Contemporary Leadership Theories: IGA Supermarket - Case Study Example

CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP THEORIES: IGA SUPERMARKET Name: Course: Instructor: Institution: City: Date: Table of Contents Introduction 3 Relational Leadership 3 Servant Leadership 4 Transformational Leadership 5 Charismatic Leadership 6 Conclusion 6 References 7 Introduction The concepts of leadership and leadership approaches have existed for as long as humans have been in existence. According to Winkler (2010), leadership may be defined as the ability of a person or a group of persons to provide guidance to either other people or organizations. He explains that leadership is more of a way of providing guidance and inspiration in order to help people or organizations accomplish certain objectives. Leadership theory refers to a set of principles that define how leadership may be approached by individuals, teams, or organizations (Murray, Murray, Poole, & Jones, 2006). Based on these theories, a leader may adopt various leadership styles depending on the context or their own personality. Traditionally, three main leadership styles have been in use i.e. autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire (Borkowsi, 2016). Lately, though, contemporary leadership approaches have been adopted. These include relational, transformational, servant, and charismatic leadership styles (Winkler, 2009). This paper, therefore, seeks to provide an in-depth discussion on the four main contemporary leadership theories i.e. relational, transformational, servant, and charismatic followed by a critical reflection of those theories as applied at IGA Supermarket in Western Australia. The line of argument will be that contemporary leadership approaches are more inspirational and democratic than the traditional approaches which were mainly authoritarian. Relational Leadership Relational leadership is defined as a leadership technique in which the leader helps their follower(s) to accomplish their objectives by simply creating good relationships among them (Reitz, 2015). This style of leadership is founded on five main components i.e. inclusiveness, empowerment, purposefulness, ethics, and process-orientation (Murray, Murray, Poole, & Jones, 2006; Reitz, 2015). These five components of relational leadership are quite evident at IGA Supermarket. First, inclusiveness entails valuing the inputs of everyone irrespective of the variations in their backgrounds or abilities (Adeniyi, 2007). I noticed this at IGA Supermarket when I saw a physically handicapped cashier serve customers at the counter. Surprisingly, her service was, in my opinion, faster and more effective than her peers. This relational leadership component seems to be working well at IGA Supermarket. Secondly, empowerment is evident at IGA Supermarket. This can be seen especially in the early mornings when the premises are just opening as the teams gather and a temporary leader is randomly appointed to lead the team into prayer and planning for the day. Through such plans, every employee is empowered into being a leader as they build on their relationships with others. Thirdly, purposefulness refers to committing oneself to a particular objective (Fairholm, 2009) which is exactly what happens at IGA Supermarket. All employees are involved in envisioning the organization’s goals which they individually commit to. Other components are ethics and process orientation each of which is also practiced at IGA Supermarket. Servant Leadership This style of leadership is founded on the belief that a leader has to consider themselves as being in the same level as the people they lead. According to Zaccaro, & Klimoski (2001), servant leadership means the ability of an individual or organization to be motivated by their desire to serve other people as a gateway into leadership. Technically speaking, servant leadership believes that the servant leader is the first in a context of many equals. Servant leadership may not be openly practiced at IGA Supermarket, however, indirectly, it can be seen to be applied. Whenever there is a community cleaning exercise as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity done by the supermarket, it is IGA’s culture that all its top management must practically take part in such exercise alongside the employees. This practice may be taken as being merely the organization’s culture, but in real sense it’s a classic application of servant leadership as a contemporary theory. As a contemporary leadership theory, this leadership technique assumes that everyone in the organization have equal status and are all servants (Iqbal, 2011; Bratton, Grint, & Nelson, 2004). In any case, the leader should even serve their followers more (Scott, 2014). Transformational Leadership Unlike in servant leadership where the leader has to practically take part in serving their followers, transformational leadership is coined on the leader inspiring their followers to accomplish both career objectives and personal development goals (Austin, 2012). Originally coined by James McGregor Burns, transformational leadership theory is founded on four components i.e. intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence (Martin, 2006). In intellectual stimulation, the leader encourages their followers to innovate and create new things and processes. Individualized consideration entails establishing personal trust between the leader and the individual follower such that the two can openly discuss and encourage each other. In inspirational motivation, the leader is better placed to birth ideas and goals for which they are able to influence their followers into following. Idealized influence is a component that requires that the leader positively influences their followers based on how they behave. It entails the leader leading from the front (Martin, 2006). At IGA Supermarket, all the aforementioned components of transformational leadership theory are applied except that therein, leaders also practically take part in some of the tasks meant for their subordinates. In other words, the supermarket applies both servant leadership and transformational leadership. Charismatic Leadership This type of leadership involves an iconic leader who has positive qualities that their followers can emulate. According to Lombaard (2002), a charismatic leader is often willing to take the initial step in achieving a given task before getting followership. It is through this charisma that people are influenced into following such a leader. More importantly, such followers will most likely strive to emulate the qualities and behaviour of their leader in order to accomplish the given task (Kippenberger, 2002). At IGA Supermarket, charismatic leadership is self-evident as leaders and top management are always personally getting involved in participating in tasks that would otherwise have been meant for their subordinates. Conclusion In conclusion, therefore, contemporary leadership theories have dwelt more in leadership styles that not only values the followers, but also inspires them to achieve the set goals and objectives. While the relational leadership style ensures good interaction between the leader and their followers, servant leadership is founded on the belief that the leader has the responsibility to serve their followers. Transformational leadership, on its part, focuses on inspiring followers into adopting and pursuing their conceived vision and goal. Finally, charismatic leadership involves the leader setting themselves apart for their followers to emulate them. Instead of completely abandoning the traditional leadership theories, it would be recommended that future approaches consider merging the contemporary leadership approaches with the traditional ones so that a near-perfect leadership approach is developed. That way, organizations, teams, and individual leaders can be sure of fully accomplishing their goals in a conducive environment where the leader and the follower(s) have a positive interaction. References Adeniyi, M. A. (2007). Effective leadership management: an integration of styles, skills & character for today's CEOs. Bloomington, IN, AuthorHouse. Austin, D. M. (2012). Human services management organizational leadership in social work practice. New York, Columbia University Press. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1032590. Borkowski, N. (2016). Organizational behavior, theory, and design in health care. Bratton, J., Grint, K., & Nelson, D. L. (2004). Organizational leadership. UK, South Western College Pub. Fairholm, G. W. (2009). Organizational power politics: tactics in organizational leadership. Santa Barbara, Calif, Praeger/ABC-CLIO. Iqbal, T. (2011). The impact of leadership styles on organizational effectiveness: Analytical study of selected organizations in IT sector in Karachi. Munich, Grin Verlag. Kippenberger, T. (2002). Leadership Styles. Chichester, Capstone Pub. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=121388. Lombaard, W. (2002). The influence of emotional intelligence theory on contemporary leadership theories. Mini study project (M.B.A.)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. Martin, B. (2006). Outdoor leadership: theory and practice. Champaign, Ill, Human Kinetics. Murray, P., Murray, P., Poole, D., & Jones, G. (2006). Contemporary issues in management and organisational behaviour. South Melbourne, Vic, Thomson Learning. Reitz, M. (2015). Dialogue in organizations: developing relational leadership. http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder/10.1057/9781137489128. Scott, D. (2014). Contemporary leadership in sport organizations. Winkler, I. (2009). Contemporary leadership theories: enhancing the understanding of the complexity, subjectivity and dynamic of leadership. Heidelberg, Physica-Verlag. Winkler, I. (2010). Contemporary leadership theories enhancing the understanding of the complexity, subjectivity and dynamic of leadership. Berlin, Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-2158-1. Zaccaro, S. J., & Klimoski, R. J. (2001). The nature of organizational leadership understanding the performance imperatives confronting today's leaders. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=120717. Read More