Cognitive Asymmetry in Employee Emotional Reactions - Essay Example

Top of Form Introduction This paper entails a wide range of research work done about leadership as far as organizations are concerned. It has brought in details into light what leadership means and the two main types of leadership. It has also expressed the differences between the two types of leadership in terms of what they entail their characteristics and also the main subdivisions that are involved in each type of leadership style. Leadership is a very important aspect as far as the success and progress of a given organization is concerned (Dasborough, 2006). This is because leadership is all about influence, in that a leader is supposed to set the pace for the employees as well as show them the way for them to follow. Styles of leadership One of the most important roles of a leader is to ensure the human resource is empowered effectively and efficiently to be able to face and deal with the challenges that are facing the organizations today (Zaccaro, 2007). Different people have researched and documented the components of leadership but there is one main and universal definition of leadership as far as the issue of change exertion in the organization due to globalization is concerned. It entails the analysis of behaviors and characteristics that are involved in leadership (Hill & Jones, 2007). This has made the world to define management in terms of the styles that are applied as the organizations strive to deal with the challenges that are occurring on daily basis in terms of diversity in workforce, organizational structure changes and economic market economy globalization. There are two main leadership styles that are used in the management of organizations namely the transformational and the transactional leadership. The two differs in terms of the characteristics. Transactional form of leadership entails the process of traction between the followers or employees and the leaders. This is whereby they are rewarded with reference to the kind of work they do or their own personal performance (Judge, Bono, Ilies, & Gerhardt, 2002). This is a style that is very dependent on the ability of the leader to lay down the standards that are to be used to ensure the work meant to be done is accomplished. The standards that are being reinforced are symbolic or materialist, delayed or immediate, explicit or implicit and may also involve the issue of resources (John, 2008). Conversely, transformational leadership entails the leader carrying himself or herself as a role model. This is whereby the follower gains total confidence and trust for the leader. The leader is involved in ensuring development of the employees through empowerment. The leader is also involved in mentoring the employees to get them reader for any responsibility beyond them (Dasborough, 2006). Four groups of transformational leadership exists namely, intellectual stimulation, which involves continuous challenging the followers on how to handle problems in the organization. Others include individualized consideration, which entails individual mentorship of the staff for their development, inspirational motivation that entails the capacity of the leaders to set a good example to the subordinates and finally the idealized influence that involves the combination of the three above. Leadership and motivation Motivation is a very important component of every human being. This means that in everyone’s life, motivation is very necessary (Bono & Ilies, 2006). One of the most important people who rely on the motivation is managers (Dasborough, 2006). This is because it has a number of effects to the learning of the organization as far a manager is concerned. These effects includes their behavior towards their goals, it can increase their energy as well as efforts in their work, it can lead to increment in initiations as well as persistence, cognitive process enhancement and determination of the consequences being reinforced and most important performance improvement. On the other hand, in any business organization, motivation is very important (Thad, 1992). If we have to consider the Maslow’s hierarchy of need, then money is one of the motivating factors. Other motivating factors include praises, recognition, respect and sense of belonging. Therefore, it is very important to note that motivation is vital in any business organization because it helps the employees to work harder and better, to get to be more effective and to do a more quality work (Gershenoff & Foti, 2003). Other importance of motivation as far as a manger is concerned in any organization includes putting the human resources available into action by ensuring that all the employees have had willingness built up. It also leads to efficiency improvement of employees hence increased productivity, cost of operation reduction and overall improvement in efficiency; it also enables an organization to achieve all of its organized goals. This is because there is better resource utilization, better working environment, all employees are goal oriented. Another importance of motivation is that it helps build friendly relationships due to reduction of industrial conflicts by the employees, effective co-operation and prevention of employee resistance to changes in the organization. Finally, motivations cause workforce stability. This is whereby, employees tend to remain in the same organization simply because the fell appreciated and also part of the organization’s management (Roderick, 2000). To the individuals, motivation is important in helping one achieve goals, individual’s self-development, working in dynamic team and finally helps one be satisfied in their jobs. Leadership and emotional intelligence Emotional intelligence is very important in the area of leadership. This is because a leader who is very well versant with his or her emotions and is able to manage and control them appropriately will make a better leader (Dasborough, 2006). Leadership is all about influencing other people and not dictating. A good leader is meant to help the employees in their efforts to develop and improve the performance of the organization. This means that the attitudes as well as the behaviors of the leader are very important an important factor in relation to the humanity (Goleman, 2006). Leadership is all about people and it involves a lot of decision-making and as well as so many actions but the most responsibility is the fact that it directly involved the responsibilities towards the people who are directly under the leadership (Gershenoff & Foti, 2003). Some responsibilities of the leaders are inevitable especially with reference to the needs of the people meaning the responsibility of leadership is a great profound concept demanding the leader to be very stable as far as the issue of emotional intelligence is concerned. It should be noted that leadership is more than management, directing controlling and instructing people. People will follow someone in the name of a leader nor because of the skills they possess but because of the trust as well as they respect they have for that person (Bono & Ilies, 2006). This explains why leadership is all about attitudinal qualities as far as humanity is concerned. The reason for that is because it involves the relationships they have with their subordinates with reference to some qualities like integrity, humility, honesty, commitment, courage, sincerity, confidence, positivity, passion, sensitivity, determination, compassion and wisdom (Gerald et el., 2004). Leadership and knowledge management Knowledge management in any kind of business is very important because it is one of the ways through which any business can attain business excellence (Gershenoff & Foti, 2003). This means that there is need for involving the employees in the process of knowledge sharing through involving them in meeting sharing the objectives of the business (Hill & Jones, 2007). Knowledge sharing at each level f the organization is the best tool to enable the business work better (Dasborough, 2006). Apart from the businesses focusing on competition with their rivals, it is also very important for it to think beyond the existence problems and try to improve the company’s ways of operations by ensuring that the employees are getting the knowledge they need especially on what is happening in the market at that particular point. This is where the issue of knowledge management comes in (Kickul & Neuman, 2000). Some advantages associated with knowledge sharing includes leading in improved level of creativity at a personal level hence leading to the creation of a room for innovation, lowering the production costs through economy of scale, encourages consistency in quality, prevents repeat of shortcomings, improves responsiveness in terms of competition, and champions effective decision making. Conclusion Leadership is one form of achieving organizational management. This is because there is a very great importance of maintaining organizational sustainability since when an organization achieves sustainability in that area its performance in all areas including human resource management also improves. This means that leadership should be more than dictatorship and should be more of influencing, motivating, sharing empowering and developing the followers in the organization. Through all of the above, the organization will not only achieve it goals efficiently and effectively but will also give the employees a sense of belonging. This is because they will feel appreciated and valued in the organization hence their performance will also increase. References Bono, J.E. & Ilies R. 2006 Charisma, positive emotions and mood contagion. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(4), pp. 317-334 Dasborough M.T. 2006. Cognitive asymmetry in employee emotional reactions to leadership behaviors. 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Motivation: A behavioral Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thad, B. 1992. Performance and motivation strategies for today’s workforce: a guide to expectancy theory application. London: Greenwich publishing group. Zaccaro, S. J. 2007. Trait-based perspectives of leadership. American Psychologist, 62, pp. 6-16. Read More