The Broad Leadership Behavior on Crisis Management - Assignment Example

Running Header: Leadership Behavior Name: Institution: Date of Submission: Introduction According to Miner (2005), leaders and their behavior play a major role in determining the success of any group or an organization where they operate in. effective leadership behavior and attributes that are acceptable personality traits determine effectiveness of a leader and how their followers will perceive them. Effective leadership skills coupled with effective and appropriate leadership style will foster the efficiency of achieving group’s objectives. This paper examines leadership behavior, appropriate leadership attributes, emotional intelligence, concepts of transactional and transformational leadership styles and examines the concepts of charismatic leadership styles. The paper also discusses the broad leadership behavior on crisis management, confronting organizational conflicts, leadership behavior, and different personality and leadership differences with gender. Effective leadership behavior involves a lot of individual personality and applicable attributes that are useful in attracting follower trust, thus motivating them towards achievement of group goals (Bass, 2010). A leader that possesses a greater behavior and personal character has the ability to make important decisions, sets clear and predetermined goals and objectives, and makes the best decisions on how to motivate followers towards objective achievement. A good behavior helps a leader come up with crucial strategies, responds efficiently during a crisis, and plans on how to bounce back after the crisis. It also plays a major role in coming up with the most effective methods of handling conflicts that may arise in an organizational set up. Additionally, a good behavior helps a leader to develop a good rapport with juniors and other leaders involved. By their behavior, leaders can integrate their leadership skills, attributes and personal characteristics to develop an effective framework on how to motivate followers, how to take into consideration every individual’s interests in the group or organization and thus developing a good working environment (Trevor, 2007). The paper also proves that leadership behavior and attributes is an area of concern that attracts a great field of research. However, most researchers on leadership behavior do agree that there is no specific approach on leadership behavior or any specific set of behaviors that leaders must follow or for effective leadership. These researchers do agree that the most effective leadership behavior is determined by individual leader’s personality and attributes (Sinclair, 2002). Concepts Leadership Behavior (Skills, Attributes, and Leadership Styles) Leadership skills Leadership skills include important leadership characteristics such as creative thinking, good relationship with others, and good communication skills among others. Leaders are emotionally motivated towards organizational goals and objectives. Workplaces, and other areas in life, have the tendency of being fraught with stressful circumstances and situations. This means that leaders should be creative in facing tough situations (Trevor, 2007). In fact, this leadership requirement is an inevitable factor in any organizational set up. Usually, most leaders react to tough situations bydisplaying a strong strategy formulation, consulting others in the organization and remaining focused and determined to achieving objectives. Good leadership behavior requires the leader to display emotional maturity in everything they do (Bass, 2010). Another important leadership skill is that of self-confidence. One of the characteristic traits that do not fail in defining leadership skills is that of having self-confidence. Mostly, leaders never require the approval of others about the most crucial decisions they take and the methods they adopt in formulating organizational strategies and vision. Furthermore, leaders do not act in order to attract other people’s attention or credit (Scouller, 2011). They always remain secure about themselves and do not shift blame to others in the case where unexpected results are arrived at. Good leadership behavior and skill means that a leader should be ready to accept their mistakes and take full responsibility of their actions. This skill of self-confidence help leaders face challenges as they occur (Scouller, 2011). Leadership style Several leadership styles are in practice in organizations where competition and the need for effective leadership is an objective of every organization. These leadership styles and their application will depend much on the need and effectiveness of any specific style. The most common leadership styles include democratic, transactional, transformational, coercive, servant, authoritative among other styles (Frey et al, 2009). Leadership attributes Leadership attributes comprise the inner individual qualities and traits that play an important role in making one an effective leader. These attributes contains a large array leadership traits such as motives, competencies, behaviors, skills, and habits. Good leadership attributes, coupled with acceptable leadership behavior are among the best qualities that an effective leader should possess in order to gain trust from followers and deliver the expected results with ease (Miltenberger, 2004). Emotional Intelligence The term emotional Intelligence as applied in leadership refers to leader’s capacity to recognize their individual feelings and those of their followers. It is important for motivating leaders as it helps them in managing emotions well in developing good relationship with everyone in the organization. Research conducted by most academicians show that emotional intelligence is among the most accredited and essential competencies that every leader should have for effective leadership and management of affairs (Harms & Crede’ 2010). Additionally, leaders who are emotionally intelligent have the tendency of achieving results and have the most effective skills of dealing with the complexity involved in organizational transformation (Miltenberger, 2004). Leaders with emotional intelligence leaders are good at building relationships that resonant organizational culture. Question 3(a) Describe and discuss the concepts of transactional and transformational leadership Transactional Leadership Transactional leadership style is a form of leadership style that involves a leader offering incentives to his followers with the expectation of high performance in return. The incentives offered to followers may come in the form of increased salary, wages, and promotion junior workers under his jurisdiction (Sagan, 2002). In this case, the leader expects his juniors to feel motivated and therefore put in more efforts and focus to the achievement of group targets. However, in the event where followers fail to deliver the expected results, the leader has the right to offer punishment on the failed employee, such punishments may be in the form of reduced wages, suspension from duty, demotion or lack of privileges. In most cases, the punishment for failing to deliver is not mentioned when the leader gives out the incentives though the followers need to have it in mind. Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership model is among other leadership models widely used in the field of leadership. Its core principle lies in the leader working as a model and sets good example for his followers. Unlike transactional leadership, transformational leaders do not offer valuables or any income increment to motivate their followers. The followers in transformational leadership style work hard because the leader encourages them to love their work and careers. They are also encouraged to love the value of their work and feel proud of their efforts (Frey et al, 2009). Emotional Intelligence According to Harms & Crede’ (2010), there is no clear difference in emotional intelligence between transformational and transactional leadership styles. Both transactional and transformational leadership styles have elements of EI such as empathy, self-confidence, and self-awareness as their core underpinnings. Question 3 (b) Two Other Leadership Styles Servant Leadership Servant leadership is one form of leadership style that presents the leader as servant. The servant-leader first presents himself as servant. The style begins with the natural feeling of leader willing to serve others and to serve first. What follows then is the conscious choice and willingness that brings one to aspire to lead. The aspiring individual is quite different from an individual who is leader first because of personal interests such as the need and intention to acquire wealth, fame, public attention among others. The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types of individuals. Between the two individuals, there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite differences of human nature (Gillet et al, 2010). Servant leadership means caring for other persons, both the more able and the less able. This builds the foundation upon which a good society is built and organization achieves its goals effectively. Although until recently, caring for each other was largely person-to-person, the case has changed in the current world where most of it is mediated through institutions (Kern, 2009). In most cases, these institutions are large, complex, structured, powerful, and impersonal organizations. This form of leadership is in the case where the leader serves out of the good will to serve others and deliver the expected results without fail. It has a good relationship between the servant and the followers. The style demonstrates great motivation in junior members as the leader sets a good example for them to follow (Ilies, Arvey & Bouchard, 2006). The Charismatic Style This is another most important leadership style widely in practice today. This is because it has good characteristics that even transformational leaders need to have. Charismatic leaders in a large bureaucratic organization use their authority, and the power associated with their leadership position to come up with the best results and achieve the organizational goals and objectives (Kern, 2009). Indeed, most organizational leaders lack charisma. Charismatic leadership style means that the leader is just a bland personality or the leader that no one will ever remember. Charismatic leader leaves reputation and a remarkable status in their organizations. They have the interest to focus on organizational goals and objectives and strive to attain them, however hard the situation may appear. They are hard to forget since they greatly inspire people and encourage followers to love their work and professions, thus resulting in result achievement (Adair et al. 2005). This is a special leadership of charismatic is commonly associated with transformational leadership style (Kern, 2009). However, although charisma is extremely powerful, it is a bit hard to learn and there are a number of different charismatic definitions, making it complex to learn. Question 4 Leadership and conflict Every effective leader should come up with strategies for developing an effective conflict management in an organization. Conflict management skill sets are an essential component of building a sustainable organizational model and a requisite of any successful leadership career (Illeir et al 2006). In an organizational set up, unresolved conflict will often result in loss of productivity, poor results, stifles creativity, and results in barriers to collaboration among the group members. Perhaps most importantly for leaders with great leadership behaviors, good conflict management results to good follower retention and effective collaboration focused on group objectives. Leaders who do not deal with conflict effectively will eventually see their good leadership career walk out the door in search of a better and safer working environment (Illeir et al 2006). Leaders across all disciplines appreciate the fact that although conflict is a daily and common factor in both social and organizational set ups, the challenge of conflict management and resolution majorly lies in how the leader chooses to deal and manage it. If conflict in any group is concealed, avoided, or ignored, it will likely fester only to grow and develop into hatred. In that case, the conflict will create withdrawal or cause factional and internal fighting within an organization or group (Illeir et al 2006). However, in the case where it attains proper management, or when addressed properly, conflict can lead to organizational transformation, innovation, and professional growth. Proper management of conflict leads to countless items that often end up as missed opportunities if conflict lacks proper management. Effective leaders have the ability to perceive conflict as a gateway to unrealized opportunities (Ilies, Arvey & Bouchard, 2006). Leadership and crisis Management Of late, crisis management has become a very crucial component in the study of leadership behavior and the management of every organization. Currently, most leaders do acknowledge the fact that there is no organization with immunity to crisis and thus come up with effective plans for crisis management. Crisis may hit an organization through various ways. The most commonly perceived ways of crisis attack include terrorist activities, product recall, natural calamity, or industrial accidents. Crisis management has a very close relationship with public relations where organizational leaders take organization’s image and pride at stake (Bass, 2010). Therefore, leadership behavior is a matter of concern in handling and managing crisis. Leaders need to come up with plans and strategies for detecting crisis, combating it, assessing organizational damages, assessing the probability of future occurrence and strategizing on how to bounce back after a crisis. The first step in doing so starts with an effective crisis management leader setting the plans by putting the organizational goals, objectives, and purpose of crisis management plan in a very clear and transparent way (Bass, 2010). The objectives and goals are essentially based on the vision and values of the organization. Effective leadership should help his top management team in drafting the crisis management policy. The crisis policy provides clear definitions for generally used terms and clearly identifies the various levels of crisis in the leader’s organization. By doing this, a leader demonstrates his commitment and promotes an enabling working environment (Avolio et al, 2003). The second and very important step in the process of organizational crisis management is to identify a core crisis management team judged with the core function of identifying all possible crises that the organization may face and develop strategies, roles, and obligation for preparing and mitigating management of each of the crises identified (Bass, 2010). Leadership Behavior and Personality According to Arvey et al. (2006), leadership behaviors vary according to individual personalities of leaders themselves. Such traits as intelligence, extraversion, openness, creativity and decision making play an important role in determining how a leader would effectively deal with issues of management. They also determine leader’s relationship with others in the team. This is because, negative traits such as arrogance, excessive supervision, biased promotions, poor working conditions and poor motivational strategies may result in a poor relationship between followers and the leader. In that case, follower’s efforts and focus towards the achievement organization’s predetermined objectives may be impaired and hence poor results. This therefore, means that for effective leadership behavior, good personal traits are necessary for better achievement of results. This is in line with the highly respected trait theory that provides the insight for researchers to create a comprehensive picture of ancient leadership research rather than making them rely on the qualitative reviews (Barrick, 2002). Gender and leadership In the recent past, more women are entering the job markets and take up leadership positions on a worldwide basis. This increase in the number of women entering the workforce is because of unprecedented increases in the diversity of the ethnic and national origin, improved women empowerment, introduction of amendments to allow for gender equality and demographic makeup of organizations. As more women gain the work experience in various fields, attain the necessary education training necessary to qualify for leadership positions, the supply of capable women increases (Bass, 2010). Subsequently, organizations re-establish and expand their notions of what brings about effective leadership as it relates to gender, stereotyping, and organizational role expectations. These efforts by organizations are supported by the assumption that women will outnumber men in various leadership roles by the year 2030 since more women are earning Bachelor level degrees and participate in graduate level education programs (Girion, 2001). To date, research regarding gender differences and leadership behavior may leave something desirable if organizations may utilize the knowledge attained from the research to modify their practices and successfully integrate the complexities of diversity and gender balance in their human resource management strategies. Current leadership research on gender indicate that industrialized culture has been predominately characterized as idealizing follower roles, individualism, and rational thoughts over emotions .These ideas contributes to the high value given to masculine leadership styles and subsequent stereotyping of a more feminine style as ineffective (Bass, 2010). Most researchers on social theory and gender leadership utilize social theory that describes individual behavior as controlled by societal expectations. These societal expectations of women as leaders are controversial since the society has expectations of gender roles and that may not include leadership (Bass, 2010). Furthermore, this idea is explored in attachment theory. Additionally, the relational theory contributes views on gender differences in leadership by arguing that a primary human striving is to maintain relationships. Conclusion From the article, it is evident that leadership behavior plays an important role in leadership career. It is also evident that, without good leadership behavior acceptable to everyone in an organization, a leader with good leadership skills may find it difficult in leading followers. This may then result to poor performance and hence poor results. In summary, for effective leadership, a leader must blend good leadership skills and good leadership behavior. The paper also analyzed charismatic leadership and servant leadership styles (Bass, 2010). The effectiveness of any leadership style depends on its effectiveness, efficiency and the organizational objectives. Transformational leadership model as agreed by most scholars is the most effective model of leadership as it encourages followers to love their work and its results. It is also evident from the research that leadership behavior plays an important role in handling various organizational matters such as conflict and crisis management. Although conflict is, a common component of any organizational set up, it may appear difficult to deal with if the leader has no good leadership behavior and skills to handle it. Ignored conflict may result to hatred in the organization, poor performance, and lack of employee retention. On the other hand, good leadership behavior and skills are necessary for proper handling of any crisis that may hit an organization (Bass, 2010). Developing good crisis strategies and implementing them correctly needs great leadership attributes and personal traits. Despite gender difference in leadership behaviors, women have attained the necessary education, training, and qualification necessary for leadership positions. The trend of most women joining workforce and taking up leadership positions have been on the rise and thus more women take up executive positions. Surprisingly, most scholars do agree that women leaders have very little difference in behavior with their male counterparts and deliver similar or even better results as men do. Individual personality is another very important matter that determines leadership behavior and group success. Matters such as the understanding of every individual needs and interests, emotional intelligence and having a prior knowledge of every individual in the group will ease the leadership and management of the group (Scouller, 2011). 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