Leadership in Contemporary Organisations - Coursework Example

Leadership in contemporary organization Author Author Affiliation Date ESSAY TOPIC Theories of leadership provide practical advice on how to be an effective leader. Evaluate this statement with reference to at least two theories or models of leadership. Introduction Leading others is an abstract quality in a human being. This quality of a man is responsible for the evolution of leadership concept in the world. In restricted sense leadership means to lead or to be advance but in broader perspective it means to guide others and give direction for achieving a particular goal. Similarly, for an organization leadership or to be a leader is one of the managerial talent as well as essential component of organization’s management. Different studies and researches on leadership concept have produced different theories. These theories contributed a lot in contemporary organization in inculcate different qualities in leader to become more effective, observant and enthusiastic. This paper represents a detailed overview of leadership concept and its theories. In this scenario this essay also elaborates the effects of leadership theories on effectiveness of leader in contemporary organizations. Planning would be meaningless without proper guidelines and instructions of the supervisor of the group. All collective actions in every organization need a concerted directions. Hence for this purpose concept of leadership has been introduced. Without leader there would be a chance of creating chaos in an organization because everyone wants to pursue its ideas and wants to become influential in the group. Only leadership concept can solve this problem by appointing leader in a group and as a leader he holds a power and authority to influence other members of group and other group fellows are bound to obey and follow all the directions of leader. Leadership is thus, the chief tool of management which is identified with ability to make a group perform effectively to achieve a goal or to influence employees to achieve organizational goals (Kae, et al., 1981). Similarly, leader may or may not be a business executive but a business executive must be an inspiring and confident leader. Overall success of organization is based on the directions of leader that is why leader must have a quality to lead and guide others. Likewise, leadership is the single most important factor in determining the effectiveness of a group or an organization. In simple words it is a quality of directing and inspiring other members of organization (Longnecker, 1973). It is a personal quality of a character in man. It is an art of exerting personal influence on the group and group can attain maximum satisfaction during the task because of an effective leader and its directions. Moreover, leader helps in motivate the group to work and encourage them to work for the achievement of the desired goal.Consequently it is a complex social phenomena that can be affected by many factors like personal, situational, interpersonal and organizational that is why leader have to consider all the factors before taking any kind of decision for avoiding conflicts in a group. Furthermore, Leadership is not a new concept.it is as old as a management but with the inception of new technologies and trends in business the purpose of leadership concept has changed. In this globalized world the outlook of business planning and organizational culture have also transformed. Global economic environment has brought various opportunities as well as many threats for an organization and for leader as well. Competition is considered as a big threat for all organizations of this global world. Therefore in competitive world of business leaders of organization must be very efficient, capable and confident because they have to encounter with new global issues in organization like gender based equality, diversity of cultures, electronic business, and employee empowerment and motivation. In contemporary organizations leaders have to play many different roles. He have to act as a conflict controller, a crisis manager, a trust builder, a motivator and many other just to cope up with the new challenges of global economic environment. For this purpose leaders of contemporary organization can learn variety of techniques and skills from leadership theories. Leadership theories give new insight to a leader about different circumstances. These theories are helpful in learning different leadership style. Moreover, these theories also demonstrate how these styles can be apply in various conditions. Many persons have developed theories of leadership and done various researches to help leaders. Leaders of Contemporary organizations can opt these theories to increase their effectiveness. There are different useful theories of leadership. All theories are advantageous in their own way. Great man was the first leadership theory introduced by Thomas Carlyle in 1840.According to Thomas idea leadership qualities are intrinsic. His idea supports the proverb great leaders are born not made. Thomas believed that a leader born with the qualities and characteristics like charisma, intelligence etc. But Herbert spencer was one of the biggest critic of Thomas idea (Caneiro, 1981). Furthermore, trait based approach is also one of the important approach of leadership. Trait theories focus on the characteristics of successful leader (Kae, et al., 1981).Trait theory is based on the personal traits and also tell us how these traits are related to the behavior of effective leader and desire outcome (Glueck, 1976).According to this theory a leader is one who blessed with certain traits like; self-confidence, intelligent, participation, supervision ability, fairness, openness, extrovert and so on and so forth. Allport, Stogdill, Warren Bennis and many other have tried to list different traits of leaders but critics believed that there is no universal acceptable traits which describe leader concept various thinker have listed their list of trait according to their subjective thinking. Therefore, researchers found that trait associated with effective leadership in some contexts could be dysfunctional in other context (Callahan, et al., 1986). When theorist realized that trait theories are not adequate they began to study the behavior of effective leaders. So that they started evaluating the behavior of different leaders and discovered different leadership styles of different leaders. After MICHIGAN studies (Tannenbaum & Schmidt, 1973) and OHIO state studies (Filley & House, 1970) all behavioral researchers inferred that leadership as a set of behavior and discovered different leadership styles in different leaders. Although the behavioral approach to leadership received more appreciation then trait theories but not received much research support. After behavior the central focus of theorist turned to situation and theorist started study the situational factors around leaders. So contingency theories were introduced. According to contingency theories there is no particular way of leading others (Ashour, 1976). Leadership styles varies situation to situation. If one leader is good in one situation does not mean he would be good in other as well. Success and effective of leader depends on situation and situational factors (Vasu, et al., 1990). Moreover, influence theories also gave a new dimension to leadership concept. Influence theories describe different approaches of leadership. According to influence theories “Power” is identify as the capacity to influence the conduct of other in a desirable manner. A well know theorist of this school of thought have identified five fundamental sources of power i.e. reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, reference power and expert power (Raven, 1992). These all were traditional approaches new theories have also been introduced and those are relational and authentic theories. In relational approach the theorist describes that effectiveness of leadership is based on his success to build positive relation to his followers or group members and yield desirable outcome (Wheatley, 2006).This concept is useful for contemporary organization where interdependence is highly required. Different models of relational approach has also been introduced by theorist that include useful component that help in building positive relation between leader and followers (Susan R. Komives, n.d.). Likewise, Authentic theories of leadership is somehow similar to relational approach because it also promotes positive leader’s relation with his follower but in authentic approach theorists emphasize on trust building by appreciating his work and showing encouragement to his followers. Authentic leader is a kind of leader who encourages their followers and helping them in building positive self-concept.so in this ay trust is built on an ethical grounds (Gardner, et al., 2011). Overall, Leadership theories are very useful for contemporary organization because with the help of these theories leaders in organizations can learn different leadership styles, leadership perspectives and new ways to deal diverse problems. From the crux of these theories different merits can be deduced like; these theories help in increasing leader’s effectiveness because they provide clear cut guidelines and leaders can learn more about their follower with the help of these theories. Furthermore, they help in building trust between leader and his followers on ethical grounds. Leadership theories give different leadership style that are helpful for handling different kind of people. These theories are helpful in evaluating leaders and their performance. Like, Trait based theories useful in selecting effective leader for an organization. Moreover, Leadership theories promotes satisfaction and motivation of employees that can yield positive outcome for an organization. Situational or contingency theories describe the importance of complex circumstances that is useful for leader because by analyzing situation he can choose different leadership approaches to handle different kind of problem in an organization. Conflicts can be easily resolved if leader adopts relational approach. Last but not least, Interdependence can be maintained by adopting effective leadership style or approach. Undoubtedly, leadership theories are useful for contemporary organization. Furthermore they are not only useful for organizations progress but also for leader. Leader can become more effective if he choose any of the leadership approach or combination of different of these approaches or theories. Like an effective leader should have these qualities i.e.; he should be competent and he should act as a trust builder, a motivator, a goal setter, a risk taker and risk manager, a facilitator, an evaluator and a predictor. Moreover, he should also be responsive to followers needs. For this purpose, Theories of leadership give practical advices and with the help of these advices leader can become more effective. We can take the references of behavioral and authentic approaches or theories to prove this perspective right. The sole purpose of behavioral theories is to look for the one best style of leadership that characterize effective leaders. Like in X & Y theory (McGregor, 1966). Theorist categorize the personal characteristics of different kind of people. In theory X leaders are avoidant and irresponsible whereas theory Y leaders are responsible and cooperative. Hence with the help of this study and its postulates we can differentiate good and bad leader and choose ore effective and responsible leader. Similarly in IOWA studies (Lewin, et al., 1939) also gave three leadership styles autocratic, democratic and laissez faire. IOWA studies concluded that democratic leaders are effective and best. So in complex organizations if democratic leadership style would be choose it can generate fruitful results. Likewise in MICHIGAN studies (Tannenbaum & Schmidt, 1973) behavioral theorist presented wide range of factors and these factors decide what kind of leadership style is effective and needed in which situation whether directive or participative or something between. Furthermore, OHIO state studies (Filley & House, 1970) two cluster of behavior has been described. One is called as consideration and other is initiation according to this studies the effective leader is one who has high consideration as well as high initiation. In this way OHIO studies is useful in evaluating effectiveness of a leader. On the other hand, the other most important theory or approach to leadership for this purpose is relational model or theory. Even this is a new approach but most useful ones. This approach is also called leader-member exchange theory (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995) or vertical dyad linkage theory. In complex contemporary organization this theory is very famous for building trust in between leader and followers. It also promotes motivation and empowerment of group fellows. With the help of this theory a leader can act as a facilitator, conflict manager and motivator. These all are prominent qualities of an effective leader. Conclusion Leadership is an important concept of management. This concept is not only helpful in determining the effectiveness of a group but also for transformed the leader into an effective and responsive leader. Leader can easily tackle all the complexities of contemporary organization with the help of leadership theories like behavioral, situational, relational etc. Different Theorist gave different leadership styles and ideas about leaders and these theories also give practical advices to leaders. If a leader of any contemporary organization adopts and apply them rightly on right situations then he can surely become an effective leader. 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