Leadership as in the Eye of the Beholder - Essay Example

A Critique of the Four Facades of Leadership: Person, Position, Process & Situational Introduction In simple terms, leadership appears to mean the ability to exert power and control over a group of people. It is a subjective and abstract concept which varies according to the dominant philosophy of people. Philosophy is about defining morality and the essence of life as a broad framework of peoples actions (Nozick, 2010). This means that different groups of people with different conceptions of life will view leadership from several different points of views. Due to this, there are several facades within which leadership can be defined. Each of these definitions have varying degrees of accuracy and correctness in their application to the lives of people. Gallos points out that leadership is “a complex social process, rooted in the values, skills, knowledge and ways of thinking of both leaders and followers” (2008). This implies that the main variables of leadership have to do with values of the leader and follower as well as certain unique characteristics of the leaders and followers. Keith Grint goes on to state that there can be no single definition of leadership. He points out four main facades within which leadership could be perceived and analysed. The first facade is that leadership is more about the person who is regarded as a leader. It is about the attribute of the individual of the person and its influence on the people. The second view of leadership is the fact that it can be viewed as a process. In this sense the style adopted by a leader determines the concept. The third facade is to view leadership as a position which involves the authority to lead in a particular institution. Another facade Grint identifies is that leadership could be viewed as results-oriented or situational. These four facades come about as a result of years of research by Grint to try to define the whole conception of leadership from various points of views. Each of these facades have distinct features that make them quite useful. This paper aims to examine whether any of these definitions is all-encompassing or leadership encompasses all the four facades. Where possible, it applies the concepts to the leadership of Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Airlines. Leadership as a Person. In the simplest form, the individual who occupies a given leadership slot defines the concept of leadership. The King/Queen or President X of America is an institution that people around the globe will always associate with the occupant of the position rather than the institution. Queen Elizabeth or President Obama are potentates or great rulers who will always be seen as leaders. Other people like Bill Gates and Richard Branson will always be associated with the institutions that they head at all times. Thus, such individuals are epitomes of leadership. They define the institutions they represent and give meaning to them. Personality is defined by Daft & Lane as a set of unseen characteristics and processes that include a relatively stable pattern of behaviour in response to ideas, objects and people in the environment (2008). In this vein, it can be said that each of these potentates and global business leaders have built personalities that cannot be separated from the institutions they head. This therefore means that the personalities and the qualities of each of these individuals define the role and position that they occupy. The inherent attribute of leaders acting as figureheads also support this premise. This is because a leaders lifestyle is to be one that will contribute positively to the image of the organisation or institution they head. This therefore means that the leader is a person who defines a particular institution and as such, must run his or her life in that direction. The legitimacy of a leader amongst his followers is strongly connected to his personality. The US Presidential race is so much influenced by scandals and propaganda. This means that the personality traits of a leader defines the position. Thus, most institutions have laid down guidelines that define the kind of person that a leader should be. This leads to recognition and acceptance of a person as a leader. Clearly, the kind of person an individual is, goes a long way to define his or her legitimacy as a leader before his followers. However, there are some other structures that determine the kind of personality requirements that a leader must have. This clearly means that the personality and processes or structures work hand-in-hand to define a given leadership slot. It is therefore not correct to say that personality of a leader exists in isolation. Personality must always work with processes to define what the criteria for legitimacy of the leader. Leadership as a Position Leadership can be viewed as a part of an institution that allows power to be delegated to certain individuals to exert influence over others. In other words, an organisation is made up of owners who hand authority to certain people to run its affairs. Thus, for a nation, there is the government and for a business, there are directors or managers. These groups have the authority to implement the vision and objectives of the organisation. They delegate this authority to other people by creating positions which are filled by individuals. Individuals who fill each position are automatically leaders (Rutledge, 2008). This is because the position they fill give them the power to exert certain influence over the people who are under them. Thus, a person might be an employee. The moment that individual is promoted to the position of supervisor, s/he becomes a leader and has the ability to exert power and control over other employees under him or her. This clearly shows that the position has made that individual a leader. The subordinates of people occupying certain positions in institutions have the responsibility to carry out orders and instructions given by the occupant of the position. This makes such an occupant a leader since s/he has the ability to exert a degree of influence over the followers and get them to do things that are required of them. In return, a leader is accountable for the efforts of his followers to the appropriate authority. In a formal organisation, a position occupant is accountable to a higher person in the organisational structure and ultimately the owners of the organisation. In a business, leaders are accountable to shareholders. In a political party, leaders are accountable to members and the general public at large. In an informal organisation, a leader might be accountable to the wider society or even to posterity. This is because when leadership is construed as a position rather than a person, the act of occupants will always be judged objectively against set standards and there is some more organisation in the distribution of power. Although Richard Branson has a personality of head of Virgin Airlines, his connection to the company is clearly defined by his role as Chief Executive Officer. Branson is remunerated and exerts his position according to the job specifications that is connected to the memorandum of association of the company. This means that the scope of Bransons effort is limited by Virgin as an institution. Leadership as a Process Another aspect of perceiving this abstract concept is how a leader uses his authority. As pointed out earlier, leadership is an imaginative concept and can only be defined through the way a person feels it. Thus, the style a person uses to lead or exert influence over others is a way through which leadership can be defined. Lewin identified two extreme forms of leadership; autocratic leadership and democratic leadership (Lussier & Achura, 2010). These two forms of leadership determines the processes through which power is shared between the leaders and followers. An autocratic leader takes all the decisions and instruct followers on what to do. Such a leader supervises followers closely. These kind of leaders do not involve the followers in the process of leading. They just take all the decisions and enforce strict rules and regulations to ensure that objectives are met. A democratic leader on the other hand encourages participation by the followers and allows a high level of autonomy in decision making amongst followers. The leadership process is determined by the vision, orientation and processes used by a person in authority. This gives meaning to an otherwise undefined concept of leadership. Thus the systems and methods used by a given leader defines the idea of leadership in a particular place at a given point in time. Branson is seen as a leader because of his success in building Virgin and its group of companies. Virgin has grown through the vision and leadership abilities of Richard Branson. In this way, Branson can be judged by his abilities and contributions to Virgin through his leadership style. Leadership as a Situational or Result-Oriented concept Another practical way of examining leadership is in the context of the situation at hand. Every situation might determine who is the most appropriate person to be put in charge of affairs, thereby setting the criteria for leadership at that given point in time. Thus, in a case where an eclipse occurs in a given nation, the panelist of a TV show will want to bring in a physicist with knowledge of the heavenly bodies to run the programme. At such a point that person is a leader. After the budget is read, it will be commonplace for a partner in a top Accounting Firm to have the authority to write about the implication of the budget. Also, in elections of a given nation, the existing circumstances determine the kind of leader that must be chosen. Thus for instance, in the Second World War, the government of Japan employed a Minister of War to become the Prime Minister. At such a time, it was absolutely impracticable to install an economist or a professor as the head of government in such a nation. Thus leadership is about the situation and the results needed at a given point in time. This brings to light the concept of expert power. Expert power means the ability to have the power to solve a problem at a given point in time through the skills and expertise of an individual (Miller, 2007). Although Branson can be judged as a competent leader, there might be times where he might have to fall on experts to conduct certain affairs at Virgin. These experts come in with an automatic leadership status. This is because they have some kind of power that can be discharged only when they are placed in a leadership role. This gives impetus to the situational leadership concept. Conclusion From the critical examination of these four facades of leadership, I am of the view that leadership cannot be defined by a single idea or conception. Rather, leadership is a combination of all the four ideas. This is because leadership is an abstract concept that can be defined quite correctly from all the four perspectives. This therefore means that leadership is a combination of position, process, position and situational factors. This offers the only practical definition that is closest to this idea which cannot be felt by our human senses. References Daft, R. & Lane, P (2008) The Leadership Experience Mason OH: Cengage Gallos, J. (2008) Business Leadership: A Jossey Boss Reader Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Lussier, R & Achura C. (2010) Leadership: Theory, Application & Skill Mason, OH: Cengage. Miller, C. (2007) The Spiritual Formation of Leaders Xulon Press. Nozick R. (2010) Philosophical Explanations London: Kogan Page Rutledge, L. (2008) Motivation & The Professional African-American Woman New York: Authorhouse Publishing.. Read More