The Art and Science of Leadership - Term Paper Example

The Art and Science of Leadership A prominent leader once said that leadership in this modern world demand more than large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table. It needs arts and science. It’s noteworthy to assert that leadership, as a practice, use system that embody operational procedures and continuing exploratory experience toward sustainable organizational development, hence, a science that purport practical models shaping organizational behaviors. It utilizes creative processes in rediscovering the power of imagination in attaining an institution’s vision and mission. This paper will substantially explicate leadership as science and an art. Art of Leadership With growing complexity in organizational management, leaders should employ creative and innovative frameworks to surpass odds and attain success in nurturing a goal-and–outcome oriented organization. Art, as a creative system, allows leader to delve and visualize the potential issues and ways-to-move onward using creative frameworks (Grint, 2000). These approaches may depart from conventional methods to reinvent and innovative practical measures to attain a sustainable organization using context and critical perspectives on at every emerging situation affecting members. Leaders are maybe emperors, kings, democrats, elected or appointed but are constantly engaged in a socio-political struggle and with constituents who either agree or dissent them. Most people pin their hopes on them to uplift miserable conditions and to better their social conditions (Navahandi, 2012). Creative leadership vigorously pursues goals with clear intentions, transparent management, open communication, inclusive partnership, human resource governance, performance audit, and burning idealism (Navahandi, 2012). In some junctures when challenges taut an organization, leaders utilize empirical experiences to contest vagueness with facts and employ valid criteria and standards to resolve an issue. Creative leadership, either constitutive or situational, put democratic values as practical requirement and hence, consultative in all aspects in decision-makings. They are pro-active and truth-seekers in the interpretation of developments; considerate on members’ sentiments as the latter are purposive instruments in the realization of targeted goals. Effective leaders have deep knowledge and interpretation of dynamic changes in the global socio-economic affairs. They can easily position themselves to opportunities, either adaptive or revitalizing measures to insure that the organization can immediately be pliant to socio-political shocks. They have sensitized intelligence that drives its follower to endeavor for excellence and coach them to improve performance (Boyett, 2012). Leadership encouraged aspirants and incumbent managers to manage their organization with dreams and visions motivated by philosophical influences (Navahandi, 2012). As communicator of good governance or of management, they articulate and substantiate plans, frameworks, systems, and figures in most artful approach to simplify those complex compelling matters (Navahandi, 2012). In many situations, leaders conduct research, studies, surveys, sampling, and consolidate opinions to shape well their mission and purposes. They collaborate to gather resources, skills and talents that are perceived helpful in its operation to realize plans. The articulation of their plans may come in varied forms and gestures but are often pliant to eventual conditions (Navahandi, 2012). Thus, visual arts are optimized to convey, persuade, appeal and communicate their desire to change a system to make an environment conducive to do business (Boyett, 2012). In this postmodern period, leaders have utilized advertisements, social media, telecommunication, and television to communicate across to distant and home-based consumers and its clienteles. This is evidently illustrated by how multimedia or television showcased their products and services are indorsed and popularized in a bandwagon fashion for massive appeal. Consumers and producers likewise value knowledge sourced from multimedia, depending on how these products and services are substantially explicated or presented, to engender public support and to enjoy increased number of consumers (Navahandi, 2012). Creative leaders are persons with charming and charismatic appeals. They invest passion and speak or write to persuade and challenge the emotions of their audience, customers, clienteles or its members. They invest and reinvent realities to suit business with a class. While leaders claimed certainty and accuracy in their plans but they are also flexible and indeterminate in some way, often bordering on generalities but not of vagueness (Navahandi, 2012). At most times, their character is filled with ironies although they are interested with truth. At other times, they construct identities but appear to the many as someone of reflective traits (Navahandi, 2012). Leaders who managed to concretize sensitive action in response to problems have the capacity to imagine potential impacts and outcomes. They rely on intuition to predict result or consequence (Navahandi, 2012). These leaders who manage with sensitivities are warm, enthusiastic, supportive, motivator, open for interaction, and can make their followers feel significant to the organization. Ideally, these traits must be coupled with focused-setting to achieve short-and-long term goals; setting standard performance; and, setting priorities (Navahandi, 2012). Leadership as an art is likewise reflected in personalities who are good at negotiating business agreements or contracts. They ensure that deals are done with stipulations that do not vitiate their intents and interests. As contractors, they are act and perform tasks based on quality standards and within given timeframe (Navahandi, 2012). There are maybe specific challenges and hindering factors in achieving goals, but leaders should have alternate route to press on in an extensive fashion to surmount odds (Navahandi, 2012). Followers can readily recognized good leadership, although thoughts tend to vary for every single leader. They are maybe moved by an executive; others may just find it unexciting. These impressions on leaders are nonetheless considered as subjective perception but followers who are theoretically equipped with right knowledge on the praxis of leadership can easily detect good management from bad one; from profound one against those trite, from motivators as against the stringent boring leaders (Navahandi, 2012). Like art that can touch the soul of its viewers, good leadership can profoundly provide importance and meaning to its followers by encouraging, motivating, and energizing them to partake in development and positive change to realize their dreams. Everyone knew that it’s the emotional side of every person, as a human resource, that are moved to act when they are persuaded or when their convictions are called to response to some dilemma (Navahandi, 2012). This is because albeit monetary incentives and performance achievements, a follower can objectively realize that their presence and participation is indeed vital or significant for organizational leaders. It reaffirms sense of connection, of being related to, and of being valued. Thus, like arts which articulate aspects of reality and touch human emotions, the intuitive part of creative leadership bridges understanding about leader-follower relation (Navahandi, 2012). This can help strengthen organizational coordination and is a great cause for improved harmony of working relations. Of course, open communication is very crucial in the intensification of relations as well as in integration of workforces. This can also serve as an impetus in the appreciation of members’ diversity and in engendering collaboration and cooperation (Navahandi, 2012). Usually, leaders looked at their followers with their innate possibilities and potentials, strengths, inherent weaknesses, and core motivations (Navahandi, 2012). They also have the foreknowledge that relational conflicts can arise in the absence of spaces, communication and sometimes due to intolerance. Thus, leaders should be at least knowledgeable on some theosophical framework that engender peaceful coexistence, harmonious relation, and communicative values to attain better cooperation and relation amid social tension or organizational pressures Those who value this kind of working relation usually engage their workers in some activities like outdoor reflection. Akin to a visual arts teacher, the leader takes a facilitative role in reflective learning process for followers to rediscover or appreciate their roles and their contribution to organizational growth and development (Navahandi, 2012). Although this may confuse those who are bit conventional on leadership, but guess it’s high time for leaders to address the relational aspect of an organization to diffuse negative feelings and pressures among members that cause them some untold stress that is affecting their work. Leadership as a Science As leaders who assumed the role of investigating into variables and causes for improved organizational management, they test realities with exploratory and experimental actions as they do trailblazing for new ventures. They conduct thorough and methodical research to find possibilities and definitive acts out of consolidated information. Out of these, leaders strategize and plan their activities and action to rationalize the processes and frameworks that will be adopted in achieving goals. Leaders determine roles and assigned these to those who are competent and skilled to undertake the tasks. The head will not only ascertain that internal control is observed but also takes the integrity of the organization from external perception. In case the organization deals on business management, the strategizing process will also include customer and sales management as well as performance standard quality control (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009). They also plan on customer and sales management as essential variables in directing marketing to attain desired profit and success. This is an integral part of organizational development (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009). Good leaders are indeed very systematic. They simplify complex issues; finds logic in a wide array of thoughts; adopts models and frameworks to attain desired outcome and consequence; and measures their performance using standards to maintain credibility and integrity with regulating authorities and with its targeted customers (Alderfer, 1969; (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009). They will also seriously standardize salaries, incentives and rewards for workers who are ascribed as better performers. This is parcel in meeting workers hierarchy of needs and at the same time an internal strategy to maintain high retention of employees. Experts explained that these regard to workers’ basic and meta-needs also motivate them to strive more to actualize their potentials, gain more self-esteem, feel belongingness and gave them the opportunity for personal growth (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009; Maslow, 1970). As market is characterized with continuous rapid changes and unpredictability of forces, leaders constantly analyze events using political, economic, social, technological, ecological and logistical analysis (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009; Maslow, 1970). They are adaptive to changes and immediately call all departments’ attention for an inclusive deliberation of socio-economic condition and to make amends as necessary. The human resources are likewise coached to be attuned to circumstances and to necessities of times. Although changes, often unsettling, are sometimes reviled, leaders as the managers should be open in articulating emerging issues and involve them in the resolution (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009; Maslow, 1970) of problems. Their participation will also make them as stakeholders of the company or organization. Thus, leaders must instill in them the better teambuilding to make them more functional while networked in collaborative tasks (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009; Maslow, 1970). Bernard Bass, an expert on the theory of leadership, poised that there are two type of leadership: transactional and transformational (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2006). While the former relates about the exchanges between leaders and followers to get their wants and needs based on ordinary and mundane instrumental exchange of value, the latter engaged both leaders and followers in an interrelated discourse bolted from organizational purpose, mission, goals, and understanding (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2006). The transactional leaders are more concern on the completion of bureaucratic processes while transformational leaders are those imbued with traits that values principles, conviction, trust, purpose, commitment and ethical consequences of decisions (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2006). Experts argue that these are the kind of leaders who advocate for empirical and scientific system of human relations and organizational management. They are perceived as role models that are inspiring loyalty, confidence and shared purpose (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2006). As leadership here is more immersed on analytical, scientific and optimization of services, policies on human resource management and internal regulations are set as performance control. As leaders work to train and coach its members, Zagoršek, Dimovski, and Škerlavaj (2009) contended that impact on the construct of organizational learning is more evident in transformational leadership especially in the acquisition of information and in cognitive-behavioral changes. This is affirmed in the study of Azman Mohamed, Sulaiman, Mohamad, Mohd Hamran & Yusuf, (2011) who opined that transformational leadership inspire intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, individual influence, and behavioral change. This is significant to generate positive organizational commitment and empowerment. Azman et al. (2011) further argued, in their study which utilized exploratory factor and stepwise regression analysis, that empowerment of human resource positively and significantly correlate with increased organizational commitment if transformational leadership is exercised. With great commitment generated from members, the organization can easily engaged themselves in appreciating its strength, seizing opportunities, and in dealing with possible weaknesses and threats. This is significant in management control where leader deals with the organizational interpersonal aspect while at the same time lay management, enforce command and provides control in the performance of functions, including in the disposition of resources (Maslow, 1968; Maslow, 1970). Leaders will wield into these to ascertain effectiveness and efficiency of services (Maslow, 1968; Maslow, 1970). As such, they concern themselves for better working conditions, administrative practices, job security, transparent supervision, and benefits (Maslow, 1968; Maslow, 1970). On the same note, they will care for their workers’ sense of self-worth by helping them gain self-worth, gather achievement, advancement, growth, responsibility and challenges (Maslow, 1968; Maslow, 1970). Nowadays, those who have mastered the science of leadership, advocate for the appreciation of the opportunities brought by diversity because this is a value in competitive leveraging present in liberalized economy. The market, as we all know, has multiethnic and multinational people with varied beliefs and origin. This is also true among customers and its partners. It should also be realized that diversity played a key role in strengthening the weak areas in marketing. Leaders these days argue that prejudicial position and racial bias has no place in an ever expanding liberalized economy. As everyone knew, if senses are filtered, anyone can be played by presumptions that will do no favor to the company. As an organization is output and outcome-oriented, leaders should regularly conduct performance appraisal and evaluation to measure quantitative and qualitative achievement, as well as, make relevant and effective recommendations to meet the needs and goals of the organization and of partners (Maslow, 1968; Maslow, 1970). Evaluation will show in form and substance the increased and expanded reach of activities throughout program and services period (Maslow, 1968; Maslow, 1970). It’s also an avenue for constructive feed-backing and criticism to permeate alternatives that best suit the organizational needs (Maslow, 1968; Maslow, 1970). The appraisal, as organizational quality control, is often in consonance to internationally adhered standards. It drive significant business outcome by measuring achievements from formulated plans and goals. Effective leaders conduct performance evaluation to ascertain that results are still connected to plans and organizational vision. The processes utilize formal and informal processes and cover financial, operational and customer-based metrics (Maslow, 1968; Maslow, 1970). It also helps motivate high performance and determine who needs career development programs. It will also notate the job satisfaction earned since leaders are always concern too in company’s performance level (Maslow, 1968; Maslow, 1970). In conclusion, leadership indeed is both an art and science. It uses a systematic management to ascertain that organizational performance are harmonized and sequenced to achieve targeted outcomes. It is constantly interested in analyzing and optimizing operation and resource use. Art and science therefore complement in leadership. Both are construct that can aid managing organizational change, advancement, conflict management, and in nurturing good success rate. References Alderfer, C. (1969). An Empirical Test of a New Theory of Human Needs. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, vol. 4, pp. 142 - 175. 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