, other employees are not allowed to challenge decisions made by the leader since such decisions are considered final and should be accepted by other employees. This type of leadership is beneficial for organisations who work with employees that need close supervision. On another note, participative leadership entails a process that considers the input of other employees. This means that while the leader makes the final decision, other employees are also given an opportunity to take part in the decision making process. This type of leadership is beneficial for organisations that embrace teamwork (Kamran & Mostafa 2012, p.545). With regard to transactional leadership, leaders tend to focus on a reward system for team members. When performing various tasks, both the leader and team members establish goals and agree to meet these predetermined goals. Further, the leader often reviews the work done by team members for corrections, and when team members accomplish a given task, a reward is given; this type of leadership is common in organizations that are highly innovative. In transformational leadership, the focus involves motivating other employees to improve productivity and efficiency. As such, leaders are more involved in the activities of the organisation to realise a positive change. This means that leaders focus on the bigger picture within an organisational setting while other employees are also given minor tasks geared at accomplishing the organisation’s overall goal (Miller & Sardais 2011, p.178). Other than leadership styles, several theories have been developed to explain how leadership is formed, such theories include situational, behavioural and participative models. Concerning situational theory, leaders act depending on situational variables within an organisational setting. As such, a leader may use a different leadership style that is ideal for the prevailing situation (Jost 2013, p.381). For instance, where the leader solely possess knowledge and experience in tackling particular situation, then authoritarian leadership is ideal. However, where a leader is working with a high performance team, then, democratic leadership is ideal. On the other hand, behavioural theory suggests that, leadership is as a result of a learning process. As such, individuals can become good leaders by observing and learning (McCleskey 2014, p.121). Regarding participative theory, leadership involves considering the input of other workers. As such, leaders, focus on encouraging participation from other employees as a way of making them feel as part of the organisation. It is a way of providing employees with the freedom to not only highlight their abilities, but also and help their leader to make wise decisions (McCleskey 2014, p.125). The process of leadership Leadership in this sense denotes motivating followers to achieve a particular objective or goal. The process of leadership entails showing honourable character when leading others within the work environment since respect of followers is important in facilitating the leadership process. Other employees develop mistrust; this is counterproductive in facilitating efficient and effective leadership process. As such, the process of leadership requires the person leading to understand himself or herself and always seek self-improvement (Becker & Glascoff 2014, p.55). Understanding oneself require leaders to assess their own abilities through a self-reflection of strengths and weaknesses as a way of improving one’s leadership abilities. Leading others also require an individual to develop an understanding of his or her job and familiarise with the tasks delegated to other employees. A good leader must also seek to take responsibility for own actions at workplace instead of shifting blame (Tohidi & Jabbari 2012, p.861). This helps to develop a cordial working alliance between the leader and other employees, when things go wrong, it is important to show leadership by first analysing the situation and implement changes prior to shifting to the next challenge. This is important in enabling followers to develop trust on their leader as a result of not shifting blame when things go wrong. A leader needs to be part of the team and not a spectator regarding the decisions taken in a team. This gives other team members the confidence to explore their abilities in dealing with various challenges at work place. The process of leadership also requires a leader to make appropriate and timely decisions through the application of techniques such as problem solving skills and other planning tools to improve performance of followers (Ross 2014, p.316). As a leader, it is important to set an example to the followers such as being a role model. Other employees rely on their leader to show direction, and as such, a leader needs to participate in all the decisions made by the team or other employees. Further, leadership process entails knowing the people you lead and taking care of their well-being. This acts as a motivating factor for other employees since they know their leader is concerned about their welfare (Savkin 2014, p.13). Good communication between the leader and followers is important in the sense that workers are kept informed about new development within the work environment. Good communication with other workers helps to avoid conflict that may arise between workers and their superiors. This is because effective communication enhances cooperation and consensus building regarding various decisions that have an impact on both workers and the organisation in general (Greyvenstein & Cilliers 2012, p.1). In addition, it is also necessary for a leader to create a sense of responsibility among other workers. This is achievable by helping followers to develop sound character traits necessary for carrying out various tasks at the workplace. In addition, a leader needs to ensure that his or her followers understand their task and this is achievable by creating effective communication channels. In order to achieve a positive result, a leader needs to focus on teamwork, which is vital in enhancing creativity and innovation among workers (Bergman, Rentsch, Erika, Davenport & Bergman 2012, p.31). A leader also needs to utilise all the capabilities at his or her disposal as a way of improving performance of other employees. As a process, leadership requires individuals to use the knowledge, skills and experience they possess to improve the performance of those they lead. This is because followers look at their leader for mentorship and direction in improving their performance at workplace (Turnbull & Joana 2011, p.145). Can leadership be destructive? While leadership in an organisation if important in terms of providing directions for other employees to follow, it can also be destructive. Destructive leadership is evident where leaders can use their position to advance their self-interest at the expense of other employees. Since leadership provides individuals with authority or power to control others, they can use this advantage to discriminate, exploit, undermine or manipulate other workers for their personal gain (Kakabadse & Kakabadse 2013, p.16). Numerous incidents have occurred where leaders are accused of blackmailing other workers for their own gains. For instance, sexual harassment is common in most organisations and often involves a leader and a subordinate staff. This affects negatively on employee engagement because of frequent harassment during work time. Most junior employees are afraid to report such incidents to their superior because of fear of reprisals by the harasser. Sexual harassment of junior staff by their superiors is a major contributing factor to the high employee turnover evident in most organisations in the business environment (Spector 2014, p.597). Other than harassment, leadership position is also destructive when used to settle old scores among staff members. This often leads to a situation where the leader tends to humiliate other workers he or she considers as rivals constantly. Such humiliation is often evident in terms of refusing to recommend rivals for promotion. This is often guided by the need to maintain superiority over a rival and continue supervising them while demeaning their effort at work. Such rivalry tends to create conflict among team members as a result of taking sides. As such, working in teams or groups becomes difficult because of the divisiveness within the team. Other than leaders using their position in a wrongful way, leadership styles also tend to have their limitations in terms of affecting negatively on employees’ performance. For instance, an authoritative leadership style can be destructive in the sense that, decision made by one person without the support of others may not yield positive results. This is because the leader may lack adequate information on how to improve a given situation. On the other hand, his or her followers will only work to meet the directives without considering the reality of the situation (Dandira 2012, p.189). Further, an authoritative leadership also tends to demoralize employees and this leads to poor performance at the workplace. This is because the management has no time to listen to the concerns of employees. Conversely, a leadership style that provides employees with more freedom is also destructive in the sense that it increases incidents of insubordination. This is because the junior staff can be carried away in thinking that they are better than leaders and may refuse to listen to their directives. In addition, a democratic leadership also creates an environment where there is a frequent protest from junior staff whenever they feel unhappy with a particular change process (Dandira 2012, p.191). With regard to transactional leadership, it can turn destructive where employees are only motivated work if a reward system exist. This means that an organisation cannot meet a positive change unless there is a reward system. Further, an organisation can find itself losing skilled and experienced employees who are used to receiving rewards for their effort. This type of leadership is counterproductive especially when an organisation is experiencing constraints with its resources (Ross 2014, p.321). Conclusion While organisational leadership is important in providing direction and ensuring employees work to achieve the organisation’s goals, a number of factors need to be taken into consideration. This includes knowledge and experience of the leader in dealing with other workers and the leadership styles to employ in different work situations. This will help leaders to make wise a decision that is acceptable to other workers in terms of improving productivity and efficiency. Leadership involves a learning process and as such, those in leadership position needs to explore their work environment and understand the needs of their followers in order to achieve positive results with their leadership styles. References Becker, C., & Glascoff, M.A 2014, ‘Process measures: A leadership tool for management’, TQM Journal, Vol. 26, no. 1, pp.50-62. Bergman, J.Z., Rentsch, J.R., Erika, S.M., Davenport, S.W., & Bergman, S.M 2012, ‘The Shared Leadership Process in Decision-Making Teams’, Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 152, no. 1, pp. 17-42. Dandira, M 2012, ‘Dysfunctional leadership: organizational cancer’, Business Strategy Series, Vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 187-192. Greyvenstein, H., & Cilliers, F 2012, ‘Followership's experiences of organisational leadership: A systems psychodynamic perspective’, SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, Vol. 38, no. 2, p. 1. Jost, P 2013, ‘An economic theory of leadership styles’, Review of Managerial Science, Vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 365-391. Kakabadse, A., & Kakabadse, N 2013, ‘How to spot a destructive leader’, Management Services, Vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 16-17. Kamran, N., & Mostafa, E 2012, ‘Leadership A critical review of the concept’, Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research In Business, Vol. 3, no. 9, pp. 545. McCleskey, J.A 2014, ‘Situational, Transformational, and Transactional Leadership and Leadership Development’, Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, Vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 117-130 Miller, D., & Sardais, C 2011, ‘A concept of leadership for strategic organization’, Strategic Organisation, Vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 174-183. Parris, D., & Peachy, J 2013, ‘A Systematic Literature Review of Servant Leadership Theory in Organizational Contexts’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 113, no. 3, pp. 377-393. Ross, S 2014, ‘A conceptual model for understanding the process of self-leadership development and action-steps to promote personal leadership development’, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 299-323. Savkin, A 2014, ‘Measurement-based Leadership’, Leadership Excellence, Vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 12-13. Spector, P 2014, ‘Introduction: The problems and promise of contemporary leadership theories’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 35, no. 5, p. 597. Tohidi, H., & Jabbari, M.M 2012, ‘Organizational culture and leadership’, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 856-860. Turnbull, J., & Joana, P 2011, ‘Leadership development: crisis, opportunities and the leadership concept’, Leadership, Vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 137-150. Read More